Raging For the Machine in the Upsidedown

My thoughts on the Rittenhouse trial and how there are some things I just cannot abide

I don’t even know what to say any more. Half of the time I am struck dumb by the day’s news, unable to form a coherent thought that would suffice as an anecdote to whatever horror story plops itself atop the news pile. This is due to the fact that things are so…insane. It’s like when an explosion goes off and you’re close by, not close enough to be injured, but close enough to feel the blast and you are assaulted by the wave of energy that renders your ability to hear anything null. You stop dead in your tracts, disoriented, and notice the high pitch ringing in your ears as you struggle to gather your thoughts until the sound dissipates.

But sometimes, I pick myself up from that blast and soldier on, and gather enough sense to form an opinion on something. The only problem is, these days, sharing an opinion is akin to pulling the pin on an ancient grenade. Will it go off? Will it explode? Will it be a dud? Will the shrapnel rip me to shreds or will it obliterate someone innocent in the blast? You never know. That’s the risk these days.

Many, many times now, when a so-called controversial topic comes along, I write my thoughts about it in my head. Then, as the nuclear fallout starts to burn people’s skin off, I start to imagine the responses to these thoughts. This is a mistake, but all writers do it. What will they think if I share my opinion on this…?

And so, you learn to hesitate. You get gun shy. You start keeping those opinions and thoughts bottled up, meanwhile, the world continues to burn.

It eats at me for days until I finally relent. That’s what this is here.

I try to write my thoughts here and share my opinion on things, not because I think it makes a difference and not to hit anyone with any kind of shrapnel, but because I know for a fact that there are people out there afraid to share an opinion on things like this due to the fear of a witch hunt, should that opinion be deemed "wrong think.”

I write for myself but I also write for those of you out there who are not heard. If you go back long enough in my writing, you will see that I used to use the tagline ‘voice of the voiceless’ many years ago. I still feel that way. All of my books are like this. I write the dissenting opinion most of the time, the only difference these days is that everything has flipped upside down.

So, because this is one of the things for me that is like having a tiny rock in your shoe, let me address the Kyle Rittenhouse trial and toss a grenade your way. I need to get this off of my chest. Read on at your risk.