Kyrie and KD

Remember Fred Sanford, back in the '80s... "Sanford and Son"? Fred's son, Lamont, had a friend named "Rollo," who was notorious for getting Lamont involved in half-baked schemes. Fred, directing most of his ire at Lamont one day, dubbed the two, "Rollo and Follow." Sounds like Kyrie and KD. 

In a nutshell: Kevin Durant followed Kyrie Irving to the Brooklyn Nets where, based upon exquisite talent, alone, the two of them hoped to build a basketball dynasty. It started out well, then reality, i.e., fate struck in the guise of COVID, injuries, and a dose of selfishness, (courtesy of Kyrie), the likes of which have rarely been seen in the annals of team sports. Within two years, the pre-supposed dynasty began to crumble. 

Durant is no leader. He is emotional and impulsive; he follows. He follows with his heart. That makes him special - good, in an honest kind of way. But, in the dog-eat-dog world of the NBA, it also makes him vulnerable. At this current pace, he will get the worst of this Brooklyn debacle, despite appearing to be the most genuine party in the bunch, having come to the show with the best intentions. 

Now, he says to the Nets, "Trade me." It is an emotional response designed to "fix" those who misled him. Unfortunately, he is headed for the worst "fix" of all. 

"Trade me?" Durant has no idea where he might be traded and seems oblivious to the fact that because he is such a great player, wherever he goes, that team will be gutted (to pay for him) by the time he gets there. (If Nets management cares anything about Durant, they will treat him like the child who wants to be a fry cook, but his parents insist upon piano lessons, instead.) 

This Nets management, which is no paragon of leadership, itself, should not panic. Both Kyrie and KD are under contract. Keep them there. Tell Durant, "Be ready to play come October," (the start of the NBA season). Durant, regardless of his trade demand, will be ready because, if nothing else, comes game time, Kevin Durant is always ready. 

Kyrie will also be ready, not because he has any loyalty to the game, or to anyone in the game. Kyrie will play "lights out" next season because he will be a free agent after the season. He knows that if he jacks off this upcoming campaign like he did the last time, his free agency stocking will be filled with coal instead of a $200 million max contract, (which is what he stands to gain.) 

With a perennially-motivated KD, a "lights-out" Kyrie, and a rejuvenated Ben Simmons... who knows? This crazy-ass Nets team could win it all, after all. Take that, Fred Sanford. 

The Heavens

When you think of "the heavens", do you feel bound to look up, even though the heavens are to the left of us, and to the right? If Earth was transparent, we could even look down and see the stars. We are thoroughly ensconced in this eminent host dubbed "the Milky Way." Of the trillion or more galaxies in the universe, the Milky Way is the only galaxy we can now intimately; the only galaxy whose panoramic visits we can see with the naked eye.

Our nearest neighbor galaxy, Andromeda, is 2.5 million light years away. Fully 50% larger than our Milky Way, it presently hurtles toward us at 250,000 mph. Even at that speed, it will take the colossus, Andromeda, over four billion years to get close enough for us to see it: another half billion years before the big collision. 

In that way, we are insulated from the trillion other galaxies out there. To us, our Milky Way is "the heavens." Along with the hundreds of billions of other stars in this galaxy, our own (and Earth) are integral partners in this singular intragalactic dance. 

Now, imagine a civilization on a distant planet within the Milky Way looking at us in our neighborhood of stars, and beholding us as "the heavens," (like we have beheld them.) Like us, they will have failed to comprehend the majesty of their existence.

We are stellar. We are "the heavens." Perhaps it is time we start acting like it.  

I Almost Loved

We all think life is precious, especially our own lives. How many times have you heard someone relate an experience, and at the end exclaimed, "I almost died!" How unthinkable one's own death can be.  

Roe v. Wade is about life (and death), and when it matters most (and least). It is about women (and men) who declare their rights to live unencumbered by the children they conceive. It is about children waiting, (and in their pre-nascent minds hoping to be born, at all.)

The decision to abort a pregnancy is a life and death moment for a woman. Sometimes, it is a collective effort: friends, parents, and even family ministers will collude with the mother to save her from an unborn child who would destroy her life. All the while, that child is waiting for her chance - not to destroy, but to open her eyes and look around in wonder, like babies do. She is waiting. She is alive in there. 

Meanwhile, they are telling the mother, "You can have another baby... later." Yes, she can, but she cannot have that baby living inside of her "later". That baby gets only one chance at life. Nobody can have that baby ever again.  

The mother ponders, and the living fetus grows. It can only grow into one thing - a human child. It is the only way a human child can come into this world. 

Her parts grow steadily. She flexes her muscles. She is getting ready for life. (One day soon, she could be smiling, and jubilantly flailing her little fists at the world.) She is on her way to the only life set aside for her. But, her mother is having none of it. She is thinking about her own fragile life, and how this little wanna-be inside of her will spoil things if she makes it out alive. 

I hear tell of the "rights of the unborn," but I fear those rights exist at the behest of those whose own existence matter much more. That should leave us all to worry for the aborted child who will never know how precious is life. The most she will ever get out of it is a whiff.  

Masha, Masha, Masha...

