A World Gone Mad

Shortly before New Year’s Day 2020 I remember seeing a meme announcing that it’s the return of the Roaring 20s for the first time in one hundred years. With the way that things have been going, it seems like the Roaring 20s now resembles an out-of-control horse quickly pulling a stagecoach near a cliff.

Let me see, 2020 was the year that the Coronavirus arrived. Then-President Donald Trump not only didn’t take it seriously (he left it up to state and local officials, with incredibly mixed results) but he even politicized it to the point where wearing a mask equalled disloyalty to the Trump wing of the Republican Party. I still remember Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick urging seniors to catch COVID-19 and die as soon as possible for the sake of the economy.

Ironically Donald Trump could have won easily won re-election had he decided on a take-charge attitude early in the pandemic and done everything possible to minimize deaths and keep people safe. But, no, he had to continue with taking his weekend golf trips at his own country clubs while other Republicans also decided to do the same by minimizing or ignoring COVID-19. This resulted in Joe Biden winning the presidency while Donald Trump refused to concede the elections and kept on claiming that they were stolen.

Then 2021 came and Donald Trump led that notorious “Stop the Steal” rally in Washington, DC that resulted in Trump supporters storming the Capitol building on January 6, 2021 in an effort to stop the certification of Joe Biden as the next President of the United States. That effort at a modern-day Beer Hall Putsch failed and Biden became president. But there were enough Republican Trump loyalists on the state and local level who continued to politicized the wearing of masks and also began politicizing getting vaccinated once there was a nationwide vaccine rollout. This resulted in the high death rate of people from the Coronavirus. The most ridiculous were the anti-vaccine and anti-mask protests where people carried signs saying “My Body, My Choice” in a total ripoff of the slogan that abortion and birth control activists have long used for their cause.

Now it’s 2022. This week President Biden had ordered all the U.S. flags to be flown at half-staff in remembrance of a grim occasion: One million Americans are now dead from COVID-19. One million Americans. Many of the dead were Trump supporters who followed what Trump and his Republican loyalists said about not wearing masks or getting vaccinated. Many of the dead would probably be alive today had they taken simple precautions to minimize exposure to that virus.

I am pissed that the Coronavirus had gotten so politicized to the point where, in many parts of the country, the mask and vaccine mandates have been loosened despite the fact that there are now new COVID-19 variants that are now just starting to infect people. Let’s face it, COVID-19 is a virus. It doesn’t give a damn on whether you’re a Republican, Democrat, third-party voter, or even completely apolitical. It doesn’t care about who you voted for in the last election. It’s just a virus that only cares about finding a human body that it can infect.

We’re in a pandemic and now there are other shitty stuff that’s piling onto the pandemic. There’s the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine. Thanks to having modern weapons (courtesy of the U.S., Canada, and a variety of Western European countries), the Ukrainians are successfully fighting back against the Russians, who are using very outdated weapons. Despite all that, Vladimir Putin refuses to halt the invasion so more people on both sides of the war are going to die very violent deaths. He also continues to threaten to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine and against any nation that helps Ukraine. And that’s not to mention that he has been meddling in U.S. elections for years and he has allies in the Republican Party like Steve Bannon and ex-President Trump.

As if all that weren’t enough, there was that infamous Politico story that contained the leak of a draft of an upcoming Supreme Court ruling that would not only ban abortion on the federal level but they would also look at other rulings that legalized birth control, same-sex marriage, and interracial marriage.

To say that this draft is outrageous is an understatement. Thanks to the outcry, I’ve learned a few new things about the issue of abortion. For one thing, abortion isn’t even explicitly banned in the Bible. In fact, Genesis 2:7 holds that life begins at the moment of first breath, not conception. Numbers 5:11-31 provides instructions on how a priest can terminate a pregnancy that came about as a result of a wife’s infidelity against her husband. Exodus 21:22-25 says that if a woman has a premature birth or miscarriage as a result of being struck during a fight, the penalties are far less than if a living born person is seriously injured. Deuteronomy 28:18-24 talks about how the Lord will curse the fruit of your womb. Isaiah 13:18 mentions a prophecy that has people—including young men, infants, and children—being struck down with bows. Hosea 9:10-16 mentions God giving wombs that miscarry and breasts that are dry as punishments for wickedness while also threatening to slay any offspring that are born. Hosea 13:16 mentions pregnant women being ripped open as punishment for rebelling against God.

