Surely You’re Joking!
I really detest watching or reading the news because in addition to learning where the latest mass shooting took place, it often subjects me to a story that fans the fire of my dislike for politicians. And this past week was no exception.
The latest chapter in the book about the children running our country is the shameful story of how 21 Republicans voted against a bill to give the Congressional Gold Medal to the law enforcement officers who risked their lives to help quell the insurrection at the Capitol on Jan. 6. The bill sailed through the House of Representatives without one dissenting vote from the 406 members, and the only thing worse than voting against the bill was the sheer idiocy some of the Republicans gave for their opposition.
I won’t bore you by delineating all their reasons because a few examples will suffice to illustrate the lunacy of their thinking. Some of them thought the event should not have been called an insurrection, and I would refer them to Merriam Webster and to the families of the five people who were killed and the 144 police officers who were injured during the non-insurrection.
Anyone who hasn’t seen the horrifying film of that dark day had to be comatose or worse, but read now the words of Georgia Rep. Andrew Clyde: “There was an undisciplined mob. There were some rioters, and some who committed acts of vandalism. But let me be clear; there was no insurrection, and to call it an insurrection, in my opinion, is a bold-faced lie.
“Watching the TV footage of those who entered the Capitol and walked through Statuary Hall showed people in an orderly fashion staying between the stanchions and ropes, taking videos, pictures. You know, if you didn’t know the TV footage was a video from January the 6th, you would actually think it was a normal tourist visit.”
“A NORMAL TOURIST VISIT!” Surely he’s joking. Just picture yourself as a tourist in Washington, D.C., on that day. You could walk up the Capitol and perhaps pass beneath the gallows erected to hang then Vice President Mike Pence and proceed through the broken glass, debris, and warring bodies. Once you were inside the Capitol, maybe you might visit Nancy Pelosi’s office, where you could help one of the non-insurrectionists steal the Speaker’s desk. Next you could engage in a game of hide and seek with Pence before stopping on your way out to buy a T-shirt reading, “I Survived the Jan. 6 Capitol Tour.”
For these politicians to vote against honoring the Capitol Police Officers who put their lives on the line during the attack on the Capitol is unconscionable. It’s as simple as that. These guys should quit trying to impress each other with their empty rhetoric and concentrate on helping the country continue healing in the pandemic’s wake. It would be nice to think they were doing something worthwhile for a change.
Mask Madness
While things in the United States are struggling to return to a state of normalcy, some remnants of the pandemic refuse to go away. And one of these is the wearing of masks.
During the height of the pandemic, masks finally became mandatory in most places, but as you would expect, some people refused to mask up despite the pleas of all the doctors and scientists. Of course one of the rebels eschewing the mask was the cantankerous curmudgeon whom we then called president, Donald Trump. Now that he’s out of the White House, and now that the country is gradually opening up after more than a year of gloom and doom, you have to be careful because there still are plenty of nuts running around out there, and one of them was in Georgia last Monday.
At a Big Bear grocery store in Decatur near Atlanta a guy named Victor Lee Tucker came into the store around 1 p.m. The 41-year-old resident of Palmetto, Ga., finished his shopping and went to the checkout counter, where Laquitta Willis, 41, was working the register. A witness said that an argument between Tucker and Willis ensued after Willis asked Tucker to pull up his mask. Tucker then left the store without paying for his order.
But Tucker returned a few minutes later, walked up to Willis’ checkout station, pulled out a handgun, and shot her to death. He then engaged in a gun battle with a sheriff’s deputy who was working as a security guard in the store. When the gun smoke had cleared both the deputy and the suspect were wounded and transported to local hospitals. At this writing, both the deputy and Tucker were listed in stable condition according to DeKalb County Sheriff Melody Maddox.
We are living in a country gone mad. It’s not an exaggeration to say that anyone who leaves for work in the morning may never return home. What a sad commentary this is on the “land of the free and home of the brave.” It’s flat out sickening.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation said the Dekalb County police will serve Tucker with arrest warrants for murder and two counts of aggravated assault.
She’s A Winner
Lede News congratulates Wheeling Park senior Graceylyn Hanna on being named Gatorade West Virginia Girls Soccer Player of the Year. This award was one of many earned this year as she helped lead the Lady Patriots to the West Virginia Class AAA state championship. As a four-year starter she established a career record of 55 goals and 101 assists.
Last season as a senior Graceylyn notched 15 goals and 21 assists, including the game-winner that lifted Park to the state championship over Parkersburg South, 1-0. Among the plethora of awards and honors she received as a senior were being selected as the West Virginia Girls Soccer Player of the Year by the West Virginia Sports Writers Association and being chosen captain of the all-state first team.
Graceylyn epitomizes the adage about the apple’s not falling far from the tree because her coach during her career at Park was her mother, Carrie, who became a soccer legend when she played for what was then Wheeling Jesuit University. Her career record of 96 goals established from 1992 to 1995 still stands as the most career goals for women or men in the history of the university and earned her a spot in the Wheeling Jesuit University Athletic Hall of Fame. The University also retired Carrie’s jersey.
PONDER THIS:
If the cops arrest a mime, do they tell him he has the right to remain silent?
~Anonymous
