Tag: violence

Inauguration Day 2021

I watched the Inauguration of Joe Biden yesterday and was emotional. For the first time in 4 years, I actually had a feeling of hopefulness rather than hopelessness.

I watched the Inauguration of Joe Biden yesterday and was emotional. For the first time in 4 years, I actually had a feeling of hopefulness rather than hopelessness. I was literally breathless during the swearing in ceremonies of Biden and Harris. I had hope again in our country, in this administration, in our leaders at the top. This does not mean that we are out of the woods by any means—we will still have the white supremacists committing violent acts or at least trying to. The one who shall not be named will still be an inciter but at least he won’t be the inciter in chief. We won’t have to listen to his incessant lies and rhetoric each day and know that many brain-washed people in our country believe it. It was such a pleasure to turn on the TV this morning and not see his face, spewing forth falsehoods, insisting—like a petulant 5-year-old–that he “won the election, big!” Yesterday, they happened to play a clip for Trump’s final farewell speech and I literally had to mute it.

After 4 years of this horror show, I have PTSD. I think the reason I cried during the Inauguration was that I realized that I don’t have to hold my breath anymore. I never really realized that I had been holding my breath for 4 years until I was able to let it out. I watched The View this morning and Whoopie actually said exactly what I am saying here. Each morning I would turn on the TV with trepidation and think, “What has he done today to undermine the United States. What has he tweeted about today to enflame his so called “base”? Then I would see almost every day there was a crisis of his making or that he somehow sided with Putin on almost everything. His Russian buddy, Putin, could do anything and Trump would never say a word or just outright deny that he was to blame. Whatever it was, I was angry every day and couldn’t get past it. I could never fathom why this guy and his grifter family got away with everything.

It is such a relief to see competence being restored to the White House. Biden’s cabinet picks are not just white men, they are a cross section of what this country actually looks like—white, black, Asian, Latino, American Indian, Indian, etc. And these are competent people and not just the sycophants Trump installed because of their loyalty to him. It is amazing how we will have an Attorney General (Merrick Garland) who is America’s lawyer not just the personal lawyer to the president. It will be amazing to see that our new President will not interfere with the DOJ. It will be amazing to have a President who does not lead by Tweet.

There are too many atrocities that have been committed by the worst and most corrupt President and administration in history to name–I would be writing forever. In spite of that, he could’ve gotten out with at least a little bit of dignity. But instead, he had to invent “The Big Lie” and spread it far and wide, gaining political traction within the Republican party. They knew better that Biden won fair and square, but their political aspirations came before country and shame on them for that. This guy’s refusal to accept defeat, instead trying to disenfranchise millions of voters in mostly black communities, was so egregious and shows what a racist and small, petty man he is. Not once did he ever express empathy for the 400 thousand people who have died thus far from this Covid-19 pandemic. Instead, he pretended that it was a hoax, and told people not to wear masks, resulting in more deaths than there should have been. His response to the pandemic was enough to get him impeached or at least “impeached” in the eyes of God. Rest assured he will never see Heaven when he dies, he will shoot straight down to Hell where he will be sharing a cell with his evil counterpart, Hitler.

However, the worst thing he did was to incite an insurrection at the Capitol, trying to overthrow the government and prevent the Electoral College votes from being counted and certified on January 6th.  Now he will go down in history as the only President to be impeached twice—this last one with seven days to go. How sad—and even if he somehow gets away with it in the Senate, it is still on his record forever. All our allies are over the moon about this wannabe dictator finally being out of office. Biden will rejoin the Paris climate accords, rejoin the WHO, roll back the Muslim ban, and stop that ridiculous “Wall” which was promised but never really delivered. He will hopefully make the vaccine rollout move faster and mourn with us during our time of sorrow.

Oh yes, yesterday was a wonderful day. Just to see him board a plane and slither off to Florida, was uplifting beyond belief. I pray that he never regains any sort of political control again and that he never receives intelligence briefings, as some other former Presidents do. I pray that our new President and VP will be safe. I pray that this red blot in our Country’s history will never be repeated and that we learn from this. But alas, it must be one day at a time. I am not so much a Poly Anna that I believe that it will be smooth sailing because it took four years to almost ruin democracy and so it will take a while to fix it. Our country will never be the same again, but hopefully, we will rise up and become the great nation that we still can be.

Mass Killing

Mass killing; I watched the News with horror about yet another rampage from a severely mentally ill young man. A father of one of the victims gave an emotionally charged interview and said, “When will this stop? When will we say enough is enough?” My answer to him was, “Probably never.” Welcome to the 21st Century, where mass killing has become almost commonplace; where we barely blink an eye when we hear; where once the dead are mourned, it becomes business as usual. It seems that every other week there is another mass killing. Then the News agencies have a field day, trying to come up with a motive, and rehashing it over and over. Yet, nothing changes, regarding gun laws or the available treatment for the mentally ill. I don’t know what the answer is because unless you can keep someone in a hospital for a period of time, against their will, they will not get the help they need. In this case, this 22 year old was a child of privilege, who had been receiving mental health care since age 8. But I know that unless someone is actually self-aware and admits that they are mentally ill (which most people will not) and is compliant, they will not take their meds, or even seek treatment, which is key. When someone is an adult, they are not obliged to continue their treatment and so often refuse and go off their meds. In all the recent cases of mass shootings, the news media always plays Monday morning quarterback, analyzing over and over how all the “warning signs” were missed. Then they all discuss how the mental health care system is broken, and needs to be fixed by identifying when someone is in trouble and potentially violent. But, since mental health care is a low priority in our society, violent people often fall through the cracks. The problem with the mental health care system is such that when a severely disturbed person is sent to the ER and “evaluated” by an overworked psychiatrist, the “red flags” are often missed because they are often very adept at “acting” their way out of staying. They know all the right words to say in order to appear “normal”, and voila, they are magically sent back out in the world. I know that if they don’t appear out of it, or disoriented, they will be released within an hour. It is a shame when a disturbed individual is a danger to themselves, but even worse when they are potentially violent. I know that deputies interviewed this young man and without real proper training or checking his house, deemed him not to be a threat. Yet, the fact that his parents were so alarmed to even call the police should have been reason enough to take him in. But, true to form, he put on the “act” and seemed contrite, polite, and even shy. It is a shame that family members’ hands are tied because of the HIPPA laws. Once your child is an adult, you may know for sure that he is in trouble, or even headed for a violent outburst, but you cannot do anything about it other than send the cops out, who are not trained in that capacity. I do know for sure that there is so much prejudice and misinformation out there, and maybe education is the answer. People equate violence with mental illness, when the fact remains that most mentally ill people are NOT violent and more often than not, they are the victims. The tragic fact remains that this young man, who had a powder keg working, fell through the cracks and 26 innocent lives were snuffed from this earth. However, I feel such sympathy for this young man’s parents who I know are totally devastated and probably did everything possible to help him. But, the problem is that you can only do so much for an adult child and anyone with a mentally ill loved one can relate to the anguish of his parents.