Brexiterrible, explained with the help of British Comedy

Its too bad the members of Monty Python have either left this world or have semi-retired to an innocuous nostalgia,  since who else than they would be more capable of enlightening us on the Brexit nonsense?  We can only try our best to carry on in their absence, with a little help from the past ...

Its tempting to think the forces behind the recent vote to leave the European Union were led by Upper Class Twits of The Year.  But I expect a large number of 'Gumbys' were also involved.  Probably a smattering of Village Idiots too.

Certainly a powerful force of blind ignorance to the benefits of EU membership was involved. Even blind to the realities of Britain's own contributions to the Union.

Of course all of the arguments in favor of Leave ultimately were targeted at people's fears and baser motivations. (warning - inappropriate language)

Whatever the actual reasons behind the slim majority vote to Leave, the aftermath is already looking horrific, per HBO's in-house UK expert John Oliver (warning - adult language, and OK, this is not really 'British' comedy, but its close)

Ok, I know that to many of you this is not a laughing matter.  But to paraphrase an old saying, you sometimes have to laugh to keep from crying.

Good Luck to all my British friends, by far the majority of whom voted to Remain. I know the long tradition of British humor in the face of adversity will help get you through.  (Try to create some new material to help us in November, just in case ...)

Make It Stop!

In the aftermath of Orlando, this is what millions of people in America are thinking ...

I am thinking it too.

In my decades on this planet the same issue with gun violence and how to solve it has come up again and again.  We have yet to solve it, and millions of people are beginning to despair of ever solving it.

I have hoped for a long time that cool heads would work out reasonable legislation that would balance our 2nd amendment rights against the needs of citizens in a civilized society to be protected from gun violence.  It hasn't happened.  At times it appeared to be happening, but that was a temporary illusion.

For the record, I support the right of law-abiding, mentally stable citizens over 18 to own guns for self-protection and for hunting.  I also firmly believe that gun ownership carries with it an awesome responsibility to maintain gun safety and security, and to ensure this happens I support licensing and registration of guns, just as we do for cars.

Many will disagree with my last statement, and that's OK, as long as we talk about the problem and seek a working solution.  I don't think unregulated gun sales and unlimited carry laws do anything to solve the problem, but you may think differently.  I think very few of the mass shootings would have gone differently if many in the crowds were 'packing heat', but some of you may think they would have.  I believe that unlimited gun availability leads to many more impulse killings than would otherwise occur, but you might think those impulses might have been as easily satisfied with a knife or a bat.

I may think you are misguided and you might think that of me.

But none of that matters as much as speaking about solutions rather than continually arguing the problem.  If both sides continue to block each other to the point of nothing happening, there WILL be an increasing call for total gun ban and a change to the 2nd amendment.

There will, because people just want someone to Make It Stop, and so far nobody has.

Bernie Sanders, please don't be Ralph Nader 2016

Holy Hanging Chads, I am terrified!

I heard on the news that Bernie Sanders supporters are urging him to run as a Green Party candidate if he doesn't (and it appears he won't) get the Democratic Party's nomination.

This is terrible news if he decides to go along with the idea.  Unless the Republicans also spin off an independent campaign, this could let Trump (gasp!) win the election and become our next (and maybe last) freely-elected President.

The unthinkable will become reality.

Ralph Nader, with nothing but good intentions and essentially correct ideas managed to aid and abet the debacle that was Bush Junior's administration through stubborn refusal to see the clear and present danger of his times.

Please Bernie (and your supporters), please don't fail to see it this time.  Please put love of your fellow countrymen ahead of ideology, at least this time around.

Real Reality

Let me confess up front ... I like the Daily Show, Late Night With Colbert, John Oliver, and just about any show that let's me take in and then laugh off the craziness that is Our World.

Laughter is the best medicine, right?

It does our minds and hearts good to listen to expert satirists convert our anxieties over Russia's Throw-back Thursday Soviet-style military provocations into smirks and grins. A good joke about Trump's resemblance to Mussolini can ease our fears of his resemblance to Mussolini.

You get the concept.  After a tense day of news, we get to view it comically and feel unburdened.

We all get it, and we enjoy it.  Heck, at times I think I really NEED it.

So it may come as a surprise when I claim that all of this laughter is doing us a disservice.  In fact, it may be leading us unwittingly into a very dark era.

My premise is that we've reached a place in the history of our nation and of the world where diffusing our anxiety, fear, frustration, and anger with comedy may be keeping us from getting done what must be done.  It might be that satirical relief has become our collective opiate to the pain we feel when we learn what our leaders are doing (or not doing), and the consequences of their (in)action.

So let's ease up a little on our self-medicating with TV for a while - at least until this election cycle is over, and vow to wallow a bit in the harsh news fed to us.  Let's use the energy of our anxiety to ensure we learn as much as we can about the issues and vote well in the local primaries and in the National Election this November.  We owe it to ourselves NOT to sleep-walk through this in an ironic haze.

Timing is ...

either a miracle or a bitch ...

Barely a month ago,  I was on a business trip that took me for three days to Brussels.  I stayed at the airport Sheraton and had morning coffee in a cafe in the check-in area of the airport.  My stay was pleasant and uneventful.  Just last Tuesday some crazed jihadists turned that same place into a war zone, with death and destruction blighting the same spaces I occupied just a while before.

And the calls can be even closer ...

