A Future Tale (Part Four)

In Part One of our Future Tale, our narrator took a walk in the city where she's lived for decades. 

She entered an alley in Part Two - a very strange alley, which we experienced with her in vivid detail. 

And in Part Three, she faced a decision on how to get out of it: step into a ridiculously out-of-place revolving door, or go back, through the terrorizing part of the alley, to the gate where she entered.  Here's where we left her.

The thought of stepping into the hug of that door was paralyzing.

I stood there for what seemed like an eternity; in reality, it was probably only a minute or two, as I considered my options. I had only two choices, I realized: try the door, or go back the way I came. Slowly, I turned my body slightly to the right, and took the measure of the alley.

Where there had been the giant screen, I saw nothing. Where I had seen all those dimly lit, frightening doorways, I saw only solid walls. I could barely make out the gate at the end of the alley, still shrouded in the confusing mid-day darkness.

I turned back to the left, towards the revolving door, and to the right again, in the direction of the gate, where this all started. I turned both directions again, and a third time, before making my decision.

Choking back my fear, I started walking.

Which way did she go? Let's find out. 

Towards the revolving door I went, with more than a little bit of trepidation. 

That was really the only choice... I mean, what sense would it make to go backwards? As I asked myself that question, the answers were numerous: I know what I'll find there; I've been there, done that, and so I know exactly what to do; they know me there, and I know them, so it'll be easier; the future is a scary place, especially right now, so why put myself through that? Why not go back the same way I came?

At the same time, I didn't want to go back through that alley, that very strange alley, with all the time-shifting, am-I-looking-ahead or am-I-looking back stuff that was, truly, frightening. There must be a better way, I thought, and that meant tackling whatever was waiting for me in the revolving door. 

I put my hand on the brass plate and gave a little push, to see if there was even a chance I could get out this way. At first, there was quite a bit of resistance. That wasn't surprising; who knows how long it's been since anyone else was in this alley? I gave another push, thinking how much this was like pushing the gate at the other end of the alley. When was that, anyway? How long have I been in here? I have no idea.

Finally, on the third push, it actually moved noticeably, if slowly, with a bit of a grinding noise, as if it needed to be oiled. Or, thinking back to when I was a child, maybe it just needed some kids to push and push and keep pushing, going round and round in their little cages within the door, like I did, chasing my older brothers... or, were they chasing me?

Thoughts of anything chasing me right now were unwelcomed, and I pushed those memories aside, focusing on the task at hand: getting this darn thing to move and, hopefully, finding a way out on the other side. I leaned in a bit, putting some oomph into it, and finally, the door moved, with purpose. 

I kept up steady pressure on the door, and then I was fully inside it, and that made me stop for a brief second. I stood, holding my breath, feeling my heart start to beat a little faster. And then, throwing caution to the wind, I pushed, hard, once more, and around I went. I couldn't tell if there was a door on the back side for me to duck through; I was moving quickly now, surprisingly fast given the outward appearance of the door. 

I started pushing again, walking and pushing, pushing and walking, thinking this has to be the biggest revolving door ever. It seemed to take forever to make it to the front, where I entered, and then to move around to where I expected an exit to be. I went fully around a second time; I'm not really sure why. On the third trip around, I slowed enough to spot an opening, right where it should have been, if this was a normal revolving door. I took a deep breath, and jumped into the darkness.

I landed, awkwardly, barely managing to stay on my feet, and waited for my senses to adjust. What did I hear? What could I see? What did it feel like, wherever I was now? As before, it seemed like an eternity for me to get my bearings. And when I did, I realized I wasn't in a room, I was outside still. 

I felt a breeze, the kind the wind makes, not the breeze from a fan or air conditioning. I could hear traffic - cars, and trucks, and the funny noise made by buses that run on natural gas, and the obnoxious sound of a motorcycle, racing almost above my head. That made me duck, and I laughed at how silly I must have looked, had anyone been there to see me.

As my eyes adjusted, I could see broken glass, fast food trash, empty cans, and a very tall wall to my right. Was I actually back in the alley again? I couldn't be!

I looked up the wall, and higher, seeing the huge beams and girders above. I put my hand  on the wall, feeling the vibrations that told me I was underneath the elevated highway that bisects my city, in one of the 'cheap-monthly-rate' parking lots, cheaper by their distance from the city center. I slowly moved towards the light I could see to my left, and eventually made it out from underneath the interstate and into the fading daylight. 

Left was west, and as I looked far down the street, I could see the setting sun off in the distance, and make out the streetlights, the traffic lights, familiar buildings, and people on the sidewalk. 

I headed in that direction, towards the place I started my walk, however long ago.

A Future Tale (Part Three)

Our Future Tale began with a woman wandering around her small city, observing and describing the places and people she saw, and ended with her hesitantly entering an alley between two buildings, the first some 100 years older than the second. 

At the end of Part Two, our narrator was deep in the alley, uncomfortably confronting the past - her past, and our collective past. Or, maybe she was seeing into the future? 

Here's where we left her.

Every recess in the wall, every dirty lightbulb, every door I encountered, brought more of the same.

Our real history

Medical care - no patients refused

Judgment-free zone 

All words welcomed here

Free hot meals

A bed for a night

There were a few more doors, offering only more confusion, until there was only a giant screen hanging in front of me, above my head, filled with images, wonderful and horrible, a cacophony of voices and music and noise, piercing the quiet that had surrounded me in the alley. It was my history, my lifetime, and histories and lifetimes before mine, all jumbled together. Good and evil, love and war, despots and dictators, politicians and orators, their words almost physically assaulting me, surrounding me, deafening me. 

I wanted to get away, to escape, to avoid what was playing out in front of me, but the cobblestones were damp and slimy as I tried to run, the trees were hitting me in the face and arms, and the din moved with me with me as I slipped and slid down the alley, tears and grime streaming down my face. 

Let's rejoin her now.

And then it stopped - the barrage of words, and music, and noise - it all just... stopped, as abruptly as it began. It was deathly quiet, and pitch black in the alley, and I stood there, afraid to move. Catching my breath. Slowing my heart. Trying to find my equilibrium. 

Ahead, I saw a light high up on the wall, much brighter than the lights above the doors. It cast a long beam, and I followed it. I moved slowly, cautiously, even gratefully toward the light. And there, at what must be the end of the alley, I saw a door.

A revolving door. 

