Author: plinyblogcom

It has been exactly one year, since the WHO declared the advent of Covid-19, a “Pandemic.” At newly elected President, Joseph Biden’s address to the Nation last evening, he took well-justified pride at the universal sighting of ”a light at the end of the tunnel” respecting this widespread, contagious,  and potentially mortal disease (more than 550, 000 American deaths in the year). The vision of the tunnel’s proverbial exit light was, in no small part, due to his, so far, brief, Administration’s efficient and empathic program of management of the viral disease outbreak, and his appropriate respect (unlike his incapable, ignorant predecessor) for medical and biological science. Programs of prophylactic caution, such as quarantine, distancing masking and effective handwashing, publicly encouraged by the new Administration and its knowledgeable and caring experts, where complied with, were rewarded by intended results.

Kudos are deservedly awarded for the brilliance and creativity of the American medical and pharmaceutical professions, for their demonstrated efficiency and unprecedented expedition in the development of (3) safe and effective vaccines; each capable of affording immunity from the scourge of the dangerous virus. As known, the Nation is presently involved in a governmental program of universal administration of covid vaccination, the efficient, complicated and nuanced logistics for which, is an additional occasion for the grant of well- deserved kudos; to the caring, sensitive, and empathic new Administration of Joseph Biden and Kamala Harris.

It may well be that the most profound honorable mention, in this instance, is to be reserved for our health-workers, most particularly, the overworked and under-protected, empathic nurses and nurse practitioners, many of whom actually died, while serving on the frontline of this dangerously infectious battle against the pandemic. Reports indicate that they continued to maintain their long tradition of generosity and heroism in their sincere and unstinting attempts to provide care and save lives; working long shifts, at patient beds and in crowded, dangerous, and nerve-wracking Intensive Care Units, often without a day off and at times, without adequate personal protective equipment (PPE). Reportedly, despite such arduous conditions, the (only) common complaint, reportedly (and admirably) was that they were limited in their personal interaction with their patients and frustrated by what they wanted to do for their patients, compared with what they could not do, by reason of the infectious pathology. The latter, incapability in many morally unforgiveable instances, was due to irresponsible shortages in supplies of protective equipment. Florence Nightingale would have been immensely proud, (see: our very early essay, “Florence’s Lamp”).

It is hoped that society, newly rendered cognizant of the essential role of the professional nurse in our empirically vulnerable population, will robustly support adequately funded nursing schools, nursing education and appropriately recognize and adequately remunerate the practitioners of this supportive and existential pillar of human survival and existence.

-p.  

Wistful Vista, Ohio March 11, 2021

Dear Pamela:

Things have been awful quiet and lonely since you and Fred moved to El Paso on account of Fred’s job. Abel and the girls miss you all, especially your rhubarb-apple pie and Ed’s funny jokes. The winter snow  is melting fast, and it might well be that just about every house has a leaking roof. I am praying hard it will stop soon.

I like the new President. He smiles more than the last one and also because he says the words, ”Praise God” a lot, not like the other one. But his blonde hair wife looks to be a little chippy, but they do say that she is a schoolteacher. All villagers, at last, have now received their vaccinations after being threatened with exclusion from the Annual Square dance. I am hoping that the virus scare will be completely over son—the never-ending sound of Abel’s rocking chair is making me batty.

Things at the Village Church have taken a bad turn. Reverend Snarl has developed a fair case of painful hemorrhoids and his recent sermons have become more critical and less inspiring. Also, there were heated arguments about the counting of votes at the recent election for President of the Church Geranium Committee- finally settled by Reverend by appointing all seven members, co-Presidents. The toilet with the colored glass-stained window is still broken. Deacon Goodfellow sends his best regards.

Did you hear the foolishness about the beautiful black-American actress who got married to the English Prince? If they had asked me, I would have told them that there is always trouble after you marry, when you move in with the in-laws. Still, it is not as eventful, we hear, as living in El Paso, Texas.

Well, that’s about all for now,

Love and regards,

Elviry  

Idealistic people like ourselves, at times suffer from the inclination to be prematurely impulsive, in the  discernment of significant progress, or the prediction of long- range positive outcomes, from events which, at first blush, evince an appearance of tending in the direction of justice or moral rectitude; yet ultimately, suffer the pain of the revelation of less than expected, or disappointing, results [as in the above referenced novel, by Charles Dickens,*] from than had been assumed and anticipated.

As avid readers of the literature of Victorian England, we are reasonably familiar, not merely with that named, great author, but also with his period. The overwhelming political and military precedence of the English Crown (1815-1914) over other countries of the World, (140 million square miles of colonized territory, 150 million people, including, China, Siam, and Argentina). Untold riches were extracted in agricultural goods, slaves, lumber, cotton, rubber, silks, cottons, gunpowder, rum, opium, gold and other precious metals, tea, and too many to delineate. Such riches were exacted by the  British practice of cruel, slave- labor conditions throughout its dominated world. The classic boast, “The Sun never sets on the British Empire,” is expressive of its worldwide domination.

