Be Packin'

Lately, the media has been informing us each Monday about the mass shootings that have taken place in this country the past weekend. The numbers are always staggering, and sickening. Then, on cue, they ask: "When will it stop?" And I say to myself, "It won't."

"What will it take," they add, "for lawmakers to take action?" It will take something our lawmakers do not have: Courage.

We don't seem to get it. We call these politicians "leaders", though they follow us. They are a tool of the American people's desires. I suppose that is how democracies are supposed to work, except when the people, themselves, are sick, and the so-called "leaders" are afraid to say, "Enough!"

In America, there are 300 million guns in the hands of 300 million citizens. Why? Put a bat in a person's hand, and he will swing it. Give him a rock, and he will throw it. Pass out 300 million guns, and there is going to be a lot of shooting. 

Guns have a singular purpose: to kill. Even when you target practice with a gun, the purpose is to make yourself a more efficient killer. We have already killed most of the animals in America, (and they are innocent). Now, we shoot at what is left, which is mostly people. After all, we are Americans. We must shoot. 

We the people want guns because we're tired of having to "get along" with other people. To Americans, "getting along" sounds weak. Rather have these killing machines that will make us super-men and super-women, (even super-kids): that will save us from fear, or from having to be conciliatory, or humble, or simply human. With guns, we won't have to teach our children to say "please" and "thank you" Just "Be Packin'."

America's 2nd Amendment right to bear arms is an obvious recipe for disaster. It would be a recipe for disaster for any nation on Earth. Fortunately, no other nation in the world follows our lead. And, the more we tout our vaunted 2nd Amendment right to bear arms," the more the rest of the world shakes its collective head in pity, and wonders. "What is wrong with those people?" I'll tel you: We lack courage. 

The Soul of Osaka

Naomi Osaka is the closest thing the sports world has to a Greta Thunberg, or a Malala Youssafsai. And they do not know what to do with her. Try listening.  

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To understand Russia's Putin, spend some time reading up on Josef Stalin. In the 1930s, the Pope sent an emissary to Russia to encourage Stalin to treat his christians better. Stalin asked the emissary, "Ho many (army) divisions do the Pope have?" Putin is not only a Stalin disciple, he wants to be Stalin.  

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Donald Trump recently asked one of his close advisors if there was a chance that he could be reinstated as President of these United States. This Trump is a marvel of the modern world: A grown man who still believes in the tooth fairy.  

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Lebron James, with four NBA titles under his belt, is the league's premier politician. He religiously stays on good terms with all of the league's other great players. He sees each of them as a potential teammate who could help him surpass Michael Jordan's six NBA titles. 

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There was a time, in the 70s, that I worked in rehabilitation at the Kalamazoo County Jail. From time to time, we'd ask our charges, "Do you want to look good, or be good?" It is still a question we each should ask ourselves. And, while we are at it, we might each want to ask, "Do I wan to work, or do I just want to get paid?"  

If this is the "great nation" it presumes to be, we, as a people, must get both questions right.  

Iron Domes: They Sure Do Work

We watch the Palestinians lob primitive rockets into Israel only to have 90% of those rockets blunted by Israel's "Iron Dome" anti-missile system. Then we see the Israelis return fire - missiles, artillery, smart bombs. Two hundred dead Palestinians to ten dead Israelis. Yet, the Palestinians continue to swing back. If you wonder "why?" then you've never really fought; you've never really faced a bully and committed your soul to standing up to him. 

The Palestinians exist in a 13-square-mile concentration camp called "The Gaza Strip." They are born into this captivity. A land, sea, and air blockade governs their entire lives. You might call it Israel's "other iron done." (Speaking of "iron domes": The two million Palestinians clinging to life in the Gaza Strip equals the number of men and women kept in America's prisons.)

America, which considers Israel one of its closest friends, condones Israel's human rights abuses against the Palestinian people, even as the world community objects. It appears we do not care as much about people's "living free" as we pretend. But, we like those "iron domes." They sure do work. 

Nine Minutes and Twenty-nine Seconds

Nine minutes and twenty-nine seconds. What kind of man would press a knee into the neck of another man for so long a period of time and think it is okay? And it isn’t like he did it in his basement. Officer Derek Chauvin did it in broad daylight, on a city street, with people gathered all around. He had no shame. I am a bit surprised Chauvin did not look around foolishly as he kneeled on Floyd’s neck, and say to the onlookers, “What?”

Chauvin is the police. These people – not all of them, but more than you might imagine – suffer from a sense of entitlement that rivals the privilege conquering soldiers have exerted over defenseless villagers for centuries, carrying with it the atrocities that have filled out countless campaigns. 

It is a beastly thing, this misguided sense of power – not imbued by God, but bestowed by men upon men who seemingly have no way of preventing such delusions of self-might from seeping unencumbered by conscience, into their brains. This reckless privilege has spawned a horrific culture of fear, death, and racial animus that is nowhere so pronounced as here in America.

Yet, in many of their minds, these police are simply “heroes”. When challenged, they simply become “misunderstood heroes” – mistreated and under-appreciated. They rarely feel remorse for their actions. Mostly, they feel disdain for what they view as political lynching. In their minds, they assume the posture of sacrificial lambs, and they feel every bit as innocent

Space, Sin, and Astrophysicists

Top astrophysicists promote the “Big Bang Theory” – that the universe sprang into existence in a single instance some 15 billion years ago. I doubt that. But, then, I am often at odds with things learned men and women say about the universe. That may sound strange considering they hail from the cream of the astrophysicists’ crop, while I am fathoms removed from the bottom rung. Nonetheless, I have my own theory.

