This is an email I sent to friends, with the subject line addressing one of them–about America, today….
Subject: Hey Stu, how are things on the front lines?
Hi, everyone:
How are you?
Those of you whom I grew up with know why I am asking Stu this question. He is a citizen sentinel, like you Adams, and a keeper & practitioner of the right to free speech against injustice–and now tyranny.
Just watching the horrible decline of the country we grew up in and wondering how you are doing.
The killing of Renee Nicole Good is just another sad–but more in the face and on the nose (no pun intended) wake up call to see more clearly what so many warned against in the monsters clutching at the shreds of our free country–one more hard stone to swallow as the ignorance and arrogance of the unintelligent, selfish and sociopathic shove the MAGA gravel of authoritarianism down our throats–reminding us like a farmer preparing foie gras who the ‘animals’ are–in their subhuman field of vision.
I heard on Pod Save America that the ICE agent who gunned Renee Good down had been dragged by a car some months before and needed stitches; well, then what in hell was he doing on duty? This is as much a training and mission rules (as they say in the space program) issue as it is an issue of xenophobia, nationalism and ethnophobia in action. However, I am sure that as the Regime combed through federal leadership to strip it of sense and compassion, they also put their most prejudiced agents from the rank and file in operations like this. This shooter, who called Good a Fu*&in bit*^h after he shot her, also sent his phone videos to a right wing website….
It was hard writing that first sentence and feeling fully justified, as we were born during the Vietnam war, in a time when our octopus of a government had its tentacles of covert operations slithering their slippery suction cups into the dark corners of Latin America–and we were later tax payers for the war machine in the Middle East–but we were much better off than today.
Hope you are well; stay safe Stu, and all of you.
Best,
Carl
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Carl Atteniese / 亜天二恵世万慈道
Thank you for reading. I hope this finds you exceedingly well. / I was born in Brooklyn, in the middle of the NASA Gemini space Program era--which was on course for the Apollo program, aiming to land men on the moon. I watched Neil Armstrong make humanity's first step on the lunar surface. The space program left a lasting effect on me and inspired life-long interest and passion in me. / I was born a little more than 2 years after President John Kennedy was assassinated and a few years before Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated. It was a time of tumult, but better manners, a gentler approach to one another (despite the prejudice being worked on by progressives-) little political correctness, no cancel culture and thicker skin & more opportunity for laughs, a time of fantastic television, austere and fact-based news delivered with brevity and sobriety and much superlatively stylish design. It was the beginning of Star Trek, Star Wars, and a few years on, personal computers, digital watches, hand-held electronic games and movies were still in theaters--not on our TVs--unless they were a little old. People paid more attention to books, from where trust is built with credibility we intrinsically see, competency earned and reflected and facts & expertise. One reason I am not apt to dabble in irrational conspiracy theories is I made many a trek to the local library, to read about stars, planets and astronauts and to the local bookstore--no longer there--to find my favorite science fiction novels--either to read or simply to marvel at viewing their covers, painted by Boris Valejo or Frank Frazetta--inspirations that would fuel my later attendence at the School of Visual Arts college in New York City. / I grew up in Long Island, worked and was educated there until I discovered New York City, and then it was on to Boulder Colorado, the Mojave Desert, South Korea and finally, Japan. / I have visited Mongolia, the Philippines, England and Canada and hope to see the rest of the world--and maybe even beyond it. / I teach English as a Second Language, practice secular Buddhism and pay attention to philosophy—particularly the Stoic variation—astronomy, spaceflight, aviation and human & species rights. I make art, poems, podcasts and photography--and real friends, wherever I go--when I can. / Maybe our paths will cross; until then, enjoy my videos, writing and pictures, and send me a note. Maybe we can have a cup of coffee someday, somewhere. / Thank you for reading. / I wish you love, peace, joy and enlightenment--sincerely--because you are sentient, and you suffer, too. / - Carl Atteniese, / Tokyo
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