We are somewhat familiar as well, with the traditional Royal practices as well as the imperious  and imperial Victorian mindset, regarding the British sacred duty to “civilize” their “savage,” “unwashed,” ”godless” colonies, as then perceived and articulated as “White Man’s Burden.” Any  reading of authors, in the genre of Rudyard  Kipling for example, will readily reveal the British assumption of spiritual and anthropological superiority over the other “brutish” people in the World.

The World has changed considerably, after two costly World Wars, and England is no longer the arrogant leviathan it used to be; notably, after being saved on two historic occasions from utter destruction, by the military intervention of the United States.  In recent years, like America, England has been the recipient of substantial immigration, principally from its formerly dominated  colonies. Unfortunately, it has recently evinced analogous racial conflict and unrest as has occurred in the U.S.

The American Revolution, in the 18^th  Century, resulted in a new American Nation, politically independent of the British Empire; nevertheless, it is to be observed that a great many English institutions and practices, good and not so good, were imported and subscribed to, by the new Americans. These included  language, religion, the English Common Law, the bi-cameral legislature, and many folkways and traditional practices. Tragically, included in the shipping manifest of English importation, was the inhumane, and ultimately most damaging to our National ethic, institutional practice of Slavery. We can imagine no greater moral offense than the cruel, neck-shackled ownership of the franchise of life of other human beings. The break-up of the black family for the commercial convenience of sale and the pervasive cruel treatment of the black slaves in our Nation are shamelessly and painfully, well documented in our history and literature.

The  success of the Union Army, over the forces of the Confederate South, in the Civil War, resulted in the legal emancipation of the black slaves. Nevertheless, despite the relevant portions of the United States Constitution and the assurances of a plethora of statutory enactments of Federal State and local legislatures, universal citizen compliance with equality, as mandated in such Laws and Statutes,[ as well as legal case precedent] is yet, inarguably, not universal. We have made considerable  but, unfortunately slow-motion progress toward the attainment of universal de facto recognition of true equality. The many instances of brutality by the local police, the existence of deplorable White Supremacy organizations and their hateful like the official attempts at interference with the “Black Vote,” and a surreal act of insurrection against the Capital Building, January 6, 2021, are but some of the overt indications of an ignorance-based, systemic hatred for those born with other than “white” skin. We had been consistently disappointed at the extent of the National rancor but were [temporarily] rewarded with expanded hope on May 19, 2019.

The Royal English wedding, on that date, between a handsome Prince Harry, son of Prince Charles and Princess Diana, and 6^th in line for the Monarchy and his charming and beautiful African- American wife, Meghan Markle, (thereafter Duke and Duchess of Essex) was at the time, joyously perceived by us, as, no less than, a long-awaited triumphantly historic and philosophical occasion, appropriate for major celebration by every right-thinking individual in mankind. We had the impression, mindful of the British tradition, that its acceptance of an American commoner as Prince Harry’s wife, no less a Negro, was surely indicative of admirable progress in human moral advancement. We did not mind at all the thought that, Queen Victoria, if she could get word, would be churning, furiously in her, “white man’s burden,” bigoted, grave. In emotional contrast with the fiction concerning the regally interred, Queen Victoria, we were ecstatically celebratory. The missionary land of Kipling, of “White Man’s Burden,” of the term, ”Blackamoor,” seemed to have, at long last, seen the wholesome beam of enlightenment.

A black American woman, accepted as a married member of the inner English Royal Family, no doubt, would cause any American bigoted member of the underbelly of our Nation, who might, at some point, avail himself of the rare inclination to think, to suffer some doubt concerning his bigoted pretensions.

And then came the media reports of the Oprah Winfrey interview with Harry and Meghan. The same unhappily confirmed our opening observation concerning the pain, frequently caused by a disappointing result, despite optimistic predictions founded on a suggestively positive event. Just imagine our chagrin at the dissolution of our ecstatic assumption, that it took only 100 years, or so, after Victoria’s reign, for racial equity to be finally   [as subjectively evidenced by the marriage of a black woman to an English Royal Prince]. It was not our first disappointment, but we were devastated.

It was disturbing to learn that the lovely, charming, and sophisticated, Meghan Merkle was subjected to abuse from the English Royal Family, to the extent that, as revealed in the televised interview, she contemplated suicide. We were pleased that Harry, responsibly elected to be a loving husband and father, rather than a “Royal” and fled Buckingham Palace, with his harassed wife, bound for a normal life in California. Among the major issues, was a serious concern of the Royal Family, most especially, the eternally imperious, constipated- looking, Prince Charles (who stopped talking to Harry) and other members of the “royals” about the color of “Archie,” the couple’s young child. The English tabloid press,  aggravated matters by comments expressed in their customary tasteless and irresponsible reportage, on the estranged relationship between Buckingham Palace and the married couple.

