it’s been one hell of a june

Original Editorial Cartoon by Michael de Adder

June started out with the third anniversary of the Pulse shooting (12 June 2016) and ended with the deaths of two desperate migrants, a young father and his daughter, drowned and face down in the river they tried to cross to reach this so-called land of opportunity. Their deaths struck me fiercely, heart and soul. I’m a father of two grown daughters, and a part of me recoiled in horror at the thought it could have been me and one of my girls if faced with similar circumstances. And that resonated back to the 49 innocents slaughtered because they dared to be different and just wanted to live and let live in a world that accepted them, or if the world couldn’t/wouldn’t accept them, then just left the alone.

There are two threads that tie these two horrific events together, the larger in 2016 and the smaller this month. The first is the totally useless, and totally avoidable, deaths of human beings who simply wanted to live and let live. Their deaths represent an incredible waste of human capital and potential. The second is Trump and the raging evil he and his followers represent. Ever since he announced his candidacy 16 June 2015 and won the election by “questionable” means in 2016, this country has been on a slide into a warped and debased caricature of what American once strove to be, a better angel to the world. Trumps constant lies and his enablers constant support of those lies have pushed me further and further into a shell to try and get away from it all.

But that isn’t working. Trump just gets worse, and the fourth estate keeps mindlessly echoing his lies. He even repeated quite a few of them from 2016 when he kicked off his 2020 election campaign in downtown Orlando this past month.

At this point I don’t know what to do. I’m at a loss for any kind of uplifting, quotable soundbite. All I can write is that we have the worst US president in history, and possibly one of the worst contemporary world leaders. And I don’t know what I can do to help fix the situation.

the little prince

Bo on his Plow & Hearth pillow

Our cats, now over three-and-a-half-years-old, are in firm control of the household. They know that it’s the two of them who are really in charge. To drive that point home, Bo has decided that his newest favorite spot in the house is lounging on the red Plow & Hearth pillow on top of a foot stool in the TV room.

Saturday, I’d been cleaning and moving things around and I just happened to put the pillow on top of the foot stool just to get it out of the way. In less time than you can say “Ginger Marmalade Cat” Bo not only discovered its location, but had further decided he liked perching on top. And in that specific position so he can keep his eyes on me while resting.

My wife and I had originally decided to give the pillow to Goodwill, but it looks like that won’t be happening anytime soon. I don’t think Bo would be too happy if the pillow were to leave the house. So it stays, oriented as you see it, on the foot stool. Now I get to observe if Luke, his brother, will wrestle with him over the right to lie upon it as well.