WORDS/ THOUGHTS

Today is supposed to be one of those weather days when being in the house is best. Snow early then sleet succeeded by rain which will freeze early and I hope not bring down wires. By evening we will be in the first stages of a heat wave Wednesday when the temperature may hit 60!

Winter will return next week.

I am going to continue my thoughts on charter revisions and hope you all will add your own which I am sure will be of value to the Commission.

Today however I am going to skip the next installment. Too much bad has happened in the world the last few days. Some will affect us, but most have occurred continents away and only the locals suffer.

Locally; the cost of mailing a letter has gone up 1cent. I can remember when I paid 3cents and I still have in some box of old papers a dog-eared 1cent postcard. The electronic world is killing the postal service as it has done to the newspapers.  

There has been another r shooting in Plainfield. Was it because it was near the Fire Headquarters that ShotSpotter picked it up?

A scandal in the school system! People forget that even teachers are human; have human urges, and they too may respond to them inappropriately. This is not a reflection on the Plainfield schools; just a sad event.

And one that rankles me, our state legislature has voted to permit merchants to add up to 4% to the cost of goods if a credit card is used. The public is penalized if they do not wish to become vulnerable by carrying large amounts of cash. The laws of our neighbors New York and Connecticut prohibit this practice.

Seriously; in Brazil a nightclub fire with hundreds of young college students killed. Same cause as the one in New England as few years ago; human stupidity and negligence.

In Egypt a year ago in Port Said a riot at a soccer match killed about 80 spectators from Cairo. This weekend after judges had sentenced about 21 rioters to death; at Port Said there was a major uprising in which at least 30 were killed and over 300 injured. Buildings were set on fire. All of this over a sports event.

Violence is the norm all over. In Syria the “rebels” are fighting among themselves as well as with the government. In Mali, Myanmar (Burma), Sri Lanka there is active warfare between rebels and governments. And today the British warned their civilians to get out of Somalia. Mexico has its Drug Cartels in conflict with authority. There are riots in Venezuela, continued bombings of civilians in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. To mention only a few spots on Earth

I don’t think that all this means that the world is going to the devil; it is just a result that with our present state of communications there is no place on earth that is not more than a few seconds away. Whereas a few decades ago place could be days apart and before WW1 weeks or months apart.

What is the moral of this potpourri? I am not sure; perhaps you can tell me. But it is an escape from Oz.