Bonkers, Blather, & Blunders #4

There’s an old saying that applies directly to this story: Look Before You Leap (or do just about anything).  A nineteen-year-old young lady in Oklahoma recently moved to a town in Arkansas.  Looking for housing there, she signed a lease on a two-bedroom apartment without actually ever looking at the property.  We might file that under the heading: foolish. So, sight unseen, she was more than a little shocked and embarrassed when she arrived at the address only to find that her apartment is in a senior citizen complex!   That may help to explain why the $350 per month rent seemed so darn reasonable.  Not surprisingly, she has noted that she is, by far, the youngest resident in the complex.  If planning to leap, first look.

Now, onto more impactful Triple B’s.  An adjunct instructor (that means, part-time) at a college in California, managed to get herself placed on leave after getting into a virtual (Zoom) class put-down of a student during a presentation on ‘cancel culture’ when the subject turned to police.  Said she, reportedly: “A lot of police officers have committed an atrocious crime and have gotten away with it and have never been convicted of any of it.”  Well, you get a pretty clear idea already of her anti-police feelings, given that her premise of “a lot of police officers” have gotten away with “atrocious crimes” is definitely rote lib-speak and false.  The instructor then pressed the student on his police-supporting viewpoint: “You’re saying police officers should be revered, viewed as heroes?”  The student responded:” I think they are heroes, in a sense, because they come to your need and help you.” The student then asked the instructor if she would call the police if she were in trouble.  She responded that she would not.  Said she: “I don’t trust them.  My life is in more danger in their presence.”  Now this is a white female instructor, teaching college students, who appears to be, perhaps, in her early-to-mid-thirties, no older.  And she openly doesn’t trust police and fears she might be harmed in their presence?  Appears at this point that her traditional American culture has, indeed, been cancelled and replaced by the elitist wokie thing. Probably good that she has been ‘given’ some time off.

And on the subject of our police, residents of St. Louis will have, it seems, fewer officers as the city government has approved some defunding, despite its serious crime problems.  U.S. Representative Cori Bush (D-Mo) was reportedly delighted.  Said she in a statement: “Today’s decision to defund the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department is historic.  It marks a new future for our city.  For decades, our city funneled more and more money into our police department under the guise of public safety, while massively underinvesting in the resources that will truly keep our communities safe.”  OK, how then exactly will cutting back on uniformed officers create a “new future” for St. Louis, as serious crime there, and in most of our huge Democrat-run metropolitan areas, continues to increase?  The plan, it seems, is to divert those former police funds to “a victims support program” and several other social services.    Representative Bush spoke of resources needed to “truly keep communities safe.”  And those resources would be?  Sounds like more unarmed social workers and mental health counselors to be sent in to defuse domestic and perhaps other confrontational situations.

The truth of the defunding is this:  Just a little over 2% of the current police budget will be “defunded.”  Yes, positions will be lost, but supposedly no current officers would be terminated.  Open slots are being retained for cadets currently in the police academy, and the remaining positions to be cut have been open, said the city, for more than a decade!  Beneath the “defunding” headlines, the policing strength, in actuality, remains pretty much the same!

In Portland, Oregon, civil unrest, or more correctly rioting, has taken place in that city, off and on, believe it or not, for over a year now. Mayor Ted Wheeler, as has been the case with other big city Democratic mayors, simply failed to take any kind of aggressive action to put a stop to the violence when it started, and then continued to build, almost seeming to side initially with the protesters.  In fact, the mayor actually, at one point, ordered police to no longer use tear gas, taking away from law enforcement one of its most effective non-lethal tools for disbursing crowds. He also refused President Trump’s offer to send in some federal law enforcement assistance, reportedly saying, in rebuffing an effective disturbance-controlling offer, that Portland didn’t need his (Trump’s) “politics of division and demagoguery.” My city’s being overrun by thugs, night after night, but I just don’t like your politics! Apparently, to Wheeler and the others, it almost seemed as if all of this bothersome rioting was just a sign of frustrated young adults ‘acting out,’ like under-disciplined little kids sometimes do for attention, however generally minus the burning and looting!

Well, after over a year of this yet uncontained ‘acting out,’ resulting in millions of dollars in downtown Portland property damage, Mayor Wheeler has apparently determined that continuing appeasement of rioters isn’t an effective solution after all.  So, by gum, in late April, he put his verbal foot down.  Said he in a local speech: “They want to burn, they want to bash, they want to intimidate, they want to assault.” He continued: “The self-described anarchist mob” has caused “criminal intimidation and violence.  Together, we can take a stand….and take our city back.”  In the past, he has called for “calm.”  Surprisingly, that noble request didn’t slow down the ‘anarchist mobs’!  Reading between the lines of his latest public plea, it almost sound like he expects the citizens of Portland to ‘stand up’ to rioters.  Naïve to put that on the backs of peace-desiring and deserving residents.  What exactly are they expected to do?  Confront rioting mobs?  If members of the public did that while armed, it would only seriously aggravate the situation and endanger lives on both sides. Otherwise, as in without any weapons, no one in his/her right mind is going to step forward to confront a violence-prone, looting, burning and purposefully causing injury mob.

The solution is more law enforcement, including requesting federal assistance, if needed, beyond local and state enforcers, although no one in the White House, now (!), is offering help, arresting those committing criminal acts and keeping them in jail, rather than the ridiculous trendy ‘woke’ practice of no-bail releases the following morning.  In Portland, and elsewhere, mob violence in the streets has, unbelievably, been allowed to continue for far too long.  It should have been contained the first time it happened, rather than Progressive leaders simply turning the other cheek (and not the facial one).  The illegal disruptions must be stopped, even if it means having disturbance-trained Army National Guard soldiers brought in to patrol and confront, alongside local/regional police officers.  Metropolitan area citizens deserve peace and safety.  That’s just the basic American expectation and practice, in case some have forgotten.

Finally for this edition, either an accidental or a purposeful blunder, but a blunder, nonetheless. In last week’s National Day of Prayer, an American tradition, officially dating back to 1952, in Mr. Biden’s required proclamation, dealing of course with the nation’s need, now, more than ever, for continuing prayers to our Heavenly Father for the well being of our nation and our lives, he never once mentioned the word GOD!  “Prayer has nourished countless souls,” etc., “let us find in our prayers,” etc., said he in part, but unlike every one of his predecessors, there was absolutely no mention of God.  This from the proclaimed “devout Catholic”!  God just isn’t something that slips your mind when talking about prayer and deliverance for our nation.  One must conclude that the most important word in our language was perhaps naively or purposely left out by the staffer who wrote the proclamation.  But, nonetheless, shame on Mr. Biden for not reviewing and noticing, especially as a ‘devout Catholic.’  Commented Reverend Franklin Graham regarding the obvious omission: “This is the National Day of Prayer.  Of course, we need to call on God, not just some generic gods, or some power in the air, but on God himself, the Creator. There’s no one else to pray to except to God.” Given the subject matter, certainly an inexcusable omission.  Thanks to Reverend Graham for reminding us all that there is only one God Almighty, whom this nation depends on.  And, as we all realize, or should, a nation and its citizens that need God’s guidance and deliverance, as stated earlier, perhaps now more than ever.

(Apartment blunder stats via dailymail.com, Erica Tempesta, 4-29-21; College instructor fears police stats via nypost.com, Jon Levine, 5-1-21; St. Louis police defunding quotes& stats via foxnews.com, Morgan Phillips, 4-30-21; Portland Mayor quotes and stats via dailycaller.com, Jordan Lancaster, 4-26-21; National Day of Prayer stats and Graham quote via dailymail.com, Keith Gri