It is 8:29 PM; there has been a lot on my mind and I thought I’d get one more post in.
The world seems to have radically changed since 2016. The main reason is President Trump: we’re on a wild roller coaster ride and I’m almost afraid to look at the news every morning. The issue of the day that could change the course of history is North Korea. I read that Trump just undercut his own secretary of state Tillerson: Tillerson was in the news as seeking dialogue with NK and Trump tweets that he shouldn’t bother. I do not see this as strategy, I see it as an administration in chaos and nobody is at the wheel.
As for local news I just learned that there was a murder suicide over the weekend only two minutes from where I live. This kind of thing just didn’t happen when I grew up in my quiet suburb of Golfview Woods. Pacifica is supposed to be a quiet beach town but reading the police reports seems quite a bit is going on here. Like much of America drugs have infiltrated it and are taking an enormous toll although it goes underreported. The murder over the weekend seems to have come from domestic violence and not drugs though.
I also ventured into reading Nextdoor again and wish I hadn’t. Again, one post was about the ‘Jesus sign.’ Some local artist made a very nice painting and put “For he so loved the world.” And you know how the neighbors responded? One got on his soapbox proclaiming that the image of Jesus shouldn’t be depicted. Another asked how neighbors would feel if the sign had a Jewish or Muslim message, how would they feel? Man, they always go overboard. I liked the neighbors and neighborhood better without having to know the opinions of these people. The sign looks a thousand times better and I wish neighbors would just shut it. The sign is on his own private property, why does everyone feel the need to chime in about it?
My other thought tonight was about information overload. It is no longer just liberal news vs conservative news. Now we have completely fake news and people are not able to tell the difference between real and fake. Growing up I was told not to believe everything I saw on TV. Then it was don’t believe everything you read on Wikipedia. Now it seems many believe everything they read on the internet. All the news is spun to fit the readership with some of the news being completely fake and people are eating it up. America is in a very steep tailspin and I’m not sure how we’re going to come out of it. Add in NK we are looking at the very real possibility of a nuclear war and our leadership is helpless under President Trump. These are dark times indeed and on track to just get darker.
People also no longer trust science. They only want to hear what their tribe says and pass it on. This all makes me just want to ‘piss off’ as the Australians say and go live in another country. The problem is our only option is Japan and that is in the cross hairs of North Korea. They also work too much.
It seems the only way to keep my sanity is to shut it all out. It is as though I should just focus on my own little world, create a nice environment for my family and shut out world politics, the opinions of neighbors, the goings on of the neighborhood and just live in my own little world. Everything else is too much, it is time to go into hibernation for a very long time.
——-10.2.2017—–
Update: I open the BBC this morning to find that there has been one of the worst mass shootings in recent history, this time in Las Vegas: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-41466116
Politicians will say things, candles will be lit, prayers will be said and nothing will actually change. As I was saying, the world has radically changed and the USA continues its downward slide. People will be in denial saying this was outside the ordinary, a one time thing by a deranged man; only the truth is that this has become commonplace. This is a domestic terrorist attack but it will not be called terrorist because it was by a white USA citizen. If it was a Muslim only then would people consider it a true terrorist attack. They may say the word “terrorist” in the news here and there but it would only be a true terrorist attack if the attacker were Muslim, the outrage would be a thousand fold. People need someone to blame and the Muslims are an easy target now days. Since the shooter was not Muslim it will deprive people of that easy blame, of that ‘easy’ reasoning.
They’ll say that now is the time to mourn, to heal and speeches will be made. But again, nothing will change. This is the new normal and as I mentioned just last night, I can only keep sane by not reading the news, by not listening to the opinions, spin, reasoning put that are about to come in droves. What a very sad day, all of this violence, all of this murder are changing the character of the USA, a place that looks so unlike itself only two decades ago. You can feel it in the air.
