Monday This and That

Be the change you want to see in the world.

Mahatma Gandhi

Is it Monday already?  My goodness, where has the weekend gone?  Saturday I went to the old neighborhood to deposit some old checks.  Hightailed it out of there quick as I could before I ran into anyone from my old house.  But, I guess I needn't worry.  For sure they were up partying all night and were probably still sleeping off their hangovers.  I wish there was a bank closer to my new home, but I hadn't given things much thought before I opened an account in a bank with few branches throughout the city.  

For sure, I can always close it out and change banks, but it is such a hassle. Since it is an estate account for residual checks for my ex-husbands acting jobs, I need a letter from the Screen Actors Guild, our marriage certificate, his death certificate, social security card, birth certificate...and on and on it goes.  Just more trouble than it is worth.  Besides, if I close out the account, the cash cannot be placed in the new account.  In this type of account, I can only deposit residual checks, no cash or checks from other places.

Afterwards, I  headed out to my favorite discount store. Now, mind you, I don't go shopping often, and it seems just about every time I do go, there is some sort of street fair going on, meaning there will be a long walk to catch the bus to go home. The bus driver assured me that the buses would be running straight through until 11 am so I figured I  had some time. I bought a couple of pair of much needed slippers, to crinkly dresses to wear about the house, two pairs of loafers, two tops for fall, and a few beaded necklaces. Didn't even spend a hundred dollars.  

When I came out of the store, it turned out I'd taken longer in the store than I had planned on.  The fair hadn't yet begun, but the buses were no longer running through, so there I was.  The only way out was to walk...and walk...and walk.  My back was aching and the sun beating down wherever you went.  The humidity was high, and here I am trying to juggle a heavy bag in one hand and my cane in the other.  Not a pretty picture...and the bus, when I finally reached the spot where I could get picked up, never felt so good.

I couldn't help but spend some time pondering where our world is headed. When I woke up Friday morning, I turned the news on, not to hear the news, but I have a thing for the weather and to be honest, the Fox Five morning weatherman is quite a hunk.  Yes, even at my age we look.  Unfortunately though, before the weather came on, the newscasters reported that a 13 year old boy had been shot and killed last night. Now, don't get me wrong.  My heart goes out to the parents.  I know it must be devastating to lose a child, but pray tell why was a child that age  hanging out on the streets, in one of the worst neighborhoods in Brooklyn, at 12:45 am?

This shooting/murder follows on the heels of the death of a four year old boy in the Bronx who was in the line of fire when shooting erupted at a basketball game near where he had been playing. An just prior to that, a 14 year old honor student was shot to death while playing tennis in the park.  And then, as I am seated at work on Friday morning, I hear helicopters flying overhead and learned that someone began shooting in front of the Empire State Building which is only a few blocks from my office. My first reaction was that perhaps it was one of our clients.  Turned out that it had been someone who snapped and went to kill his boss who had fired him a year ago.

Shootings and killings have become almost an every day occurrence that many people don't even pay attention to it,  and the shock value of it has gone. There is something wrong with our society and we have to figure out how to fix it. How we can do this, I don't know.  I wonder if anyone has an answer.  I know here in the city every so often they offer cash for guns, no questions asked, and many guns are turned in, but what is turned in doesn't even make a dent in the amount of guns that are out there.  Making guns illegal won't help.  Most of the guns being used in these shooting are already illegal.  

And, my gosh, these killers are so young. Gangs always fought over turf, but I grew up in the era of "West Side Story" where gangs fought each other, and the innocents were kept out of it.  Today's society is awash with a generation of young sociopaths who have no regard for the sanctity of human life.  It's frightening to think about what the future will bring if we cannot find a way out of this mess, but before we can find the answer, we have to find out the why's...and there are many.

To begin with, our economy is a mess. In order to survive, parents are forced to work two jobs, if they are lucky enough to find them.  More children are left without parental guidance of any kind.  Adults in my time were aghast that Elvis Presley swiveled his hips. Too sexual.  Today's music, if you can call it that, doesn't sell unless it includes sex, violence, guns, and abuse of women.  There is violence on television and in the video games our children play.  Violence fills the morning newspaper.  Look for a story of something warm and family-oriented.  And, please, don't even get me started on today's pop idols. They turn my stomach every time I see one of them prancing into the courthouse.

Yes, as the great Bob Dylan sang so many years ago, "The Times They Are a-Changin".  And where all these changes lead us, no one knows.  We can only hope that one day humanity wakes up...and it is not too late.  Let's pray that one day there will be a better world.

Come gather 'round people

Wherever you roam

And admit that the waters

Around you have grown

And accept it that soon

You'll be drenched to the bone

If your time to you

Is worth savin'

Then you better start swimmin'

Or you'll sink like a stone

For the times they are a-changin'.

Come writers and critics

Who prophesize with your pen

And keep your eyes wide

The chance won't come again

And don't speak too soon

For the wheel's still in spin

And there's no tellin' who

That it's namin'

For the loser now

Will be later to win

For the times they are a-changin'.

Come senators, congressmen

Please heed the call

Don't stand in the doorway

Don't block up the hall

For he that gets hurt

Will be he who has stalled

There's a battle outside

And it is ragin'

It'll soon shake your windows

And rattle your walls

For the times they are a-changin'.

Come mothers and fathers

Throughout the land

And don't criticize

What you can't understand

Your sons and your daughters

Are beyond your command

Your old road is

Rapidly agin'

Please get out of the new one

If you can't lend your hand

For the times they are a-changin'.

The line it is drawn

The curse it is cast

The slow one now

Will later be fast

As the present now

Will later be past

The order is

Rapidly fadin'

And the first one now

Will later be last

For the times they are a-changin'. 

Bob Dylan