Why do we hate flags and statues enough to destroy them?

Antietam Memorial Monument in PA courtesy Wikipedia

What’s going on today is really upsetting.  And police are standing by and watching throngs of stirred-up people destroying pieces of our history.  This makes no sense at all to me.  You can’t change history by getting rid of all these things, as if they never existed.  How foolish.

People harbor way too much hatred toward each other in our country.  Destroying all these statues make none of these vandals any better than the terrorist group, ISIS.  You cannot undo the Civil War.  Maybe we don’t all agree about what happened there, but it did happen.  We can’t throw temper tantrums over it.  That time is behind us.  We can move forward and try to live side-by-side and as equals regardless of skin color, religion, political views, opinions, etc.  Way too many people have been killed in wars, or murdered just because these things.  Killing and throwing tantrums won’t solve any problems.  I don’t know if the human race will ever learn this lesson.

 Confederate Monument in Alabama courtesy of Wikipedia

 

The confederate flag and statues of our forefathers and some war figures from the Civil War have stood proudly for over a hundred years in places around the south.  It’s very disturbing to see groups of haters forming for the sole purpose of destroying all these things.  No, it wasn’t right to enslave black people, or to deny rights to women, but all that has changed now.  I don’t see our monuments as racist.  I see them as reminders of our past and hopefully we’ve learned a lot since the Civil War days.  Although when I look around at all the hatred in our country, I don’t think all the blood that has been shed in all the wars has been enough to get through to some people who are bent on destroying our history just because they don’t agree with it.

I don’t know how you all feel about this, but it makes me sick.  Why can’t we all get along with each other?  Life is what you make it.  You can still have your views, opinions, religion, beliefs, etc., but let others have theirs as well.  It doesn’t mean you have to agree with them, but let’s stop all the killing and vandalism.

Very Interesting

This is similar to the 45-pound SWAT vest

This citizens’ police academy I’m attending is getting more interesting every time I go.  Last Thursday we had two speakers, hostage negotiations and then the lieutenant that heads up the SWAT team.  Both of these guys were excellent speakers and often work together on cases.

They brought all the SWAT gear in and asked for volunteers to put on that big pack.  He looked over at me and asked me if I wanted to volunteer.  Good heavens!  I couldn’t even pick the pack up, much less put it on.  But he thinks I’m fearless, I guess, and up for anything because I told him to put me on the most action-packed ride-along he had.  (This is the lieutenant that sets up the ride-along for civilians.)  He finally grabbed one of the older guys in our group and he was the guinea pig for this demonstration. 

This man wasn’t a big man either and had trouble getting the pack on and he sure couldn’t get it off.  He had to sit down so the lieutenant could pull it up over his head.  Of course they had a couple of shields in there too (like you see on the police shows) and also a battering ram.  We were allowed to pick up and inspect all these items.  How they don’t hurt their backs hauling this stuff around is amazing.

You wouldn’t believe the obstacle and training course these guys have to pass every six months to stay on the SWAT team.  It has to be the best men they have for situations like that so you can only imagine the rigors they go through.  We’ll get to see a demonstration of this later on in the academy when they take us to the shooting range.  Not only do they have to wear this heavy pack weighing about 45 pounds, but they also have to carry other gear and their rifle, or pistol, depending on where they are in the course.  They must carry a 180-pound dummy and leave it at a given spot and then hurdle over six-foot walls while shooting and wearing all this equipment.  All this has to be done in nine minutes and they can only miss 4 shots out of about 80 rounds. 

To say you’d have to be in top physical shape is an understatement.  I honestly don’t know how people do this job for a living.  It sounds damn hard to me, not to mention dangerous.  I know I’d never be strong enough to do this, let alone withstand the initial boot camp to start with.

All the guys we’ve met so far are very nice people and they love their jobs.  This academy certainly gives you a different perspective of the police department when you can see things from their point of view and the things the job requires them to do.  They literally have to make split second decisions involving people’s lives.

Until next time, stay safe out there.

The Weather Changes Fast in the Desert and other Crazy Events



Stormy Skies - Sunni's Photo's

 

Thursday it was 107 around here and Friday was 100.  The coming week is supposed to be in the 90’s.  In the late afternoons, we’ve been having a bank of very black skies roll up over the mountains.  We usually get thunder and lightning, but no rain, or very little.

 Friday afternoon the same thing happened, however, within minutes the wind was blowing about 60 MPH.  I’m not kidding!  The dust kicked up all around.  The red sand was so thick that it blocked out the black clouds in a dusty haze.

 

Stormy Skies - Sunni's Photo's

 

I was fixing dinner and we were about ready to serve up when the barbeque went whizzing past the kitchen window and off the patio.  It landed in the grass on its side.  This all happened so fast, within seconds, and this is no small barbeque either.  We got it up-righted, back on the patio, and pushed up against the wall of the house.

 

Of course, in all the commotion, a tree bent over near the breaking point, having come loose out of its tie, so we had to take car of that before it snapped off.  This kind of thing always happens with the wind around here, but is usually in the wintertime when we have to bundle up and try to stay warm at thirty degrees.  Naturally, after all this, we are very windblown and dinner is cold.

 

Then the wind stopped as suddenly as it started.  The dark clouds returned after the dust settled.  We had a thunder and lightning show. The good news is it brought the temperature down to 80 degrees.  This was a relief.

 

Cloud Rainbow - Sunni's Photo's

 

On Saturday, it was about 85 for a high, which is unheard of for July around here, so we decided to make use of this and work out in the storage area to see what we can weed out in preparation for our move later this year.  This turned out to be a trip into the world of nostalgia because I found a couple boxes of stuff I had moved with me when I left Alaska in the late 1970’s.  The mementoes have travelled with me to Oregon, then California, and most recently to Utah.  It will go with me to the next place as well because I cannot part with this stuff now.  Someday, I’ll post more about my nostalgia boxes.  Needless to say, we had to tape those back up and there was no time for reminiscing now, if we were going to accomplish anything.

 

When we came in a little after four in the afternoon, we were both hot and sweaty so we dug into the ice cream to cool off.  So what happens?  The ice cream scoop breaks!  We’ve had it for at least twenty years, so I wasn’t all that surprised.  I don’t think they even make that type anymore so that has to go on the shopping list.

 

Later when I’m cleaning up the dishes after dinner, I spot a shirtless man up on the bluff behind the house carrying a rifle and holding a can of beer.  Of course, no one is supposed to have guns back there in the desert land behind us.  We have to chase off teenage boys now and then with their pellet rifles because they go out there to hunt the wildlife.

 

Our neighbor - Sunni's Photo's

 

So my husband goes out and shouts at the man, who promptly tells him “he will blow his head off.”  Oh dear!  My husband comes in and calls the police.  The man comes toward the house with the rifle.  When he gets to the back wall, my husband recognizes him as our neighbor who hooked up our TV.  What to do now because the police are on the way?  My husband informs the neighbor and he says he is up there with his family.  He proceeds to drop the gun and his ammo over the wall and into our backyard.  Of course, the neighbor was joking; however, he quickly learned not to say something like that to anyone.  He walked back up the hill and soon his wife and three sons joined him on their bicycles.  They all waved at us.

 

The guy and his family went home and when the police arrived, we explained the situation.  Then my husband took the gun and ammo back down to the neighbor’s house after the police left.  I’m glad this doesn’t happen often.  Usually we have a quiet life compared to most.