It's Time to Stop

Doctors and nurses who've treated Covid patients are dying from Covid. Hospitals are running out of space and equipment. All because too many people are refusing to do the right thing in the name of "freedom" and "privilege". The following was copied from another page, author unknown:

From my friend and neighbour.

- I am an Emergency Physician. I am on the front line of the COVID tidal wave. Every shift I place myself, along with my colleagues, my friends, in harm’s way to do what we can to help those inflicted with this unique virus sweeping the globe, our communities, in a way we have never before seen.

We are there when someone comes in with that tickle in their throat, or their fever, or their cough, worried that this is it, that they have contracted COVID, despite their best efforts at avoidance. We are there to reassure them that they “aren’t that sick”, that things look good; right now. We see the doubt on their faces when we send them home to isolate, to await their test result. Is it? Isn’t it? Will I get worse, will I infect those around me? Have I already done so?

We are there when those already diagnosed come to us feeling worse. Is this the start of their decline? Is this chest pain, this shortness of breath, this difficultly laying down to sleep, this ongoing fever something to worry about? Am I going to pull through? Am I well enough to go home? Are you sure? What if I get worse? Will I know? We see their fear, they give us our trust. They want us to give them good news, they fear the worst. We fear it too. We remain optimistic. Because they need us to.

We are there when the worst-off need our care. When they reach the point where the virus has overwhelmed their lungs’ ability to oxygenate their body, we are there. We walk them through the process of what comes next. We have you, we’re going to do our best. We see them try to remain calm. They know. We know. Is this the end?

Then we are there at the head of their bed, staring down at the sedated face of someone’s loved one, about to place a tube in their throat to try and assist their breathing; knowing that it may not be enough, that they may yet succumb. We do this and we move on. Because we have to. Because others need our care.

Don my PPE, doff my PPE. Wash my stethoscope, my hands, what have I touched? Better wash again. Next patient. Remain vigilant, don’t touch my mask, sanitize my work station. Am I safe to take a drink from my water bottle? Can I take my mask off in here? Is in in the air? Carry on.

It’s exhausting. It’s terrifying. We’re tired, we want it to be over. But we go on. Because we have to. If not us, then who? I do my job, I go home, I hug my family. I hope I don’t bring it there. I’m afraid.

But then I hear of those who are rallying against the affront to their freedom that is, of all things, being asked to wear a mask. To do their part. To be a good citizen to protect their fellow man. You can’t tell me what to do! It’s just a virus.

Then why is it not? Why is it all so different? What am I so afraid? Why won’t they listen? Why can’t we all just do our part to stop this? Why won’t they?

I feel slapped in my face. I am there. We are there. We WILL be there when it’s your turn. Or your family. Your friends. We don’t ask your stance on masks, or distancing, or shutdowns when you come to us. We just are. There. To help all those we can. Until we can’t. Until we have to decide. Who lives today, who dies. Who can’t we treat because the hospital is full; when there are no more ventilators?

So please, stop. I can’t. I won’t. I will be there for you, when it’s your turn, because that’s what I do. So STOP. Stop slapping me in the face with your denial. Stop making a mockery of my sacrifice. Your rallies, your signs, your rights, your privilege...

Stop. Because I want to stop. I want it all to stop. But it won’t. Until we all decide it’s up to us. Up to each and every one of us to do our part. To stop being selfish and look around. To see.

It’s time. To stop...

Wrong Equals Right

Written by author David Gerrold, reposted with permission.

"Aside from the fact that Donald Trump's behavior is, by any reasonable standard, insane — aside from the fact that the man is severely emotionally damaged — aside from the fact that he does not understand the concept of rules and law —

Aside from the fact that the man is the single best example of a bad example, totally unfit for the office —

The best way to understand his current mindset and the actions that follow — the man is cruel and stupid. He needs to be the center of attention. It doesn't matter what kind of attention, he needs to be the center.

He needs to be right.

Now, you can't be right unless you're making someone else wrong.

Got that? He needs to be right — so someone else has to be the villain.

So after he finishes ranting about Clinton and Obama and Biden — actually, he's pretty much done ranting about Clinton and Obama and Biden, because the election is over — now, his targets are all the Republicans who aren't supporting his attempts at a coup d'état.

Any Republican who isn't supporting his fake-believe claims of a rigged election is now his enemy. Any Republican who even admits Biden won fairly is the enemy.

And it doesn't even matter if he intends to run in 2024 or not — as long as he can stir the shit, as long as he can con the rubes into donating to his cause, as long as he can tweet like a rabid honey-badger, as long as he can be the center of the firestorm, he will keep on keeping on. Because it's not about accomplishing anything at all — it's about the pretense that he's important, and the best way (in his deranged mind) to be important is to have everybody fighting over him.

He's not even in it to win it — he's in it for the fight. Because as long as he's fighting he can pretend he's winning.

As others have pointed out, and very eloquently, the way that game plays out, the more he attacks the Republican party, the more he destroys its effectiveness on a national scale.

There were some who predicted as early as the spring of 2016 that the ultimate cost of a Trump candidacy would be the destruction of the Republican party. That seemed like wishful thinking to me then. It still feels like wishful thinking.

Frankly, the Republican party has become nearly impossible to kill — because there is no Republican party any more, only a machine that functions to the whims of religious fanatics, racists, robber barons, and the terminally stupid. The party has been on a long miserable slide into dementia since long before Ronald Reagan's visible decline. The result is a fascist conspiracy looking for a democracy to hijack.

Others have said that Trump is merely a symptom, that the real disease is the Republican party. Yes, you can make that case. But right now, it looks like Trump is no longer a symptom, but a malignant tumor that has metastasized and what's left of the party is coughing up blood.

This all goes back to Fred Koch who funded the John Birch Society. Richard Nixon's disgrace created a power vacuum in the party and the radical right was ready to fill it.

Trump took advantage of the opportunity they created.

The party had the option to disavow Trump in 2016, but they made the same mistake the German robber barons made when they got in bed with Hitler. They thought they were going to control him. Grover Norquist once bragged that all he wanted from a Republican president was someone who would rubber stamp whatever the Senate sent him. I guess that's what they thought they were getting. Uh-huh, sure.

The Republican party has drunk the capitalist Kool-Aid of assuming that labor is the enemy. Nope. The people who roll up their sleeves and go to work are the real creators of wealth. If you want to have a healthy economy, you have to make sure that working people have enough money to spend on goods and services, because that's the real engine that creates jobs. BTW, the 40 most successful economies on this planet are the ones with strong labor movements.