We might request of the scientifically efficient American pharmaceutical laboratories when they have the time and opportunity to do so, for the development of an effective vaccine for chronic and disabling radical prejudice.

-p.
   

The Sun slides up, punctual as ever,
Casting woodland, snow-melting beams
Sending snow clumps on the tree branch
Dripping down to the inanimate surface
With sounds of splatt, splatter and splott.
Winter autonomy is being liquidated,
Kinder rule shall follow soon.

Do lie still in sublime attention,
Ear enduring cold, slushy topsoil,
Eyes shut in rapt attention and
Practicing a well invested patience.
You’ll attend the peeps and squeals,
Of this year’s awakened pups, their
Sibilant sucks of maternal feeding,
From yet unseen warm-bellied, moms,
Still sleeping their perennial winter.

Soon, attend the louder, chamber music,
Of nose-wrinkling, furry adult critters,
Scratching, rising, softly yelping,
Awakened by infiltrating drips of melted Winter,
To pay heed to the seasonal mandate,
“Arise, and do now begin, again.”

-p.
(Leonard N. Shapiro
New York, 3/6/21)

As we see it the Nation is noticeably in a bit of a quandary as to the fundamental motivation behind the violent insurrection at the Capitol Building, January 6, and consequently, of an appropriate, punitive, and deterrent response, to the observably dedicated participants.

There would appear to be a significant qualitative difference between the legislated and enumerated Crimes enunciated in our Criminal Codes and Statutes, viz., Murder, Robbery, Larceny, Assault, including the legal precedential treatment of the same, and, by contrast, the facts of the January 6^th  criminal insurrection, perceptively grounded in perverse conspiratorial paranoia, bizarrely complicated by the overt and express encouragement by a sitting President and by certain aberrant members of Congress.

The nuanced motivations of the hundreds of rioters may be every bit as diverse and multifaceted as the substantial number of ardent participants. Conceivably, the same may have a background in neurotic insecurity needing the redemptive recognition of acceptance by a group of recognized others, disappointment in aspirational goals and the projected displacement of blame, harsh and disappointing experiences in upbringing or in later life, inculcation in anti-social or unrealistic delusional beliefs, self-deprecation leading to an existential need for an elevated place in some pecking order or other (such as the perverse belief in the superiority of white, over other skin colors), or merely, reductive ignorance.

It may be contextually useful and logical, at this point in the writing, to examine the pathologically  related subjects of paranoia and chronic  perception of conspiracy.   

As revealed in our cursory readings, paranoia is an instinctive thought pattern, believed to be greatly influenced by anxiety or fear, often to the extent of irrational and delusional thinking. Paranoid thought, we read, typically induces persecutory beliefs which include beliefs in conspiracy concerning perceived threats, accusations, and a general all- pervasive distrust of other people. This biased abnormality includes the misperception of reality such as the existence of external control and manipulation, which at times, may be exacerbated by low socio-economic status. Especially relative to this writing is the fact that a percentage of the individuals characterized by paranoid delusion, often have the tendency to take affirmative or violent action, founded upon their delusional beliefs in the form of violent and criminal behavior. It is our unprofessional, but considered view that the insurrection is an instructive laboratory demonstration of this empirical observation.

Considering the reported scientific and medical fact that paranoia type personality disorder is among the most common personality disorders, is there any wonder that among our sizeable and diverse population, there was enough number of individuals vulnerably open to Donald Trump’s insistence on his delusional lie to the effect that the election was, conspiratorially, stolen from him? Let us focus on the fact that this is the same Donald J. Trump that must have certainly won the hearts of many paranoid personalities, by his constant denigration of truth by his tactical and defensive accusations of “false” facts” and “alternate truth.” Such a call to arms, from on high, and especially from a fellow eternal seeker of “the hidden ultimate truth”  would decidedly be inspirational, irresistible, and incite the undeniable, patriotic duty of those chosen watchmen of “conspiracy.” Ergo, we witnessed on television the “patriotic” insurrection heard around the World.

Although one responsibly, should comprehend the pathological etiology underlying the horrific and deadly insurrectionist activities of January 6, such rational understanding should not at all portend acceptance or undeserved forgiveness. In the interest of the preservation of our Nation and its rare and invaluable Republican Democracy, together with the continued existence and advancement of lawful and peaceful society, the imposition of meaningful and sufficient criminal penalties on all those responsible for and physically participating in this atavistic criminal event which featured insurrectionist murder, injuries, multiple aggravating assault, costly  damage to the Capitol Building; justly inclusive of the related and supportive crimes of incitement, planning, preparation, and participation in the terrifying Insurrection. These would be inclusive, for the World to see, every illegal participant, starting from the arrogant and tactically shrewd Donald Trump and the cadre of atavistic and bigoted Congressional supporters, down to all those, whose personality disorders confused anti-social and violent criminality with their skewed delusions of American patriotism.

