No Way To Start a Week

  

Not yet 7:15 Monday morning and the dog Shelock hadn't asked to go out. My husband and I were reading in bed. No need to rush. We were meeting a friend at a café later in the morning for our weekly free write.

My husband was checking his phone for headlines and messages. The headlines which he read to me were depressing.

• Israel kills five Al Jazeera journalists. My Arab friends have often said it is run by the CIA. Some Americans see it as terrorist run. The fact that both sides disparage it, means to me that the station is telling another part of a story left out by other media. I have often found that this adds a dimension and is verifable as possible without going to the scene and checking it.
• Zelensky still not included in Friday Putin-Stalin meeting. How in God's name can an agreement be reached when one of the two major participants isn't participating? My husband thinks when Zelensky doesn't accept unacceptable conditions it will let Trump blame him. And why isn't NATO involved? NATO has much to lose if Russia continues its drive to recapture the old USSR.
• Trump to place D.C. under National Guard to Clean up Crime. No matter that crime was already way down. It has to be a test. The military should not be allowed to go against their own people. A manufactured crisis to clamp down on people--If there were a Fascist Handbook this would be in it.. 
• Trump wants all homeless out of D.C. He talked about providing tents. Are tent concentration camps the new type of U.S. prisons? An Alcatraz without the gas champters? Tents in a D.C. winter...but wait, what will stop Trump from sending troops to your city?
• Hegseth showed a video of Christian minister who says the vote should be taken from women. Didn't Margaret Atwood predict this in A Handmaiden's Tail?
• Hegseth showed a video of Christian minister who wants gay marriage dissolved. In many countries church marriages aren't legal. Marriage is a civil contract legal only when performed by a government official. One could marry in a church 1000x or more and they aren't married, except spiritually.  I never did and never will understand why a government has a right to interfer in sexual relationships between consenting adults. It's enough to have legal rules on property and responsibilities on children.
• Trump Wants Supreme Court to Allow Racial Profiling in California.The better for ICE to sweep up Latinos for deportation most likely without due process. How many children will be left on the street or at home alone? What inhumane conditions will the holding places have? Those who have survived existing ones tell stories where things are as horrible as the death camps in WWII only without gas chambers.Meanwhile, crops go unharvested and work that Americans won't do, go undone.
• Fire burns on Arthur's Seat. Noooo...not something awful for Edinburgh. It is just another major fire that is happening all over Europe and North America. This one probably isn't from climate change but set by a human. Edinburgh is a city I adore. I must write friends and hope they aren't being made sick by the smoke.

It's not even eight o'clock and every one of those headlines is horrible. 

I was reading Red Scare about America's paranoia with Communism. The motives, cruelity and insanity is no different from today with the exception of technical advances especially in communication. I'm not sure American ignorance hasn't replaced naivété. 

I vaguely remember having to take a loyalty oath at university as a group. Instead of saying their words, I chanted Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star under my breath. I had no intention of overthrowing the U.S. Government or selling security secrets which I would never have my hands on to Russia. If I were to be a traitor, saying the words of the loyalty oath would not have been a deterrent. I chocked it up to stupidity and/or crowd control.

I'll admit in today's insane world, as I watch my birth country self-destruct, it is harder and harder to hang on to my peace of mind. I need to concentrate on the many good things in my life, the beauty that surrounds me, the bits of kindness I see in fellow humans. I need to concentrate on my writing, my husband, dog, daughter and friends not necessarily in any order ignoring the aggravations. 

Maybe I should be grateful for those moments this morning with my dog and husband, the free writing, the white flowers among the grass in the garden and the blueberry tart we bought after the free writing. I'm going to stop writing now and get the tart. Like Scarlett O'Hara I'll think about the rest of the things tomorrow.