As Russian shells exploded on the outskirts of Lysishansk, a city in eastern Ukraine, a journalist asked nine-year-old, Masha, "Are you afraid?" She smiled, and said, "Nyet." He asked her, "Why not?" Still smiling, she responded, "I am the oldest girl." 

There is no courage anywhere more profound than what I saw in that little girl's demeanor - in her eyes, in her posture, in her certainty. My heart broke. What people would not fight forever for such a child? 

******

The other day, I heard this on the Science Channel: Our Milky Way galaxy is on course to collide with the Andromeda galaxy, the Milky Way's nearest neighbor. Both galaxies are estimated to have over 400 billion stars, each. The scientists note that during the imminent collision, there is a 100% chance that none of the Milky Way stars will actually collide with an Andromeda star. 

Of all the mind-boggling prospects in the universe, what could be more mind-boggling than that?  

******

The U.S. is sending billions of dollars worth of advanced weapons systems into Ukraine with a goal to not only "weaken Russia" but to defeat it. (And we will fight to the last Ukrainian to get it done." This is the dilemma: The closer we get to what we really don't want - the launch of Russian nuclear warheads onto Ukrainian soil. 

Besides a response in kind to a Russian tactical nuke, what other option have the NATO nations left themselves? They have already sanctioned Russia to the hilt, so much so that, besides crushing Russia's economy, the head of the "sanctions snake" is turning on its master, and slashing at the economies of those NATO nations, as well.  

But, who among NATO would have the guts to do more? Certainly, not France, for fear that Russia would nuke Paris, next. England, likewise, would not risk London for Kyiv. Only the U.S. would possess the wherewithal to respond to a Russian nuclear escalation, except we simply do not love the Ukrainians that much.  

Now, Uvalde: Let's Get Biblical - It's Time

Of all the mass shootings in America, none rattles us like the school shootings. For obvious reasons, they cut us to our core. We cry in unison from a thousand miles away. Sandy Hook, Parkland, Columbine; now Uvalde. Between sobs, our leaders invoke such rantings as, "Something must be done!" But, there is no mention of sacrifice because there is no heart for true sacrifice where sacrifice is desperately needed.

These mass shootings are like singular plagues, the kind that rocked Egypt during the time of Moses - boils, lice, blood, darkness... "even darkness which may be felt" (Exod. 10:21). Each plague, though devastating, failed to sway the Pharaoh from keeping his Hebrews enslaved. What will it take to sway America from keeping its guns? (I wouldn't want to say even if I knew because it will be so terrible that all 330 million of us will run with our guns to the nearest ditch, and throw them into the fire; and, strange to say, suddenly begin to live better lives.) Just think, for all of the ten plagues God visited upon Egypt, it took the parting of the Red Sea to free Pharoah from his addiction. 

Let's face it: Americans are no more capable of solving their gun problems than Pharaoh was of solving his issues. Such a daunting task is not for men and women whose true purposes is to serve their vanities. First, overshadowing all efforts to fix this problem is the 2nd Amendment - Americans' right to bear. Apparently, that right is sacrosanct. But, how sacred could such a right be when no other nation espouses it; nor does any other document, save our own U.S. Constitution, which once espoused this right 250 years ago? Given a chance today speak for itself, that same Constitution would not dare espouse that right again. 

Today, America is a war zone: 400 million guns in the hands of 330 million citizens. What are the targets of so many weapons?  Can't be wild animals. We've killed most of them. The few poor creatures left must keep their heads down last trigger-happy America shoots the survivors for fun. The targets must be Americans, themselves. With that in mind, what individual would unilaterally disarm, leaving himself at the mercy of fellow Americans who choose not to? The alternative is what we have: Lock & load: (keep up with the Joneses)

For Americans to simply toss their guns away would be the equivalent of the antebellum South having the strength and wisdom to cast aside slavery. They didn't have it First, the South was firmly convinced that slavery was their right, safely embedded, as it was, in the Constitution. Second, they loved slavery; they loved their slaves. 

Thenn, came Abe Lincoln, and the Union army. The northerners wrested slavery from the South, and ended it. The North was able to do this only after spending the previous 200 years weaning itself off of slavery. Imagine how impossible ending slavery in American would have been had the North continued to embrace it along with the South. Fortunately, we were deeply divided. When it comes to guns, however, borth sides of the Mason-Dixon line is enthralled - so much so, that he - (guns) - is unregonizable as a killer, and is played off as an innocent, even as a savior. Do not be fooled. Guns are not innocents. They are bombs waiting for a chance to explode.  

The Emancipation Proclamation of 1863, and the subsequent ratification of the 13th Amendment in 1865, abolished all slavery in America. This nation was finally released from its self-imposed shackles - freed to become the democracy it had previously only pretended to be. Now, we are faced with another such desperate, and defining moment. 

Four hundred million guns in the hands of America's citizenry is every bit a failure of our society as was four million African-Americans in bondage. Only through the abolishment of these weapons will America become a society worthy of the future the Founding Fathers once envisioned. Absent that, America will continue its headlong descent into more death, and darkness. 