-p.

Upon watching on television, the formal, ceremonial wheeling out of a gold bust of Donald Trump for public (Republican) adulation, our reactions can successively be described as initially, shock, loathing and lastly a profound sense one might fundamentally describe as a species of primal fear.

On a mundane level, it is astonishing, that an individual whose publicly known cornucopia, of shamefully miscreant, and immoral behaviors, include multiple acts of criminality, wrongdoing in office, blatant immorality, and bigotry, could rationally, warrant public recognition, let alone such apparent beatification and worship. On a more metaphysical level, such adoration and apparent obeisance were, to us, an ominous indication that far more than an uncomfortable sufferance, simply, of a politically divided Nation, we are confronted with a large cohort of people (almost half) who wittingly or, as a matter of sublime ignorance, would be content to see a reversal, or “U-Turn,” in the naturally ongoing universal progress of human civilization.

As memorialized in the (Bible’s) Old Testament “Exodus” and also, in the Second Chapter of the Quran, when Moses came down from Mount Sinai, he was greatly angered (threw down the two tablets of the Ten Commandments, cracking them) upon observing that his people were worshiping idols, most especially, a “Golden Calf.” He violently destroyed the pagan gold calf and thereafter directed the mandatory prohibition of idol worship and their referable cults.

The anachronistic appearance of a gold pagan deity-like statue, in the reverential likeness of Donald Trump, is a disappointing recognition that there are certain communities of people, largely, but not exclusively, under-educated and poorly informed, who have the atavistic inclination to prefer demagogic or messianic versions of reality to factual reality. The possible etiologic reasons may be limitless, such as discontent with the facts of one’s personal life, misperception of reality due to trauma, the limitations of emotional or mental illness, cynicism founded in failure of personal aspirations, limited experience combined with vulnerability to suggestion and demagogic influence, neurotic insecurity and consequent need for group acceptance and approval, or just,  run-of-the-mill uncomplicated, reductive ignorance.

We had, long ago, deduced that the loyal followers of Donald Trump, irrespective of his immoral and shameless personal behaviors and his demonstrated incapacity and dishonesty in Office, are properly identified as a “cult”; since It is empirically normal for citizens to avert their eyes from the sight of roadkill, and to condemn those who transgress against societal and professional norms. As a typical example, many avid supporters of Trump, such as the White Evangelical Church, whose unwavering mantra is to condemn all those they choose to subjectively determine to be sexually immoral, have continued to be his wholehearted supporters; this, despite his public boasts of societally improper assignations with prostitutes, aggravated by sub-rosa and false sources of money to buy their silence.

As additional evidence supporting the concept of a Trump “cult”, in addition to his egregiously immoral behavior, he has never evinced any credo or doctrinaire beliefs, on which to base loyal support. For these reasons we had identified in previous writings and in this essay, continue to classify his fervent supporters as his cultists. Their extreme loyalty and obedience to this golden Trump cult-deity were especially demonstrated, last January 6^th  by the sizeable, treasonous response to his call for a violent insurrection to be waged against the Capitol Building. As historically proven, loyalty to a cult, despot or golden deity is dangerous, viz, Hitler, Hirohito, Mussolini, Mao Tso Tung, Josef Stalin, Julius Caesar.

In common with other cases of loyalty to an autocratic leader, following their inculcation in the bogus belief that the true facts are being manipulated by the established authorities, the members of the cult become convinced that the demagogue’s perverted version of events is singularly true.  Such propaganda is relied upon by the misled followers who are encouraged by the cult-deity to believe that the objective and accurate facts are the tactical product of an evil, anti-cult conspiracy. The followers, thereafter, will customarily rely exclusively upon such (perverted)  “truth” as is enunciated by its Leader.

The experiences of witnessing the gothic and obscene presentation of a purportedly, reverential gold statue in the likeness of Donald Trump, for those people who venerate the Old Testament or the Quran, were predictably deemed, obscenely sacrilegious; we see it as especially dangerous and delusional.

In keeping with the vital goals of the preservation of our Democratic Republic, and the dictates of Reason and impartial Justice, the Government is morally and legally mandated to pursue the many confessed crimes of Donald Trump to conviction, and, for the existential necessity of societal protection, grant this “golden deity” a stiff jail sentence; it is well- deserved justice and would, importantly, serve as an official restatement of societal normative propriety, to his aberrant and deluded sycophants.

-p.

