Not Really Much Pressing Going On At Today’s Presser

 

Today I watched President Biden’s “press conference” if you could call it that.  This was frightening on so many levels.  Let me touch on a few.

First, it was clear that Biden was not really present, not in the moment and not in the bigger picture of the issues about which he was supposedly talking.  He lost his train of thought too frequently and too often read an answer to a different question than that which was asked.  And yet this man is our president, the leader of the free world.  That should alarm us all.

A commentator before the press conference noted that Biden had been practicing for this event for several days.  Wow.  If he had been practicing the names of those reporters who were listed in his notes to call on, he did not do very well.  If he were practicing the canned answers that he clearly had available in his notes, he did not do very well.  If he were practicing receiving signals from some aide in the room or otherwise connected to him, he did not do very well.  And, on another note, how can one practice answers to what are supposedly spontaneous questions?

The syrupy answers he gave were full of nothing more than campaign talk and promises.  He said he would address and fix any number of things but gave specifics to none – no details about the problem or the nature of the promised fix.  Just promises:  I will get to that, I plan on making progress on that, I will get to all those problems, don’t worry.

He said his focus was on Covid and seemed to tell us that he could only address one issue at a time.  Yet it was not clear what he is actually doing for Covid.  He had no problem taking credit for the number of vaccines given, something that is possible primarily due to the previous administration’s Operation Warp Speed.  The number of vaccines promised by the end of his first hundred days just continues that which Trump began; we should note that administration of the vaccine began prior to when Biden took office.  Yet Biden did not have the common decency to give any credit to his predecessor, even though he kept telling us that he himself is a “nice guy.”

Any actual seemingly factual information that Biden presented was for the most part erroneous.  For example, the surge at the border is not the same as it has been in years prior to his taking office.  Unaccompanied minors have come to the border in far greater numbers than those stated by Biden. According to statistics published by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, authorities encountered 9,457 children without a parent in February, a 61% increase from January, not 28% as Biden stated.  Moreover, while some seasonal trends in migration do exist, migrants interviewed by The Associated Press have expressed their understanding that the country would be more permissive to migrants under Biden than under Trump, and thus they come.

Biden kept telling us that he is such a humanitarian, a good guy.  He seemed to deny that there is any problem at the border.  Yet the cages are overflowing.  Unaccompanied minors are being sent by the thousands to large spaces like convention centers to live in crowded and unhealthy conditions.  Covid positive migrants are being bussed throughout our country.  Illegal immigration is off the charts.  Migrants are being bussed and dumped around the country in cities and towns that do not have the resources to care for them or the issues associated by this sudden influx.  This is not nice, and it is not humanitarian.

In campaign, not presidential, mode Biden made sure to trash the previous administration as well as current Republicans.  His figures about the Trump tax cuts were inaccurate and then he used those misleading figures to make a case against Republicans and their concern for the working class, a class that was in many ways lifted by the Trump administration and a variety of Republican policies.

Similarly, he claimed lack of bipartisanship of the Republicans while admitting that he, by his own choice, is not meeting with them.  He completely distorted the substance of the Voting Bill and what it is that each side is really fighting for.  (The reality is that Democrats would remove all state control and nearly all methods of ensuring only legitimate voters vote, while Republicans would maintain and strengthen a variety of procedures that ensure election integrity.)

Beyond the many misstatements (some would say lies), some of which are noted above, Biden seemed to take credit for what is already going on as if it were some great accomplishment of his own.  I mentioned the vaccines above.  Another example is his promise that he would now require that calls regarding minors at the border would occur within 48 hours.  According to Border officials, that requirement is already in place and was followed throughout the entirety of the prior administration’s control.

Biden wanted to show us he is a nice guy.  In fact, he told he is a nice guy – over and over and over.  That he is not like his predecessor because he is so calm and nice.  Well, great.  But that does not mean that he can lead the country or that he has any clue about what is really going on.

But the press conference is not solely about the president.  It is also about the reporters.  Anyone who watched a Trump presser is aware that the press core would not let him finish a sentence without attacking him with one or another allegation.  There was little if any respect shown for the man or the office.  Despite the press hatred for him, Trump called on reporters from both the Left and the Right, as well as the foreign press.   He answered their questions directly along with their antagonistic follow-ups and was clearly on top of what was going on, whether you liked his answers or not.

