Freeze!

In one of the Rush Hour out-takes ( scenes that didn’t make the grade only to be shown at the end when credits roll up), Jackie Chan, instead of saying “Freeze”, says “Cheese”.

We might consider the option of freezing where we are at this point in history.

That way, all of the recurring shootings, whether on or off campus, are freeze up, on pause.

Providing the tape doesn’t shut down on its own.

The deficit won’t get worse, since interests can’t tick up.

We all cannot get fatter, older and sadder.

Mitch would easily blend in, since everyone else is on pause.

The war in Ukraine albeit doesn’t cease, but at least “cease fire”.

Bullets freeze in mid-air. Labor day weekend will stretch out.

And our Presidential candidates won’t get older than they currently are.

Climate Change cannot worsen. And how the world progresses is everyone’s guess.

But at least, it’s an universal Time-Out. So we can rest, think, reflect and breathe in and hold.

Let there be Light. Let there be clarity. Let there be certainty and confidence that the affairs of this world will eventually straighten themselves out.

With or without our making it worse.

We have made it worse, by our sheer existence and consumption.

We enter the picture, taking center stage and “freeze” there. The world cannot wait for us to unfreeze.

It’s moving. People are dying. Babies are coming and crying.

May I suggest a selective Freeze! No. It won’t work. Then we’re back to concentration camps. To vetting and recalibrating who’s worthy of going on living, and who are to be exterminated.

After careful deliberating, may I propose a return to normal i.e. kids in school, old folks in nursing homes, Congress in session and prisoners locked up.

Cheese instead of freeze. Smile instead of shout. Laughter instead of hate.

Our fellow men are suffering, in or outside. In hurting others, we hurt ourselves. Hence, liberation delivers both the victims and perpetrators from the chain that bounds them.

It costs a lot to be free. Freedom is never free. Even the symbol on Staten Island, cost the French years and millions to ship and erect Her here. To engrave beautiful lines e.g. “give me the tired, poor, huddled masses” i.e. Italian, Irish, Polish, Czech, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, Cuban, Korean, Iranian, Vietnamese, Cambodian, Ethiopian, Ecuadorian, Iraqis, Afghan and Ukrainian.

If all freeze, then who will get the job done. There once was a movie “A day without a Mexican”, or something like it. It’s like a day without the police.

Crime and trash would be rampant. Cities inoperable. Sewage covering the streets. We all turn “huddle masses” in the elevator, only to once again, face the music, like our Falling man of 9/11.

In that instant, that moment, a freeze of moving reality would prolong his life before gravity returns. It would be interesting to view today’s freeze framing from the vantage point of 100 years from now. Archivists would certainly puzzle over so many senseless shootings. Our current obsession of court dates, campaign dates and credit card due dates.

And of course, the dark shade looming over our multi-colored multi-cultural society that supposedly offer us the benefit of having more-than-the-sum value of its diverse members.

Huddled masses. Freeze! cheese. There is the portrait of Labor day 2023, at the beginning of the age of AI, which has no need and knows not what to do with the concept of Labor participation in the workforce.

We’re very mindful of the day, when we end up on the cutting floor , appearing only in outtakes when film credits roll up. Cheese!