A revolving door? It was so completely out of place, I almost laughed out loud, but caught myself at the last second. Laughing seemed as out of place as the door, after what I had just been through, what I had yet to fully process. Heck, who am I kidding? I hadn't even begun to process what had happened behind me in the alley; I didn't even know where to start, but I knew laughing wasn't it.

I stopped a few feet away from the door, all glass and brass, ornate like the doors you find in classy old hotels, and simultaneously filthy like you find in abandoned ones. I half expected there to be a bellman in the vestibule, but this wasn't a hotel, there wasn't a vestibule. I'm in an alley for Pete's sake, I told myself, not in some old movie. 

At the very moment that thought crossed my mind, about being in a movie, I became much more tentative about the door. I could get in, push it, and go out on the other side, like in old movies with happy endings, but I had no idea what was out there. What if it was worse than what I just went through? 

I could get in, give it a push, and have it stick, unmovable like in a horror movie, trapping me for who knows how long in a little cage, waiting for someone to find me, to help me. But I'm in an alley by myself, an alley that's nothing like anything I've ever seen before... Would anyone even think to look there? Does anyone even know I'm not home? And what kind of person would be in this alley, anyway?

The thought of stepping into the hug of that door was paralyzing.

I stood there for what seemed like an eternity; in reality, it was probably only a minute or two, as I considered my options. I had only two choices, I realized: try the door, or go back the way I came. Slowly, I turned my body slightly to the right, and took the measure of the alley.

Where there had been the giant screen, I saw nothing. Where I had seen all those dimly lit, frightening doorways, I saw only solid walls. I could barely make out the gate at the end of the alley, still shrouded in the confusing mid-day darkness.

I turned back to the left, towards the revolving door, and to the right again, in the direction of the gate, where this all started. I turned both directions again, and a third time, before making my decision.

Choking back my fear, I started walking. 

A Future Tale (Part One)

It was late afternoon. 

I walked slowly down the main drag, as I've done a million times, looking through the slightly dingy windows of the shops, observing the customers inside. 

Many of them appeared disengaged, as if they were only going through the motions. They sported the worn-out look that comes from reading and hearing the same thing over and over, from the same people in the same echo chamber over and over, watching the same news for hoursdaysweeksmonths on end. They looked beaten down by it all. 

I didn't want to linger there; I wondered if ennui by association was a thing? I meandered, turning randomly, until I ended up in the old warehouse district, a jumble of multi-story brick buildings. 

The ends of giant old timbers were visible in spots, copper accents and granite keystones and old leaded windows that gentrifiers adore, and put to pricey use. Many buildings had been redone; fabulous restaurants now, condos and studios and extravagant apartments; bakeries and fancy shmancy coffee shops; places to get faux-leather wing-tips and hemp pocket squares; places to see and be seen, to be vibrant, and young, and successful, or vibrant, and old, and successful, all the while sporting the tired, worn-out look that comes from reading and hearing the same thing over and over, from the same people in the same echo chamber over and over.

Moving to a less crowded part of town, I walked past smaller mixed-use buildings housing attorneys, CPAs, ad agencies, cell phone stores, payday loan joints, cigar shops, gyms, and whatnot on the lower floors, and more apartments on the upper floors. Everyone I passed in this part of town had the same look, and looked the same as everyone else I had already passed.

My pace slowed as I neared the alley halfway down the block, tucked in between a 1970s-era office building and an 1870s-era beauty. Empty but still defiant, figuratively lifting its chin in the air, brandishing the chip on its shoulder, as if daring someone to smash the windows, destroy the inside, or tear it down. 

"Try me," it said. "Just try me."

The old iron gate at the head of the alley looked as if it hadn't been opened in years. Weeds, garbage, broken glass, and more encased the bottom. It was heavy with generations of handprints, rust and dust, soot and exhaust, bird droppings, coffee and alcohol, and who knows what other human or animal excretions. Layered upon layer upon layer, a challenge to the forensic experts, the anthropologists, the historians who might one day try and make sense of it all. 

I stopped by the gate, which stood chest-high and strong. It, too, offered a dare, like the building nearby. "Try me - go ahead, give me a push."  

I looked left and right; nobody was paying any attention. I gave the gate a shove; it didn't move. 

I pushed, harder, then as hard as I could, struggling against time, and weeds, and trash, and crud, and slowly, creakily, it opened. 

I snuck into the alley.

Quick Takes (v10): America's De-transitioning

Quick Takes

Have you seen this one yet, about Caitlyn Jenner?

She's thrilled she has raised awareness about how transgender people have long been discriminated against but I think there's a chance she'll de-transition in the next couple years. I don't think it would surprise anybody in her inner circle. It has been much harder than she anticipated. My heart goes out to her and I know her true friends will be there to support her on whatever path she chooses.

Now, right off the bat I want to say that this post really isn't about Caitlyn.

She has a right to live her life how she chooses, and if that in fact entails de-transitioning back into Bruce, so be it.  I can't begin to imagine the journey she's been on, particularly playing it out on the world's stage. I get that doing it that way was her choice, but I don't know if, at the end of the day, curling up in a fancy house on a bed of dollars is going to provide any real comfort. Or maybe it does, I don't know.

And speaking of real comfort, here's the real reason for this post:  the quote above comes from a new book titled Kardashian Dynasty: The Controversial Rise of America's First Family.

I kid you not.

The book, a biography of the K-Klan, was written by Canadian investigative journalist Ian Halperin, who apparently had a best seller with a book about Michael Jackson, and a movie as well; he's also written about supermodels, the death Kurt Cobain, Brangelina, and the Governator, Arnold Schwarzenegger.  But this post isn't about Halperin, either.

It's about us.

It's about the possibility, regardless of how remote, that anyone other than Halperin's editor or publisher or whoever dreamed up the book title,  could possibly consider the Kardashians to be America's First Family.

Seriously? America's First Family is the Kardashians?  Dear lord.

This post is about us.

It's not about reality TV shows such as the Real Housewives of Anywhere, an oxymoron if there ever was one, and of kourse, it's not about Keeping Up with the Kardashians and Kocktails with Khloe and Kiss Me I'm Kylie and Kickball with Kendall and Kavorting at KMart with Kourtney and K'Mon, Be My $23K-a-month Boyfriend starring Kris, and all the rest.

It's not about the millions and millions and millions and millions of Instagram followers hanging on every word these reality stars don't speak. It's not even about people the billions we spend on plastic surgery trying to look like the people we see on these TV shows.