And that’s just for starters. In addition, neither God, Jesus, Moses, or Paul ever mentioned abortion.

Even the Catholic Church, which is famously antiabortion didn’t always have a negative attitude towards abortion. According to this article, the Catholic Church used to believe that life began when the fetus started to move in utero. That stance was only changed to life beginning at conception when Pope Pius IX outlawed abortion in 1869.

In addition, abortion wasn’t always illegal in the United States. In fact, it was legal in the first 100 years of the existence of the U.S. and it was only banned because doctors (who were mostly men) wanted to get rid of traditional healers (who were mostly women) because they wanted to control health care and they had allies along the nativists who were concerned about a potential decrease in the births of white, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant babies due to a rise in Catholic and Jewish immigrants. This article explains that Evangelical Christians like the Southern Baptists were initially in favor of the Roe vs. Wade decision that legalized abortion only to change their minds because they were concerned about desegregation, an increase in immigrants from non-white countries, and a decline in white babies being born. This video featuring a woman named Jane Elliott who quoted a book called The Birth Dearth that expressed alarm about fewer white babies being born than babies of color and had advocated banning abortion as a way of increasing white baby births.

Jane Elliott discusses what she believes is the main goal of forced birthers, I have a longer clip of her interview but twitter won't let me upload it. This one is trimmed down to focus on what's called the "birth dearth". pic.twitter.com/4tpSjgCOPQ

— Random Autistic 🆘️ (@RandomQuiet) May 7, 2022

Basically the vast majority of antiabortion activists are motivated to call for an abortion ban not because they are concerned about life but they are concerned about the birth rates of white babies. What’s really offensive is that this excerpt from the leak mentions a concern about “the domestic supply of infants” as if infants are consumer goods like food or clothes.

The Republicans truly are Nazis. pic.twitter.com/fvCROHmNmj

— Trevor "Trev" McKee Achilles 🇺🇸 🇺🇦 (@MrTAchilles) May 7, 2022

Yet these pro-lifers are the same people who tend to stop giving a damn about a fetus after it is born and becomes an actual human baby. My all-time favorite quote on abortion comes from a Roman Catholic nun who once called out how “pro-life” these people really are:

“I do not believe that just because you’re opposed to abortion that makes you pro-life. In fact, I think that, in many cases, your morality is deeply lacking if all you want is a child born but not a child fed, not a child educated, not a child housed. And why would I think that you don’t? Because you don’t want any tax money to go there. That’s not pro-life. That’s pro-birth. We need a much broader conversation on what the morality of pro-life is.”

Sister Joan Chittister

Another clergy person, a Methodist pastor, also had this to say about the pro-life movement:

“The unborn are a convenient group of people to advocate for. They never make demands of you; they are morally uncomplicated, unlike the incarcerated, addicted, or the chronically poor; they don’t resent your condensation or complain that you are not politically correct; unlike widows, they don’t ask you to question patriarchy; unlike orphans, they don’t need money, education, or childcare; unlike aliens, they don’t bring all that racial, cultural, and religious baggage that you dislike; they allow you to feel good about yourself without any work at creating or maintaining relationships; and when they are born, you can forget about them, because they cease to be unborn. You can love the unborn and advocate for them without substantially challenging your own wealth, power, or privilege, without re-imagining social structures, apologizing, or making reparations to anyone. They are, in short, the perfect people to love if you want to claim you love Jesus, but actually dislike people who breathe. Prisoners? Immigrants? The sick? The poor? Widows? Orphans? All the groups that are specifically mentioned in the Bible? They all get thrown under the bus for the unborn.”

Methodist Pastor David Barnhart

Exactly! These people are hell-bent on outlawing abortion even though it won’t stop abortions at all. It will only stop legal and safe abortions in the states that have laws on the books that make abortion illegal that will go into effect if Roe vs. Wade is actually repealed. In many places it will be a return to the days of illegal back alley abortions that literally killed and maimed women. Sure it will result in more babies being born (especially white ones) but it doesn’t mean that all unwanted babies will be adopted into new families. This article explained what happened when then-Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu had banned abortion and birth control because he believed that a larger population would beef up Romania’s economy. It resulted in more children being born but many of them weren’t adopted into new families. Instead they were sent to orphanages where they were severely neglected.

