for my brother, part 1
One of the wonders of genetics is that two parents can provide an abundance in variety of code to make curiously diverse offspring develop under similar environmental conditions. My brother and I have red hair in common and also a propensity to get involved in spirited discussions (or arguments, depending on your point of view) in areas where we hold strong opinions. But beyond that, we seem to have very little in common. In fact, I would struggle to find any subjects where we hold even similar opinions.
He recently asked me if I was planning on writing a post about Zimmerman, as he was outraged by the coverage the case received in his resident nation of Denmark, which he claimed consistently lacked context, only presenting the notion that an innocent black kid had been shot dead. So, I thought it would be nice to present some of the context.
- Martin was a 17 year old school boy walking back from the shops (with some sweets and an iced tea) to his father’s house within a gated community.
- Zimmerman was head of the neighbourhood watch scheme, and was looking out for criminals. He decided by looking at Martin that he was probably a criminal.
- Zimmerman contacted the police and was instructed not to follow Martin, they were sending a patrol. He went against police advice, continued to follow Martin, carrying a concealed firearm. You can listen to his call here.
- Neighbours heard screaming that stopped when the firearm went off, but, as it was in the dark, there are confused eye-witness accounts, and the description of what happened rests on Zimmerman’s version of events.
- Zimmerman didn’t testify at the trial. You can listen to his statement to the police after the shooting here. He claimed that he fired the shot after Martin jumped out from bushes on him, punched him to the ground, threatened to kill him, was smashing his head off the pavement and seemed to be going for his gun.
- There is contradictory medical testimony – one expert claiming there was evidence of severe force used in at least six blows to Zimmerman’s head, and one claiming that the injuries were minor and likely to be from one blow.
- You can see Zimmerman arriving at the police station following the shooting here – there appears to be no sign of having been in any kind of struggle. A photo was later released showing quite shocking damage to his nose – you can read an analysis of the photo on this post.
- Zimmerman has a history of violence and aggression – against his ex-girlfriend and the police (here), in the workplace (here), and in his neighbourhood (here). Martin’s history is difficult to track down, as it was ruled not admissible in court.
Well, I don’t know about you, but for me this story is about an innocent black kid getting shot dead. The context of Martin being assumed to be a criminal only because of the colour of his skin, of Zimmerman stalking him through the neighbourhood against police advice, of Zimmerman having a history of violence and aggression, and of untrained citizens fancying themselves as active crime-stoppers AND being allowed to carry concealed firearms while doing so, just makes the whole story more horrifying. I’d like to dedicate this post to my brother and thank him for helping me seek out the context of this shocking case.
Through all this precious little attention was paid to the patently insane “stand your ground” laws that riddle US. I stayed in Colorado Springs with a man who (with his wife) slept with loaded pistols under their pillows. The “Make My Day” law had just passed and on the way from the airport he happily told my friend and I that he could now shoot anyone on his lawn and simply have to call the police to come and clean the mess up. Madness.
Violet, on another matter… what is that bibly verse you’ve used in the past about abortion… the one with god and some dirt.
Good to see you back. Cracking photo!
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I can understand why it’s such a big race issue in the USA, but I do think it clouds the fatal issue of silly gun laws. Thank you for appreciating the cracking photo. You really are my best blogging buddy!
The test for the unfaithful wife is Numbers 5:11-29. Note that the New International Version states ‘miscarry’ but all the apologists will tell you that the god God didn’t inspire the correct translation on that word …
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Ah yes, i got that one. Found an excellent site, and it seems this god fellow is right into performing abortions. Here’s some other examples, straight copy n paste, so it has some of his commentary attached.
Hosea 9:11-16 Hosea prays for God’s intervention. “Ephraim shall bring forth his children to the murderer. Give them, 0 Lord: what wilt thou give? Give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts. . .Ephraim is smitten, their root is dried up, they shall bear no fruit: yea though they bring forth, yet will I slay even the beloved fruit of their womb.” Clearly Hosea desires that the people of Ephraim can no longer have children. God of course obeys by making all their unborn children miscarry. Is not terminating a pregnancy unnaturally “abortion”?
Numbers 5:11-21 The description of a bizarre, brutal and abusive ritual to be performed on a wife SUSPECTED of adultery. This is considered to be an induced abortion to rid a woman of another man’s child.
