Turner Watson

My oldest son plays college lacrosse. At the beginning of every pre-season, they go through an arduous, demanding, physical trial they refer to as “Medicine.” As in “Take your.” The idea is that it is grueling and uncomfortable, especially after an off-season of summer fun and excesses. It isn’t pleasant. Many of the players puke, right there on the field, as they try to finish the gauntlet. When one of them fails, they have to re-start. This year, everyone completed the challenge in 67 minutes. But like real medicine, this exercise is meant to prepare them. To shock their system back into one of readiness. To prepare them for the demands of the season ahead.

I’ve had a lot on my mind of late, and I felt compelled to get some of it off my chest. It isn’t pleasant. Some of it will be hard to hear. But I believe it is for our own collective good. I guess we’ll see. I divided my thoughts into three parts, as any good narrative should be. (Just like every hockey game or NASCAR race is a drama in three acts!)

The List

There’s a fundamental problem now with the potential release of the Epstein Files/Client Ledger, and the Democrats are partially to blame. ALL of them are to blame (“them” being the usual cadre of Washington career politicians, Hollywood power brokers, and ultra-rich types) because in what is a very clear attempt to protect some shockingly high-profile people, the lid has been clamped down on this thing from the beginning. Now, it is totally apparent to anyone watching and listening that our glorious leader is surely one of those names. The backpedaling, the completely transparent what-aboutism and contradictory declarations by the MAGA/FOX news set is proof that alarm bells have been ringing in the White House for months. But the damage is done: any list that is released now will be heavily redacted. Trump’s DOJ Deputy, Joseph Schnitt, was recently captured on video admitting this outright. “They’ll redact every Republican or conservative person in those files, leave all the liberal Democrats.” He said that, on camera…but come on, we already assumed that, right? We knew that whichever party was in power when the pressure to disclose became so great that something HAD to be done, we would never get the whole thing. If we only had a truly independent Supreme Court or FBI, they could perhaps be trusted to seize the documents and surrender them to Congress and the press to do with as they pleased, but the beans would thus be properly spilled, and all the ugliness in those documents would be public, for better or worse. But it’s too late for that. Now, whatever comes out (if it ever does) will be a partial accounting. We’ll never know the whole truth, which is exactly how “They” wanted it from the beginning. So, to my Lefty brothers and sisters clinging to some hope, or attempting to use these files as some sort of fulcrum, well…sorry, that ship has sailed. Now the longer we obsess about them, the greater the distraction. It’s all sleight of hand, and the game is rigged, and we don’t get to win this one.

The 2^nd Amendment

So this is primarily aimed, once again, at my well-meaning Liberal friends. I see, over and over, on social media, the argument that essentially goes “All I hear about from the NRA set is how the 2^nd Amendment is important because it’s there to help us rise up and fight tyranny…and yet, I don’t see anyone rushing to do that now!” And I get it, I really do, even if it’s always been a laughable concept to me: the idea that fat, out-of-shape Midwestern Militia types who have these grand fantasies of Red Dawn type revolt or revolution, guys who hoard MREs and dress like a combination of Cabela’s model and GI Surplus collector, are going to literally take down the most massive military in history…a military of trained troops who have significant advantages in obvious ways (materiel, weapons, ordnance, armor, air superiority) and in less obvious advantages (logistics, technology, drones, satellite recon, signals intelligence, etc.)…it’s just not plausible. Could an organized group mount an effective resistance? Certainly. The French Underground in WWII, the Viet Cong, The Mujahideen, and others have shown that by harassment, disruption, and guerrilla tactics, one can mount enough of a resistance to make occupation cease to be worth it to the invaders/enemy. But that’s a long game, one that requires total commitment over a lengthy stretch of time. Most would-be revolutionaries see it as one great, final battle for the Soul of America. That’s just not gonna happen, no matter who’s in power and who’s doing the resisting. Which brings me to the second point about our 2^nd Amendment quandary. The NRA types? The ones crowing about needing arms to fight the would-be kings and dictators who seek to take over our great democracy? They don’t see Trump as a dictator. They see him as their King. There’s nothing to fight, because he’s doing exactly what they’ve always wanted. It would be like college liberals protesting student loan forgiveness or universal healthcare. See, these NRA boys want to export immigrants (legal or otherwise). They want the 10 Commandments up in schools. They want women to be under the direct control of their husbands. They want abortion to be outlawed. They want gays to go back into the closet. They want to be able to call black folks nigger.  Trump’s administration is at the very least enabling these policies (and other sicker, more disturbing ones, like lowering the age of consent, striking down incest laws, etc.) and at worst actively pushing them. Now, the thing is, I know plenty of Lefties who are armed. They either roll with concealed carry or they hunt or they collect firearms or they own weapons for home safety. They’re out there in greater numbers that anyone on the Right could even fathom. The difference is, the Lib guns folks don’t put the PROTECTED BY SIG SAUER stickers on their trucks. They don’t open carry at the mall. They haven’t made guns their entire identity. And I know that there are Conservative gun owners that practice decorum, certainly…folks with rational, mature appreciation for the value of firearm ownership without the crazy Call of Duty fantasies that sometimes go along with it. But I just can’t help but feel that if the GOP had any idea how many “insane Libruls with Trump Derangement Syndrome” are secretly armed to the teeth, I think we would have had some serious gun regulation enacted and on the books by now.

