From Bizarre to Kindness

In these uncertain and, let’s face it, frightening times, things seem to be happening at warp speed, whether we can run fast enough to climb on board or not.  But, as always, there continues to be plenty of room for both bizarreness and kindness.  First, of course, the bizarre.

A female associate professor, teaching at a university in New Jersey, has complained publicly that President Trump’s encouragement, not order, mind you, but encouragement, to state governors and local administrators that they should now, carefully, and systematically, ease off the brake pedal on the virtually nationwide shut-downs, so that America can begin the inevitable process of getting back to work, and to do so, as much as humanly possible, with health and safety the foremost criteria  Well, those good, logical, and necessary reopening America steps, badly needed at some point to reestablish the American economy and the American way of work-life, are seen by this minority university professor as premature, and the root cause of the high number of coronavirus deaths among black citizens.  Said she: “Not only do white conservatives not care about black life, but my most cynical negative read of the white supremacists among them is that they welcome this massive winnowing of black folks in order to slow demographic shifts and shore up political power.”

To further her bizarre, well-wide-of-the-truth assumptions, and anti-opening-of-America rant, she added this fond admonition: “F**k each and every Trump supporter. You all absolutely did this. You are to blame.” By her assessment, then, white Americans are reportedly to blame for the high incidence of coronavirus deaths among black citizens.  Missing in her assertion, you’ll note, are the known coronavirus contributing outcome factors, for both blacks and whites, which include: heart issues, other organ problems, high blood pressure, diabetes, and obesity.  On that note, this same professor has publicly asserted in the past that the high incidence of black female obesity has resulted from Trump administration policies! Yep, there were apparently no overweight black (or white) women prior to the January 2017 oath of office.  Wow, the wizardly he wields!  By the way, you might be interested to know this professor teaches in her school’s “Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies” department, one of those useless, modern day, “with it” majors offering no clear road, or any road at all, to meaningful post-graduation employment.  With epidemic-related budget cutting now beginning among public and private universities/colleges nationwide, we may very well see a shake-out of such liberal-pressured, manufactured majors, and a return to more traditional, and employable, courses of study. Stick with the historically valid majors.  Don’t ever let a son or daughter major in anything ending in “Studies,” unless you are planning to have them living in your basement long-term.

Bizarre, as well, but on a considerably higher power level. Pope Francis made a compassionate gesture recently, brought on directly by the coronavirus which had whacked Italy, as well.  The compassion shouldn’t surprise you.  The recipients might.  As Covid-19 took hold, a group of Latin American transgender prostitutes entered a church not far from Rome, requesting help because “with the virus, they no longer had customers on the street,” and, with no revenue coming in, were close to being homeless. The request went from the parish priest on up to the Vatican Cardinal responsible for charitable work sanctioned by the Pope. Reportedly, the Pope’s “response was immediate.”  The Cardinal was authorized to provide them with “enough money to cover their rent and bills until the nationwide lockdown ends.”  Latin American transgender prostitutes. All God’s children, yes.  But this one just seemed a bit bizarre. Or, at the very least, most unusual.

You were promised “kindness” in the title, so here you go.  With his Texas high school closed by the virus epidemic (like virtually every other one in the nation), the 66-year-old principal began providing the students and their parents with regular updates via YouTube videos.  But when it came to his school’s graduating seniors, he wanting to do something extra special.

So he got in his car, and set out to personally wish every one of them well, and to give each student a personally delivered candy bar.  That probably doesn’t sound like a whole lot of effort, until you realize that there were 612 seniors in that graduating class!  And he was determined to visit every one of them, either at home or work.

And he did it. Over a 12-day period, that principal drove more than 800-miles throughout the area, to personally say farewell to each senior.  What a great display of genuine caring and commitment.  Those students will soon forget all about that candy bar.  But they won’t ever forget the coronavirus epidemic, and because of it, the special effort their principal made, in lieu of a traditional graduation ceremony, to visit with, and wish good luck, to every one of them in person.

Taking each of these three narratives into account, pretty sure kindness wins out over bizarre.  As it always should.

(Blame Trump supporters via breitbart.com, Tom Ciccotta, 4-29-20; Transgender via cruxnow.com, Elise Ann Allen & Paulina Guzik, 5-1-20; H.S. principal via breitbart.com, Amy Furr, 4-30-20).