Monday, May 16, 2022

And Here We Are Now


 I got up off my lazy weekend butt today and took a walk. It was hot and for awhile I thought that perhaps we might get some rain as the sky to the south was looking bruised while great puffy clouds like the ones in that picture were scuttling across the sky to the west. I did not run into anyone I needed to talk to, didn't see a soul at No Man Lord's. I just walked and came home. 

I took a shower and went to town for groceries because I'm not sure how this week is going to go. Tomorrow the stove repair guy is supposed to come and I have no idea when. And on Wednesday we're getting our second boosters, or, as I like to call them, the booster-boosters. I know that some people have fairly severe reactions to those so I don't want to have to go to town if I don't feel like it. 
When I got to Publix, there were about four police cars parked right in front and officers of the law were escorting a man out of the store with his wrists in cuffs. Yesterday I had watched a video on FB of a guy getting tased by police in the parking lot of another Publix and I don't know what that was about but he DID have a large axe in his hand which he refused to put down so I suspect some sort of drugs. 
I saw Lily as soon as I walked into the store and said, "So, is this get-arrested-at-Publix-week?" 
She said, "I guess so."
There had been some situation where a guy cut off another guy in traffic and supposedly the man in the state-issued bracelets had pulled a gun and followed the other guy into the Publix parking lot and THEN into the store and there was a great deal of yelling and Lily said she was quite understandably frightened. And wouldn't you know that the guy who reportedly had the gun was a white guy and the guy whom he had brandished it at while driving was a Black guy and as Lily said, at least this time the police got it right. And no gun was found but dear god, after what happened in Buffalo an incident like that cannot help but feel extremely dangerous. I cannot believe that we are now in the space and time where a lunatic can get a gun and, acting on his own racist beliefs and the filth he finds online supporting and encouraging those beliefs, travel to a place where there are likely to be people of color shopping and shoot and kill them and we just...shrug? Get enraged again? Become even more despondent, depressed, and anxious? 
I don't know. I do not know shit.
All I know is that we seem to have lost all sanity and decency as a society and I swear to you- I don't think there is any way to fix this. 
For two years we were deathly afraid of being exposed to Covid in grocery stores and now we need to consider whether or not there is a psycho killer with a gun sitting in the parking lot who could very possibly make the decision to get out of his car with that gun, enter the store, and kill everyone in his sights to register his hatred of anyone who does not fit his definition of an acceptable fellow American. 

What the hell, people? What the fucking fuck?




29 comments:

  1. yes, WTF? Crazy times...... so complex, multi faceted and sad. But....don't want to/can't live in fear........ but......WTF? Glad you got walk done, and shopping. As good as it can be for one day.........
    Susan M

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    1. Yes. About as good a day as can be had, relatively speaking.

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  2. effing hell this country what do we expect really, Gun culture , no education, loads of shit information out there and fear. Bonkers!!

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  3. So sorry about the fear of the day. And to be working there, too, scary stuff. Handsome Son works in a supermarket, only a counter between him and whoever walks in. I think about this.

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    1. We all have to think about these things. I have a trans son and that is certainly worrisome to a mother.

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  4. With all the guns you have in the USA and the ease of access to them, what happened in Buffalo could indeed happen anywhere. Crazy shitheads like Shithead Gendron could be hatching equally terrible plans right now. It is an awful thing to consider. Simply going shopping should not be a source of existential stress. My condolences to the decent citizens of Buffalo - the majority by far.

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    1. Our hearts are all broken for the survivors and the families. What a horrible way for human lives to end.

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  5. The GOP loudly promotes their latest, that the Dems are admitting in thousands of people of color to displace Republicans. They have a name for it; Replacement something, I think. It's sick. Vote blue.

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  6. The fuckery knows no bounds... I knew the Terrorist in Buffalo was White before I even saw him, just by: Taken alive and not harmed one iota! And the shame of some Politicians and Faux News for putting a spin on what he is becoz they actually agree with such Lunacy and promote it and incite it! Theirs is no longer a Political Party, it is a Domestic Terrorist Organization that is now the greatest Threat to our country and they should all be tried for Treason... all the way to the Top of their demented Food Chain, starting with IQ45. Anyone not OF them they see as fair game and doesn't fit their demented definition of an 'acceptable' American Citizen. If this doesn't get taken more Seriously soon, the majority of Citizens will not be Safe anymore.

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    1. I think you are right- the Republicans have become a domestic terrorist organization. They would deny it to the sky and back but it is the truth. People are dying because of their words, their actions, their examples.

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  7. I saw that Buffalo incident on the news, the young man is only 18 years old and already in such a sad state of mind. Apparently he'd been reading things online that validated his thoughts and feelings. The internet has a lot to answer for.

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    1. It does indeed. It has made so many things that were once considered unsayable, right there as if it were the truth.

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  8. You've put your finger on it. We've lost our sanity and decency. What the fucking fuck is right.

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  9. I can’t imagine the horrible parents the Buffalo shooter must have. To be 18 and have such hatred….that type of crazy was learned.

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    1. I think the problem is you don’t need to be a horrible parent. They might be, I don’t know that. What I do know is what you have to be is a disengaged parent. One that doesn’t look into their child’s eyes to check on their well-being, one that is busy or distracted and happy for the big internet to do the bringing up and offering care to their child. And if that care comes wrapped in racism and hate, how would they know until the child does something to show that. Parenting is hard and lot of parents are happy to let someone else do it for them.

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    2. I don't know enough about the kid's living situation or family history to comment on that. I have seen perfectly loving parents who struggled with a child who absolutely was just not sane. And that is not something to blame anyone on. Getting mental health care for a child (or anyone, for that matter) can be next to impossible. But like I said- I do not know any specifics in this case.

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  10. Guns and hate - such a dangerous combination. I feel so badly for the victims and their families and for our fractured country.

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    1. Oh, something else, totally off topic. I forgot that I wanted to recommend a book for your trip this summer. Have your read "West with Giraffes" by Lynda Rutledge? I really enjoyed it and think it would make a good read aloud for your trip.

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    2. Guns and hate. That is pretty much the state of our country now, isn't it?
      I have taken note of that book and will look for it. Thank you!

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  11. American society is sick sick sick. This obsession with guns and then the gun becomes the solution to every annoyance. It's not just 'criminals' we have to fear, getting mugged. Now we must fear our neighbors and strangers. And it's not just the disenfranchised youth but grown fucking men who aren't satisfied with flipping the finger at someone in traffic but follows them off the road and into a store with a gun to confront the person. We aren't even safe driving with all the road rage, people shooting at cars that piss them off.

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    1. We are sick and we are angry. Too angry. And then add in guns and well- there you have it. I could weep endlessly if I let myself.

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  12. Everyone is just so angry. I wonder what we all used to do to defuse our anger that we're not doing now. Be more social? Go bowling? Is the Internet and social media making us MORE angry? Why are we seeing more incidents of road rage like the one you describe, which is basically just untargeted anger that boils over at the first available subject? It's all a mystery to me. I mean, the world can be a frustrating place but my impression is that people used to deal with it much more effectively than we do now.

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  13. I hear ya! I actually have started to pay way more attention to who and where anyone is around me, especially in a store, and wherever I can go to hide or get out. Same for when I was at a very busy local parade last weekend .. how crazy is this world we live in!?

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  14. I’m with you. I cannot comprehend what we seem to have become, much less what we’ll be in the future. We’re fuckety fuck fucked.

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  15. Yes. Fucking hell.

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Tell me, sweeties. Tell me what you think.