Good News!

A huge sense of relief followed by a strong dose of hope that the future is not inevitably dismal.  That was my reaction to the news that Biden was leaving and Harris would be the likely successor.

It is early days, but it seems that the party will rally around Kamala and when she starts going after Trump it will truly be a new ball game.  I am counting on a well managed, hard hitting campaign that will appeal to now-undecided voters, young people, Black women and others now on the fence.  Should the campaign not be strong all bets are off and we will likely be left with a Trump victory.

So for the first time in a long while, my political mood is positive.  Definitely a good feeling!

A Positive View!

Howard Zinn was an historian and educator.  My daughter recently sent me something he said that I want to share with you.  We had been talking about how bad things have become and I expressed a sense of resignation that the world was going to improve.  What Zinn said didn't relieve all of my concerns, but I found it a useful point of view:

"To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic.  It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion,  sacrifice, courage, kindness.  What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives.  If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something.  If we remember those times and places - and there are so many - where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction.

And if we do act, in however small a way, we don't have to wait for some good utopian future.  The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory."

 

Out of Patience!

I'm out of patience with Joe Biden.  Its now about his ego, not saving the country from the convicted sociopath.  He's living in an out-of-date world that values the plucky underdog who won't give up.  For sure his cognition isn't what it ought to be, but take that and add to it the out-of-touch psychology of this guy and his collaborating family and you've got a toxic mix that guarantees they will be defeated.

I'm ten years older than Biden and fortunately am not in a cognitive decline.  So I can see the world as a generational peer of Biden, and it doesn't look rosy.  I would not turn over the power to run things to our generation.  Even if we're in good shape, a younger group with some future still available is a better choice.

I am under no illusion that Biden will see beyond his ego and step aside.  Too bad for us all!  

Debate!

A friend said the debate made our choice clear:  Its either Lear or Caligula.

I've been looking for some bright spots.  Nowhere to be found.  Spin aside, a disaster for the good guys.

Good luck for us all. 

Frustrated!

I haven't posted anything in a long time.  Was it because I haven't had anything to say?  No, its not that.  Not a day goes by when I don't think about what I have to say.  Yet, I still don't say it.  Why?  I have concluded that my silence comes from a sense of frustration associated with a realization that my comments would be negative observations about what is going on in the world around me and that nothing I would say will make a difference or change anything.

So I'm breaking my silence not to add a few negative observations but to ask myself what is generating my silence, what is behind it.  I am not looking for THE answer.  I'm more interested in delving into the question to see what I can see rather than solving or resolving where my action, or lack of action, comes from.

This may take a few posts, so bear with me.

Aging, getting old, realizing that the time I have left is limited, has my attention in recent days much more than ever before.  As I think about the upcoming election, the next World Cup, a next birthday I wonder whether I'll be alive to see it happen.  I seem to be in good health, at 91 I have less stamina than in the past, but my cognition has not deteriorated and for the most part I live a life similar to what it has been when I was much younger.  But until recently the thought of maybe not being alive in the not-too-distant future didn't occupy my thoughts.

So maybe these new thoughts are, for me, part of the aging process.

I notice these days that gratitude is not an abstract concept.  I am consciously grateful for my blessings.  I am grateful every day for the life I have.  I consider my relationship with gratitude as a very positive aspect of being 91.  I take nothing for granted.  I don't think I am owed what I have.  Nor have I don't anything to deserve it.  I'm a lucky guy and freely acknowledge my good fortune.

About the many negative observations that I could talk about today?  For now I'll let them be and focus more on the stuff that's really important.

More later . . .
 

 

India!

India began voting this week.  Nearly a billion people exercising their freedom.  Seeing long lines waiting their turn took me back to when I was living in India (60 years ago) and witnessed this process firsthand.  It was a moving experience then and it is moving now as I remember.

That was a long time ago and today's India is in many ways a very different place, not all of which is positive.  But setting aside the Hindu-first politics and authoritarianism of today's leaders, much is for the better or endures.  And an example of what has endured is peaceful democratic elections.

Inspiring! 

Crime in the City!

In the last few years we keep hearing how messed up San Francisco is.  Crime.  Homelessness.  Drugs.  And more, all bad.  Yes, there are problems that need to be addressed.  But is it as bad as the critics say?  My instinct tells me that it is not.  But every day when I read the local press I see that the negativity receives a lot of attention.  It becomes a self-fulfilling reality.

Here are some headlines in the stories from the San Francisco Chronicle today.  All this in the first few pages of the main section:

Mystery problem stopping Coit Tower elevator service

Hate crime victim advocates for empathy

Man charged with hate crime in vandalism of S.F. mosque

Woman badly injured in S.F. Tenderloin beating

Man convicted of murder in 2021 BART shooting

EPA fines East Bay cities, utilities for releasing sewage into S.F. bay

S.F. police say they have adopted reforms

Biotech firms to lay off more than 500 workers

Richmond man charged in fatal shooting

San Jose State student faces charges in string of arsons on campus

That's just today's stories.  It is like this every day.  No wonder so many think our wonderful city is not a great place to live.