So now, in addition to a pandemic and a war, we now have another battle that could potentially drive the United States apart. Vladimir Putin was probably laughing in his Moscow home when the Supreme Court leak was made public due to the huge amount of outrage generated among Americans. When that leak happened, I was suspicious of the timing because of the ongoing war in Ukraine and the U.S. is actively sending weapons to that nation to help fight off the Russians. Putin has allies among the Republican Party and some of them have spoken out in favor of him. And it is mostly Republicans who have long tried to outlaw abortion.

In addition there is a January 6 Committee in Congress who is investigating what really happened at the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, DC on January 6, 2021.

But then I went on Twitter where I found this thread by Dave Troy that seemed to articulate what I was suspicious about. This except says it all: “I’d encourage folks to use a global lens; is Roe intended to ‘distract’ from Jan6 committee? Kinda, but it’s really a new battlefront in the same war. The events in Ukraine and Roe are not separate, it’s a war rooted in: traditionalism, energy, nationalism, and currency.”

I’d encourage folks to use a global lens; is Roe intended to “distract” from Jan6 committee? Kinda, but it’s really a new battlefront in the same war. The events in Ukraine and Roe are not separate, it’s a war rooted in: traditionalism, energy, nationalism, and currency.

— Dave Troy (@davetroy) May 4, 2022

Troy further elaborated on this in his Medium.com article where he wrote this:

The war in Ukraine is a global hybrid war, and the theater of warfare spans the globe to include the US and Europe. It is a war along four fronts: traditionalism, currency, nationalism, and energy.

The current attack on ‘Roe’ advances the traditionalist front and an agenda that’s already well-underway from the Russian Orthodox Church and its allies; the World Congress of Families laid the groundwork for this with US conservatives fueling anti-abortion and anti-LGBT agendas over the last 27 years or so.

“The Meaning of May 9” by Dave Troy, Medium.com, May 8, 2022

Yesterday there were a series of protests nationwide against the potential end of legal abortion in much of the U.S. I didn’t go mainly because I’m currently focused on getting the word out about the Poor People’s Campaign’s March on Washington, which will take place next month. Opposing Christian Nationalism (which is behind much of the hostility of trying to outlaw abortion) is among the focal points of that protest among with facing the related issues of racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, and climate change. (Plus it had been raining on and off over the past several days and I just wasn’t in the mood to protest in the rain.)

Lately I’ve also been taking stock of my life. I am totally tired and overwhelmed by everything that’s swirling around me. I recently found this video on TikTok that totally expresses everything I feel these days.

With the pandemic, war, and now this threat towards outlawing abortion and possibly other related issues as well (such as birth control, same-sex marriage, and interracial marriage) have totally forced me to reassess my life. In fact I’ve been continuing with my IT course studies at a much slower pace than previous months. A part of me tells me that I should finish my certificate as soon as possible so I can move on and find a steady job that pays well enough so I can support myself while another part of me says why should I even bother since there’s a chance that I might either end up dead from a nuclear bomb or I would have to quickly escape to Canada or some other country so I won’t have to live under an authoritarian system that’s similar to the one in Russia. I’m having the desire to do some fun things in my life before I potentially experience the proverbial curtain falling on my life. I want to have experiences that would improve the quality of whatever is left in my life before my life gets altered by events that are mostly out of my control.

At this point I’m about 60% finished with the last class I need to finish before I can earn my Google/Coursera IT certificate. It would be shame for me to quit when I’m so close to finishing that certificate. As a compromise I decided that I would spend once or twice a week taking my online classes. At least I would be making progress even if it is at a slower pace. I just want to strike a balance between finishing my certificate and living life to the fullest before it either gets ended by a nuclear bomb or it gets irreversibly altered by the rise of authoritarian fascism.

I Made a Video About Another Dead Anti-Vaxxer

I know it seems so soon to make yet another video about another dead anti-vaxxer after my previous video about H. Scott Apley but I find making these videos to be so therapeutic for me for reasons that I’ll explain later in this post.

The latest dead anti-vaxxer is a Georgia police officer names Joe Manning and he died of COVID-19. He was an anti-vaxxer who thought that treating himself with Ivermectin (an anti-parasite drug that’s usually given to livestock like horses and cows) was far better than getting the vaccine before he got sick. His Facebook account was rich in posts where he denounced vaccines and hyped Ivermectin as a great alternative treatment. It’s too bad for him and his family that Ivermectin didn’t work. Anyway I took screenshots of his social media posts and made this short video that I uploaded on to TikTok, Clapper, and YouTube.

