Well . . . it has been awhile since my last posting. A lot has happened. That is worth repeating. A LOT has happened!
There have been many mass shootings in the United States. What are people thinking? Where does all this rage come from?
One extremely controversial president has gone after two separate attempts to have him impeached were enacted and failed.
Another extremely controversial president has taken office amidst unceasing accusations from the former concerning claimed election voting fraud. This new president brings with him a national first as a female of color named as his vice-president, not to mention a history in the senate involving scandals of claimed sexual abuse and international political intrigue involving his son, who was a board member for an energy company in the Soviet bloc.
Then, we also faced the corona-virus which appears to have began in China in a hotly contested location where viral research has been conducted and amidst what appears to be an attempted cover-up by the Chinese government concerning the source and the potency of the virus. In the year since being declared a world-wide pandemic, populations of countries have been ordered by their governments to remain at home, businesses have shut down, national economies have been left in tatters, and people have found themselves not only isolated from friends and family but also isolated by the politics of special-interest groups.
Some groups claim “the numbers” of infections, of hospitalizations, of deaths, of victims of the pandemic are basically no worse than any former pandemic such as the “bird flu” or the “swine flu”, etc. Yet, with Covid-19 all national governments and especially the media have apparently gone completely bonkers by over-reacting to an insane and illegal degree. Other groups claim that this perception is deliberately short-sighted and that not nearly enough was done, not nearly enough stringent measures to stop the spread and effect of the virus was done.
Who is right? When anyone with a blog or message board membership can misquote numbers or spread fake news or half-truths, or knowingly spread lies for whatever reasons they may have, who can possibly know or claim to know the truth?
Can we trust the government sources to tell us the truth? Or, are they telling us what they wish us to hear and know, and therefore are attempting to tailor our reactions to their benefit? Can we trust the scientists and doctors and claimed benign and beneficial institutions like the CDC to tell us the truth? Or will what they say be reported incorrectly, and statements taken out of context by the media? Or potentially be influenced by threats against their financing or leadership by others who control such things?
Heroes are made to appear as devils, and devils as heroes. Who can possibly know the truth? Certainly not me. I am as confused by all of these things as anyone and probably more so than most. So, I am not going to tell you what is right, or what is wrong. I am not going to add to the daily vomitus of facts and figures and mind-twisting delusions.
I am just sad to see such things occurring.
What I WILL do, is reach out to my neighbor. I will ask them how they are and I will think about them and what they might need to make their lives just a little better. Then I will do my best to fulfill any need they might have. I will smile at them. I will be pleasant to them. I will do my best to listen to them and to actually hear what they say so I will know how to best help them through these times.
Think of it like the March of Dimes campaigns began so many years ago. If everyone will give just a little . . . a bit of the best of themselves to their neighbor, then how can this not be a good thing? If everyone will just smile at their neighbor, a tsunami of smiles will wash across this nation and the planet. How could that not be a good thing?