The damage that Trump has done to America is on a scale comparable to the Great Depression and the Spanish Flu pandemic. We will be a decade or longer recovering from Trump's insanity. Even worse — as long as he continues to stir the shit, as long as the polarization remains at dangerous levels, the processes of recovery and repair will be further hindered. As long as the Republican party continues to believe in its own delusions, the processes of bipartisan governing will be next to impossible.

This is why I believe Donald Trump must be held accountable for every crime that he and all of his enablers have committed. Not just all of his recent attempts to tamper with a federal election, not just his various financial frauds and tax evasions, but also his federal crimes as well. (Yes, I know about the possibility of preemptive pardons — they might not be enough.)

The only way to break the power of the Trump cult will be to break Donald Trump.

He might be damaged, he might be insane, he might be in the throes of dementia. I don't care. If he is not held accountable, then his ability to create havoc will remain unchecked.

January 20th cannot come soon enough."

Shortened Lives

Written by journalist Carmi Levi.

"December 6, 1989. 31 years ago, 14 women were murdered at Montreal's Ecole Polytechnique because a single man couldn't, wouldn't accept women succeeding as engineers.

I remember the night like it was yesterday, remember the stories of journalism school and newsroom colleagues who covered the massacre. How so many lives were ended, and so many others altered forever.

I'd like to think that misogyny has been resolved in the ensuing decades, but I'd be wrong. The stifling patriarchy that normalized the anti-women behaviors at the root of this tragedy took root long before one failure of a human being picked up a high-powered rifle and singled out his victims because of their gender.

We haven't learned a thing. And saying nothing ensures it will continue to happen. In headline-grabbing mass murders like this, or in individual cases that don't necessarily merit annual reflection. But should.

Why the tree? [Posted photo of a tree] Because 14 brilliant lives were snuffed out before they had a chance to unfold on their own. Because so many stories failed to play out as they should have. Because the branches of life were cut before the canopy could even be formed.

To think what should have been. To think how our continued inaction dishonors their lives."

The Waiting Game

Written by political historian Heather Cox Richardson.

And still, we wait. But not really, because the outcome of the 2020 election for the American presidency is clear. The Democratic ticket, headed by former Vice President Joe Biden and Senator Kamala Harris, is ahead in the key states of Nevada, Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Arizona. Biden does not need the electoral votes of all of them to put him over the 270 electoral votes he needs to win. It appears mathematically impossible for Trump suddenly to retake control of those states.

Tonight, with Harris beside him, Biden spoke to the nation. He acknowledged it is frustrating not to have a declared winner in the election, but urged people to be patient as election workers count every ballot: a process at the center of our democracy. He promised that he and Harris are already at work, receiving briefings on the coronavirus pandemic and the faltering economy, and that the country had its work cut out for it with those issues, along with climate change and systemic racism, but that we could solve them if we work together. Once again, he called for unity and promised to govern for everyone, not simply for those who had voted for him. Biden had intended to make a victory speech, but the media seems oddly reluctant to call the election. That reluctance is odd enough that people are speculating as to why, suggesting that media administrators are afraid of the president’s fury or eager to milk the cliff-hanger situation for viewers. My own guess is that, with the president lashing out at what he insists without evidence is a fraudulent election, they are determined to have all the votes counted before making a final call. For Trump is, indeed, lashing out: at his lawyers, his aides, election officials, and his opponents. He is allegedly having a hard time believing he lost. He clearly intends to continue reshaping the government while he retains the office of the presidency: in the three days since the election he has gotten rid of the leaders of the three agencies in charge of the U.S. stockpile of nuclear weapons, the regulation of natural gas and electricity, and aid to foreign countries. Administration officials did not give a reason for the ousters, but it seems clear he is purging the administration of officials he considers insufficiently loyal. Trump’s supporters are also having a hard time believing he lost. A top campaign official used his own texting company to send out thousands of text messages telling supporters that the Democrats were stealing the election and urging them to rally in Philadelphia to protest. Two heavily armed men drove from Virginia and showed up Wednesday to attack the counting center in the city. Supporters have also forced an election worker in Atlanta, Georgia, into hiding after a right-wing YouTuber posted a video of him throwing away a piece of paper and claiming it was a ballot. The video, along with the worker’s personal information, went viral. According to Richard Barron, the elections director for Fulton County, the worker was, in fact, properly discarding an instruction sheet. This election was not particularly close, but pundits warn that the fact that 70 million Americans voted for Trump and 74 million and counting voted for Biden shows that we live in two very different Americas, and that, for all his talk of unity, Biden will have a hard time finding common ground with Trump supporters. Pundits suggest that the two different political ideologies in America are about values and principles, but it actually seems that the primary difference between the two camps is between those who are living in a fictional world, created by generations of right-wing media, and those who are living in the real world, the so-called “reality-based community.” According to political historian Rick Perlstein, a scholar of the right, talk radio host Rush Limbaugh has been telling listeners that Democrats have stolen the election, and urging his listeners to abandon the Republican establishment, which did not sufficiently back Trump. Entertainment personality Alex Jones is more extreme. He showed up to the Maricopa County, Arizona, counting center, where he told the crowd that “The Bidens are Communist Chinese agents” and urged listeners to fight “those scumbag Nazi bastards.” Jones owns a far-right conspiracy theory website aptly named InfoWars. According to an article by Veit Medick in Der Spiegel, about two-thirds of his income comes from the merchandise he sells to combat the conspiracies he talks about. The Republicans’ alternative reality is quite literally deadly. Although 82% of Trump voters believe the pandemic is at least somewhat under control, today America had more than 122,000 new infections, and more than 1100 people died. An analysis by the Associated Press shows that 93% of the 376 counties with the highest numbers of coronavirus cases per capita voted for Trump. That deadliness might, in the end, create common ground with the Democrats who urge mask wearing and social distancing. “I think there’s the potential for things to get less charged and divisive,” Dr. Marcus Plescia of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials told the AP. On October 25, White House chief of staff Mark Meadows told CNN’s Jake Tapper that the White House was no longer going to try to control the pandemic, but was instead going to focus on finding drugs and a vaccine to treat it. Tonight, it came out that Meadows and four other White House aides have contracted the coronavirus. The people who knew were told to keep it a secret. Meadows has been participating in White House events this week—including a gathering on election night—without a mask. Addressing the right-wing media's construction of a false narrative for its supporters seems crucial to restoring sanity to the country’s politics. How that might play out is unclear, in part because Trump’s extremism seems to be driving a wedge into the right-wing ecosystem. Limbaugh and Jones are following Trump, but QAnon, which promised that Trump and the military were in control and that Trump would ride to victory, is suddenly adrift. Believers thought he would bring “The Storm,” which would destroy the pedophile-cannibals in the Democratic Party. But now, Trump is losing and “Q” went silent after the election until tonight, when it simply told followers to stay strong. In contrast to Trump’s true believers, Rupert Murdoch’s media empire is turning on the president. The New York Post is dismissing the Trump family’s claims of a fake election, and the Fox News Channel was the first to call Arizona for Biden on Tuesday, undercutting Trump’s ability to claim a premature victory. Tonight, looking directly at the camera, Laura Ingraham gave a monologue on her show about how Trump should leave the White House with grace and become a party kingmaker for the future. Ingraham appeared to be talking to Trump supporters, but it was clear she was talking directly to Trump himself.

