As kids growing up in our neighborhood in the 1950s, we knew almost every single thing that happened on our street. Often time our parents wanting to know a little gossip regarding a neighbor would ask their own children, and if we didn’t know the answer there was sure to be some other kid who had the correct information. We played outside, and during the summer months stayed outside from early morning until late night or one of the most scary of Pittsburgh thunder storms erupted, causing a flurry of parents calling us in. It was around 1958 when a new family moved in, they were renting a house in the next row of houses (which now are referred as townhomes) and of course the current crop of kids had to investigate everything about these new people. It so happened, that the Cummins family were a bit unique for our street, first Mrs Cummins worked and her husband was a stay at home dad (imagine the shock and awe of that in the year 1958), secondly, this family was not Jewish, (a demographic unheard of on our street), and Mrs Cummins was a Librarian working for the Carnegie Library system which was the numero uno Library of Pittsburgh! The Cummins family had a daughter, but she was never permitted to play outside, instead she could sit outside but had to read whenever she was out of the house. This was absurd, so we thought, and unheard of to boot. But Mrs Cummins was a friendly neighbor, and became close to the other mothers on the street. In the late 50s, I loved playing Board games. I had Clue, Risk, and Life. Clue was cool and kind of easy, Life was easy but tricky, on purpose, because even though it was a Milton Bradley game, there was some substance to it, but the game of Risk was all about nationalism, about power, about taking a calculated risk. Many parents tried to read the direction for Risk, but few really understood the entirety of the game, few with the exception of Mrs Cummins, who offered to not only read the instruction but play a few rounds of the game with the neighborhood kids.
We were in awe of Mrs Cummins ability to understand how to play Risk, and she taught us something called observant thinking. She used the games like Clue and Life to explain that just reacting to our situations was not enough. We might figure out that Colonel Mustard was in the Library with a knife, but why waste precious turns at the wheel to know that. And with Life, Mrs Cummins would add, if you play it as you go along, you will miss winning the game and come in second. A lot of that made no sense at the time, but she was a Librarian so we knew one day it would make sense, and besides that she taught us how to play Risk and become rulers of the world. There was one more thing Mrs Cummins did, she called it her little bit of eating chocolate candy, but it had to do with books instead of candy. Mrs Cummins read murder mystery books by the dozens. She called them “whodunit”books, and when caught with one, in her hand she would say, like a Boy Scout you must always be prepared. The late 50s were a scary time and the Cold War was becoming frigid. Mrs Cummins would tell any kid willing to listen, as we played Risk, you can only win if you are one step ahead of your opponent. You can only win if you know how sinister your opened is and how afraid he or she is of their own weaknesses. I read the “whodunit” books and know if someone plans on robbing my house, how to protect myself. i know if the Russian invade the United States where to hide and how to fight back. The last word Mrs Cummins told us before moving away was, “it is the truth, that if it sounds too good, it is not good at all, all it is, is a way to make you want more, and wanting more just makes you selfish or worse, stupid.
So, on Friday, April 20, 2018, we read at Tweet from Trump that because of his ability as president North Korea will freeze their nuclear intentions. Prior to this we discovered that Mike Pompeo secretly visited North Korea, and that during the Trump campaign visited the Russians. Both trips at the time were secrets. We know that Putin needs Trump to remain in office because aside from Mitch McConnell there is no one else better at treason. We know that Trump has NOT planned on any real Russian sanctions, and that Trumps raid into Syria was bogus. We now KNOW how very smart Putin is at manipulating the American public. I thought of mrs Cummins as I heard news of North Korea’s decision to halt their nuclear ambitions until a summit, and thought, BOY OH BOY here we go again, the truth sounds too good. I believe Putin thinks the American public will hail Trump as a great negotiator, playing to the part of America that believes FOX news IS NEWS, and that all of this North Korea nuclear freeze nonsense is just that, and will be around until the Midterms, and that Putin thinks Trump and the all American Republicans will be hailed as heroes and remain the majority. There are cCues, in this game of Life , and Putin will make that Risk!