Numbers 31:17 (Moses) “Now therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every women that hath known man by lying with him.” In other words: women that might be pregnant, which clearly is abortion for the fetus.
Hosea 13:16 God promises to dash to pieces the infants of Samaria and the “their women with child shall be ripped up”. Once again this god kills the unborn, including their pregnant mothers.
2 Kings 15:16 God allows the pregnant women of Tappuah (aka Tiphsah) to be “ripped open”. And the Christians have the audacity to say god is pro-life. How and the hell is it that Christians can read passages where God allows pregnant women to be murdered, yet still claim abortion is wrong?
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What a delightful selection of quotes from the benevolent god God’s inerrant holy book! It must fill pro-life Christians with such a sweet pride to be on the side of Good.
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I tried them out last night on a young catholic girl. I think i made her cry 🙂
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Wow! Nice collection!
John, at first I thought you tried abortion on a Catholic girl and my eyebrows went off, but then I realised you tried reading the passages to a Catholic girl, and then I said: ssssshew… I thought he killed her!
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Ha! The topic was abortion and she was trying to say her god was loving. I had to ask if she’d actually ever read he bible… then proceeded to detail all the child chilling. It’s a ghastly book.
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Ha ha, I thought you were joking about the Catholic girl. How did she react?
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Badly. Then she just stopped commenting.
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Chilling = Killing
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Or chilling child killing?
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Oh, well played! A bazzillion points!
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I think this whole case is completely ridiculous and I have a hard time believing (especially since I just served on a jury a couple of months ago) that the jury believes Zimmerman to be innocent. I’ll bet that what happened was they could not find him guilty beyond a “reasonable doubt”. The evidence and testimonials were shaky at best and it’s pretty much a case of he said, she said, with one of those people now being dead. So, I can almost guarantee that the jury did not feel there was enough compelling evidence to prove Zimmerman’s guilt and therefore let him walk.
I think in this case, the American legal system worked against Martin when it allowed an irresponsible, power-hungry idiot to be in possession of a gun and be allowed to use it and again when it forced the burden of proof to rely solely on a few sub-par witnesses and a boy who is no longer alive and cannot speak from his point of view. I actually wonder how this case would have played out had it not been a young, black boy that was murdered, but a white boy. The problem with that is generally power-hungry, gun wielding idiots don’t tend to look at a young white boy with candy and think he is a criminal…
John, I actually currently live in Colorado Springs and that law is absolutely CRAZY. A couple years back there was a drunk guy that was dropped off by a cab near his house after a night of drinking. He drunkenly wandered up to the wrong house and proceeded to try and get in using his key. After it didn’t work, he pounded on the door to wake his roommates to let him in. He tried getting in the window and was incessantly turning the doorknob. It wasn’t opening, of course, because he was mistakenly at the wrong house. His neighbor “perceived” a break in, shot the guy and killed him. He got away with it because of the Make My Day Law. Scary stuff!
People are so serious about guns here that we have actual police officers– men and women whose job it is to uphold the law– stating that they will not arrest anyone currently in violation of the new gun laws passed by the Federal government. THEY ARE REFUSING TO UPHOLD THE LAW! It’s quite scary! I am moving back to California in a few weeks, luckily, where they have much more strict and reasonable gun laws. I feel safer just thinking about it!
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Yeah,it would be interesting to compare the reaction if a white schoolkid walking home with candy was killed by a neighbourhood watch fanatic. I wonder if I’m being a conspiracy theorist in thinking that, more than a race issue, the main propaganda driver for getting Zimmerman off is coming from the gun lobby. I think they have a vested interest in ensuring these crazy laws stay in place.
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It scared the crap out of me! This guy was a gun nut. He owned a small armory. Now, picture this: After telling us he could shoot anyone on his lawn, he then encouraged my friend and I to go out and have some beers, see the town, and come home whenever… cautioning us, though, that he and his wife went to bed early, slept light, and to just let ourselves in. 2am, standing outside the darkened house my friend and I were shitting ourselves. Clumping through an unfamiliar house, pitch-black, looking for our room with a trigger happy crazy man didn’t sound like a terribly good idea.
