What do you do with a mad dog?

Shoot him.

(Euphemistically, “put him down.”)

I don’t always know or can’t explain what triggers a thought.

Often it’s something in the world or the daily news.

Maybe a parallel relationship of events. Maybe a chance comment overheard. Maybe noticing or re-noticing something, anything.

Sometimes if I see something and say something, I think I’m being clever. Sometimes insightful. Sometimes shareable.

If I questioned everything I said, or might say, I wouldn’t say anything.

Or…I might repeat it.

The problem with talking (here I go again, pontificating), with conversation, is that people don’t listen, not to the other, not to themselves. (How’s that for cliché?)

But, like all clichés, it’s true.

And, like all clichés, it has exceptions and variants.

And why should I bring it up now, and inflict it upon others?

Because (too many) people don’t listen.

Because they (including me) need to.

Because things have accelerated out of control to crisis, too many people are unaware, too many don’t care.

Paul Revere is iconic as the American archetype of whistleblower.

Back then, he warned, people woke up, literally, assembled, confronted the danger, and we became a country.

The more things change, the more they don’t.

That’s why.