Trudging Through Our C-Virus World - Still

 

Getting ready for work: thoughts about what's going on around me as I'm trudging through our C-Virus World. At some point I'll have to quell these thoughts so I can concentrate on the days tasks. But since they've been distracting me to some degree, I thought I'd write them down. Here goes.

To start, things remain unsettled around here. How are things in your neck of the woods? Everything back to what it was? 

Okay, so it's probably not. Our C-Virus World - that "new" world imposed on us by the world's governments - continues, albeit not with the draconian lock downs of spring. Summer brought some easing of the blizzard of restrictions on commerce and personal movement. Now it's fall. 

Fall? Yeah, it comes that quickly, even in our C-Virus world. Of course, the seasons have been off-kilter since the March lock downs began. Nothing's looked or felt the same. For us, we had to forego our usual summer get away to Maine. Our destination state restricted outsiders, so that was that. No annual week's respite from the New York Metro area.

Speaking of New York Metro, you've likely heard of all the folks fleeing the City of New York. It's true. At first, it was a real and urgent emigration. Folks of means hopped away like rabbits fleeing foxes for either their second homes or simply rented a place somewhere far from their city hutch. Some have returned. Others have decided to leave for good.

Lock downs were bad enough. But with them came crime and violence. We've talked about this recently. The increased crime was, however, already in the works in our fair city as governments put more and more handcuffs on the police rather than the perps. And even when the police could make an arrest, the courts decided to pretty much let a whole class of criminals off the hook. Some they let go right at the precinct. Others now get back to the streets after a quick court appearance instead of being held in jail as they once were to await trial. And for the cherry on top, lots of what were once crimes were "de-criminalized." You can jump the subway turn-styles without paying a fair, smoke pot in public, even urinate in the street in front of a schoolyard without being cuffed - or even harassed - these days. 

Results were predictable. Crime was on the rise before the lock-downs. Then came the demonstrations, many accompanied by acts of looting and violence. 

You'd think the looting and violence would call for beefed up law enforcement. You'd be wrong if you did. Instead, law enforcement was attacked and further restrictions were placed on their ability to combat the violence. Naturally, the violence escalated. Some politicians - and the folks that vote for them - have had second thoughts about reducing police presence in the face of riots, mayhem and, yes, sometimes even murder. A sign of sanity? Maybe. The entrenched "progressives" still, however, want to reduce policing, even policing designed to oppose mayhem and violence.

While our neighborhood was not subjected to rioters, others were. In some areas where rioters showed up, people got out with bats, bricks, whatever they could muster, and stood their ground. It had nothing to do with race. Hispanics protected their neighborhoods. Blacks protected their neighborhoods. Neighborhoods with mixed races did the same. Naturally, the locals were criticized and called racists.

Which brings up another disturbing fact: Truth - always at a premiium - no longer matters. It's not like this disregard for the truth has never occurred before in history. But it's here now and it's loud and clear. That's what's enable the accusations of racism directed at people defending their neighborhoods.

Of course, in business, we're always on the lookout for misleading claims, slick marketing and sales presentations along with outright lies - that is, if you're trying to run an honest business or put in an honest day's work. So for those of us who do just that, the diminished regard for truth creates a cognitive dissonance that can both disturb and distract as we forge ahead each day. And we Catholics, familiar with the devil's famed title "Father of Lies" can't help but hear a satanic cacophony blasting behind the false assertions that fly at us from every direction.

Yet, despite it all, we must trudge through it. 

And so, in prepping for today's slug of tasks waiting on my desk, I turn to Our Lord, Our Lady, and great St. Joseph. I think of the Holy Family. I think of Jesus and Joseph plying their carpenter's trade in their modest circumstances. It helps me reduce all the noise to a minimum. It helps me to shift my focus from all that threatens to distract to the task at hand.

Okay. With that, I'll just trudge on.