Blinking Cursor
For a few minutes Starbucks is unaccountably quiet. The space is usually a mad-house. The capuccino machine roars, a cacophony of voices rise in the high ceiling room, and sometimes a canine barks from a vehicle into the drive up window. I am acquainted with the staff. They work very hard, professionally competent, and more than earn their pay. I wonder if I have what it takes to work at Starbucks.
I overheard a snippet of conversation earlier this morning. The voice was male, and he was opining about some tickets in the bleachers for a baseball game. I assume that a Cubs game was the topic of conversation. The thought occurred to me, Starbucks is a gathering place for those with a far amount of discretion over their work day. If you earn your living punching a clock, paid by the hour, I doubt that you have time for absorbing the vibe of Starbucks. This is not a place for working class as extra money and extra time are the price of entry.
Exchanged emails last night with a friend. We were on different sides of a big divide. My friend insisted that the president is no tyrant, since he has no fear of “the people” and he “allows us to keep our guns.” My friend did not expect me to be persuaded by those arguments.
My response to him was brief, quickly conceived and less than convincing to him. Media exchanges are like gunfights on black and white TV. You may remember a scene from Gunsmoke. The place is Dodge City Kansas, two challengers face off at 50 paces in the street. Towns people fascinated by the smell of danger, knowing that someone is about to die, watch from inside the saloons and shops. One man 
reaches for his six gun; shots ring out and one falls. It’s drama at high noon, entertainment and nothing more. Nothing is accomplished. History is not represented. No lesson can be learned,—nothing changes. It is unreal.
I tried to say to my friend that our president seems not to fear his gun-toting base but he is constantly propagandizing them with tweets and campaign rallies. Smells like fear to me. Moreover, what is an armed-up populace compared to the world’s premiere military that will follow orders, with stand-off weapons that disable and kill, efficiently— if and when ordered to do so?
Nothing could be more real.
2 thoughts on “Blinking Cursor”
You are correct in saying that did not expect to change your mind on Trump being a tyrant. You are positive he is, I don’t think he is. But you also said, “My friend insisted that the president is no tyrant, since he has no fear of “the people” and he “allows us to keep our guns,” I did not insist, I said I didn’t think he was a tyrant, I used the gun example because tyrants typically remove the right of the people to own guns. Tyrants don’t want their citizens to own guns because they might be turned against them. Trump doesn’t fear armed citizens, tyrants do.
I stand corrected. I apologize for inaccurately conveying your position. I also appreciate that you ground your argument in what tyrants have historically done. In any case I am glad that we can exchange our ideas. Disagreement can be helpful.