During America’s Prohibition Era, the infamous Al Capone, was so successful in the practice of his nefarious arts, that, despite some stiff competition, he attained the coveted FBI title of “Public Enemy Number One.” Ultimately dying from the terminal scourge of advanced syphilis, Capone’s dismal criminal record is replete with uncountable instances of murder, bootlegging, assault, extortion, rape,  pimping, and general organized crime. The celebrated psychopath would appropriately be enshrined in the Criminal Hall of Fame, if one existed. He is credited, among other horrors, with having been the producer, director, and chief protagonist of the infamous,” Valentine’s Day Massacres.” Capone’s culpability for numerous homicides, establishment of  brothels, extortive labor law violations,  full- time violation of the Volstead Act (Liquor Prohibition), extortion and bloody gangland racketeering indeed proved sufficient, to qualify him for the coveted FBI trophy, as above noted, “Public Enemy Number One.” Nevertheless, incredibly, he was ultimately found guilty and incarcerated merely, and insufficiently, for the non-violent and sedentary white- collar offense of “tax evasion.” With distasteful reference to this insufficient and absurd example of institutional State  retribution, we would, wryly inquire, whether said finding of guilty of tax evasion, is rationally inclusive of the celebrated “Valentine’s Day Massacres” and the many other bloody and brutal psychopathic crimes committed by Capone?

After slightly less than an entire decade of tactical non-compliance with multiple Official demands issued to Donald Trump, for the production of copies of his tax returns, the United States Supreme Court recently provided a legal avenue for their production (together with their all-important, related work papers). Trump, a self-asserted multi-millionaire who has publicly boasted of paying yearly taxes in the paltry amount of $250, or in some years, nothing at all, will predictably be found guilty, like Al Capone, of tax evasion. However, with reference to the unexplainable and inexcusable omission to find Capone, (Public Enemy Number One) guilty of the other manifold crimes included in his sizeable portfolio of heinous and bloody criminality, it is of no less than existential importance that, as a societally mandated statement, Trump be determined guilty, of his (other) manifold crimes, most especially, those with negative implications to the Nation and to human society.

To reiterate as briefly as possible, Donald Trump, as is publicly known, has committed the following criminal acts: incitement of insurrection against the Nation’s Capital, solicitation to elected Officials to illegally alter the vote tabulation, treasonous relations with traditional enemy Nations, bribery and political extortion, multiple and intentional violations of the Civil Rights Law, tactical and false misrepresentation of the serious nature of the COVID-9 epidemic, resulting in a precarious delay in medical response, arguably causative of tens of thousands of unnecessary deaths (tantamount to multiple homicides), directing the kidnap and false imprisonment of young immigrants , multiple, intentional and criminal violations of the Emolument Clause of The U.S. Constitution, greedily and illegally, enriching himself, his companies and personal family, committing acts of assignation with prostitutes and fraudulently having them bribed for their silence, and moreover, with moneys, obtained and deceitfully shielded by the fraudulent misrepresentation of their purported source, acts of assault on women, including rape, political intimidation and extortion, multiple acts of intentional insurance fraud, perjury and an additional bulging cornucopia of despicable criminal behavior.

Trump’s despicable behavior,( but) short of being legislated into in the Criminal Code, but societally egregious, includes: his irreverent and slanderous damage to the societally existential institution of “Truth,” his costly derogation of science, intellectual prowess and education, including the denial of Global Warming, slanderous attacks against the free press and other media, his incitements to wrongful physical assault and tactical, verbal support of personal  autocracy to the ignorant underbelly of the Nation, his  serial mendacity, public adolescent-like  boasts of prior acts of sexual immorality, his personal repudiation of the established principle that “no one is above the law,” by his actions and televised statements [“I can shoot anyone on Fifth Avenue and get away with it.”], and, generally, his pathologically self-serving, egotistical, and profane Presidential behavior.

Trump’s heinous aggregation of virtually, a spectrum of criminal and immoral acts, as a matter of existential societal importance, must be sufficiently demonstrated to be far outside of the societally acceptable pale of behavior, by an adequate statement of deterrence from the society he reviled. Trump has arrogantly, and atavistically, rejected virtually all societal folkways, mores and long-established moral pretensions; and it is of existential necessity that man’s age-old process of evolving societal progress, be publicly declared to be again ratified and reinstated, by the imposition, on this miscreant, of the appropriate and societally redemptive penalty, of long- term incarceration.

-p.    

If asked, we would define the ubiquitous word, “symbol,” essentially,  as a mark, sign, word or, at times, a person, indicative of, commonly understood as, or emblematically representing an express idea or subject. Symbols functionally qualify as non-verbal declarations, or expressive shared links of understanding in common, between members of society.

