Month: September 2016

Random Semicoherent Thoughts – Volume 18

I fully support Colin Kaepernick’s right to be a complete asshole.

During the Olympics, I heard an interview with John Carlos, one of the two athletes who raised their hand in a gesture interpreted as a black power salute when he won a medal at the games.  Whether you support him or revile him or something in between, you must that his actions were effective – his notoriety has far outlived what it would have had he simply brought home his bronze medal.

The Black Lives Matter movement isn’t completely off base – I know first hand that there are racist cops out there. Still, I can’t support a group of people who paint their adversaries with such a wide brush while ignoring their own bad apples.

Part of my job responsibilities include listening to radio transmissions from a state prison. It’s almost like hearing them move cattle instead of prisoners.  I know that I’m a writer and should be able to use my words to describe how this makes me feel, it’s such a strange thing to hear, I just can’t.

Life is not white, nor is it black. It is, in fact, despite anything I might have believed growing up, one-hundred percent gray.  That’s been no more apparent than in my forties.

Ignore for a moment trying to determine how I know this, but crime does not happen the way it’s shown on television. It’s much more complicated than that.

Bad circumstances cause people to do bad things.  It doesn’t always mean the people are bad.

Occasionally, my wife will wake me up in the middle of the night and say there’s something funny going on in the house. After years of whispering a reply to her, I now speak nearly as loud as I can in reply? Why? Because criminals don’t want to tangle with you any more than you want to mess with them. On the very remote chance they are in your house, let them know you’re coming so they can leave the way they came.