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You definitely feel safer just thinking about it, and I do explicitly mean JUST thinking about it. In reality, the violent crime rate in Colorado Springs, and even more so in Colorado as a whole, is significantly lower than in California.
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Well, I would argue that point. I think it depends on what part of CA you are talking about and the population differences. More people=more crime. Colorado Springs can be a dirty, violent place. Sure there are worse places to live, and sure some of those places might be in CA, but I assure you, CO is not of the hook!
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Also, I do actually feel safer in states where there aren’t allowed to be guns on people’s hips. Violent criminals are going to do what they do no matter what laws are in place. But, all it takes is an idiot with a gun loaded and readily available to make a rash decision, misfire, aim poorly or use poor judgement to kill someone. I think people should have to take tests and get licenses to carry guns like they have to to drive a car. Sure it’s your right to have a gun, but if you don’t know how to use it, does it supersede my right to live?
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If Zimmerman followed Martin against advise of the police, then there’s was no self-defense. In my point of view, if you can walk away from an attacker or would-be attacker, then you should do that, since using lethal force is only the last resort if there are other options. This is eve more the case if you choose to deliberately chase someone.
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I think Zimmerman claimed he was following him to make sure he could give his location to the police. But that wouldn’t be a smart thing to do either. It really sounded like he was looking for a confrontation in the police call.
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I agree wholeheartedly. Makes me want to break something. I am waiting for the book (one juror has already signed a book deal) to explain how they found him innocent of everything. Reminds me of the OJ trial.
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Do you think it’s possible that gun lobby forces had a hand in it? If he’d been found guilty, it would have had repercussions for laws that allow people like Zimmerman to walk around armed and use their guns whenever they want.
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No not really. Because you have an African-American woman who fired a warning shot at her abusive husband who she had a restraining order on and the same prosecutor in the Zimmerman case prosecuted her and the jury found her guilty and she is now serving 20 years in prison. She was sentenced while Zimmerman awaited trial. She had the gun legally. The only difference that i can see is that she is African American, a woman, and she didn’t kill anyone. gun activists appear to only care about preserving gun rights for white men and possibly white women (though i think they use the latter strictly for propaganda purposes).
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You get to pull a gun and use it if your life is in imminent danger. You don’t get to go out to a shed, grab a gun, run back into the house, fire some warning shots then claim your life was in danger.
The 20 years term is excessive (and i’m sure theres a huge amount of agreement on that) but if you really can not figure out a simple difference like that you need to think more and post less. Posting things like “gun activists appear to only care about preserving gun rights for white men and possibly white women” while earning loads of friends on the left lacks any truth at all.
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Stop being an ass. The information that I read said she was trying to get away but forgot her keys inside the house, where many of her belongings apparently were, by the way. She was trying to retrieve her belongings and did not know that her husband was in the house. In order to leave, she had to get her keys. So she got the gun from the glove compartment and went back inside to get her keys and fired a warning shot telling him to stay away. Now, I am no rocket scientist and perhaps I will not post here anymore, as you so nicely suggested, but I can tell the difference between someone who carries a gun on their person, menacingly stalks a kid down and intimidates him, and then when the kid fights back and the tables are turned around, he, like a coward, fires point-blank through the kid’s heart. Yeah, I think I can tell the difference. How about you?
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You’ve got a real problem with projecting your opinions into other peoples minds and then preaching about it. First its white men gun owners only wanting rights for white men gun owners, now its a neighbourhood watch person following someone after contacting the police who is “menacingly stalking and intimidating”.
I think you forgot to add “and a woman who fires two warning shots” to the end of your overly long and confusing sentence starting “Now, I am no rocket…”, otherwise it doesn’t make much sense, what are you comparing it to ?
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What can I tell you? I know what I see. I’ve lived in this country for 48 years. I have family members who are gun owners. Not all of them the type of people you want to own guns. But hey, if you like guns so well, I’m sure you can come on over here and get yourself as many as you want. I think they give you more if you are mentally unstable.
As far as my “real problem”, are you basing that “opinion” on my response to Violet? Or have you read other posts or comments? Because if it is the former, then you and I might just be the proverbial pot and kettle.
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1. You are such a literal thinker, are unable to grasp conceptual thinking, or subtleties in meaning. The main thrust of the gun lobby is from white men and their main vision is ‘goodliving’ white men having guns to protect their families. That’s the mindset. It doesn’t mean they are campaigning for black people and women not to have guns. Can you see the difference?
