Get A Grip, Folks!

Okay, people. Let's see if you can all wrap your collective brains around this one. I'll type it in really big letters just in case you need help seeing it:

WHEN FIRST RESPONDERS ARE DOING 

IMMEDIATE RESPONSE, 

VISITS BY PRESIDENTS, POLITICIANS, OR PAPARAZZI

HAMPER AND DELAY RESCUE EFFORTS.

Let me restate this in case you didn't get it the first time:

TOURISTS DO NOT BELONG WHERE 

FIRST RESPONDERS ARE WORKING.

Baton Rouge: Saturday..........Sunday (photo CNN)

If you care about the people in a disaster situation, let the first responders do their jobs. That's what they are there for. No one who does not belong to that place at that time should be there. PERIOD. This means everyone; social status, political status, or voyeur status does not matter. If you get in the way, other people may die. Got it now?

Good. 

Let's move on.  

So, I tried watching the Olympics. Really. I did. Yeah, I know I wrote about it last week, but this week, I want to do the gestalt thing. 

I grew up anticipating each Olympiad with such relish. I couldn't to wait to see the exciting races and feats of daring. I bought into the idea that Olympics were the universal level playing field and every athlete should have a shot of getting there. 

Of course, my faith was shaken once the doping scandals started, but I chose to believe American athletes were clear, all-American, honorable athletes. I believed the IOC was an agency devoted to global cooperation and all things good and fair. I continued to believe that if you were an athlete who made it to the Olympics you would treat all other athletes with respect, dignity, and even a little friendship. I believed if you were good enough to get to the Olympics, you were part of a bigger, global family that would change you forever, and you would  bring home those principles. 

I also believed in the Tooth Fairy. 

Can't say 4 members of the American men's swim team did much to add to the feeling of national pride. Frankly, I think Ryan Lochte should be serving time in both countries: in Brazil for vandalism, and in the States for embarrassing an entire nation. At the very least, he should be banned from representing the US in any activity. It's the lie, folks, that did him in. 

But that is only one part of the Olympic experience that will stick with me. This year, the broadcast was one long commercial interspersed with a few minutes of athletics. There were so many commercials I thought I was watching the Super Bowl. And they weren't even that good. 

As for the coverage, let's be real plain and get to the point: the sexist, degrading sports reporting was something so inexcusable in this century that it was an embarrassment to listen to it. I thought Elizabeth Plank of VOX did a brilliant compilation piece on the double standard:

Do yourself a favor and watch this. 

And speaking about sexist reporting, there have been a rash of naked Donald Trump statues popping up. They're pretty ugly, and I'm not gonna post a picture here. And I will tell you why.

If we are going to take issue with body shaming women, turnabout is not fair play. As my mother used to drill into my head (until the day she died) two wrongs don't make a right, and posting the picture would be a wrong. Yes, the statues are graphic and the man has earned that well-honed craft of political satirical attacks, but this is not that. This is not a cartoon, it's not a drawing, it's crude, malicious, and no better than what some men continue to do to women they don't even know. It's just not nice. 

Besides, the hands are too big. Just kidding. It needed a punch line. 

And speaking of pictures I did yet did not want to see, my big brother sent me a picture of the headstone which was set last week. The official unveiling won't take place until next spring, when Mom's year is up and we can all travel to New York. I'm sure there will be pastrami involved. 

There is something final about seeing the names engraved in stone, knowing that they are, well, permanent. And very real. 

May their memories forever be for a blessing. 

Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week

Be extra kind to your pets in this extreme heat. 

They can't tell you how much it's stressing their bodies,

but it is.