Tricky, tricky, tricky times...

If those on the Right continue to stockpile armaments, reshape the social and political landscape, and engage in rhetoric that would make Hitler blush, those on the Left, in their endeavor to seek humanistic resolutions, will be exposed and vulnerable. These are tricky times when pluralists like me are starting to wonder how to protect what we believe in when reason, discourse, and compromise are no longer viable ways to solve our deeply divisive cultural dilemmas. Heck, at 51 years old I'm still tough and my wife and daughter, both black belts, are even tougher, but against a Glock G19, Sig Sauer P938, Springfield XD-S, Ruger Lightweight Compact Pistol, and/or Smith & Wesson M&P Shield (America's favorite guns), our minds and fists are wimpier than vanilla pudding in a warm bowl. In the light of my ancestors, I worry about passivity as much as I worry about fighting fire with fire.

Again, these are tricky times... and I don't want to wake up in a year or so saying, "Well, I saw that coming." My genes, your genes, have been there before.

Centrifugal States of America

I loathe Facebook when national news breaks. Frightening opinions, uninformed diatribes, and fallacious attacks, some from people I once viewed as reasonable, litter my newsfeed and I'm reminded again why I avoid that virtual place. 

Partly thanks to social media (especially Facebook and Twitter), we have become a Centrifugal Nation compelled by the radicalizations of our ideologies to flee the center. We will soon be spun out, Balkanized, spilling into camps of blind fanaticisms -- far too lost to recover a sense of balance. I spent the majority of my political life identifying as a humanist which, I guess, labelled me as a "lefty" and liberal... and I was fine with that. But I now, more than ever, recognize the necessity of the Center. When in the middle, voices become centripetal forces which pull inward and hold the disparate pieces of our nation as part of the whole. We may not like some (or many) of these different views... but we practiced (a kind of) reason as a means to seek resolution. Now we spin outward in our virtual disconnections. Spin, spin, spin... and the center is almost lost as is our troubled, but often earnestly searching national soul. 

Ugh, enough!

 If I said I didn't want to list my pronouns because I simply don't want to (but if you want to, you definitely should!), a large portion of my social media "friends" would attack me for my lack of "wokeness." If I declared my absolute belief in a woman's right to choose, a battalion of past Catholic school acquaintances (mostly male) would condemn me to hell. If I told you I adored A.O.C. and admired John McCain (going so far as to donate to his primary campaign in 2000 in a measly, pathetic attempt to support his candidacy over Bush 2's), I would be dually (by libs and cons) raked over the political coals. If I suggested that J.K. Rowling had a reasonable point to make in regards to her idea of the epochally challenging experiences of being a woman but missed the boat by devaluing the humanity of identity, you probably would not ask me to elaborate and only publicly lambast me for the fragmented statement that she "had a reasonable point to make." I can't win; I'm not sure I want to win... but I do want personal honesty to be the foundation of discourse.

My opinions are transient, morphing concepts of temporality that are informed by communication. What happened to the discussions of ideas?

Heaven forfend I loudly express how vitally important these COVID vaccines are...

Ugh, enough! 

Since it's what we're all talking about today...

The second plane tore into the South Tower 20 years ago this morning:

Maria, who was four months pregnant, and I were living in Santa Monica, CA. Both of us were born and raised in NYC and both of us were, at the time, craving real bagels, real pizza, real pierogies, and real Chinese food. It's the curse of the transplanted New Yorker -- the things you miss like its food seem to weigh on your soul (and my soul is my stomach).

At the time, Maria was in graduate school and I was teaching at Yeshiva University High School of Los Angeles (YULA); and we were nervously planning to be parents. I was up at 6:00 AM for work and as I tuned into the morning news, the initial impact of Flight 11 was already about 15 minutes old and speculation as to what and why was the panicked tone. Then at around 6:03 AM PST, Flight 175 plowed into the South Tower and there I was, 3000 miles away watching, in real time, something devastate my Home. I woke Maria and we immediately went into recon mode. We called our mothers. Both were safe. My worries immediately shifted to my father, who I kind of knew would be travelling to his office in Midtown at around that time... He was safe. Then our other loved ones... then... then... and then I had to go to work. My students! It was only my first week as a new teacher at YULA and all of a sudden I was nearly overwhelmed by my need to see my students, to talk to THEM.

