Headline Washington Post
Santiago Dreaming
The Pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela is a centuries old trek across northern Spain done by following "The Camino de Santiago", the road to Santiago. Before February of 2001 I had not heard of "The Camino" nor of the Pilgrimage. By the end of October of that year I was in Santiago after completing the walk myself. I thought that when I reached Santiago my journey was over but I see now that my journey started way before I got to Spain and still has not ended.
Thursday, May 30, 2024
Sunday, August 06, 2023
Sunday, May 28, 2023
Sunday, January 29, 2023
What's Going On?
Mother, mother
There's too many of you crying
Brother, brother, brother
There's far too many of you dying
Tyre Nichols was calling for his mother as Memphis, Tennessee police officers were beating him to death. Typing that sentence makes me want to cry as I did when I first heard about it.
As we were watching the news report on the release of the video of Tyre Nichols murder, my husband commented that at least the killing wasn't racial since no White officers were involved. I said he was wrong, it was racial. Tyre Nichols was stopped because he was a Black man. Tyre Nichols was profiled by Memphis cops who assumed he was linked to something criminal just because he was Black. That is racist. How could those Black cops be racist? Because as cops they were taught to have a Them Against Us mindset. They were taught that Them are the enemy and a danger to the entire police force and society. They were also taught that everyone who isn't a White, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant (WASP) is more likely to be a Them. They were taught that they were righteous men doing the righteous job of keeping society from descending into chaos and, as we all know by now, righteous men are natural predators.
Add into that mixture our country's mass descent into cognitive dissonance. We have members of Congress who have swore to uphold the US Constitution passing laws that curtail some American citizens constitutional right to vote. We have members of the US Supreme Court rejecting the right of women citizens to make their own health choices based on the Justices' own religion beliefs in a rejection of our 1st Amendment protection against the government making any one religion the only governmental approved religion. We have followers of Christ who spout words of hate and threaten do violence against anyone who does not believe what they believe. We have Racists, Bigots, and Sexist men who can only feel better about themselves by thinking that their skin color, religion, or gender makes them better that other human beings when deep down inside they know that none of this is true. And we have Black cops, who have faced racial discrimination as Black men, beating another Black man to death.
When confronted with the mismatch between what a person thinks and how they behave, that person's reaction can be anger or even rage. I'll bet that the cognitive dissonance experienced by those cops caused them to strike and kick Tyre Nichols even harder to release some of the discomfort they felt as Black men preying on another Black man.
The whole thing is disgusting and sickening. It's also an indictment of our society.
#TyreNichols #CopViolence #PoliceBrutality
Saturday, June 25, 2022
Sunday, March 13, 2022
Let's Do The Time Warp, Again
Ugh, I been up 2 1/2 hours and I already want to go back to bed. Damn you, Daylight Saving Time!
#EndDaylightSavingTimeFriday, March 04, 2022
Living In Trump Country
I was at the grocery store earlier today when an oblivious old white man managed to walk into my cart. I stopped. He started to apologize as he turned to walk away but did a double take and then angerly said, "Why don't you watch where you are going?"
Monday, February 28, 2022
Dog Tales
That was a long weekend. On Saturday night Belle had a seizure at 11:15 PM and we had to take her to the emergency vet. Bob called first and got a voice message saying they were no longer a 24 hr emergency vet and gave the phone numbers of 2 other vets. The first one said they were very busy and it would be 4 hrs before Belle would be seen. The second one was a vet clinic where Belle has been seen before and after we carried Belle to the car, we headed there. Belle went right in and after 2 hrs we got to take her home. She walked into the house by herself but was still very agitated post-seizure. She finally calmed down around 4:30 AM and went to sleep. She woke up at her usual time (7:00 AM) Sunday morning, went potty, got her meds and had some breakfast. She was still tired so I wrapped in blankets and put her in her bed on the front porch since that is her favorite place to be. She is doing well this morning and I will be calling her regular vet later to make an appointment so they can check her out.
Saturday, February 12, 2022
Moving On
'Cause there's a place in the sun
Where my poor restless heart's gotta run
There's a place in the sun
And before my life is done
Gotta find me a place in the sun
I think it is time to announce a change in my life. In a few months my husband and I will be moving to Virginia. We are moving to the same town my sister Maura lives in which is why we picked it. I am sorry to leave the state I grew up in but I am so happy I will be closer to my sister. It's a big change but Bob and I have decide now is time to make it.