A woeful senate majority...

Shortly after moving to Alabama to join the faculty of The University of Alabama School of Social Work, I recall an article being written which described the ineptness of the Alabama Legislature.  The author of the article stated that , individually, the legislature was made up of, mostly good and honorable people, but, collectively, they were a disaster and unable to function in manner that was in the best interest of the citizens of the state.   As I reflect on the national legislative scene, this same indictment can be directed toward the U. S. Congress, specifically, the Senate.  We all are aware that the Senate is under the control of the Republican party and the leadership of the self-described, “grim reaper”, Mitch McConnell.  In an article in the Washington Post, Dana Millbank, stated that McConnell “…has done more in recent years than any other person to embitter our politics and incapacitate government.”  It was McConnell, that stated that he would do all that he could to undermine anything that, then President Obama, sought to get passed in the Senate.  Many of us will recall the stagnant nature of the political scene in Washington year-after-year during the time of McConnell’s leadership. 

Granted, not all the ineptness lies at the feet of McConnell, yet he is the leader of the “do-nothing” Senate majority.  It is this body that has allowed Trump to do whatever he damn well pleases, with no recriminations, no accountability and no responsibility for his actions.  It is this body that has allowed him to waste millions of taxpayer dollars in supporting his innumerable trips to his resorts, hotels and golf courses.  It is the Senate that has allowed him to funnel millions of dollars away from the Defense Department to build the damn wall on the southern border. It is this majority in the Senate that has failed to raise the first question about Trump releasing his tax returns.  It is the Senate that voted to acquit Trump for obvious and blatant attempts to engage a foreign government leader in internal political dirty work.  It is this Senate majority that has allowed him to replace one Inspector General after another, even though this is to be done under the scrutiny of the Senate.  The concept of oversight and accountability that is built into the role of the Inspector General has become a figment of one’s imagination.  Most recently, it will be interesting to see if one Republican Senator raises the first question about the decision of the Justice Department to drop charges against Michael Flynn, even though he plead guilty to the charges being dropped.  Not sure how that works!!

It is this Senate majority that has said nary a public word about the delays in the administration’s response to the virus that has now taken the lives of close to 80,000, as of this writing.  It is this Senate that has not raised the first public question about the constant denials, confusion and lack of any coherent plan to deal with the ever-increasing death toll in this country.  It is this Senate that has not raised the first public outcry about the lack of adequate and timely testing, tracking and necessary protective gear.  It is this majority in the Senate who have bragged on the efforts of the first responders and the front line workers, but damn well will not provide any of them with any hazard pay for taking their lives and the lives of their family members in their own hands as they do their jobs.  We will put up signs, “Heroes Work Here”, and do flyovers to signify our praise, but that does not pay the rent or care for sick relatives.  In the next stimulus bill it is McConnell and his spineless Republican colleagues who are advocating for the inclusion of protections from being sued due to negligence of protecting workers from the Covid-19 virus.  Big business is to be protected while those on the front lines become expendable.  As one reflects on what has happened on a global scale, it is the United States that has done the poorest job in proactively dealing with the pandemic and the price of this ineptness is paid on a daily basis for all too many lives lost.  Regardless of Trump’s repeated lies and “alternative facts”, this country has been abysmal in dealing with this catastrophe, and it is not getting any better and the future looks quite bleak.

As I mentioned, above, individually these are probably decent individuals, but they have no hutzpah when it comes to dealing with Trump.  As Michelle Cottle noted in her article in the New York Times: “Senate Republicans have sold their souls to Donald Trump, and it’s absurd for them to pretend otherwise.”  The Republican majority has abdicated any sense of checks and balances of the executive branch.  It seems obvious that Trump has wielded unbelievable control over what, one would assume, are intelligent and capable individuals, but who have behaved in a manner that belies any sense of individuality.  During the impeachment trial, there was a glimmer of possible light that flickered away when it came down to taking a stand.  Susan Collins, Mitt Romney, Lamar Alexander, and Mike Lee gave a hint of concern about what Trump had done, but that bit of a glimmer was snuffed out by the inevitable party loyalty taking hold over doing what they knew as right.  This has been what has characterized the members of the Republican Senators since Trump has been in the presidency.  What are they afraid of?  What can he do to them that raises a level of fear that is often seen on the school playgrounds and perpetuated by the local bully?  Is this man that much to be feared?  Certainly, he retaliates, but if there was indeed several Republican Senators who would stand up to him, there is power in numbers.  Why are these mature adults so intimated by the “bully”?  He cannot have that much control over each one of these men and women, yet they behave as if he does.

The Senate continues to sit idly by as Trump replaces anyone who takes a position that is not to his liking.  He has replaced those who have the expertise with those who are simply loyal minions to what he purveys as the answers to what we are living through at the present time.  The virus is for real, but he could give a damn about the number of lives that will be lost as he tries to fan the fires of discontent to get the “county open”.  Yes, we need to move in this direction, but to do so thoughtfully, carefully, and directed by those who know what they are talking about.  Will we see any efforts by members of the Senate majority to take a stand that will be in the best interest of the country or will we continue to see them hide behind the cloak of party loyalty?  If it is the latter, it will lead to one hell of a price to be paid.

Dear Mr. President

This past Monday (4/13)  while visiting a friend, having a drink, and maintaining our physical distance, we watched a bit of your “Live with Me” segment on CNN during which you spent the better part of your performance identifying the points that in your convoluted mind, make you the “stable genus” that you claim to be.  It was a parade of claim after claim that you have done everything right and how the media, the Democrats, and other” non-Trumpers” are so ungrateful for all that you have done.  Your need for self-adulation borders on mental instability and delusions of grandeur.  Mr. President, if you removed the pronouns, “I”, “me” “myself” from your diatribes, there would be few words in the sentences that you spew forth through your puckered lips.  You, repeatedly, brag about your “ratings” for these self-promotional” news briefings and they are as far as anything can be from a briefing.  They are not and have not been informative, clarifying, or comprehensive.  Rather, they have been a series of lies, false truths, made up information and just down right crap that are nothing more than political stances.  It is apparent from everything you have and have not done that you could give a damn about the American people or this nation but are only focused on your own self-aggrandizement and self-promotion.  You have replaced your “how great I am” rallies with these inane briefings that are fraught with sheer nonsense.   

Mr. President, you have been a colossal failure in your response to this deadly pandemic that we are all living through.  You were slow to do anything of substance, especially during the month of February.  You delayed making decisions that could have had the possibility of slowing the surge of the number of people contracting the disease and the number who have died from this deadly scourge.  You have made inane excuses, oversimplifying the seriousness of what was on the horizon for the country.  For example, you brag about all you have done, but you are the person that questioned the need for thousands of ventilators requested by the Governor of New York, stating that many hospitals have only one ventilator for the whole hospital, yet they needed thousands of ventilators.  Mr. President your stupidity and sickening arrogance has been and is inexcusable.  You claim to be so damn smart, yet so much of what you have done regarding the virus has been anything but smart.  You have placed dedicated and committed people in the healthcare field, first responders, delivery people, store clerks and many others in harm’s way because of your uninformed, knee-jerk, shoot from the hip responses to the obvious.  You have been, and continue to be, a disgrace to the office of President and your legacy will be one of failure to act decisively.  Your decision to withhold funds from the World Health Organization is just one more example of how stupid you can be.  You have stated that the WHO mismanaged the developing pandemic; however, if there is a classic case of mismanagement, it is you and your administration.  During a global crisis, you look for others as the scapegoat for your own ineptness.  You only need to look in the mirror each morning to see who is responsible for the debacle that you have fostered on this country.

