was it a year?

There has been another year, and two deaths are still with me.

My mother passed away June 14, 2019, and my Lynn of 32 years passed away July 13, 2019. The grief is ongoing.
Even before those two deaths were others: an aunt and an uncle, one per year, almost exactly a year apart.
The aunt was in 2017, the uncle in 2018. 
I guess, as you get older and see the succession of deaths, you start to see patterns of occurrence and coincidence of things and dates.
How many passed in July, how many in June, in August, and so forth.
My dad's father passed February 28-March 2, 1976 
My mom's mother passed July 4, 1985
My mom's father passed March 10, 1988
My brother Tim passed June 1995
Lynn's father, Dr. Maurice Friedman in March, 1996
My grandmother, dad's mother passed July, 1998
My dad passed September 2, 1998

In 2003, my uncle (by marriage)f Sam, my aunt Carol's husband, passed
In 2010 were several deaths:
Suzy, my oldest sister, in February
My aunt Carol, my dad's sister, in March
My aunt Gwen, mother of my cousins Martha and Linda, and wife of my uncle Buck, in June
My uncle Henchie, my uncle Buck's older brother, in August. 

My next door neighbor, Elizabeth (I won't give further details) died Dec. 28, 2010.  
In March 2012, Lynn's mother, Sylvia Friedman died
2013 

2014 

June 15, 2015 an old friend, Frank Young passed, although I didn't know for some weeks. 
  





 

Self-defeated police

Racism is probably best described as self-defeat, anyway.
How do we learn to get along? Can we all just get along?
I remember the question, and I remember that heartache.
Now, in 2020, we have the fires of hatred, both in some human hearts, and in the streets of Minneapolis.
This is going to be a night that we must remember-- not in joy, but in despair.
Small business gets caught in the crossfire, every time.
But, then, common sense got caught in the cross-fire, when police officers, who
evidently were never properly trained and seldom disciplined, decided to kill a man
who was clearly cooperating, right on camera.
This kind of thing has happened repeatedly in recent years.
Now law and order seem destroyed, temporarily, due to the abdication of responsibility by
the police department there.
That abdication started when the police stopped being reasonable with a man who was helpless.
They have killed him, but now his sympathizers, in righteous or self-righteous anger, are
destroying a city.
I am, this night, watching those fires raging in Minneapolis.
It is hard to realize: the police have done all the wrong things, first punishing and killing
the innocent, even after their full cooperation; then, not taking action against those actually guilty of civil disruption.