Society

by Reid Fitzsimons

In regards to violence

In April 2024 eleven people were shot, one fatally, at a family celebration Chicago; a 39-year-old suspect- Octaviano Romero- was arrested. The mayor stated, “Today, we mourn the loss of an 8-year-old girl whose life was tragically taken from her by gang violence. This heinous and cowardly act of wanton violence that leaves our city mourning children is beyond reprehensible and has no place in our communities.

In Dec. 2024 eight people were shot, three of them fatally, at a “social gathering” in Chicago; all of them Hispanic. As of May 2025 two suspects were in custody, both young males from Venezuela, and both in the US either illegally or as “asylum seekers,” depending on one’s point of view. At the time of the shooting the activist mayor of Chicago, who combines the qualities of both haplessness and fecklessness, stated, "On behalf of the entire city, I want to extend my condolences to everyone impacted by the mass shooting that took place in Gage Park. We as a city are praying and grieving for all the victims, survivors, and their families. There is no place in our city for senseless acts of violence.”

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by Reid Fitzsimons

My first semester of college: Jan. 1977, Univ. of Wyoming, English 101, required reading included The Brothers Karamazov by Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821-1881). I have to confess my reading practices were limited to newspapers, Reader’s Digest, and the bare minimum for school, and a 100 year-old, 800 page novel was just too much. In my juvenile mind refusing to read it was an act of resistance and the subsequent F was somehow noble, but I knew I was really just lazy. My reading habits changed significantly over the following decades, so I can say, for example, if you feel you need to read War and Peace by fellow Russian author Tolstoy, it’s really awful- a feudal soap opera, with lame dialogue such as Princess whatever saying “He (Prince something or another) loves me, he REALLY LOVES ME!” Admittedly I don’t think of Dostoevsky often but ran across his name recently in a modern cultural/political context (next paragraph) and this prompted me to begin his other great work, Crime and Punishment; so far it’s not too bad.

Dostoevsky experienced a mock execution when he was 27, then was banished to Siberia for 10 years

A few weeks ago I noticed a posting from a “Facebook friend” of a quote attributed to Dostoevsky: “The more intelligent the man the more he begins to notice suffering.” If you think about this, there is more than subtle arrogance associated with the implied sentiment. I tried to “fact check” it and reviewed dozens of quotes by Dostoevsky and could not find it, so maybe yes, maybe no (an 18th century German philosopher- Arthur Schopenhauer- seems more likely). Nevertheless, invoking a quote, correct or not, by Dostoevsky hints at a high degree of education and sophistication, which perhaps is the goal.

by Reid Fitzsimons

June is an enchanting month, with the longest day of the year on the summer solstice and memories of the beginning of school summer vacation that still seem fresh over 50 years later. Unfortunately, for the past 20 years or so, June has been tainted with the concurrence of “pride month” and the self-involved in-your-face activism associated with it. Somehow pride is demonstrated by marching down streets wearing skimpy leather bondage apparel, overweight white guys riding bicycles naked in front of children, and revelers chanting “We’re here, we’re queer, get used to it,” or the more recent incarnation of “We’re here, we’re queer, and we’re coming for your children.”

I find myself nostalgic for the long-gone time when the homosexual community simply wanted to be left alone, to live their lives without being hassled. They had the moral high ground and it was easy for any decent and compassionate person to stand up with them and for them. Regrettably, mutual respect and tolerance morphed into acceptance, then “embracing” and celebration, and finally into a cultural morass of almost indecipherable letters and symbols, LGBTQQIAP+ or perhaps 2SLGBTQQIPAA. Any pretext of civility disappeared, to be replaced by a demand for absolute obedience and submission to the powers behind the bizarre alphanumeric totems: the only option permitted became to smile and nod one’s head in agreement..or else.

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by Reid Fitzsimons

Recently I've been seeing a TV ad that involves a goodly number of overweight and black people, all women, dancing about to rap music while joyfully applying a 72-hour full body deodorant (“pits, package, feet, and beyond!”); apparently overweight and black ladies and females in general are highly susceptible to malodor, along with commercial exploitation. I fear I am far removed from what our society has become. Does a 72 hour deodorant especially targeted for overweight women, black women, and women overall reflect a new cultural paradigm, or are the marketing people trying to create one? Is it simply more convenient to smear and spray redolent chemicals on our bodies than go through the hassle of bathing?

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By Reid Fitzsimons. Note: The weekend of April 5th and 6th brought widespread and at times large protests under the banner of “Hands Off!” These were mostly directed at Donald Trump and Elon Musk, expressing opposition to reducing or eliminating a large variety of government expenditures. Though I could find no demographic data regarding the protesters, a review of the many photos available on the internet suggests a very significant portion we’re socioeconomically advantaged white people. In fact, to find a non-white person is almost a Where’s Waldo exercise: there doesn't even seem to be many token non-white people, as is evident in the photos that accompany this article.

Around 20 years ago, as my spouse and I were laying the foundation for our rural children's charity project in Honduras (which opened in May, 2007), we did a few R&R overnights on Utila Island. As we were strolling along the water’s edge we came across a rustic touristy beach bar that had a sign stating something like, “Funded by a grant from USAID.” I wondered aloud why in the world USAID would be involved with a tourist bar on a Caribbean island, but put the memory aside. It recently emerged, however, with the Trump administration shutting down USAID because of spending tax dollars on questionable, and even pernicious, things.

by Reid Fitzsimons

The preacher opens his mouth and out comes fury, like always. He doesn’t have to be a Christian preacher- other religions could do the same- but his sermon is filled with venom and righteousness. He talks about sinners (or perhaps infidels), and how they will be thrown into the eternal hellfire of damnation. God is angry, and He judges severely. Somehow the actual message of Jesus Christ isn’t mentioned because it’s not really important. What is important is manipulating and controlling susceptible people, those with whom the message of fire and brimstone resonates because they are convinced they are the chosen, the righteous ones, and that they are better than everyone else.

