It is the bittersweet end to high summer on the farm. County fairs in the lush green country. Advertising out for the Harvest farm tours. I like the Fall here at Refuge Farm. Labor Day still looms, but the ordinary rhythm of the seasons is as perturbed as everything else these days.

My thoughts go out to Justice Ginsberg- the “Notorious RBG”- and her battle with pancreatic cancer. I have always admired her scrappy approach to the bench, tempered by the fact that she was a warm human being and a close friend to former Justice Antonin Scalia. Despite their philosophical differences, that showed me a lot about how courtesy and kindness can work. Of course, all things are political first these days, and the struggle and mud that will fly the instant RBG decides to leave the High Court.

The Kavenaugh confirmation circus still makes my head hurt.

I have been following the news of the dog-end of summer with bilious interest. I mean, for some families school started last week, possibly to account for the expected snow days anticipated this winter cycle. You know, the big climate emergency that the DNC refuses to include in their debate cycle, even though I keep hearing about the Existential Threat to Life on Mother Gaia that will culminate in Doom within the Decade (Trademark pending).

Apparently there is a 97% chance that this is a combination of natural cycles and political science (not the kind we grew up with, and precisely the corrupt sort that Dwight Eisenhower warned us about back when I was still learning to walk).

Oh well. We “celebrated” anniversary of “1619” over the weekend here in he Old Dominion where it all began. That appears to be part of a New York Times campaign to highlight the “fact” that this marvelous Republic was founded on vicious racism, and probably means I am obligated to help chip in to reparations to people who never experienced the personal horror of the institution.

I quiver a bit in these times to point out that Africans were brought in chains to this shore 400 years ago under the direct authority of the Royal Governor, acting on behalf of the Crown in London. It stayed that way for a century and a half until we could decide for ourselves, at some considerable sacrifice, in 1776. It took the biggest conflict in our nation’s history to finally end it.

It took a while, but The Framers could not solve all the ills of the world, but they made a hell of a start.

If I am expected to participate in this, based on a family history of pugnacious and stubborn Scots and Irish who only participated in the abominable institution to fight it, then I expect the Queen to get her share of the bill.

Having a wonderful time. Tanned, rested and ready. Wish you were here.

Copyright 2019 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com