Crimes & Misdemeanors
In an op-ed piece in today’s NY Post, Steven W. Mosher reports that the Chinese government is killing imprisoned young dissidents and harvesting their organs for the lucrative transplant market.
I think it’s not a stretch to say that Taiwan would have been overrun by the Chinese long ago if not for fear of U.S. intervention. Here’s a display of inflatable art on the vibrant little capitalist enclave that should have the totalitarians on the mainland even more eager to make the move that seems inevitable:
As I approached E. 12th St. on my morning walk at about six AM, there were four police cars in a sort of circle on the opposite side of Avenue Z. My first thought was that illegals had been busted, then I wondered if there’d been a drunken brawl. My heart sank when I spotted Romanian-born artist Andu, hands behind his back, obviously cuffed. I was not surprised. Last night he posted a message on Facebook asking for $30 so that he could leave the city, damning anyone who wouldn’t help. I thought about approaching and asking if he were okay and taking an officer aside and informing him/her that Andu was probably on anti-psychotic meds. True to form, I did nothing. I just hope he hasn’t hurt anyone. On Friday he and a friend got into a heated argument with a couple of teenagers who Andu excoriated for having made fun of him. It was scary. Fortunately, the situation did not go beyond words — at least then. I feel so sorry for his mom, who has no doubt lived in fear for the past 15 years or so, tormented that the worst would eventually occur. How sad. Then at the end of walk, to illustrate the topsy turvy nature of this world, I encountered a neighbor as I approach the entrance to the co-op. He told me he was “lovin’” A Hitch in Twilight, which he bought a week ago. Our joys are rarely pure.
It was another above average session of the floating book shop. My thanks to the young man who overcompensated me for two Dale Carnegie classics: How to Win Friends and Influence People and How to Stop Worrying and Start Living; and to the middle age woman who purchased Big Girl by Danielle Steel, and the elderly one who selected Violets Are Blue by James Patterson; and to the gentleman who chose a Chris Izaak CD; and the young guy in the Roberto Alomar Mets jersey, who took home a 9/11 CD compilation and a self help book with 365 in the title. The highlight of the day came when a group of Asian children approached as their dads took a smoke break in the shade of the tree I was under. There were four beautiful kids, two girls and a boy about ten, and an adorable female toddler. They read the sign around my neck and were so impressed that I’m an author, the first they’d ever met in person. I stifled laughter, not wanting to disappoint them.
My Amazon Author page: https://www.amazon.com/Vic-Fortezza/e/B002M4NLJE
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