Unplanned circumstances allowed me to spend the past twenty days with my grandchildren. Ranging in age from 2 to 9, they kept grandma and grandpa hopping while our son recuperated from gall bladder surgery. Now the house is quiet as we all return to some semblance of the new normal.
In the world outside, the new normal continues to be riddled with insanity. Some Seattle protestors filed a lawsuit claiming that poorer protestors are deprived of the right to protest because the cost of gas masks, helmets and other gear to protect them from the police is expensive. If they were protesting as law-abiding citizens rather than law-breaking citizens, they would not need gas masks and helmets.
I confess that my meager vocabulary did not include the word gentrification until today when I saw it in an article about protestors in Seattle upset that white people are now living in formerly black neighborhoods. Merriam Webster defines gentrification as the process of repairing and rebuilding homes and businesses in a deteriorating area (such as an urban neighborhood) accompanied by an influx of middle-class or affluent people and that often results in the displacement of earlier, usually poorer residents.
The claim is that improvements in the neighborhood cause property values to increase thereby making it more difficult for poor people to live there. Seems like they want poor people to continue to live in blighted areas so they remain affordable. So, if we try to improve living conditions for the impoverished, we are actually doing them harm? Sometimes I wonder if we Americans have ever done anything that we don’t need to feel guilty about.
There will always be poor people. Poor is a relative term. Poor people in the United States are rich compared to some in other parts of the world. We need to make sure everyone has an opportunity to better themselves. Those opportunities abound in this country. Some take advantage and some do not. We assist those who are unable to help themselves. I have heard it said that poor people exist so that rich people can get to heaven. That may be true, but asking people to give up their homes to the less fortunate is not a practical answer.
When I see such prevalent stupidity permeating our society these days, I fear for the future. Protestors provoke confrontations so they can claim they were assaulted by the police. The same police have to protect the protestors from the counter-protestors. Elected leadership, apparently not wanting to lose any voters, allows this all to happen. Look at our public office-holders today and the candidates from which we must choose in the upcoming election. Were these people chosen because there was no viable alternative, or has our societal IQ sunk so low that we do not know any better? How refreshing it would be to find a mature, respectful, intelligent man or woman with common sense, unconcerned with political posturing, to lead responsibly. I’m afraid those days are gone.
In the upcoming presidential election, the majority of Americans will cast their vote against a certain candidate rather than finding one to be favorable. It’s not that we want THIS guy to win. We just want to make sure the other guy doesn’t. Our choice will be based on a lack of choice. We have to vote for so-and-so, because we can’t stand the other so-and-so. How sad is that?
Meanwhile, our society continues to deteriorate. We have governments defunding law enforcement while businesses are being looted and lives destroyed. Some people in public office are actually defending this behavior as some sort of reparation. Maybe we shouldn’t be surprised as intrinsic evils have become accepted and promoted all over the world including here at home.
In Texas, eight-year-old James Younger is caught in a custody battle between his parents. His mother wants to transition him to a girl and a judge this week took away parental rights from his father which allows the mother to register him for school as a girl named Luna, and have him undergo transgender medical procedures. He is eight years old! This is child abuse at the highest level. Please pray for this child and for an end to the insanity that engulfs our nation.