Heart and Soul

From a Facebook post by author David Gerrold.

Even as Joe Biden closes in on an the most important election victory in our lifetimes... we still have to acknowledge that we have lost the hearts and souls of 68 million Americans who voted for Donald Trump.

Maybe some of them are simply die-hard Republicans. Maybe some of them are caught in the Fox News cycle of gaslighting. And maybe some of them are just too stubborn to admit they've been conned. But there are people with more on-the-ground experience than I have who have said that a large part of Trumpism is "sticking it to the libs."

Okay, you stuck it to us. The price you paid for sticking it to us was a pandemic that has killed a quarter-million of us. The price included a crashed economy, assaults on your social security and your health care, and a lost opportunity to rebuild our crumbling infrastructure. The price included a loss of international authority. You stuck it to us, but at what price? The nation is poorer, sicker, and weaker.

Those 68 million people are not going to change their minds any time soon. They voted the way they did because they're afraid and anxious — afraid of the future, afraid of the shifting demographics, afraid of not being the superior race anymore, afraid of situations where they no longer have a sense of control. Afraid and desperate.

The job — not just Joe Biden's job, but the job of the entire Democratic party — and not just for the next four years, but for a couple generations to come — the job is going to be rebuilding the moral heart and soul of the nation.

We survived the Great Depression. We won WWII. We beat polio and smallpox. We put men on the moon and we've had a space station orbiting the Earth for two decades. We are — when we want to be — the *can-do* nation.

We can rebuild our roads and bridges. We can build a high-speed rail network (which will reduce carbon pollution by an order of magnitude.) We can shift to renewable solar and wind power. We can provide health care for everyone. We can provide affordable education for everyone. We can end poverty and homelessness. We can do anything we set our minds to. We have the resources, we have the know-how, we have the people.

All we need is the commitment.

And if Joe Biden can simply reawaken our national sense of purpose, that will be the first step toward reawakening our better angels.

We are going to have to speak to that future if we want to end the destructive effects of Donald J. Trump.

Medical Protesters

The following was written by Kristen Ann, a nurse in on the front lines in Pennsylvania.

"I've been trying to keep my mouth shut recently regarding anything to do with Covid and staying at home. However, after the weekend I just had, I can't. I am PISSED OFF.

People are out PROTESTING the stay at home order. PROTESTING! I wish every protestor could step into my shoes for one shift. Just one. And I believe you would change your mind on protesting and you would be THANKFUL you're able to stay home and be safe with your loved ones. I worked at my per diem job Saturday and Sunday night. The hospital is Covid central with more Covid+ patients then not. We wear Tyvex suits for our entire 12 hour shift. When we come out of a patient's room, our "Covid buddy" wipes us down with bleach. We wear N95 masks and face shields for our entire 12 hour shift. I did not pee or eat during my entire shift Saturday night. I watched a 52 year old stable patient decompensate and code within an hour's time and I tried unsuccessfully to revive him. He died alone in his hospital room.

Sunday night, our staffing was terrible. I was on a unit with 12 patients and only 1 other nurse. It took me three and a half hours to complete a typical 1 hour med pass because I had 6 patients who were all Covid+ and 4 of which do not just swallow pills like you and I do. I was sweaty, hungry, tired and felt defeated because I felt like I couldn't adequately care for my patients. So, if you want to protest and you don't believe this pandemic is real, please sign a DNR and do not seek medical care if and when you get sick. Because by not following the stay at home order, you are basically saying 'f*** you' to all healthcare workers. And I want so badly for my response back to be f*** you, too. But rest assured, when you show up at the hospital unable to breathe, I will care for you because that is my job and I will do anything in my power to make sure my patients are okay."

They Know

 

Taken from a Twitter thread, originally posted by @OdetteRoulette

"I'm going to say this one more time. The majority of Republicans do, in fact, know what's going on. They do know they are embracing fascism. They do know it will destroy our democratic republic. They do know. They just think they can have their cake and eat it too.

They think they can have an oppressive government that will never be used to oppress them. They think they can return to a time when only white men were in charge. They also are worried about competing in a fairer playing field. They do believe they would lose, if there was one.

They know we are an embarrassment right now on the world stage. They know what they are doing is horrible and cruel and wrong. But they don't think of women and people of color as fully human, and so they are telling themselves it's really okay.

Their stupidity is not rooted in "not knowing." Their stupidity is rooted in knowing it's wrong, but being so afraid of their own encroaching potential mediocrity, reinforced by years of getting perks they did not work for, that they will do anything to keep from facing themselves.

Whether we win or lose on Tuesday, they have already lost. No amount of backtracking or lying to themselves about real life events will take away the knowledge they already have in their own minds, about themselves.

The terrible part is that life on the planet is actually at stake presently, and there's a reasonable possibility they will take the rest of us down with them, in their attempts to flee from their own self loathing."

Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

No High Road

 

Original post by science-fiction author David Gerrold.

"I am flawed. I know it. I can be lazy, selfish, arrogant, judgmental, and as self-centered as a Republican.

(See, notice how arrogant and judgmental that last one was?) 

All those courses and workshops and seminars and trainings that I've been taking for 40 years — in the hopes that I might someday learn how to behave like a responsible human being — ?

They worked. Enough that I can once in a while pretend to be something more than a cranky old curmudgeon with idealistic principles. 

Most of those courses were about giving up judgments, about recognizing the humanity of others, about respect and compassion and empathy — about creating positive and worthwhile and empowering relationships. 

