Be Right Back

No, I’m not disappearing for another year or so, just taking care of family matters.

Having said that, I’m still following issues so that I’m up to speed when I’m able to post again. Thanks for your patience.

Sunday Rant

Random thoughts. When I woke this morning. I did my regular routine, turned on the TV and put on a drama program until the morning fog cleared from my mind, then I began watching news and opinion programs as well as going through the newspaper.

As I watched the current events opinion shows and read the paper I was struck by a couple of thoughts. First was when I heard discussion about Joe Biden, while talkings about his false statements and misstatements the panelists discussed wether they were intentional or an affect of his age. During the discussion a comment was made that Democrats and liberals won’t care because they’re looking for a candidate that can beat Trump. I don’t believe that, many want Trump to be a one term President but will not accept any conduct by a candidate in order to make that happen. I have no doubt that there are some that will but to characterize all that way is not fair, just as it wasn’t fair to characterize those that chose not to vote for Hillary Clinton in a derogatory fashion.

My other thought is in two parts. There have been derogatory posts about Senator Kamala Harris implying that her achievements and her political career only happened because of past affairs. These ignore Senator Harris’ education, her work and organizational skills and ability to motivate her campaign staff. Some of the same people posting these attacks on her didn’t have a problem with Stormy Daniels and others, including former South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford who as I’m writing this has announced he will challenge Donald Trump for the 2020 Republican nomination. Equal rights for women has to include political office and leadership roles, if “boys will be boys” is a way of excusing a male politician's behavior then you can’t hold women to a different standard.

The second part of my thought was if you’re looking at politicians to be a role model for your children you have a bigger problem! Instead of expecting a politician to be a role model for children how about you being that role model. Stop abdicating your responsibility as a parent, Grand parent, neighbor and demonstrate by your actions how to be a good person and citizen! That would include recognizing your shortcomings and being able to admit when you’re wrong and being able to say your sorry, being able to commit to improving your conduct.

Just as we seem to want to hold a politician we disagree with accountable we need to hold ourselves accountable!

That's my opinion, what's yours

Are Politicians serious about wanting gun control? NO, they are not!!

As I began to draft this my thoughts morphed into a discussion on gun control itself.  I realized that I was mixing the two issues, gun control and if politicians really want changes to our laws as they relate to firearm possession.  These two should be discussed but done so as individual topics in order that they each receive the consideration they should have, for that reason I will write a follow up article.


Over the past week America was witness to mass shooting incidents that took many lives.  Right on que politicians began to blame the NRA, lenient laws, the President’s statements and tone, Republican leadership and  the extremist “right wing”, they just shook the dust off an old script and away they went.  Before the scene was secure and it could be determined if the gunman acted alone, before the investigations could be conducted, even before the bodies of the dead were removed and returned to their loved ones so they could grieve, politicians began to express their “outrage” and demand more strict laws!


Their actions and how quickly they began placing blame without any information makes me wonder how sincere they are?  I said that politicians shook the dust off an old script because they once again said the same things that were said in the past.  I won’t say politicians like it when a mass casualty gun crime occurs but I will say that they believe in what Rahm Emanuel (former Chief of Staff for President Obama and former Mayor of Chicago) has said, “Don’t waste a crisis” and “You never let a serious crisis go to waste”.  However, they don’t act on the rest of the second quote which is “And what I mean by that it’s an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before.” 


If you think I’m wrong just take a moment and think, as soon as news alerts go out about an incident, politicians begin to fain anger and insist that “we” need stricter gun laws.  While first responders are still treating victims and ensuring that all suspects have been stopped and public safety is restored politicians run in front of news cameras to express outrage at our lax laws and then, almost as an afterthought express concern for those still alive and condolences for those that died.  What’s worse and helps make my point is the inevitable fundraising that occurs over a mass shooting, in some cases the fundraising begins while bodies are still laying where the victims fell.


Politicians aren’t sincere or serious about wanting gun control because we (society) don’t want them to be!  Oh, people will insist that I’m wrong and that I don’t know what the hell I’m talking about!  But I say I’m right because people want a reason to criticize those that have a different point of view then they do.  More recently people need another issue to use to demonstrate that the current occupant of the White House is to blame while not holding his predecessors responsible for incidents that occurred during their terms.  We want something else that we can use to condemn those that don’t share our point of view.  Fund raisers say send us your money so we can reduce violence, but have you noticed that they never tell you how they will do it.  I take that back, they tell you that with your financial help we will get members of the other political party voted out of office and then we can make changes.  My question is what changes?  The ability to implement changes already exists if we were serious about preventing such incidents in the future, but that would require us to work together instead of yelling at one another.  We would have to acknowledge those incidents in which a person legally possessing a firearm was able to stop some of these attacks.  We would have to accept that this is not a Republican or Democratic problem and we would have to start and put the blame where it belongs, on the offender.  We would have to blame the parent that left a firearm in a place where their angry or mentally ill child could take their gun.


