When the Odds Are Against Us

They say those loosing both parents have a fifty percent chance of survival.  The mortality rate for children loosing both parents is fifty percent.  We can discern burying both parents, even if over a long period of time, is taxing to children.  Is it logical to assume children who have grown up, married, and established their on families have an easier time?  I think not.  I would think that children who have had little or negative interaction with their parents, or who have been separated from them, may have an easier time.  It means the emotional anguish all ready has developed, been internalized, and cast its spell over the offspring.  They may hate their parents for various reasons.  It is those children who were reared in a supportive and loving environment who have the most trouble.  It is called loss, and loss comes in several flavors.  When love is involved, no matter how tangible or abstract, it heightens the anguish.  Is it better to have loved and lost than never loved before?  I experienced my first grievous loss when I was in my twenties.  I was spared in adolescence, but I also realized early that you had to work for what you had.  If you wanted a better life and possibly love, it didn't come to you.  You had to pursue it, and it took work.  The equation for love is both complex and simple.  As a society America has lost track of many things, and love is one of them.  We can't even decide our gender, and we have learned to use love as a tool of manipulation.  This is one of the great torches of the American free market.  We learned to exploit humanity for profit, thus we sell love at the highest most achievable price.  Selling love is troublesome and problematic, but selling sex doesn't have to be.  Other nations have figured this out before America, and thus prostitution is legal, regulated, and safe.  It is for adults.  When is the last time we heard the words "adult content."  We, as an American society, no longer know who we are or what are our values.  Solidarity has slipped through our fingers at the polls.  We have been irresponsible in our choices of our elected leaders, and those leaders have forsaken us.  If we don't do the work, behave responsibly, and pay attention to human life, we will perish.  Perhaps we are too busy trying to make ends meet to have much chance to read, think, and observe.  It is no coincidence.  Our government, a malicious and self-centered regime, has aided our naivete.  They have passed and not passed legislation that has harmed us in many ways.  Our economic needs are not being met, nor are our health concerns.  We have been neglected.  Whether we want to admit it or not, America always has been reliant upon our governments.  It has leaned so far that way, that we have become clandestine socialist.  The government provides much for us in many ways.  If the economy was working efficiently and there was economic and social mobility (like there has been at other times in history) we would be more self sufficient.  Society being led by our federal, state, and local governments, must provide this canvas for American life.  It means all people must be involved (solidarity), and classism must be kept to a minimum.  The economic inequality we have allowed because of poor choices at the polls and poor leadership will be the death of American democracy.  We all ready have lost it, because the rich have hijacked America through a weak, subservient, incompetent Congress.  Lobby money has been the fuel for this hijacking.  It is just bribery.  You can have opportunity to provide for yourself, when you reap the benefits of your labors, or someone (a Communist or Socialist regime) can just pay you off.  Most Americans cherish their freedom to earn and mind for themselves.  This anachronistic, autocratic, and totalitarian vision of Donald Trump is so antiquated, harmful, and evil the entire world is cringing in disbelief.  I thought loosing both parents was going to be a challenge, but it pales to what is facing America today.  For me all of it is mixed up together in a house, and because I am a musician.  Musicians must make noise.  In most situations it is considered music and is pleasing, but in the wrong situation when America has been hijacked by fascists, music is the enemy.  It is the metaphor for American freedom.  How did music become arch enemy number one?  In the milieu of Donald Trump's political strategies, disguising real American history is paramount.  It is being called "Cancel Culture," but what it is is disguising or completely eliminating the greatest accomplishments of America.  It is like utterly destroying the West Bank, saying Palestine never existed, and building a resort where lay the smoldering remains of a viable (but possible unpopular) culture.  History is what creates that relevance.  History is and should be the framework for the future.  Wiping out large swaths of culture, people, and countries for personal gain.  What is this sin?  If society is to become compliant in this new reorganization or gentrification, they can't remember.  Understanding, preserving, and promulgating America's achievements is key.  With the total lack of care and nurturing of the American people, and with this newly forged blatant animosity of middle and lower class earners, it will not be long before America returns to slavery.  Jazz was a direct reaction to the freeing of slaves.  Its expression, its honesty, and its exuberance are the enemy of evil, fascist, and self-serving regimes.  That is because all of it is driven by spirituality and the acknowledgment of a Higher Being.  If life on earth all ready is Hell, then there must be a Heaven.  Music, in a nutshell, has become an enemy of the state clandestinely and at the behest of Donald Trump's aspirations.  For that reason, and because he is weak, if music decides to resurrect in a real way for the real reasons, Satan could be defeated.  My fight to mourn the loss of my parents, to continue to function as a musician, and to duck ensuing enslavement has become seemingly insurmountable.  At least it seems like the most difficult fight of my life, because it all comes to fruition at the same time.