That's the goal. It's a lifelong process. Every day is another opportunity to learn, to explore, to discover, and to practice — because practice makes permanent. 

There's a question a trainer once asked. "What do you have to do to a person to get them that screwed up?" It's a question that stops the emotional reaction and replaces it with a much less judgmental consideration of the moment.

But I have to confess a singular failure. I cannot — I absolutely cannot find it in me to stop despising the man and his enablers for the damage that they have deliberately done to this nation. I wish I could be enlightened enough to say, "This too shall pass." 

But I'm not.

There are families that have been broken up, the parents deported, the children still locked in cages. 

Over 200,000 Americans have died due to the incompetence and ignorance and sheer malevolence of this administration. 

Programs that were put in place by multiple previous administrations — programs designed to help the working families of America, the farmers and laborers, the poor and the hungry and the sick — those programs have been dismantled and shut down. 

Bullies and thugs have been given tacit permission to threaten and intimidate minorities and women. Trans people, Muslims, Jews, Asians, and others have been targeted.

The federal treasury has been looted by robber barons. Valuable alliances have been destroyed. The level of pain and suffering that has been created is unimaginable. 

But after all of that has been acknowledged, what is left is the pathetic posturing of a man whose behavior is so demented and bizarre that any rational human being must recoil in horror.

The people who benefit from this situation, who encourage it, who profit by it — they are evil. 

But the man himself? He glories in his own delusions. Evil flourishes as a result of his ignorance, incompetence, malevolence, and stupid pretense of power. 

So I cannot help myself. I despise him, I despise all who benefit from his reign of error. And I despise those who are too stupid to recognize the damage that he has done to all of us. 

I am not enlightened enough to forgive. I am not noble enough to give up my rage. I am simply not good enough to take a road that high. 

The best I can say? I do not wish him ill. 

I simply wish that he gets all of the consequences that he has fairly earned."

Stuttering Attacks

I am a stutterer.

Early in my educational years it became clear that I had difficulties in expressing myself.  When asked to read or speak in front of my peers, I would speak haltingly, often stopping in the middle of a sentence to find the right word, or to back up and repeat myself.  Many tests indicated that my IQ was above average for my age and that I very intelligent and eloquent.  It was decided that the source of my stuttering was either my hearing impairment or my natural shyness.

To this day I dislike speaking in front of people, mainly because of the stutter that still makes itself known in stressful situations.  I have been laughed at and put down for the disability.  Despite many years of training myself, the issue remains.  This, among other reasons, is why I can identify with Joe Biden.

The following post was lifted from my friend Michael Methot. The original poster is unknown.

"Joe Biden is a stutterer. Like many others, he has overcome the disability by understanding it and exercising extraordinary perseverance and discipline. If you know and love a stutterer and you watched the presidential debate [Tuesday] night, within minutes it became obvious what was going on.

Abusive tone of voice, rapid fire interruptions, zigzagging change of topic, personal insult and humiliation, and family pain, are all tripwires that scramble a stutterer's ability to speak. There was nothing unplanned or spontaneous in the President's strategy. The bastards did not prep him to attack Joe. They prepped him to attack Joe's disability, hoping that by triggering his stuttering they might deceive an audience unfamiliar with the disability into thinking that Joe was stupid, weak, uncertain, confused, or lost to dementia.

If you have ever gotten in the face of a bully on the playground protecting a stutterer that you love, the game being played [Tuesday] night was nakedly and painfully obvious. If you watched with glee while it happened, then you haven't made much progress since the playground.

However, the stutterer that I love taught me early on that he did not so much need my protection. He fought back by owning and integrating his disability into who he is. He learned how to stand his ground as master of perseverance, knowledge, and empathy. Without his example, I would not have recognized the game that was being played that night. I would not have been able to recognize the subtle but intense struggle against the disability that Joe was winning at the same time he was struggling to advance his positions on the issues in the midst of a rhetorical s*** storm.

But, like the stutterer that I know, Joe didn't need any help on the playground. I was proud of him.

The President flushed his family fortune down a gold-plated toilet and somehow wants us to believe that he is the poor victim of mean people. Then he tries, and fails, to beat up a kid with a disability on the playground.

I'm done with this, guys. I want my country back. Thanks, Joe."

Black History

 

This post comes courtesy of my friends Dory and Nadine Lerner.

"It's critical to understand our history.  Once you do, I think it's easy to see why we are where we are today, and hopefully obvious why Black Lives Matter has so much support.  The system was very much designed with people of colour in mind - with the sole purpose of keeping them suppressed.  It's well beyond time to break that wheel.

Don’t really get all the Black Lives Matter stuff?

400 years ago white people enslaved Black people.

And sold them.

And treated them as less than human.

For 250 years.

While white men built the country and created its laws and its systems of government.

While 10 to 15 generations of white families got to grow and flourish and make choices that could make their lives better.

150 years ago white people "freed" Black people from slavery.

But then angry white people created laws that made it impossible for them to vote.

Or to own land.

Or to have the same rights as white people. And even erected monuments glorifying people who actively had fought to keep them enslaved.

All while another 5 to 10 generations of white families got to grow and accumulate wealth and gain land and get an education.

60 years ago we made it "legal" for Black people to vote, and to be "free" from discrimination.

But angry white people still fought to keep schools segregated.

And closed off neighborhoods to white people only.

And made it harder for Black people to get bank loans, or get quality education or health care, or to (gasp) marry a white person.

All while another 2-3 generations of white families got to grow and pass their wealth down to their children and their children's children.

Present day...

And then we entered an age where we had the technology to make PUBLIC the things that were already happening in private: the beatings, the stop and frisk laws, the unequal distribution of justice, the police brutality (in the south, police began as slave patrols designed to catch runaway slaves).

And only now, after 400+ years and 20+ generations of a white head start, are we STARTING to truly have a dialogue about what it means to be Black.

White privilege doesn't mean you haven't suffered or fought or worked hard.

It doesn't mean white people are responsible for the sins of our ancestors.

It doesn’t mean you can’t be proud of who you are.

It DOES mean that we need to acknowledge that the system our ancestors created is built FOR white people.

It DOES mean that Black people are treated at a disadvantage because of the colour of their skin

It DOES mean that we owe it to our neighbours - of all colours - to acknowledge that and work to make our world more equitable.

Because Black Lives Matter.

Understanding why we have to say this matters.

Your voice in this movement matters. Recognizing privilege, power and history matters."

