Wrapping up 2023
These will be brief. The clock is ticking. There are things to be done. Things to be savored.
Even as I have happily admitted over the past many months to an ever-growing sense of calm and serenity, the world and nation are still a very much roiled up place and their contortions must not be ignored.
And a quick survey of various, recent newspapers provides grist for the mill.
The political stalemate over border security while Ukraine and Israel so desperately need our help is despicable. (And yes, China is watching our flaccid fumbling…). Make a deal. Get what you can get. Come back later and try for a little more. And help push back these true forces of evil who drool at our door.
Is our fate truly to be Biden versus Trump? Oh my! What cheap plastic that will be! And in very dangerous times…
Big article last week in USA TODAY about the very severe, acute shortage of veterinarians in Kentucky. As the nation gets older, these professionals’ ranks (and many in other fields as well) are getting thinner and thinner and we are very much the worse for it. The ramifications across the country are very serious. We’re not just talking racehorses-we’re talking all creatures great and small. Think about it between eggnogs and the Wassail Bowl.
Here in Charleston on November 18th, 4 young people were killed and the driver badly injured when a late night crash into ‘The Widowmaker’ on Riverland Drive, James Island occurred. Now, petitions for the removal of that grand oak are circulating-reasoning in part being it’s dangerous and its removal will assist the families of the deceased in their ‘healing’ process. What Oprah’esque Victimizing bunk! I want to see the speed findings and the toxicology results. I’ll wager the tale of the tape lies within those numbers.
On December 16, 1773-250 years ago-the Boston Tea Party took place and angry citizens tossed a lot of tea-that they didn’t own-into Boston Harbor. Now the ever increasingly Woke New York Times is asking ‘Does Tossing The Tea Still Earn Our Sympathy?’ Please. Go. Away.
We lost a great actor last week. No, not that fop from Friends. Andre Braugher. Pure class, pure talent. If you don’t believe me, just go find the movie GLORY or the episodes from the tv show ‘Homicide’.
He had, as is not so often said, ‘depth’.
The NFL is scheduling a game in Brazil? Sorry, but sounds weird to me.
The Historic Charleston Foundation is putting the Nathaniel Russell House up for sale? Just Stupid.
I will now resume my meditations and mantra. Curmudgeon at rest. For the time being.
That’s all I got for now. Please be safe over these holidays. Love your people. Think of the reason for the season. And keep reading. Please keep reading.
All my best,
Vernon