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The bigger the house, the more empty the home. With that in mind, you supposed “rich folk” might want to try a bit of downsizing, for happiness’ sake. 

 

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The problem with keeping people endlessly imprisoned is that prisoners will eventually lose the healthy disgust they feel for themselves, and begin to focus a more bleak disgust upon a system that feels compelled to punish. It is as though this hateful desire to punish others is ingrained into the state – into the very hearts of its politicians and its citizenry; having proven itself, somehow, to be elemental to America’s psyche, like destiny, and beyond the realm of mere mortals to right. 

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This vaunted “Space Force” idea America is wont to pursue – a design to militarize Earth’s outer orbit – is shameless. It will amount to nothing more than a build-up of capacity to unleash high-tech weaponry down upon this Earth – to bombard our poor and precious planet from a greater distance than we already bombard it today. 

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This is simple: It would seem that any time we propel ourselves forward in space, we experience time travel. The store is a mile from where I stand. It will take an hour to walk there. I get into an automobile that travels at 60mph, I am there in one minute. That store is in my future. By being propelled forward in an automobile, I am thrust 59 minutes into the future, during which time I age one minute instead of one hour. 

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In John 8:11, Jesus said to a sinner, “Go, and sin no more.”  I think I can do that. 

Out of Bounds

For many of us sports is that noble pursuit we can be sure of. It is the human spirit in motion – raw, pure, and… wait; did that basketball player just carry the ball five steps while the referee was swallowing his whistle? Must be NBA Sunday. 

The NBA is the cream of basketball. There, we expect the best shooting, passing, defense, and ball handling on Earth. Instead, we become witnesses to a great league devolving into a Hollywood production. The other day, I saw Dallas guard, Luka Doncic, in a revised version of the “Euro-step” carry the ball five steps before laying it in the basket. Applause. Back in the day, such a blatant violation would have been grounds for a fistfight. 

Coming up in rural Michigan in the 60s, we played basketball wherever we could carve out a court. Sometimes, it was no more than a hoop nailed to a tree ten feet about a hardened dirt surface. Yet, even upon that dumpy ground, we demanded clean handling of the ball: no steps – no "carrying the ball" over that dip in the landscape; no “palming the ball”; no “traveling with the ball” around the clump of crab-grass. Either dribble through the defect or pick up your dribble and give up the ball. Now, the NBA, of all entities, desecrates rules we enforced with our souls. 

And, if they are not “walking with the ball,” or taking siestas, (euphemistically referred to as “load management”), these NBA stars are “flopping” – flailing left and right, pretending to have been fouled – hoping to fool the referees into awarding them bonus shots at the free-throw line. It is a mess. It has gotten to so bad, a few weeks ago the “see no evil” referees told LeBron James, who was flopping with the best of them, to “cut it out.” It was a rare admonition, which merited a few kindly chuckles from the networks that pay the league billions for this brand of corrupted basketball. 

The National Football League is but a bit better. One of its biggest failings is the players’ use of gloves – high-tech apparel to which thrown balls cling. There was a time in the NFL when they spoke glowingly of the “great hands” select receivers possessed. Now, we rarely hear the term because no one knows anymore who has “great hands,” or just “great gloves.”  Come on. Ban the fancy gloves. They are pure “college,” like aluminum bats. 

Despite the mountains of money that saturates these games, sports maintain a core of innocence no other stage can afford. It is that innocence that galvanizes our faith, that makes us cheer for our team – win or lose – as we would cheer for our own child. But, it cannot sustain such immunity from cynicism while continuing to allow abject falsity to stain its chase. That would be like a parent cheering on a child, unmoved, as that child walked onto the field with the intent to cheat.  

The fate of these sports could hand in the balance, teetering between cheesy entertainment, and stuff forged on the stellar fires. These athletes, these franchises, these leagues waver for no other reason than want of convenience; they falter for lack of commitment to the rigors that make their games compelling. Sports risks losing its deserts – the adulation we have given so fully – for want of a softer bed.    

The Capitol "Putsch"

Merriam Webster defines "putsch" as "a secretly planned and suddenly executed attempt to overthrow a government." Adolph Hitler's effort in 1920 is referred to as the "Beer Hall Putsch." It failed, and Hitler was jailed. 

One hundred years later, what arguably may do down as the second-most infamous of putsches - Donald Trump's "Capitol Putsch" - has failed also. Trump may not go to jail, but he has certainly been impeached. 

There are parallels in this century-wide duo. Both men exist - and seemed to have existed - without a conscience. The megalomaniacal nature of the two men has prompted cult-like followings in their respective realms that few leaders of either's nation have ever known. Hitler, however, volunteered and fought in the bloody trenches of World War I. Trump cried "bone spurs" to avoid the draft, and save himself from the Vietnam War. 

In the "Beer Hall Putsch," after firing up his myrmidons, Hitler led the march on Germany's parliament. When the police opened fire on him and his men, Hitler stood in the breach and fired back. Trump, in his "Capitol Putsch", after exhorting his myrmidons to be strong and brave, and declaring, "I'll be there with you," instead marched in the other direction - straight to the White House, where he would view the carnage from the safety of the Oval Office. 

They were very much alike and very, very different. Hitler was hard-core. Trump, he reminds me of a joke Bill Cosby told back in the '60s. Feigning to exhort black activists to march on the police, he declared, "I'll be right behind you. That way when the police start shooting and we turn and run, I'll be in front.