The Thing to Do

 On page seven of yesterday’s newspaper, the headline read: GAZA: 85 KILLED WHILE SEEKING AID.

The story was on page seven because it was commonplace, not really news. People kill people every day.

To deal with this I need principles that I can express clearly to myself. Something simple.

Now that I’m 90, I have time for clarity.

“Do the right thing.” That’s basic. What it means depends on the context, but it sometimes cuts to the core of problems that otherwise seem intractable.

Is killing 64 men, women and children standing in a line to seek aid the right thing to do?

Maurene Comey's Novel

Now that Maurene Comey, who prosecuted Jeffrey Epstein, has been fired by Epstein's best friend (Donald Trump), I hope she writes a roman a clef. The main characters could be American President Amos Hilter, a convicted sex abuser, and his best friend, Junior Epcot, child  pornographer. Having read many government files, Comey should be able to create believable fiction (with some help from AI). 

 

 

e

Current Events

For 24 years I've been a member of a discussion group that meets at the senior center.  We lost a member this week. She was 89 and seemed in good health until she stroked out.  

We listen to old people talk. 

Among our members we have a woman who set a world record in swimming, a gay Mexican-American, an Episcopal priest, a trial attorney, a former Hollywood child actor, a geologist and city planner, an English professor emeritus and several others.  About half are women. 

The Winning Strategy

I think democracy's basic problem is that to win an election, you often have to win your share of the stupid vote. You can't do that with logic or issues. They don't register with stupid voters.

To impress the stupid, your candidate must have charisma and make giant promises. Consider the recent NYC primary. For once the lame Democrats have nominated someone who is not a centrist dullard. (Now they will try to dump him.)

Giant promises are okay. That is how FDR did it. You try wild things until something works. Maybe a candiate could say, "I intend to try things until something works. There will be failures but in the end some change and success, too."

Walter

July 5 is a day for me to think about Walter Bligh. He grew up about a block from me in Compton, the only child of my aunt and uncle. 

Walter was fifteen years older than I was. He's a shadowy memory now, shot down by the Japanese somewhere over Borneo. 

I remember him.

At the onset of the war, black people could not vote in half the nation. No women held office. We interned Japanese Americans. Anti-Semitism was open and powerful. Yet women, people of color and Jews joined the military. They risked their lives for what small stake they had in a vigorous system that had already invented Hollywood,  the light bulb, the airplane, the telephone. They must have felt the flaws, but they unashamedly fought for what they had and hoped to have. 

w