situation report

 

SITUATION REPORT

 

The summer heat in New Orleans prompts me to sweat ideas.  As might be the case with many Americans and citizens around the world, I am weary of pandemic,  journalism that makes a travesty of what news ought to be, a growing moral depravity among millions of people, and the international  disorder that might provide firm grounds for WWIII. It seems "natural" to be annoyed by uninvited robot calls, by terrorism, by road rage, by the grief that must be carried when friends die, by sundry assaults which preclude harmony and peace. I DO NOT LIKE THE 21ST CENTURY.

 

Not liking the days of my life is not exactly a free choice. Yes,  I do have an option to tell myself beautiful lies.  I could tell myself that the enslavement of my ancestors in the State of Mississippi does not matter now. But the summer heat reminds me that enslavement before and after 1865 matters greatly. I cringe when I am reminded that historical sorrows  contribute to regrettable  ailments  in the human heart and in the human mind.  I have lived so long that faith, hope, and charity resemble elements of a fairytale.  I think justice is a theory which refuses to manifest itself in daily life, the smart theorizing of John Rawls and others notwithstanding.  The summer heat inspires me to hold fast to nightmares and pessimism, to be a perfected cynic  who does one or two good things each day.

 

Jerry W. Ward, Jr.            August 19, 2021

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