Russia v. Ukraine

 "He has come to open the purple testament of bleeding war." - Richard III, Shakespeare

What has gotten into these people? Look at the Ukrainian soldiers hunkered down in the Azovetal Steel plant in Mariupol. While we marvel at their courage, we must wonder, "Why don't they surrender?" 

In World War II, Stalin forbade his troops to surrender to the Germans. He expected them all to fight to the death. If they surrendered, he considered them traitors. His own son was taken prisoner by the Germans. When the Germans realized they had captured Stalin's son, they offered him up in a prisoner exchange. Stalin replied, "I have no son."

Hitler was no better. He forbade his generals to retreat, no matter the circumstance. In Stalingrad, over 100,000 German soldiers of the 6th Army were trapped by Russian troops. To preclude a surrender by the commanding general, Friedrich von Paulus, Hitler promoted him to Field Marshal. That was the highest honor. No German field marshal had ever surrendered his army. Field Marshal Friedrich von Paulus surrendered anyway. Ninety thousand German troops were marched from Stalingrad to Moscow in the dead of winter. Of those 90,000 men, only 5,000 made it back to Germany alive. That is the nature of these people. Their history is in them. 

*******

Chemical Warfare

What is the difference between nations using chemical weapons against their enemies - which is a war crime according to the Geneva Convention - and the police using tear gas, which is a chemical agent, against their own citizens? 

I know what tear gas does. I was tear-gassed, indirectly, (collaterally). I thought I would die. When it happens, you can neither see it, nor smell it. Suddenly, you simply cannot breathe. It starts with a cough, then gagging. Panic quickly sets in. (That's what happens when you find you can't breathe.) Someone yells, "Tear gas!" Now, you understand. But, there is nothing you can do. Too late to cover your nose, your mouth. It is not about tears, it is about breathing. Most people survive a tear gas attack. But, they never forget that moment when they could not breathe. 

Terror of the Wand

Ten years ago, the Michigan Department of Corrections implemented a high-tech system for doing prisoner count: Each officer is issued a heavy, metal wand they use to press against a metal nodule embedded in each prisoner's door. Presumably, they are to gently press the wand against the nodule to register a requisite "beep". Being that the wand is a sturdy object, however, allows the officer, if he pleases, to slam it against the nodule (with no apparent effect upon the wand, itself). The negative effect of said "slamming" upon prisoners' mental and physical health should not be understated. 

These officers do not need to bang against the prisoners' cell doors to complete their count. We know this because there are officers who come in and do their jobs - perform their prisoner counts - without a single "bang." The only noise they generate is an innocuous "beep."  

Banging against the doors seems to be a matter of choice, (if not one of peer pressure to conform to this aberrant norm.) They do not always slam their wands against the doors. Sometimes they rake it over the nodule, or tap, tap, tap at it, always producing that discomforting, grating sound of metal against metal. (Who would devise such a clunky system in the 21st century? Who would buy it, and place it in the hands of a workforce that, throughout history, has been notorious for its visceral cruelty?)

Observing these officers as they wield their wands, I am startled at their unbridled insensitivity. Could they be as oblivious to the stress they wreak upon prisoners as they appear? But, no, even the worst offender will favor a prisoner, from time to time, and go light on his door, signaling a consciousness of wrongdoing; confirming that much of their banging is purposeful, and malign. 

This prisoner count occurs every half hour, day and night. For a prisoner to be subjected to such a consistent barrage might be construed as a low-level form of torture. (Sometimes they rap it so hard, my insides quake, and my blood pressure soars.) Please, imagine someone banging on your door, your wall every half-hour of every day - while you eat read, and sleep. How long would it take for your nerves to begin to fray; like mine have frayed?

I once told an officer, "I wouldn't kick the side of a dog's house the way you (figuratively) kick ours - not even a dog I disliked - because that would be cruel." What these people are doing is the equivalent of zookeepers poking at the caged animals. No one would allow that. Yet, here men as helpless as animals are poked all day long. 

Mind you, these are not renegade officers who bang on our doors. The exception is the officer who does his count without cruelty. The rule is officers who perform those duties with a callous disregard. And, it isn't just the prison guards. Mid-level and upper-level administrators condone this behavior. (How else could it have gone on for years throughout Michigan's prison system?) Besides, many of the administrators bang on the doors, themselves. Even healthcare workers - people whose profession it is to relieve suffering - bang on the doors. I have personally appealed to nurses and doctors, and nothing has changed - not the behavior of the officers who work beside them, nor their own behavior. 

One healthcare worker told me there was nothing she could do and suggested that I find a way to accept it That is like telling someone who is being waterboarded to find another way to breathe. Why should anyone have to accept abuse? Get used to it? That is impossible. You don't "get used" to abuse. You might survive it, but each day of that survival stretches thin your humanity until you become a sliver of who you were. 

Noise affects all human, and animal lifeforms. Noise frightens and unnerves us. It negatively impacts what sense of security we may possess. There is no reason to implement such an oppressive system that ensures gratuitous noise where no noise is needed to complete the required task. The people who approved this count system, and those who execute it, seem to proceed from the notion that the imprisoned have no feelings free men are bound to respect. That would be a false conceit.