It's about an altered state of reality, where we lose sight of 'real' people and 'real' issues and 'real' problems and 'real' successes.

It's about celebrity, and Celebrity Apprentice, which brought us a celebrity candidate for Leader of the Free World.

It's about us.

Case Studies: A&F, JCP, and A&E

Abercrombie & Fitch, the allegedly hip store for young people who want to wear lots of layers of clothes in a stylish way and carry around arty-farty shopping bags with pictures of topless or almost topless chiseled pretty people on them, once offered to pay a customer to stop wearing their brand. Yep - don't wear our clothes, said their 'brand senses department': 

We are deeply concerned that Mr Sorrentino's association with our brand could cause significant damage to our image. We understand that the show is for entertainment purposes, but believe this association is contrary to the aspirational nature of our brand, and may be distressing to many of our fans. We have therefore offered a substantial payment to Michael 'The Situation' Sorrentino and the producers of MTV's The Jersey Shore to have the character wear an alternative brand. We have also extended this offer to other members of the cast, and are urgently awaiting a response.

Famously, A&F also ran into trouble with their 'exclusionary practices' which were detailed in a 2006 interview with CEO Mike Jeffries (the comments resurfaced more recently).  When asked about the emotional experience he offers his customers, and how sex plays into that, here's what he said:

It's almost everything. That's why we hire good-looking people in our stores. Because good-looking people attract other good-looking people, and we want to market to cool, good-looking people. We don't market to anyone other than that. 

Jeffries went on to say this about some potential customers:

In every school there are the cool and popular kids, and then there are the no-so-cool kids. Candidly, we go after the cool kids.  We go after the attractive all-American kid with a great attitude and a lot of friends.  A lot of people don't belong (in our clothes) and they can't belong. Are we exclusionary? Absolutely. Those companies that are in trouble are trying to target everybody: young, old, fat, skinny. But then you become totally vanilla. You don't alienate anybody, but you don't excite anybody, either. 

A&F, which offers women's clothes in sizes XS (00-0), S (2-4), M (6-8), and L (10),  and men's pants  ranging in size from 28x30 to 36x34, didn't want to market to fat people, or falling-down-drunk Jersey Shore folks, because they weren't cool.  They couldn't 'vanilla' the brand and become indistinguishable from everyone else.

JCPenney, on the other hand, got into trouble when Ron Johnson, their former CEO, noted in an interview that they had no 'growth platform' and so made a huge marketing change, which included making JCP look very different.  Here are his comments:

We had a business model that didn't have any growth in the future. Every business needs to build off a growth platform...We had a promotional model which had merit but it played its course. We need a new growth platform....The key was we had to have the courage to transform the business. 

He went on to get in trouble with this comment, in a response to getting customers back after the significant drop in sales that resulted from the business transformation:

Come to our stores right now. Our stores are busy. We're gaining that customer back. We know who she is, we talk to her in a variety of ways and it's important to get her back in store. It's even more important to attract new customers. That's the key to this long term, new customers. We had one of the oldest and poorest customers in the industry. We have to over time get a little younger and affluent. What will bring them in is everyday value on products they can't find elsewhere and not losing the older customer as well. We'd love to keep her. 

JCP's CEO knew who his customers were, and the numbers did not compare favorably with competitors like Target, Macy's and Kohl's.  Nearly half were over 55, and only 20% were younger than 35. Looking at income, only 13% earned more than $100,000, and 29% earned less than $35,000.  As a 'growth platform', that doesn't look sustainable, does it?

So what happened for these two retailers, when their CEOs did and said things that ticked off the customer base?  For A&F, people bought their clothes and gave them to homeless people.  Ellen DeGeneres (coincidentally, a JCP spokesperson) mocked them for selling 'doll clothes'.  Sales crumbled, with losses over multiple quarters.  The store is going to start offering clothes in larger sizes and more colors, among other things.

JCP suffered significant losses, as those older, poorer customers boycotted the store; they ditched Johnson as CEO and rehired a former CEO to right the ship.

So, what do these have to do with A&E and the Duck Dynasty drama? On the one hand, the two retail cases may look different; after all, in the case of A&F the representative was defending the brand, and in the JCP case the representative was turning the brand on its head. And, of course the brand representatives were the CEOs.

But what got then in trouble, more than anything, was their words, and the impact those words had on actual or potential customers. Those customers, real or wished-for, got up in arms, and in all sorts of ways complained about the exercise of free speech by the CEOs; they organized, they stormed social media, and yes they denied the brand their hard-earned cash. Heck, I have friends who stopped shopping at JCP for the duration of Johnson's tenure, and I know folks who were very upset with A&F and their short-sighted, narrow-wasted view of 'Authentic American' kids.

In the case of A&E, the 'brand representative' was not the CEO, he was just the star of  A&E's biggest sub-brand. A&E heard from actual or potential customers (the LGBT advocates and yes, the NAACP regarding those happy, non-blues-singing, cotton-picking, pre-welfare black folks) who will organize, who did flood social media with strongly worded messages, who would boycott the brand -- all of the same things that happened to A&F and JCP, as well as yoga-clothing retailer Lululemon; their founder/CEO is now out.

Listen, I'm not a fan of reality shows, that's not a secret. I watch a few of the competition shows, less now that many of them are growing old and tired. But there were American Idol contestants being booted for bad behavior -- not for being bad singers, but because their bad behavior off the show could damage the brand. And frankly, we don't have to look a whole lot further than folks like Mel Gibson or Charlie Sheen to see that, yes, even actors and TV stars suffer consequences from their behaviors, including their exercise of free speech.

A&E, which surprisingly does air shows other than Duck Dynasty, suspended a guy from a show that's currently on hiatus, to think about how or whether to protect its brand, not necessarily the sub-brand of the Robertson family. (Not for nothing, that's kind of like Major League Baseball suspending a pitcher for a certain number of games, and the suspension includes days the pitcher doesn't even play, isn't it?)

The biggest thing that will come of this? An even stronger DD brand, according to at least one crisis manager, which is apparently just fine with the Robertson family; after all, they're already a hundreds-of-million-dollar company what with their marketing of anything and everything Duck. They'll profit either way, frankly. We  may never know whether that conflicts with the Duck Dude's comments about 'the greedy' and their chances on judgment day.

