rant time: CLOSE ALL AMERICAN SCHOOLS for the rest of the year

With any luck, the current epidemic sweeping the world will wipe out at least two words I think of as utterly deserving of demise:

HERO .... and ... NORMAL.

People who currently go to work, if you ask them, are likely to say they go to work because they have to work .... they need the money ... they have bills to pay ... hero-ism is bullshit for others to wave around as if they knew what they were talking about. If, at the one extreme, death is an act of heroism, then every graveyard counts. Anyone can die ... get over it! Whimper, whine, piss and moan ... get over it. There is nothing heroic in death. There is only death ... or birth... or life. Get...over... it. Stop dragging others down with words like "hero."

And as to "normal" -- isn't it time to recalibrate that word. Normal as is boutiques and bling and tea shops and pinch pottery and art displays perused by woeful, thoughtful thin women and small cups of strong coffee that cost too much and clothing people only wear once, if at all, and large plates with small-smaller-smallest-but-or-so-arty displays of 'gourmet' food that leave a hungry man hungry and toreador pants with a new name in a new time and rising neck lines to match rising pandemic lines ....

C'mon!

JUST CLOSE THE SCHOOLS FOR THE REST OF THE YEAR. ALL OF THEM. NATIONWIDE.

MANDATE MASKS. NATIONWIDE.

WILL THERE BE LOSSES? YES THERE WILL. AND BLOOD AS WELL. AND A GOOD DEAL OF SANITY. DO IT ANYWAY AND STOP LOLLIGAGGING. YES, I DON'T WANT TO DIE, BUT, AS ABOVE ... GET OVER IT.


RE-FUND THE POLICE. IS THERE A DANGER OF FASCISM? YES THERE IS BUT THE FASCISM IS PROBABLY PREFERABLE TO THE RELIGIOUS MALFEASANCE THAT MIGHT OTHERWISE BE APPLIED UNDER THE LABEL OF 'HEALING.' WHEN THE EPIDEMIC IS OVER -- OR TAMED OR WHATEVER IT IS GOING TO BE -- THERE WILL BE A NEED FOR A UNIFYING FORCE. EVERYONE .... EVERYONE WANTS TO BE SAFE AND THE COPS ARE THE BEST OF WHAT MAY BE SEEN AS A BAD BARGAIN. BROWN, PINK, BLACK, WOMAN, MAN ... EVERYONE WANTS TO BE SAFE. NOT EVERYONE WANTS TO BE A CHRISTIAN OR JEW OR MUSLIM OR HINDU OR BUDDHIST OR WHATEVER-THE-FUCK-ALL. WHICH IS WORSE, ASSUMING SOME SORT OF LEADERSHIP IS WARRANTED? -- POLICE FASCISM OR RELIGIOUS FASCISM?

SO WHAT'S NORMAL?

I HAVE NO CLUE, BUT IT ISN'T PINCH POTTERY AND COFFEE SHOPS AND BOUTIQUES. MAYBE, FOR STARTERS, IT IS TIME TO GET THE BALL ROLLING WITH

CLOSE THE SCHOOLS.

CLOSE ALL SCHOOLS FOR THE REST OF THE YEAR. NO EXCEPTIONS. FUND FRAZZLED PARENTS. FUND, WHERE POSSIBLE, THOSE WHO WILL LOSE THEIR SHIRTS IN THIS BLOOD-LETTING. KEEP THE FASCISM TO A MINIMUM ... WHATEVER THAT MAY MEAN.

RE-INSTITUTE SPANKINGS FOR THOSE RUNNING AROUND SPREADING DISEASE. SERIOUS SPANKINGS. S-E-R-I-O-U-S.