Continuing, Mr. President, you boast that this country has a world-class medical and health care system, yet be so unprepared for what was evolving and escalating in other parts of the world?  It was your administration that cut the funding the CDC which has, undoubtedly, had an adverse impact on their ability to respond, especially to the need for testing.  You were told on several occasions that what we are now experiencing was inevitable, but you played it off as a hoax, a liberal and Democratic ploy to damage you and just more “fake news”.  No, Mr. President, you screwed up and as of this point in time, the death toll in this country is over 28,000 and climbing day-after-day.  You tell those families of those who have unnecessarily died, that you’ve done a hellavu job.  You look into the glassy eyes of a little child who has lost her father, or into the flushed face of the husband who has lost the “love of his life” because she did not have the protective gear that was required for her to carry out her oath as a health care professional.  You tell the families of the 45 residents who died in a nursing home in Virginia that you are one great president, and that you have the health and care of all Americans as your guiding principle in your decisions.  You explain to the 9000 plus health care professionals that have contracted the disease and to the families of the 27 who have died that you really care about them and their well-being.  On-and-on I could go with illustrations, but you have been a painful and colossal failure as the President of this great nation.

Mr. President, you brag about the 2.2 Trillion relief bill that gained bipartisan support and is currently being implemented yet contained in that piece of legislation is $170 billion in tax giveaways for around 43,000 of Americans associated with hedge funds and real estate development.  You signed the bill, so we know you knew what was contained in it.  That amount of money to benefit such a meager number of citizens, including you and your son-in-law, exceeds $100 billion for hospitals and the $150 billion for relief to state and local governments.  Even more appalling is that it allows for these tax giveaways to go back to 2018 and 2019, before the advent of the virus in this country.  How callous and how inhumane.  In an article in the Washington Post, Dana Millbank, notes that: “…this provision gives tax filers who earn more than $1miiion a year an average windfall of $1.6 million…” compared to the $1,200 that the average wage earner receives.  He goes on to note: “…that 82 percent of the tax benefit of this and another tax giveaway in the coronavirus relief bill will go to the 43,000 taxpayers who earn more than $1million—and just 3 percent to those who earn less than $100,000.” 

Further, Mr. President, you have created a chaotic system of task forces, including putting your son-in-law in charge of a very significant aspect or your inept response.  Here is a person who has done nothing right with the assignments given to him in the past, but he is a loyal member of your family who will not bicker or challenge his “daddy-in-law”.  His only qualification is that he was born into wealth, admitted to Harvard following his daddy’s $2.5 million gift to the university, and married into the New York family on the fringes of the Costa Nostra.  He was ill informed when he challenged a reporter who stated that the federal stockpile of medical equipment was for the benefit of the states by stating that the stockpile was for the benefit of the federal government.  However, the provisions of the policy that created the stockpile explicitly states that it is there to supplement the needs of the states.  Just one example of the “boy’s” lack of understanding. 

Mr. President, it never ends with you.  Late Monday, the Treasury Department issued a directive to the IRS that your name was to be imprinted on the stimulus checks that Americans are to receive.  Just one more way that you are politicizing your feeble efforts to address this grave pandemic that has wrought untold suffering and damage on individuals and the country.  Your move to do this is unprecedented, but that matters not to you.  You believe that you are infallible and omnipotent and can do whatever the hell you want to do.  Yet, most recently, you did have to recant your assertation that you were the “King of the United States of America”.  Read your history, Mr. President.  This country was founded to get away from monarchies—its why we have a representative democracy.  In you reading, check out the 10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: “The power not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States, respectively, or to the people.”  Do you know what that means?  You are not the final authority—SURPRISE!

Finally, Mr. President, undoubtedly, one of the most personalized affronts to you as president, is that you are being compared to James Buchanan, the 15th President, who has been chosen over and over as the worst president of the 45 that we have had through the Republic’s tenure.  It was his blatant ineptness that led to the beginning of the secession of the southern states from the union.  Had he been more decisive and less Lasse Faire, it might have averted the greatest calamity in the young nation’s history.  It had been noted that you were the worst president in modern times, but that title has been revised by many to be the worst of all time.  Your failures far outnumber any successes you have had in the three plus years that the country has had to endure you and the blunderings of your administration.  You have turned a deaf ear to scientific fact and direction, you have belittled anyone who takes umbrage to your claims, you resort to name-calling as an 8year old child would when life does not go your way, and you are a shameless, inhumane, narcissistic, mentally imbalanced individual.  The real tragedy for all of us, including your blinded followers, is that you sit where you do.  Let’s all hope that come November that time will end in January 2021.

The hidden faces of student loan debt

I had been contemplating writing about the hidden faces of the student debt crisis in this country and then the pandemic crisis reared its ugly head.  There has been a great deal written and said about the plague that has befallen the world.  As we are learning every succeeding day, there is no immunity to being affected by this calamity that wreaks havoc on the global economy and healthy well-being of all people.  As has been stated over-and -over, it has no respect for age, race, religion, political affiliation or any other identifier of humankind.  It seems to be a relentless enemy that is hell-bent on making every effort to destroy what we have come to know as normal.  Many a person has referred to the “new normal”, whatever that might be.  We are already experiencing some aspects of this varied way of life.  We are unable to dine out, gather in public places, or move freely about without experiencing the stares of others.  We are admonished to maintain a social (physical) distance when in the company of others, whether at the supermarket, pharmacy, pet store, Home Depot, or anywhere that there is more than one other person.  Indeed, life will not be the same when we begin to see some end to what we are now living through each day.  Just as life changed after the 9/11 attacks, the end of WWII, and the conclusion of the great depression, life will never be the same for those of us who live through the current crisis.

Unless one has been living in some abyss, we are all aware that there is a massive problem in this country that is not related to the pandemic yet impacts millions upon millions of individuals.  Student debt in this country hovers around $1.6 trillion and continues to grow.  Having spent the better part of my adult life in the academic world, I have been aware of students living off student loans and leaving school with enormous debt obligations.  I recall a young lady who was a waitress in a restaurant/pub that I frequent just off the university campus.  As she was getting closer to graduation, we had several discussions about her future.  It is my recollection that she was majoring in hospitality management and public relations.  Her goal was to find employment in the hospitality industry.  Over the year, we eventually got around to her student debt which had reached $98,000.  Keep in mind her preferred employment goal.  It is highly unlikely that she will ever earn the kind of money to make regular payments on such an enormous debt obligation.  Within the past year or so, I read an article in Consumer Reports which carried the title, “I went to college and ruined my life”.  It is, indeed, a travesty that young people can get themselves into this level of potential servitude for the rest of their lives.  There have been those who have postponed weddings, having children or buying a house because they are unable to consider anything that will take away funds that must go towards paying off the debt.

To put the level of student loan debt into perspective, Nitro College published, “Average Student Loan Debt in the U.S. – 2020 Statistics”.  Included in the document is a very cogent paragraph: “in the past decade, total U.S. student loan debt has surpassed credit card debt and auto loan debt.  In the third quarter of 2018, Americans owed $840 billion on their credit cards and $1.21 trillion in auto loans.  Currently, U.S. student loan obligations are larger than both, trailing only mortgages in scope and impact.”  Further, it is noted that 1 in 4 adult Americans have student loan debt.  “There are 44.7 million people with active student loans in the U.S. and the overwhelming majority of them are under the age of 60.”  This means that 26 percent of the younger adults under 60 are paying off student loan debt.