My empathy for people like Joe Manning have completely run dry. I’m now of the mindset that people like him deserved the consequences of ignoring science and reason. Joe Manning fucked around and found out too late about how serious the Coronavirus really is. I now have zero sympathy for these people, especially when I see stories about how the unvaccinated are now the majority of new COVID-19 cases. In some states (especially in Florida and Texas) the ICU beds are completely full of COVID-19 patients.

Full ICU beds are having dire consequences for people who need medical treatment for reasons completely unrelated to COVID-19. A few days ago I saw this horrifying video from a mother whose infant son has severe bronchitis and pneumonia (that’s not COVID-19 related) who, at times, have stopped breathing yet he can’t be admitted to the local hospitals because all of the spaces are filled with COVID-19 patients. (She has since made two follow-up videos where her baby was admitted to a children’s hospital where he got the treatment that he needed and he’s now back home with his parents.)

Yesterday a veteran had gallstone pancreatitis, which is usually a treatable condition. However, he wasn’t able to get admitted to any of the local hospitals immediately because they were full of COVID-19 patients. By the time someone found space in a hospital for him, he died. Had there been no pandemic, he would’ve been treated immediately and he would be alive.

On top of it, people like the recently-deceased Joe Manning have been buying up so much Ivermectin that there is now a shortage of that drug, which hurts farmers and ranchers who really need to have the drug on hand for their livestock and they can’t obtain it. And many poison control centers are being deluged with calls from people who took Ivermectin and are having adverse reactions from it. These people are forgoing vaccines that are made for humans in favor of drugs that the FDA have repeatedly said does nothing for COVID-19 and are made for animals that are larger than human beings. As the FDA tweeted the other day: “You are not a horse. You are not a cow. Seriously, y’all. Stop it.”

You are not a horse. You are not a cow. Seriously, y'all. Stop it. https://t.co/TWb75xYEY4

— U.S. FDA (@US_FDA) August 21, 2021

So, yes, I find it very therapeutic to make videos like these because, thanks to people like Joe Manning, this pandemic is taking far longer to go away in the United States than it would’ve been had the majority of Americans got vaccinated, wore masks, and practice social distancing. People in other countries, such as Finland, have done what it takes to flatten the curve and they have pretty much returned to a relative normal. But too many Americans are far too selfish to think about cooperating with others in an effort to conquer the Coronavirus in the way that earlier generations conquered polio.

The only silver lining is that many of the dead are Donald Trump supporters who have followed his lead on not wearing masks and they have also decided not to get vaccinated. I will never forgive Donald Trump and his GOP syncophants for politicizing something that’s completely apolitical in nature. What’s even more outrageous is learning that Donald Trump and his wife Melania received the COVID-19 vaccine but kept it a secret that didn’t get leaked until after they left Washington, DC. Usually a leader in this situation would openly get a vaccine in front of the media in an effort to set an example for the citizens to do the same. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau got his vaccine out in the open, unlike Donald Trump.

But Donald Trump and the GOP played games and they are literally losing their own supporters to this virus. It would be karma if enough of time would die by next year’s midterms and it will fuck up the voting big time. The Republicans deserve it. As this Bible verse puts it, “for whatever one sows, that he will also reap.” (Galatians 6:7)

Link-O-Rama

Why Hungarians make the world’s most beautiful gingerbread.

How Donald Trump bankrupted his Atlantic City casinos but still earned millions.

The new spiritual consumerism.

Team of retired U.S. Navy Seals are saving teenagers from human trafficking.

Celebrating 60 years of Barbie and women empowerment.

Confederate flag designer said it is a symbol of white supremacy—not Southern heritage.

Thirteen true stories behind Edgar Allan Poe’s terror tales.

The greatest white privilege is life itself.

Appalachia’s deep history of resistance.

15 minutes of walking on a daily basis can change your body drastically.

Has the word “homosexual” always been in the Bible?

Micro knitter Althea Crome gets an incredible 80 stitches to the inch.

Propaganda works—58 percent of Republicans believe education is bad.

These photos show how much Los Angeles has changed over the years.

“He pulled the wool over our eyes”: workers blame Trump for moving jobs overseas.

Link-O-Rama

Baroque-inspired portraits of black girls highlight their amazing natural hair so other girls would stop hiding it.

