2/16/24

 Friday, February 16, 2024

In bed at 9, awake and up at 5:04.  Let Lilly out at 5:24.  22°, high of 29°, cloudy/partly cloudy day ahead.  Wind is NW at 8 mph, 7-17/22.  Sunrise at 6:48, sunset at 5:the23, 10+35.  Solar noon at 12:05, alt. 35°

Treadmill; pain.  Very bad wrist and hand pain; it Is painful this morning to type with all fingers, not only from the right wrist/hand/forearm pain but also from the bad left shoulder pain.   Another day off.  My bad 

I'm grateful that I posted these thoughts on FB a year ago today:  

February 16, 2023  · 

Every now and then I am blessed with the knowledge that I am living in Heaven, that this is it. that this is as good as it gets, and that this is heavenly.  I silently shout Hallelujah! and am grateful.  Sometimes I reach for my iPhone and take a photo of Geri on the sofa watching tv or knitting something for someone or studying something on her iPad with Lilly stretched out next to her or lying on the floor between us.  I take the photo because I know I am in Heaven and I suppose I can capture the moment in pixels, as if I could rekindle the momentary insight simply by looking at the photo.  I can't of course - pains, worries, or other distractions get in the way - but I am thankful for these moments when they come.  I had one this morning while making a pot of half-caf, half-decaf coffee, anticipating the coming snowstorm, grateful for the gift that my dear wife and life partner is,  and for my dog.

I needed to read this post again, and to re-experience this gratitude because I have been dealing with quite a bit of pain all day.  As usual, it is worse in the morning, but it's a problem all day: shoulder, wrist, pack, some CPP and RP.   

Is it racist to acknowledge the truth about urban gun violence?  David von Drehle's opinion piece in this morning's WaPo on the mass shooting after Kansas City's Super Bowl Parade  includes this: "The problem: young people, mostly boys, caught in a culture of violence, who use guns to settle their disputes."  What's missing?  The word "Black" in front of "boys."Years ago, news media outlets regularly provided the racial group of persons arrested for various crimes, at least when the person arrested was Black.  They often posted unflattering mug shots of Black arrestees.  A crescendo of opposition to these practices arose, claiming that the practices were racist and intended to instill fear of Black people, and the practice stopped.  Now the media has gone the other way, declining to mention race at all, sometimes even in descriptions of missing children.  Is it true that urban gun violence is overwhelmingly a Black phenomenon, indeed a matter of Black-on-Black crime?  This is not to say that gun violence does not occur in other minority communities, notably Hispanic, but only to point out that gun violence is commonplace in Black communities, communities in which gun ownership is also commonplace, usually because of fear of gun violence or of other crime.  In any event, it appears to be true that inner-city Black neighborhoods are saturated with guns.  My experience as a member of an inner-city parish for many years and as the manager of an inner-city community center confirms this belief.  Is it also true that White communities are saturated with guns?  It's hard to know.  It is generally accepted that there are more firearms in America than there are people so that, on average, every American owns 1.02 guns (or so).  Do my neighbors keep a gun in their homes?  My friends?  If they do, is it a long gun used for hunting or a handgun?  My hunch is that few of my neighbors or friends own handguns.  I suspect most don't own a hunting rifle or shotgun either, though I don't know.  In any case, the problem in the inner-city Black communities is not hunting rifles or shotguns; it is handguns and their easy availability to young men.

I make this point not to suggest that American Blacks are violent people, or criminally disposed, but rather to point out that our society has so far ignored the plight of our most-disfavored, most mistreated, poorest, least educated, most unemployed, most incarcerated minority that it is no surprise that its frustrated, hopeless, spiritually emasculated young men arm themselves and kill.  “I and the public know / What all schoolchildren learn, / Those to whom evil is done / Do evil in return.”

 I CAN'T CONTINUE OR COMPLETE THESE THOUGHTS B/C OF PERSISTENT PAIN.  I CAN'T THINK CLEARLY, AND COHERENTLY.