BRIGHT PASSAGE

Nowhere else in the world is the simple act of going to school so fraught with danger as it is here right here in the gun-crazed United States. We lead the world in mass shootings.

I have school-aged grandkids. I live in fear of what might happen to them, what might happen to any kid in school.

God damnit, we should not have to be afraid that our children will be murdered in their classrooms.

The brutal fact is that politicians thrive when there is hatred and fear of "the other" -- whether "the other" has dark skin, or speaks a foreign language, or has a particular sexual identity, or has been involved in the criminal legal system, and on and on and on.

. . . I am just slightly surprised that I was unaware of the fine sci-fi radio series X Minus One and its predecessor, Dimension X, until about 10 years ago. This situation is probably due to the fact in the heyday of 1950s and 1960s television, I just did niot take radio very seriously. I was aware of radio drama -- Have Gun Will Travel, The Whistler, The Shadow and the ilk.

But I was not aware of X Minus One or Dimension X until I heard a promo for them on my car's Sirius satellite radio.

What a happy discovery!

I've heard some folks who aren't playing with full decks say that Ukraine is corrupt.

Guess what? That does not give Russia or any other nation the right to invade and slaughter the civilian population.

That the Vietnam War was immoral has become a nearly universally accepted view.

There is a potent argument that any war is immoral.

Which is why I surprised myself when I began thinking that I would like to see something like the Gulf of Tonkin incident give President Biden the authority to intervene militarily on behalf of the innocent residents of Ukraine who are being butchered on the orders of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

It's nice when things go your way. But things don't always go my way. Oh, sure, I'll get angry. Maybe I'll pout, or weep, or curse.

I'm human. I do those things, just like you do.

But I also know that type of reaction is a colossal waste of time and energy.

I feel a kinship with the friends who love and spend time with poetry and music, and who love to talk about poetry and music.

Two movies from Christmas Day 2021.

When there is a Division I national championship event being held just down the street from where you live, you go.

Change is here.