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Fear and Loathing and Perspective
America: Is this America? Well, yes…
I am not a virtuous person. Sure, I tithe on a monthly basis to Planned Parenthood, the ACLU, and my local animal shelters. Periodically I give to our local food banks and to the heart and cancer research centers. Most of my charity goes to animals, which is also why I get coffee from Grounds and Hounds.
Most of my money, though, I spend on my family and myself. If you know anything about me, you know that I buy many records, vinyl records, and when I’m not buying them, I’m thinking about buying them. What a difference I could make in our world if I re-channeled my album funds into something more…virtuous. And wouldn’t the money I spent going to concerts also make a difference?
These are some personal demons, and by displaying them, I’m also not trying to make myself sound better because I know and can tell you about my flaws and my selfishness. I’m really trying, more than anything else, to prepare a perspective on what is happening all around me, us, right now.
I grew up in the segregated South. I benefitted from a publicly-accepted middle-class white existence. My mother was Christian, my father was Jewish, and I would have absolutely NOT been allowed to bring home a Black friend, much less a potential girlfriend. There were so few Hispanic people…