Crimes and Misdemeanours

It's getting to the point where the U.S. seems to be descending into anarchy.  A selection from my Twitter feed this evening:

"My daughter, 17, asked a customer at her work to wear a mask. He threatened her by showing her his gun and telling her he has a right to carry a gun and to choose if he wears a mask or not."

"That happened in a store I worked in. I slowly motioned for my co-worker to call security. Within seconds security came running over from all directions. I had no idea how many plain-clothes security we had. Police came and arrested him for inciting violence."

"Someone trespassing in my back yard I asked to leave - nicely - told me he would kill my dog, and pointed a gun with a laser sight on it at my dog's head. They aren't nice people. I own my home."

"In Michigan a security guard was shot when he requested a customer wear a mask before entering the store.  Family went home, came back with guns, and one member shot and killed him."

"My 17 year old was told by a customer that she would have to call the cops if she wanted him to put on a mask."

That's only a small sample of the heinous actions that people are seeing every day.

Trump has brought out the worst in people with his self-centered and divisive rhetoric.  Whether it's deliberate or not is up to debate, but the result is the same.  More and more people are brandishing their guns and claiming the "freedom" to do so.  That makes them no better than terrorists, whose only purpose is to threaten and/or kill those who oppose their ideology.

Some ask: if the gun nuts are so eager to use their guns, why not join the police or military?  The trouble is that many already have.  It's clear that certain elements of the police and military are there solely to take advantage of the ability to hurt and kill people they don't like.  And more often than not, the system is rigged in such a way that they can get away with it.

In the meantime, those people who find themselves facing a gun barrel through no fault of their own will be traumatized for life.  That is, if they survive the encounter at all.  People of colour now have to teach their children how to interact with a police officer, for fear of their lives.

That's not the way for a civilized country to do business.

Refusing to do something simple to help your fellows (like wearing a mask during a pandemic), just because it inconveniences you, is selfish, stupid, and throws dirt on all the sacrifices that our ancestors made so we could all could have a better life.

There are times that I wish we could exile all the stupid people to an island somewhere and rebuild a better society.

Owning the Liberals

 

Original post by "Bev", copied with permission.

The question was posed, "Why do people continue supporting Trump no matter what he does?" A lady named Bev answered it this way:

“You all don't get it. I live in Trump country, in the Ozarks in southern Missouri, one of the last places where the KKK still has a relatively strong established presence.  They don't give a s#*! what he does. He's just something to rally around and hate liberals, that's it, period.

He absolutely realizes that and plays it up. They love it. He knows they love it.  The fact that people act like it's anything other than that proves to them that liberals are idiots, all the more reason for high fives all around.

If you keep getting caught up in "Why do they not realize this problem?" and "How can they still back Trump after this scandal?", then you do not understand what the underlying motivating factor of his support is. It's "f**% liberals", that's pretty much it.

Have you noticed he can do pretty much anything imaginable, and they'll explain some way that rationalizes it that makes zero logical sense?  Because they're not even keeping track of any coherent narrative, it's irrelevant. "F**% liberals" is the only relevant thing.

Trust me; I know firsthand what I'm talking about.

That's why they just laugh at it all because you all don't even realize they truly don't give a f**% about whatever the conversation is about.  It's just a side mission story that doesn't matter anyway.  That's all just trivial details - the economy, health care, whatever.

"F**% liberals."

Look at the issue with not wearing the masks.  I can tell you what that's about. It's about exposing fear. They're playing chicken with nature, and whoever flinches just moved down their internal pecking order, one step closer to being a liberal.

You've got to understand the one core value that they hold above all others, is hatred for what they consider weakness, because that's what they believe strength is: hatred of weakness.

And I mean passionate, sadistic hatred.  And I'm not exaggerating. Believe me.

Sadistic, passionate hatred, and that's what proves they're strong, their passionate hatred for weakness.
Sometimes they will lump vulnerability in with weakness.  They do that because people tend to start humbling themselves when they're in some compromising or overwhelming circumstance, and to them, that's an obvious sign of weakness.

Kindness = weakness.  Honesty = weakness.  Compromise = weakness.

They consider their very existence to be superior in every way to anyone who doesn't hate weakness as much as they do.  They consider liberals to be weak people that are inferior, almost a different species, and the fact that liberals are so weak is why they have to unite in large numbers, which they find disgusting, but it's that disgust that is a true expression of their natural superiority.

Go ahead and try to have a logical, rational conversation with them. Just keep in mind what I said here and be forewarned.”

Is Corruption Inevitable?

Written by a friend of mine.

"I'm going to piss off EVERYONE today.
Let's talk about de-funding the police.
First off, I understand why people would be demanding this.

The police as a group are corrupt.  If they aren't themselves receiving money for illegal activities, or directly involved with illegal activities, then they're ignoring the illegal activities of the other police around them, which is just as bad.
Allow me to justify those statements.
My first real adult job was as an ambulance technician at a clinic [in my home city].  My supervisor was a police officer of high rank.
On my first day at work I would learn some important lessons.

1. My supervisor was a coke addict.
2. My supervisor was a drug dealer.
3. Police are above the law. Police don't arrest other police.

In my first week at work I would learn another lesson.
4. My supervisor, a police officer, was a pedophile.

Everyone knew it, but see lesson #3.

Over the years, I would learn more and more how corrupt the police are. If you aren't aware of that then you simply haven't had the experience to know better.

Now, let's address the main problem about why the police are so corrupt.

Police aren't paid enough. Police officer has always been a fairly low pay job, but at least you could barely manage to support a family. It was never a path to great wealth.  Unfortunately, this job like most has suffered from inflation. Everything has become more expensive while salaries have stagnated.

Because of the nature of police work, it should really pay enough that they can adequately support their family, and the risk of getting caught being corrupt should far outweigh the risk of losing a well paying job. As it is the only way to support a family properly is to be corrupt. That's wrong.

We should do four things.

1. Acknowledge that there's a problem with police corruption. The first step to solving a problem is recognizing that there is a problem.
2. Forgive all police for past mistakes... if they admit to it and agree to walk the straight and narrow from now on.
3. Raise their pay to where it should have been in the first place.
4. Monitor police effectively. If there is any further corruption it should be stamped out hard. Loss of job, prison time, loss of savings and property. Body cams should be on at all times and the should be reviewed by an independent body at random.

To add: Starting pay for a police officer in [my province] is $44,000.  For a position of responsibility and a certain amount of risk, that's ridiculous. 

We also demand a certain amount of education for our police officers.  The typical path is a 3 year training course at [junior college] followed by 15 weeks of practical training at [police school].
I wonder how that compares with police in the States.

