We are homebound and so limited in what we can do. I go out to the trails and notice people who seem to be carrying themselves with a look of peace. So logical: an escape into a quiet or semi-wild setting. You would think that nothing was up in our world. In reality we are quite transformed - we are cutting our own hair, for example, and soon will not care less about how we look with our hair. Just keep it conveniently short, period.
I shave less often, not that I set an example with this practice anyway. Someone gave me a hint at church coffee once about how my stubble was objectionable. Then recently I call up a news article on the (outstanding) radio station website and I see a photo of JUDGE Charlie Glasrud with a notoriously unshaven face, and it isn't even a designed beard.
On Tuesday I made a rather substantial bank deposit - substantial by my standards - and had to stand outside at the drive-up window. The transaction was involved enough that I couldn't sit there in my car, but I was not invited inside. I stood there in the chilly mid-morning air, and light rain was coming down intermittently. There was an overhang so I was not literally getting wet. Still I felt I was projecting a forlorn image as I stood there.
All of this is getting aggravating.
It is heartening to visit Willie's Super Valu and sense an environment pretty close to normal. There's an understanding you don't walk up to someone and talk to them, not even to say hello. Exchanging a simple hello would be therapeutic for someone like me who lives alone.
I have my church devotional booklet but I can't attend church. Just as discouraging was that when I arrived at a bench to read my booklet Wednesday, I discovered that it was past-date. I'd need a new one. My church is First Lutheran which is aligned with a synod considered politically liberal. It's a shame us people have to be on the defensive these days. Seems we're on the retreat, to an extent, as the Trump-oriented conservative or reactionary (or ignorant) churches pick up steam and pick up money.
I hear the new steeple at Good Shepherd cost (number withheld in case it's not precise). Not sure that expense benefits humanity in any significant way.
The reactionary side of our culture behaves so strangely now. Like the Ohio state representative who said he can't wear a mask because it contradicts God's will or something like that. Well, nothing much surprises me these days. So I'm hardly surprised by the Wisconsin Supreme Court justice who compared stay-at-home directives with the Japanese internment camps of World War II.
Seems asinine on the face of it. Of course I always try to understand other people's arguments. So I suspect the justice would assert that the internment camps were an abomination, which certainly represents mainstream judgment now. Acceptable? The now-classic movie "Karate Kid" reflects in CW regarding that.
Oh my goodness, the camps definitely presented uncomfortable issues and questions, in spades. My late father who was by nature a non-prejudiced person would not be so quick to indict FDR. The other side of the coin on this issue is that in the immediate aftermath of Pearl Harbor, when we certainly didn't know how the war would turn out, it was legitimate to not have 100 percent confidence in the ethnic Japanese living in America, especially on the West Coast.
Even if we had felt confident of winning the conflict, we could not have predicted the atomic bomb which shortened matters and prevented the implementation of "Operation Downfall" which would have been the land invasion of Japan. I might not be here today if the massive invasion had happened.
War is ugly and not always fair to say the least. Japan was pulverized to an extent where as time passed, we felt concern about the people's welfare there. General MacArthur helped fundamentally restructure and re-direct the country. Japanese spokesmen articulated remorse. But, what if they had won? I'll drop the subject there.
We watch RBG's health
The Wisconsin justice is a Federalist Society type. Trump will continue appointing these people to the highest court when the opportunity is presented. Need I mention the precarious health state of Ruth Bader Ginsberg?
The word is probably going out among the right wing now about how they shouldn't "root" for RBG's death, because this could finally "cross a line" for this crowd, however I don't think it would cross a line. Those people have wide latitude and countenance things that would not be considered in polite society 20 years ago. In the pre-digital age, we had a "gatekeeper" media system that didn't give credence to a lot of the right wing stuff which ended up relegated to those pathetic little pamphlets you'd see given out at county fairs.
The electronic media has been very generous with the righties. Those people spout invective or whatever you want to call it. It splashes out there like from Laura Ingraham and then we have to react seriously, to waste our precious efforts.
Right wing pronouncements are emotional in nature. My side by contrast weighs fact and reason as with climate science. What if we find out that the pandemic and possible future pandemics are due to climate change? Huh? What if?
The current virus is showing itself to be unpredictable. Apparently it has "mutated." There are now apparent manifestations showing up in kids. The military is now turning away people who have had the virus?
Let's make a comparison between today and the immediate aftermath of Pearl Harbor. We don't know what the heck is going to happen. (I could have used an alternate word to "heck" but I'm not like Donald Trump.)
Addendum: The bank I reference today is in Stevens County but not in Morris. I have had to remove money from Morris banks because of CD interest rate considerations.
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
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| Our precious biking/walking trail, Morris MN |
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