My dad used to tell me about growing up during the "Great Depression" and being hungry much of the time. Millions of Americans were getting only minimum amounts of food. Not enough for bigger families. My dad talked about the hunger pains, the actual pain of not eating for a few days after the rations had been consumed and none were coming until the next week. Hunger for him was a very real trauma. My dad had three brothers and his mom to look after. He was the oldest son in his teens and he often didn't eat so his younger brothers and mom could. His dad had long been out of their lives. He scrounged around for anything he could find that was edible. And made sure the rest of the family was fed before him.

It was a very hard time for millions. For my dad, it left him always in fear of being hungry again even when he worked and made good wages. He was always a "soft touch" whenever someone approached him about being hungry.

Today they call hunger "food insecurity". Millions of Americans are still hungry. A large number are children. Maybe the greatest majority are children. In this time of CEO compensation reaching record levels, of the rich getting richer and the disparity of income becoming the largest in recorded history, Americans go hungry. More kids in our public schools go hungry than most of us realize. Some kids can't wait for holidays away from school. Kids who are hungry aren't so happy. It means they lose any school breakfast or lunch program while school's out.

Every hour of every day kids and families are hungry in this nation while almost two or three times each hour on network or cable television there's commercials displaying food. Most of us go to bed without hunger and may well fool ourselves into believing we live in the land of plenty. Food from households, restaurants and fast food sites is thrown away on daily basis. Grocery stores often toss absolutely good food if not picked up on their markdown counters or picked up by food banks. 

How does a nation touting itself as the greatest nation on earth have so many families with children going hungry? We can look at the insanely ineffective federal and local governments filled with partisan hacks for a lot of the answer. Today the Congress is debating the need for keeping a tax credit for families that has proven to reduce child hunger. Some want a work requirement as part of the deal. Some want to lower income thresholds. At the same time Congress is quite willing to increase the military budget to record levels and allow the arms industry to reap record profits.

Outside of families and children, hunger is prevalent for the elderly living Social Security check to Social Security check. They have to choose between life saving medications and food. They have to worry if their rents will increase making things worse. They have to worry if the power companies will increase rates to make things worse. They have to worry if huge retail food stores will gouge them more and more for the cost of any food they might buy at their stores. Stores that may be the only site selling food other than exorbitantly high cost convenience stores. 

And while the hungry worry where they might find relief, where they might find the next meal, conglomerate stores like Kroger, Wal-Mart and Target reap record profits. Huge energy companies like XCEL continue unabated in doubling and tripling their bills while reaping record profits. They claim they need the extra costs to upgrade the infrastructue but never ask their stock holders to take less of the record profits. 

And while the Fed screams out about inflation and raises interest rates almost weekly, it is the poor and lower middle class who will suffer the greatest amount with those increases. And what they fail to admit is inflation post pandemic has more to do with price gouging by huge corporations than anything else. The Fed is more concerned with propping up the "market" than propping up those going to the markets.

This nation has been one that consumes and consumes, allows the military budget to take over half our national budget and refuses to adopt sensible healthcare for all. It spends obscene amounts of money on elections where only the rich can be elected rather than adopt election reform. It loses citizens on a weekly basis to mass shootings and refuses to do anything about controlling the availability of weapons meant to do only one thing, kill other humans. The stress of these senseless killings on local and federal budgets means less money for feeding those who are hungry.

We refuse to address homelessness where hunger is epidemic. We prefer to look at the homeless as the addict or alcoholic. Refuse to think of them as families sending kids to schools hungry. Refuse to think of them as working for poverty wages at large corporate run businesses. Refuse to understand the wage scale in this nation has been pathetically inadequate to keep up with the true cost of living. Politicians posture about balancing budgets and how a living wage as the minimum wage will kill businesses. They posture as they live opulent lifestyles totally out of touch with most of their constituents.

The capitalistic system has failed most of us because it promotes greed and consumption. It promotes continued destruction of the environment. And that destruction and consumption eventually causes more hunger. The heating of the planet created by the greed of industries emitting toxic wastes or destroying water supplies leads to horrific drought and massive wildfires killing farmlands and creating more refugees in the grips of food insecurity.

