Summary

A Southern Grandma expresses her frustration with the current state of affairs, including political polarization, civil unrest, COVID-19 misinformation, and societal division.

Abstract

In a candid and impassioned rant, the author, a self-described hot-headed Southern Grandma, shares her exasperation with the relentless media coverage of contentious issues such as politics, riots, and the handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. She criticizes the lack of constructive dialogue and the polarizing effects of media opinion-mongering. The author emphasizes the need for personal responsibility, logical problem-solving, and community support, while also highlighting the importance of individual action in the face of societal challenges. She advocates for the use of one's own brain to make decisions rather than being force-fed opinions, and she calls for a collective reset to find peace amidst the chaos.

Opinions

The author feels that politicians are largely ineffective, comparing them to lazy dogs more interested in their own agendas than serving the public.
She condemns the destructive nature of riots, questioning their effectiveness in bringing about positive change and asserting her right to protect her property.
The topic of defunding the police is one she chooses to avoid, likely due to her personal connection to law enforcement.
She acknowledges the severity of COVID-19, distinguishing it from the flu and emphasizing the human impact of each life lost, while also criticizing the handling of information by those in power.
The author supports the use of masks if it could potentially save lives, urging consideration for the well-being of loved ones.
She laments the absence of positive news stories that highlight community support and the sacrifices of essential workers during the pandemic.
The author calls for a pause to reflect and reset societal attitudes, seeking a return to a more peaceful and neighborly existence.
She concludes with a reminder to maintain personal hygiene, specifically washing hands, as a simple yet effective action during the pandemic.

World Gone Wild

A possibly unpopular rant concerning current events from a sleepless, Southern Grandma

Well, butter my biscuits and bless your little hearts.

My head hurts from all the gum-flapping about riots, and viruses, and politicians, and whether or not you should cover your face with a mask. I swear at the rate it’s going, I think the dang thing might explode.

I read something today that basically said if you speak up, you’re wrong. I f you don’t speak up, you’re wrong. If you ask questions, you don’t and can’t possibly ever understand. If you don’t ask questions, you don’t care.

Know what I hear? Damned if you do, and damned if you don’t. Well, if I’m going to be damned anyway at least let me be damned for my own words.

This tiny, blue-green rock we cling to in the middle of this vast universe has finally spun right off its axis because the whole world has gone stark, raving mad.

Before I go any further, I’m gonna drop in a little warning.

I’m a hot-headed, five-foot nothing, formerly red-headed firecracker, and with the passing of June, I’m closer to sixty than I am to fifty. I’ve waited my whole life to be old enough to say what I think without worrying if I’m going to hurt someone’s feelings. I figure I’ve earned the right to voice my piece. If you’re a bit thin-skinned, you might want to find something else to read. My filter is broken.

Now, the more vexed I am about something, the thicker my Texas becomes. So batten down the hatches and hold on. Hurricane Glendine is about to make landfall. Y’all have been warned.

Personally, I am sick and tired of every single time I turn on the boob tube, one of the talking heads is yammering on and on about one of the above-mentioned subjects.

Do we need to hear about these things? Absolutely! Do we need to know what’s going on in this crazy world around us? You betcha’.

Do we need to hear about it every five seconds, twenty-four hours, seven days a week with the opinions of the yapping jackwagons coloring the facts? Not hardly. For fuck’s sake, let our brains breathe. For that matter, let us use our brains to make our own decisions. Don’t force feed us what you believe we should think.

As long as I can’t sleep (it’s 3:23 a.m. as I write this) and I’m standing up here on this soapbox, let me share my two cents on each of these subjects and then I’ll step down and be done… maybe.

Politicians: now, I can’t claim to know a bunch of politicians up close and personal-like, but from what I can see seems to me most of them are like a bunch of lazy, old hog dogs. All they want to do is feed their faces, poop, sleep in the shade, and yap and yowl and growl any time anyone gets close to them. The only exception is when they are on the hunt. Then they gang up on their prey and rip and tear it to pieces until their master comes along and puts the poor victim out of its misery. I sure don’t see many of them on either side of that red-blue line earning their keep. I do find myself wondering what kind of sneaky stuff they are trying to distract us from by keeping us all stirred up and at each others’ throats.

Moseying on along to these riots: do we have problems in the good ole U.S. of A? Damn straight, we do. Big problems that have been around for generation upon generation. Do we need to fix these problems? HELL YES!

But can anyone explain to me how running around like wild hooligans, all willy-nilly, leaving a path of death and destruction is going to benefit anyone in the long run? Is it really helping? Doing anything — anything at all — to make a positive change? Damned if our great-grandparents aren’t rolling over in their graves wondering why our grandparents and parents didn’t take a switch to our backsides and teach us manners… or how to solve problems logically.

Another warning here: if you do feel the undeniable need to riot and destroy things, I strongly recommend you stay away from my place. Unless you want to end up in a world of hurt. If you make it through the cactus spines and mesquite thorns, the rattlesnakes, coyotes, and bobcats into my front yard, you’ll have to face my Catahoula, my German Shepherd, and my Great-Dane. Of course, each of these pales in comparison to my little Havanese-Toy Australian shepherd mix. He may only weigh a quarter what the others do, but he makes up for it in protectiveness. I’ve worked hard for everything I have. Pulled myself up by my bootstraps from below the poverty level to where I am now. I will protect it. Like I said before, you have been warned (and I am armed and well-trained in the usage of said firearms. Yes, I said firearms — plural.)

Defund the police: what does that even mean? Married to a law enforcement officer. Yeah, can’t even get started on this subject. I would wind up in way too much trouble. Moving right along…

COVID-19 or Coronavirus or whatever you want to call it: This is NOT the flu. If it was, they’d call it the flu — maybe the Coflu or Corona flu or hell maybe the bottle flu (oh, wait a minute, that’s another subject all together.) Anyway, yes, it’s a virus. Do most people recover? Seems like it so far. Do some people die? Yes, they do. What’s that? Not very many, you say. What if one of that ‘not very many’ was your grandparent, or parent, or child? Would it matter more then? Because they are someone’s.

Did the powers-that-be (again red, blue, purple, green, I really don’t give a rat’s ass what color they profess to be) screw up handling how accurate information was relayed to the public? You bet your ass they did, but only because certain sectors of the population (hello, media) pushed and pushed and pushed for information that simply wasn’t available. Why wasn’t it available? I don’t know. Ask the scientists. The coronavirus, maybe not this strain, but some form of the coronavirus has been around a while. Long enough for certain germ-killing cleaning products to have printed on their cans “kills the coronavirus” at least three years ago.

Masks: Let’s talk about masks. Would it really kill you to wear one? What if wearing one saved the life of someone you loved? Enough said?

Is there nothing happy happening in the world today? Where did all the neighbors helping neighbors stories go? The praise for the first responders? The truck drivers? The nurses, doctors, x-ray techs, and other medical personnel? Have we forgotten about them? The sacrifices they are making for us?

My mom tells me we’re living through the sixties all over again. What’s next? Another Vietnam?

Folks, we need to check ourselves. Step back and hit the reset button.

If you stuck with me this far, thank you for listening. I am tired… the kind of tired it takes peace to fix. I’m stepping down off my soapbox, turning off, stepping away, and going fishing. I hope you find your peace.

PS: Go wash your hands, please.