3 January 2025
I feel better today although I still have a residual cough and runny nose. Thank goodness I sleep well and don’t cough through the night any more. When Wade was here, we would take turns coughing to the degree it sounded like an echo.
I had lunch today with Joel, Keith and John at Season’s 52. It’s a nice restaurant and they had instituted their winter menu. I had their combination flat bread (chicken and pesto) with mushroom soup. It was good to see the guys and John and I celebrated Keith’s birthday a little early by treating him.
Afterwards, I headed to the nearest post office to send off a package to Wade that he couldn’t take with him on the plane. I had my Amazon Chase card declined. That’s the third time that’s happened when I tried to use the card in person.
I called Chase and I apparently declined a charge for $39 from England. Chase thinks it was fraud so they canceled the card but didn’t let me know. Strangely, online purchases went through and Chase explained that online purchases were rolled over to the new card which has already been sent to me via UPS.
I’m glad Chase is semi on top of things by canceling the card but a little miffed they didn’t tell me the card was canceled.
I continued to try for good luck yesterday by eating more black-eyed peas. I’m not sure it counts the day after New Years but I figure it couldn’t hurt.
I sent out an email to my gay friends yesterday. A LGTQ+ Newsletter noted three acts of violence against gay men: two beatings and one stabbing that resulted in the death of the individual. The two beatings occurred within a few hours of each other. Teens had lured two men by their Grindr accounts. When the men thought they were meeting with another gay man, the teens surrounded and beat them. It seems this is a new thing with teens – luring people, beating them, and recording the beating. I did’t say the teens were smart. Cell phones were confiscated and individuals identified. Some 11 teens were charged.
The stabbing occurred when a person on the same floor as a gay man, who had continually spouted homophobic comments and a threat to kill him, actually ambushed him and stabbed him to death. He admitted to the stabbing and showed no remorse.
I wanted to warn, with my forwarding of the newsletter, my friends to be observant of their surroundings and to be safe. The next day I read in the Sun-Sentinel that a man’s partner had been killed by a bullet on New Years. The man had gone with friends for a drink and had returned to be with his partner. They went out to their patio when a bullet came from across the narrow river and killed the partner who came to be with the other man for midnight, New Years. The shot had to have been fired in a direct line to kill the man.
I have friends that will now not eat outdoor along Wilton Drive for fear of someone driving by and shooting. Antisemitic, antigay, and anti-anyone different are on an alarming increase along with hate speech and hate posts online.
I have spent most of my life looking over my shoulder, wondering if I would be attacked. I thought we had moved past that but it seems I now need to be more careful, more observant, and more intuitive when things might go wrong.
I was reared a Methodist and I never remember anything in church teachings that told me to hate anyone for any reason. You may not agree with someone else’s religion, lifestyle, or race but I haven’t found any religion that suggests you hate based on any of these characteristics and I have had a course in wold religions while in college.
The one thing I know is children don’t naturally hate anyone. They are taught to hate and that is taught by their parents. Life is tough enough without you worrying about your safety based on what someone’s child has been taught. The idea that people don’t feel safe to walk down the street is an abomination. We, as a country, need to do a little self reflection about where we are heading.
Stay tuned!