To qualify as a symbol, the same must be universally recognizable and immediately translatable into verbal thought. Symbols can be functional or informational, such as the solid, red-colored cross (medical, hospital, pharmacy), balance scale (legal services), school in session (drive slowly) or expressive, Valentine-shaped heart (love), dove (peace), tree (growth, nature), owl (wisdom), hazmat sign (chemical danger), octagonal red sign (stop), Abraham Lincoln (equal rights) and Benjamin Franklin (wisdom, and practical sense). We note that symbols of a political or societal nature are tolerated and acceptable only when they represent the community’s prevailing sentiment.

The recently publicized controversies over Civil War Memorial Monuments, contemporaneously occupying public places in many Southern States, were founded on the felt  perception that they were symbols, glorifying Southern Civil War Military Leaders and memorializing popular confederate, pro-slavery sentiment. The understandable and empathic opponents included people, descended from slaves, together with other right-thinking Americans, who understood that such publicly installed statuary can be perceived as an expression of societal nostalgia and remorse over the defeat of the Confederacy. Those opponents of their removal, who may have candidly felt that the principal issue was historical preservation, ought to be aware that such pretensions are justly and empathically outweighed, by those whose forebears suffered under the immoral and inhuman travesty of slavery. Additionally, the physical removal of these atavistic structures constitutes an observably clear symbol of and is in step with, the Nation’s contemporary and ongoing struggle, for equity and universal rights.

The most enduring moral and historical challenge undertaken by our Nation is the accomplishment of its historic assurance of universal equality. Despite the consistent mandate of equality expressed by Constitutional mandate and clearly set forth in Statutory and Court litigated precedent, the moral and humanistic goal of universal equality has not been acceptably demonstrated, unfortunately, by a large cohort of American Citizens. It is extremely disappointing to the upright American citizen in this 21st Century, to be aware of the existence of anti-Democratic, militaristic groups, opposed to universal equality, as personified by the despicable crowd of bigoted terrorists who recently stormed the Capital Building. The event was a harsh reminder of the persistence of these angry people and of the plethora of militant white Christian Evangelical groups, such as, “The Oath Keepers” “The Proud Boys,” and a  large, noisy, ever-churning cesspool of organized terroristic bigots. The balance of the roster of America’s bigots, we assume, consists of silent, sub-rosa haters.

We were overjoyed at the election and experienced reprised joy at the reaffirming re-election, of Barack Obama (2009-2017), the first Black President in our Nation’s history.[ To go off theme for a comment, he may have been the most capable and best President in American History]. Relative to our ever-hopeful inclination, his election, to us, symbolized a vital course correction and moral improvement regarding America’s many decades of struggle to attain universal, citizen equality and respect.

Our optimism may well have proven to presage the attainment of that desirable reality, if not for the ill-fated election of the ignorant, egotistic, and bigoted charlatan, Donald J. Trump. We have written sufficiently of his miscreant and shameful performance as President, rendering the redux of such observations again unnecessary; except, to say, within the scope of the present essay, that the spate of positive symbolism of competence, dignity, and integrity of the Office of The American Presidency, we proudly observed in the two terms in office of President Obama, was quickly polluted, despoiled, and shamefully violated by Donald Trump. Trump’s unbearable, four-year term was exemplified by consistent, ignorant incompetence in combination with a neurotic egotism, immorality, domestic, National, and International, and as well, the implicit and explicit practice of hateful bigotry. His term in office noticeably served as a symbol of support and approval to the White Christian Militia Groups and to the general bigoted underbelly of America; exemplified by the Trump- incited attack on the Capital.

It was, inarguably, no less than existentially vital to our Nation and to the institution of Democracy,  that  Donald Trump, was not re-elected for a second term. Joseph Biden, the capable, experienced, and responsible, former Vice-President in the exemplary Obama Administration, mercifully, won the Presidency.  The World witnessed with a sigh of relief, the Official swearing in of the new President by Chief U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Roberts and most notably, the new Vice President, Kamala Harris, a black American woman of Asian, Caribbean heritage, by a tan-skinned, Puerto Rican- American co- Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, Sonia Sotomayor. The National and International symbolism, represented by this definitive elective choice of the American voters, and the subsequent appointment of a dedicated Administration, comprised of capable officials representing the natural diversity of the Nation, is properly indicative of America’s ultimate desire for the accomplishment of our historically “symbolic” motto, “E Pluribus Unum,” and for its prophetic result, National American solidarity.

-p.    

Citizens of Texas,the Nation’s second-largest State and a truly devout member of the Nation’s (“Pray it away”) “Bible Belt,” have historically and stubbornly adhered to a pretention to independence (“ The Lone Star State”). Yet, like other States, Texas sends State Representatives and Senators to the U.S. Congress, participates in the National Military Registration Law, pays Federal Taxes, participates in the National Vote, as well as in most National programs. The State has, nevertheless, persisted in its unique mantra of historically traditional independence; inclusive, unhappily, of its resolute self-determination as to the maintenance of its own singular power grid system, ( Texas Electric Reliability Act) “ERCOT”; rather than participate with other States in the giant National Electric grids, Eastern or Western.

