Read at your own risk

Land of the free? The last two decades or so politically have been interesting, to say the least. There has also been a lot of clamoring about how the U.S. is this thing or that thing. Depending on where you stand in the political arena that thing is not generally the same. One sameness that seems to come up, regardless where you are politically is freedom. Freedom, we are all supposed to be granted, not by the governing body but, by a higher power. That we are innately supposed to be free as part of the natural order of things, or at least that is what is on the bill. Just so it’s clear the discussion isn’t about free from cost, because ain’t nothing free here. The economic woes of the nation are not the subject, just the concept of being and living freely. The very concept of this nation was founded in freedom. Freedom from oppression, freedom from tyranny, freedom to be independent. We all seem to agree the U.S. is a nation of freedoms. That is unless you are on the wrong side of the equation. As much as we claim to be a beacon of freedom, we are also a nation which marginalizes and disenfranchises so many of our people. From the very beginning, only land owners and most typically only males were truly considered citizens and protected fully by the laws, everyone else was literally chattel; the property of someone. Some more literally than others. Slowly, and at nearly glacial speed, rights and “freedoms” have been expanded to include more and more people but not everyone. Nearly two and half centuries have past and we are still marginalizing whole groups of people. This is not talking about immigration or how we treat people in other countries. This is right in every town, burg, borough, village and city. These are our citizens, these are “WE THE PEOPLE” being treated unfairly and unjustly. Take some time and think about our history, with the presumption there is some uniformity in how our nation has risen and how those living here have been treated. Every decade and generation there are groups or people who should be protected under the law and have freedoms, but they are denied those rights and freedoms, with vigor. The native peoples of this land can certainly site so many infringements on their rights and freedoms, up to and including this last half decade. We ignore the treaties, marginalize their culture, and we are still usurping their lands. No, we don’t send the cavalry raiding into their settlements any longer…well we still sort of do that, but we only fire rubber bullets and tear gas now. The racial problems in this country have improved considerably but racism is alive and well in the land of the free. If you are not a white Christian, in most of this nation, you have known bigotry, hate, belittling, cruelty and injustice as some point in your lifetime. It may even be going on right now. Brown v. Board of Education should have seen the end of segregation, but it still exists. The Civil Rights movement should have ended disparity in the public entities, however systemic racism is built in to the culture, we do not even recognize the advantages of not being black, brown, etc. Deny it all you want. We are not a harmonious society to non-white people. Depending on when your people came here only certain white people were acceptable, but those were largely based in religious reason, Catholics and Jewish people need not apply. In 2020 women will have been allowed to vote for 100 years, but there are still patriarchal limits on how much freedom women should have in this nation. Yes, we are light years ahead of other places in the world and where we were. Yet women are denied fair treatment daily. Just read the news of the day. How does some doctor abuse young girls on the US Gymnastics Team for decades, unless there is a culture in place that women are considered to be lesser in our society. How is it in the nation that is supposed to be the land of the free that so much oppression is still going on. There is no apology from me for saying what I have said, or any room for debate. We are not the nation we pretend to be. Yes, we are better than so many other places but being better isn’t enough if we are going to beat our chests and stomp our feet and say we are free, shouldn’t all of us be free. Shouldn’t we strive to be the model for the rest of the world to follow. Yet we still see race, religion, gender, sexual identity and so many other things as disqualifiers to rights and freedom not to outsiders but with our citizens. Our Independence Day is coming up. A day we choose to celebrate the grandness of our experiment in a fair and representative governance of the people, by the people. This year think about how much work we still have left to do before we really have a nation which is free. Well, that’s all for now, other stuff to follow most likely Happy Birthday if it is your birthday and a very merry un birthday if it is not your birthday Thank you for reading, please subscribe, follow, or give a like. Have a great day and play nice in the neighborhood. Ciao, Invisible Don PS 3 / PS4 Gamer Tag: invisible don Invisible Don PO Box 4425 Roanoke VA 24015 Send me Post Cards … I love Post Cards

