Happy New Year, to The Voice readers. And an especially happy one to readers of my 100-per-cent fact-free educational material right here on this page. Without a doubt, you’ve already gained a higher social standing in your community, a standing that will continue to rise to new heights with your continued reading. If you can’t read, large sums of cash sent to the author would work, maybe not to increase the social standing in your community, but certainly in the social standing of this author. Why not make it your New Year’s resolution?
I’d planned to shy away from addressing any contributions to The Voice from Mr. Bill “Bela” Suhayda, but what he wrote last week in the December 30 issue of The Voice, thevoice.us/readers-commentary-in-defense-of-rittenhouses-actions-in-kenosha-wis, caused me to stir up the pot and once again jump back into the fray (how’s that for resurrecting a couple of tired old clichés?). In his view, it was perfectly fine for Kyle Rittenhouse, an 18-year-old kid from Illinois, to load up his AR-15 and go to Wisconsin to supposedly defend property.
What’s an 18-year-old kid doing with a loaded AR-15 other than planning to shoot somebody? Legal or not, why would any parent with a functioning brain cell provide a son his own AR-15 with ammo? Squirrel hunting? This weapon is manufactured to be used exclusively for people-hunting. And his mother took him to the Black Lives Matter rally in Kenosha, Wis. yet, with his weapon of choice, to defend property. Gimme a break. If that were a Kenosha Trump rally of misfits and malcontents, would he have gone? A bigoted and racist family? I’d say so, no matter how they attempt to spin it. The kid should have stayed home in Antioch to do his schoolwork, or attend a nude weasel-wrestling event, although then he wouldn’t be getting praised for bravery by Mr. Suhayda.
I’ve assumed here that Mr. Suhayda has passed through puberty, so it makes me wonder what makes him so naïve. If he happened to be 18 years old at some point in his life, he’d realize that any kid that age with access to a high-powered weapon is looking for a chance to use it. I went through army basic training with 18- and 19-year-olds. On the rifle range, the drill sergeant had to threaten us with damnation to eternal KP (kitchen police) hell should any one of us put his weapon on automatic to empty the magazine in two seconds, which we were aching to do. Male humans in that age group love loud noises and blowing things up. It’s fortunate we didn’t have access to a neutron bomb because some kid would have found a way to detonate it just to see what would happen.
I shouldn’t be surprised at Bill’s opinion because he’s shown in the past with contributions in The Voice that he’s a right-wing conspiracy theorist, Trumper and anti-vaxxer, who apparently believes what is spewed on Fox “News,” such as the election was stolen from poor, mistreated, Cheeto-headed No. 45; or that the January 6, 2021-rioters were really just a bunch of tourists who came to the Capitol to do nothing more than peacefully hang Mike Pence and became frustrated when there weren’t any porta-potties around, which forced them and their weak kidneys to seek bathrooms elsewhere; or that the COVID vaccine actually injects a microchip into your system, ultimately lodging in your cranium, where it repeatedly plays the “Hamster Dance” until your brain turns to something resembling melted Peeps and you’ll submit to subliminal messages from Joe Biden.
Scammers the world over must have Bill’s phone number on speed dial, a top contributor to Swindle, Inc.. “Mr. Suhayda, this is the assistant to His Majesty and Imperial Wangnob, Chief Guzami Diddlesnot, who has instructed me to deposit 12,000,000 Euros in an account in your name. To access this generous sum deemed to you, please send 2,000 in bitcoins…blah, blah, blah.”
Unfortunately again, I’ve let myself get sucked into Mr. Bill’s opinionated prattle. I may have mentioned the following previously, but because a portion of my brain already has left the building, I can’t remember if I did: I once had a social studies teacher who stopped a student in his tracks when the student began, “In my opinion…” “Hold on,” the teacher said. “Are you an expert? Have you exhaustively studied both sides of the situation so you have an in-depth knowledge of each? Could you argue the point equally and convincingly from both sides? If not, you’re not entitled to an opinion and I don’t want to hear it.”
I’ve always remembered that exchange and felt it a valuable lesson to heed before opening my mouth. But that’s just my opinion.