2. A big guy you don’t know following through the streets in the dark is both menacing and intimidating. My goodness, what are you imagining?
3. Cindy was obviously comparing the two cases. Another example that you can’t follow meaning unless it is expressed like a formula. She has explained further down that she is dictating into her phone.
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Thanks for bringing that up, I hadn’t heard about it, and it is totally shocking. Please excuse the rude injection of my ignorant brother, imaginatively mascarading as ‘None’. He has no concept of prejudice or discrimination. He also seems to think that if the woman in question had had a gun strapped to thigh and killed her husband on the spot, it would all be fine and an acquittal would be in order – just not if she manages to get a gun from another location (and doesn’t actually hurt anyone).
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On the contrary I am extremely concerned about prejudice and discrimination. A woman in florida getting the florida mandated minimum term for a forcible felony involving a firearm (in this case a threat of violence is a so called forcible felony) is not discrimination, it’s the law. If it’s wrong (as it clearly is in this case) then the law needs changed, but it is absolutely 100% not discrimination for the judge to enforce the law.
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Didn’t realize he was your brother. I am hungry and have a short fuse. I don’t know what I would do if I had a gun.
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Well, you’re response was appropriate and spot on. He owns a big pair of blinkers.
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I was going to write a long detailed response but realise already it would suck too much of my time. So keeping it short:
1) I’ve never so seen so many on the left enthusiastically support doing what the police say (especially in this instance when the actual words were “Are you following him ?” .. “yes” … “You don’t need to do that for us”, somehow turns into a police request, rather than an avoidance of blame for a potential civil suit). More frequently a police request for a camera for example is enough to bring hysterical frothing to the mouth and demands for non compliance from the left.
2) I don’t get the racist thing. Martin said he was being followed by a creepy cracker. Is that less of a pejorative term than coon ? What about “nigga” – Travyons twitter name. Are some minorities (blacks) allowed free hand when it comes to things like this but others (in this case a self described hispanic democrat) not ?
3) A couple of episodes 8 years ago can hardly be used to describe someone as having a history of violence (specially when you actually look into the details of those isolated incidents).
4) You always get some contradictory evidence. In this case the majority of the evidence agrees with Zimmermans testimony. You can even hear him on the 911 tape saying he had “lost the kid”. His testimony was that he was jumped on his way back to the car after being losing him.
5) Fortunately embarassing rhetorical nonsense like the Young Turks videos do not trump the actual paramedics testimony in court, when it comes to the details of Zimmermans injuries (again entirely compatible with his testimony). Nor does some amateur photo sleuth’s attempt to directly compare photos taken from the same guy from hours appart, and between paramedic treatments, from two different angles, and from two different focal points, with two different lenses then overlay the pictures make any sense whatsoever. I would laugh if it were not for idiots not capable of figuring it out for themselves not using it to make ridiculous claims.
6) In the past year Martin had missed 53 days of school. He was in trouble for being found at school with drug paraphenalia, suspected stolen goods (6 necklaces) and a burglarly tool (large flat head screwdriver). His twitter picture showed him with his “gangsta” gold teeth – he was no young saint that’s for sure.
7) Zimmerman (and his wife) bought their guns in 2009 after repeat runins with a pitbull in the neighbourhood – on the advice of a police officer.
8) It’s not illegal to follow someone.
9) There had been earlier episodes of Zimmerman calling the police to report suspicious activity, only the police got there too late, the suspects ran then things were later found stolen. In one particular episode it was a laptop which was later found in a young black mans backpack, who Zimmerman subsequently identified as one of the young black men he had phoned the police about.
10) It’s a needless tragedy, but was the root cause of this racism ? Absolutely not. The media’s behaviour in not reporting the facts has been a total disgrace. Obama’s weighing in “if I had a son he’d look like Trayvon” – total stirring!
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1. This is an interesting point. Did you listen to the call? The context and tone is makes this an instruction or advice. Think about the different ways someone can say ‘you don’t need to do that for us’ – it wasn’t the tone you would use when someone helps you wash the dishes.
2. I’m not in the slightest bit surprised you don’t ‘get’ the racist thing. Here’s a short and easy post to help you start to understand this: http://www.travismamone.net/2013/07/dear-white-people-offended-by-word.html
3. How many comparable ‘isolated’ incidents do you or anyone you know have in their life? I don’t know anyone who’s hit their partner and has had restraining orders, I don’t know anyone who’s pushed a policeman (only to back down when they realised this) and I don’t know anyone who’s been fired from a job for being aggressive to customers. He has a history of violence and aggression.
4. That’s fine. But you’re accepting the word of an angry person with a history of violence walking round with a gun trying to locate (at the least) someone he believes is a criminal, who then kills this person, and knows he may face life in prison for his actions if he says the wrong thing.
5. Did you listen to Zimmerman’s description of the confrontation? He claims his head was pounded off the pavement and he thought he was going to die. The video footage is not that blurry and there is clearly not a mark on him. Totally inconsistent. The photo turned up three weeks after the incidence because the policeman ‘forgot’ he had it – it was on his computer and he’d wiped it off his phone.
6. Where did you get this information? And if it’s beyond doubt, would that make him likely to be the type of schoolkid to hide in bushes and attempt to kill and older, bigger man? Laughable attempt to paint a criminal.
7. So what?
8. It’s stupid if you think the person is a criminal, it’s creepy if you don’t think the person is a criminal.
9. Yes, so he’s furious already that these people he has racially profiled are getting away.
10. If exactly the same thing had happened with an unfamiliar white kid walking through the neighbourhood, what would Zimmerman had done? If the white kid had been killed do you think Zimmerman would have got off? That’s just how young black men can so easily be treated in America.
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Violet,
Well put. I listened to the tape and totally concur. The dispatcher sounded like he was telling Zimmerman NOT to follow. By the way, tell your brother I am dictating on my iPhone, so my sentences may become long and confusing.
I wouldn’t presume to tell anyone from another country to what level or extent racism exists in their country if I had not lived there for a significant amount of time. All I can tell you is that there is racism in this country, it is significant, and if Trayvon had been white, this whole sorry mess probably would not have happened.
But if it had, Zimmerman would be going to jail. Because no one would have been able to believe that a white kid going through that neighborhood armed with skittles and an ice tea would’ve been up to no good, even if he had been wearing a dark hoodie. And they would not have believed that he would have attacked Zimmerman for no good reason.
And just to further highlight how stupid our gun owners can be, here is the latest tragedy:
http://abcnews.go.com/m/story?id=19654146
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http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/354377
I fond this article interesting. Nine days of prosecution evidence, and if they charged the wrong offence, perhaps he was not guilty of what they charged, beyond reasonable doubt.
I read a blog post and follow that. It is horrible that the boy died. More than that, I just do not know.
Lexi, who is trans like I am, has something to say about the demonstrations in her home city: http://lexikatscan.wordpress.com/2013/07/15/tragedy-in-oakland/
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Thanks so much for the link to the digital journal article. I was trying to find something about the wrong charges being brought and this is exactly what I was interested in. There’s so much stuff on the internet about this that’s it’s really difficult to find anything. Lexi raises really interesting points too, although I don’t think people rioting is a beneficial reaction to anything, even if it does suggest they at least care.
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And- I am not sure which of Zimmerman’s acts the court was judging. Noticing there is a man moving suspiciously, as he thought it, through his community, and calling the police, is not criminal. Following the young man is not, either, despite police advice. Even if Zimmerman provoked a confrontation, when that got physical he was entitled to defend himself?
I have not read a great deal of the stuff from the internet, but from what I have read I cannot say Zimmerman has got away with murder.
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We have enough gun related violence in South Africa so you will excuse me if I don’t comment on this, okay?
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If you want. Feel free to attack anything my brother (None) says though.
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Naughty Violet. No, I will not enter the fray.
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What tripe. What with having close black friends, and supporting a black homeless guy who was the victim of police brutality, handing out fliers at local black churches to highlight the issue Zimmerman really is one mega racist.
“That’s just how young black men can so easily be treated in America.”
It’s more to do with what you’re wearing and what you’re doing. A colleague at work (native ethnic Dane) was sitting outside an apartment on holiday in the states because he’d locked himself out, wearing a basketball top and shorts, playing with a couple of matches until a friend came back and within 10 minutes a neighbour had reported suspicious activity with cops turning up asking him aggresively what was going on.
Theres racism everywhere (and in both directions), I suspect America has much less of it than anywhere else, especially the very hypocritical Europe. The idea that this is racism and was done because Zimmerman did not like African Americans is just very stupid. Almost as stupid as ignoring the testimony of several paramedics, police officers and other witnesses concerning Zimmermans injuries to instead draw your expert conclusion from a poor quality surveillance footage recorded several hours AFTER he had been cleaned up.
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Very nice daisies in the back of the pic. 🙂
Anyway, this particular criminal case and the news around it inform us of a couple of things.
Now, let us say that Mr. Zimmerman was not a racist, could he have had a good reason to racially profile his victim? If it is indeed the African-American young men who end up doing more crime, than those of Latin origin, or Europid ancestry, then what in the society causes it? Surely, it would be racist, unscientific and moronic to assume it is their genes? So, it must be a social issue.
What is wrong with a society in which a fine young man such as Mr. Zimmerman feels he needs a gun to protect himself and his property? Why can he and his kind not trust the police to do their work? Why do they feel it is necessary for them to organize into some form of neighbourhood watch? What is wrong whith their police? If the police are doing a fine job, then why do the laws allow such paramilitary action by men like Mr. Zimmerman?
What is the message transmitted by this sort of court ruling? The legal courts are not set there to make politics, but their ruling may very well have a political implication. No doubt, that the political climate has turned against racism only because of “leftist” reporters and politicians pointing out how wrong racism is. There is racism in many areas of the world, and it may very well be, that the US is one of the countries where there is less racism than in some other places. That would not be the case without the vigillance of “leftist” reporters. Would it?
I do not know how the Danish liberal, or leftist media handeled this case, but here in Finland in media both ends of the political spectrum were rather objective. I can only assume, that the Danish media does not differ much from its Finnish counterpart, that these stories are bought and translated from the multinational news agencies and do not take much issue on political implications of the story. A columnist may write their own view, but that is what columnists are for, right?
Yes, we here in Europe sometimes get hypocritical about the US. On many issues. Sometimes the US makes it very easy. Racism is rearing it’s ugly head here in Europe as well. And here in Europe racism is often hidden in cultural bias and prejudice. There may be racism in a lot of places and it of course is the sort of idiocity, that all human “races” are more or less prone to. That just goes to show how similar we all are and how silly the notion of racism is in the first place. For it to be both ways does not make it right either way. However, there are historical reasons why the African-Americans are jumpy about racism, but there are also historical reasons why they still get to be targets of both open and hidden racism. Wether this court case was one such incident may be debatable, but it is the debate, that brings out hidden racism if there is any.
Not in the official media, but in conversations such as this one, I have wittnessed a great deal of emotion on many different opinions to the issue. And why not? Should we take the death of this young man lightly? Was it mere unawoidable accident, that a young man died? If it was not, should we not consider this in order to find out how such tragedies could be awoided?
What caused this meaningless death? Was it that an individual looney had access to lethal weapons? Was it that a young man representing a certain racial and cultural outlook happened to be in the wrong neighbourhood? Was it, that a certain young man got scared of a weirdo following him around and reacted to that, unwittingly ignoring the fact that this weirdo might very well be toting a gun? If it was one of these, or some other reason, how could we awoid such futile death in the future?
I can full well understand the sports, or hunting use of a weapon, but for it to be carried in self defence against other citizens signals of some inherent social trauma, that can not be healed by carrying guns.
The NRA is often referring to the “constitutional right to carry arms”, which supposedly means the second amendmend in the US constitution, that actually states, that state regulated militias may carry firearms in order to fight against a colonialist intervention by the GB. Not a very likely scenario in the present world by any measure…
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Lots of questions for which I’m sure you have good answers. You’re so right that there is something wrong with a society where people carry guns to protect themselves against each other. But when you have such an insular society like the USA, people don’t realise there are alternatives.
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For a moment I wondered where you had disappeared to! Glad you are back.
For me the story is just sad.
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I just can’t keep up the blogging pace, it’s too time consuming! It’s a truly horrible story.
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Blogging does take time especially if the people you follow keep writing everyday.
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