I keep saying this, that there is [also] a huge problem when the [provincial] police union is called "The Brotherhood" - that in and of itself points to a mafia-type culture.  It has to stop."

Dinosaurs in F-14s

The title refers to a Calvin and Hobbes strip.  6-year-old Calvin draws a picture in which dinosaurs, being fed up with how some of them aren't perceived as being as dangerous as they should be, get into F-14 jets.

It's a good metaphor for what's happening in the U.S. right now.  There are people, particularly white men, who believe they're becoming irrelevant and are resorting to using words and weapons to get their point across.  The trouble is, their choice of targets have stirred up the country against them.

Think about it.  Several major sports organizations have cancelled their seasons.  Not because of Covid, but because of the recent shootings and killings of unarmed people.

Multiple governments and law enforcement agencies in the U.S. appear to be corrupt.  In addition, they are being taken advantage of by young radicals and white supremacists so they can target others, particularly people of colour, with near impunity.  Almost every time a person of colour is shot, the officers involved are placed on "administrative leave" or otherwise get a mere slap on the wrist.  It's extremely rare that criminal charges are laid.

When protests gather, so do the instigators and vigilante wanna-bes so they can stir up trouble.  The night after yet another Black man was shot for a spurious reason, a 17-year-old illegally obtained an assault rifle, crossed state lines with it, and committed murder as he marched into a protest.  The local police appeared to ENCOURAGE HIM.  He wasn't arrested until the next day.

The parents of ANY young person who does something like this, parents who are still legal guardians and responsible for their child, should be charged as accomplices and accessories to murder and assault with a deadly weapon.

Anyone in the media who publicly defends such actions should be sued for publicly inciting violence and hatred.

Also, homegrown militias should be legally disbanded and labeled as terrorist groups.  More often than not, they lack the experience and the training to hold weapons of any kind.  "Second Amendment" notwithstanding.  If they want to play cowboy for real they should join the army and see if they can handle basic training.

Chances are they won't or can't, because they're too cowardly, out of shape, or not the right age to do it.  They'd rather congregate at State legislatures and yell in the faces of politicians they don't like instead of risking ACTUAL death to serve the country they claim to love.  The country doesn't need their ilk, they are the dinosaurs who want to self-justify with the F-14s.

Many of my ancestors went to war.  Not all of them came home.  They'd be rolling in their graves if they saw what's happening now.

Rant in the Knight

 

With thanks to Nick Nugent, author of The Knight Rider Companion.

Recent news reports have teased that there will be a new Knight Rider film coming, produced by James Wan (Saw, The Conjuring, Aquaman), and written by T.J. Fixman (Ratchet and Clank).

Many fans are ecstatic.  But more are highly skeptical.

Contrary to what many media sites claim, having a "treatment" is not a green-lit script. Even having a completed script is not proof a film will go into pre-production or production itself.

Fans have been teased with a Knight Rider revival for years.  David Hasselhoff himself has claimed that Robert Rodriguez was making a movie, then it was James Gunn, John Cena allegedly starring in a comedy version, then Justin Lin and Machima/WB Entertainment making a series, then it was Netflix. Every year the story changed.

All turned out to be broken promises that have kept this property in development hell. The only one to actually attempt and to revive the series was NBCU itself in 2008-9 with the Mustang KITT.  The show runner was Gary Scott Thompson who created The Fast and the Furious.  (In my opinion it was okay, but the writers weren't given enough of a chance.)

Having familiarity with the Furious brand isn't an asset for James Wan.

The vague description of Knight Rider being an "anti-establishment" tone doesn't give much hope either.  No fan in their right mind would ever describe Knight Rider like this.

T.J. Fixman seems to have a bit of a smug attitude too.  He was briefly communicated with via Twitter to confirm the treatment, and has asked fans to not present him with ideas or badger him about it.  For most fans, posting a photo of yourself as a kid seeing KITT over the water at Universal Studios does not validate your understanding of the classic series or the mythology that made it a pop culture hit.  What they need is a writer/director team who were true fans who understand the premise of what Knight Rider was really about.

After many years of involvement with the Knight Rider hobby and intimately studying every aspect that makes it tick, I believe I am qualified to say I know what makes it work.  I understand what fans will and will not accept with changing the brand and why it continues to inspire people to still care about one man's dream today.  And I understand how Glen A. Larson wanted to update his classic concept to fit in with today's modern era.  (I've seen both the original and the 2008-9 series three times, and I've researched and written fan-fiction about it.)

I'm not sure how to feel about this announcement just yet, but as with the previous announcements I'll believe something is really happening when there are teaser posters, casting announcements, and other pre-production procedures. There's a treatment that exists, a studio with the theatrical rights, and discussions.

Beyond that, Knight Rider is still stuck in neutral.

Modesty Culture

Post written by Josh Weed @The_Weed in 2017 and is still relevant today.

"I am a gay man who was raised in a hetero-normative world.  A part of this world I've always been baffled by is "modesty" culture.

The main premise of "modesty" culture is that women need to dress in a way that doesn't provoke sexual response in men.  Which is insane.

I think it is absolutely crazy that a man can look at a woman and say "I think you should wear something else, because seeing your skin makes me feel aroused. And that arousal is strong and I haven't learned how to appropriately manage it. So please change your clothes."

This is BONKERS. Especially when men then start to claim that a woman is *worth* more if they dress a certain way. As if covering flesh somehow earns a woman value, all because it doesn't evoke a sexual response in men.  And then, if a woman DOESN'T do this?  Well, now a man has the right to chastise a woman, call her names, say she is slutty and wicked.  All because *he* is having a sexual response!

News flash: women's worth is STATIC.  It is inviolable.  It doesn't change with what she does or doesn't wear.  It doesn't change with sex.

And a man's sexuality is HIS OWN RESPONSIBILITY.

Wanna know how I know this?  It's because in my whole life I have never told another man how to dress even though a man's body arouses me.  I have never told a man he should put his shirt on on a hot day when he is on a summer run.  I have never demanded modesty from a guy.  I have never expected men to stop wearing loose basketball shorts just because they might be revealing to me and turn me on.

In fact, I have had, my entire life, been in situations where men take ALL THEIR CLOTHES OFF IN FRONT OF ME (locker rooms, etc.).  And guess what?  Even though I have felt aroused, I have never EVER blamed another man for that arousal.  My arousal is about ME.  Not him.

I have never assaulted another man for this.  I have never raped another man for this.  I have never claimed a man was "asking for it".

