Missing

January 30 is a storied date; a date marked, marred, and memorialized by fame and infamy. The Associated Press website home page regularly features Today in History, a reminder of important events that took place on this day in years past. This morning, the page lists a world-changing historical quartet of errors that ushered in the end of January in years gone by.

• 1933: Hitler named chancellor of Germany
• 1948: Gandhi assassinated in New Delhi
• 1968: Tet Offensive begins in Vietnam War
• 1972: Northern Ireland’s ‘Bloody Sunday

There is no doubt in my mind that many, many, many more infamous historical events have taken place on January 30. These four, though, offer just a glimpse at a few that took place on just one day out of 365 (or so) in each of four years. We mark the passage of time with a sampling of evidence that humans, as a species, engaged in noteworthy bad behavior in the past…and an implicit suggestion that earth-shattering calamities can occur at any moment. No day in history is immune to scourges brought about by humankind. But every day also may be viewed through rose-colored glasses. For example, Gene Hackman would have turned 96 years old today, had he not died just 19 days after his 95th birthday last year. Yes, just shy of a year after his death, his birthday made the news.  There’s more, of course. But finding a list of “good news” on a specific date is not quite as easy to find as is chaos and consternation. Still, the mere fact that an online search for good news on a given date can, indeed, yield  results. ABC News posted a video piece about a woman who lost $300 in cash at a New York City bagel shop on January 7. In reply to her posts asking if anyone had seen her lost money, one man’s offer of $10 to the woman sparked a flurry of similar reactions. The woman’s lost money was not found, but contributions from the community replaced it.

“Hard” news is readily accessible; it is, in fact, pumped into us from all directions. But news that can restore some shreds of confidence in torn and shattered humanity is less common. Finding that treasure can take work; it is worth the effort, though, if for no other reason than to reduce the weight of the world crushing one’s shoulders.

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Something is missing. Something important…crucial, I suspect…but I do not know what it is. I feel the emptiness, yet I can’t say where I feel it. Whatever it is, I sense it is not simply missing. It is gone. Irrevocably, irretrievably, utterly, completely…gone. It cannot be replaced, nor rebuilt, nor resurrected. It may have been snatched by a thief; stolen. I doubt it, though. More likely is that its disappearance took place slowly, the way days grow dim and dissolve into night. The way misty nights gradually absorb light, replacing sightlessness with blindness. But what is this absent “thing” or “idea?” How did it get this far—how is it that I am just now noticing it? Well, I’m not suddenly becoming aware of the vacant space—I’ve sensed its impending loss for much of my life. This missing… something…is accompanied by melancholy; an overwhelming sadness for which there is no cure and from which there is no recovery.

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If time had substance, I could warm it with flames or cool it with cubes of ice. If “this” were preferable to “that,” I could watch the two of them squabble before announcing, “This is mine! And that is a bald-faced lie!”

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Traditional policing is not working, suggesting low batteries or job elimination. We need non-traditional policing. Policing in which officers carry sabers and flamethrowers. Police officers should act only on the advice of counsel or in response to inflexible commands delivered by officers of the court. Judges must be deployed in the field, with officers, so they can hand down sentences with immediate effect. Electronic surveillance equipment, professionally installed by certified, trained, police intrusion specialists, should be required in every home, automobile, shed, shack, garage, banquet hall, arena, convention center, and operational tent.  Specialized police “intrusionists,” equipped with advanced mind-reading equipment, have long been authorized to conduct anticipatory policing operations, thereby preventing crimes that otherwise would have been bound to occur. Although some complaints about anticipatory policing have been received, the complainants were preemptively arrested, tried, and sentenced to lengthy prison terms. The greatest value associated with anticipatory policing is the fact that “intrusionists” often know of criminals’ plans even before the criminals know of them. Claims of impropriety against the police are routinely dismissed as nuisance allegations.

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A week has passed since work on our remodeling jobs (kitchen and baths) came to a screeching halt. Extremely hazardous road conditions made travel in vehicles and on foot an exercise in stupidity. The crew working on our remodel are not stupid. Some other people in our unincorporated little village, though, are. That’s the way the world works, I suppose.

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I do not wish to be whimsical or silly or otherwise unserious, but the alternative is to surrender to the dark grey clouds hidden just beyond the clear blue sky. The available options are hideous. Speed involves time and distance.