I recall Hugo and Fran, even Floyd....a lot of rain and some wind back home in the Carolinas, but nothing like what's headed our way now.
JUST took a sortie into Clermont. The place is virtually deserted and locked down. Highway 27 is nearly devoid of traffic and that NEVER happens.
It's coming...no doubt of that, currently pummeling the Keys and the southwest coast of the state with 140 MPH winds. It's forecast to come right up the center of the state, right over us, but there is just no telling what this storm will do next.
Jose is in trail behind. No one has called for it to strike us next, but who can honestly say what a hurricane might do? It's one of the reasons they used to give them only female names; they were so unpredictable.
Yeah...somewhat sexist. I know. PMS can do terrible things to people.
Still in my RV. Don't really want to leave but the notion of sitting through possibly hurricane force winds in what amounts to a trailer home strikes me as foolhardy. And it is. Many around me seem poised to do just that. I still see several vehicles parked around RVs.
The "Bee Hive," the local center is open. Unsure as to how strong a structure it is and I would be staying with people I do not know. That has always made me uneasy, particularly in a life or death situation. I know my school principal. Not well, no, but well enough. And he feels comfortable about to invite me into his home.
That says volumes.
Yesterday I posted a meme on Facebook, saying a snake is a snake no matter how many times it sheds its skin and that letting some people back into your life is just not a good idea.
Yes, it was about Mike, I've posted several memes similar to this one. I know he still visits FB and know he reads my posts. He has responded to a couple. I've not replied in kind and won't. The man is a borderline sociopath. I am utterly convinced of that now. Aside from all that, he just sees people, the world....indeed, reality quite differently from me.
Referred to a possible relationship with "the Fox"as " f***ing a bowling ball." To him, that's what relationships with the female of the species involve, recreational sex. It's how he views people, I believe: as objects to satisfy his selfish needs. I now believe he used me to get back in contact with his former high school flame. Little else makes sense. And I was gullible enough to allow that to happen.
Deb doesn't feed his ego or meet his sexual fantasies. It's at the root of their issues, I think.
Harsh. I know that. But I do not come to these conclusions abruptly or without cause. Just like an hypothesis, one that has a great deal of evidence applied to it, my feelings have become a theory.
And the man is dangerous. I believe that too.
He's spoken openly, more than once, about how he would kill his grandson's mother if she "ran" with him to avoid losing custody. "J**** would be coming back. She would not be. And then I would be going away for awhile."
That's beyond reckless talk. I could see and possibly understand such ramblings from an adolescent boy, but from an elderly adult, a retired FBI agent?
His younger son is of the same vintage, I suspect. It's why they bang heads so often. Both are arrogant. Both are prideful. Both are egotistical to an extreme.
Looking back, it should have been obvious at camp. Mike had to be the alpha male, the center of attention all of the time. CCR was hi fiefdom. We were his subjects. Things were fine until someone questioned that.
"You are the grass and I am the lawnmower."
I recall that been applied in a few cases at least.
CCR was a special place and thus, I believe, many of us just accepted Mike for who and what he was.
As I believe I've already said, a strong arm was needed to run the place. In 1974, I was simply not strong enough or brutal enough. mike came in at the end of the summer and supplied some of that brutal authoritarianism where it was needed. And in 1975, he made certain to reassert himself as King at the expense of many, one of whom was myself.
I had to be resubjugated. Oh, the acts were subtle but effective. And they came with the acquiescence of the camp populace, to include the owner and director. Truth is, I should have stayed home or joined the military a year earlier than I did.
Mike is still worshipped by many in the CCR nation. A regular tradition at each reunion is a "mike" worship session, where he holds court and tells all. Made me nauseous last time. I left midsession. Should I even choose to attend the next reunion (and that is a BIG if at present), I will make a point of either preventing such a gathering by steering things in a different direction or will pointedly boycott it. All this is bizarre, as I am supposed to be the one in charge of organizing the next reunion. That might not happen.
Mike is symptomatic of a larger problem in the United States of America, that of authoritarian overreach. He was the living epitome of it at Chimney Rock.
"I want to be able to hear a pin drop."
And it would be so. Total silence. He had that kind of presence. So did Hitler and Pol Pot.
Small wonder someone like him might admire one Donald Trump. Mike claims he did not vote for Trump. I do not believe him.
Trump, himself, is an indicator and symptom to a larger problem too. And the issue is multifaceted:
There are more haters in this country than I ever realized. And they have been given both encouragement and free reign since the election of our first non white president. Many would take issue with that; they've a right to do that. They're also wrong. I didn't believe it myself, at first. I do now.
What is tragic and frightening is that that sort is being given support and encouragement from people who have their own agenda and, it is not, necessarily, one intended to benefit many of the bigoted I refer to.
Hitler did it. So did Mussolini and Stalin. Fear and disinformation, outright manipulation of the masses.
It's been going on for awhile now.
President Eisenhower warned us about them, way back in 1960. He told us to guards against "undue influence" by what he called the "military industrial complex." And as a world war 2 general, he knew of what he spoke.
There are people who simply do not want things to change, to get "better." They like things exactly as they are, with our young people being cannon fodder for "oil wars," and for military adventures that feed war profits. They want to play down real education because they want "drones," people who will do what they're told and not ask questions. They come from all over the political spectrum, from Hillary Clinton (and her husband) to Dick Cheney. Both political parties are up to their neck in it. BOTH of them. It's a large reason why Bernie Sanders was treated as he was, but even he, as a long time presence in DC, is tainted a bit with it.
What we need is a revolution. A REAL one, where everything gets turned on its head and remade. our current system is too rife with corruption. And those who are in charge now, let's call them the "oligarchs," will never relinquish control any other way. Many of them are sociopaths, just as Mike is. They lack empathy for anyone but themselves. One cannot negotiate or compromise with them. It is the biggest reason I chose to break things off like I did with Mike. I finally saw him for who or what he really is and came to the realization that he has already had too much influence on me and that it needed to stop.
Mary was the same way. So was my own mother, tragically enough.
When I finally realized that, I took the only action I knew I could.
No doubt I brought a fair amount of pain to both of them, as well, but feel they each brought much of it on themselves, whether intentionally or not.
I'm no Desmond Tutu myself. I know that. But I cannot continue to go along with things. I've been told a few times, by people I credited with having more sense, that I just need to accept things as they are and stop resisting so much.
I cannot do that. I will not.
Chances are very good that I will not live to see the things I advocate for come to fruition, if, indeed, they ever do.
I believe, very much, in the "millennials" in our country. They do not seem burdened with the fallacies and falsehoods that every other generation appears to be.
As I pointed out in a few of my publications, free societies do not last long. The German "Weimar Republic" gave way to Hitler. The Roman "republic" became Imperial Rome. Athens fell under the control of authoritarian Sparta. We've become dominated by the oligarchs and the military industrial complex.
Can oppression and autocratic rule be far behind?
We've precious little time to prevent it. It may already be too late.
So no, I cannot meekly submit. That's never been my way anyhow.
In the relatively few years I've left on the planet, I owe it to those who come after me to try and make some kind of difference, no matter how small or insignificant. Not certain how I can best do that, but I pledge to find out.
Decades ago, while a student at the university of Miami, a professor asked me what I cared.
"In fifty years, you will be dead," he said to me.
His logic, or relative lack thereof, still does not resonate. What a selfish point of view!
