Should Have Known the World Would be on Fire

Hello Boys, Girls, GNC friends and everything in between.

It's been a long time since I had a moment to write.  SO MUCH has happened since then that could not have been predicted and so much that definitely had been predicted.  I'm not going to rehash all of it now but as I was thinking about more recent things, I should have know the world would be on fire when we get the first Black Dr. Who, Idris Elba is turning down the role of James Bond and we are still struggling with rising COVID numbers with a dash of monkeypox (name change pending) a few diseases that are random and deadly and a rise of previously eradicated diseases because of anti-vaxxers (why is a child being diagnosed with polio?).  And this isn't world on fire but Serena is on her retirement tour and that just hurts because there will never be another Serena Williams.

On the plus side, we have graduated and actually been able to celebrate with our second set of graduate students.  There are another group of them waiting to start the adventure on Monday and a few we have locked into the next cohort for good reasons.   We are doing lots of good things at work and I am enjoying where we are headed.

However, the world writ large is a hot mess.  I was not trying to be an alarmist earlier this summer when I told my interns that we were two bad judicial decisions away from women having less rights than our grandmothers did but for certain our mothers did.  And then the supreme court overturned Roe and targeted contraceptive use between couples, gay marriage and sodomy laws as one that should be revisited ASAP.  Thurgood Marshall's replacement skipped over Loving because that would impact him but there's no way to challenge the others without going after Loving.  There is still the looming threat of agencies being targeted because of some misguided belief that CRT is being taught.  Teachers are leaving the profession in droves because they are still having to come out of pocket to outfit their classrooms, many are working two jobs, and random parents are questioning their abilities. And places like Florida are diminishing the profession by letting untrained folks just randomly qualify to fill openings.  I won't belabor the whole Florida thing but it seems to be in a constant round of Hold My Beer with Texas, Indiana, Kentucky and a few other spots on let's see who can suck the hardest.

Without protections in place, renters are being priced out of their current living arrangements as well as the housing market that is depleted because of all the nice folks and corporation buying housing and renting it at ridiculous rates.  Health care is maybe going to balance out but basic care is too flipping high and we are depending on billionaires not involved in the pissing contest for space to start drug companies that dramatically reduce the cost of medications.  We are studying long COVID and what it means to recover but have your life derailed.  And just know starting to study folks like myself that as of yet have not tested positive for COVID.  I'm having different health challenges though so have been in more contact with doctors than I normally appreciate but at least I can afford them.

I've been sharing with folks that we are in a tipping point.  Not just as a country but more as global population.  If any of these large democracies or republics crumbles entirely it will set off a chain reaction.  We still don't know what to do with Russia invading the Ukraine because we haven't motivated Russia to stand down and we are trying not to escalate the fighting more deliberately by aiding the Ukraine more.  However, the fallout from that is bringing up racial and ethnic biases throughout Europe as people handpick who they want to welcome into their countries and who they are delaying.  There have been renewed calls for violence at home because of a search warrant being lawfully executed because a spin doctor keeps convincing people to believe them and not reality.  I don't want to punish those folks but I am struggling to figure out how to help them dial back the rhetoric and division when they actively do not want to engage.

I'd like to travel, eat random food, and learn about people again.  I don't know that will ever be a thing that we can do again safely or soon.  I want to talk to students and friends and strangers about our differences and how they can tie us all back together if we let them.  And really I would just like the world to maybe give me a smoldering eye not an ashed out ravine of demoralization. We can be better.