Here's a nice summation of the whole thing, from the LA Times:

In the end, it comes down to freedom.  A&E has the freedom to reckon lost revenue against lost good will and make whatever decision works best for it. (It will be a practical decision more than a moral one.) The Robertsons have every right to do likewise, within the bounds of whatever the lawyers work out. If the show continues, sponsors will make similar calculations.  And, should the show return, you will be free to watch or never to watch, and to protest its ongoing existence or not.

Yep -- it's all about freedom. The Robertsons and other actors (and even politicians like Sarah Palin and Bobby Jindal) and corporate CEOs can say what they want; advocacy groups (regardless of their specific positions) can respond. Customers can stick with or walk away from a company, and companies can stick with or walk away from people who actually or potentially damage the brand and/or the bottom line.

I'm fascinated that we don't express the same outrage over all of the situations where similar actions and reactions occur, and I wonder, maybe that's our real, 'authentic American' brand.

What Scares You More?

The bombs that went off near the finish line at the Boston marathon, or the people who believe that the government did it?  For me, it's the latter - definitely.

I've written before about rabid Palinites who believe that President Obama killed a Navy Seal. But I've never invested a whole lot of energy into conspiracy theories.  I try not to quickly judge people, and admit that I could be better at that than I am today. But in all honesty,  I don't have any use for people who actually believe, or pretend to believe, that our government is running around willy-nilly killing Americans in order to push an agenda.

Particularly when the person who's considered the "killer in chief "is the only one of our elected federal officials who has a term limit and who must get his agenda past Congress.  The idea of him being the one to put this kind of action into motion is beyond absurd.  But he must be the one, because it's all over the Internet, right?

Here's a sampling from comments on various articles at infowars.com, one of the strangest web sites I've ever visited.

I believe this is a “false flag” The end goal to me would be the need for Martial Law. It is tragic that we have such a low stooping government. But ‘rightwing” as Obama and his cronies like to say have more patriotic sense in one little toe, than Obama does in his entire body. This also giving an opportunity to cast doubt or blacken the name of republican conservatives.

If it were Tea Partiers, they would not attack innocents, they would go after politicians and they won’t miss and won’t cause that kind of collateral damage. The fact that it was at an event like this eliminates them as a possibility and certainly implicates the government. Qui Bono? How would this benefit any right wing group or Tea Party? It does benefit the police state. Don’t be fooled folks. 

A supernatural prophetic warning appeared in the BOSTON GLOBE in 2001, a pix of Tom Ridge & George W Bush in front of a flag and what appeared was not an American flag but a swastika - a warning about the fascist spirit behind DHS (that's the Department of Homeland Security) and also that 911 was a FALSE FLAG. Both 911 and this bombing were psy ops to traumatize the public to bring in martial law...BUT I predict there will be a new revolution against this martial law starting in Boston. This happened on TAX DAY - and the Boston Tea Party started the American Revolution against an unfair British Tax, in Boston with Paul Revere's Ride...Also the Illuminati social engineers who want martial law are trying to label patriots as terrorists - they have been doing it -- this bombing happened on PATRIOTS DAY - so it is a psy op to conflate in the public's mind the word PATRIOT with Terrorist - to mind control them to support this slander.  

And there's this, from NaturalNews.com, a site I've never visited before:

The bottom line in all this is that the mainstream media has already decided who's guilty for everything bad that happens in America. It's right-wingers...gun owners...white people...patriots...veterans...conservatives. Sure, there's no logic to it, but the leftist media doesn't operate from logic. It simply picks a group to vilify and goes on the attack. Somehow, they will find a way to blame patriots for the bombings, even it means fabricating evidence and ignoring reality. If for some reason they can't blame patriots because overwhelming evidence points to a foreign terror cell, they will still exploit the tragedy to call for DHS agents on the streets of America, with police state security at every sporting even from here forward. When it comes to the rise of tyranny, the left is blind. They literally can't see it unfolding right before their eyes. In their minds, there's never enough "security" and there's always too many "rights" in America. Their utopia is an Orwellian 1984 military police state where everyone is kept safe because the entire country is transformed into a "Constitution-free zone" where TSA agents reach down your pants and no citizens are allowed to own weapons of any kind. 

And that's from the article, not the comments. Here are some of those:

...actually I refuse to live in fear. Fear is a tactic used by governmental terrorist control freaks to break the American spirit and force us to cry TAKE AWAY OUR RIGHTS, PLEASE MR. PRESIDENT! If you think Pearl Harbor, 9/11, Aurora, Sandy Hook and now Boston happened without prior knowledge of or direct involvement with the US government, you need to turn Off fox and CNN and stop drinking fluoridated water. Wake up fellow American, Obama is NOT your daddy.

Someone that is not in tune to certain manipulative tactics would just think it is a coincidence. I have also observed that multiple times (coincidence or not) when some false flag attacks happen there seems to be a drill of the same scenario going on in the vicinity that the false flag occurs. 9/11(NORAD Drill) and Sandy Hook(safety drill) to name a few. I see people focusing on the fact, that bomb squads and bomb sniffing dogs are always used at the Boston Marathon(since 9/11). That may be a fact, on the other hand "Drills" being performed on the same day of the event seems to be an ongoing "coincidence". Drills should be performed to their fullest extent prior to and leading up to the specific events so that at the time of the event the parties involved(law enforcement, military etc.) can be on alert and ready to go.  What happened yesterday was a tragedy. Unfortunately these events will continue because they are needed to push a certain agenda. One of them being "National Security", which has become a multi billion-dollar industry. That comment will not sit right with a lot of people but it is a seed that needs to planted. 

And then there's this: all the news you can imagine about how the Sandy Hook killings were orchestrated by the government and the media, or didn't exist or whatever...

Sadly, these people are not alone. In a recent press release, Public Policy Polling offered these delightful statistics:

• 29% believe aliens exist; 
• 28% believe in a secret power elite looking to create a new world order;
• 20% of Republicans, 13% of Independents and 6% of Democrats think Obama is the Anti-Christ;
• 7% think the moon landing was a fake;
• 6% of voters think Osama bin Laden is alive;
• 5% think that Paul McCartney died back in 1966;
• 4% think shape-shifting reptilians in human form control our world.

No, these folks will never be alone.  And if I can possibly help it, I'll never be alone with any of them.

A Wicked Twist of Fate

Back in the spring of 2009 My Sweet Baboo Patrick and I went on a vacation to North Carolina.  We stayed away from the beaches; instead we flew into Charlotte, picked up our rental car, and headed to Asheville.  We spent a wonderful week wandering around, visiting Biltmore, and enjoying the gorgeous mountains.  (See three old posts on our trip, here, here and here.) We also managed to find some wineries to visit, something that we always seem to do no matter where we go on vacation. 

