Another Political Assassination

 

Today I went to Seabird's new office in my building, and one of her officemates had made cookies because tomorrow is another office mate's birthday. Apparently it was his first birthday when the terrorist attack happened - now I feel old. Seabird and I did walk at lunch, but I was sore and had to take the bus for the second half. I can't take ibuprofen before my procedure on Monday; I can take acetaminophen, and I did, but it never does anything. It would have to happen that my back hurts the one week I can't do anything about it, since I rarely take ibuprofen. Wonder what I did to it?

In the afternoon we had our big department meeting with everyone in person for the first time since the pandemic. We've been having hybrid meetings for years, so some faculty were grumbling about having to be in person. (We staff members have been in person since we could be.) One of the grad students told me that Charlie Kirk had been shot, and while I am no fan of the man, I was horrified. Now rumors are flying about the person who did it, but nobody has been caught, so they are just rumors. I find it rather disingenuous that right-wingers are accusing leftists of doing this, after years of saying leftists are gun-hating pacifist wimps. So which is it? I have my own opinions about who would have the most to gain from this, and it isn't the Left, but I will wait to see if they find the killer and learn a motive. All this political violence is terrifying, and from what I've seen the people on the left are horrified, much more so than the people on the right were when that legislator from Minnesota was assassinated along with her husband. It is a bit haunting to hear Charlie Kirk say not too long ago that a few gun deaths are the price we have to pay as a society for our right to own guns - I suppose he never thought he'd be one of those deaths, but violent rhetoric begets violence. Where does this all end? Nowhere good, I'm afraid.

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Killing People Who Kill People

I have never been in favor of the death penalty, even for those who commit the most heinous crimes. Now this braintrust in Kansas goes and shoots an abortionist to death in the man's own church. Thanks a lot, buddy. Here are all the reasons this makes no logical sense:

1. You have just punched the entire pro-life movement right in the face. We are trying to change hearts and minds peacefully, like Dr. King and Gandhi, not by terrorizing people a la Chairman Mao or Stalin. And we WERE making slow, steady progress...

2. Now you have just made us look like a bunch of hypocrites. All the pro-abortion people can go, "Pro-life? Yeah, right!"

3. I agree that the abortion doctor was a mass murderer, but now you have stolen any chance he had for repentance. Only God is allowed to judge a man like that; other humans do not have that right.

4. While it does seem odd to me that a man who commits late-term abortions, tearing apart infants old enough to survive outside the womb, would be a devout Lutheran, did you REALLY have to shoot him in his church?? Once again, you managed to make the entire pro-life movement look both insane and hypocritical.

5. Certainly I agree this man had to be stopped from killing, and the law was not helping, but when laws are immoral we should protest using CIVIL disobedience. Being arrested for blocking access to his clinic, that would have been noble and honorable. Shooting the man dead is not only a mortal sin but a very bad public relations move. Though you may possibly have saved a few babies doing this, the damage you have done to the pro-life movement is enormous and will ultimately result in the deaths of far more unborn children.

NARAL and Planned Parenthood must love you. You have done more in a moment to discredit our movement than they could do in decades of lies and propaganda. Please - don't do us any more favors!

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Spring and Fall

Except for allergies, the best months in my opinion are May and October. They have both the loveliest weather and the most beautiful flora. Here are two pictures Kathbert took with her cell phone (isn't that thing amazing?), of crabapples blossoming just a week or two ago and gorgeous leaves on a maple last fall.

Figure 1: Spring

Figure 2: Fall

"Spring and Fall (To a Young Child)" is my favorite poem by one of my favorite poets, Gerard Manley Hopkins. He was a Catholic priest and did not have children of his own; it is believed he wrote this after a walk in the woods with his young niece, who became upset over the leaves dying in autumn. Here is the text of it, for those who are unfamiliar with it:

Margaret, are you grieving
Over Goldengrove unleaving?
Leaves, like the things of man, you
With your fresh thoughts care for, can you?
Ah! as the heart grows older
It will come to such sights colder
By and by, nor spare a sigh
Though worlds of wanwood leafmeal lie;
And yet you will weep and know why.
Now no matter, child, the name:
Sorrow's springs are the same.
Nor mouth had, no nor mind, expressed
What heart heard of, ghost guessed:
It is the blight man was born for,
It is Margaret you mourn for.

Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889)

Yes, Margaret, we all die... some of us more violently than others. As the stale joke goes, "I always hoped to die peacefully in my sleep like Grandpa did, not screaming in terror like the other people riding in his car." Some die under the harsh glare of the city streetlights.

Figure 3: Tetracide by Streetlight

Murder is nothing new; in the second generation of humanity we were killing one another, or at least Cain was killing Abel. In the police archives one can find old photos of murder scenes that could have happened yesterday, so familiar do the surroundings and personages involved appear.

Figure 4: Tetracide circa 1923

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The Honeymooners

This weekend Richard Bonomo, Kathbert, one of the B-Boys, and I helped Anna Banana II in what has become something of a yearly ritual with her: she moved into a new place. She thanked us with pizza and delicious homemade brownies. Then we were talking about how we should decorate the other B-Boy's car because he was returning later that very evening from Hawaii with his new bride, Mo-Girl. It turns out that both his car and Mo-Girl's car were at the B-Folks' house, so we went with Plan B: we decorated the front door of their new apartment so that all their new neighbors (including a woman who goes by - I kid you not - Flame) would know that they had just returned from their tropical honeymoon.

Figure 1: B-Boy and Mo-Girl's Front Door

(photo credit: Kathbert's cell phone)

Figure 2: Close-up of Sign

(photo credit: Kathbert's cell phone

sign design: Famous Hat)

Then on their dining room table we left a bottle of white wine called "Honeymoon," a yellow calla lily, and a loaf of bread. (This was taken on Rich's cell phone, which does not take such good photos as Kathbert's does - hers is practically as good as a real camera!) The sign says: "A bottle of wine, a loaf of bread, a plant, and thou... Welcome home!"

Figure 3: B-Boy and Mo-Girl's Dining Room Table

And in an attempt to find the cold-blooded killer of the Number Four, I am providing the police photograph negatives of "A Clear Case of Tetracide." Please help us bring this number killer to justice!

Figure 4: A Clear Case of Tetracide (Police Negatives)

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