Monday, June 01, 2020

4596 How Innocent We Were




It’s as tiring to write the same old same old as it must be to read it.  Virus deaths. Killer cops, killer bees, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly.  Looting, trump, China, Hong Kong, Putin, fake news, unemployment.

So, to start the new month, June, we went back into the archives hunting for something nice to say. Or clever. Or cute. Something.

In June of 2010, this space was busy with such earth shattering events as defective Sears washing machines, magnifying glasses as Father’s Day gifts, starting random conversations with random strangers.  There was stuff about paper v. electronic calendars, a wooden steamship found intact at the bottom of one of the Great Lakes.

We mused about the removal of Jimmy Dean from the ads for his frozen meals (he’s since been revived.)  There was a piece about door-to-door vacuum cleaner salespeople, Leona Helmsley and newly discovered mineral deposits in Afghanistan.

Were we ever really that innocent?

Yes and no. Looking back, at least we found what would pass as an excuse for our presence in the Middle East.  Google, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube were in their infancies. GM had only recently killed Pontiac (Oldsmobile died earlier.) 

But the grains of real life were… round. Grousing was fun. No one got hurt except maybe Leona, Jimmy and Eddie Lampert.  We had a real president with real and qualified appointees in proper places.

Oh sure, there were the usual slime-engorged public officials, the hucksters, the stick up artists, murderers, shoplifters and even a bunch of isolated cop vs. someone suspected of being black.  And some of them were pretty shocking.  But the shock would wear off. Maybe it shouldn’t have.  There was a general lull between school shootings. Sure there were horrible things. But not every day. And not every place.

And not always from the same source: The White House and its clients in congress and its sales support team on the supreme court.

NOTES FROM ALL OVER:

(WASHINGTON) -- The “president” is nosing around the Pentagon looking for ways to use real soldiers to stop the nightly rioting. But then he turned around and expressed sympathy for murderee George Floyd in Minnesota.  An unusual and unexpected turn of phrase from that source.  Someone influential must have crawled into what passes for his consciousness.  Ivanka? Melania?

(MINNEAPOLIS) -- It’s still burning as protests against the policeman’s murder of an unarmed civilian continue and spread near and far.

(BROOKLYN) -- How many thousands gathered cheek by jowl at the Barclay Center to protest the enthusiastically brutal treatment of some black people by white cops?  Social distancing, be damned. 

I’m Wes Richards. My opinions are my own but you’re welcome to them. ®
Any Questions? wesrichards@gmail.com
© WJR 2020


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4759 The Supreme Court

  C’mon, guys, we all know what you’re doing.  You’re hiding behind nonsense so a black woman is not the next Associate Justice of the  U.S....