I’m sitting in my stuffed rocking chair, knowing that I am becoming more and more like my grandfather. He had a reclining chair and would sit in it each morning and read the newspapers. First he would read the Deseret and then the Salt Lake Tribune. If he hadn’t been Mormon, I would imagine him with a pipe clenched in his teeth.
No, he didn’t smoke, but he used to say that you need to read both sides to get the full news. I didn’t understand then that he meant that you had to make your own decisions and not be led astray by one ideology. However, he would watch Walter Kronkite, the most trusted man in America, every night at news hour.
I quit watching the news and politics when I left the Navy. Yes, my grandfather was in the Navy during WWII. He was operated and maintained some of the first radar equipment on ships. I was an electronics tech in the Navy and maintained mainstream computers. He spent most of his time on ships, while I was strictly ground Navy.
CNN must have had a contract with DOD or the military because it was on 24 hours 7 days a week. I grew tired of that style of reporting. It was like someone hit a nail in my head over and over. There wasn’t enough news to fill a 24 hour cycle and they didn’t have the opinion shows yet so everything recycled. I could tell you what was on the news after cutting it out for two weeks.
There would be a war somewhere, a shooting somewhere, and possibly a natural disaster. At least then they reported on news. Now if you go to the same news reports, they have to have an opinion on everything. It must be slanted in “our” direction. You must believe “our” narrative.
In the last few years the news jounalists should have received nobel prizes in fiction because there has been a lot of fiction thrown around the last few years. I don’t equate fiction with lies by the way. There is a lot of truth in fiction even though it is a make believe story. But when make-believe shows up in the news, I draw the line.
It’s amusing that I am ranting about the news. What I really wanted to talk about was the events that have affected me in the last two weeks. So let’s
get started and I promise you that it is not fiction or even made-up.
On September 9, 2022 my neighbor shot the neighbor next to him through the wall. She died. The police said it was an accidental shooting and my neighbor was released. He was evicted from the building.
Those are the facts. Only the facts.
Since I was the other next-door neighbor, I have been cornered by several seniors who told me story after story about 1) the two neighbors had a fight, 2) the shooter shot five times into the wall, and 3) it was scary that they let a murderer live here.
I was very fortunate that the gun wasn’t directed towards my apartment. I was even luckier that my dog was okay. I may have heard the shot as I was leaving to go to a doctor’s appointment. It sounded like something dropped on the floor and I didn’t recognize it as a shot. Plus I was gone when the police showed up and the shouting. By the time I got home, it was all over.
What has bothered me the most is that the shooter has always been one of those guys who helps his neighbors like take people to the hospital or the airport. He used to put together furniture for some of the older people before he got ill.
He may have been somewhat odd, but in my experience he didn’t get angry at all. Also one of the women who complained about a “murderer” in the building had asked him to install her TV.
The shooting was unfortunate. If it was really in anger, I’m sure we will find out. Still the gossip gets worse every time someone tells the story.
Innocent until proven guilty.
Or maybe we aren’t living in that world anymore.
What has followed on the heels of this was Sept. 19th. I lost my late hubby eight years ago and then the next day I was given Foxy.
My blood pressure has been higher than normal. It’s like I’m being shown that my state of mind does affect my body.
And yes, I need to get my zen back.