Here, we had very few reporters called on, and apparently someone (Biden or his handlers) had listed the names of whom would be called.  They were on one of the papers on Biden’s podium.  Whether these reporters’ questions had been vetted beforehand we will likely never know. 

What we do know is that the reporters were not the same attack dogs that attended Trump pressers.  Where was the Jim Acosta style reporter to harass and interrupt before the president could get a word out?  Indeed, where were any interruptions or meaningful follow ups?  Today’s “reporters” allowed the President to ramble for as long as he wanted, even if what he was rambling about had absolutely nothing to do with the question asked.  And those questions – could they have been any more friendly and soft?  Perhaps the press lost its ability be assertive in its questioning when faced with this clearly fragile and perhaps senile old man. 

In the end, this presser was about what I expected it would be – a big lot of nothing.  Biden knew nothing.  Biden said nothing – nothing that was true or specific or more than a fluffy promise.  The reporters asked nothing.  It was to some extent (how much we will never know) rehearsed.  Just a big lot of political show.

Which brings me to perhaps the most frightening thing of all:  why don’t the people see what is going on?  Why don’t they see this presidency for what it is?  Do they really fall for Biden’s syrupy smooth talk and his promises that he will make us all happy?  C’mon Man!  Wake up.  Biden is cluelessly destroying America but we the people are allowing him to do it.  And no one seems to notice or to care. That is terrifying.

 

Lullaby of the Left

A lullaby is something that is sung to someone to get them to sleep.  It calms (lulls) them with soothing sounds.  When we want children to sleep we sing them a lullaby.  Once they are sleeping we can perhaps do some things that their awake presence would keep us from getting done.

What I think is that we are all being lulled by the media’s lack of hysteria about political issues and specifically in contrast with the previous administration.  For four years we were kept awake with the constant frenzy of hyperbolic claims about the dreadfulness of the president’s words and actions.

Now, we hear calm words like “unity” and “humanitarian”.  There is no frenzy, no turmoil, no histrionics.  In fact, there is almost nothing.  A calm.  Nothing to see, nothing to hear.  Just go to sleep.  Pay no attention to what is really going on.

So what is going on?  First, there is a crisis at the border.  A humanitarian crisis as well as an immigration crisis.   We have a border which President Biden has insured is so porous that it in effect does not exist.  Even his advisor, speaking in Spanish so apparently not primarily to Americans, “mistakenly” announced that our borders are open.   Pay no attention though.

Hundreds of thousands of unvetted immigrants, many unaccompanied minors, are released into our interior without even a cursory check on health (including those whose state tests later show as positive for Covid) let alone any real questions about reasons for entering.  What Biden once called cages are now overflowing at over 100% capacity.  While admitting anyone who actually gets to our border, we are also sending millions of dollars to those who remain in countries that do not provide for them what is available to American citizens. 

We are told this is just Biden the humanitarian, taking care of the world.  Nothing to wake up over.  Don’t concern yourself with the very unhumanitarian effects of overcrowded cages, unaccompanied and trafficked minors, deadly consequences of huge caravans and lengthy treks, along with the overwhelming effect on this country and its citizens.  Things are fine.  Afterall, detention centers are now “welcome centers.”   Just go to sleep.

Cosmetic changes abound as part of the lullaby’s pretty pictures.   The Act which destroys women’s sports, mandates radical curriculum in schools, denies the scientific distinctions between sexes replacing them with gender choice and other similar mandates, is called the “Equality Act.”  If anything, it destroys the equality that is supposed to exist of and for all Americans.  But nothing to see, the name should calm you, go to sleep.

The 1.9 Trillion Covid Relief Bill primarily has nothing to do with Covid Relief.  Fewer Americans will get stimulus checks.  But it provides funding for any number of Leftist agenda items.  Just one example: there is a “racial justice” portion that provides 4 billion in debt relief to farmers of color.  Apparently white farmers with debt are not entitled to relief.  This seems a blatant violation of the Civil Rights Act which prohibits discrimination based on, amongst other things, race, color, and national origin.  But beyond that it is in effect a payment of reparations and some activists are celebrating it as just that.  But, go back to sleep, nothing to see here.

The Voting Rights Bill effectively destroys any hope of election security or integrity.  Any efforts to insure that only those entitled to vote actually vote are referred to by the Left as attempts to disenfranchise people of color.  That’s like saying enforcing a no cheating rule on a test is wrong because it prohibits everyone from getting an A.  But, just accept the cosmetically pleasant title: “Voting Rights.”  Ignore the fact that it actually disenfranchises legitimate voters by diluting the effect of their vote.

