Personal essays
Let people go peacefully about their day
Fault and Blame
A friend texted me this weekend, “I think it’s wrong to pin the DC flight incident on Trump.”
I replied that he was probably right, but if it had happened two months earlier, Trump would have been the first to have blamed Biden.
My friend answered, “I didn’t mean to imply he’s not the worst… just that pinning everything on him might be counter productive and make his supporters have a feeling that he gets accused for anything.”
I was in the grocery store at the time looking at eggs that were over $5 a dozen. Just a few months earlier we heard how the $4 a dozen price of eggs was the fault of the current administration and that bringing down grocery prices would be job one.
That and deporting people.
Actually, that was why I was in the grocery store. The immigration raids had kept migrant workers from showing up at their jobs and there were reports of much of the citrus crop being damaged and unpicked.
So, while it was still affordable, I picked up some tangerines and grapefruit. While I was there I bought a few more items, paid for them and headed out to my car.
A near miss
The parking lot was packed and I’d had to park quite a ways away. In fact, I had to park in front of another set of stores.
It was really difficult to find a parking place and cars were circling anxious to find a spot as it opened up.
I walked over and crossed the road in front of a car stopped at a stop sign.
As I stepped in front of the car, the driver stepped on the accelerator and started to move ahead. Her attention was elsewhere. Maybe she’d spotted an empty space.
I jumped back and the car ran into the bag of citrus I held in my left hand.
The driver slammed on the brakes.
I was too shocked to swear.
The woman looked horrified. “I didn’t see you,” she mouthed through the front windshield.
“I know,” I mouthed back.
I walked in front of her car, quite shaken, and walked a couple of rows beyond where I had parked.
Thank goodness that my fob honks the car horn and flashes the lights. I located my car, put the groceries in the back, and sat for a bit in the front seat and gathered myself.
Sometimes it doesn’t matter that it’s not your fault. Sometimes you get hit by a car.
Not on purpose, but does that really matter.
Sometimes the driver just doesn’t see us.
Collateral damage
I’ve never worried about being arrested for something I’ve done.
I have a nagging feeling that that world may be changing, but that’s another matter.
Since I was a kid, however, I’ve worried about being arrested for something I haven’t done and not being able to convince anyone otherwise.
I have been thinking about that a lot lately.
Ohio has decided that there’s a huge potential for a trans high school athlete to gain an unfair advantage in competing with other girls.
Of course, although this issue helped oust a beloved long serving senator in the last election, there are almost no trans high school athletes in Ohio (by which I mean one), and she’s explained that she aspires to be mediocre - she isn’t even that good. She just wants to play softball.
So forget about all that.
Instead, think of a muscular girl who is outperforming the other girls in her sport. The parents of the other team pull the referee aside and say, “hey, we think that one isn’t actually a girl.”
How does the referee check?
I don’t want that in my state. I don’t want to allow referees to inspect high school athletes genitals even if there are actual boys competing.
Sadly, that’s the state I live in.
And I bought citrus this weekend because the country I live in is committed to deporting illegals from other countries.
There are some bad people who should be detained, tried, and, if need be, deported.
But forget about all that.
Instead, think of someone who “looks” like they might be illegal.
Oh, you know what that means.
Police aren’t stopping someone who looks Canadian or Norwegian.
Do all the people who might be detained need to be able prove they belong here?
Sadly, that’s the country I live in.
The lawmakers are that lady sitting in her car at the stop sign, looking to do what they think is the right thing. They put their foot on the gas and don’t notice or don’t care about the innocent people in the way.
Essay from Dim Sum Thinking Newsletter 254. Read the rest of the Newsletter or subscribe