Blog

  • America: A Long Way From Great Again

    I know, even as I write this, there is still a good chance that Biden will claw out a win, but that doesn’t make me feel better.

    Actually, I feel worse than I did in 2016.

    I can accept that good people voted for Trump that year because it was a change election, and what the Democrats we’re offering was just more of the institutional same, which wasn’t helping most people.

    After five years of being a public political figure, everyone knows exactly who he is. And still, at this moment, 45% of the voting public wanted four more years of it. Of racism, incompetence, self dealing, corrupt, misogyny, and I could go on, and on.

    That 45% of the country could look at a President like and somehow think a continuation is s as good idea.

    It makes me feel like what I was told about the greatness of America is a lie. That we are not a shining city in a hill, but a people who are giving to our base instincts.

    I now believe that change will come, but not for another generation. The Greatest Generation is gone, and no longer relevant to our body politics. We are dealing with yet another Boomer problem. The Boomers were the last generation to grow up in government sanctioned racism, and though they worked to stop it, a good number of them worked to keep it. It is that upbringing of “acceptable bigotry” is what is holding us all back. We have 20 more years of it.

    Only when Gen-X and the following generations come into political power, will we finally begin to seriously deal with this hate.

    Sadly, I don’t know if America has 20 years left…

  • VOTE!

    Seriously!

  • GO VOTE TOMORROW

    If you didn’t vote earlier, that is.

  • Kids, Halloween and Covid

    Halloween is tomorrow, and we have a five year old who is super excited for, lets be honest, the best kid’s holiday. Sure, just about everyone will say Christmas, but think about Halloween; for a kid, all you have to do is put on a costume, knock on a door, and you get candy. You don’t have to be thankful for anything, or wish goodwill to your fellow man. It’s just pretending and getting candy.

    Sadly, this is the age of Covid, and we just can’t do what we want to do, which is visiting neighbors and getting the afore mentioned candy.

    I feel really awful for our kid, as she keeps getting the short end of the stick on Halloween. Three years ago, we were moving to California, and my mother had just passed away. We found ourselves on Flagstaff, AZ for Halloween. The city’s downtown had an awesome trick or treat path that took you to all the business in the square. It was not ideal, but it was good. Last year, we got evacuated from our home in northern California due to wildfires. We went to stay with friends in LA, and they helped us get a costume for the kid, and we trick or treated in their neighborhood. Again, not ideal, but we did have a really good time.

    This is yet another year that the kid cannot trick or treat in out NYC neighborhood. We are scrambeling again to come up with something that will be memorable and fun, and also where we can keep our distatnce.

    I look forward to a year when things are just normal. I have this feeling that when the kid gets older, Halloween will be the holiday that causes her a feeling of uncertainty.

  • I Voted, Early

    I got out and voted early in NYC. It was a misty, overcast gray day in the City, and my guess is that was why my line wasn’t too long. Over the weekend, lines were waiting on average about two hours to vote. A neighborhood email newsletter I follow was saying that our preceint wait time was about an hour and a half. Not too bad, and to be honest, I really didn’t care if the line took four hours.

    We originally wanted to take the kid with us to vote, as we have done in the past, but she doesn’t do well waiting in a line longer than 10 minutes. The wife went on Tuesday, and I went on Wednesday.

    Start to finish, getting in line, to walking out the door after voting took 25 minutes. For my wife it took about 50. It was an efficient, well run enterprise. The easiest voting I have ever done.

    The only draw back was that I didn’t have a moment of catharsis on casting my vote, for a second time, against Trump. I had been looking forward to this moment for just about four years, but when it came, it felt more like I was just doing what had to be done. Like cleaning up after a messy child.

    I am glad I did it, voting early that is. Now, I just hope it works out.