Around the middle of April I put stuff back on our deck. The stone inserts in the metal table get dropped-in, the lounge and table chairs get unwrapped in the garage and moved back onto the deck, and, the outdoor box gets filled with charcoal, lighter fluid and grill tools.
This year I ran behind schedule: getting a new defibrillator installed the other week put me on lifting restrictions, so, I only had the table and the box handled when the snow hit.
Yes, we had a solid inch of snow in Oakville in late April. That happened on the same day the verdict came down in the George Floyd trial, Walter Mondale passed and two Eric Greitens hold-overs in the Parson administration – the state’s COO and health director – “resigned.”
Oh, a bunch of other stuff occurred too. The Missouri House of Representatives continued its campaign of anti-governance, the Cardinals squandered a great outing by Adam Wainwright and word leaked that Missouri Senator Josh Hawley raises money with a firm that keeps up to 80% of the funds. [See the 4/22/21 St. Louis Post-Dispatch or https://www.propublica.org/article/how-josh-hawley-and-marjorie-taylor-greene-juiced-their-fundraising-numbers ]
In other words, just another day in just another week in 2021.
Since the twin pandemics of Donald Trump and COVID, the number of interesting things going-on each day seems to have exploded. That gives news directors and editors a plethora of stories to consider but I think that for most of us, well, the news become exhausting. And, many turn away.
I keep encountering people surprised that their Missouri elected officials refuse to follow the will of the people and expand Medicaid. Others refuse to learn – and follow – the advice from medical professionals about how to contain Covid.
When people do look at the news most follow just their favorite spinners. FOX viewers don’t watch CNN or Jimmy Kimmel or Stephen Colbert or… On the other side, the MSNBC crowd skips over One America News.
Worse, increasingly, people don’t challenge “news” posted on social media.
In recent days I’ve read on facebook that Joe Biden is controlled by a cabal of wealthy liberals and he can’t even brush his own teeth; the January 6 attack on the Capitol happened because paid anti-Trump agitators attacked; the Covid vaccines contain microscopic tracers/chips the government can activate later; and, that old stand-by, Democrats are hours away from confiscating every gun in America.
So, at a time when information is easier to access, most don’t want a solid, varied diet.
I’m not completely immune. Any day now I get my official Jewish Space Laser supporter lapel pin.
Perhaps a solid alien invasion from another galaxy would unite Americans. Or, perhaps more likely, the aliens would be viewed as just more illegals coddled by the Democrats.
I’ll get my deck set-up soon. I’m sure that it will be another eventful week when I do,
Glenn