The Christians

Okay, here’s where people end up getting their feelings hurt. Because I know many good-hearted, well-meaning Christians in the United States who despise so many of the policies being pushed and promoted by the current administration. And every time I post an anti-religious meme, I get hit with a “well, I’M Christian, and I LOVE my gay friends!” and I get it, and I am happy for you and glad you exist. I don’t believe in absolutes, so yes, no religion, no school, no government, no individual is 100% good or bad, light or dark, sweet tea or unsweet. And memes and snarky Facebook statuses lack nuance, so therefore they tend to paint all parts of the set with the same brush. I get it. It’s sloppy and lazy, frankly, but also sometimes has a very direct way of getting a message across, so…yeah. But I understand.

He then took a long sip of his coffee, as if pondering, pausing to consider his next words.

Okay, but here’s the truth of the matter: my favorite church (Buddhism isn’t a church, it’s a philosophy, so let’s get that out of the way. Also, some of its core principles are great in theory, but totally unrealistic in modern society, but I digress) is unquestionably the Episcopal Church here in the good ol’ United States of America. Yeah, it used to be the Anglican Church, but after that messy divorce, our founding fathers changed the name. And then, separated from its parent body, the church evolved into a very NPR type of organization, accepting all comers, embracing science, seeking truth, comforting and consoling any and all who suffer…seriously, good stuff. I got married in an Episcopal church by a fellow who had converted from Catholicism. If I had to go to church, like when Project 2025 eventually mandates attendance, I’m going to a big ol’ Episcopal church here in Ft. Wayne, Indiana. But let me be absolutely clear: the Episcopalians in this country barely even register. They make up about 1% of the population. Not 1% of the total church-going population or even 1% of non-Catholic Christians…1% of EVERYONE. Friends, that’s about 3.3 million souls. And hey, when you’re talking millions, that’s pretty good, right? Okay, yeah, something to build on. Except…well, the numbers are shrinking. Remember how I compared the church to NPR? Yeah, that’s because there’s a big overlap. The Episcopal church is insanely white, and fairly old. In other words, there’s not a whole lot of growth in the future of the Episcopal church. That’s probably their fault. They should have been out there in Harlem and Birmingham, spreading the word. Instead, they drove their Audis to their New England chapels, and then stopped by the farmer’s market on the way home before meeting at the courthouse for their BLM march. (All of that sounds absolutely lovely, and there’s not one thing wrong with any of it…but…) Meanwhile, let’s check out the self-proclaimed Baptist population, who check in at…oh. Oh, dear. 12% of the population. That’s roughly 39 million people. Wow. So, the Baptists alone outnumber the Episcopalians 10-to-1. I see. What about our friends, the Catholics? Yes, yes, they dislike birth control and masturbation and homosexuality and really, anything that wastes the man’s precious seed, but how many of them are there? Looks like 20% of my fellow citizens claim to be Catholic, which is…goodness gracious, that amounts to 67 million people. So…together, the Baptists and Catholics (who admittedly don’t always see eye-to-eye) amount to 106 million people. People who ostensibly believe that their particular interpretation of an ancient collection of folklore and mythology should be the Law of the Land. Versus 3 million Liberal Christians sipping soy lattes while affixing a Bernie pin to their blazers. And yes, I know that isn’t the whole picture. I have met a whole bunch of left-leaning Presbyterians, to say nothing of the UCC and other kinder, more accepting, so-called “liberal” churches. Plus, there are Sikhs, Hindus, Jews, and all sorts of religions that fall outside of the umbrella of Christianity. So, again, one big, singular, monochromatic brush is not going to accurately paint the entire picture. But it should remind everyone that the original European settlers of this country were Vikings. Okay, but then AFTER that, the main group were puritans. People shunned by other civilized countries because their religious views were too conservative. Yeah. That’s who was on the Mayflower. That’s who established the foothold in North America. And they never went away. Are there kind, accepting, non-judgmental Catholics? I know there are. Are there Southern Baptist or Methodist preachers in predominantly black churches across the South calling for social justice? Absolutely. Again, no absolutes. But when we’re talking bigger numbers, the law of averages tends to be undefeated. Our founding fathers (who were not perfect by ANY stretch of the imagination) were not big fans of the American puritanical movement. They went to great lengths to try and make our Constitution bulletproof against any would-be Pope King or Pastor Supreme or whatever. But, as has been said by greater minds than mine, the only real threat to a democracy is the will of the people to vote it out of existence. And here we are. And it’s depressing. But another platitude (that nevertheless rings true) is that the first step is admitting the problem. This is where we are, folks. This is the situation, dire as it is, that we have found ourselves in, as a nation. So, now what?

That is the question, indeed.