Unpopular Opinion: Star Wars films aren't really that good

Unpopular Opinion: Star Wars films aren’t really all that good. Love it, hate it, or somewhere in between, there is no denying Star Wars is a part of the popular culture. The films are at the very least entertaining, but they aren’t really good stories. There is an argument to be made because the films have stirred the imagination of thousands of people, who have created an extended universe but that doesn’t make the films good stories. Good things were inspired by the films, yes but not so much with the story in the films. Telling a good story makes you care about what happens to the characters and/or their cause but I don’t get that sense with Star Wars. I don’t know enough about any of the characters to care about them or what they are trying to accomplish. Watching the story there is never the sense that the characters are in any real danger, ever and part of that is because the story is out of order. You know if someone is in a film later in the time line they will live, no drama. Telling a story out of order is fine and it works sometimes but other times it doesn’t. It seems to be working in West World and it worked in Pulp Fiction, but with Star Wars it seems to be missing beats. Star Wars is 4, 5, 6, then 1, 2, 3, then 7, then Rouge One happens just before 4, then 8, and now with Solo probably before 1, but maybe not, certainly before 2. If you add in all the animated series stuff going on between the end of 1 and the start of 3 there is a lot of Star Wars on film. Before I go further, I will say I enjoy seeing the Star Wars films, they are entertaining but that is really about all. They serve their purpose as entertainment. As I said before I don’t know enough to care for any of the characters or their causes. The film stories aren’t really particularly compelling, they start out suddenly in the lives of characters and you are expected to bond with them instantly and care if something happens but it isn’t there. Star Wars started this, meh people die attitude in the first movie. Obi Wan is vaporized I guess by Darth Vader chopping him in half. This seems to really befuddle the great dark force user. He is all WTF that hasn’t ever happened before tapping his foot on the cloak like are you dead or what. Other than Luke screaming No, everyone just is like meh. Vader is supposed to be the most feared, ruthless person in the galaxy but you never really get that sense about him, except once in Rogue One. Vader is a BAMF in that last scene, otherwise he is dark and raspy but not menacing, sure he choked that one dude from a few feet away but you never get the sense that he killed a bunch of little kids. Which, he totally did. It’s the same with all the bad guys they just aren’t threatening. Which is a fault of the entire franchise, I never had any feelings good or bad about any of the characters. There is no real sense they may not succeed. Everyone who dies is either, a Wilhelm Scream death in the back ground or it’s a main character dying in an expected way. Even when they are about to die it is so telegraphed I’m surprised there isn’t a western union fee attached to the ticket cost. If you didn’t see Han dying in 7, were you even watching the film. The stories are so recycled within the franchise. Seriously if there is another planet killer base in the series…I don’t know … What they holy fuck, the empire can take over a whole star system but can’t seem to come up with a better way to spend their military resources. 4 is really the only good film and Lucas recut it so much afterward it is a mess as well. I don’t really get why people are so bent out of shape and ranting stuff like; Disney is ruining Star Wars, Kathleen Kennedy is the worst person in the world, that Rian guy sucks and J. J. Abrams is a hack. I agree they haven’t made the franchise any better but relax it was always mediocre at best, these people haven’t really made it any worse. It’s just a movie people or it is just a bunch of movies it’s entertainment be entertained. Solo at least settles the who shot first argument. Well, that’s all for now, other stuff to follow most likely Happy Birthday if it is your birthday and a very merry un birthday if it is not your birthday Thank you for reading, please subscribe, follow, or give a like. Have a great day and play nice in the neighborhood. Ciao, Invisible Don PS 3 / PS4 Gamer Tag: invisible don Invisible Don PO Box 4425 Roanoke VA 24015 Send me Post Cards … I love Post Cards

Don't dream it, be it

Seeing beyond our own circle, our own struggle, our own circumstances takes effort. Effort most of us are not willing to give, because even when you make the effort to see beyond our own day in and day out, it does not last because our default is what about me, what about mine. That does not make any of us bad, unmindful, selfish or cruel. It does make us human though. The effort to see is hard and that is only one thing, you have, to hear the real problems and do the right thing to fix the problems. We look but not for very long and then our own issues need tending. Even well-meaning people only see there is a problem, and mostly we assume because we don’t have that, fill in the blank, problem we think we know how to fix that problem. Our most common answers are to throw money at the problem or to blame the person with the problem for their condition. Now we can look away again, or into our own circumstances with some satisfaction that we care, or it is not our problem. We don’t even look at our own problems how we should, we shift blame or site this set of circumstances or bad luck as the cause but never own our actions. We bemoan It’s not fair. This is true even god will tell you, it is not fair that is the default for life. The world does not care if you live or die from the poorest of the poor to the wealthiest of the wealthy. The world will shrug off your passing like the dust on the wind. For any of us to have any amount of success we have, to work together. If we all were just out for ourselves there would be anarchy and chaos. History is filled to the choking point with the stories of those who are able, taking what they want from those who can not defend themselves. Most of us end up on the losing end of that scenario. No matter how bad ass you think you are. Many of the solutions we put in place to off set the things we see, don’t address the problems because we don’t listen. We think we know better because it isn’t our problem. When the solution fails we can blame those who have the problem for it and move on satisfied in the idea that we have done something. Hunger and Famine in parts of the world most of us will never go, we can see the problems because some person went and filmed it, overlaid sad music and then told you for just a few cents a day you can make this person’s life better not just that one person their whole family. Buy this pair of shoes and we will send some shoeless kiddo a pair for free. Back to your regularly scheduled drama, guilt free because we “did” something about it. We know we haven’t done anything meaningful, but we can fool ourselves into thinking because we have done something effortless the problem is solved. Out of sight out of mind. It isn’t our fault that there is hunger or famine in the world. There are many reasons why that happens. It isn’t our fault any number of things happen in the world. Life isn’t fair. Even if we try to make it fairer, Life is still not fair. Little children will die, faithful spouses will be cheated on, one person will take advantage of another and the litany of sins cascades like a river swollen after a storm. We are human, and life isn’t fair. Just because life is not fair and we are not without transgressions does not mean we should not try, to not only see but to hear and to do something more than just throw money or blame all the ills of the world on those who live in them. We can do so much more than we do if we only dare enough to dream it and then commit to making it happen. John F. Kennedy said, “I believe we possess all the resources and talents necessary. But the facts of the matter are that we have never made the national decisions or marshaled the national resources required for such leadership. We have never specified long-range goals on an urgent time schedule or managed our resources and our time so as to insure their fulfillment. “These words were spoken about the race to space and the moon. These same words can be set to any problem we face; the opioid crisis, poverty, healthcare, education, guns, immigration, terrorism, racism, and the list can go on. The facts of the matter are that we are too much focused on our own side of the equation for me and mine not for you and yours. Our leaders focus too much on dividing us rather than bringing us together and too much on short sighted bandages rather than long term solutions. History shows us again and again and again. Those at the top can only keep the people at the bottom fighting each other for so long before the sparks set fire to the world. The only question is do we want a violent revolution or do we want a revolution which leads us to a new height for humankind. Dare to dream we are better and then be brave enough to make it real. Well, that’s all for now, other stuff to follow most likely Happy Birthday if it is your birthday and a very merry un birthday if it is not your birthday Thank you for reading, please subscribe, follow, or give a like. Have a great day and play nice in the neighborhood. Ciao, Invisible Don PS 3 / PS4 Gamer Tag: invisible don Invisible Don PO Box 4425 Roanoke VA 24015 Send me Post Cards … I love Post Cards