One of more memorable visits to any winery, anywhere, was to Rockhouse Vineyards, outside Tryon, NC. The day we found this winery, it was overcast, with some lingering drizzle; for us the decision to forgo a trek in the mountains and instead track down wineries was an easy one, and Rockhouse was a great find.  Set back from the road, with a long winding driveway leading up to the tasting room, there were trees just starting to flower, and some fascinating old ruins -- the chimneys were the best, listing a bit drunkenly, inviting us to stop and take pictures on the way up the drive. Aren't they beautiful?

The small tasting room had a bar, clad in copper -- it was absolutely gorgeous! There was also a huge fireplace opposite the bar, and although it wasn’t lit, I could easily imagine parking myself in front of it with a nice glass of Meritage.

It was not just the ambiance of the tasting room that made the visit so memorable; it was Jean-Jacques, who manned the tasting room that day.  He was a transplanted Frenchman who landed in North Carolina after falling in love with a girl in Florida, if I remember correctly.  It turns out the girl was originally from Marietta, not that far from us.  We discovered this during an all-over-the-map conversation with him; since we were the only people at the winery, we had his undivided attention, and we had a blast.  Turns out he had a pretty good memory of the Syracuse and Central New York area, having been here visiting his in-laws over the years, so we talked not only about the wines and North Carolina, but about Central New York as seen through a visitor’s eyes, something I always find refreshing.

We tasted every wine available, and particularly enjoyed the French Door, a port-style wine that cried out for chocolate, cheese, and raspberries.  Our purchases (of course we purchased!) ended up bubble-wrapped then rolled carefully in sweatshirts for the trip back home in our checked luggage. Fortunately, everything made it back safely, and we’ve enjoyed our Rockhouse wines several times over the years.

So why write about Rockhouse now, three and a half years later?  I just read an email from them saying they were closing the winery for good early next month.  Not because of the economy, but because of a wicked twist of fate.  Lee Griffin, the owner and wine-maker, has battled cancer and has had his sense of taste compromised by his radiation treatment – and as the email puts it, “As a winemaker, nothing could be more frustrating.” I can’t even imagine.

I'm glad I was able to find my old pictures, and also very glad I found a bottle of French Door on the rack today. Tonight, we’ll raise a glass to Lee, his wife Marsha, and to Jean-Jacques, wherever he is – best wishes, and thanks for the wonderful memories.

Imagine a Parade of Homes in the City of Syracuse

HBRCNY photo

Every September, the Home Builders & Remodelers Association of Central New York (HBRCNY) sponsors the Parade of Homes. The event showcases the talents of many local home builders, decorators and interior designers, and landscapers.  There’s also a strong charitable focus; in addition to the sneak peak charity event held just before the Parade’s opening day, the greeters in each home are typically volunteers for local organizations. 

This year’s Parade of eight homes is in a waterfront development in one of the northern suburbs; previous Parades have been scattered across Onondaga County, and frequently the Parade homes are sold before the event begins. Prices are usually at the higher end of the market, given that the homes are showplaces. For example, a Parade home is the House of the Week today and has already been sold for over $400,000.  At just over 3,900 square feet, it features a rec room with three flat screen TVs (32-inch, 60-inch, and 80-inch), and a swimming pool, along with many other upscale amenities.

I frequently wonder what would happen if the local home builders took a chance on the city, and did some extreme homebuilding (or even extreme remodeling) in Syracuse, instead of continuing to build upscale homes in the outer reaches of the county.  Can you even imagine the impact this could have?

• new residents, or returning residents, and the energy they'd bring
• families with children, injecting new blood and interest in the city schools
• a strengthening of the city tax base
• reduced stress and traffic during daily drive times, since folks would already be in the city, where most county residents work 
• the potential for small businesses to spring up in the newly energized neighborhoods
• reduced impact and stress on the environment, as we'd be developing areas that already had the necessary infrastructure

I appreciate that not everyone wants to live in the city; many folks prefer suburban living because of what if offers, but there are also many who prefer it to what they think city living is like.

After living in the city for more than 30 years, I can assure you that most areas in Syracuse don’t really resemble the stereotype of crime infested drug havens full of welfare people who do nothing but hang out on the street all day.  Rather, there are many areas that are ethnically, economically, and culturally mixed, areas that have both owner-occupied and rental units, areas  that have a strong sense of community centered around libraries, churches, parks, and locally-owned businesses, rather than everything centering around the off-ramp and the strip malls.

Imagine how our city would change if the folks who were able and willing to purchase $400,000 houses with swimming pools and home theaters chose to bring their families, their spending power, their commitment, into a city neighborhood en masse, or into multiple neighborhoods, expanding the opportunities the city offers to all residents?

Picture what could happen if we had a Parade of Homes on the city’s North Side, or Eastwood, or in the NoSen section of The Valley (north of Seneca Turnpike), or out on the Near West Side, where there’s already focused effort to transform the neighborhood?  Picture a concerted effort to transform Midland Ave, or Onondaga Street, or Court Street, or East Fayette Street, to remodel some of the beautiful old homes, restoring them to their past glory?  What if we could create new city neighborhood like Meadowbrook or Sedgwick Farms?

This type of effort focused on immediate home ownership for those who can afford it, coupled with the city’s work getting rid of abandoned properties, the Syracuse Housing Authority’s projects to bring ‘rent to own’ units throughout the city, and those of organizations like Home Headquarters, could transform our city neighborhoods, just as the creation of residential units in the center city is transforming that area.

The local builders are clearly talented; the designers they work with are clearly creative; and there’s clearly a need for residential development within the economic and cultural center of Onondaga County.  

Just imagine the possibilities...

Life Without a Daily Newspaper

I learned that the Syracuse Post-Standard, my hometown newspaper, was moving to three-days-a-week home delivery next January from my brother-in-law's Facebook page; he works at the Times-Union in Albany, and had posted his paper's story about my paper.

I grew up with the Syracuse newspapers. We now have only the morning Post-Standard, but used to have the afternoon Herald-Journal and the Sunday Herald-American.  Each of the papers had a slightly different voice, with different columnists and reporters, different comics and different crossword puzzles, different editorials. I think I had letters published in all three papers, over the years.