A persons's worth is static, inviolable, and begins the day they are born as a baby until the day they die.  Clothes do not change this.

And a man's arousal is HIS OWN DAMN RESPONSIBILITY.  It is NOT the responsibility of the body that evokes that arousal. Ever.

Straight men blaming women for their own sexual responses degrades women. And it disempowers men. It excuses them from taking ownership of their own bodies.  And it allows them to build fury towards what they covet.  It's dangerous.  It leads to assault.  It IS rape culture.

My four daughters deserve better than this.  They deserve to be safe.  They deserve to wear what feels good to them on a summer day.  And they deserve to relish knowing that they are valuable no matter WHAT they wear.  (You know, the same message men get from birth on!)"

Twitter Throwdown

It's not often that I see entertaining discussions on social media these days, but today's Twitter exchange between Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, and actor Ron Perlman was EPIC and had commentators reaching for the popcorn.

Matt Gaetz: This racial justice warrior had no problem in Hollywood portraying the White Supremacist leader of a motorcycle gang.

Perlman: Yes sir, so true! So rewarding playing a$$holes on TV. Tell me sir, how is it actually being one?

Perlman: And while we’re at it, what is this s*** about playing your crowd with dog whistles like “Hollywood“, making them think culture is the thing that’s keeping them down? When it’s really you and your greed.

Matt Gaetz: Honestly? The fact that Hollywood thinks I’m an a$$hole is a badge of honor :)  You wouldn’t be tweeting about me if my message weren’t true & effective. Threatens your wokeness.  How triggered will you be when realDonaldTrump is re-elected? More or less than when crooked lost?

Perlman: Speaking of woke, Matty, do you think it’s just Hollywood that thinks you’re an a$$hole? Read the comments, I’ll wait.

Perlman: Ya know what, you’re right. A guy who wins a totally gerrymandered district with daddy’s money deserves our deepest admiration. You’re right... I only PLAY scumbags and grifters. You’re the real deal!

Matt Gaetz: Gerrymandered district? The western and northern borders of my district are Alabama. The southern boundary is the Gulf of Mexico. It’s literally impossible to gerrymander. Try again.

Perlman: Try again? Dude, you brought a Holocaust denier to the State Of The Union. Doesn’t get sicker than that. Buzz off punk, it’s past your bedtime.

Perlman: P.S. You’re lucky for this guy Matt. If it weren’t for him you’d be the ugliest politician walking.

Cruz: Listen Hellboy. You talk good game when you’ve got Hollywood makeup & stuntmen. But I’ll bet $10k—to the nonpolitical charity of your choice—that you couldn’t last 5 min in the wrestling ring w/ Jim_Jordan w/o getting pinned. You up for it?  Or does your publicist say too risky?

[Top comment]: It's still amazing Ted Cruz is wanting someone to fight a guy who protected sexual assault victims ON TWITTER.

Perlman: Wait, is this THE Ted Cruz? Holy s*** man! Is this the same guy let little Donnie call his wife a dog and his father an assassin and now kisses his ass? Yo, can I get your autograph man?

Perlman: I tell you what Teddy boy, since mentioning Jim Jordan and wrestling is... problematic, why don’t we say f*** him and just make it you & me. I’ll give 50k to Black Lives Matter and you can keep all the tax payer money you were thinking of spending.

Cruz: I get it, you’re rich. But, apparently, soft. You sure seem scared to wrestle Jordan (whom you keep insulting).  Can’t take the heat?  Need to get a manicure?

Perlman: Teddy, Teddy, what kind of a muthaf***a offers to have another guy, probably asleep at the time, kick another guy’s a$$?

Perlman: Let’s get back to bizness Ted. Jim Jordan’s too easy, just a little b****. But you Teddy, you talk s*** about New York every chance you get. My hometown. It’s personal. Let’s go mofo!

[Top comment]: Wait wait. This is Ted Cruz, who told Donald Trump to leave his wife alone and wanted to fight him but now spends his time groveling at Trump’s feet like a lapdog, calling Ron Perlman weak?! LMAO.

Walter Schaub: After seeing Ted Cruz, the Senator who read a children's rhyming book on the floor of the Senate, challenge an actor to wrestle... somebody else, I'm thinking the Senate can stop calling itself the "greatest deliberative body in the world."

Perlman: Ya know Ted, I’ve been giving this some thought- leave Jim_Jordan home and give me 10 minutes with you and Mitch McConnell. Let’s see what else you muthaf***as can obstruct besides justice. All we need’s a time, place, and a few EMTs standing by. LMK.

White Blacks of America

I can't verify the original source, which I'm not too concerned about given what she says near the end.

For those who want to police the language, find somewhere else. Not here. I am in no way upset about how she uses the word. If I have to spell it out for you, she is describing a construct and how others see us [black people]. It's more than appropriate here for the same reason that I disapprove of naming her essay White Niggers of America (what racism?).

Original Post:

"40% of all white people do not have any black friends. 55% of white people only have one black friend. The average black person has eight white friends. This is my lived experience. I personally know two white people, with more than one black friend. I have a number of close white friends, so close I would call them my family. These people would clothe me, feed me, shelter me, protect me, and fund me if I asked. I love them and they love me. Yet, if I am being honest…I am their only black friend. This is not an indictment on these people, whom I truly love, but it is a truthful statement said out of love. Many of you reading this are not proximate to the pain and experience of being black in America, until now.

I must confess that I have abdicated my duty to you, my newly black friends. See no one has told you, out of anger or in love, that all of you formally white people are now black.

See, whiteness is a fickle and fleeting concept. Any groups’ grasp on it is tenuous. It is something that can be bestowed upon a people and can be removed. Many of you have heard the concept of white privilege, but white privilege is too small and clumsy to express and define our existence. White privilege is not rooted in history. It is a term that fails to adequately, appropriately, and accurately define what we are dealing with: whiteness.

The American experiment has worked for this long because of whiteness and niggers. You see I am a nigger, like my father, and his father, and his farther, and so on. It is because of niggers that America is a place where someone can immigrate to and can escape being on the lowest rung of your nation’s social structure. Every group of immigrants who have come to this country has desperately fought to obtain whiteness and avoid the plight of being a nigger.

