Category Archives: 2023 Grand Finale Tour

Resentment Rarely explodes in a rational manner

2023 Grand Finale Tour, Decline of the west, Extremism, guns, Hate, Mass killings, terrorism, violence

 

While we were in Arizona, a man in Utah killed his wife and 5 children because she filed for divorce?  Why?

Just like an economic bubble does not deflate in an orderly fashion., so my theory is that when resentment explodes it does not do so in a rational manner.  This is like the irrational hatred of the Ste. Anne Manitoba dairy farmer who a few years ago burned his farm to the ground including his cattle, after he could not settle his divorce with his wife as he would have liked. If he couldn’t have the farm no one else could either. Isn’t that what the new world disorder is all about?

Like a balloon rarely deflates in an orderly fashion, so resentment rarely explodes in a rational manner. That’s why resentment is so dangerous. This is particularly significant to the most dangerous people on the planet—young men. Jihadis and other extremist groups have learned how important young men are to their cause. That is why they work so hard to radicalize them. Many of the lone wolf killers that are so common are young men filled with resentment. Many of them live in a cauldron of hate.   The jihadis then take advantage of the resentment for their own purposes.

When society is in decline. resentment is amplified.

And they make us pay a hefty price.

 

Where guns are sacred and Kids not so Much

2023 Grand Finale Tour, Decline of the west, guns

 

I love the United States. It is an endlessly fascinating country, but not always in a good way.

In Phoenix this month, a very young child found a loaded gun in his apartment belonging to his parents, played with it, and accidentally shot himself. Fortunately, the child did not die as a result. That child was lucky.

Earlier this month in Newport News, Virginia, a 6-year-old student was able to access a loaded handgun, bring it into school and intentionally shot his first-grade teacher.

On PBS television News which we watched every day here in Arizona,  I heard a woman explain how her 6-year-old daughter who really liked that teacher who advocated for her, was terrified by the incident. It not only the direct victims of gun violence that are affected. The effects radiate through the schools or other places of violence.

In the United State where we now live for 3 months, gunshot wounds are now the leading cause of death for children under the age of 18 years! I find that astounding. It tells me a lot about the society in which we are now living.

According to Josh Sugarmann the Executive Director of the Violence Policy Center at the federal level there are no federal standards about the safe storage of fire arms. Standards in states of course vary widely. A 2018 survey that indicated roughly 4.5 million minors in America live in a household with an unlocked loaded firearm.

This is despite the fact that there has been a tremendous increase in fire power among Americans. Currently, there are 20 million AR-15s in the country belonging to private citizens. Yet around the country children are continuing to die from gunshot wounds.

There are also rising numbers of suicides by guns in America. I know it can happen anywhere. It actually happened in Steinbach. But the numbers in our country are dwarfed by the per capita numbers in this country.  Sugarmann also said, “But, having said that, one of the most important things to note is that, when you talk to the experts regarding child safety, the most important thing you can do if you have a child is not have a gun in the home. All too often, we think that, as parents, as guardians, you can safely secure the gun and the child will never find it. Unfortunately, we know all too often that that is untrue”.

William Brangham, a PBS reporter said this to Sugarmann on a related issue:

“… you have documented quite clearly how the gun industry is targeting children as potential customers. And I saw this flyer that I want to put up. This is a flyer for what’s called the JR-15. It’s a kid-sized gun styled after the AR-15. The original tagline for this gun says: “Looks, feels and operates just like mom and dad’s gun.” And the logo is this skull and crossbones with a baby’s pacifier in its mouth.”

 

 Sugarmann said the firearms industry was actually copying what the tobacco industry did when it started to lose customers. It upped the anti. They started to target women, members of minority groups, and now children. And they do it with what Sugarmann called “grotesque graphics.” When people complained they toned down the ads, but they continued to market guns to children. Is that not grotesque enough? As Sugarmann said, they mad a gentler to their approach to the marketing, but still, “the bottom line, they’re marketing a junior AR-15 to children.”

Some say, that for Americans, guns are more important than children. Guns are sacred; kids not so much.  How do you deny that in the fact of such evidence?

And who can deny that such a wonderful country is in serious decline?

 

Problems must be squarely faced

2023 Grand Finale Tour, Climate change, Woke

 

I  like listening to UN Secretary-General António Guterres who always speaks bluntly. He never holds back on his punches. recently,  he said, “We can’t confront problems unless we look them squarely in the eye. And we are looking into the eye of a Category 5 Hurricane. Our world is plagued by a perfect storm of problems.” He was referring to climate change, coronavirus, the war in Ukraine, and the possible recession that seemed to be advancing.

