September 22nd 2016
It's a toss up! Fat lazy bastard or writers block? I haven't wrote anything for a few days because I've been bingeing. I haven't left Casa Lisa for two days. I took the recycling out yesterday and that's about it. Other than that, CNN with the sound off and 104.3 on the stereo. Every once in a while I would turn up the sound on the TV when something caught my eye. Charlotte North Carolina is following the example of Baltimore and Ferguson by burning, looting and destroying their own communities. None of those businesses come back. None of the people who supported their families with jobs at these businesses are now drawing a paycheck. In stead they draw food stamps. Then they have to travel to another part of town to use them because the grocery stores in their neighbourhood never reopened. Way to show the "Man"!
Not that we have any reason to be smug. The Stanley Cup Riots being the Gold Standard of mass stupidity! Not the only ones though. There was a time in this province when every town had a festival in the summer. The Regatta in Kelowna, the Peach Festival in Penticton and Sandcastles in White Rock just to name a few, gone! At some point the cool thing to do became, wreck everything you could get your drunken hands on. Unlike our American cousins who are filled with anger at perceived injustices, Us Canucks are usually filled with beer before we get outraged at the price of Starbucks coffee. Why is it they always seem to show a Starbucks at a Canadian riot?
I probably should have turned it to something else but I was drawn to the scene on the screen like a monkey to a cupcake. Black lives matter, if that life was taken by a policeman. That story was followed by the news that the city of Chicago reached the 500 person mark in murders for the year. Way to go Chicago! You win! Mostly young black men killing young black men. Where were the marchers? Where is the outrage on CNN? How does a community generate such hate for it's own members that murder is the answer? South Side, West Side that's were the trouble is. Not in our neighbourhood. That was the response of people being interviewed. "We don't go there".
It reminds me of an incident that happened years ago. I was on vacation in Florida with the Murray Clan the year Colorado played Notre Dame for the National Championship in Miami. Stu, his sister Bobbi, her husband Bob and I were trying to get tickets to the game. Miami was barred from a bowl game because of bad behaviour so there were a lot of tickets available. We found some in the paper, this was pre internet. He gave us the address and Stu and I drove down to Miami from Fort Lauderdale to pick up the tickets. We followed the directions and when we got off the freeway we found ourselves in a rather seedy neighbourhood. A building with a door that had bars like a prison cell. It was a linen supply company. There was an armed guard at the door of the laundrymat. There were groups of people Blacks and Latino's standing around on nearly every corner. We turned left towards the water and the landscape changed dramatically. Three or four big houses that backed onto the water. Luxury cars parked inside Iron cages in the drive ways. At the end of the road a Monolith! Ten floors high and not a window in sight. Surrounded by a double dog run, complete with dogs and a guard house. We gave the security guard our info he called up and the gates swung open. We were met at the doors by the Doorman who escorted us to the eighth floor. We walked into an apartment that overlooked the whole of Miami. It was a solid wall of glass. He was a Miami alumni and a Booster. He sold us the tickets for cheap. Once we had the tickets I asked him how he can take seeing the poverty all around him day after day? "No windows, I don't look out that way" he said as he stared out of his wall to wall view of South Beach. I guess that's the problem. No body's looking that way.
Of course there was also a steady diet of Trump and Hillary. He's a liar, she's a liar, She's a crook, he's a crook! Talk about the rock and the hard place! 70% of Americans feel the country is going in the wrong direction. The Status Quo isn't working. Professional politicians who care more about staying elected than serving the public. Can you say term limits? Mind you our Prime Minister is off on another good hair tour. Okay rant over.
I'm now sitting in the office of a Dental Surgeon while the lovely Lisa undergoes a procedure that requires anaesthetic. I was just handed some paperwork, two pages of instructions for the responsible adult taking the lovely Lisa home. I guess that's me. After all I've put the lovely Lisa through the last year I'll be glad to look after her for a while. I cancelled Mama Lee and my appointment at the nail spa Friday so I can help brother Peter get to the hospital in Maple Ridge for Dental Surgery tomorrow. And of course I just found out I have an audition for Friday noon! I tucked the lovely Lisa into her bed. Fed her some chicken soup and some pain pills. Then worked on the three page monologue they sent me to audition with. That's what I'm doing right now!
That's all I've got
Till next time
Peace out Y'all
No comments:
Post a Comment