2019: Resolving to Ask Obvious Questions

Now that 2018 is finally gone, it’s time to look back at it with the wonder and disgust it truly deserves. 2018 turned out to be a banner year for not asking what should have been asked. Way too many people in this country simply stopped asking the basic, obvious questions they should have been asking. Why?

Was it apathy? Was it genuine lack of curiosity?

Or did everyone just get sick and tired of asking questions because they collectively realized they’d never get any truthful answers from the powers-that-be?

Well, being tired of the B.S. isn’t necessarily going to stop inquiring minds from making inquiries. If you’re anything like me, dear readers, your simmering pot of curiosity is still bubbling with a lot of unanswered questions. Take heed. This op-ed has been written expressively for you. As Americans, we all have to question everything if we want to keep our democracy in good working order. Ask, ask away, and keep asking. No matter how silly — or downright stupid — your questions seem, keep asking. Keep wondering. Be curious. Continue to probe.

What am I talking about?

Let’s start with the Minnesota Vikings.

*Why did so many sports fans at our local and state government levels believe that gifting the Vikings with a brand new stadium and new training facility, along with new uniforms, could help them win football games?
No matter where you go, what you wear, or who you are, the game is the same: throw football, catch football, keep other team from doing same.
*But if this game really consists of millionaires trying to give other millionaires brain injuries — as comic Bill Mahr once quipped — why do the non-millionaires like us have to keep footing the bill for football games?

*By the way, why does everyone keep saying NFL players are “taking the knee” during the playing of our national anthem when they are actually engaging in an extended genuflection — an archaic but accepted sign of utmost respect?
Accuracy and clarity, begone! It’s about as if the NFL ordered sports media to use this phrase just to make the players look bad.

*Why must successful retailers keep changing and “improving” their stores until they drive their customers away?
In general, customers crave bargains, selection, and availability. They enjoyed shopping at Target because their stores provided all these things with affordable, competitive — and cheaper — prices. So what did this retail giant do? Big T embarked on a master plan to remodel all their stores — and effectively eliminate all the things their customers loved about Target. Bye, bye, stuff we wanted to buy. Hello, higher prices. Why? Why?

*How come whenever a white guy says he didn’t commit a crime, the authorities usually let him go free, but when a black guy says the same thing they lock him up?
Check out my previous postings from “The Richfield Patch:”
“What if The Person of Interest in The Jacob Wetterling Case Had Been a Black Guy?” (September11, 2016), and “Jacob Wetterling Aftermath: FUBARS AND HURT FEELINGS FROM THE FBI,” (September 27, 2018).

You get the idea. Maybe the questions a lot of people wanted to ask simply never got asked last year…And so, no actual answers were forthcoming. This year, we could change that: We, The People, could start asking. More importantly, we could start expecting and demanding non-B.S. answers, too.

We could begin by making inquiries about sports, shopping venues, current events. Then we could move into the political realm. How about another perspective on the border wall:
Every year the CDC warns parents about the dire consequences of NOT getting children their yearly flu shots. Children who don’t get vaccinated could face hospitalization — or even death! But no similar concerns were voiced about this incoming group of exhausted, dehydrated immigrant children who would be separated from their parents and caged like animals in crowded, unsanitary conditions. The Trump Administration, Homeland Security, and Fox guru Sean Hannity carried on about the filth and disease these new immigrants were bringing into our country. But they showed no concerns about the filth and diseases our country might be giving to these kids. Common sense and preventative healthcare really fell by the wayside this time.
*Why were potential risks and hazards that these children with health vulnerabilities faced never considered or addressed by the Trump Administration?

And now, something else no one wants to think about: Hillary Clinton’s e-mails.

Most people are familiar with government declassification of top secret documents and info but not that familiar with the converse process of reclassifying non-secret info to the status of top secret. It happened at The State Department after Hillary Clinton left her job as Secretary of State. That is, when she was using and communicating information, it wasn’t TOP SECRET. Only AFTER she was no longer employed as Secretary of State did the material in question become TOP SECRET.
*So why did no one ever clarify that these charges brought against Hillary Clinton’s misuse of her e-mail server were RETROACTIVE ONES? WHY DID NO ONE BRING UP THIS IMPORTANT FACT?

*If freedom of speech still exists in this country why has Trump repeatedly tried to muzzle Americans — especially women — who criticize him?

When Trump learned that Senator Elizabeth Warren claimed Native American ancestry, he mercilessly ridiculed her. In caustic tweets and at public rallys, he denounced her with derogatory remarks. He even derided her with the nickname Pocahontas. Then he declared he’d pay her a million dollars if she could prove she was, in his own words, “a real Indian.” So she did. Senator Warren took a DNA test that revealed she did indeed have Native American ancestry. But after he lost the bet, Trump refused to pay her the million dollars!
*So why did subsequent media coverage focus on alleged anger from Native Americans toward Senator Warren and not on the tacky way Trump welshed on the bet?

*Come to think of it, if the late Senator John McCain was such a great American visionary why did his own party ignore his sage warnings about allowing Trump to run for the Presidency on the Republican ticket?

*If former U.S. Representative(and now current MN. State Attorney General) Keith Ellison was “so emotionally abusive” to girlfriend Karen Monahan why was he the only one to rush to her aid after her car ran out of gas on the freeway?
*And, if he had really been that abusive to her, how come he graciously allowed her to stay at his house after she claimed their relationship was over but couldn’t move out because she couldn’t immediately find a new residence?
(Just thinking about Monahan’s inconsistent accounts she unleashed during the 2018 campaign can make your head spin).

And finally, more on Trump’s Border Wall. For years Trump has been promising Americans a border wall that Mexico would pay for. Surprise! Mexico has repeatedly announced it would NOT pay for such a wall. And yet, Congress still agreed to give him 1.3 billion dollars for Border Security — even though that amount was not requested in the budget plan Trump gave to Congress. So Congress was willing to fund something he swore we would never have to pay for in the first place…and he still has a hissy fit?
So here’s the question we should be asking now:
*Isn’t it unconstitutional for the President to shut down the U.S. Government just because he didn’t get his own way?

Furthermore, CNN KNOWS that Trump’s rhetoric on building the Border Wall is essentially false.
*So why does CNN keep airing TV commercials from Trump’s Administration about building the Border Wall?
*Why is CNN — a cable news network ever critical of Trump — being complicit in broadcasting Trump’s lies?

There’s a time to laugh, a time to cry. Then there’s a time to ask the obvious questions, and to make noise if the answers aren’t forthcoming. In 2019, let’s all resolve to start asking — and start making noise, if necessary.