We must stop seeing gun violence as a means to attack those that don’t share our same political views.  Until we can do that and stop looking for ways to financially benefit from a mass casualty incident meaningful changes will never happen.  The first step to reducing these mass casualty incidents and hopefully stop them is to acknowledge what went wrong and correct that.  If the current laws weren’t followed or someone chose to circumvent the laws, we need to hold that person(s) accountable regardless of their political or other affiliations!  Then we need to fix and enforce our current laws before creating new ones, but that leads into gun control which is part 2.


Politicians are supposed to be representatives of we the people so until we get serious about wanting gun control our politicians will continue their current agenda!  When will the body count reach a level that we and our representatives decide to get serious?  Sadly, I don’t think we’re there yet!!


That’s my opinion, what’s yours

Why do we need social media to validate our compassion?

There was a time when we didn't have the internet or social media yet people cared about social and political issues, they were able to express their concern and impact change.  So this begs the question; why do we have to post on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and other social media platforms in order to demonstrate our concern?  Why is it that if you don't post about an issue on these platforms it means that you don't care?

I'll use myself as an example and some of my friends may read this and say to themselves what was he thinking posting this, his partner is getting involved in social media and he just handed himself up! Well, here goes!

I really haven’t posted opinions on political (and other) issues on social media since January 2018 (hold on let me finish and I’ll answer what some may be thinking).  As I said some believe that you have to post an opinion on social media about issues and if you don’t it’s because you don’t care.  I care about issues and things happening in society, my not posting has nothing to do with a lack of concern.

Over the past few years people allowed politics and social media to take over their morals, take over their ability to respect others and their ability to control their anger. 

From time to time my partner would express concern with me about the anger some spewed, she was also concerned about my suffering some sort of retribution from those that didn’t like what I posted.  As time went on some people’s anger got to the point that I would receive hostile messages, when we would go out my partner would ask if I was carrying my firearm (I was active law enforcement at the time).  She knew that I love engaging in discussions on issues but her concern and worry finally reached a point last year that my partner asked me to stop posting on politics and some other issues on Facebook.  After a particular incident she called 3 times within 90 minutes, at first asking me to stop and by the third call pleading with me.  I tried to convince her that my friends maybe passionate about issues and disagree with me from time to time but there was no need to worry.  Those that had been hostile and vulgar weren’t friends of mine or people that I normally interacted with.

I finally had to face the fact that what I post, discussions and disagreements I had with people on social media was having an impact on her and agreed to stop posting.  Now here comes the part where I hand myself up.  After a couple of months I started making comments on things that others posted on Facebook and rationalized that I’m not posting, only responding to someone else’s post.  Yeah, I know it was BS.

During the past several months my partner has begun to get involved in social media and got to see for herself that she doesn’t need to worry about my friends response to things I express.  She has got to see that although we may have different political views on issues we will stand with each other in times of need and stand against violence.  My partner is now ok if I post from time to time, just asked that I be careful that someone (other than my friends) may be set off if they disagree with me.

This is a long way to say that I did not stop caring nor did I stop enjoying an exchange of ideas and varying points of view.  Our heart, our compassion and empathy for others didn't magically appear in us with the invention of the internet!  So I ask again, why do we have to post on social media in order to demonstrate that we care?  Why does our social media posts determine our humanity?

Maybe we should also pause for a moment and acknowledge that our social media posts have an effect of our loved ones even if that is not our intent.

That's my opinion, What's yours

Let's try this again

I’ve had a couple of false starts at posting articles again, however, I’m going to try and start again periodically writing.



Periodically I would write a quick note (via my cell phone) on Facebook about an issue, or in response to something a “Friend” had posted online.  Aside from those instances I stopped writing for this (or any other Blog).  There were a couple of reasons, first was that by the time I got home from work I couldn’t bring myself to sit in front of a computer and try to put my thoughts into an article.  Another reason is that most of the issues being talked about were related to healthcare, the ACA (i.e. “Obamacare”), expansion of Medicaid and similar issues.  In August of 2012 I began working in the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit for my state’s Attorney General, I felt it would not have been appropriate for me to write about those issues at the same time I was part of the enforcement entity.  Another reason is over the past 4 or 5 years we, as a society have changed, we went from being able to disagree with one another and discuss the reasons for our position/ opinion to a society in which it is more important to win!



We’ve gone from being able to disagree with another person and still acknowledge that they are a good person to only being able to see that they disagree with us which makes them bad.  Instead of treating another as we want to be treated, we’ve reached a point of tolerating and cheering violence against those we disagree with. No longer can we accept or tolerate varying points of view.



When I’ve been in a position where I had to write a message for a newsletter or website, I hated the deadline but enjoyed writing.  Now that I’m no longer working in an enforcement capacity; I have time, without conflicts, to share my thoughts and opinions.  I’m going to try writing articles again and perhaps provide a perspective you may not have thought about.  As I said in my introduction when I first started this Blog “I wanted to have somewhere in which different points of view can be shared”.  It is my hope that various opinions can be shared and discussed without hostility.  The key word being shared, that is the reason for the name of the Blog.  Should you choose to comment on something that I’ve posted please feel free to do so.



That’s my opinion, what’s yours