GYO, CYM (Code Language)

When my children were very young, we decided to try a new dinner trend one night each week. I can’t remember which night of the week we chose. It was called GYO night. It meant Get Your Own. Each family member could have whatever they wanted for dinner that night, but they had to prepare their own. The kids loved it.

My youngest who was only about three, loved cereal. She would have eaten it three times a day if allowed. That was always her choice and pretty much the only thing she could fix on her own. The older daughter, around eight at the time, really did some experimenting. She made some most unusual dishes.

Quickly GYO changed to GYOCYM. Get Your Own, Clean Your Mess. It’s amazing how the creativity was stifled when the older daughter had to do her own clean up. Her dinner choices became much less elaborate and much less messy.

This also points out how easy it is to do whatever you want as long as someone else cleans up the mess. Wouldn’t that be the perfect life. Have anything you want and somebody else deals with the clean up.

This is a little bit like what has been happening in many inner cities today. We have seen rioters take to the streets and do whatever they want. Breaking doors and windows of businesses and looting and taking whatever they desire. In some cases even setting up their own businesses in the ones they’ve taken over. Apparently, there’s no worry about consequences.

Many of our big city mayors around this country have decided to turn a blind eye to lawbreaking. They’ve ordered Police units to stand down and just watch. As long as it’s called a protest, no laws can be broken.

The murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer was a disturbing scene.  It could have been a unifying moment for our country, since we were all in agreement. Everyone, all over the political spectrum, united in our outrage and disgust. We were ready to stand united for change and to ensure that horrific tragedies like this aren’t repeated. But rather than be united around our desire to end racism, many launched a divisive revolution that’s repelling ordinary citizens. There are many who love this country and want change but are not ready to destroy historical figures and trample on unpleasant history.

National Review has started a list called cancel counter. It’s a list of (as of this writing) 82 people, monuments and artist works that have been purged from society just in a few weeks. Here is a sample: A play by play sports announcer was fired after tweeting “All lives matter….every single one.” The President of the Poetry Foundation and another employee were forced to resign after writing a statement that condemned racism but failed to praise Black Lives Matter. The worst of all is the Vermont school principal who was placed on leave for tweeting, “I firmly believe that Black Lives Matter, but I DO NOT agree with the coercive measures taken to get to this point.” Should he have said I agree with the looting, and shooting and destroying of communities? Amazing.                                                         

It appears that even speaking out against wrong doing can get one fired.

Since police have been asked to stand down and let the looters and rioters have free reign, crime has skyrocketed. Surprise. Surprise.

Chicago Police Department statistics show murders are up 83%, and the number of arrests is down 55%, compared to the same 28 day period over last year. The Chicago Mayor is trying to blame the rise of gun violence on a lack of strategy at the federal level. Nice try, mayor, as your city and others are pushing to de-fund the Chicago Police.

The sad truth is that the communities being destroyed are the minority communities. It’s their businesses that are being looted and destroyed. It’s their jobs that are being lost.

Let’s hope the madness ends soon.