Hindsight 2020

To explain the title of this blog, I'm actually not going to talk about voting at all. Instead, I will use two hypothetical scenarios. As you read them though, the parallels to voting here in the United States should be pretty obvious. If they're not, no amount of words in a blog would probably get through to you.  SCENARIO 1 Imagine you have this black box with three buttons on the top; a red button, a blue button, and a white button. In order to improve your life, you are encouraged to choose one of the buttons and press it. You do. Nothing happens though. Your life doesn't get any better. Things just kind of stay the same for you. You have a random mix of good days and bad days, successes and failures, pleasant surprises and bitter disappointments. You think back to the black box with the three buttons and how you were told how very important it was to press a button. Some told you pressing the red button was the best option and would provide greatest improvement to your...

 I sat in awe as I watched Cassidy Hutchinson testify before the January 6th Committee yesterday and paint a vividly clear picture of what was going on in Trump World before, during, and after January 6, 2021. Ms. Hutchinson was the proverbial fly on the wall throughout this entire saga and provided first-hand accounts of what was said and what was done -or rather not done- during this tragic day in America's history. She was physically there when all of it unfolded. I can't imagine the soul-searching it must have taken for her to finally come to terms with the fact that she was playing for the wrong team and then  courageously decide to share the truth so the entire country could understand how dangerously close our democracy came to collapsing. After witnessing the grotesque spectacle of a human being that is Donald Trump for way too many years, I was sure that nothing would shock or surprise me when it came to Trump and his enablers and supporters. I was sure of this b...

Another horrible, senseless school shooting. 19 innocent children dead along with 2 adults; the 18-year-old shooter dead and his grandmother seriously injured after he began his rampage by shooting her in the face. The shooter seems to be an all-too-familiar type; a bullied loner with few or no friends who legally purchased two AR-type assault rifles along with over 300 rounds of ammunition shortly before the shooting. We've seen this detail before too: the shooter posted his intentions on social media prior to carrying out the shooting. While we may have become accustomed to these types of tragedies, most of us are still left feeling like we were sucker-punched in the gut. And we have to deal with all those emotions yet again. Shock, horror, profound sadness, anger, fear, futility, frustration, helplessness. I've experienced all of those over and over again. It keeps on happening and we all keep arguing about how we're going to stop these tragedies from happening. Unfortun...

 Since when did we start taking to heart and branding as gospel everything the following people say: comedians, talk show hosts, podcasters, sports stars, and -generally speaking- people who are famous for being famous. These are NOT the people we should be paying attention to when it comes to important information. Let's use COVID as an example. The ONLY people we should be listening to are infectious disease experts, doctors, and WHO experts involved with tracking and tracing this virus. Add to that list anyone who is faithfully and accurately quoting these experts and using that information to try to mitigate the spread and severity of this virus. That's it. Anyone else who is NOT an expert on diseases or treating diseases can continue to say whatever the hell they want. Really. Keep spouting your bullshit about how the virus is a big hoax and how the stringently tested vaccines are dangerous and deadly and how masks are useless and how Ivermectin can cure COVID. Scream it f...

This Thanksgiving, one word comes to mind for me as a human being: GRATITUDE /ˈɡradəˌt(y)o͞od/   -noun-  the quality of being thankful; readiness to show appreciation for and to return kindness.  Being thankful -truly thankful- requires a moment of pause, reflection, and introspection. I've come to realize that "happiness" is really just a state of mind. It's a person's ability to take stock of what they have and where they are in life and focus on those things in a positive and thankful manner. Take, for instance, the millions of people around the globe that are living in squalid conditions by most of our standards. They have very little food, clothing, or material possessions. Many lack a decent house, running water, or electricity. Their days are spent working and struggling just to survive another day. But, incredibly, many of these people are quick to smile and laugh. They're generous with what little they have and they are truly thankful for what little ...

On April 30, 1975, the last few Americans still in South Vietnam were airlifted out of the country as Saigon fell to communist forces. North Vietnamese Colonel Bui Tin accepted the surrender of South Vietnam later in the day. The Vietnam War was the longest -20 years- and most unpopular foreign war in U.S. history and cost 58,000 American lives. As many as two million Vietnamese soldiers and civilians were killed. The U.S. military was sent to Vietnam to protect the United States and the world against the spread of dirty, nasty Communism. See, back then, there was this thing called the Domino Theory that suggested that other nations throughout Asia would become satellites of either the Soviet Union or Communist China, much like nations in Eastern Europe had come under Soviet domination. So the United States spent upwards of $168 billion over 20 years to make sure Vietnam didn't become a communist county. And, guess what, despite all the time, effort, and money, it did -pretty much ...

 It's been a long, strange, difficult year. As of the writing of this, the United States has lost a total of  568,962 lives to COVID-19. By my rudimentary mathematical calculations, that equates to an average of 1,425 people dying every day since the lockdown began last March. Sure, people die every day. It's a fact of life. In 'normal' times, an average of 5,500 people die in the United States everyday. But it's the way that a lot of COVID victims died -alone, isolated, afraid, struggling to breathe- that really weighs heavy on my mind. And what about all those people who survived their initial bout with COVID-19 only to continue to suffer "long haul" effects and ailments? I consider myself and my wife and two kids some of the extremely lucky ones. None of us contracted COVID-19 yet and my wife and I are fully vaccinated while both my kids have just received their first vaccine doses yesterday. I feel like we've managed to dodge a bullet for over a ye...