I Feel Like I'm Writing a Parenting Column

 Well that didn't take long.  

Not that I expected everyone in Congress to join hands and sing Kumbaya but I thought the reality of almost being killed would sober the members of Congress up and get them to stop behaving like toddlers and understand that our country needs serious help. They need to be the grown ups and shoulder the responsibility of doing a hard job; that's what they are paid to do.  Don't they understand we are dying out here? That we are hungry? That we need jobs so we can feed, clothe and house our children?

But instead we have weasels who are trying to read the tea leaves on what they should do to get re-elected in 2 or 4 years.  We have a couple of crazy ladies roaming the halls of Congress maskless, packing and  screaming at other duly elected representatives that they have the right to do whatever they want because their "base" (whatever that is) gives them permission.  

 Instead of working ways to get financial and medical help to the Americans who didn't storm the Capitol (if they don't agree with the President's proposal) they are running off to Florida to "strategize" on how to "retake the House". These are the same House  members who were threatened with death and hanging by a bunch of lawless goons and  hours later they still repeated the lies of a fraudulent election because (according to them) their constituents (another word for "base"?) demanded it. 

I can't believe I have to put it in language a kindegartener can understand but since that is who seems to be running the legislative branch of the government these days here goes:

What happened on January 6th was bad. Bad behavior has consequences. So put your big boy pants and big girl panties on and deal with the consequences for each and every one of the people who told lies about who won the election. As any parent knows if there are no consequences for bad behavior  something worse is bound to happen next time.

 As for those dangerous  tantrum throwers who broke doors down and crashed through windows, who threatened and hurt other people, who trashed the building, peed and pooped on the floors all the while screaming  "this is our house" and then lied when they were caught; they need to have a very, very long time out. 

So Congress, if you really want to be re-elected in 2 or 4 years see the first paragraph.  That's what you should do; accept responsibility for your words and your actions and clean up your mess.

A 10-Year-Old's Perspective on January 6th

The third grade teacher's assignment: look at the photo, describe what you see and give your reaction to it. 

 The 10-year-old's reaction was concise:

"I see men with guns pointing at the door. I see grown ups acting like babies. No, that's an insult to babies. Why are they behaving this way? It scares me."

It scares me, too. 

The excuses of the participants sound like my 3-year-old son's explanation when asked why his sister was crying. "Well, her face ran into my foot." My reply: "Try again."

Here's what some of the "grown ups" who were caught inside the Capitol building in the midst of tear gas, pepper spray, guns and police officers being attacked said:

"I didn't do anything." 

"I picked up the cuffs from the floor. I was looking for a police officer to give them to. " 

"I found the shield I used to break the window."

 "I just watched." 

"I just looked around."

"I didn't touch anything." 

"I was dressed in military gear because I was afraid of getting hurt by antifa." 

"I thought it was okay to go inside."

Really? Try again.

 

You Can't Say You Don't Know What To Do

Prologue: 

I wrote this last week before the attempted coup by flannel wearing, overweight, scary white people who think they have the right to take away my voice (through my vote) because they didn't get what they wanted.

Message to them from an American History major: Don't you dare call yourselves patriots and wave my flag. Patriots died defending my flag,  my right to vote and the peaceful transfer of power. One of them died defending my capitol on Wednesday.  You have brought shame on my nation. I will not forget nor forgive. 

There is nothing you can do to redeem yourselves. You call elected officials traitors. Look in the mirror. You are the betrayers. 

 

 "This is America." My husband said, "Americans are always looking for ways to be offended." 

I am so tired of people entitled to being offended. As I have gotten older I find myself impatient with the whining about how something is unfair.  I seem to remember my parents pointing out that Life is unfair, totally unfair when I whined about not getting my way. I think I was 5 years old.

Were we always a nation of entitled whiners? When did we become a bunch of 5 year olds? Now we seem to have a bunch of toddlers running around the Congress stamping their feet, waving their fists and crying, "It's not fair." What's really scary is the toddlers have power to do real damage to our country and therefore to us.

 It's not fair that our candidate lost.  So what do we do? We go to court (a substitute for a parent),  and when the court says we can't have what we want, we say, "You're lying". We don't believe any independent audit because, well, it's not fair that we didn't get what we want.

It's not fair that I have to stay home, wash my hands, sneeze into my elbow, wear a mask, cancel my plans to go to Spring Training, either. It's not fair my church cancelled in-person worship and now I have to go to church on line, like I'm some kind of shut-in invalid. It's not fair that I haven't seen my daughter in a year because she lives in another state and works in a high risk environment.

It's not fair and I'm offended that I can't a vaccine when I want it. That I'm healthy and I want my life back.  I reached my limit with whining when a reporter on a national news program interviewed some woman sitting in her car waiting in line sobbing that she wants the vaccine because she wants her life back.  I want my life back, too. But it isn't going to happen immediately. 

It might have if we weren't a bunch of people subscribing to the lies that were being perpetuated, that we we weren't lazy and not willing to check out the information sources, to believe that the other people were out to get us. That subscribed to "You can't tell us what to do" thinking. Reminds me of my little brother yelling "You're not the boss of me!" whenever I babysat him.

Well, that ship has sailed and now we are living with this mess of lost business, lost time, lost people.

So grow up and get with the program. The reality is that there isn't enough vaccine to go around right now. There's 320 million Americans who need to be vaccinated (that's minus the 350,000 and counting who won't be getting the vaccine because it came too late for them (that's unfair, too.) 

You can't say you don't know what to do. We've all been told: Wear a mask when you go out. Wash your hands when you come in. Stay home if you can. 

Doing this is not a political statement. Not doing it is a statement of entitled stupidity.

 Be grateful you're not living in Syria or Yemen or a refugee camp where there's no chance of getting vaccinated at all because other, richer countries have corralled everything that's available. Now THAT'S not fair.