Tuesday, March 7, 2023

American Calculations

 (As the internet slows down, I have to keep re-typing these things, as it updates and wipes everything out) I woke up around 4, had some tea and aspirin and a couple of pats of butter, and packed one more small thing to round the package count up to 15. 

I got out of here at 5:30 and was at the post office at 6. It was cold, real hat and gloves and bundle up weather. But at least dry. 

The drop-offs went fine and I picked up a small head of lettuce and a bundle of radishes from the dumpster behind H Mart. I also tried the chicken "cracklings" at the chicken place and they're not what I'd call cracklings, but more meaty and fried so hot they were dry. Interesting, and very good. 

I picked up some boxes and stuff on the way back and found a double-size propane tank, I think the type lunch trucks use, around the other side of this place. It appears to be full. I called Ken and asked if he wanted it and he does, so I emptied the bike trailer and went back around for it. Oops! It probably weighs 80 lbs. So I put the bike away and went around with the hand truck and got it. I don't know what propane costs these days but 10 years ago it was $20 or $30 to full a tank half this size. 

I got in and all buttoned up for the night. A big story on the radio is that of 4 Americans who went down to Mexico to buy medicines. They got kidnapped, and after a lot of fol-de-rol, two are alive although one of the survivors had their legs shot a few times, and two are dead. 

It's a simple American calculation. You don't buy your medicine because you can't afford it, so you die. Or, you pay for your medicine, but don't pay your rent or mortgage, become homeless, and die. Or you go to Mexico and mix it up with the cartels just by being there, and you have a 50% chance. 

They're also running a series of interviews with Jimmy Carter, who's in hospice now. Not present-day ones as he's not well enough, but ones from the past. This is why I keep NPR on all the time I'm awake. They play everything 3X in a 24-hour period, and if I get 33% of it each time, then in the end I get 99% of what they play. Jimmy Carter was the only really altruistic president we had after FDR, with in all fairness a nod to JFK who was a good guy also. 

But none were as pure as Jimmy Carter. I remember reading a book about his upbringing and his family paid another family to room and board him while he went to school and the family who they paid to do so fed him on 'possum. 'Possum is not very good meat at all, and there was a bit of a flap about this. But the reason he was roomed and boarded was so he'd not have to walk some huge distance every day to go to school - staying with this other family cut the distance down a lot although he still had to walk of course. 

When you grow up that poor, you know you can always get by. And he was one of the 0.0001% or so of Christians who are real Christians. His whole reason for being was altruism. And a good part of the nation hated him for it. 


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