Millennials born in the 1980s may never recover from the Great Recession.

Retro ads reveal sky-high prices of now archaic technology.

White people should be more afraid of other whites than they are of people of color.

Couple have been using same 1950s appliances for more than a half a century—but they’re finally ditching them.

The Goler clan spent years in their isolated, inbred town until the cops showed up.

Why the coming collapse will happen in the United States.

Tech investors are increasingly investing in midwest tech companies instead of Silicon Valley.

Why does Donald Trump normalize corruption? Because Bill and Hillary Clinton normalized it.

MIT economist warns that the U.S. has regressed to a developing nation status.

Disney and Pixar offer free online animation and film classes.

How Sears CEO Eddie Lampert may come out ahead even if his retailer goes out of business.

22 things you won’t believe are in the Bible.

An Easter Greeting From a Talk Back Pet

In my previous Passover/Easter/April Fool’s Day post that I uploaded earlier today I mentioned that I did a video where I messed around with some Talk Back Pets that Five Below sold (they basically repeat everything you say to them) by having them say inappropriate stuff like “Hail, Satan!” I uploaded that video on to my various social media accounts on Friday.

Yesterday I ran into one of my Facebook friends in person where he mentioned that he saw my video. He suggested that I edit the video where I remove my voice and just leave in what the Talk Back Pet said. I thought it was a pretty good idea.

I first saw these Talk Back Pets at the Five Below store in Crofton. (I had stopped there on my way to attending the weekly support group meeting for people who are separated or divorced.) That store had a choice of bunnies, chicks, or lambs. For this latest video I decided to go to the Five Below store that’s closer to my home. By that point the lambs were the only ones that this particular store had in stock. So I shelled out $5 and bought the lamb.

Last night I made this short video where I had the lamb give this Easter greeting. I also kept in mind that today is also April Fool’s Day when I came up with this message.

I know some of you may question my decision to reference President Donald Trump and equating him with the Anti-Christ as foretold in the Book of Revelations. That statement was my reaction to reading about how the right-wing Evangelical Christians are excusing Donald Trump for everything he’s done, including his alleged adulterous affair with porn star Stormy Daniels.

On top of it, today Donald Trump made some tweets on Twitter that are really infuriating. You’d think he would avoid making any kind of controversial political statements on a day where people are celebrating Easter or Passover. The first tweet wishing everyone a Happy Easter wasn’t so bad.

HAPPY EASTER!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 1, 2018

But then he became political and nasty on a day that both Jews and Christians consider to be a sacred holiday.

Border Patrol Agents are not allowed to properly do their job at the Border because of ridiculous liberal (Democrat) laws like Catch & Release. Getting more dangerous. “Caravans” coming. Republicans must go to Nuclear Option to pass tough laws NOW. NO MORE DACA DEAL!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 1, 2018

Mexico is doing very little, if not NOTHING, at stopping people from flowing into Mexico through their Southern Border, and then into the U.S. They laugh at our dumb immigration laws. They must stop the big drug and people flows, or I will stop their cash cow, NAFTA. NEED WALL!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 1, 2018

These big flows of people are all trying to take advantage of DACA. They want in on the act!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 1, 2018

Was it really necessary for him to mention DACA or the border wall with Mexico today? Couldn’t he have made those tweets either yesterday or tomorrow instead of today? Seriously, what in the hell is wrong with him? These tweets are enough to make me not even regret mentioning Donald Trump in my Easter video. In fact, I’m glad I did it. I’m now hoping that the upcoming mid-term elections will usher in new people into both houses of Congress who could provide a united threat to Donald Trump.

Yard Sale, Book Sale, and Festival on the Green, Crofton, Maryland, April 30, 2016

I recently helped out with the yard sale that was put on as a fundraiser for Changing Focus, my support group for people who are separated or divorced. The yard sale was held on the grounds of the Prince of Peace Presbyterian Church. My role was basically collect people’s money as they bought stuff that was donated to the yard sale. Here are just some of the items I managed to photograph with my smartphone.

Someone donated a whole bunch of pink flamingoes along with the metal legs that are supposed to support the plastic birds. The only thing is that most of the metal legs didn’t even fit these birds. I remember trying to fit them in the holes and they just wouldn’t go in. Other people tried as well but very few of the legs actually fit the flamingoes. As a result we had to lay most of them on the ground. Despite this the pink flamingoes were completely sold out by the end of the yard sale.

