EDITORIAL by Dhiren Shah
Hello Readers,
Thanksgiving will be on this Thursday. The meaning of Thanksgiving is very good, the expression of gratitude, especially to God. Peace and harmony, bringing families together, understanding each other, bringing joy within the family and friends. But is it the same way people celebrate Thanksgiving nowadays? Thanksgiving has become a commercial holiday. Many of us still bring families together but are you trying to forgive the past if the family members have done something wrong? The best part of Thanksgiving in my opinion is to forgive the bitterness with someone close to you. In the old days, before they departed for the winter months, people collected some memories from each other and thought with goodness, rather than bitter experiences. I wish all our readers a happy and peaceful Thanksgiving with fond memories.
When I talk about bitterness, it goes beyond the family. You must have heard about Wisconsin Parade incident. So horrible…5 people dead (four women and one man) and over 40 injured, including about a dozen of children. They all were there to enjoy the Waukesha Christmas Parade. But one person, Darrell Brooks, 39, was fleeing a domestic incident when the SUV he was driving plowed into the parade. It was recommended that Brooks be charged with 5 counts of homicide. I think that’s not enough. The politicians make the investigation committees and most of the time, the committees are with political connections. The committees should be totally neutral, with no racial or political bias.
In the Ahmaud Arbery case, the closing arguments were done on Nov. 22 and the 12 jurors (11 white and one black) went for deliberation. Even if we did accept the argument of the defense that Arbery was stealing something, that does not give any right to three people to chase him, and for one of them to shoot Arbery.
According to the local Channel 4, “Father and son Greg and Travis McMichael grabbed guns and pursued Arbery in a pickup truck after spotting him running through their subdivision on Feb. 23, 2020. A neighbor, William ‘Roddie’ Bryan, joined the chase and recorded the video of Travis McMichael opening fire as Arbery threw punches and grabbed for McMichael’s shotgun.”
If it is true, what would anyone have done in the place of Arbery? Three big men with weapons attacking and one lone person throwing the punches does not give them the right to shoot someone. It is a clear case of racial discrimination in my opinion, as I have read and heard it in different news media.
The gas prices are up, and the oil rich countries are taking advantage of a little shortage of oil. OPEC cut down oil production. The prices are going higher and higher every day. Also, there are problems with import transportation. So, the prices of our everyday routine products like milk, fruits, vegetables and many household needs are going up about 60%. The Pandemic has already hurt our economy, and the oil prices will hurt it further. Initially, a request to the Biden Administration to produce more oil had been ignored. So, Biden has taken the bold step and announced that he will release 600 million barrels of oil from the U.S. reserves, which is good for one month to fully support the United States. Also, imports will also help to sustain lower price until summer.
Biden’s bold step immediately impacted the oil prices and reduced them 7% to under $80 a barrel. In a couple of days, hopefully the prices will go down at the pump. This will look like a victory for Biden, but prices were set to go down anyway due to people driving less in the winter. Is that why he waited to take this step, so that he could falsely claim credit? Too much politics are overrunning our lives.
Have a wonderful week.
I’ll talk to you next week.
