It’s my first day of quarantine after flying home on a fully loaded flight from Florida to New Jersey. The trip was worth it as I spent six days with my Dad. We went for a couple of rides on the golf cart, played a lot of cribbage, and talked about all kinds of stuff. We cooked some meals together, and I trimmed one of the trees in in front yard for him.
During a pandemic in one of the nation’s hotspots, you don’t take an 83 year old out to the mall or a restaurant; that’s just stupidity. So alas you must eventually turn to the TV.
Normally, I pretty much only watch broadcast TV for local news in the morning and evening, and football when in season. Otherwise, its Netflix and Prime. Being with my Dad reacquainted with Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy, and tons of other commercial-ridden fare. I had forgotten how many commercials can run during a broadcast television movie.
I think I have memorized the replacement window, replacement bathtub, and pest control ads for the greater Tampa area. I am also convinced that Snoop Dogg is now the leader of some tropical island nation that only eats Frito-Lay products and drinks Corona.
Florida is a battleground state, so interlaced throughout every commercial segment is a toxic-soup for the presidential election. Millions and millions of dollars spent to convince Floridians, especially elderly and people of color, that the current resident of the White House is a delusional and failed fascist leading us to Armageddon, and his challenger is a Manchurian candidate programmed by the far-left to hate police officers and your 401K.
But I digress… Let’s talk about the money! The PACS and parties are spending astronomical amounts of money to stay in or gain power while the elderly and the working class are being crushed. The stock market is doing great at making wealthy people even wealthier, while the working poor are lucky if they have two part-time jobs keeping them just above poverty level, and the food pantry lines grow longer and longer. Kids are sitting outside the Taco Bell to use their Wi-Fi to do their schoolwork, if they are lucky enough to have a computer at all.
Okay, stop! Take a deep breath…
Turn to your old friend, Steve Miller.
Feed the babies who don’t have enough to eat. Shoe the children with no shoes on their feet. House the people, livin’ in the street. Oh, oh, there’s a solution.
I want to fly like an eagle to the sea. Fly like an eagle, let my spirit carry me. I want to fly like an eagle, till I’m free. Fly through the revolution.
Time keeps on slippin’, slippin’, slippin’, into the future…
This morning I thank “42” that that I do not live in a battleground state.
And I pray that we get our priorities strait!
May we all…
SEARCHING FOR 42 