Into this fiscal reality lies a significant number of individuals over the age of 60 who are paying off student loans.  As co-signers on student loans, parents and grandparents are picking up the payment of the debt during a time in their life when they were anticipating living out their final years in some measure of comfort.  If they are paying on their own student loan debt it only compounds the issue.  In a CNBC publication, the following comments paint a very sad and perplexing picture: “Today at least 3.4 million people hold so-call parent PLUS loans and they owe nearly $90 billion, according to a new report by the Brookings Institution.  Currently, the average parent plus balance is about $26,000 and default rates among parent borrowers are also on the rise.”  A brief case study was included in the article and provides some woeful clarity to this issue.  A mother and her daughter toured a for-profit university in Florida.  Following the visit, the mother and daughter were hooked.  To attend, they would have to go into debt to cover the four years of tuition, fees, books, and living expenses.  The mother took out a Parent PLUS loan from the government in the amount of $160,000.  Her annual salary as a social worker is $50,000 and the monthly student loan payment is $600.  The monthly payment barely covers the interest on the debt and the amount she owes has ballooned to over $200,000.  The 63-year-old mother states: “I have nothing that is going to sustain me if I stop working.  This loan governs my life.” 

Take the case of Patrick Donohue and his wife, as reported in the New York Times.  After a 20-year career in customer service with AT&T he retired at the age of 64.  They owed almost $98,000 that had been borrowed from the government to put their four daughters through college.  The monthly amount they owe is a $1,000, about the same amount of his monthly pension.  To cover additional living expenses, Donohue, went back to work as a customer service representative for a local grocery store chain.  Within the same article, there is the case of 55-year-old Kimberly Weihl.  She was already paying off her own student debt of $60,000 but took on additional debt to cover the costs for her daughter to attend a state university in their home state of Michigan.  Now she owes $77,000.  The daughter dropped out of college, is living back at home, working as a waitress, but not making any payments on her $500 a month portion of the student debt.  Ms. Wiehl cannot foresee the time when she will be able to retire from her job as a nurse.  She went on to say that she is convinced she will die before she is able to resolve the debt obligation.  She is having difficulty sleeping and is experiencing other physical problems.

A final reference to the New York Times article provides a bit of a summary to the personal costs associated with the lingering debt that hangs over those plus 60 -year old Americans.  A researcher at the M.I.T. AgeLab stated; “…student loans and longevity planning are at odds within many debt-saddled households.  Pre-retirement milestones like paying off a mortgage get shelved in favor of paying off loans…” and in many cases a person’s mental and physical health is affected.  Painful choices must and are being made.

Other complications confront those who are making these payments later in life.  If they are the recipient of Social Security benefits, those benefits can be garnished up to 15 percent of the benefit if the person defaults on the loan payment.   In a 2016 Government Accountability Office report, it was reported that nearly 40 percent of borrowers 65 and older were in default on federal student loans.   Additionally, if a person files for bankruptcy, the student loan debt cannot be included.  Do keep in mind, that what I have included predates the current crisis in this country.  When you overlay the ever intrusive Covid 19 virus, at the very least, you have an exacerbating effect on what has evolved into a personal fiscal nightmare.

 

 

 

A compelling history

Recently, my wife and I spent the weekend in Montgomery, Alabama.  The impetus to select Montgomery as a destination grew from us watching the Ken Burns documentary on County Music.  One of the episodes featured Hank Williams, and we decided to visit the Hank Williams Museum in Montgomery.  It was a most interesting and fascinating experience and reinforced the creative genius that Hank Williams possessed.  The number of songs that he wrote, produced and sung are legion and the title of the documentary’s episode was the Hillbilly Shakespeare”.  How true.  Hank Williams lived a rather tormented life and many of his songs reflect on the many personal tragedies and challenges that he tried to live through but succumbed in the back seat of his 1952 powder blue Cadillac convertible at the every so young age of 29.   It is fitting that he died in West Virginia on his way to a performance in Canton, Ohio.  One wonders what he might have continued to produce had he lived longer, but it was not meant to be.

While in Montgomery on a damp, raining afternoon, we also visited The National Memorial for Peace and Justice.  It is a national memorial to commemorate the victims of lynching in the United States.  The intended purpose of the Memorial is to acknowledge past racial terrorism and advocate for social justice throughout the country.  A project of the Equal Justice Initiative, it opened in April 2018.  Located in a raised area of the Memorial is the memorial square where there are 805 hanging steel rectangles, the size and shape of coffins.  On each of the hanging coffins are the engraved name(s), county and state where a documented lynching took place. Almost 5000 documented lynching’s of African Americans took place between 1877 and 1950, primarily in 12 Southern states.   Within the same building is a wall with water continuously flowing over it that represents those who have been lynched, but whose names are not known. 

