REALITY CHECKS

  And there you have it. Reality checks have become a lost art, a skill of the past. Today people simply blunder on, creating their own reality, insistently advocating that their most definitely not real reality is indeed the truth of the matter. Sound complicated? Well, it is, for how does one deal with, talk with, reason with, those who have abandoned truth. Instead, what they champion is extremism in defense of not liberty, but the very opposite. It is a reality which devalues human life, all life. Finding a manageable, build upon handhold in this war of words and sanity is nigh onto impossible, percentages of finding them growing dimmer every single hour. The increasing speed with which false reality is overtaking the truth is incredible.

That, my friends, is the reality today. We have collectively, apparently, lost our minds. Fewer and fewer appear to be in working order. Now that might be okay if not for the true reality, a deep-set rooting of "nonrealism" into our governmental bureaucracies and mandates. The spouters of this garbage are actually among the lawmakers, the arbiters of our reality. Sad. Frightening. That is the reality of today.

"Bill Gates wants people to eat artificial meat that was grown in a 'peach tree dish' and that the government is going to probe your bowels for remote surveillance." 

As good a summary of her inane verbiage as I have come across. As a teacher of literature, writing, vocabulary, and their connections to history and its truths - I shudder, deep and long. My despair monitor is screeching wildly as we enter the red zone of danger.

Can a leader be one who says such things? Apparently so, for the true definition of a leader, of a true lawmaker has devolved so, such that the lower we go, in the new reality, it apears to be the higher we go. The more outrageous, racist, sexist, murderous and hate filled words - the better. Such is the new nonreality morphed to reality.

Yesterday, June 1, was Children's Day in Ukraine. For what? The increasing statistics that reflect the horror of a reality too unreal to be accepted as such - and yet it is. The cause of it all - the criminal invasion of one country, Ukraine, by another, Russia, under a disconnected Putin, who wishes a return to a time of Russian imperial power.   Realistic? Should not be, and yet, there it is. 

 We are told Russia is losing the war. Aha! Savaged, ravaged infrastructure and humanity means winning? Ever increasing loss of further territory is winning? A country drowning in the blood of its people is winning? Depending on the very limited patience of other nations is winning? Every day another day of victory undeniable for the Russians as they continue their destructive path and to hell with the world? Winning? Differing realities at war here and we must be realistic. Unless and until there is a stronger consequence for Russia, she will continue on, the great big Bear eating all in front and alongside. Three months, going strong. Reality.

Not to forget our own country, the heretofore blessed United States of America. What has become of us? A country which allows its people to eat others, to devour children, bystanders, as it has resolutely decided to be resolutely useless in prevention of these repetitive horrors. No, guns are not the issue, states one 'leader'. What is?

“So something has happened to our society. I go back to abortion,"

“It's a mental illness problem. Can't get rid of the guns. Criminals don't care. Good people don't commit the assaults,”   {Uh huh!}

Ron Desantis. Donald Trump et al. GOP. NRA. Ted Cruz. White Power extremists. Gun crazed gangs. Proliferation of assault weapons. Lack of civilized, humane gun laws.

Take your choice, one or more. Choose your stand. Choose the nonreality reality of the Great Big Lie policy or choose the correct one.

 'A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.'

We need no more militias. The National Guard and the Reserves fulfill that. Members of them and our armed services do not bring their own weapons as they are provided with them. So whence the right to own assault weapons, free every damned day to slaughter, to maim, to cripple, to destroy lives?

 In fact, in true reality, the 'militias' we have today are all or mostly from the extreme wings of society, though in this new reality of ours they are actually becoming an accepted representation of middle of the road! Reality? Reality. Not pretty. Yet reality.

The gun problem of our society has become a focus point of anger. It invokes passion. It requires a realistic approach to a compromise, a strong law or set of laws, governing ALL states, (in what reality is that), where rifles for hunting are allowed, handguns of sanity are allowed - after thorough investigations. Crack down on the sale of illegal guns and the purveyors of these weapons of murder and mayhem.

Yes, this issue raises temperatures. Civil discourse is nigh unto impossible when one stands in front of bloodied bodies of children, or people living their lives until..... Or simply watching the news. I believe we have now set a record, one which we could have done without, of a daily mass shooting. Does it ever end? Will it ever end? Or are we so hung up on falsehoods that we excoriate a mayor simply despairing, using foul language, a word found in a common lexicon of daily conversation, like it or not, to decry, to proclaim, to curse, to beg, to plead, to demand, to beseech an end to all this bloodshed. She answers a 'so calm, reasonable' individual who spouts the usual meaningless garbage excuses, and says, and then responds,

“I am so sick and tired of the stupid, useless rhetoric by jack a**** like you when it comes to gun regulation. F****** sick and tired of mass murders if OUR F****** CHILDREN,” “It's time for the majority who know that gun permits and banning automatic weapons is COMMON F****** SENSE. So yeah, F*** YOU.”

“Seriously people… you should be WAY more upset that elementary students were gunned down in their classroom than I used the F-word. #priorities #momsdemandaction,”

People, we have got to choose. Which side do we champion? Will it take a tragedy that hits home in a very personal way, G-d forbid, or are the daily tragedies enough to make us all understand the deep division gun control has caused in our country, along with the ridiculous mask and vaccine politization. An inability to discuss rather than argue and shout, and a growing intolerance on either side, both pushing extremes, do naught other than exacerbate the matter and make it ever more impossible to reach a sensible solution.

The TV nightly portrayal of dead bodies and dead body counts of the Vietnam War, redressed to fit modern times. Shame on us. Shame on society for sitting still on this. Shame on those who discount the value of children, of less importance than their assault rifle. After all, they are the future militias that will defend us against.....them? No one else is coming here to destroy, to defeat us. The truth, the reality, is that we are doing a damn good job all by ourselves. 

That is the reality in truth, not the nonreality reality which seeks to find its way into an ugly, life extinguishing warped reality.

That is the ugly truth. That is the ugly choice facing us, demanding an answer NOW.

That is the true reality of our times.