The Texas song: “The stars at night, are deep and bright, deep in the heart of Texas…” has of late, been significantly showcased by a disabling and total electrical black-out. Due to an unprecedented and huge snowfall, accompanied by a dangerous descent to Arctic temperatures, the independent, “Lone Star State” has been inundated and completely crippled. There is, at present, an absence of power, indoor residential temperatures matching outside sub-zero conditions, incidents of poisoning from power generator fumes from attempts to garner a modicum of warmth, and frozen and burst pipes making water unavailable and polluted. Residents have been officially exhorted to boil their water before drinking, a mandate, impossible of compliance due to the absence of power. There are universal icy conditions and predictable bone fractures, a dangerously short supply of food, oversubscribed warming centers and considerable fatalities. It is indeed a tragic scene to contemplate, further complicated by the continuing ravages of the lethal pandemic. Little assistance has been forthcoming from the Texas Governor(Abbott) about whom, in the interest of saving negative adjectival vocabulary as well as epithets, sufficient to render an accurate depiction, we would simply label as manifestly, “Trump-like.”

Why this State, credited with the production of a substantial percentage of the Nation’s power, should now be helplessly cold and Luna like, is a question, the answer to which, in our view, resides in great part in the ignorant, reductionist persona of its State Government and, sad to say, much of its population.  Despite the many decades of valuable and essential services rendered by the Federal Government, social and financial assistance, social security, disability and survival benefits, infrastructure improvements and maintenance, livable wage and working conditions and benefits, transportation (highways, autos, busses, railroad, airplanes, ships) postal services, meteorologic, environmental and citizen health services (as in the pandemic), protections of clean air, water, safe and effective pharmaceutical products and so many others, including military protection, there are too many  stubbornly ignorant members of the country’s underbelly who, while, simultaneously availing themselves of needed federal  entitlements, nevertheless unreasonably and ignorantly, assert that such Federal programs of assistance are besmirched  with their ascribed, godless, epithet, “Socialist.”

We have found it frustratingly tiresome, to continue to remind those of our propagandized, flat-earth denizens, that our Nation’s federal programs, undertaken for citizen protection and benefit, have nothing to do with “Socialism.” Such poorly informed individuals are the preferred targets of choice for propaganda, by the anti-Regulation, atmosphere fouling, air-polluting, chemical hazmat, polluters, in their overriding, sociopathic worship of ill-gotten profits. It is to be noted, that the Federal government, in its contemporary acknowledgment of responsibility to furnish needed assistance to citizens, termed, “Compassionate Capitalism,” has, additionally, thereby effectively prevented arcane foreign economic theories, from securing a foothold in America.

To reiterate, the correct meaning of  “Socialism,” is an economic-governmental theory encompassing the complete ownership and control, of industry and business, by Government. There has, indisputably, been no Candidate for high office in our Nation, with such a credo.  Gratitude and thanks are appropriately due to a government, unique enough and willing to assist in making the lives of its citizens acceptable, many of whom ignorantly and ungratefully, are incited to “ bite the hand that feeds them,”  by false, tactical, and unjust attribution ( from propaganda) to some irrelevant theory.

We have little confidence in any useful relief emanating from  governor, Abbott, who publicly declared, in Trumpian, false fashion, that the meteorological holocaust is entirely due to the Democrat’s “Green New Deal; ”even though less than 10% of the power of this high- power producing State, is generated by windmills and solar panels. Clearly, ignorance and Trumpian- style alternate facts will not solve the problem and vital existential relief will need to be extended by the (allegedly “Socialist”) Federal Government; this is what federal governments do. It cannot be omitted, that Texas Senator Cruz publicly demonstrated equal public empathy and responsibility to his constituents by choosing to quietly escape from his frozen and waterless State, for a warm, family vacation in Cancun, Mexico.

It is generally known that many residents in this geographic area look to the King James Bible for guidance in times of trouble, rather than to rational solutions based upon modern science and enlightened reason. The Bible, which was invested by them, with, purportedly, the ultimate (God’s) truth, and therefore is irrefutable, nevertheless, states that the Earth orbits the Sun, rather than the reverse, that man is “born with sin” and must dedicate his life to its expiation, condones the enslavement of other human beings, declares that the World and its Universe was created in six days and that the “omnipotent” Deity had to “rest” on the seventh day( by good fortune, on a Sunday). It has been scientifically and objectively proven that the Earth was formed over a period of millions of years and that its flora and fauna took untold eons to form ( as shown by the plethora of serological, biological, chemical, geological, fossil, and other scientific proof.) The Bible offers miracles in lieu of  Science and Reason and condones capital punishment, warfare, xenophobia, and the immoral institution of slavery. It rejects Evolution, the human predominance of Reason, and any matter deemed incongruent with fixed loyalty to the sacred and unamendable portrayals of its paleolithic mythology.

