Across the Wire

It is hard for me to understand how anyone could believe that guns make us safer. But when I walk around our neighborhood and see the probably-armed, probably-black teens who are committing most of the thefts around here, I almost, for a second understand the visceral ugly fear that would have one buy a gun and risk more lives rather than stand up and ask why all this is happening, stand up and make things better for that kid and every kid so that both the crime rate and gun violence are reduced. The argument that sickens me the most is that one must have a gun to "protect one's family". Protecting one child at the cost of another is not noble, not brave, not "patriotic". It's bullshit.

Ellipsis

So - I can say with total certainty
that I am really glad I no longer smoke, 
that I no longer rent, 
that I am no longer single 
and that I never have to be 25 again.

Nagging thought: Being an ordinary, nonviolent very young man in the U.S. today may be harder than anyone ever knows. The violent end of this age group spectrum is, to an extent, the canary in the coal mine. 

Here is a different point of view, one that I found refreshing: we need more courses in gender studies in community colleges.

Resisting categories.

Listening to Colin Powell's Ted Talk and agreeing with him on far more topics (Headstart, prenatal care) than I ever would have dreamed. Every thing that happens to us is both outside our control, and at the same time a set of choices we made.
 
I miss Australia - I miss the relative safety.

However, in America I have found an immigrant identity to match the rigor and intensity of my disposition, and a less ironic culture that is not afraid to say "I earned this".

The Lesson

Grabbing the edge of the next step and swinging one's body up then scrambling to climb. A twisting set of steps with 5 feet high gaps between each one. Too high up to go back down, too low still to see what's up ahead.

"There's no such thing as other people's children."
- Hillary Clinton

Food Bank of the Southern Tier

"A landmark study released by the Food Bank of the Southern Tier and Feeding America, reports that more than 37 million Americans, including 14 million children, receive emergency food each year... "
 

Nostalgia

Paul Kelly sings James Reyne's "Reckless"

The word that's been on heavy rotation in my mind since my daughter's birth is "Generative". To have the power and will to make something new. After becoming a parent there is no denying one's power and one's will.

Such an awareness removes many limits to let strange objects loom in the headlights, in the rear view mirror.