My Dad and I read the papers cover to cover when I was a teenager, always finding something interesting to talk about. After he retired, Dad used to leave messages for me when he found something interesting in the paper.  "Read Dick Case." "Did you see Poliquin?" "Haggart." "Sean, page 2." Sometimes he'd leave a longer message, directing me to something specific in an article, some nuance he wanted to make sure I didn't miss. Always the teacher, and me forever his student.

One of my fondest memories of my father features the Post-Standard in a starring role; it's a fond memory now, but much less so back in 1977, when I was a newly minted college dropout. 

I was the honor-society child of two teachers, a top graduate from a small school in a small town where my parents were prominent members of the community.  I'm sure at the time my dropping out and coming home, head hung low and tail between my legs, was more of an embarrassment to my Mom and Dad than it was to me.

I had been home for no more than two or three weeks, and had settled into a routine of dragging myself out of bed and heading downstairs for a cup of coffee around 9:30 or 10 in the morning. Naturally, my father had been up for hours by then, had read the paper, and was going about his day.

One morning when I came downstairs, he was sitting at the kitchen table with his cup of coffee and the newspaper.  The classified section was on the table, in front of my usual seat, opened to the employment ads.  He said good morning to me; I mumbled something back to him, poured my coffee, and started to head out of the kitchen.  I stopped when I heard him say "I know how many jobs there are for you in the paper today. Do you?"

The first day he did that, I stomped out of the kitchen angrily, bitterly, with a "who needs you" attitude.  The second day he did it, I muttered "no" and kept going, with considerably less stomp in my step. The third day, I picked up the classifieds on my way out of the kitchen when I saw them, folded, waiting for me.  And the next day, I got up an hour earlier, took the classifieds, and started looking for a job, before he had the chance to look for one for me.  Three weeks later, I found one.

Six months after that, I had saved enough money to move out, into an apartment I found in the Post-Standard. One of the first things I did was subscribe to the daily papers, allowing Dad and I to continue our conversations on the news of the day, something we enjoyed until he passed away in 2007.

It will be hard to get used to the four days a week without a paper landing on my porch. And I can't help thinking that my Dad's tough love would have been much less effective if he hadn't been able to put that newspaper in front of my empty chair, open to the right page, to drive home his message.

To Attract and Retain Good People...

...we need to have salary increases for politicians and government appointees.  

How many times have you heard that, and what's your reaction when you do?  Do you cringe, like I do?

I just heard it again the other day, while watching Capital Tonight, the show devoted to all things NY politics brought to us courtesy of YNN, Time Warner's news station. The discussion centered on whether or not it was time that New York's legislators, as well as other folks in state government, deserve a raise.  

It's been 13 or 14 years for the Legislature, according to published reports, which I admit is a long time to go without a pay increase, even when you're making $79,500 plus a $170 per diem for days spent in Albany, plus an additional $10,000 - $40,000 for 'leadership' roles, which most of them receive - all for a part-time job that they volunteer for.

Now don't get me wrong, I know that trying to decide the direction and fate of the Empire State's 19,000,000 or so people can be hard work; and if I were working for the same money now that I was making 14 years ago, I'd be pretty annoyed too. The part-time job of a legislator is pretty lucrative, compared to other legislatures (and compared to many New York families), and in these difficult economic times, it's hard to want to give them a raise for any reason.

But what really gets me is this whole concept of 'attracting and retaining good people'.  What does that really mean?

• Are our current legislators not 'good people'?
• Would they all leave, and make room for really 'good people' if we raised their pay?

And what would be different?

• Would we be able to get real campaign finance reform and real ethics reform, from the new 'good people'?
• Would the new 'good people' do something about mandate relief and the buck-passing down the legislative line to counties, cities, towns and villages?
• Hopefully they'd stop sending me mail telling me how wonderful they are -- because of course, they're 'good people' so that goes without saying, right?

Unless the 'bad people' we have no problem retaining now are willing to step aside for these mysterious new 'good people', I think we can continue paying them just the same as we do today.

What do you think?

Updated: The Second Amendment: 27 simple words

I originally posted this back in July, at the time of the movie theater shooting in Aurora Colorado.  Since then, we can add the temple in Wisconsin, and the shopping mall in Oregon, and the most horrific of all, Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown Colorado, where twenty children died, along with several adults. 

Some now say the answer is to have guns in schools; others say we need God in schools.  Some say the answer is to take all guns away, some say it's to arm everyone.

Will we ever come to terms on this? 

Another horrible gun tragedy in America, and another heated debate will kick up about whether we need more gun control in the US.

We've been talking about this for years.  We talk and talk and talk. People chime in from the left and from the right; from the NRA and the Brady Center and everywhere in between. Money flows fast and furious from both sides, to both side. The Supreme Court has chimed in.

We all chime in.

Everyone chimed in when Gabby Giffords was shot a year ago, and when the Virginia Tech shootings happened, and when the Fort Hood shootings happened, and when the Binghamton shootings happened, and the Columbine shootings happened, and lots of other times. 

MotherJones.com put together a map of dozens of cases since the 1980s that are considered 'mass murders' (at least four victims, generally a lone gunman  public place).  I counted over 300 people murdered, with the number of injured much higher.

Movie theaters. Restaurants. Army bases. Universities. Cultural Centers. High Schools. Shopping malls. Sadly, if we build it, people will be murdered there.  We even came up with the slang term 'going postal' after several incidents in 1986, 1991, 1993, and 2006 involving US Postal Service workers. 

I've heard the argument that guns don't kill people, people kill people, and of course I get that a person pulls the trigger. I've heard the argument that if we ban or restrict guns, we have to ban or restrict silverware, and rope, and cars, and everything else that could be used to kill someone. I've heard it from friends, and from family members, and from total strangers.

But here's what I don't get: did the Founding Fathers really intend that a person should be able to legally purchase thousands of rounds of ammunition and an assault rifle?  

27 simple words:

A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.

Returning 9/11, Redux

Two years ago, on the eve of the eighth anniversary, I proposed that we ‘return’ 9/11 to America, and to Americans. I thought then that we should consider moving on – not that we should forget, because there’s no way that will happen – but that we allow the day to have all of the myriad emotions, circumstances and possibilities that all other days are afforded, including happy ones.

At the time I wrote the post, (read it here ) I was thinking about a friend whose birthday falls on 9/11, and how difficult it was for him to have a ‘normal’ birthday, without feeling guilty about having fun on what had become such a dark day for us. After all, it’s hard to imagine behaving normally on a day when so many lost their lives, when so many had their lives forever changed, when the path of our country was so dramatically changed.

