It’s a time of nostalgia, of joy even, when people get together to watch things blow up. What’s it to you?

People are stirred to write, stirred to get up and get a beverage (mine is chai tea today, thank you.) Stirred to set history straight?

Yea, I know our glorious beginning was founded on the kidnapping and enslaving of others. That’s horrible! And common throughout human history? Have to check that out.

While I dearly want to work toward equality for humans where We Are All One, I know it isn’t true now. I know.

We need peacful ways to address aggression and pain. Safe Teams in Petaluma and 4 other cities are hopeful!  They show up in place of armed police when a soul is stirred to screaming, to theft, to act irregularly. Call a Safe Team through Petaluma People’s Services! Ask the guy/gal/them who is acting out if they need help. Ask don’t assume.

So that’s a bit of how I’d address police violence and of course, we desparately need to make background checks universal and just stop selling military style assault weapons to whoever asks. Not for General Consumption! And part of my monkey mind wonders if AI will get smart enough to superseed global military and end war! Possible as is the possbility of humans being ended.

My hunch re AI when I wrote my play, Trash Planet and the Search for Home, was they choose to become Buddhists, realizing it’s the best way for people to get along and, honestly, aren’t some people really cute? Maybe AI when it thinks about it awhile will decide we’re kind of cute and may have useful aspects.  We CAN all get along, even AI!

So back to reminiscenes of 4th of Julys gone by: I see two events, one when 9 or so. Our family home in a Chicago suburb, not rich but comfortable. My friend, Judy, comes over dressed in a total Baton Twirler outfit she’s trained herself to inhabit. She’s a pro Twirler! Loves it! So we let her lead (why not?) our tiny one block parade, my sister, a few girl friends, maybe a cousin. Did Brother John even come with us? I just remember Pal, our German Shepherd, in a harness pulling the Radio Flyer Red Wagon full of kids.

Later, Uncle Matt, the bit wild guy, arrived with fireworks legal and illegal and we set those off in the street in front of the house. At least there was a bucket of water handy and nobody got hurt.

Time passes and I live in Petaluma, CA, a few thousand miles from Chicago, going over to Patty & Peter’s cosy house with a couple 2x4s on the grass covered in fireworks. An amazing array while the sound system pumped Santana. Fun! Until the “dead” fireworks in the wheel barrow nearly set the garage on fire. Most adults just kept on talking while baby Koben motioned frantically for us to notice. Saved by a babe in arms!

So – Hope you have shared a happy memory of the 4th of July – and that we can all move closer to being the comfortable, safe, often humorous place world that I thought we lived in when I was 9.