The other day I watched someone breeze through an intersection stop sign. No accident resulted. Made me wonder, is not stopping OK based on individual justification? Or does legality rest to some extent on observation?

Mark Twain quipped more than once about the connection between honesty and witnesses. If no one sees the violation does it cancel out, go away as if never been? A good question, but having witnessed that puzzling incident I’m left feeling uneasy.

Are people made more exceptional by making personal exceptions for their particular cases? Or is not being accountable just easier. Does it depend on the number of unaccountables? One at an intersection is OK. Two is an accident.

Curiosity prompted me want to track down the miscreant and get their view, but they vamoosed, got away, leaving me with a yen to find out how much law freedom is enough. Is society so civil and advanced it no longer needs laws? Imagine civilization on a no-fault basis. Perhaps you know other descriptions for that.

I’m no stranger being asked “Why’d you say (do or write) that?” My reply to the aggrieved hasn’t hanged over decades; “Not to be popular, liked, or agreed with. How am I doing?”

Hard to see the good in some situations, but I felt a rush of proud satisfaction seeing TV footage showing so many (I’d say the clear majority) protesters properly masked while rescuing items from stores being emptied by other protest attendees who only the mean-spirited and bigoted would call looters merely because they were speeding away with after-hours property.

We need to understand mass frustration as I hope for if I were to burn a stranger’s car in response to an act by another I thoroughly disapproved of. By that reasoning you’d expect to see lines of unhappy Minnesotans heading with torches to the Twin Cities to set evil afire.

I, as you likely have as well, have heard warnings of Supremacist Nazis waiting to storm the streets and force their will on others. Then there outside a burning metro Target was proof for all to see as droves of Nazis storm trooped and pillaged the self-entitled oppressors.

Those were Nazis, weren’t they?

It’s hard to tell sometimes because of the masks and lack of uniformity in uniforms. Anyway, those must be the Nazis (and there were a lot of them) we were told to worry about. Now I’m worried. The threat is real.

But on a happier side it was good to note that civil society and authority surrendered quickly and no doubt saved many lives. It’s truly fortunate so many protesters (sometimes identified otherwise as looters or supremacist Nazis) lived near enough threatened businesses to be able to rush in to rescue merchandise at risk.

If out-of-towners they were well informed where to go and were prepared to save as many goods as possible. Well, whoever was involved they performed with the kind of civic mindedness usually pointed accusingly at corporate greed. Perhaps individual greed could be considered, but only at risk of offending others.

How familiar are you with the reality of anger stored over generations? I thought I’d be unable to say with any certainty what angered my ancestors. But, generational anger is such a useful concept I stopped, thought, and went “of course.” I’d simply neglected being sufficiently outraged about past offenses to my tree. Offense was there all along, but not adequately brought forward.

My grandfather’s youngest sister was taken by a foreign army to work (imagine how) in an army brothel. Getting pregnant eventually got in the way, but bearing a conquering soldier’s child provided some life-saving exception before getting back to work followed in a year with another conqueror’s child and eventually a change of work assignment to forced labor.

For Maria this was all highly inconvenient, I’m sure, but see how nicely it worked out, and thank goodness the authorities discouraged her from having any lasting attachment to her two offspring. Free as a bird she was deported by the friendly Allies back to her home country.

Wouldn’t you feel just dandy being sent back to your neighborhood or village after years as a successful prostitute and slave laborer?

Those who knew the details thought it best not to bring the subject up, but in a context of generations of anger waiting to be used I wonder what that one’s worth. What’s the going rate for stored generational anger? Do I or we (this may need to be parceled out among cousins, etc.) get to torch a car?

And what about all the years we passed on burning an auto? I have 80+ years in reserve. Do they count? I’ll accept a discounted rate of 40 vehicles. This means having to burn an entire dealership if I’m going to get caught up.

To make it fair (see how this works) I need to randomly pick an ownership that has never done me any harm. But as a practical being I’d be willing for the sake of all involved to satisfy my generational anger with a cash payment for the value of vehicles I’ll not burn. A bank draft will be acceptable.

Remember riots in Minneapolis a few years back when officer Noor shot and killed Justine Damond? Neither do I. (Race or gender, no, maybe just a dislike of Australians. Who’d call Noor out for that?)

Fortunately the media bless us with as many authorities of short sight as they give for medical expertise. Perhaps the press is a sanctuary city for the unlicensed to practice, though the sanctuary habit seems somewhat selective. More serious the issue the noisier the response needed for better ratings. The problem with populism is populism.

Do blossoms of love and joy grow from politics? In my view seeds planted by politics thrive best in soils rich with the manure of ego, watered by imaginary rain during sun showers on sunless days.

The political plant doesn’t cultivate peace. The political plant requires your need. The fruit of politics is power. It may appear benign, but beyond the sweet exterior, what waits?