Another Tragic Monday Musings

I had planned on writing on personal things, but once again, events make that difficult.

Another tragic shooting, what may be the largest mass casualty event in American history, at a country music concert in Las Vegas.

As I write this, there are many stories swirling around this event.  As any event like this, there will be many rumors about what happened.  There will be false leads.  There will be witnesses that contradict each other.  There will be social media who use their own slant on events to promote one agenda or another.  And the worst scourge, those who deliberately promote fake news stories.

So there will be a fog around this event for awhile, and it will be awhile to discern truth from rumor and false leads.

It is time to pray for all those families with loved ones that have been killed or injured, and that the police and other agencies can quickly get to the heart of the matter,apprehend any involved, mourn our losses, and later, do whatever changes need to be done in order to insure security and safety, with minimal restrictions to our freedoms and liberty.

We don't know the motivation behind this shooting.  The main suspect has been shot and killed, a 64 year old male, who appears to have lived in a retirement community.  What his motivation would have been seems to be pure speculation at this point.  We don't know the involvement of a woman who may have been his companion, or whether this is connected to anyone else.

I'm not a weapons expert, but what he used was a rapid-fire weapon, one that allows for many kills in a very short period of time.  There may be other weapons involved, or found by police.  Where he shot from, a 32nd floor window, it would not have mattered with the concert goers, or security, had weapons or not.

But, like I said, more of this will become known over the next few hours or days.


Another tragedy is taking place in Puerto Rico.  The slow motion and tone deaf response of President Trump is making a horrible situation worse.  Our fellow Americans are without food, water and power, in many places on the island.  Something must be done, and it is not to call the heroic mayor of San Juan nasty (a term I bet he exclusively uses for women), nor remind everyone of Puerto Rico's debt, or wasting precious days hesitating to suspend the Jones Act (which interfered with the speed of getting supplies), or to imply that Puerto Ricans are lazy and not doing enough to help themselves.  Ultimately, we can worry about Trump later,  Every American needs to do what they can to help the people on this American island survive.

In the long term, I am one of those who would like to see Puerto Rico achieve statehood.  The territorial status is an outdated concept from the colonial era.  They need to be on equal footing with the rest of the United States.

One of the solutions, as I describe in my science fiction novelette, My Europa, is for all the Caribbean and Atlantic possessions to become a part of the state of Florida, and all the Pacific Ocean territories to become a part of Hawaii.  Just one of several solutions, but I strongly believe something must be done.


We are also dealing with a childish President whose rhetoric is dangerously destabilizing the North Korea situation, the expiration of the CHIP program that will cause millions of children to lose health coverage, the continued damage done by accelerating climate change, a tax cut package that would create huge deficits and a potential depression, and so much more.

Would I love to talk about posies and pets and plays?  You betchum! And regardless, I will return to it soon.

But waking up and seeing the news this morning? 

Sorry.  Just couldn't do it.