I remember when I was young, life was so much simpler. There were three
channels on the television, the programming came on about 4pm and went
off at midnight. The rest of the time there was a test pattern on the screen.
The news came on during the dinner hour and the local news came on at 10pm.
The newsmen were consummate reporters. They reported what had happened
without hype, and people trusted what they said; Huntley and Brinkley, Cronkite,
Douglas Edwards. They had gravitas. Every home had their favorite news
channel; ABC, NBC, or CBS. In our house it was CBS and Walter Cronkite.
Shopping was easier also. In our neighborhood there was an A&P, and a National
Tea, of course we only bought canned goods there, as the rest was purchased at
the bakery, butcher shop, and the green grocer. Shopping was an all day affair.
What ice cream? There was a soda fountain in any drug store or, my favorite,
the ice cream parlor. There they scooped ice cream out of huge tubs and into a
cake cone, or into a cardboard container to take home. There were three flavors
to choose from; vanilla, chocolate and strawberry. That's it! The biggest choice
I had as a child was at the penny candy counter. There was so much to choose
from, with a nickel you could fill a small, white paper sack with enough sweets
to rot your teeth through the newsreel, the coming attractions, the movie short, the
cartoon and the feature film, longer if you bought a jaw breaker.
My life was so innocent then, or perhaps I just thought so because in my childish
mind my life was idyllic. Even though we seemed to go from one war to another.
We had hardly returned to normal after WWII when we were embroiled in Korea.
That endless slog culminated in a truce, and lead into the Cold War. My life went
from coupons for meat, shoes and gasoline and saving string for the 'war effort' to
hiding in a bomb shelter my senior year in high school. Then there was Viet Nam
and after that the Iraq war which continues still today. In endless succession the
crisis came and went.
Perhaps I was more resilient all those many years ago. Because today I feel as though
I am being crushed under the weight of all that is occurring. The television news is
on twenty-four hours a day and all of it is depressing. There are only two choices;
news slanted to the right or news slanted to the left. I solve that problem by watching
the BBC and PBS.
It seems like there is a new emergency every day. Just when you think it can't get any
worse, when the night is the only refuge you have left, when you can close your eyes
and pretend that everything is alright; you awaken the next day to worsening news.
This has not escaped the notice of certain Washington operatives of both political
persuasions. They are playing 'war games' with a different scenario each time.
Players in these games, besides the political hacks, are constitutional lawyers and
certain journalists. Each plays a role in the opposing campaigns. Biden's and Trump's.
And there are roles for the election officials and court justices. There are several
outcomes to the November election; too close to call on election night, a Biden
landslide, a very narrow win for Biden, and Trump winning the electoral vote but
losing the popular vote by a huge margin.
Trump has already said he will not accept the results of the election if he feels it is
fraudulent in any way. And Donald has a lot of ways to find fraud and challenge
the vote count. This will not be the Bush/Gore election. The Democrats will not
go quietly into the night as they did before. And Trump's supporters will not stand for
a court decision giving the election to Biden. The best we can hope for is a land-
slide by either side.
Even with a decisive win, the economic picture is bleak at best, and that is an optimistic
projection. Joblessness will probably remain above 10% thru 2021. The GDP won't
climb back into positive territory until the second quarter of 2021. And even when the
economy is on a sound footing, it will not be the same as it was in January 2020. But
if you're a betting man, the market will continue to post unsupported gains, until the
bubble burst that is.
So, if looking at the economic landscape isn't depressing enough, we have the
pandemic which continues to flourish unabated. And the CDC says this isn't even
the second wave, it is still the first wave. The president continues to ignore the virus
in the hope that one day it will go away, like he promised, he will eventually be
right. Trump is playing a game of what I don't know cannot hurt me. It's a little
like playing peek-a-boo with a toddler. But it can hurt me how am I supposed to
know how many people are ill and where are they located. How can we protect
ourselves without information?
As though this is not enough, there are still protest marches nearly every night. They
are growing and expanding, as varied as the injustices which cry out for redress. The
marchers are peaceful, calling attention to the problems of racial injustice and economic
disparity. These marches keep the problems front and center and give a peaceable outlet
to those who feel that they are being ignored by their elected officials. But that is not
sitting well with the 'law and order' president. He has ordered federal marshals in
unmarked cars and in uniforms without insignias to break up the peaceful demonstrations.
Violence begets violence. It is playing well to a certain audience, but that audience is
getting smaller.
I try when I write this meaningless bit of fluff, to keep the topics current and relevant.
There is usually something of interest that I can pound out nine hundred to a
thousand words about. But lately I am inundated by things happening in this country
and around the world so that I find it difficult to pick just one. Its a lot like when
I was that little girl in front of the candy counter, and I get the same bellyache from both.
I'm just sayin'
