The View from a Drawbridge

Tag: Security

  • Fascism: The Warning Signs

    Very often, I hear people confuse Communism and Socialism and Fascism. They use the terms interchangeably, which makes me realize they really haven’t a clue as to each system’s basic tenets. They have just been taught that they mean “bad” and feel that’s all they need to know. I find this very disheartening, and potentially…

  • Tent Life

    Every day here in Seattle I drive past little homeless encampments. They seem to be everywhere. They gather under the overpasses, in the little clumps of forest, and even on the sidewalks. Their tents are ragged and dirty, and usually they sit amongst a field of garbage. It’s heartbreaking to witness, especially during a pervasive…

  • Coming to the Rescue

    I just had a long talk with my newest dog, Quagmire. Don’t panic. I’m not Son of Sam. I’m willing to acknowledge that the conversation was rather one-sided. But just by being the dog that he is, he was able to tell me quite a bit. Before I adopted him, he was found dirty, terrified,…

  • It’s a Jungle Out There

    When I moved from Florida to Seattle, one of the things that shocked me the most was the number of homeless people in this city. You’d think that Florida would have cornered the market on the homeless because the weather is so much warmer, but apparently not. I have no idea why that is. Here…

  • “It’s a leaf.”

    I had some business to do at the courthouse. When I entered the building, I waited patiently in line like a good girl to pass through the metal detector. I couldn’t be more harmless if my life depended on it, but I’ve come to accept that this is a world in which one occasionally has…

  • The REAL Sword of Damocles

    Most of us are sort of familiar with this Greek story. The sword represents peril. It hangs by a single horse hair over Damocles’ head. All well and good. But the moral of the story is actually that people in positions of power can never rest easy in spite of their luxurious lives. They have…

  • The Majority Minority

    The other day I was listening to an interview on National Public Radio. The woman who was speaking was a refugee from Yemen who had to flee that country under a hail of bullets, and had lost everything she ever had. She was discussing how hard it had been to get out of the country,…

  • Major Scandal… Once Upon a Time

    Several decades ago, before I was a bridgetender and was still an office drone, there was a major scandal at my place of work. It seems that the director of personnel was found in the supply closet with a secretary from another department. And both were married. Gasp! Aside from the fact that the head…

  • Ways to Increase Your Safety

    I take the issue of safety very seriously, perhaps more so than the average person. Due to some abuse I experienced in my childhood, I have been diagnosed with PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder). It gets triggered when I feel as if people in positions of authority don’t have my best interests at heart, or…

  • Security Blankets

    When I was little I had a security blanket. No, I wasn’t as bad as Linus. I didn’t take it everywhere I went. But I did sleep with it and it gave me a great deal of comfort during some really trying times. It was made of flannel, so it deteriorated as the years went…