Yesterday it was a travel day. I was traveling from Florida to Wisconsin. Because we were only going to be there for four days we flew. Covid is still around of course, in fact, in many areas of the country it is making it back with a vengeance. This new variant looks to be more transmittable but less deadly. To me that is both good and bad news. The good news is that the vaccines seem to work against it. The bad is the fact that because it is not as deadly that some people will not take it as seriously as they should. On the plane after all this time you still see people, young healthy people, still not covering their noses. I have a preexisting condition.  I have noncancerous scarring on my lungs from exposure to asbestos. Wearing a mask is hard for me and I get out of breath easily. Many times I have to stop and catch my breath walking through an airport because of the mask but I know it is even more important for me to wear one than most so I just take it slow and keep on wearing it. The lack of concern people have for the other people around them is what really bothers me. Is it ok to not be concerned whether the people around you live or die? Have we become such a “ME Me” country that we have stopped caring about the strangers that are around us?

Now, the reason I traveled to Wisconsin was because of my grandchildren. My only granddaughter is in the musical Frozen Jr. and my oldest grandson is playing high school basketball. You can’t miss an opportunity to create memories for yourself and for your grandchildren. We landed at 3:00PM in Milwaukee and the performance was at 6:30 in Kenosha so we had no problem making the opening night of the musical. I will brag now that my granddaughter was the best but of course it is ok for me to think that way. It was close to a packed house which again both good and bad. It is great for the kids that they had such a good and receptive audience. Of course the bad was that we are still in the middle of a pandemic. Events like these only make it easier to spread this deadly virus.   Masks were mandatory but then again we had the nose people. I just don’t understand why some people just don’t care about the people around them. Tonight I pick up my two youngest grandchildren and take them to see the oldest play basketball. It will be a good time but again we are in the same good and bad scenario. I feel for our young people for having to live through this but I will emphasize the word live. Most of them will live through this and maybe, just maybe, we will be raising a more caring generation that what we have turned out to be.

Both of the events are of course in Schools. Besides the pandemic what other problems do schools have today? Maybe guns? I am not one of those people that hate guns. I own seven of them. With owning a gun comes great responsibility. They are very dangerous weapons that were invented to kill. Guns were invented for war in my opinion. Yes we can use them to hunt and protect our home but war is what has driven the evolution of the gun. Guns are easy to get in this country. A gun is easier to get than a driver license or many other licenses that we need in this country. Guns do not give me some warm and fuzzy feeling about safety and security. If anything it gives me the opposite feeling because you never know who is packing as they say. With all the school shootings by other children and against children it has to weigh heavily on the minds of our youth. I cannot imagine what goes through the minds of today’s youth with the gun culture that is in this country. Who is protecting our youths? Don’t tell me the police and the law. The police only get involved after a crime in committed and when it comes to guns it seems like they feel the more the merrier. Our children are dying because of guns. I don’t have an answer because like most people I am not willing to give up mine but then I am not parading around like some member of the Taliban trying to intimidate people either. Do we need guns for our civil defense? History will tell you no. Are children dying because of irresponsible handling of guns the answer is yes? When I walked into the school to watch my granddaughters play or when I walked into the school to watch my grandson play basketball there was no security that would have prevented me from bringing in a gun. In America we have the honor system but the problem is that not everyone is honorable.

Our future worries me. Violence is more and more the way America talks. We have Republicans like Matt Gaetz talking about Storm troops and insurrection. When some of our impressionable youth here talk like that the golden rule goes out the window and the thought of violence takes over. I am glad I am 68 and not 17.