Spring Break & Turning 6

After a flurry of visitors leading up to spring break, we managed to have a very quiet week of just the four of us. We didn’t do a ton – but managed to play miniature golf, get professional photos taken at our favorite beach, and relax. And no baby. Emerson turned 6 to boot!

Karissa’s sister came on the Friday of break to spend her spring break with us and hope for baby to appear. He didn’t – she leaves in the morning.

I also thought it was worth sharing a few broad pieces of news and sharing some opinions. This website is mostly our family story – but sometimes the national news needs some commentary.

The first graph is a major sign that American healthcare is broken. We’ve been lagging the world in life expectancy for a while – but mostly keeping up. Until the last 18 months or so – when our life expectancy dropped to an age not seen since the late 1990s. Meanwhile, the rest of the world continues to improve. This is somewhere between a mix of our response to covid – but more broadly a huge sign that whatever we’re doing isn’t keeping up with others. And what might that be? Nationalized healthcare is the obvious answer here. It’s time for the USA to catch up to the rest of the world.

Secondly – after another school shooting, this time in Tennessee, it’s worth exploring what went wrong and when. Again – the USA is far and away “different” from the rest of the world on mass shootings. Basically, we’re the only country in the world that has them. but our story got even worse when the Republicans let the assault rifle ban lapse in 2005.

Again – the answer here is obvious – become like the rest of the world. Kids shouldn’t have to worry about their safety at school. Adding more guns isn’t the answer – we have more guns than any other country. And they don’t have mass shootings. Time to become excellent. At this moment, the USA is horrible.