50+ die in a florida nightclub in a possible act of Islamic Terror. An explosion in an airport in China. And a car strikes 5 pedestrians in Las Vegas. The Texas Lt. Gov. quips and retracts ‘reap what you sow’ and Google suggests the news I would prefer is how the presidential candidates react. The world, the media and the words of discourse will become crippled to the ‘possible act of Islamic terror’ and retreat towards comfort; ignoring that the true obscenity is the “+” that follows the 50 — some lives are not even worth counting.
A Texas man is choked for smiling in a mugshot. CNN offers a glimpse into the internal court documents of the Stanford rape case. Hitler’s Mein Kampf is becoming a born-again best seller in Europe. And one year after the mass shooting in Charleston, South Carolina, the Washington post reports, all is the same. Do not smile. Be afraid.
Twin blasts near Damascus kill 12, wound dozens. Britons divided over being divided from EU. The struggling have nots of America — as Forbes magazine reports on the Federal Reserve — is now 76 million and counting, and nobody cares. And, the details of the Queen’s birthday street party situate over “A young man is skinned alive. A sign of new Taliban brutality”. Methods of death and trends of tragedy and fashion coalesce so I can be aware of both fashionable execution and the fashionable whereabouts of William, Kate and Harry without having to switch pages, modes or emotional disposition. God Save the Queen.
Donald Trump is running the same campaign that won him the GOP nomination — and that is, so says the Washington Post, a big problem. Xenophobia, misogyny and nationalism as policy are now a big problem — trending slightly lower than the death of 50+. And a rape victim in Qatar is jailed for adultery.
The Orlando Gay Club shooter is suspected of pledging his allegiance to ISIS. Russia sends submarines “prowling” through the atlantic to test our defenses. China and America are frenemies; Trump and Putin are lovers in the art of power. The lines between foe and friend blur and the 50+ lives in Orlando are now irrelevant as the focus moves to ISIS — the global threat is obviously something not in here, but out there.
And amongst the rubble of media…. sitting at the bottom:
A puff piece about a team of volunteers that work every month to rescue the graves of Jewish holocaust victims in Warsaw from plant overgrowth. Desperately trying to combat natures attempt to cast our tragedies into the realm of forgotten. As the article says, “nature has got the upper hand”.
I was shamed the other day for still supporting Bernie Sanders — idealism in the sport of an election is fine, but idealism for the sake of idealism is disastrous, sexist and an obvious indication of a character flaw. The NY times reflects that our compulsion with technology as depleted our ability to be reflective — and, it was once said, in a world of more and more information, we only have less and less meaning. Does the short news cycle of the 21st century beget a shortness of contemplation and reflection. Do I need to read, process and react with the same urgency that media fights for my clicks? We have progressed, or so it is assumed — as I can have Mein Kampf delivered to my door with expediency from Amazon Prime or instantly to my Kindle, how convenient. Does humanity — decency and morality — correlate with each new bell and whistle of each new iPhone release? At what rate does humanity upgrade its own firmware?
A violent uprising at a San Jose Trump rally — against a concerted effort to be rational, bold, mature and modern — a women gets egg on her face. With the rise of conflict and divide growing like a disease in the hearts of men, can we reflect on our past indifference, struggle and atrocities and not repeat our history? Or, shall we prove yet again, “nature has got the upper hand” — the modern era gets egg on its face.
Nothing's Sacred 