Laid in rows on the ground are steel columns corresponding to those hanging in the Memorial.  These columns are organized by state and the counties in each state where a lynching took place.  The names of those lynched are, likewise, engraved on the coffins.  Additionally, throughout the grounds are sculptures depicting the dehumanizing struggles that African Americans endured throughout the southern states during the latter part of the 1800’s and the first 50 years of the 1900’s.  It is my belief, that no one can walk through and observe what lies before you without being profoundly moved by the experience.  My wife captured the essence of the experience by referring to it as, sobering.  Indeed, it was very sobering and an experience not to be forgotten.

Later that day we took the shuttle to The Legacy Museum: From Enslavement to Mass Incarceration.  The Museum is located on the site of a former warehouse where black people were enslaved in Montgomery.   Its location is one block from one of the most prominent slave auction spaces in America and steps away from an Alabama dock and rail station where tens of thousands of black people were trafficked during the 19th century.   The intended goal is to lead those who visit the museum on the path from slavery to racial oppression in other forms, including lynching and mass incarceration of minorities.  There are multiple photographs, videos, interactive displays and sculptures which, in a very cogent way, depict the sordid history of the treatment of African Americans in this country.  One display contains jar after jar of soil collected from the ground beneath where a human being was lunched.  Spending the afternoon at the Memorial and the Museum, brought back a memory in my life from my days in high school.  In August of 1955 a young black adolescent left Chicago to visit relatives in Mississippi and never returned to Chicago.  He was severely beaten, shot, mutilated, and thrown into the Tallahatchie River where his remains were found days later.  His crime was that he, allegedly, whistled at a young white woman.  Just a few years ago the woman recanted on her accusation that led to Emmett’s death.  Emmet’s cousin was a year behind me at the high school we both attended and in his adult life has been a champion for racial justice.

As noted earlier, the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) was the organization that was the catalyst for the development of the Memorial and the Museum.  The founder of the EJI, is also the author of the book, Just Mercy, which focuses on his efforts to free wrongly convicted men on death row in Alabama and was featured in the movie by the same title, Just Mercy.  The book and the movie are extremely compelling and riveting and highlight the scars of racial injustice in this country. There have been any number of examples of actions taken by prosecutors to secure convictions, at any cost, which has led to the conviction of an innocent person.  It has been estimated that at a minimum, 1 in 5, death penalty convictions have been wrong.  Fortunately, there are now DNA tests that definitively determine whether the person who has been convicted is the person who should have been convicted.  Additionally, there also are the Bryan Stevenson’s (Founder of EJI) in this country who, tirelessly, fight to have these wrongful convictions overturned.  Another celebrated case in Alabama is the case of Anthony Ray Hinton who was freed after serving over 30 years for two murders that he did not commit.  The lawyer who fought to have his convictions overturned was Bryan Stevenson and Hinton’s amazing story is captured in his book, The Sun Does Shine: How I found Life, Freedom, and Justice.

There has been a measure of progress made in the treatment of minorities in this country, but there is a long way to go.  The glaring need for much more progress was captured in a recent article in the Washington Post, “Trump’s rhetoric has changed the way hundreds of kids are bullied in classrooms”.   Throughout this lengthy article, kid after kid, related experiences of blatant discrimination directed toward them by fellow students, but also by teachers. Kids have been quoted as stating that if it’s OK for the president to say these derogatory things then it’s OK for us to do the same.  This is a sad commentary on where we are as a nation.  There is a message in the words of a saying that I have posted in my office: “Every FATHER should remember that one day his children will follow his EXAMPLE instead of his ADVICE”.  It would do this country well if the occupant of the Oval Office would take heed and come to realize that his words and actions are the example that kids and adults in this country are following.  These behaviors are not the behaviors that need to be promulgated for the generations of the future.

