June 2, 2020

I wake up almost every morning these days in a state of mental exhaustion wondering which brick will be pulled from the foundation of our democracy and how much more polarized this nation can become.   Will another Inspector General be fired for doing their job of investigating wrong doing by government officials or will it be yet another assault on the idea of a free press.  Or perhaps another Twitter storm full of lies and misinformation about baseless conspiracies and bigoted rhetoric.   Will it be another attack on the intelligence organizations of this country and deference to people like Vladimir Putin.   Or perhaps this administration will offend yet another of our allies.  And in the latest fiasco, this administration chose to throw gasoline on the fires of racial unrest rather than try to address the real underlying problem? (And just to be clear, I do not support riots and looting – but there is a legitimate underlying problem that needs to be addressed!)

 I have never, in my 67 years felt so depressed and concerned about the direction this country is taking.  I was born before the Cuban missile crisis.  I lived through the era of Vietnam protests.  I lived in Los Angeles during the Rodney King riots.    And then, of course, there was the tragedy of 9/11.   I racked up over 5 million air miles during my career travelling to over 30 countries all over the globe.  I lived in Kuwait for 1 ½ years (right next to a mosque) and lived in France for 7 months.  I have spent a great deal of time in several countries in Asia and North Africa.  I have seen and experienced a lot.  And yet, here I am, sometimes just overwhelmed by the ongoing chaos, constant flood of lies, total disregard for the rule of law and the constitution, and the petulant, childish behavior of this president. 

I ask myself every day, “What can I do?”  Of course, I read and I vote but that just doesn’t feel like enough.  So, I decided to resurrect my blog from my bicycle adventure down Route 66 from Chicago back to Los Angeles and then my subsequent trip to New Zealand.  This won’t be about a bicycle adventure but will simply be a place to post my thoughts.  It will be my catharsis.   One of my all time favorite books is, “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance,” by Robert Pirsig.  This will be kind of like my mental bicycle ride.   Prior to one knee replacement, one fractured vertebra and ACL/torn meniscus surgery on the other knee, I was an avid runner and used to tell people that running was my ‘therapy’.  When things got crazy, I always felt better after going out and running a few miles.  Now bicycling has replaced running as my therapy.  Weather permitting, I still try to go out for 20 to 30 mile bike ride several days a week.   This blog will serve as my mental bike ride.

I don’t really know how often I will post these ‘mental bike rides’ and I really don’t care if anyone reads this.  If people do read it, I don’t expect everyone to share my views.  I suspect, given the climate permeating our society today, that people who disagree with me will feel compelled to spew hate and vitriol this direction – that’s fine, it’s a free country at least for the time being.  I truly believe that silence in the face of everything going on is complicity.  It is my country too.  And just because I disagree with this administration does not mean that I am not a patriot.  I will not be silent any longer and watch the country that I love be dismantled brick by brick and turned into an autocratic, bigoted, intolerant and irrelevant player on the world stage.