Trying to Stop being Clever

Police corruption goes back a long way. It has existed as long as police have.  In recent years a lot more attention has been brought to the misdeeds of law enforcement thanks to the prevalence of digital video. Is it worse now than it's ever been? Probably not. But in the past the people who cried foul would often be dismissed due to their relationship to the victim, their testimony ignored because they were part of "the criminal element." Well it's harder to argue with video evidence than it is to discount the tale of a mother, brother or friend of someone the system has deemed "undesirable." Due to population increase, the occurrence of these incidents will be greater by numbers alone, while percentages may or may not rise. To be fair, I have done zero research for this opinion piece.  Are more blacks being killed than in the past? Again, sheer numbers due to population may say yes, but I think that this has been going on all along, and it is the respon

CNN is sort of backpedaling about declaring Hillary as the winner of Tuesday's debate. All the reports were that she won, and now their coverage seems to imply that there was no clear winner, and that Bernie definitely made an impression. While it's great that he grabbed so much attention with the email remark, I think I can say that we are all sick of hearing that Bernie is sick of hearing about Hillary's emails. Definitely a classy move, but he has so many more important things to be heard. I don't see his saying he's from "a rural state" as a cop-out on gun control as some have intimated, I think it's simply admitting a certain amount of ignorance on the viewpoints of those heavily affected by gun violence. It sounded to me like he's open to discuss it and take the advice of people who know more about it, who see guns and their ownership differently than someone for whom guns were a part of growing up, a part of one's routine. I just w

This is not about me, about my need to be right or my pride or desire to show off or put people down or prove anything. It's also not about run-on sentences, so let's move on. The part that is me is the desire to respect our language and to understand it and to use it in a way that is both useful and graceful. People have probably told you that, when speaking properly, you say "...and I" rather than "...and me." While that is sometimes correct, it does not apply to every time you want to add yourself as a participant in a sentence. As bad as "and me" sounds to the people who told you, "it's 'and I'!", that's how bad an incorrect "and I" sounds to the discerning ear. In fact, it's a little worse, because it sounds like the person is trying to speak properly and, in doing so, is drawing attention to the impropriety of it. I'm not mad at you. I'm mad at the people who tell you "it's 'and