Heart Attacks Each Sunrise
If my life was more exciting, I’d have several heart attacks each sunrise. Walking down Ba Cu around 5:30AM, I espied the unmistakable shape of the number 4 bus from afar. After only two seconds of deliberation, I prepared myself physically, mentally and spiritually to somehow hop onto it. With desperate hope akin to a muttered prayer under relentless bombardment from a technologically superior enemy, I waved at the unseen thus unknowable bus driver. Although I did stand at an officially sanctioned bus stop as acknowledged by the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, there was no guarantee this omnipotent gentleman would stop. Standing there in the dark, I was no more than a half dead dog or a heap of garbage. My terror was assuaged when this motherfucker did in fact slow down and, hallelujah, stop right in front of me! Such mercy has become increasingly rare, no? Triumphantly, I got on most nonchalantly.
Allowed to move on with my life, I scrutinized with smug satisfaction another old head heading in the same direction. (Buses tend to do that to all their passengers.) Though her chances of making it to Bà Rịa were no better than mine, this oblivious broad was so self-assured, she placed her bare feet on the seat! Never assume you’re free to go anywhere!
On 3/19/25, TRT of Turkey reports, “Anastasia Michailov, an Australian mother of three, was detained, harassed and assaulted after being mistaken for an Eastern European by Israeli officials at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport.” Her recorded statement: