Headline Afterthoughts

The pay-for-admissions scandal in the US dominated last week’s news. That is, until the horrific mass murder of 50 people at two mosques in New Zealand. If people should be safe anywhere, it’s in their houses of worship, but it just keeps happening. This time, streamed live online. It’s beyond tragic and I just want people to be safe from these twisted madmen.

A Twitter influencer asked Muslims to post ordinary stories from their “peaceful mosques”, after reporters described them that way. Would any other church attract the description of “peaceful”? Of course not. They’re like that by nature and so are mosques. Twitter users responded.

two tweets - one tells of a child who disrupted prayers every single day until he turned five. The second says someone is always selling roses outside

Someone else posted a picture of a sleeping cat and said there’s at least one in every mosque. Ordinary, peaceful, and now after Quebec City and Christchurch, never again the same.

Now, the admission scandal. In a scheme allegedly orchestrated by one man, for $50-grand to millions he’d get their unqualified kids into top universities. He had smart kids take entrance exams on behalf of the entitled kids. Photo-shopped their faces over the bodies of real athletes. The FBI charged actors Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin, but not their husbands, William H. Macy and designer Mossimo. Macy was apparently present at one of the meetings about the scheme.

I searched my soul and couldn’t come up with a shred of outrage about this scandal. Why? Because it’s not surprising. Money runs this world. The super-rich govern us. Wealthy lobby groups – say, the NRA – drive their agendas into the system. People feed on the Instagram photos of the Kardashians having more fascinating lives than they do, and all of those Instagram likes turn into more Kardashian wealth. It’s disgusting but it’s swirling like a washing machine spin cycle and won’t likely stop.

And then I watched Trae Crowder do his latest (delightfully sarcastic) Liberal Redneck YouTube video on the subject. And he nailed it. This is what it all really means. Enjoy.