Depressed and Blessed

 Recently while just sitting on my couch and thinking about what is going on in the world, I found myself overcome with depression. We have just gone through hurricane Helene. Seeing all the suffering of the people who lost everything in the storm from Florida to North Carolina was heartbreaking. It was even more painful was the fact that I live in the Tampa Bay area.

 I have visited the beaches, coastal cities, and even the inland areas where flooding took place. At the same time my home was spared from any damage, even though we live a mile away from the water in one of the southernmost points of Tampa, near MacDill Airforce Base. The thoughts of what these families will be facing from now well into the future is mindboggling and heart wrenching. 

The whole picture of the toll global warming has taken on our country and the world is horrific. There is really no place to escape. There are heat domes, fires, tornados, hurricanes, floods caused by rains in some areas and droughts in others. 

There are displaced children all over the world who are suffering from starvation and wars. I cannot count the number of requests I receive daily to Feed the Children, Feed the Poor, and others causes. Indians, Africans, Middle Eastern, European, and American. 

The daily news shows us the pictures of those killed in the senseless war in Gaza and Ukraine. These are not soldiers fighting soldiers, but innocent men, women, and children caught trying to live their daily lives. The cities and homes destroyed, and nothing left but crumbled rock. There is nothing left to even be inhabitable. This all based on one ideology that opposes another and has designs to eradicate the other.

Then there is the issue of mass shooting in America and the fact that innocent and not so innocent people are killed every day by guns in our country. I cannot for the life of me understand why it should be legal to have assault guns in this country except for the military and police. The fact that the name itself "assault" indicates that these are meant to assault and kill people should be enough to say they should be allowed for everyday use. The idea that "guns don't kill people, people kill people" is asinine. It is depressing to see another memorial for children or adults killed in mass shooting.

 As I tear up for the Hurricane victim in Florida, the flood victim in North Carolina, the fire victim in California, the starving child in Sudan, and the bloody child in Gaza, I am overwhelmed by the thought of how blessed I am. As a Christain, I believe that God is in control and all the good fortune that has been bestowed on me is from the grace of God. Every day I will thank him for my blessings and conduct myself with the thought of WWJD. I also pray that this country and the world will become a better place for those who will remain after I have passed from this place.

 

Justice-Maybe/Maybe Not

 Recently there has been so much activity with our justice system that it's hard not to discuss. Not only has an ex-president been indited for several criminal crimes, but I have watched tv programs about people incarcerated for crimes they didn't commit as well as those who may have been guilty but never faced punishment. My local newspaper ran a weekly series about a person who spent years in prison for a crime they didn't commit and now what happens next for them. The one thing that stands out for me is that while our system of justice is probably the best in the world it is complicated, and those with power or money can manipulate it, while common or poor people don't really stand much of a chance. Also, whether you believe it or not race has a play in decisions by a supposedly blind justice system. I know this for a fact, as I watched my daughter try to navigate through the legal system after a series of poor choices in her twenties. It is discouraging to see white people extended chances that she would never get.  Charges such as hitting a pedestrian while DWI, even though your driver's license had been suspended three times and two other DWI on your record.

While the things that Trump has done including inciting a riot at the Capital, retaining classified documents after leaving office, tax fraud, and probably many other things that were never pursued he uses his money and lawyers to delay trails, find loopholes, and will eventually not face what any reasonable individual would consider cut and dry crimes. His New York trial regarding misrepresentation of campaign finances was a weak case at best and 34 charges all about the same crime is overkill even for someone like me. At the same time the current President's son is on trial for buying a gun and checking a box that said he wasn't an addict at the time, when he was. It was a first offense, he didn't even load the gun, and had it for eleven days. Anyone else would have gone to court got a fine and a probated sentence, but not in this politically charged environment. 

It is painful to see these things happening and envisioning a future where the rich and powerful control the system in a way that maintains their power over minorities or people who disagreed with them.  People say that things swing like a pendulum, and that we must speak out to clean up the system and the partisanship politics that has helped to politicize democracy and its many great systems and institutions. Unfortunately, I feel like this is not a pendulum but a sludge hammer, that is on the downswing.