I haven’t blogged as frequently these days because I haven’t really felt the urge. Mainly, I’m about politics and motorcycles. The motorcycle season in the northeast is mostly over. The bike is in storage, but I can still take it out on a rare nice day, or I can even take it out in the cold, although that is less likely. Politics seems pretty much static. Everyone has their views, and nobody is likely to change.

However, there is a new face on the block. It is that of the young undergrad college student. They have been getting a lot of press lately, both because of the Black Lives Matter movement, and the outbreak of extreme political correctness on campus. This generation is different from mine. My generation was worried about being sent off to die in Vietnam. Now we have an all-volunteer army. These young adults have spent their teenage years, for the most part, under their parents’ thumb. The ones at college, anyway. They are not worried about a war, because they don’t have to fight it. Their parents have protected them all their lives, the school buses pick them up and drop them off in their parents’ arms. So the colleges, in loco parentis, are expected to shield them from all harm, including unpleasant ideas that might cause them distress.

So now we have the perfect storm. The Black Lives Matter movement, and the colleges’ political correctness binge. So you have angry students with bullhorns, backed by some of their professors, bullying those who don’t agree, or who wish to videotape their actions. The Black Lives Matter movement has validity. Black men and boys have been on the receiving end of too much abuse over too many years from the authorities. Things need to change, and police departments need to hold their officers responsible for their actions. I believe that it will happen, as departments become equipped with body cameras, and society becomes increasingly aware of the problem.

The bottom line, for me, is that I agree with the goal of reducing police brutality. Against anybody, not just minorities. The BLM is performing a public service. I don’t agree with their methods, sometimes. I don’t understand how blocking busy intersections and accosting innocent people is helping their cause. It isn’t likely to win hearts and minds. Not mine, anyway.

It is a complicated, sometimes ugly, situation. In the end, it is just human behavior. And generational differences. I was sometimes fairly obnoxious in my ways, and still can be sometimes. I just don’t worry about it too much, because the situation I am discussing has little to no bearing on my life. Just like the hippies, incense, and tie-dyed shirts, this too shall pass. Only to return again in some other form. Human nature doesn’t change. Only the toys change, not the feelings behind the toys.

I’m tired of hearing Democrats trash-talking Hillary Clinton in her quest for the presidency. Americans seem to have an awfully short memory. Am I the only one, for example, who immediately thought of Vietnam when the Iraq invasion was announced? I realize that time is running forward and there are those who were not of an age to remember and/or understand the Vietnam War. The same for George McGovern’s ill-fated presidential campaign in 1972. He lost to Nixon in a landslide. Vietnam was a quagmire that destroyed millions of lives and ruined countless political careers.

Nevertheless, Americans have a short memory. We have invaded and lost Iraq. No surprise to anyone who remembers Vietnam. Now we have some amnesiac lefties who want to see Bernie Sanders get the Democratic nomination for president. That would be a Republican dream. Like Anderson Cooper said in the first Democratic debate, the attack ads would virtually write themselves. Hell, I could write one. His age is a liability, but not as much as his disposition. Sanders refuses to move toward the center, where he would need to be to have a chance in the general election. He seems to think that, rather than him changing his message, he can persuade Americans to be okay with socialism and to understand the difference between Scandinavian and Russian socialism. If the right wing can call Barack Obama a socialist, with a straight face, imagine what they would say about someone who actually calls himself that. In another era, Obama would be a moderate Republican.

Times have changed, and the message is everything. The Supreme Court is up for grabs. If a Republican wins, they will try to roll back every program from the New Deal. It will be as if FDR never was in power and never gave us those wonderful programs. The Republicans are for the wealthy, and they have shown that they will sneak, connive, mess with voters’ rights, as well as deny climate change and be willing to lie and say anything at all to get into power. We saw that with Mitt Romney. I never saw somebody lie so much and so shamelessly in my life. Never. That is what we are up against, and we don’t need a 2016 version of George McGovern to hand the election over to the enemy.

I thought that I would try a different type of blog post. There are only so many ways to bemoan the state of what passes for government and politics of the Republican party, and the misinformed American voters who are keeping the charade going. In the end, in a democracy, you get the government you deserve. It just may be that America will have to, like an addicted person, hit rock bottom before light dawns. Let it happen soon, and hopefully without losing everything we once held dear.

I have worked for my entire life, beginning as a part-time hospital cafeteria worker when I was sixteen years old. I, like it says in my profile, have worn many hats. In my late teens and twenties, I worked at a number of manufacturing jobs. I tried my hand at construction, as well. The factory jobs were cool. I worked some night shifts, and those were the best. Being dirty and tired at 6:00 in the morning, looking at the clock, and seeing the morning sun through the windows and emergency door panes. It was a fine thing. My next career was driving a taxicab in Worcester. City cab driving is a unique experience. You really do meet all kinds of people, the good, bad, and yoooogaly. You get an education in human nature that, I think, rivals a college education. In fact, they don’t teach this stuff in college. You are working alone with one or more strangers in the back seat. I drove without a shield between the front and back. You learn how to talk to people, how to be diplomatic.

I got very comfortable as a cab driver, to the point where I started getting afraid. Afraid of getting to the point where I would grow old behind the wheel, without any retirement benefits other than social security, which I had paid into for my entire life, but which might not be enough to live on. So I went the education route, which I had successfully avoided for some time. I got an accounting degree, and I got a state job. Now, that I could retire from. Which I did, after Republican governor Charlie Baker put through an early retirement incentive bill. Now, let me tell you, I was a Republican for that day. I never thought I would be singing the praises of a Republican government official. But I was, and still am. God bless Governor Charlie Baker. I love him and his first name.

It’s a different ball game now. It feels like I should be doing something. And there is some truth to that. Sitting around doing nothing is okay if that’s all you can really do. I am still healthy and ambulatory, so I need to get busy. The mornings especially seem to drag. So I go to the gym. It has only been a few months, so I think that things will change as time goes on. Volunteer work, part-time work. I don’t know. I try not to worry. Worrying is something I do very well, and it is completely counterproductive. Let go and let things happen. Live for today, not in a hedonistic, destructive way, but in a way that puts regret and fear in their proper places. The trash bin, as far as I’m concerned. Life is good.