I watch the television news tonight out of Baltimore until my heart feels crushed, and I have to stop.   Doctor’s orders. Sheesh.   I came out of Alexandria Hospital this afternoon to see flames and cops on the tv screen and it is too much déjà vu for my wounded heart.  Why does a trip to … Continue reading Baltimore

There are gray areas everywhere.  Circumstances when it is hard to know exactly what to do or say.  Places where a thing is allowed or encouraged, or taboo. Or illegal.  Times when an opinion on one activity is approved and supported, and an identical opinion on a nearly identical activity is scorned. Lawyers are good … Continue reading It’s Good to Be a Grownup.

My sister challenged me this week.  I had posted on Facebook that I was oddly grateful to the national news media because their coverage of Trevor Noah, the new host of the Daily Show on Comedy Central, had quoted him as saying he feared American cops more than those in his home of South Africa. … Continue reading The Age of Umbrage… or… I May Be an Internet Crybaby

I’m like a dog.  Every time my wife goes out the door, she is dead to me. Until she comes home and I see her again and I’m happy.  I’m told this is how dogs perceive our absence, and my dog bears this out.   My wife, no more emotional than I but far more intelligent, … Continue reading “I Go to UVa, You F—king Racists!”

The guy in the parking lot asked me for a few bucks because he was out of gas.  Pure scam.  His story became more elaborate the longer I faced him – his car was just down the road, out of sight, and he needed a gas can too so the bite was for fourteen dollars.  … Continue reading Choosing to Believe, and What

Did the furor die down about the police shooting on Skid Row in Los Angeles or did I just stop watching the news?  Or did a more recent death in Madison, Wisconsin steal the spotlight in the current news cycle? Another young black man was killed by police Friday night, and people were interviewed to … Continue reading Prejudice or Racism? And the Difference Between

Another day, another dollar, another “unarmed” black male killed by police.  This week, Los Angeles officers scuffled with and shot a man during a robbery investigation.   Caught on camera, the event instantly flared into a national news media event with television talkers quoting sources calling for investigations of, yet again, police terror. It matters.  But … Continue reading “Unarmed” and Alarmed

     What kind of arrogance does it take to jump into a hole in the internet and start typing thoughts and opinions in the hope they interest and attract an audience?           This kind!           After 28 years on a police department, and the past one-point-five as a writer (not yet author, more on … Continue reading Arrogance and Apprehension