These shoes were the ultimate in Christmas kitsch, complete with Santa Claus.

I once had something like this. There was a time when many people owned a VHS rewinder because rewinding the VHS tapes tended to put stress on the VCR motor that would cause that machine to wear out. So basically we used to play the VHS tape in the VCR until we were finished then transfer the VHS tape to the VHS rewinder to rewind the tape back to the beginning. These rewinders became obsolete with the advent of DVDs, online streaming, programs on-demand, etc.

Here’s a throwback to the days when America Online was the big name on the Information Superhighway and that corporation would put its logo on all kinds of freebies like this coffee mug.

Conair Hot Sticks, the perfect product for getting your hair in that perfect 1980’s hairdo.

While the yard sale went on outside the Prince of Peace Presbyterian Church, inside the church there was a massive used book sale where all the proceeds went to the church itself. I saw this book on sale but I ended up not buying it. I regret it now because the title is pretty hilarious.

Here’s an obsolete book from Kodak on how to make good sound movies.

Here’s an antique Bible that’s written in Swedish.

I scored big time at this book sale. I managed to buy all three Hunger Games books and the first two books in the Vampire Diaries series for under $10. See, there is a benefit to being behind in pop culture. (LOL!)

If that’s not enough, there was also the Festival on the Green, which is an arts and crafts show that’s held nearby on the grounds of the Crofton Country Club. Here are some photos I took there.

I made just two purchases at the Festival on the Green. Both of them were bars of soap that I purchased from Naturally Silky Soap and Natural Image Botanicals.

Suicide

Way back in 2014 I wrote a rant about the travails of belonging to an online neighborhood group that dealt only with issues in my immediate neighborhood and how something as innocuous as an apolitical online neighborhood group can attract trolls and drama llamas.

The first paragraph of that 2014 rant dealt with how I was a member of a Yahoo! group about my neighborhood but I ended up quitting it because I grew so tired of the moderator, who thought of himself as being such a comedian that he would frequently make unfunny posts that poked fun at someone else’s serious post. One such example was when someone made a post asking about some local restaurants that served vegan food and the moderator made some unfunny jokes about vegans, which incited this unnecessary online drama from people who were offended at the unfunny vegan jokes. He also drew ire with his frequent references to a group of African American teens as a “wolfpack” when all they were doing was just sitting outside on benches consuming snacks and drinks they purchased from a nearby convenience store.

A couple of days ago I learned on Facebook that the moderator of that Yahoo! group had committed suicide. He was only 51 years old. I never met the guy in person. I had formed a very unfavorable impression of him based on his less-than-impressive moderator activity on that Yahoo! group. I basically disliked the guy based solely on his so-called “funny” posts, the majority of which I either thought were unfunny, insulting, or both. In my zeal to conclude that this guy was unlikeable, I forgot that he was a human being just like the rest of us. Just because he cracked insulting jokes that hurt other people’s feelings didn’t mean that he was inhuman. In fact, it’s possible that his frequent joke-telling was a way for him to mask whatever emotional pain he was feeling yet, for whatever reason, was unable to express it in a healthy way.

Basically just because someone is obnoxious doesn’t mean that he/she isn’t going through some personal turmoil in his/her personal life. It’s possible that the obnoxious personality is the byproduct of that personal turmoil. That man’s personality probably led to a downward spiral where he probably needed help yet his abrasive personality had alienated and driven away anyone who could’ve been able to help which, in turn, led to feeling increasingly isolated which, in turn, led to becoming even more obnoxious and abrasive which, in turn, led to alienating and driving away more people who could have helped him, which, in turn, led to becoming even more isolated, etc., until it led to this tragic conclusion where he completely gave up on life altogether.

He left this life in the most dramatic way. He shot himself in the head near the Mother and Child statue in Greenbelt, Maryland sometime between 2-3 a.m. on Friday morning, March 11, 2016. I walked past that same statue yesterday where I saw this little memorial pop up.

Someone had left a bunch of flowers, an opened Bible, and a smudge stick (which was dispensing smoke when I took these photos).

The Bible was opened to Psalm 23 (“The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures…”).

Here’s another shot of this impromptu memorial.

I left the area to do something else. When I returned a few hours later I saw that the flower pile had grown and there were also cards, a note, and a photograph left there as well.

