Call Them War Casualties

   We've had snowy, cold and flooding weather this past month. On Monday the 5th of February school was canceled because of some snow, cold temperatures and spreading flu. On Friday of that week we had over 6" of snow to give us a long weekend. Phillip moved into his new house in League City Texas the 3rd of February and on the weekend of the 17th, Jane and I were in Canton as his belongings were loaded for moving. They worked from 8-5 on Saturday and finished Sunday 8-12 so we could eat at Best Burger and head home. Starting Tuesday the 20th through Thursday we had 4" of rain that caused the pumping station to shut down and the backyard to completely flood and require Lukas, Jane and I to remove over 50 buckets of water from our basement's floor drain backing up. The city of Lansing had much flooding and road closures around the low lying river areas. The Grand River crested Friday at its highest level since 1975. Our nation is in turmoil since the St. Valentines Day shooting in a Parkland School in Florida by a former student with a military AR-15 rifle making 17 war victims dead and many traumatized and wounded. But this time there is a united front demanding action to the inaction of the president and congress's thoughts and prayers. The NRA naturally are scapegoating blame and the president's mixed solutions are not even sensible in the face of this warlike tragedy.  Then there is the goat man in Detroit who was beaten and robbed in his poor home near Nevada and John R. Street by people he allowed to stay with him. *"He was bullied as a kid. Laughed at as an adult. He's had few real friends. All of this could have made him bitter and with-drawn. Instead he somehow became a proponent of peace and love, an energetic advocate for the outcasts and the oddballs". Why can't we in our own way be Just like him! By the way the goat is named Deer and remains Erick's best friend and loyal buddy.     *John Carlisle Detroit Free Press