Sun 16 Feb 97 22:11
By: Ed Mills

It just occurred to me that a mysterious event which occurred last October may have had some connection with something I said. Yes, I'm kinda slow sometimes...

Opinions? Whaddaya think?

About 4:30 one Sunday morning, four .38 or 9mm bullets were fired at our old car. Two went through the car, two entered the house. Had the car not been there, the two bullets it absorbed would likely have hit people in the house, from the looks of the ricochet marks.

I have no enemies to speak of, I work for slightly better than subsistence wages and have none of the interpersonal treachery going on that's normally associated with affluence. This neighborhood is pretty blue-collar, some gang activity but generally the little thugs keep a low profile, preferring to do most of their shit in the north end of town.

The only thing I can think of is a letter I had written to a local weekly rag a few weeks before. The letter was a response to an article about a woman who'd suffered psychiatric malpractice at the hands of bible-thumping shrinks:

To the Editor:

After reading the initial description of Jennifer Fultz's condition in Maureen O'Hagan's Sep. 25 piece, "How she beat the devil," I wasn't even slightly surprised when it came out that her two shrinks had (please excuse the oxymoron) religious education. The article showed what can happen when the care of the mentally ill is entrusted to "professionals" who themselves have a belt slipping. This is just the tip of the nutty iceberg, though.

Every Sunday (every day, in parochial schools) trusting, impressionable kids get their subconscious minds pumped full of sadomasochistic mythology by well-meaning adults who are preoccupied with the same demons as Ms. Fultz's "therapists." They're told that if they don't submit to the whims of a capricious, irrational deity or worship a curiously British- looking imaginary superfriend, they'll spend eternity in some giant stir-fry with Gene Simmons. In a culture largely made up of people who are thus indoctrinated, is it really any wonder that so many of us have squirrels running around where there should have been gray matter?

The article didn't say where Jennifer's head is at now; I hope she came to understand that religion is a form of mental illness and it can be conquered by simply recognizing the Christian cult or what it is.

--- edmilz@juno.com

Well? Am I just being paranoid, or should I be sleeping with my pants on and a round in the chamber?