Quiet at the park today

[0rganism]

Usually, this time of year on a Saturday, the park near my house is full of humans, full of Hispanic people celebrating life with their families. Cumpleaños, Quinciñeras, picnics, pot-lucks, bar-b-ques, bouncy houses for the kids, huge soccer games spanning multiple huge families, parking all up and down the streets near my house, children and pets running everywhere, every weekend a festival. Vibrancy. Community. Alegría en la vida. This close to July 4th, in the afternoon, the teenagers would normally be setting off ladyfingers, bottle rockets, the little fireworks that push more noise than light.

Today? Nothing. Silence. Not even that damn ice cream truck playing the first 8 bars of music-box dancer on a tight loop. Not a sound. Might as well be an interment service at the cemetery down the road. One distant siren. A dog barks briefly in a neighbor's yard. The occasional "whoosh" of a car going past on a feeder road.

Weather's nearly perfect, too -- 75', not too humid, lots of sunshine.

Really feels like the MAGA cult has murdered the joy of a once-thriving local LatinX subculture, I bet the Magats are proud of it too.

Ruined. Like a knife through the heart, our country's been mortally wounded, breathing its last as the light fades from its eyes.

[Ping Tung]

1. They made a desert and call it peace. Tacitus

[0rganism]

2. "I think you're confusing peace with quiet." -- Ultron

Not really a match for Tacitus, but we work with what we got, right?

[markodochartaigh]

5. Although Tacitus said that he was quoting Calgacus

a Caledonian chief. I think that there is some discussion about that, since Tacitus probably agreed with the speech he reported to his uncle, Agricola, governor of Briton.


"You have not tasted servitude. There is no land beyond us and even the sea is no safe refuge when we are threatened by the Roman fleet....We are the last people on earth, and the last to be free: our very remoteness in a land known only to rumour has protected us up till this day. Today the furthest bounds of Britain lie open—and everything unknown is given an inflated worth. But now there is no people beyond us, nothing but tides and rocks and, more deadly than these, the Romans. It is no use trying to escape their arrogance by submission or good behaviour. They have pillaged the world: when the land has nothing left for men who ravage everything, they scour the sea. If an enemy is rich, they are greedy, if he is poor, they crave glory. Neither East nor West can sate their appetite. They are the only people on earth to covet wealth and poverty with equal craving. They plunder, they butcher, they ravish, and call it by the lying name of 'empire'. They make a desert and call it 'peace'"

https://penelope.uchicago.edu/encyclopaedia_romana/britannia/monsgraupius/calgacus.html

[Irish_Dem]

3. Yes Trump is destroying America, piece by piece.

Group by group.

Destroying, killing, injuring, damaging everything and everyone.

The worst is destroying love, joy, pride, excellence, hard work, patriotism.
Destroying everything that made America great.

ETA: You write very well, this OP is an excellent observation and commentary.
Paints a vivid word picture.

[Trueblue Texan]

4. He's doing exactly what Agent T*ump was assigned to do.

And he's getting wealthier while he completes his mission.

[Irish_Dem]

6. Success beyond Putin's wildest dreams.