Today, I watched the coverage of the anniversary ceremonies in New York, Washington, and Shanksville. I listened as the names of the innocent were read aloud, by their moms and dads, brothers and sisters, husbands and wives, sons and daughters, friends and strangers. My emotions (and tears) swelled listening to Yo-Yo Ma, James Taylor, and Paul Simon perform their particular magic. I was transfixed by Amazing Grace, so beautiful on the solo flute, and so different emotionally from the more traditional bagpipes.

But perhaps the most moving of all were the comments not of the politicians and talking heads but of the children of the victims, and how in an almost quintessentially American way, they have made their very difficult lives worthwhile since 9/11. Living up to the memories of those they lost; making sure to be worthy of the sacrifice; to make sure their lives will make a difference. Not only so that people don’t forget, but so that people can feel comfortable moving forward.

For me, they are the reason to move forward.

We can mourn the innocence lost on 9/11/01, but ten years later on 9/11/11, while celebrating the lives of those who perished, we should more importantly celebrate the lives of those who carry forward their memories and ideals, and celebrate the resilience of the American spirit.

Shots Fired: NY Marriage Equality

Author's note: this post was updated to correct a formatting issue. The content is the same as when originally published in June 2011.

Not surprisingly there've been many quotable moments leading up to and since the NY Senate voted 33 - 29 to allow same-sex marriage and Governor Andrew Cuomo signed the bill Friday night.  Here's a sampling:

"I just probably committed political suicide." Republican Senator Mark Grisanti to a Buffalo News reporter after the vote. Grisanti, a lawyer and a Catholic, also noted that he could find no legal reason to deny same sex couples the 1300 rights that he and his wife enjoy because they're married.

"With the world watching, the Legislature, by a bipartisan vote, has said that all New Yorkers are equal under the law." Governor Andrew Cuomo, in a statement after the vote. It was barely bipartisan, but it was enough.  

"I'm sure our committee will comply with that." Onondaga County Conservative Chairman Austin Olmstead, on his state party's promise not to support anyone who voted in favor. No surprise here.

"I knew there were countless people who would welcome my vote and I knew that there were countless people who would be angered by my vote." Republican Senator Stephen Saland, the first of the undecided to support the bill. Saland was instrumental in securing the religious exceptions and ensuring that if those don't past legal muster, the whole bill becomes null and void.

"You can't teach something that you don't have, so two men will never be able to show a woman how to be a woman."  NY Giants Super Bowl hero David Tyree.  Wondering how single moms and dads are handling this today with their sons and daughters, respectively?

“Heck, I work for Fox, man, they’ve got Glee on T.V.”  Michael Strahan, another NY Giants hero, on the potential for repercussions on supporting same sex marriage. What a great line!

“You don’t see two male dogs sleeping in the same dog house together." Clinton County legislator Sam Trombley, who also noted there would be an "HIV epidemic if this passes." Um, really? When I was younger, we had two male dogs. Winnie was a shepherd/husky mix; Sam was a spaniel/dog-down-the-street mix. The two slept curled up together all the time. Maybe it was because they had such gender-neutral names?  

At the end of the day, the world did not come to an end after the vote; it probably won't come to and end when the next state passes it, or the next one, or the next one. 

Sunday School: 1/9/11 The Newspapers

Certainly, the talking heads will be all over the horrific shooting in Tucson yesterday, which left a federal judge, a nine-year-old child, and four others dead, and seriously injured Rep Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) and several others.  Today, instead of listening to them, let's go to Sunday School with the newspapers, where we have more time to reflect on what’s being said and where we might expect rhetoric to be toned down some. No guarantees, but we’ll give it a try.  

To start, in an unsigned editorial on the Arizona Star's website, the paper offers condolences to the families of the innocent victims, and notes that "Giffords has never let vitriol deter her from public service. She works hard to be accessible. She's shown not just willingness but courage to engage with people who don't agree with her."  It would be unfair of us to ask our elected officials to do more than that.

In the New York Times, political columnist Matt Bai talks about how information was quickly removed from the Internet, including the ‘crosshairs’ map posted last year by Sarah Palin’s PAC. He notes, “The country still labors to recover from the memories of Dealey Plaza and the Ambassador Hotel, of Memphis and Birmingham and Watts. Tucson will either be the tragedy that brought us back from the brink, or the first in a series of gruesome memories to come.”   It will be interesting to see which direction we head.

Matthew Cooper, managing editor of White House coverage at the National Journal, offers that “our country is whole lot more like Benazir Bhutto’s Pakistan than we thought when we got up this morning”, now that we’ve had our first elected female office holder shot.  He also notes that we have no idea what motivated the shooting, if it even had anything to do with politics, if the shooter was mentally ill… and what would it mean, anyway?  

From the Arizona Republic, Bill Goodykoonz points out that “Covering breaking news is a messy, competitive business” and that we’ve lost the old window for reflection that used to exist before we had 24/7/365 access, and could prevent us from prematurely reporting ‘facts’ (such as that Giffords had been killed) before they were determined to be facts. He notes that losing the window may not be a bad thing, but reminds us that “…traditional media and social media and all who consume it -- have more power to inform than ever before.  We also have great responsibility and ought to use it.”   Point taken.

“We can’t say we weren’t warned,” laments a Chicago Sun-Times editorial. When people show up with guns, or signs indicating ‘next time’ they’ll bring their guns, and routinely call people they disagree with traitors and un-American, and our political leaders don’t try and put a stop to it (or worse, inflame it themselves), we should have known something would happen sometime. Sometime, sadly, was yesterday.  The editorial takes a slight turn from some others stating it is “simply not true” that both left and right are equally guilty of promoting this kind of speech or action.  “Overwhelmingly today, the fear-mongering and demonizing flow from the right, aided and abetted by cable TV and talk-radio hosts. They may represent only the irresponsible fringe of conservatism in America, but they are drowning out the thoughtful voices of the vast majority of conservatives.”  I suspect this editorial itself will inspire more of the same.

The LA Times focuses on the tenor of commentary from both the left and the right, much of it for the purpose of  "fanning the maximum fear, and injecting it into the roiling narrative of anger, partisanship, and paranoia that passes for dialogue today" and they had plenty of examples to prove the point.  On the other hand, they include President Clinton's comments on the 15th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing, in which he stated "...we must all accept responsibility for our words and actions before they enter a vast echo chamber and reach those both serious and delirious, connected and unhinged."  The gunman in this case almost certainly embodies at least one of those four adjectives.  They close the editorial stating they are "both ashamed and embarrassed at the intemperate commentary we read on Saturday."  If you've seen what's being said out there, you'll agree with them, as I did.

