I was enumerating yesterday all the bad things that make my life exactly the way I expect it to be as a total pessimist. Of course, I left out that I am fully expecting Donald Trump to be the next president of this country. Yes, I expect the worst to happen. Hillary Clinton will not beat Trump either because of her toxic unfavorability or because the email thing will bring down an indictment to nullify her eligibility to be president. And all my conservative friends who love Trump will continue to dance happy dances and sing about me being a hopeless “lib-tard” who doesn’t really know anything about anything as Trump continues to rob them and make their lives more miserable with the help of the government he will control from the inside.
Yes, one of the biggest downers about being too smart for your own good is, you see past the lies everyone tells themselves, and perceive the darkest of the truths that lurk behind them.
I got this meme from a high school friend who served in the Navy and became a firefighter… an honorable public servant no matter how you look at it.
In the meme to the right, I am characterized as a self-centered numb-noggin who thinks his opinion is more important than the realities of this person’s life. It makes me sad that my childhood friend believes this is true about my political beliefs. But I am not claiming to be oppressed. Well, maybe by Trump once he does away with the healthcare law that guarantees insurance companies will cover me despite six pre-existing conditions. This is a straw man argument that sets up liberals as unreasonable norks that want the law to dictate that everything should be the way liberals want them to be. That is not the way I see being a liberal.
I choose rather to look at what people are saying on all sides and make decisions based on my hopefully broad and enlightened mind. I would never advise someone to have an abortion. But I do care what happens to children once they are born. Are we limiting their suffering when they are not wanted by anyone? When they are born into poverty? When they drink lead-contaminated water and are subjected to brain damage and death because the conservative government decided saving money was worth the risk? I believe all people are deserving of respect and all people have value. I have gay friends and former students. Their existence in this world enriches it, and I am not ashamed to know them. I would never ask one of my conservative friends to marry another man… or marry anybody. I have a wife who is from a foreign country and her road to citizenship is still not traversed. Could we be making that road harder than it needs to be?
I am a liberal. But I would not call myself a tax-and-spend liberal. I would rather see the money we already pay in taxes go for better public schools, better roads and bridges and public works, less expensive, or even FREE college education for my struggling children, rather than tax breaks and corporate wellfare for GE, Pfizer, and Exxon. Is it too much to ask that our taxes be spent on us rather than enhancing corporate profit margins? And couldn’t millionaires and billionaires afford to pay the same percentage of taxes that I do? Maybe even more because they have more? Why does believing these things make me evil? Or stupid? Or any of the other things that my conservative friends tell me that I am because I am a liberal? I would rather reason things out than simply insult others, something the other side of this argument doesn’t make a habit of doing.
I have no problem saying, “Black lives matter.” They do matter. And they have not been treated fairly. Not Trayvon Martin. Not Michael Brown. Especially not Tamir Rice, the twelve year old shot to death for having a toy gun. These are children who are not to blame for their own deaths. So I am not burdened to add “…All lives matter” because it goes without saying. White and Asian lives have not been snuffed out in Walmart’s toy section for handling an air rifle. I guess I must be a reverse-racist for saying this like I have been told on Facebook.
I am a liberal. So shoot me. Er… rather, don’t shoot me. But be patient with my fact-heavy and logic-heavy arguments. If you are a Christian, then weigh my arguments against what you know in your heart Jesus actually would do. I know scripture. I have read the entire Bible more than once. I am confident my wanting government to do what helps the greatest number and harms no one will stand the test. And I am preparing to deal with a President Donald Trump who probably won’t see it that way.
Catch a Falling Star 
Aunty Entropy Moves In
Mother Nature’s sister is one of those rich relatives you don’t really like, but have to endure. She tends to take charge of everything and ruin all your plans. Yes, we do not throw a party when Aunt Entropy comes to visit. Well, at least not the happy kind of party where everybody has fun. Aunt Entropy has come to stay for a while and take things apart.
One thing Aunt Entropy likes about Texas is its utter dedication to fracking and oil money. High profit motives have continued to force oil companies to pump toxic liquids into the underground to break apart shale and push out the oil. We have fracking to thank for lower gas prices and Fox News talking points about no longer being dependent on evil ookie-icky foreign oil. We also have it to thank for the current condition of the foundation of my little house. Alternating years of flooding and drought have expanded and contracted the small hill the house sits on so much that the front end of the house has all but cracked off. The frequent Dallas area earthquakes have no doubt helped this process. Auntie Entropy clucks her tongue at it. “Insurance doesn’t have to pay for this because you should have invested in foundation repair long ago. It isn’t earthquake damage, it is neglect!” Of course, my healthcare costs over the last decade have completely prevented any notion of paying out for foundation repair. No one would loan a deadbeat former teacher money for household repairs just because he is old and broke and decrepit. Lovely caring woman, that Aunt Entropy.
The fracking related sinkhole under Wink, Texas… those lines around it are roads and highways.
The Grandbury, Texas parking lot sinkhole which formed after heavy rain and a long history of fracking.
Aunt Entropy is, after all the personification of the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics in the science of physics. To put it simply, Entropy is a process by which matter and energy progress from a beginning state all the way to a final state. In the case of our universe, the process goes from the Big Bang of creation to the final star winking out at the end of the universe as we now know it. Entropy means the progress we are making towards the ultimate ends of death and decay. Every action we take leads to a consequence and a further action until we are dead. Not just me. Not even just you and me. But all of us, everywhere in the universe. This is why the little things where our lives break down make Auntie Entropy smile when nothing else will.
Here are some things that make Auntie Entropy smile;
The Orange King with golden crown and tiny hands may be our next president.
The hatred and self-aggrandizement that he campaigns on have taken root in the fertile soil of fear and hatred that Fox News and conservative leaders have tilled and toiled over for so long. They are beginning to bud with flowers… if you can call weeds flowers. And they are bound to produce poisonous fruits.
Mickey’s car is breaking down again because of heat. After paying over a thousand dollars to get pot-hole damage to the front tire and rim repaired, the coolant pump gave out and had to be replaced. Now the overheating warning light comes on daily and we are forecast to have dangerous levels of heat in Texas weather for the next few days. I am going to have to decide whether to spring for more car repair, or go see the doctor about the pain in my extremities. I won’t be able to afford both. Oh, my aching bank account!
My wife is overseas in the Philippines spending a month with her family after the death of her father. But she left her green card here. I had to express mail it to her for a large amount of postage cost and risk losing it along the way in the mail. She might never be able to return to this country. Well, I do see that as a bad thing, after all.
So while Aunt Entropy is visiting… or rather living here permanently, and feeding us her bad-luck salad made with equal parts misery, misfortune, and mayonnaise, we must learn to endure her wicked sense of humor and micro-managing ways.
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