Getting back to forward...

         Enduring the deluge of atmospheric rivers California has turned green, 

        and the view from the study has started to bloom.

        The cheer spring brings is a bracer for dealing with the slide backwards.

        I read that one quarter of all Americans are "food insecure," we used to call that hungry. For people of color the numbers are out of proportion to their population percentage . 

        I watched an investigative report that learned between 25-30% of all organs intended for transplant are wasted or rejected because the logistic of getting the harvested organs to recipients in time is so badly managed or fraught with transportation issues.

        Those who know say we used to do better than that. 

        The asthma medicine albuterol is in short supply and the problems that creates for millions will get worse. A pharma that made it is out of business.

        Polio and measles are showing up again, after years of control. 

        

      Do we seem to be losing intelligence, capability or even the ability to recognize the problem(s). Can we not function with foresight and efficiency? 

     I've already abused your attention and overstated my incredulity that "we"-the civilized world-have not stopped Putin's war crimes and his brutal assault on humanity. He is an international thug-killer and we watch, debate and even arm the invaded, but we have not found the courage to stop him. 

        History speaks to this matter. We act as if we are blind to those warnings.

        Donald Trump again bathes in media and continues to fertilize the hatred and division he seeded. 

        Some media are giving lip service to the conundrum, how do you cover such a malefactor and wretch and not give him the free ride that made him in 2016. The grievously flawed decision by then CNN chief Jeff Zucker was steroids for MAGA. 

        Here we go again with banks and money. Did we learn nothing from even as recently at 2008? The Fed is simply a council of banks. Banks are the bad actors, and always are. Inflation is and always has been a manipulation of price and supply. History teaches us  it is best to take care of and look out for the populace, the working folks. But banks and the bankers get the money,  get bailed out, and get the bonuses. Why can't, why shouldn't they get the haircut?  

        Guess who owns the legislators via lobbyists and campaign contributions?     

         We are still learning how much we changed in the pandemic. I think we are increasingly distracted.  

    

        Some distractions are good, even great. 

        

        

        We are fortunate our grand kids attend bilingual schools in communities that are tolerant, open minded and that put the intellectual and emotional well being of the children at the top of the priorities. 

        With this new mania for parents "getting to review" their children's education, an artifact of the right wing's pumping of the culture war, I ask what about PTA, or PTO or parent councils or volunteering at school, or parent teacher conferences. Has that not been an historic standard in this nation's evolution of learning,  education and parental involvement? 

       The Florida model is sick and chilling. If education is to achieve its intended purpose then open minds, fully prepared to think has to be the methodology. 

        The right wing is not the only bad actor here. The left has bent so far to be  "non triggering" they have become mind and thought controllers in their own right. 

       Minds need to be open, engaged in a full on immersion in facts. We need a full stop on half baked conspiracy, a disabusing of those with such faulty notions, an accountability, clarity as to what is real, severe scrutiny of politicians, more individual knowledge seeking, holding media to higher standards and more intelligent use of communication and information platforms. 

        We've gotten lazy, we get information in silos, we don't try to understand views that we do not hold. We lack a curiosity but we swallow platitudes. We've permitted ourselves to be divided, angry and mean. I'm a geezer, but if we want a future for grandkids, things have to change. 

        See you down the trail.