 

 

 

 

A few reflections

Given all that has transpired over the past several months, it is somewhat challenging to isolate on an area that might have some degree of interest.  Certainly, there is the impeachment event in Washington that has captured a significant amount of time with the media outlets as well as characterizing the banter around the country’s pubs and other places were people gather.  There are those who side with what has been a very tepid defense of the wayward activities of a president who seems to be able to justify anything and everything that he does whether it be right, wrong, or questionable.  Conversely, there are those who believe, without the slightest of reservations, that the president has engaged in the abuse of power by his attempt to pressure the Ukrainian President.  His stonewalling decision-making about the release of documents and making administrative personnel unavailable for questioning, hence the obstruction of congress. 

To bolster the defense to justify the president’s actions and to undermine the articles of impeachment, two distinguished jurists, Alan Dershowitz and Kenneth Starr, were brought into the fold.  It has been somewhat fascinating to listen to each of them speak with forked tongue.  Going back to the impeachment of President Clinton when they both argued that an impeachable offense does not have to be the commission of an actual crime.  Now, compare that with the language of today.  Particularly, Dershowitz has argued that “no crime has been committed”.  He justifies the obvious contradiction by stating that he had not considered other arguments defining an impeachable act.  What?  This noted legal scholar admitting that he failed to consider all aspects of this critical issue in times past.  Certainly, there is an absence of evidence that this noted scholar is influenced by or adhering to the hallowed legal principle of precedence.

 Further, do also keep in mind, that this is the same Kenneth Starr who was the president of Baylor University when they were exposed for failing to address sexual allegations from women who claimed to have been abused by some football players. In his presidential capacity, Starr ordered an investigation into the charges by a prestigious law firm, and in a scathing 13-page summary the law firm found that Baylor, under Starr’s leadership, had done little to respond to accusations of sexual assaults.  Yes, this is the same Kenneth Starr, who as Special Prosecutor, vigorously and with great zeal pursued charges against President Clinton over his affair with Monica Lewinsky.  Bit ironic, isn’t it.    

 On another note, the recent tragic death of basketball legend, Kobe Bryant, his daughter and seven others in the helicopter crash over the recent weekend highlights the fragile reality of life.  “In the twinkling of an eye” life can be no more.  In the Book of James, it states: “Whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow.  For what is your life?  It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.”    Indeed, those lost in the crash are gone and there is no tomorrow.  Similarly, here in Alabama, the fiery tragedy at the boat dock in Scottsboro which, as of this writing, took eight lives that will not have any more tomorrows.  Certainly, there is a permanency in death.  It is final.  There are no maybes, what ifs, or second chances.  Indeed, we will all face the end of life at some point and, I believe, I’m getting closer and closer to that eventuality.  In each of these tragedies, it all happened, accidently.  There was not a plan to be followed or preparations to be made—it just happened.   A friend falls, undoubtedly hits his head, and his life is snuffed out.  No more tomorrows.  Even when one lingers with a chronic illness and the end of life is inevitable, when it happens, it’s difficult because of the finality of life no more.  Those who subscribe to various religious orientations can find solace in the belief that there is a tomorrow.  There is a life after the earthly journey and those beliefs can provide a modicum of calm and acceptance. 

Granted, there are other events that have occurred during this time and I have, no doubt, fixated on the more surreal and unfathomable.  Why are we experiencing the events that are going on in Washington?  Is this all simply an inevitable outcome of repeated behavior by someone who seems to believe that there are no boundaries that must be recognized and followed?  Was the helicopter crash simply the fateful outcome of a bad decision to take off when visibility was so poor and all law enforcement aircraft had been grounded?  Was the pre-dawn fiery inferno on the backwaters of the Tennessee River just a bad nightmarish event due to someone being careless or inattentive?  Answers are not easy to come by and for those of us still waddling our way through life, we shall keep on waddling.