This is an important lesson. American conservatives have not learned it. They want the facts of racism in their country to be sugar-coated for themselves and for their children. This is an awful mistake.

In fact, in my opinion this is what it means to be woke. Confronting problems rather than evading them. That’s why so many conservatives don’t want to be woke.

 

Persistence in Folly

2023 Grand Finale Tour, True Believer, Trumpism

 

Shortly after we arrived in Arizona, it was the second anniversary of the attempted coup by violent supporters of the former president Donald Trump. It was a day that will live on in infamy.

 

Surprisingly, we learned that day that  Republicans in some states like Arizona and Pennsylvania are still challenging the outcome of the 2020 election as stolen despite a complete absence of credible evidence. More than half of Republicans believe that the election was stolen. That is why they continue to support Trump and even finance his endless litigation despite the fact that he loses every case. Don’t they have anything better to do with their money?

Their folly is nothing if not persistent. One of my favourite quotes from the Bible is this: “As a dog returneth  to his vomit, so a fool  returneth to his folly .’.

 

Exposing the Truth

2023 Grand Finale Tour, Indigenous--Indian Residential Schools, Travel

 

One of the things I have been doing a lot of here in Arizona is going for long walks. I have enjoyed this immensely.  I have  often listened to podcasts as I walk.  I particularly like CBC podcasts. Now I can listen to their radio shows when it suits me. Sometimes technology is a blessing.

While in Arizona, I listened to an interesting podcast by Connie Walker a Cree journalist. It was called “Exposing the Truth.” She quoted Justice Murray Sinclair who was the Chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission ‘TRC’) who said at the last of its events: “There is not a single indigenous person in Canada today who has not been touched by the legacy of residential schools.” I mulled that one over. It must be true it comes from Murray Sinclair.

 

The TRC’s final report directly linked the violence indigenous women suffered and the violence indigenous women face today. The TRC exposed this uncomfortable truth. Indigenous women are 3 times as likely to be the victim of a violent  crime compared to other women in Canada. And indigenous women are 7 times more likely to be murdered  than other women in Canada.

 

And yet some good people ask where is the data that establishes system racism in Canada. The fact that such people ask such a question in light of these facts itself demonstrates that systemic racism lives in Canada today.

Land of the Free because of the Brave

2023 Grand Finale Tour, Rebel

 

Brave?  You gotta be kidding

The sign out front on our yard which we were renting in Arizona said: “Land of the Free because of the brave.”  I agree with this sentiment, but this is not just because of the military. I admit a brave military is important. We all need a military to defend us in case of attack. This year Russia, under Putin, proved that there are still predatory countries out there willing to take astonishingly aggressive measures to exploit a country. It is naive not to have any defence.

 

However, I believe domestic enemies actually pose a larger threat than foreign enemies to countries such as the USA and Canada. Many of those domestic enemies falsely claim to be inspired by the ideal of freedom, but actually they actively work against freedom. To them freedom means the freedom to do anything they want. That is not freedom; that is anarchy. It takes even more courage to confront domestic enemies. For example, it takes a great deal of courage to speak up against our neighbours when they are speaking nonsense. Our domestic enemies must be resisted. The domestic mob is as dangerous as any foreign enemy and is often even more difficult to oppose. These domestic mobs typically demand conformity to their tarnished and narrow views. We must dissent from the views of those around us when they are based on fear and ignorance rather than critical thinking and compassion. Such oppression is every bit as bad as anything our foreign enemies could impose on us.

Sacred stuff

2023 Grand Finale Tour, Simple Life

 

One thing that really struck me as we saw Arizona for the first time in 3 years was the large number of new storage places.  A few years ago these were extremely rare. Now they are ubiquitous. Everyone in Canada and the United States needs extra storage space. Even though house sizes had doubled in size in the last couple of decades while family sizes shrunk, people needed more storage space.  This is the product of a society enamoured of stuff. Devoted to stuff. As a result, we have a society of stuff. Sacred Stuff.

 

I have also noticed in the neighbourhood that everyone seems to have a truck. A huge truck on the driveway. Is that because they can’t get it into their garage. Is it too big for the garage? Eventually I learned that many of the garage were stuffed with stuff! Huge mounds of stuff inside garages. I was too shy to photograph them. What would people think?

Chris and I know a person in Winnipeg who is a hoarder. Really a hoarder. Her house we have heard is stuffed with stuff. No one is allowed in to see the state of the house for she is too embarrassed. But recently she had a problem.  Her heating system was malfunctioning so she had no heat in her house. That is a pretty big problem in Manitoba in winter. But she did not want to allow anyone to come into her house. She refused to allow any worker to come in to fix the furnace. Therefore she lived in a house in Manitoba without heat in January! That is insane. That is more insane than having a house stuffed with junk.

