Bleak Moment: Still At Large

I

t’s Independence day in Myanmar, as well as the Day of the Fallen against the Colonial Repression in Angola, the Day of the Martyrs in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, World Braille Day, Ogoni Day, and of course the Eleventh Day of Χmas. Anti-American nuts are flipping out because one representative took her oath of office on a copy of the Quran, while another used the Constitution. (They should have used the old 1611 Bible translation, blessed by Saint James himself, I suppose. At least they took the oath of office, unlike those freshmen Republicans a few years back who skipped out on the whole business to get drunk.) Some of the rest of us are looking in awe at the pictures coming in now from places as close as the far side of the moon and as far as Ultima Thule. The killers of Jazmine Barnes (shot for no reason while riding in the back seat of her mother’s car) and Fallon Smart (killed by a hit-and-run driver whom the Saudi Arabian authorities helped escape from custody in Oregon) are still at large. Criminal polluters are being given a free hand to poison our air and water by the current corrupt administration in Washington. And in local news—I can’t get back to sleep after my dog woke me up to go for a walk.