by Dhiren Shah
Hello Readers,
Chaos in Washington. This problem is not one that just started today. Since I have launched Local Talk in 2000, I have observed things. In a couple of editorials in or about 2005, I predicted that by 2015, there will be street protests, and that the politicians of both parties would be to blame. The majority of the politicians are working for themselves or working for lobbyists behind the scenes.
Trump has ignited this a little more. He addressed people at his rally, and gave his clear indication that the election was stolen. Trump tried this as a final effort to save this election. However, he should have waited for 2024. Joseph Biden is the clear winner. Trump should accept the results and move on, in my opinion, Trump talked about putting the US first and talked against China. However, our democracy must be kept intact. Trump should come out and calm down the mob. His supporters must stop this craziness. No violence should be tolerated. Trump … come on, accept the loss and let the country run smoothly for the people of the United States of America.
Now, on to what I really wanted to say. Happy New Year to all, with the hope that everyone is healthy, happy and finds peace within themselve . We have fought with many problems created by the coronavirus. Most of us stayed quarantined or stayed away from each other, except for family members who stayed in your household. We started washing our hands many times during the day and protecting ourselves with masks, hand gloves and hand sanitizers. There were some benefits by staying home. You became closer to your family members. You got more time to think about yourself, and especially thinking about your purpose in life.
In looking at the purpose of life has many angles to look at. But the best thing, in my opinion, is that we all should have inner peace. The purpose of any religion is to bring inner peace, but many times it may be diverted by rituals. Rituals are necessary to keep people together with a motive, but many times rituals will divert your goal of inner peace, adding more stress as well. I am not a religious person like one can call themselves Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Hindi, Jain or many other religious connections. Most religions have one goal, to teach someone to be a better human. But when some religious leaders try to restrict followers into thinking only one way, I have a problem with that. Humans have a very powerful brain (there is a myth we are using 10% of our brain), so we should take in all angles of the situation or belief. But this is my opinion, as everyone has a right to their own opinion.
The COVID-19 lockdown or staying at home situation taught us how to survive without many things in life. Humans have very limited needs to survive, but we have trained our minds in a wrong direction and are forcing ourselves to have certain things a certain way. So, we can live our lives in simple ways and little needs. Happiness with simplicity may help you find inner peace.
The most important issue of the stimulus package is to help the needy. But it is exceedingly difficult for the lawmakers to design it and word it right. Also, when we generalize the business or a group, some may have been affected and some have not. For instance, most of the restaurants are affected, but the pizza stores are not as much. One of the pizza store owners said that they had more business than last year in the pandemic. Pizza is a hot food, so it is safe to eat, and that helped pizza become more popular for people eating outside. Dine-in restaurants got hurt more. I heard on the radio that one of the restaurants in South Orange used to make about $25,000 on New Year’s Eve. This year, they hope to get $3,000 due to COVID-19 restrictions.
In Essex County, one school or college has 83 coronavirus cases, and they did not declare the name of the school. I don’t understand this. It is not their fault, but by declaring the name, other schools and colleges will take better precautions to protect their students.
Have a wonderful week.
I’ll talk to you next week.
