Last Post

Yesterday morning, while stopping at the deli I go to when I'm walking our family's dog, I was greeted with very disturbing news.  There had been a shooting in Arlington, Virginia, at a baseball practice.  Those practicing were members of the House of Representatives, getting ready for a charity baseball game at National's Stadium in D.C., set for tonight.  This game, which has been an annual event since 1909, features the House Democrats one one team & House Republicans on the other team.  I immediately felt like I   understood the motivation of the person who had been shooting and I immediately felt the weight of what our country is going through.

I have written about my thoughts on this before and feel that I must again.  Our country, let me say those words again so my meaning can be understood, our country is deeply divided.  This divide is not a result of donald trump, he is a result of the division.  Therefore I will not place my focus on trump in this post, although I will have some comments that involve him.

A dear friend of mine, pointed out to me after the jeff sessions hearing , that we are watching and are part of a major period of our country's history.  I strongly agree.  I believe what we are watching, living through, part of, is as important to our country as the Revolution that created our country and the Civil War which kept our country together.  The Emancipation Proclamation,  the two World Wars, the Great Depression, the Civil Rights movement and protests in the 1960s, the anti Vietnam War protests in the 1960s, Watergate's challenge to our Constitution and the events of September 11th, 2001 to our country's sense of security.  These have been the major events that our country has faced in the past and found its way through while remaining one country.  I hope and pray that we will be able to do the same with the schism we must work our way through.

The Civil War is also known as the War between the States, but even more to the point, it was a war of philosophies.  It was a war that pitted, literally,  brother against brother and father against son.  Just as the Civil War was the resolution of the neglect of the framers of  our Constitution to address the legal and moral status of every human's value, so the times we are in now will hopefully be the resolution of the deep scar that was left by the brutality of the Civil War.

When I was a young boy, I lived in Maryland, just outside of D.C.  Although there are many who would dispute it, Maryland is a southern state.  The feelings of the 1960s, where I lived were clear to me.  I could feel the tension.  The Civil War was not quite 100 years past.  People still had memories of relatives that had been alive in that time period, who lived past the war and communicated the despair that they experienced.  I could feel it.  One hundred years is not really a long time.  Just think about it.  My son will be alive in the 2060s and will have clear memories of me, stories I told him, feelings I communicated to him.  That's just one generation.

We have a schism in our country.  There are many ways to look at it, but I believe that all of the view points  lead to the same divide.  Those that are intelligent view others a dumb.  Those that are not intelligent resent being seen as dumb, they feel that they are being looked down on.  Those that are financially poor resent those that are wealthy and feel neglected.  Those that are wealthy are reticent to part with their money and see the poor as those that just haven't worked hard enough.  Less fortunate Caucasians view people of other ethnic backgrounds as usurpers of what they think should belong to them; jobs, prosperity, the 1950s if you will.  People of other ethnicities fear Caucasians and and people from other ethnic backgrounds because they feel threatened.  There are people who claim to be righteous, who feel very strongly about unborn fetuses, unborn children, but at the same time believe to their core that it is not only their Constitutional right to own guns which have the capability of ending a person's life, but their God given right.  There are others who clearly see that women are held hostage by not having control over their own bodies, and are alarmed by gun violence in our country.

This will be my last post for this blog.  I am deeply disappointed in the tenor of our country and I am also much too focused on trying to affect change.   The dearest person to me on this planet, pointed out to me yesterday that my reactions and responses to what is hapening in our country are extreme, from his perspective.  I strongly believe that extremism of any sort is dangerous.  It does not matter whether it is political extremism, religious extremism, racial extremism, Muslim extremism, Jewish extremism (as is the case of ultra orthodox sects of Judaism) or the extremism expressed by many Christian groups in our country.  All extremism is dangerous.

I cannot afford to be an extremist.  I cannot afford to be addicted to anything and extremism is an addiction, of that I am convinced.  In light of this, this will be my last post.



I do plan to turn this 'journal' of these past two hundred and some odd days into a book, and submit the result to literary agents in the hope that my experience as a single blade of grass in what is a grass roots attempt to right our country may be available for others to read more widely.

Lastly and ultimately I want to make note that the schism I have described is nothing more or less than the nature of being a human and as such, animals.  At our base, our behaviors stem from primitive animal behavior that is hard wired into all species on this planet.  To that end, I have come to the conclusion that my best effort to affect change is for me to behave in ways that are peaceful and moral,, as I believe morality to be.

Thank those of you that have read this blog.  My fervent hope is that all of us find peace within ourselves.  Each person that comes to peace with themselves will be one more step towards all humans being at peace with each other.