Notably, the proximate cause of our Nation’s recent weather abnormalities,(inclusive of Texas) is rationally and empirically, attributable to scientifically proven, global warming; in this instance, manifested by the recent, albeit, hopefully, temporary, emergence of an Arctic weather zone in an historically hot and dry, Southwest State. We are of the view that even this tragic enormity will not succeed in convincing the consummate Bible-belter. It was this same reductive, and atavistic thinking and colossal ignorance that gave us a Donald Trump, and exacerbated the deadly pandemic.

-p.            

Exuberant expressions of well-deserved appreciation to medical science and ensuing feelings of relief are being expressed, responsive to the quick and successful development of effective vaccines to prevent the continued spread of the potentially mortal threat of COVID-19, the pathological villain of the ongoing pandemic. It is the venerated aspiration of the newly inaugurated Administration of Biden and Harris, that all Americans be speedily vaccinated and freed from its further threat.

The prophylactically protective measures mandated to abate the spread of the contagion, have consisted of an austere limitation on societal interaction, preferably, by quarantine (“sheltering in place”) and “distancing,” (viz., when away from home, being physically separated from others, by no less than six feet), wearing facial masks covering mouth and nose, and the efficient washing of hands. The constraints on normative interactive communication, have proven to be severely challenging.

The focus of this writing is directed to the general impact on our personal lives by the atrophy of social behavior, effected by quarantine and bizarrely augmented by the dystopian optic impact of the universally masked experience. However, in view of the requirement of detachment from others, we are necessarily and apologetically, limited to the relation of personal experience, and media acquired information, supplemented by the sparse information obtained by telephone. Yet, we entertain an optimistic expectation of reader interest in the presumed commonality, of analogous experience.  

In normal circumstances, a significant amount of time of the average citizen is by necessity, routinely tailored to fit in with his schedule of employment (including travel). Accordingly, the effect of the pandemic’s indeterminate interruption of such regular lifestyle was significantly disorienting and noticeably disconcerting. In our industrially oriented society, such unlimited, extended days of leisure, necessarily become uncomfortably experienced, as wasted, or misspent. Long-established daily schedules for sleeping and eating, are either persistently adhered to by the gravity pull of long-established habit, or else, morph to a spontaneously irregular basis.

 We readily plead guilty to any potential charge attributable to five years of secular sermonizing about the life-advancing, pursuit of elective subjects, unrelated to one’s regular responsibilities; perhaps history, reading, writing, music, the arts, collecting or some personal crafts or hobbies. In our view, in addition to being enjoyable, these elective interests tend, in time, to develop self-confidence, self-esteem and a mature, independent perception; they are personally broadening and by consequence, life-enhancing. Moreover, In times of interruption of life’s established routines, such as the presenting pandemic, they are readily available as an important, confidence retaining stand-in.

In our case, recourse to elective activity consisted principally (and pleasurably), in the authorship of essays and poetry, but also in reading good literature and the enjoyment of film and music.  Having previously reached retirement, our decision to pursue such interests on a full-time basis, had been effectuated, prior to the advent of the pandemic. Pointedly, we have spoken by telephone to several parties, some of whom expressed discomfort and a fair amount of disorientation, responsive to the sudden impact of the phenomenon of unlimited, and felt meaningless and unsubscribed free time.

We were frustrated by our inability to personally enjoy the company of family, especially grandchildren, and friends. The mandated practice of universal mask-wearing made out of door forays, for food and other necessaries, appear to resemble participation in dystopian theater and the requirement for mandatory distancing like military regimentation. We mourned the passage of holidays mandatorily, spent without family and friends, the cessation of informal gatherings at homes and places of recreation, and the restraint from access to necessary services such as dental visits, haircuts, gym attendance and the like, which were endurable, solely in the prudent consideration of the menace of the potential of infection. We did, however, get to know our spouses and immediate family, somewhat more intimately than possibly, desired.

We, reluctantly and guiltily, confess to eating too much and sadly acknowledge its undesirable, but eminently predictable consequence, the accumulation of some additional person; also to sleeping a bit more than necessary, to a somewhat irregular variance from our habitual bedtime and mealtimes and guilty as well to a measure of leisurely and unproductive rumination on useless academic questions. However, to our credit, we have purchased and faithfully use a recumbent bicycle, for twenty-five minutes of physical exercise, three mornings per week.

This morning we received our second, final vaccination and are anticipating the Nation’s healthier days.

-p.