I took my family to London in 2005 during Wimbledon Week.  We toured the city using the underground, mixing with commuters and other tourists alike, and had a great time.  Four days after we left, terrorists bombed the same trains we had ridden.

And closer ...

My cousin once worked in the North Tower of the World Trade Center.  He was late to work on September 11, having worked late the night before. He stepped out of the subway just in time to see his building hit.

Less than a year ago I was riding my favorite mountain road on my favorite motorcycle when I tipped into one of my favorite right-hand curves ... and there was a car pulling across my lane and towards me from the shoulder. I swerved and he braked enough that nothing touched, I lived, and he wasn't burdened with the guilt of being a homicidal dumb-ass.  Just a few tenths of a second slower on my part, or quicker on his, and the situation would have been much different.

And some calls sadly aren't missed ...

On 9/11, a work colleague of mine boarded a plane from Washington DC to head home to Los Angeles.  She had been asked to delay her flight to continue business discussions, but she was determined to get home to be with her 5-year old son. Her flight and her life ended at the Pentagon.

In 2008, a well-known and well-loved fellow motorcyclist was rounding one of his favorite bends when a car full of young kids searching for a campsite pulled out from a spot hidden by trees and right across his lane. The choices of timing that led him to be where he was and those kids to do what they did within the same moment, took him from this life.

Sometimes timing is in our hands; usually not ...

In the moments just described, there was some choice in the timing of events and that choice was either fortunate or fatal. But most often outcomes depend on someone else's timing, not our own.  Those commuters on the Brussels metro and the London underground didn't have much choice of where they'd be and when they'd be there; the bombers' timing determined the outcome.

So what do we do?

In this world our fates often hinge on the tiniest changes in the timing of events.  All we can do is look back on fortunate escapes with the sober reflection and happy celebration they deserve, and mourn those who were caught up in events where timing was against them.

Most of all, we should revere time for all the opportunity it provides to us:  to be with our friends and family, to do meaningful work, to experience wonder and pleasure, to take exciting risks, and sometimes even to reflect somberly on the vagaries of life and time.

Forgiveness

Sometimes, it's all you can give ...

For a brief moment today I believe I caught a glimpse, a whisper of understanding, of why one of my heroes decided to leave this world early.  No, I don't think I've suddenly developed clinical depression, nor did I come close to suicidal thought, but I do believe I've peered through a grimy window into that dark space; so, spirit of Robin Williams, forgive me thinking less of you when I should have known better.

And (this will sound politically incorrect), as I ask for forgiveness I also give it to you for doing what I and many others considered an ultimately selfish act.

Forgiveness usually means you have found a way towards empathy, have put your feet in the shoes of the person you wish to forgive, and now understand enough to do so.

With me today, it was a convergence of events, each of which would seem trivial to onlookers, that brought an emotional undertow which for a moment seemed so irresistible that it felt best to just follow it down the rabbit hole.  I don't know exactly what's down there, but my best guess would be a place where yesterdays are all bittersweet and tinged with regret, and tomorrows are dark with no promise of sunrise.

Luckily for me, the feeling didn't take too firm a hold, and now its gone (this writing has helped).  I was clearly not in the same danger as people who experience a chemical dysfunction and who for that reason can't stop their own fall without medical help.  How horrible would it be to live in that place, and how great the desire to escape?

So maybe my experience wasn't really that close to what people like Robin Williams with true clinical depression experience, but it's helped me deepen my resolve to help those in whom I recognize this dark place; to forgive them and most importantly, help them forgive themselves.

Donald Trump and The Great Divide

Or ... just what are we doing here folks?

The simple reality is that Donald Trump has so far dominated the early Republican nominating process, with the subsequent removal from the running of two of the favored 'moderates' - Chris Christie and Jeb Bush.  (Christie may end up on the ticket as VP or get a sweet cabinet deal, but that's another story).

I write this ahead of 'Super Tuesday' in which many hope Trump will get his overdue comeuppance, so if by the time you read this he's gone down in defeat, perhaps we all can breathe a sigh of relief.

Or maybe not.

We have to ask ourselves what his success so far means, even if that success ultimately falters. How has such a Barnum-style showman and long-running topic of satire suddenly become a politician to be taken seriously?  Why do voters overlook his many miscues and obvious lack of required understanding and still cheer him on?

One possible theory is The Donald is the living embodiment of the massive disconnect between the politics of both parties and the true heart of American life.  That his popularity reflects our disenchantment with the political divide that has grown between the Republican and Democratic parties.  This theory holds that people are tired of a divisive debate that is wrapped in convoluted language that sounds high-minded but ultimately is just the sound of two 'parties' circling the drain.

In this theory Trump supporters are voting for absolute transparency in thought and intention, in other words they want someone who calls it exactly as they see it without obscuring filters, so everyone can understand.  And they hope this approach will lead to ... what?  More togetherness?  Or clearer battle lines?

The other possible theory is the people truly see him as the new Ronald Reagan, an entertainer turned politician who didn't know that much himself, but who some believe had the right instincts and surrounded himself with talented people who could make things happen.   The Ronald/Donald connection would mean that people trust him, even given that he's a multi-divorced, multi-bankrupted, big business mogul which without any doubt means he's been devious and purposely misleading many times.  (Just business, right?)

This theory has Trump supporters basically 'rolling the dice' on how he'd behave as President.  Forget what he is actually saying and trust he'll get it right when the time comes.

No matter which of these theories - or both, are correct, the ultimate result is that our electorate is becoming more divided than at any time in living memory.