TheBanyanTree: Anger Management

[Margaret R. Kramer]

My normally low blood pressure explodes when I watch the news sometimes:

US generals are now telling Congress that Iraq is descending into civil war.
Hello . . . Where have these guys been?  I’m the most casual observer of
this conflict, but even I know that the United States has destroyed Iraq to
the point that it no longer functions as a country.  Civil war?  This
country is beyond hope.  We need to get out of there.  NOW!

Donald Rumsfeld has screwed up our military so bad that we cannot even be a
strong bystander in the Israeli/Hezbollah  conflict.  We can only stand by
and wring our hands in despair, because our military is so strung out
throughout the globe, we can barely protect our own country.  I would love
to see Rumsfeld go into Iraq without his security protection and see how
long he lasts.  He’s an absolute moron and is an embarrassment to humanity.

Rice has no effectiveness as a peace negotiator because of our
unilateralism, we have condemned countries instead of maintaining
relationships with them.  She can’t broker deals with nations that have been
kicked to the side of the road.  She can only wring her hands as she flies
to the Middle East, making her big appearance, which is just that, an
appearance.

Yes, good old Bush has continued his path trashing America.  We’re embroiled
in a horrific conflict, we have very little international influence, our gas
prices are way up and that benefits his  oil buddies, and he’s gained five
pounds over the last year.  I noticed Karen Hughes was with him on a
newsclip this past week.  Wasn’t her job to fly around the world promoting
America’s good image?  Well, she bombed out in Saudi Arabia, so I guess she’
s better off staying home so she can advise the moron man on what stupid
things he can do next to ruin our country.

The sooner these dunces get out of office, the better off we’ll be.  Even
Richard Nixon looks good next to these bozos.

Then we have the local news . . . A family went to the Minnesota Zoo.  There
has been a meerkat exhibit at the zoo for several years.  A nine year old
girl reached over the four foot high barrier to pet one of the meerkats and
it bit her.  The meerkats have had rabies shots, but the girl’s family didn’
t want her to go through the rabies vaccinations, so the Zoo had to destroy
all five of the meerkats to prove that they didn’t have rabies.  The joy for
many is sacrificed for the comfort of one.

This girl was NINE YEARS OLD.  Unless she was developmentally disabled she
should have known that the barriers are there for a reason.  Wild animals
are not pets.  She should have known that.  Her family should have known
that.  Her consequence for her incredibly stupid action, and we all face
consequences for our actions beginning in infancy, is to take the rabies
vaccinations with a smile.  She would never reach over a barrier again.
Instead a group of innocent animals are destroyed so she won’t go through
any pain.  There’s something missing here, I guess.

Finally, our neighbor’s house was broken into yesterday.  In broad daylight.
Somewhere between 11:00 am and 2:00 pm.  He wasn’t home, so I’m wondering if
his house was cased first, so the burglars knew when his car isn’t there, he
isn’t there, and the house is empty.  His front door was kicked in and
broken up into several pieces.  A screen was cut to get onto his back porch.
He’s a sweet retired guy who is a hoarder.  He has stuff all over the place
and from what little I can see, he can barely walk through his house because
of all the junk piles.

I don’t know if anything was stolen or not.  Ray was home and he talked to
the police along with some other neighbors.  Our neighbor said that they
didn’t have to break his front door, he keeps his back door unlocked all the
time.

We used to keep our doors unlocked, too, in our old neighborhood.  It was
off the beaten path, plus a ton of St Paul cops live there, so we really
felt safe.  Our new house sits right on a busy street.  We have people
riding by, walking by, and biking by all the time.

With this new house, we lock our doors.  I leave the windows open (if the
air conditioning isn’t on) day and night.  We haven’t locked our garage.  We
usually leave the house open when we walk Axel at night.  That changed
yesterday.  I still left the windows open, but the garage is locked and we
locked up tight when we took Axel on his walk.  It’s creepy, but I also
refuse to live in fear.  Hopefully, our neighbor’s burglary is just one of
those random events that can’t be explained.

We went to our annual Sommerfest concert with the Minnesota Orchestra last
night.  If there was a tonic to cure high blood pressure and a wariness
about strangers, this was it.  As usual, it was a beautiful summer evening
in downtown Minneapolis.  A bit humid, but oh, so much better than the heat
and humidity of last weekend.  We gathered on Peavey Plaza in front of the
Hall and ate our barbequed pork sandwiches and watched the parade of
summertime humanity go by.

The concert was Mozart’s music from the film Amadeus – wonderful.  We had
ice cream cones on the Plaza afterwards while listening to a jazz group
perform.  The moon hid behind a tall building.  Ray and I sat and enjoyed
the summer night air while being hugged by the skyscrapers around us.

Summer, hot and humid at times, marches on.  I have my flare ups, too.  I
try to keep things in perspective using the Serenity Prayer, “accept the
things I cannot change;  courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to
know the difference.”

Margaret R. Kramer
margaretkramer at comcast.net

War does not determine who is right - only who is left.
~Bertrand Russell