RANDOM

 Suddenly the word random is a most popular word. Is it randomly that this has occurred? Or is it just random chance that makes the younger generation settle on the word? Will it change the meaning of the word, like 'sick' or 'fat' or 'my bad' or will it remain in its original definition? These are just random thoughts about the word random.

 I decided to take a random look at the news and see what is going on. Admittedly, I have taken quite a break from serious and long perusal of the news of the day. Yes, I paid attention, but not as intensely as during you know who's administration. I thought, I hoped, foolishly perhaps, that we were done with all that, but there I was, proven both right and wrong.  Wrong in that I hoped that things would improve and right in my predictions and evaluations that said that as a united nation we were in deep trouble.

 This state of Trouble is not a random happening, though. In fact, it is a continuation and exacerbation of all that has come before. It is not random that laws are being passed that restrict voting rights and access nor are the targets of these laws that are so immoral. It is not random that we now have laws being passed that restrict protest rights and even make arrests during a protest, simply for just being there, a felony!! Are we serious!!! What has happened to America? No, this is not random!!

 More 'random'? Another audit in Maricopa County where Biden won by 45,000 votes? Trump wants the National Guard there during this ridiculous and expensive third recount?! Nothing random here, merely another track on the highway that leads towards overthrowing this government. Open violence and rebellion did not work on Jan. 6, so on to the next step. After 360 futile suits to overthrow the election count and results, now on to legislation that passed, is in the courts almost immediately. It is not a random choice to fight these new immoral and should be illegal laws, for if we do not, then we deserve what we get as a result of inaction,  inertia and apathy.

It is not random that we are getting more wars of hate words in our legislatures. It is not random that we have fascistic representatives in those legislatures, people like Taylor Greene or Josh Hawley, or Tom Cotton or Ilhan Omar or Rashida Talib. See there are bad seeds on all sides, but we refuse to recognize that and we fall ever deeper into that seemingly random abyss that grew beneath our feet of clay.

 We have demonized immigrants from doing what immigrants to America have been doing since time immemorial - coming to America, legally or not, driven by deep needs. We have demonized opponents and now cannot distinguish between freedom of speech and forbidden hate speech. We have people still following a man who said "And I then I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out in one minute and is there a way you can do something like that by injection inside, or almost a cleaning. Because you see it gets in the lungs, and it does a tremendous number on the lungs."  Even his own ex-aide said  "That's why we've got to remember moments like this... because we can't allow him or someone like him to ever hold power again."

Will we ever learn to distinguish the truly random from that which only appears to be so? Will we allow a change in meaning of a word to change the course of history? Making and taking a random choice ...... well, golly gee, but I surely hope not!