The enraged and violent approach to religion has waxed and waned throughout history, sometimes marginalized, but at other times the predominate cultural and political force. Insane Christianity had its moments and was the source of massive misery, wars, and genocide, but thankfully this approach involving righteous atrocities has pretty well faded away over the centuries, largely because it never was based on Jesus to begin with. And yes, the statement, “Kill them all and let God sort it out,” is historically accurate. Not to malign Islam, but unfortunately too many people who control things in Muslim areas pervert Islam for their own greed and power in modern times: kind of where Christianity was 500 years ago.

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by Reid Fitzsimons (this is an article about elitism, with photos of people deemed to be elite, past and present)

Most people want to feel they belong to something, almost an innate human characteristic. Historically people belonged to, and had allegiance to, family-clan-tribe. As great migrations and the such led to interactions of different people and cultures (and assimilation, forced assimilation, and destruction of cultures and people), blood relationship ties to some extent gave way to other commonalities, geographic being an important one, and things such as kingdoms and countries evolved. There were also smaller associations of people with shared interests, guilds being among them. Of course, any discussion of belonging to a group has to include religions. It would be wonderful to say all these relationships, loyalties, shared beliefs, senses of belonging, etc led to a world of perfect harmony, as when in the early 1970s Coca-Cola exploited a gentle but overall silly song in a cynical ad campaign. Yet there would be no perfect harmony for humans,rather endless raping and oppression and pillaging and slaughter and lots of other atrocities. To be fair there have been plenty of bright and hopeful moments in human history; sometimes it almost seems to cycle.

Associations in today’s world actually still include those from long ago,for example countries in Africa are largely artificial remnants of European colonialism, and tribal affiliations remain strong and important. Likewise class structures, especially along economic lines, continue omnipresent. A sense of belonging can range from benign to violent, including everything from being a member of a bowling league to a member of an urban gang. There are people who feel they belong especially to a small community (“hometown pride”), a country (patriotism), and a more supercilious claim of belonging to the world (a “global citizen”). Some of these belongings- memberships- are more imagined than real, which leads to a group in which lots and lots of people believe they belong, or at least yearn to: the elite.

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by Reid Fitzsimons

I heard from a Federal Government employee, no fan of Trump, who quoted from Trump's nominee for Director of the OMB (Office of Management and Budget) and took issue with what he (the nominee) said- “We want the bureaucrats to be traumatically affected, When they wake up in the morning, we want them to not want to go to work because they are increasingly viewed as the villains. " That's a pretty harsh statement and the question is, "Are bureaucrats and civil service employees the same thing?" Being a retired civil service employee, I think- and hope- the answer is no. Below is my response to his concern.

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by Reid Fitzsimons

Picture yourself at a generic social gathering where someone you just met blurts out, “Don’t you thank God everyday for sacrificing His Son to pay for our sins!” If you are a fellow believer you might respond with “Praise the Lord,” or, if you are an anti-Christian progressive activist type who craves being offended, you might say, “Don’t force your beliefs and your fascist pretend god on me!” Or, if you are a reasonably mature and sensitive person, you might think “That’s kind of an inappropriate thing to say to someone you don’t know” and try to politely redirect the conversation.

In terms of the person making the statement, what are their motivations? It’s certainly possible they assume everyone believes as they do, which is kind of arrogant. Maybe it's a kind of religious virtue signaling. More likely, it’s simply something very important to them to and they just can’t filter their words from their thoughts. It’s extremely doubtful that a non-believer would have an epiphany and cry out “Save me Jesus!” What’s more likely is their audience would think, “That really doesn’t do much to advance their cause.”

by Reid Fitzsimons (note this is a very long article of approx 5,300 words, the first 3,500 being mine and the remainder those of a then pro-life Jesse Jackson from 1977)

Around 45 years-ago I was visiting in-laws deep in Mississippi, this being in the waning days of what we call “Jim Crow.” The in-laws were relatively wealthy, as defined by being two million in debt due to ill-conceived business ventures. They had employees, many of them black, and I befriended a young black man about my age. We had been given an excess amount of pecans and I offered him a bag to take back to his family, which he appreciated. As he was walking away, one of the in-laws, a generation older than me, exclaimed “He’s stealing the pecans!” Knowing this could have an unfortunate outcome, I quickly explained I had given him the bag. The response, in a genteel Southern accent (me being a Yankee) was, “We don’t do that kind of thing down here.”

The political structure of Jim Crow was pretty typical of oppressive societies throughout history, meaning the oppressors needed the oppressed to maintain power. In Jim Crow, there was dangled before the white masses the perpetual threat of “nigras not knowing their place and being uppity.” This had broad and powerful appeal to many of the white masses, who from childhood had been taught that blacks were, simply, inferior. They- blacks- could be dutiful and affectionate pets and treated accordingly, but there was always the fear they would turn on their masters, and the whites holding the power knew how to exploit this fear: one can picture the ugly man, George Wallace, with his ugly promise of “...segregation forever!”