Moreover, this act fundamentally changes voting in that it takes away a state’s power to control its own elections as it creates a set of national voter registration and mail-in voting standards with the feds, not the states, keeping those rolls up to date.  It is grand dictatorships that allow the central power to govern elections; America is built on the concept of very limited federal power and a retention to each state of those powers not specifically designated to the federal government.  But, no worry, nothing to see here, move on and go back to sleep.

Last night in his first speech to the nation since his inauguration, President Biden did not mention anything about the above actions taken while you were sleeping or the rest of the Left agenda lurking for when you awake.  He has yet to make himself available for questions on any of these matters, including whether it is his agenda or if he is just providing his signature.

His speech only addressed vaccines and possible opening following Covid.  After essentially blaming his predecessor for Covid and giving then-president Trump no credit for his Operation Warp Speed that got us the vaccines in early December, Biden essentially took full credit for ending Covid as he told us we would unite and be able to have small groups gather on July 4^th – maybe.  He made a big deal of telling us that every American would be registered for vaccine by May 1; he more softly admitted that it did not mean that we would get the vaccine by then and there was no indication of when that might actually occur.

The above are just summaries of some of the more major “accomplishments” of the Left while the people have been sleeping.  They have put us to sleep with their cosmetic coverings and their soothing words, words like humanitarian, unifier, good, quiet, peaceful.   But if you really listen, their lullaby is less sweet than some we may be more familiar with; it seems rather more like this old Icelandic song:

Beeum, beeum, bambalow, Bambalow and dillidillidow.

My little friend I lull to rest.

But outside

A face looms at the window.

That face is the Left. But don’t look there. Just go to sleep.  Pay no attention to what the Left is doing while you sleep.  Because if you do, you are likely to find yourself in shock as you awake to Biden and the Left’s “Brave New World,” a world that also had a pretty cosmetic motto (“community, identity and stability”) for its dystopian existence.

Why the Fascination with Meghan?

Here’s the answer up front:  She is today’s “Ugly American.”  On top of that she says what the Left wants to hear.

Meghan Markle epitomizes the arrogant, demeaning, thoughtless, ignorant, and ethnocentric behavior that is the epitome of the Ugly American and of the Left.  Her focus is on herself and gaining attention no matter who else it might hurt. 

Arrogant because she acts as if the world should and does revolve around her and demeaning in the sense that all who do not agree with or see her viewpoint are somehow less than.  Thoughtless in that she seemingly does not care how her behavior might affect and hurt others.  Ignorant in that she does not understand and is unwilling to learn about the viewpoints of others.  Ethnocentric in that she evaluates other people and cultures according to her own standards. 

These qualifiers apply equally well to the Left:  Arrogance in that they believe they know what is best for all of us; demeaning in that they think others are not as capable as the Left in deciding what is best for them and hence require care and handouts from the Left; thoughtless in their intolerance of opposing views and the effect that their cancelling of those views has on others; ignorant in that they do not truly understand those who hold views and lead lives different from theirs;  ethnocentric in that they believe the entire world would be better off to follow their policy dictates.

But, back to Markle and how she exemplifies this essentially selfish behavior.  First, she is a study in hypocrisy:  classic is her screaming for attention while she demands privacy:  pay attention to me, but I will sue you if you do, especially if it’s not flattering.  She claims to want to work for selfless causes, but everything seems to really be focused on her own stardom.  She asserts her victimhood, seeing racism around every corner, while living a star-studded life filled with material goods that few could even dream of.  She is unwilling to even attempt to understand others, including her Royal in-laws; instead demanding that everything and everyone change what and who they are and bow to her and her selfish needs. 

Markle’s assertions of victimhood and racism are ludicrous.  Every request or duty that being a member of the Royal family imposes is not racist just because she doesn’t like it just as every behavior of the Right that the Left does not like is not racist or some other similar pejorative.   

Markle doesn’t seem to understand that nearly everyone expecting a child speculates on what characteristics of each parent the child will have – hair, eyes, ears, nose, height, and in the case of mixed-race children, specific aspects of that race.  But, rather than taking joy in this sort of speculation, she determines it to be racist.  Just as she claims racism when a 1917 British law denies her son the title of “prince.”  And of course the Left is right on board with these assertions of racism, even to the extent of BLM calling for a boycott of the Royal Family. (Not sure how one boycotts them, but this is not much more ridiculous than many of their other demands.) 