Andrew Cuomo's Inaugural: The new architect of Albany

Albany Times Union photo

Governor Andrew Cuomo gave his inaugural address today at the Capitol, and announced his plan to rebuild New York.  In his speech, he thanked those who helped him get elected; he thanked those who were elected along with him; he thanked those who came before, including his dad former Governor Mario Cuomo and our Accidental Governor David Paterson; and he thanked those with whom he'll have to work when the new administration begins in earnest next week.

He didn't divulge a lot of details (although he did mention an emergency financial plan) - those will come next Wednesday in his first State of the State address. But he made his priorities clear: jobs, a property tax cut, and cleaning up Albany. Here are some of the notable quotables from his address:

• On why the inauguration was not a big celebration: "In my administration, this is going to be the way it works. When we actually do something and perform and help the people of the State of New York and we make government function, then we are going to have a big party and celebrate, and not before."
• On why government leaves a bad taste in our mouths: "...people then feel betrayed by their government. That they have problems, they have needs, they look to the government and they assume the government was going to be there to help them because that’s what government is supposed to be all about... and instead they find a government that’s part of the problem rather than part of the solution." 
• On priorities of government today: "Too often government responds to the whispers of the lobbyists before the cries of the people."
• On deficits:  "The state faces a budget deficit and a competence deficit and an integrity deficit and a trust deficit."
• On the enormity of what we in the Empire State are facing:  "My gray hairs are multiplying just thinking about what we have to do."
• On his attitude: "My attitude will be constructive impatience with the status quo of Albany. We need change and we need it now...We must accomplish more, faster, smarter, and better, than we have in decades."
• On inspiration:."President Lincoln said in this city on his way to his inauguration, “Citizens may swear allegiance to one party or the other and believe with all their might that they are right, but once an election is passed, and until the next election, they should be one people.” President Lincoln’s words are profound. We are not first Democrats, Republicans, or Independents. We are first New Yorker and we must act that way."
• On calling us on the carpet: "Where are the people? Where are the people in Albany? Where are the people in the Capitol? That is the profound absence in this system. The people aren’t engaged. And that is what is going to have to change. If there is a silver bullet in the battle to recapture Albany, it is the re-engagement of our citizens." 
• On transparency: "We will be opening up the second floor, the Governor’s floor, so the members of the public will once again have access to their government. It is a symbol of a new approach: to reconnect with people, to build back trust, to defeat the power of the special interests with the power of the people."
• On the 'architecture' of Albany:  "I want to rebuild this government. Rebuild it by bringing back competence; rebuild it by bring back integrity; rebuild it by bringing back performance; by bringing back people of talent; by bringing back people of good will; rebuild it by bringing back professionalism and respect and decorum and protocol and collegiality and partnership with the Legislature and product for the people of this state."
• On his bottom line:  "Rebuild the government, restore confidence, restore trust, get the people of this state believing once again. Believe in government, believe in themselves, believe in each other, believe in our future. Believe in our potential...At the end of the day, what this is all about is making this state a better state for the 19 million people who live here."

Our job now is to ensure Cuomo and the Legislature do exactly that.  Are you ready to do your part?

Gun violence shatters Syracuse's nerves

Yesterday, sitting in the gazebo in My Sweet Baboo’s garden (one of the most peaceful places I know), it was hard to comprehend that only about five blocks northwest of us, four people were shot last week while playing cards. And a couple dozen blocks northeast of us, two more teenagers were shot last Thursday. Coming on the heels of two shootings on Halloween, these incidents have really challenged the Syracuse community.

Many of these crimes involve people who know each other – they’re retaliation for some real or imagined slight – and most of them involve shooters and victims no older than their early twenties – in some cases, considerably younger than that.

Citizens, including local notable Mary Nelson, are reaching out to help; Nelson’s nephew was one of the victims on Halloween. One of the messages coming out of Saturday’s community meeting was very simple, very clear, and right on the money:  If you see something wrong, report it. Kids loitering, drug sales, people hanging around the neighborhood who don’t belong, comings and goings from the wrong places at the wrong times – call the police.

We have to get to a point where people are more concerned with what’s going wrong than they are fearful of calling for help. For one reason or another, whether based on a real or imagined bad act by police, some folks simply won't call the cops. (Witness the reaction to possibly putting cameras up in certain crime-prone neighborhoods.) The intent is not to spy on people, and it's not to identify illegal immigrants, it's to help deter crime.  In fact, it was because of a camera that someone was arrested in a recent murder.

Sadly, but not unexpectedly, the folks who complain about the police are the ones who tend to live in higher crime areas, so it’s a ‘cutting off the nose to spite your face’ kind of situation. At the same time, police need to respond when things are reported, and create a pattern of responsiveness which will encourage people to call.

Frank Fowler, the police chief, needs to be front and center with his men and with the community, making it clear beyond the shadow of a doubt that the police are here to protect all of our citizens – rich and poor, white and black, Asian and Hispanic, young and old - equally and without delay.  It needs to be equally clear, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that the police will act within the law while they enforce the law.

Where possible, we need more police on the streets, out of their cars, walking the blocks, keeping an eye on things. I may be old-school, but it makes me feel better when I see cops walking around the neighborhood. (Seeing them drive by too fast for me to flag them down if I needed them is somehow not as comforting). We know where the crime is happening, and that’s where we need the police to be.

What else can we do? There are those that would say we need more programs for at-risk kids, so they don’t become shooters or victims, but of course programs need funding, and there’s no extra money to go around. We need fewer abandoned houses (we have more than 1000, I think) and more people living in the city, so the tax base is stronger, but it’s a tough sell lately to convince folks to move into the ‘hood. We also need fewer people pushing their own agendas which only distract us from the real issues.

We need parents to parent, we need fathers not sperm donors, we need adults having babies not babies having babies, we need the churches to kick it up a notch with their congregations and get them more active… it’s almost an endless list, and that makes it hard to figure out where to start. Some of this stuff is sytemic; it didn't fall apart in a day, and it won't be corrected in a day.

But hopefully what comes out of the meetings and discussions and the horrors of the past two weeks will be one community focusing on one big problem – guns and kids.