Quick prayer

Lord, help me to remember that my daughter is only 6 years old now. And to remember that there are parents of 20 kids who would give anything to have their kids drive them nuts just one more time.

For what it's worth (Sandy Hook)

When something like the shooting in Newtown, Conn., happens, it triggers a wave of emotions. It also triggers a wave of writing, some good, and some ... um, perhaps "well-meaning" is the right phrase. I won't pretend this is the former, but it certainly is the latter.

1) We are giving far too much weight to the threats of a certain "church" (I won't say its name, because that would give credibility to them. I have a problem with the fact that enough people know its name.) to demonstrate at Newtown memorial services. They don't deserve our outrage or our acknowledgement. The best thing we could do is to ignore them, because their greatest fear is to be irrelevant. And while people I love and respect have expressed a willingness to go to Connecticut and join a human wall in silent protest, that thought, though noble, is acknowledging their existence.

2) For that matter, it never ceases to amaze me how simple Twitter must be to use. Because simple minds can get on there and say anything. Go to deadspin.com and look up "Obama," and check out the reactions to his speech pre-empting Niners-Pats on Sunday night. Again, I don't want to say any more, because that gives these nitwits credibility.

3) Finally, on the topic of social media, its power was on display over the weekend. And that wasn't a good thing (see the above two entries). Yes, there are authentic tributes to the victims already online. But for all the skepticism the news media is greeted with, not to mention the downright inaccuracies in some initial reports, people are so easily willing to hit the "Share" button on a story that may still be sketchy. And again, these are well-meaning (good grief, someone get me a thesaurus before I use that again), but we need the truth. Please, someone check out snopes.com before forwarding that.

4)I also have somewhat of a problem with people calling this a "tragedy." Yes, the deaths of 20 children ages 6-7 (and the adults who died defending them) is tragic. But it was murder. I had the same problem with this characterization of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. 

5) My wife and I talked to our children (8 and 6) about the shooting last night. We did this to prepare them, since we figured they would hear about it at school and we wanted to be their source of information. Plus, we believe in being somewhat straightforward about these things. We also wanted to reassure them, which is tough to do, when you aren't reassured yourself as a parent.  

6) Finally, anyone who immediately turned this into a pro-gun vs. anti-gun debate was really missing the point. Yes, gun laws should be discussed, but so should mental health. There is more than one issue here.  

But here's the greater point: Some people did this in search of answers. And yes, we need an answer to "Why?" above all else. Problem is, there may be no answer(s). We are trying to make sense of the senseless. We are trying to rationalize the irrational. It may be as simple as there are some messed-up motherfuckers on the planet who do things "normal" people won't understand. Which is frustrating, but sadly, true.

Prayers and thoughts

This is not any kind of a political statement. I just can't get this out of my head, and it's been made more poignant by today's events in Connecticut. Sean Lennon was only 5 years old when his father's life was ended by a gunman. Here's a remarkable performance of one of his dad's most famous songs, along with Jeff Tweedy of Wilco, Mavis Staples and the Harlem Gospel Choir.

http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/422224/december-13-2012/sign-off---jeff-tweedy--mavis-staples---sean-lennon----happy-xmas--war-is-over--?xrs=share_copy

'The comfy chair!'

It has become my experience that waiting rooms, be it in doctor's offices or auto repair shops, could use more comfy chairs. Which jogged this in my memory:

Pet peeve? But I don't have any pets!

Part of being a copy editor means being a jerk sometimes. I know that people who make this mistake aren't being malicious, and it's extremely minor, but it's like fingernails on a chalkboard when I hear this pet peeve of mine, like seeing "lie" or "lay" misused.

 

Besides, we aren't copy editors without being persnickety about things.

When he spoke 71 years ago tomorrow, FDR called the previous day "a DATE WHICH will live in infamy." It is not a "day that" will live in infamy, as I've so often heard today. See below, and then I'll move on:

 

 

Those who ignore the past ...

Pearl Harbor was, for a generation, one of the most remarkably mobilizing events in history. At this time 71 years ago, it was under attack.

Also at that time, there were probably precious few Americans around who were there the last time such a mobilizing event happened in a state or territory of the U.S. (That would be Fort Sumter, which had happened 80 years prior). And 85 years earlier there had been that nasty dust-up with the Brits (which we would apparently forget two centuries and change later, when we learned "OMG! Kate's, like, totally preggers!")

(A totally unrelated aside to the last part: Just found out that news of the prank call to the hospital took a sad turn today.)

From generation to generation, we are reminded of the old adage "those who ignore history are condemened to repeat it." So as we realize the dwindling number of the "Greatest Generation" (captured nicely today by my colleague Paul Feely), we should also remember what they accomplished.

Think about it. We have been in four wars in my lifetime, plus a handful of other military actions. We have never been asked to sacrifice the way that generation was. Starting with the Great Depression, and continuing into WWII, they shared. They rationed. And they beat back those threats.

Think about it: if Presidents Obama or Bush 43 had said, "For this war effort, gas is going up to 6 bucks a gallon and will be rationed," they would've been out on their respective tuckuses.

We are not that far removed from the Greatest Generation, and there are still enough around to ask what their story is. Ask them. And thank them.

Here I go again

I never intended blogging to be a regular scheduled thing. I established this as an outlet for those occasional bursts of creative energy, which I do have from time to time (such as 5 a.m., right now).

But I did plan to re-launch a blog on March 10. However, sometimes circumstances and time get away from you. Besides, I was working a second job at the time, and essentially getting sleep, any sleep, became the priority.

Besides, I've never been so vain as to think people existed for my writing. I'll reserve that for the syndicated columnists of the world.

But now here I go again (another problem with waking up at this hour: You get Whitesnake stuck in your head).

Fascinating thing about that second job, I didn't mind it. The hours were terrible, but it wasn't so bad that I dreaded getting up every morning. And believe me, it was even earlier than this.

Working that part-time job for a major retailer (yes, you've heard of it, and no, it's NOT that one) is an eye-opener. It is a window into the national conscience, too. You see what people are buying, how they are buying it, and what can be done so they can buy it.

And the people I worked with were first-rate. My department head was awesome and incredibly patient. I also loved my co-workers in my department. My one quibble was that there was no employee discount, but what can you do?

But it is a grind. After 10 months of getting up at what is termed in military time "oh-dark-hundred," and with my wife and I facing more hours at our full-time employment, something had to give.

So here we are, a little poorer, but that isn't the point. In fact, this post really had no point except to get me back to writing here.

Thanks for joining me on the stream of consciousness. I'll be back with more witty banter about sports and politics, but until then, take it easy.

-JDE2