Markle makes herself a victim and sees victims and victimizers everywhere.  Like the Left, Markle seeks personal power while trying to cover her arrogant selfishness up with claims of concern for the victimized.  But if one looks beneath the surface, one is likely to find little else than selfish hate.

Just as the Left seems to crave power, Markle wants to be a princess or a queen but has no concept of what that requires in real life.  As Musharraf Hussain, a 10-year employee of the Royal Family, put it: Markle seemed to have difficulty adapting to an existence based on duty, not stardom. LINK   Hussain also notes that Markle does not seem to appreciate classic etiquette or rules of polite society.  Most notably is the idea that one does not air their dirty laundry in public; that family issues are kept within the family. 

The contrast between Markle’s behavior in the Oprah interview and the short, tolerant, and polite statement from the Queen certainly exemplify two very different types of behavior.  There are those of us in America who still hold to classic ideas of decency.  There are those of us who do not think that stardom is the ultimate purpose of life.  There are those of us who do not find or seek victimhood, even when it gives us popularity with the Left.  There are those of us who do not find it appealing when one shares every personal struggle with the world.  (After about the age of 5, some of us expect people to be able to exercise more self-control and discretion as well as empathy toward others.) 

Yet Markle demonstrates that apparently she has no knowledge of or respect for those traditional values that are born of courtesy and care for others.  Similarly, the Left would turn traditional values on their head, throw them out as archaic or deplorable.  The Left is more than eager to accept every whining emotion as more proof that their divisive agenda of hatred and identity politics must be imposed on the entire world.   

Rather than try to understand a different culture, Markle prefers to demand that it remake itself to meet her vision of what it should be.  Despite her education she apparently had and has absolutely no real concept of the British monarchy or the duty of selflessness that the being a member of that monarchy requires and sees no reason why she should try to understand or tolerate a culture and customs different from hers.

Similarly, the Left, rather than try to understand those not like them in this country, they would simply require us all to believe and behave according to their plan.    Markle’s “do-good” causes seem more a way for her to laud herself that to display any understanding of the real needs of those she claims to help.  Similarly, the Left uses its “do good” programs as a means of acquiring votes for their own self power.

In the 1958 book the description of ugly Americans included the following: “They live pretentiously. They're loud and ostentatious. Perhaps they're frightened and defensive, or maybe they're not properly trained and make mistakes out of ignorance."  I would argue that this characterization not only fits Markle but also many of the Left who currently hold political power and/or influential power in the realms of mainstream news and social media platforms.

Yes, Markle is today’s Ugly American.  She is also the poster child for the Left:  Arrogant and selfish, she seemingly has no tolerance for those who might see the world differently than she or who do not kowtow to her every demand.   She wants things her way; she would remake centuries of British history to fit her ill-informed visions of Leftist “equity” just as the Left would remake individual and diverse belief systems and cultures all to fit their utopian and impossible dream of “equity.”

We seem to be fascinated with Markle either because so many of us have become her or because those who have not are seeing too many replicas of her in positions of power around them.  Yet, it is not this Ugly American that we should bother with; rather, we should be concerned with what those who applaud this sort of selfish and intolerant behavior, and indeed act this way themselves, are doing to our country.

 

Is anyone there? A Rant.

 

I am watching my country and all that it stands for disintegrate around me.  I do not understand why so few others seem to notice or to care. 

I recall not that long ago when everyone was strident about nearly everything that was going on.  The media was of course then encouraging the discontent and the hatred.  Then the media told us that all would be fine once Biden was elected.  I guess people listen and accept what they are told.  But look around – one glance should assure you that the media is not always right (or honest).

Of course, unlike the daily crises created by media commentators when Trump was elected, today much of what is going on is not reported or, if it is, even crises are so downplayed as to become just a big nothing.  But eventually they begin to leak out.

But people, look around you.  Hate and intolerance are on the rise.  Immigration is a mess and a crisis (even though the White House does not want us calling it that).  Cancel Culture is rampant.  Victimhood is idealized.  Radicalism is applauded.  And those who believe in traditional American values, the U.S. Constitution, and our basic freedoms have graduated from being “deplorables” to being “Neanderthals.”

