Fiction is one of my favorite reading choices. Contrary to some opinions, it is fodder for the intelligent as well. Fiction writers that I enjoy are avid researchers about what they write. They know the history, the science and the social stats before they put pen to paper. At least those that I most enjoy have earned my respect. Lately, though, reading the news which I prefer to listening to, rather than the droning "radio announcer" voices, I wonder if what I read, isn't fiction. The bizarre encounters that are happening in our Western World are becoming akin to tapping into a nightly fictional series on TV streaming. People shooting randomly at targets of various kinds with bullets flying around and often hitting innocent people are not uncommon reports. Robberies, muggings and stabbings happen daily not only on city streets, but in remote and rural areas, too. People die frozen where they lie, in homeless shelters because the buildings that are offered to care for them, are told they don't have overhead sprinklers. Regulation has become a monster that works beyond humane efforts. Certain elected officials dictate where pipelines will go, where mines can be located, where housing will take place and who will do it while we, the tax payer population peers, read in in the news where our money is going. Huh? Our votes are worn like pretty pendants that we put on some, but ones can't remove or shine up. How often do you and I ask ourselves, "what in the world is going on - am I dreaming?" I feel as though I am walking in fiction in my everyday life. Perhaps, you too, before going out on the street to shop or visit, wonder if you will be safe after reading about the stabbing of a fellow sidewalker, or a dog that dies due to a substance someone dropped on the dogpark grass or that an innocent person is mistaken as a criminal and man-handled and handcuffed, or that criminals out for a nice day leave commit further crimes. It's becoming normal and normal seems like fiction to me at times. No wonder parents don't want their kids out beyond their eyesight. Or am I seeing it all wrongly?
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