The French have had a nativist party with an appreciable base of support far longer than we’ve had to put up with Little Donny Trump. Their social network and economy are fractured along different lines than ours, but it’s more similar than different.
Ils viennent jusque dans vos bras
Last night I was eating dinner at a sidewalk restaurant in Avignon – the best kebabs maybe ever – and watching an outdoor disco pop up. Other people did more or less the same thing all over France in celebration of Bastille Day.
But in Nice, some kind of horrible mind disease jumped its containment field and drove a truck into a crowd. It seems impossible to know how to live rightly with this epidemic Ignore, deny, build walls? Lock ’em all up, ban people who look sketchy, shoot people just in case? Take away driving? Go for a bike ride?
There is so much joy and wonder in the world, and so much else, and somehow it all has to fit in our heads.
Bye bye Bernie
Another mass shooting, close to home for all of us in America. My sympathy to the widening concentric circles of victims, but that’s not really worth much. A few dollars to a victim assistance campaign, again, nice, but not really gonna change anything.
So what can I do? Sarah Brady showed us that it takes enormous passion, skill, and a whole lot of money to move the needle a little bit, and I haven’t even one percent of her powers.
I do have a one choice I get to make this year, however, and this morning it became crystal clear. Despite his many good positions, Bernie Sanders misses the boat on guns, claiming that his Vermont values don’t let him come out in favor of European-style restrictions on gun ownership.
Today, we’re again faced with the horrifying but undeniable realization that “live and let live” doesn’t cut it any more. Madame President, I hope you can succeed where so many have tried, and reduce the number of mass shootings we must endure in the years ahead. You have my full support.
Brattleboro Adventure – the Auckland Edition 