Biden and his people insist there is no crisis at the border.  But even the mainstream media now at least have to mention that there might be a problem.  Ya think?!  We have the Obama/Trump “cages” now called “facilities” at full capacity.  We have unaccompanied minors being shipped across the country without any real inquiry about to whom they are being delivered, a definite gift to child traffickers.  We have mobs arriving at the borders wearing Biden tee shirts and demanding immediate fulfillment of his promise to open the borders.  DHS is anticipating a 20-year surge of illegal immigration. 

The Biden administration is looking to transform the southern border into a rapid-processing site where foreign nationals can arrive and expect to be quickly released into the U.S. interior.  In contrast to Trump’s historic lows in illegal border crossings we currently are arresting daily historic highs of illegal immigrants; rather than return them to their country or to the other side of the border to await legal entry, we simply release them to go where they please.  These new immigrants, both legal and illegal, will likely receive benefits that were once restricted to citizens and paid for by tax dollars.  In some instances, the Biden administration provides incentives to favor hiring of new immigrants (legal or illegal) over Americans. 

What this crisis gives us is de facto open borders.  An open border, in contrast to a closed or a controlled border, is one that allows free movement of people across with little or no restrictions.  Borders between the states are examples of open borders.  Most countries, however, at a minimum control the borders which delineate the boundaries of the land that encompasses the country.

I understand that there are some on the Left who desire open borders.  But at present the United States has immigration laws that, in a variety of ways, control both the number and characteristics of those who enter this country.  Yet, these immigration laws and the policy and reasoning behind them are for the most part currently being ignored or overridden by executive order along with executive inaction.  

Whether out of altruistic or sinister motive, or simply due to lack of logic and understanding, the Biden administration has effectively opened our borders to any and all who would enter.  At the same time Biden has closed our capitol, filling it with military to protect the administration and lawmakers from imagined threats. The irony is that we desperately need that military protection at our country's borders, but no one is noticing.

Beyond the border crisis there is the current belief, being fostered by the Left, progressive politicians, as well as big tech, that is is perfectly OK to silence, cancel, censor those people and beliefs whom the “woke” find offensive.    Does no one understand that this goes against the very core of American culture: the ability to hold and speak diverse views? 

We applaud people who share their “traumas”, but only if those who do so are sharing in a way that fits with the woke.  Thus, the White House applauded Meghan Markle’s self-centered tale of victimhood but seemed unable to comment on the ever-growing number of women accusing Gov. Cuomo of sexual harassment. 

And speaking of those accusations, when required to speak about Cuomo, the Left and its media prefer to focus on the growing number of “MeToos” rather than the hundreds (or is it thousands?) of elderly who died as the result of Cuomo’s early Covid orders, orders that he then covered up along with the death numbers.  The Left would prefer not to begin a discussion about those deaths because it is likely that it will then lead to revelations about at least 4 additional Democrat Governors who acted similarly.

Speaking of Covid, it has become abundantly clear that the handling of the pandemic by governors and others was driven by politics and not science, no matter how much they claim otherwise.  Similarly is the handling of the vaccinations, and the processes of re-opening, returning to schools, etc.

Athletics are also reopening, but with new rules that essentially destroy women’s sports.  In addition to Biden’s effective discrimination there, we see nearly every action that he takes in the name of “equity” having a discriminatory effect, usually against those groups that are out of favor with the Left. 

Moreover, the actions of this administration seem to be taken so as to check off some box on the “woke checklist” without any real thought or understanding of the effects of those actions.  In addition to the above I point you to the “Equality Act” and its other sections beyond the evisceration of women’s sports (the Act also exempts itself from the Religious Freedom Act when it comes to forcing its agenda), or the latest Covid relief bill (a 1.9 trillion fulfillment of Leftist dreams that have nothing to do with Covid and which are paid for by our tax dollars) or the Voting Rights Bill (that essentially destroys the likelihood of election integrity). 

I point you to the proposed mandatory curriculums such as training in the biased and discriminatory Critical Race Theory and promotion of the Left view of sexual orientation and gender identity, along with training and promotion of guilt simply for being White and conservative.  Reparations are definitely on the table.  And I encourage taking a look at the radical agendas of most of Biden’s appointees and hires.  Their pronouncements of hate speak volumes about Biden’s promised “unity.”

Now I do understand that there are those who favor the radical agenda of this White House.  But I find it hard to believe that the majority of Americans are as radical as this agenda or care so little about America as one who supports it must. 

