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Pokemon No
There just some places where one shouldn’t play Pokémon, namely Arlington, the U. S. Holocaust Museum, and the Auschwitz Memorial in Poland, all designated as Pokestops in the wildly popular game. Players have been asked to refrain from playing at each site and both the Holocaust Museum and the Auschwitz Memorial have requested that Niantic remove them from them from the game as Pokestops on the grounds that using sites dedicated to victims of the Holocaust for gaming purposes is highly disrespectful. Being Jewish, being human, I agree. Apparently the players weren’t content to play the game, which was bad enough, as it trivialized a place which was a death camp (in the case of Auschwitz). They also had to take selfies while doing so and act in other inappropriate ways that were even more disruptive and disrespectful. So far Niantic hasn’t commented on their requests. I understand that churches are also usual Pokestops. ( I happen to live on street with 3 major churches and had a friend enthuse about each.) As an atheist, I don’t hold religion sacred. But many do. Should their churches start getting invaded by Pokémon players, they will be upset. I’m not a player and don’t know the mechanics of the game. Surely there is a way to play unobtrusively? I’m suggesting to Pokémon players that you be aware of your environment and pay heed, indeed, be courteous, analogous to keeping quiet in a library. This will go a long way towards improving the somewhat tarnished image of gamers.
Addendum: On Pokestops and churches: Raising Christian paranoia to a new level, Trunews host Rick Wiles has been speculating both that Satan is targeting churches with “virtual, digital, cyber-demons” and that Islamic jihadists might somehow acquire an app that shows them where Christians are located. Snort! I wonder if he thinks emojis are demonic, too? And do jihadists really NEED an app for that?
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Something Odd
An extremely odd thing happened today. I have been expecting a delivery from RL (clothes). I walked out of my apt to take Miss P, my whippet, for her late afternoon backyard jaunt. When I returned, there was the box from RL sitting outside my door. No-one delivers on a Sunday; my landlord’s son had been in the garage next to my apt and had not seen anyone approach the door; we do not know how it got there. Sometimes packages for me get delivered to my landlord’s house by mistake, but he always notifies me about this. This is a mystery. So I take the box inside, where I discover that it has been opened! Now I’m really puzzled: why would anyone open a box that is clearly addressed to someone else? All the items I ordered were there, in their original packaging, though the jeans looked like they had been repacked. Maybe whoever examined everything didn’t like my taste in clothing? Or didn’t wear my size? At least they made the effort to deliver the clothes, albeit by incredible stealth. I wonder, though…should I be thanking an incredibly honest person or just an incredibly disappointed somewhat honest person? I suppose this will probably be one of those mysteries that I’ll ponder from time to time. (The clothes are wicked cool, by the way. All from Denim & Supply.)
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Radical Gun Proposal
I’m going to make a radical proposal which will probably make those reading this post howl about the Second Amendment. Fine. When Obama was elected, I heard “Obama’s coming to take your guns!” Now it’s “Hillary’s coming to take your guns!” Here what I propose: the government-the federal government-SHOULD confiscate every firearm belonging to anyone, outside of those weapons legally issued to those employed as policemen (and after the coverage of recent shooting by police officers I have my doubts about the wisdom of this) or the military. If you are not in the militia, you DON’T need a gun. Period. This is not the colonial era, when you had to hunt for food. Yes, I know that people still hunt. And they enjoy doing that. So I’m making an arbitrary moral judgment here. (This is my blog, so I can.) But I believe that in this day and age, when gun violence is so widespread, that owning a gun for even hunting should be forbidden. I live in a small town in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia. It’s bucolic. Yet yesterday a man with a gun drove down the interstate randomly shooting at people. A woman was killed. I don’t want to hear “Guns don’t kill people. People kill people.” any longer. That’s simply not the case. The likelihood of violence dramatically increases when a gun is present. Guns don’t kill people. People WITH GUNS kill people.
On a personal note, I want to address the idea put forth by a friend of mine that society would be safer if every household were armed, i.e. had a gun. However, studies show that guns are not likely to be used in self-defense and instead have a higher chance of being stolen, used for suicide, or ending in some form of accidental mishap. That’s research. If every household were like my landlord, for instance: sober, knowledgeable about guns and gun safety, responsible, serious about his duties as a citizen, sane, etc,, then perhaps I might concede her a point. But more households than I care to think about resemble the one seven blocks away, wherein dwell folks who are regularly visited by the cops for various illicit activities or the one down the street belonging to the man who informed me that I’m burning in hell due to being queer and a Jew. Do I feel safer, knowing THESE people could have guns? Hell, no!