On 9/11/01 I discovered new levels of my devotion: I revere, above all, the first responders; I honor all those caught up and killed in the unholy smoke of that morning, some of whom were friends and practically family members; and I will forever admire New Yorkers for their resilience and fortitude. But among the remarkable people that changed me that day and in the following days were my students. Their sincerity, their earnestness, their eagerness to understand their new worlds raised me up, a mere transplanted New Yorker in California, and helped light MY way forward.

They still do.

Greek Alphabutt

 After "Lambda" there will be "Omega" and then "Alpha Alpha" and "Delta Delta"... then eventually "Lambda Lambda" and "Omega Omega"... and then the day will come when we, as an anti-science/mask-a-phobic society, become a pathetic Saturday Night Live episode (from, like, 1992 or something) living and dying through a "Delta Delta Delta" skit.

I wonder if we'll finally get the message when "Omicron Omicron Omicron Omicron Omicron" is the next COVID wave and "Psi Psi Psi Psi Psi" is on the horizon.

God help us, help us, help us!

A Metal Moment

Maria and I were on our way to the farmers market this morning when a woman walked past in a panic. She circled around us repeating, "Malocchio, malocchio!" 

It took us a second to realize what was happening and as she started backing away into the street I said, "It's only a tarot card. I can tell you what it means." 

"I don't want to know. I've seen evil," and through the daggers of her eyes she could've been referring to me. 

She prayed, "Dio, Dio, Dio [something, something, something]..." and then, "God be with you." 

I responded, "And Buddha with you." 

"Jesus, Jesus is my savior" and she lunged around the corner, wild-eyed and crossing herself. 

Such a metal moment!

I'm Shedding

Upstate NY: I'm having a nice chat with a neighbor's friend... and then, out of nowhere, he goes into one of those furious Trump supporter rants, "He was trying to save Social Security by letting all the older people die from COVID. You have to understand, he was doing everything he could to save America." You probably know the spiel. You've seen it in YouTube videos, on talk show clips, and in news channel segments. Then comes the anti-vaccine screed and I know I'm in trouble. Still, if Facebook has taught me anything (other than my absolute disdain for how the platform is managed), it's that arguing with a Trumper is like arguing with a rabid pit bull: There's no reasoning and even a baseball bat to the noggin isn't gonna get them to release their grip on your leg. So, he pauses, mid-wild eyes, and asks the question I've been dreading, "You're not vaxxed, right?" and in the second it took me to respond I processed a series of outcomes (like a Vulcan on speed)... none of them good. So, I said, "Yeah, I believe in the science. I was vaccinated early on." He starts backing away from me in a panic. "You're shedding. You know it's rewriting your DNA and you're shedding." Now a good 12 feet between us and my darling neighbor comes to the rescue with, "We have to go. I totally forgot I had an appointment." So, in the most Trumpian way, the plot has been entirely rewritten: Initially we were afraid of getting COVID from infected people; now people are afraid of getting an array of DNA-busting, phantom antibody magical death vibes from the vaccinated. Seriously, this is a real thing! People believe this shit. I know we've been calling our current state of affairs "Bizarro World" for quite some time, but in a Rick and Morty kind of twist upon the twist, I think we've entered the whacked-out sphere of the bizarre "Bizarro World."

Bodies Against Arms

Despite all of its flaws, American democracy is worth the risks and ought to be a morally accepted nonpartisan stance:

I understand the worry that pursuing, prosecuting, and convicting these insurrectionists, their defenders, and instigators will lead to more savage unrest. But the universal danger of not justly responding to these Neo-Nazis, white supremacists, conspiracy lunatics, and mashed-brained militia morons far outweighs the possible repercussions.

We cannot allow these willfully ignorant, psychotic whack-jobs and their messages and actions of hate to continue to infect our country. Maybe even more than COVID-19, this is the fight of our lives.