An old priest returned this morning,after a year’s absence, to once again celebrate eight o’clock mass. He is eighty-two years old and had been recovering from heart surgery. A gregarious guy, he spoke about how society is homogenized, and that to take a higher road or make a greater effort, one must rise like cream to the top of raw milk. He rejected the idea of homogenization in society, politics, and art. Great words to start the day.

I wonder if the Republican party will be even less enthusiastic about nominating Trump as their candidate than in 2016. They couldn’t find another candidate within their ranks who could win in 2020 against anyone in the weak field of Democrats. Once again, they will grudgingly endorse Trump.

I believe Hong Kong is a harbinger of times to come for China. The present day leaders, Cultural Revolution creations, are hard-pressed to inject Mao’s tenets into a modern China. The ferocity of the Cultural Revolution, children turning their parents over to authorities for betraying Mao’s tenets, now faces the expansion of intellect that comes with modernity. The violence they now will employ to control the masses will be exposed to all, as most matters are nowadays. Capitalism always keeps people current in every respect. Open to all around them, the people of China are moving forward with or without their leaders.

Only politicians can inject politics into every aspect of our reality, and ignore the many factors that contribute to that reality. They excise any truth, no matter how obvious, and paint a different reality. We need to control the sale of automatic military weapons, yet we need to identify mentally ill individuals who would use those weapons to inflict mass murder. One side speaks only to gun control, the other side is only concerned with the shooter’s mental status. We all suffer as a result. We need a third party straightforwardly determined to act on all fronts.

If the shooter in El Paso posted a manifesto twenty minutes before he started shooting, was there really any time to stop him? This was not the first time he expressed his hatred and his intention to carry out violence against Mexicans. The shooter in Dayton played in a band that speaks of violence against women including rape and murder. Bandmates say the music is “fun”. They never saw the shooter was into the words in a different way? These individuals were giving off signals long before they committed their crimes. We need to do more than only monitor social media sites. We all need to recognize that evil is usually right there in front of us and daring us to stop it.

The human race has and always will live in the violence it creates. We will never escape it when it comes from within ourselves. There will always be those who will resort to violence when confronted with a reality they reject.