Here in Arizona, I have seen many garages filled with stuff. As a result their vehicles are left on their driveway permanently even though that is very tough on tires in the desert sun. Why do people have so much stuff they can’t use it? These often are not rich people. But they are dysfunctional people.

Is that not a sign of spiritual decline?

I am an inspector of sunsets

2023 Grand Finale Tour, Sunsets

I was hoping for a sunset. I am an inspector of sunsets much like Henry David Thoreau was an unofficial inspector of snow storms around Walden Pond. He wanted to explore well the area around him in Concord New Hampshire and I want to explore well the land around me in. San Tan Valley Arizona. The sunset was mostly a dud. It is impossible to predict when a great sunset will be produced by Mother Nature. The one essential, besides the sun, is clouds. But those clouds have to be just the right amount—not too much and not to sparse—and they must be like that at the right time. You need a Goldilocks moment.  And, of course, clouds move and shift in shape. To finding a classic sunset is more luck than brains.  Or perhaps someone with a lot more brains than I can be better at it than I am.

I wanted to photograph the sunset of course, but the most important part was the experience. If you are tired of sunsets, you are tired of life. John D. MacDonald that great writer of pulp fiction, now deceased, once said, that if sunsets occurred only once a year, we would be forced to declare a national holiday on that day.

This year I had a second reason to look for sunsets. I thought sunsets were a symbol of one of the things I wanted to learn about on this trip. I wanted to learn about western civilization, particularly in America and Canada, in decline. Are we in the sunset years of that civilization? Sometimes it seems that way. In fact, to me it seems that way more often than it used to. In fact, on this trip I found some shocking news about exactly that. I intend to blog about that. It amazed me how prescient my theme was.

I did capture a couple of images that pleased me. They showed the clouds reflecting the pink light.  Clouds reflecting the colour of the sun obscured by cloud in part but not completely, was the image I was after. I am a sucker for the blaze of colours in a sunset. And no two sunsets are the same.

Sometimes the light in the eastern sky is more interesting than the western sky. Sometimes the light is reflected back to the west where the sun is dropping. Today was like that. Again, sometimes the best sunset shows only the after glow in the eastern sky. Look around, you might be surprised. I was this sunset that I nearly passed by.

Finally, a true inspector of sunsets, like me, must always remember not to give up on sunsets too soon. Persistence is essential in the pursuit of sunsets. The best sunset is revealed after the sun is gone. You might be surprised. I was surprised today!

First day in San Tan Valley

2023 Grand Finale Tour

After metaphorically meandering through Kansas, while we actually drove right through it we passed through Oklahoma, Texas and New Mexico, and finally made it to Arizona—our destination.

We met the owners of the home we were renting who filled us in about how the house worked, gave us the keys, and we were ready to get at it. So what did we do? Absolutely nothing. Well we bought important supplies, including Zaya rum that here is priced like an ordinary rum while in Canada it is priced like a premium rum. Why is that? Now we were ready.

The morning felt great. For the first time in nearly a week we had no moving plans. We could sleep as long as we wanted to. Of course, by then I was in the habit of getting up early and could not get out of it. We decided to do something revolutionary. Sit and read! Fantastic. This was a great luxury.  This was the benefit of retirement and visiting a place like Arizona. We could read and relax. And we did.

Western civilization is not in decline. It is alive and well.

 

Give a shrug for Tularosa New Mexico

2023 Grand Finale Tour, Decline of the west

 

On our way to Arizona, we stopped for lunch in Tularosa New Mexico where the recent  snow was a distant memory. The elevation was too low for snow. In the American southwest elevation is everything.

We stopped at the Rustic Inn for lunch because the billboards made it look good. It looked good, but that was about where good parked. This was another restaurant that was severely understaffed. Like nurses the staff were grossly overworked.

The staff though was not surly, but it was handicapped by missing items. Most items on the menu were not available. Most tables had not been cleaned. My wooden chair was extremely wobbly. Hardly surprising when I notice one leg was about 1 inch shorter than the rest. This was more than wobbly. It was downright unstable. The napkins were dirty. Would you rather have no napkin or a dirty napkin? The elderly patron sitting at the next table looked at us with benign resignation. A shrug told the whole story. The waitress came to warn us to order as soon as possible as a large family came in and soon no one else would get any food. It could only serve one family at a time. The food when it arrived more or less on time was tolerable. Our standards were held in suspension today.

The American southeast  seems to be in serious decline. The restaurants here tell the stroy of that decline.

A shrug was our response too.