We can choose to ignore the hunger all around us or the escalating events that will increase hunger. As long as we have food we can choose to think all is well. We can look through the homeless population in our neighborhoods. Ignore children who go to school hungry. Ignore the elders who lack income and are in failing health that go hungry. We can choose to ignore but we will not be able to escape the ultimate effects of our ignorance. 

Apparently we have mass killing, mass shooting, daily shooting fatigue. We pass each day with some violence perpetrated by someone carrying a gun or semi-automatic/converted to automatic assault rifle. Yeah guns and rifles don't kill people. People do.
So, why is it the violence from weapons we so cherish in our constitution only at an epidemic level in this nation? Why does no other nation come anywhere near the death rate of this nation from the use the weapons we so cherish and are willing to literally fight for?
We witness the same ritual almost weekly. A shooter enters a safe haven, kills multiple innocent victims and either kills himself or is quickly arrested with a cache of weapons and ammunition.
Immediately newsrooms around the nation jump on the story with interviews of first responders, victims that survive and family and friends of victims and perpetrator. A shrine of flowers, teddy bears and other well intentioned items build at the site as a memorial.
At times it feels like some of those who gather to honor the victims try to insert themselves into the narrative rather than respect quietly the humans who have lost lives or been horribly traumatized. And the press covering the story is so rabidly in competition with one another to get a new angle they allow a ghoulish scene to happen.
Night after night the press continues with the story of the tragedy. Politicians typically give vapid and cliched quotes of thoughts and prayers for the victims. Pressed into questions about the availability of assault rifles and the frequency of mass killings, politicians will say, "now is not the time".
Inevitably the next mass killing occurs, leaving the previous one behind as old news. The circle of violence and public response continues like an uncontrolled merry-go-round of hate, anger, disaffection and ignored etiology.
The NRA and its apologists cry out about mental illness causing the slaughter. They tell us if we arm our teachers and ourselves we will be safer. Maybe one of the many free carry gun owners will take out a potential killer. And, maybe they will get into a fire fight and kill innocent bystanders.
The easy access to weapons has been left out of the reasons for mass killing. The streets of America are glutted with guns and rifles to kill other humans. Anyone suggesting a restriction of guns and rifles are quickly shouted down. There are so many weapons in the hands of people who are a danger to others it would take at least a generation of gun control before our culture of violence shows signs of slowing down.

There are some common threads to the mass shootings besides the possession of firearms. The motivation of a shooter that is usually male often turns out to be founded in hate and disaffection, Hate being normalized by politicians and religious zealots have unintended and intended consequences. 

The recent shooting at a LGBTQ nightclub exemplifies what can happen when the seeds of hate are used by the politician and zealot. Fake and jaded leaders tell us what they think appropriate and encourage shaming and assault of those who don't get in line.

Churches telling their congregations and school officials to bar men and women who may love one another 

Pam and I are in the grips of a refresher course in grief and mourning. Our son, Isaac, died of an overdose on September 19th but we weren't informed of his death until October 15th. It wasn't a shocking development. He had a long struggle with addiction that he was unable to control. But, it was a shock to our spirits, a punch to our thinking process. 

We went through the motions required when one makes arrangements for their dead 47 year old son. It sapped our strength. Just a week before we heard of his death we had hiked for six straight day in the Telluride area. Our hikes were difficult and we persisted to reach our goals. So, we had strength, even at our ages. But hearing he had died was a physical and emotional train wreck. 

We pushed on and gained a small amount of perspective. Managed to talk about good memories of him growing up. We spent years of compartmentalizing our dread. We couldn't allow his addiction's destruction of his mind and body to overwhelm us. 

Being a combat vet during a tour with the USMC in 1968, I had an ingrained defense mechanism of depersonalization when death came into my life. But it's impossible to think "it don't mean nothing" when it's my kid.

On November 9th, Pam wanted to go visit her older brother south of the Pueblo area. He was about to have an 80th birthday but he had prostate cancer and it had spread throughout his body. He had just recently entered into home hospice visits.

Don was frail, cachexic and needed assistance to move to the bathroom or bedroom. He had an oxygen cannula in his nostrils.