The only lesson I can provide is this: Is there anyone in your life whom you haven’t communicated with in a while? Please take the time to either call, e-mail, or text that person. It doesn’t have to be something that’s too complex or involved. You could just say something like, “I haven’t heard from you in a while. How are you doing?” This could give that person a chance to admit that he/she is overwhelmed and start talking to you instead of concluding that suicide is the only option.

Also keep this number handy in case you have someone who is suicidal: 1 (800) 273-8255. That’s the number for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, which you can also reach online right here.

UPDATE (March 24, 2016): The local paper has details about the suicide and the life of that person that you can read right here. (The paper is only available as a .pdf format but you can see a photo of the impromptu memorial at the bottom on page 1, a cartoon mourning the deceased on the top of page 2, an obituary on page 4, a mention of the deceased in the “Our Neighbors” column on page 5, and additional stories about the deceased on page 7.)

A Blast From This Blog’s Past

Happy Hanukkah to all my Jewish friends everywhere! As the Sagittarius Dolly blog inches closer to its fifth anniversary on January 6, 2015, I thought I’d provide a look back at some of my creations that I’ve previously featured in this blog.

 

Originally profiled on January 28, 2010.

A New Perspective on Valentine’s Day

My husband and I still apart with no progression towards a conversation (never mind a reconciliation) so Valentine’s Day is really different for me this year. This is the first Valentine’s Day I’m spending without having a boyfriend, husband, or any other kind of significant other by my side since I was an 18-year-old high school senior. When I was single I had the luck of scheduling breakups with boyfriends so my short inbetween relationship periods didn’t coincide with Valentine’s Day. Once I started a serious relationship with the guy who later became my husband, I took it for granted that I would always have someone to spend Valentine’s Day with until death do us part.

I could’ve contacted my husband to see if he wanted to do something with me for Valentine’s Day but I decided against it. I also thought about surprising him with a card and a small present but decided against it because I’m afraid that he won’t respond to my gesture of love on Valentine’s Day and I would rather not go through the effort if I’m only going to be sorely disappointed. He rarely answers my e-mails, voice mails, and texts these days so I’ve given up initiating any kind of conversation with him unless it’s a dire emergency. I tend to let him initiate all conversations these days. It’s sad that our marriage has come to this but there’s nothing I can do about it. I’ve recently started professional therapy to help me deal with the sudden drama of the last several weeks.

This year is really different. I’m by myself on a holiday that’s devoted to love and couples. Last Thursday I attended a meeting of Changing Focus that was devoted to a discussion of Valentine’s Day. All of the attendees that week got a small bag with a tiny Valentine card (similar to the tiny cards that school children give each other), a few pieces of Hershey’s Kisses and heart-shaped candy, and a tiny slip of paper featuring a Biblical quote that’s related to the topic of love. Since there were more candy bags than attendees at that meeting, the facilitator was encouraging people to take additional bags home. I took one more bag. Each of my two bags had two different Bible verses that I really loved.

1 Corinthians 13:4-8 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.

Proverbs 10:12 Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all offenses.

To further tie-in with the Biblical quotes about love, we also read the lyrics to the Bette Midler song “The Rose.” I’ve always loved that song ever since it was first released many years ago.

But reading the lyrice on its own, I found the words to be far more meaningful to me than before.

Some say love—it is a river that grounds the tender reef.
Some say love—it is a razor that leads your sould to bleed.
Some say love—it is a hunger, an aching endless need.
I say love it is a flower and you its only seed.
It’s the heart afraid of breaking, that never learn to dance
It’s the dream afraid of dying that never takes a chance
It’s the one who won’t be taken who cannot seem to give
And the soul afraid of dying that never learns to live
When the night has been too lonely
And the road has been too long
And you think that love is only for the lucky and the strong
Just remember in the winter far beneath the bitter snows
Lies the seed that with the sun’s love
In the spring becomes the Rose.

Due to the group’s non-disclosure rule, I can’t go into too many details about what was discussed at that meeting other than the one insight I got from that meeting is an alternative way of Valentine’s Day. Instead of using the occasion to love and honor your companion, we should use the occasion to love and honor ourselves as independent and unique individuals.

