by Christopher Ryan

We’re living in historical times. Depending on where you are politically, this is the best of times or the worst of times. But no matter where on the spectrum of opinions you stand, for most of us, it seems like the most confusing of times.

Honestly, it is difficult to cut through all the noise and rhetoric, to know who is speaking truth and who is spinning, exaggerating, or outright lying. It’s getting harder to tell every day. But one gift we have is still fairly reliable – our eyes. What we see is harder to be fooled by, and this week we saw the Bad Old Days in America trying to come back.

To the left in the picture above is Dr. Teresa Borrenpohl being confronted by Kootenai County Sheriff Bob Norris, who wanted her to leave an alleged town hall meeting for asking the legislative panel, “Is this a town hall, or a lecture?” Now, it is generally understood that town hall meetings are designed for citizens to ask elected officials questions. Secondly, videos of this meeting document others calling out comments, but only Borrenpohl, a Democratic candidate who has run unsuccessfully in that Republican region, was targeted for removal.

Above, we see when the sheriff called in unidentified “private security” to grab her and take her out. Borrenpohl utilized civil disobedience techniques we all learned about from studying the Civil Rights movement, back before that was banned from our history classes.

And here we see private security, later reported to be from LEAR Asset Management of Hayden, Idaho, beginning to drag her out. The video shows Borrenpohl repeatedly asking them to identify themselves to no response, which reportedly violates local city ordinances. These unidentified strangers dragged her all the way up the aisle and out of the auditorium. And as disturbing as all this is, the ridiculous assault charge against Borrenpohl has reportedly been dropped and people have raised substantial funds to cover her medical bills and legal fees.

But it is the rest of the picture that haunts me. We see an entire auditorium filled with Idahoans and one person tried to help her. Some yelled for them to stop, but only one stood up, and no one blocked the unidentified strangers who were physically assaulting and dragging one of the audiences’ neighbors right in front of them. Worse, some laughed or cheered the strangers actions, but as far as I could see in all the videos I watched, none of these good Christian Americans helped their fellow human being.

This on top of careless firings, shoddy ICE raids, declarations that even churches aren’t safe haven any more, Nazis strolling around Ohio, politicians and TV talking heads claiming Federal workers were ripping off the country by doing the relatively low-paying jobs the government hired them to do, and so much more.

America, what are we doing? Even if you disagreed with Borrenpohl’s politics or her behavior in that moment, is this really where we want to go as a country? As an alleged civilization? Is this what our God taught us to do? Who made us think this was the way to conduct ourselves as decent people? Definitely not our Creator. There isn’t a passage in the Bible that says, “Thou Shalt Dehumanize Those Who Disagree With You.” But if behaving this way doesn’t come from the God who guides us, where did it come from?

We all have to ask ourselves how we got here, how some in our country openly feel good about the abuse of others. Was it the podcasts and news entertainment consumed? Did they make this is seem right and good? If so, are those the voices our God wants us to listen to? Or is there a hint of brimstone in the air?

Is this how citizens want to make America great again? By tearing this country apart? In our heart of hearts, can we really say this is the country we want?

Doesn’t matter which side we’re on, all of us, every single one of us, are going to have to answer for allowing our country to sink to these depths when we’re asked to account for what we did when our country needed our help.

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Hi, I’m Christopher Ryan, a hybrid author with forty years of previous experience in journalism, education, sketch comedy, indie film, unions, community service, parenting, public speaking, acting, fiction writing, and podcasting. I’ve experienced moderate success in all of these, but I’m pushing to be more, to become one of the oldest breakout authors in the business. Together, let’s see together whether I can get there.

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NEWS:

Mallory and Gunner: Rivals is out. A short novelette, crime story with two twists – one being the setting (in and around Yankee Stadium, mostly), the other being what constitutes rivals. The book is priced to help out during these challenging economic times, at $2.99 for the ebook and $5.00 for the print version.

Here’s the link:

IN OTHER NEWS:

It’s Been a Privilege, my “horror story in verse” narrative poetry collection, comes out on March 31 from Alien Buddha Press. There is no link for purchase available yet but here’s a video of me reading one of the poems:

Recently, I read from It’s Been a Privilege during and HWA-NY reading event at Shade Bar in the Village, NYC. Here’s the event promo:

And here’s me at the event:

And here’s a link to Shade Bar if you are curious about this really cool place: https://g.co/kgs/zf7j5gy

UPCOMING EVENTS:

This weekend I’m participating in three panels at the Long Island Convention of Horror. Here’s the promo for that:

I’ll try and bring tales from that experience to the newsletter next week.

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CURRENT OBSESSIONS:

MUSIC and TV:

Rush has been in my ears lately, because I saw their fun documentary Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage. If you haven’t seen the film, you can fix that right here:

After watching The Rolling Stones Documentary – the Mick Taylor Years, I’ve been listening to Sticky Fingers, Exile on Main Street, Goats Head, and It’s Only Rock’n’ Roll, which might be the best era for the Stones.

Here’s the link to that video:

BOOKS:

Mostly research for a pop culture essays I just sent in but can’t talk about yet, and, because I saw Captain America: Brave New World and found myself thinking a lot about the great Isiah Bradley character, I red Truth, AKA Red, White, and Black. Not thrilled with the art but the story is worth your time, and if you check out the collected trade, don’t sleep on the resources listing at the end. It will make an impression.

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FREAK OUT: I think we handled that at the start. But don’t freak out, do something. Participate in your country’s Fate when she’s needs you most, which is right now.

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Thanks for coming by. Talk atcha soon.