I know that there are many who voted for President Biden solely because they did not like President Trump (or at least the President Trump that was portrayed by the media; I suspect that many have no idea of what Trump actually did while president or the many positive effects that his actions had on this country, especially minorities, as well as on the world).  But do these people have any idea what is going on, and if they do, are they really OK with it?

I want to knock on every American’s head and ask “Hello – anyone home?  Do you know what is going on?”  Because the silence is deafening.  And it is not only a silence of any disagreement; it is also silence of any in agreement (except of course from the vocal woke Left).  Just silence.  Is no one looking, listening, paying attention, thinking?  

With Covid vaccinations we hear more and more talk of “herd immunity.”  Actually, I think we are already a herd – of lemmings headed to the sea.  And yes, another phrase comes to mind here:  “Ignorance is bliss.”  I hope that those who are not paying attention are enjoying that bliss now, because the radical changes taking place unchecked under this administration will ultimately leave us and our country with nothing but despair.  

A Very Sanitary Future

 

The future.  It is often portrayed as so very perfect.  So clean.   Yet also so sterile and sanitized.

The sanitation has begun as cancel culture tells us what to think and how to behave.  Eventually we can become like the automatons that we see in futuristic portrayals.  All on the same bland even keel.  No ups, no downs, no extremes of emotion. People are calm.  They say only the right things.  They have only the correct behavior.  And they have no joy.  No humanity.

Today there are things you can’t say.  There is history that must not be taught.  There are books that cannot be read.  Our world, and especially the world of our minds, is being sanitized.  Tom Sawyer, Huck Finn, To Kill a Mockingbird are stories that if anything create an awareness and perhaps empathy for the Black experience in America.  Yet those books are cancelled because they use language of the times and are true to the times.  Dr. Seuss has now been cancelled.  I find it hard to believe that every child who was given a Dr. Seuss book to enjoy, to giggle at, and in the process to learn something of phonetics, I refuse to believe that those children because of that experience were turned into racists.

Soon our stories will be fully sanitized and will all read something like this: “They met.  They fell in love.  They died.”  No detail allowed - it might offend someone.  No joy, no sorrow, nothing to learn from.  Just a few words on a page, sanitized and approved.  (Those who are familiar with Russian history will of course think of the Soviet establishment of socialist realism as the only acceptable aesthetic for authors who were given basic mandatory plots to follow.  Any deviation was banned, sometimes along with the authors themselves.)

We learn from that which has not been sanitized.  Great literature teaches us about our humanity, about the human condition.  History teaches us about where we went right and where we went wrong, thus allowing us to not repeat the same mistakes.  Information, even information that might offend one or many, can spark thoughts, innovations, excitement in the human brain and the human soul. 

It is information and the spark of inspiration that it provides that allows humanity to progress.  Information feeds our natural curiosity.  It is as essential for our being as is food.

Human emotion is a part of us, both its positive and negative passions.  It cannot be banned; allowing us to be conscious of it means that we can learn about and from it and perhaps even control our own individual demons.

Once upon a time I wrote a poem about an Eagle and a Pigeon.  I don’t think I understood the significance of it then but let me use its spirit here.  The mighty Eagle soars and dives.  I don’t know how an eagle feels when it dives, but I do know that when it reaches the bottom it often gathers sustenance that allows it to soar again.  Our minds, indeed our whole being, when allowed to be open, are like the Eagle, soaring to great heights of joy, diving into sadness and depression, learning from both and indeed living as we humans are meant to live, full of spirit, emotion, reason, and passion. 

Yet with the onslaught of cancel culture we are becoming more like carrier homing pigeons.  Kept in cages, their route is always direct and level and predetermined by someone else.  Even the message they carry is not theirs but is instead written for them.  The pigeon does its job, but with how much joy or personality?

People are not perfect. Nor are they level and unthinking or unfeeling.  Their ugly parts cannot be banished and indeed it is the contrast with the ugly that allows us to experience our greatest joys.  Much as we might try, while we might be able to sanitize a city for a day, we simply cannot fully sanitize the imperfect being called human.  We can force the humanity onto the level and predetermined course of the pigeon, but sooner or later the individual human spirt needs to soar.

The sanitized future may look lovely.  A “perfect world.”  But it seems more and more like that perfect world, cold and devoid of emotion, requires us to sanitize our very selves so that we no longer exist.  We still have the ability to soar and to dive like the eagle, but every time a thought or a word or an action is banned from our access, we move a little closer to the pigeon.