My kids are coming home for Thanksgiving. Kaitlin and
Jon will be on the highways and Patrick will be on an airplane. All of them
will arrive in Short Pump near midnight. We will enjoy a few days together. It
will be wonderful but will seem rushed. Then they will leave us as abruptly as
they arrived. It is the new normal.
We should be thankful that they come home at all, and
we are. I was talking with a friend recently whose kids live in Texas and
Oregon, so South Carolina and Tennessee seem like a blessing. Then there are
those friends whose kids have settled in foreign lands from Dubai to Thailand.
In other words, we have no right to complain. But that doesn’t mean we don’t.
A few thoughts before the weekend:
One of my favorite commentators, Kevin Williamson, has
suggested that the IRS needs a slogan and has offered up a couple of
suggestions…
We
have what it takes, to take what you have!
Somebody’s
gotta do it!
To which I might suggest…We harass more people by 6am than other agencies do all day!
This weekend will probably bring an announcement by
the grand jury in Ferguson, Missouri. Most observers seem to believe that
Officer Darren Wilson will be acquitted, unleashing God knows what in that
beleaguered community. I think it’s interesting that I haven’t been able to
find one story, one opinion that suggests what might happen if Officer Wilson
is found guilty. Will the pro-Wilson forces take to the streets torching
businesses and stocking up on big screen TVs and Bud Lite? Will the white
citizens of Ferguson unleash their pent up rage by destroying private
businesses? Why is rioting and looting only an understandable response to
perceived injustice for the black community?
Of course, if white
people were to riot and loot it would most likely look a bit different. Instead
of big screen TV’s and lite beer, we would see pot-bellied white guys with
crock pots and espresso machines balanced on their shoulders. White church
ladies would be caught by cell phone cameras with twenty pound bags of flour
and sugar under their arms and purloined copies of Good Housekeeping and
Southern Living magazines stuffed in the apron pockets. There wouldn’t be one
single piece of Duck Dynasty memorabilia left on the shelves in Ferguson, and
good luck trying to find any Reba McEntire CDs!