Maybe we all need to reconsider not only Valentine’s Day but love and marriage in general. When I was growing up, I never considered marriage to be anything other than a man and a woman. Since I converted to Unitarian Universalism, I’ve met same-sex couples in longterm relationships that are far more enduring than the marriages of many heterosexual couples. Lately I’ve had a few people in my Unitarian Universalist congregation come out as polyamorous. One such polyamorous couple have recently married (they left off the “forsake all others” line in their marriage vows) and they were among the people interviewed in this local news story that aired just a few nights ago. (In case you’re curious, the couple who are my friends are Anita and Tim who were interviewed first in the video.)

So I decided to use this day to do something nice for myself in an attempt to love myself. I decided to do something that I consider to be totally fun by myself. Tonight I ended up attending one of those Handi-Hour events that are held a few times a year at the Renwick Gallery in downtown DC. I took part in a scavenger hunt where you had to find some of the Renwick Gallery’s art for the answers to the clues then submit your sheet for a drawing where the winner will receive a free ticket for a future Handi-Hour event. One of the main craft themes was felt. (The other was paper.) I felt inspired by my pet hedgehog Spike and I made this attempt of rendering a hedgehog in felt.

I actually got some positive comments regarding my attempt and one of the organizers of the Handi-Hour even took a photo of my effort with her camera.

And speaking of Spike the Hedgehog, I’m going to end this entry with this photo of Spike doing what he loves best—run in his exercise wheel.

Maryland’s Eastern Shore Trip-Day 8

Yesterday was my last full day in Ocean City, Maryland and I was determined to make the most of it. It was also one of the few days that had no rain in the forecast and it was sunny and hot all day long. That morning I finally was able to do the one thing that I couldn’t do earlier either because of my back problems or the weather or both—go for an early morning stroll along the beach. Aside from a few early-morning swimmers and angler fisherman, the beach was mostly clear, as you can see in this photo below.

After my brief stroll, I returned to the condo for some breakfast. After that my husband, sister-in-law, and I decided to make a last visit to The Bookend Cafe where we had some drinks, browsed the gifts and books sold there, and did some web surfing using the cafe’s free wi-fi. On the way back from the cafe, we stopped off at the same Fenwick Island lighthouse that I took a nighttime photo of just a few days ago. Here is what the lighthouse looks like in daylight.

After lunch we spent some time in the afternoon at the beach where we took a few last dips in the ocean then did some final book reading on the beach. Then we changed out of our swimsuits and headed to the Boardwalk for one final time. Unlike the last time I went to the Boardwalk, the day was much brighter and I was able to do some more walking than I was before since I didn’t have to worry about raindrops. Here’s a photo I took of the landmark Esskay Clock. When I used to go to Ocean City as a child with my extended family (including my cousins), we kids used to be instructed to wait by that clock if we somehow became separated. I remembered when I did just that one crowded night when I got separated by my family and they were all happy that when they found me at the clock.

Next to the Esskay Clock is a newer Boardwalk landmark. This is the Firefighters Memorial and it was erected to honor the firefighters who perished in the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001.

Here’s a different kind of landmark. For many years a sculptor and minister Randy Hofman has been creating these gigantic sand sculptures based on events in the Bible. They are really a sight to behold.

If you want to see more of Randy Hofman’s work, check out his website right here.

The Boardwalk have long been home to would-be artists and musicians who try to ply their trade among the vacation-goers. Sometimes you’ll see someone who is both an artist and a musician, like the guy in the photo below.

After walking around on the Boardwalk, we headed to the Angler restaurant to take advantage of its dinner and sunset cruise. We ate a wonderful dinner in the restaurant then we went out on the dock in the back of the restaurant where we boarded a boat. I took a whole bunch of sunset photos. Here’s one of the sunset over the Route 50 bridge that leads into Ocean City.

Here’s another sunset photo, this one over Assateague Island.

And here’s sunset over West Ocean City, Maryland.

And here are a few sunset photos of the Boardwalk, where you can see the bright lights from far away.

In this photo, you can see the kites that are located right outside The Kite Loft. The kites are flown day and night during the summer.

Towards the end of the boat trip, things took a really dramatic turn. Our boat got word of another boat that had literally run aground and the boat I was on decided to go over to see if it could offer some help. By the time we arrived, the Coast Guard had already arrived to offer aid to the boat. I managed to take a few photos of that ship that ran aground but it was really dark and my camera had a hard time picking up the image so the next two photos are blurry. Here is the white boat that’s stuck among the rocks.

The blue lights in this photo are the ones from the Coast Guard boat.