Do not believe me? Irish, were not white in this country until they were. You saw the signs, no Irish and no niggers allowed. Italians were not white in this country until they were. Signs that said no WOPs and no niggers were commonplace in this country a hundred years ago. Yet, the Irish had to prove to the others that they were worthy of whiteness. They had to be extra cruel, extra murderous, extra inhumane to substantiate why they deserve whiteness. Have you ever heard of the New York Draft Riots? The movie The Gangs of New York, whitewashes it completely. The Irish were worried that if the Union won the war they would have to compete with freed black folk for jobs (at that time their place in life was dependent on being elevated over niggers). They did not want to fight to free the people they thought would would replace them, so the Irish went into the black neighborhoods and lynched black folk as an offering to white supremacy. Sometime after that, the Irish were granted whiteness. The fights between black and Italian teens are legendary in major cities. The turf wars that were waged to prove to everyone that Italians were better than niggers and worthy of whiteness raged on until the early 90s. Italians are now white.

Whiteness is a badge of protection, it allows its members access to housing, loans, better educational institutions, protection from the law, and more resources into their communities. Who would not love to obtain whiteness? Other ethnic groups vie for whiteness from Latinos to Arabs, Asians to Eastern Europeans, all have developed anti-black views and biases, which is the currency used to obtain whiteness.

Yet, whiteness can be mercurial. People attempt to strip whiteness away from various groups. Gay white men constantly have to their whiteness questioned. Jews are always finding themselves in the cross-hairs of those who want to remove their whiteness. Every hail Hitler, every Nazi salute, every desecrated Jewish cemetery is a constant reminder that whiteness is a fickle mistress.

Right now you have had your whiteness stripped away and you are living the black experience and, in love, you are not doing so well. This is new for all of you, and you do not have a black parent who will one day, awkwardly, explain to you what it means to be black in America. So that is where I have fallen short. I have failed to have that cumbersome conversation with you.

Don’t believe me that you are black, fine. Right now we are at unemployment levels that rival the Great Depression. White people are finding themselves without employment. For some of you this is the first time in your life that you are in this disorienting position. These furloughs and layoffs are not your fault, just like not being able to get a job because an employer can screen your application and identify that you are black because your name is DeMarcus, Devin, or Deon.

Your government has failed you and you have never experienced this before. Many white folk have never had to rely on the government to meet their needs until the past 14 weeks. White people are still waiting for their stimulus check to hit their back account or mailbox. They see their friends and family members receive their check, but nothing for them. Just like black folk have seen justice administered swiftly for when someone who looks like them is accused of a crime, but slow when a white person commits a crime against them. The betrayal of your own government is the kindling of the flame of disenfranchisement that is currently being stoked in your chest.

For the past 10 or so weeks your child’s school has been trash, because you are now your child’s teacher. This failure becomes more pronounced the younger your child is, because there is so much more for them to learn. Many of you have resorted to busy work and using the TV to pacify your child while you work, or search for work, or do your best to function under the crushing cocktail of anxiety, depression and fear. Yet, black folks’ schools have been under-resourced for centuries in this country. My own mother attended a one room school for all of the colored children K-12, with one teacher for all the students in Chandler, Arizona. It was not until she was rescued by Brown vs. the Board of Education and liberated to a functioning school that she truly understood the injustice that she had suffered her entire life. My mother entered high school not knowing what a noun or a verb was. Did your parents enter their freshman year not knowing what a noun or verb is? That is why she became the first person in her family to graduate from college and she became a teacher, so no other child would have suffer such an indignity.

The schools in black communities have been economically starved by a funding model that is designed to maximize the lower property values associated with black neighborhoods. If the property values are low as a result of past redlining, homes that were zoned in toxic waste areas by all white zoning boards, homes zoned in industrial areas by all white zoning boards, and neighborhoods adorned with bars and liquor stores, then how can the schools be appropriately funded?

When the pandemic first started your grocery stores became the fuel of your anxiety for all those who never lived in the path of a hurricane. The shelves became more and more bare. Staples were soon depleted. Some of you went on an odyssey worthy of Odysseus to find Lysol, hand-sanitizer and toilet-paper. Overnight your fertile grocery stores had been terraformed into a food desert like those that dot the ghettos that blacks are trapped in. Many black folk have to travel large distances to find fresh fruits and vegetables and avoid the fast-food restaurants that have burrowed their way into the neighborhoods.

For the first time in your life you have been denied a loan. It is not that you were denied a loan, your loan was not even submitted to the underwriter, because the business that you have built, inch-by-inch, was not requesting the amount of money that would make the banker the most money. You saw publicly traded companies get the money that was intended to keep your business afloat. You were not denied because you were not worthy of the loan, you were denied because of who you are: a small business owner. This is the same experience that black folk experience each day when trying to get capital to expand their business, create a business, or acquire a business. They are denied with all sorts of colorful euphemisms to escape from the banker having to say the quiet part out-loud: I can’t give you a loan, because you are black.

You no longer have childcare and the strain of raising your child(ren) while working is exhausting, like being black. Due to black workers being denied fair wages or even the same wages their white counterparts get paid, childcare is a barrier for many black families. For the median black family, childcare for two children amounts to 42% of their gross income.

Your neighborhoods are now subject to more and more chaos. You have police in riot gear marching through your streets barking orders and “light her up” when you do not comply. Heavy Armor rolling through your streets, like the ghettos when the war on drugs raged. Even though peer-reviewed-studies show that white folk use and sale drugs at higher rates than black folk, black folk were the targets on this war on drugs and our neighborhoods were deemed acceptable collateral damage.

You watched stores, police buildings, monuments, and everything else that has been in your community get defaced, destroyed, and desecrated. I know you fear if they will rebuild or replace those things to make your life more convenient. This is the entropy that slowly corrodes a healthy and vibrant community into a ghetto. Without these stores and malls to anchor your neighborhoods the value of your home starts to erode. Soon, pawn shops, title loans, and liquor stores will start to sprout up and accelerate the loss of value of your homes, like what happened to black folk.

You have been confined in your home for the past 14 weeks. A life of watching Netflix, playing video games, reading books, baking bread and despite all of your comforts and amenities it was not enough. You longed for freedom. You longed to have brunch. You longed to be free, like the tens-of-thousands of innocent black folk who have been forced to take pleas to crimes they did not commit, because no one in their family could afford $800.00 to bail them out.

You are now black and to be black in America is to know profound disappointment. Disappointment in our government, in our leaders, in our institutions, in our schools, in our police, in our employers, in our history, and in our collective failure to form a more perfect union. To be black in America is to be weary. That weight you feel on your chest, is what we call Tuesday, or Wednesday or any day of the week.

Now that you are black your relationship with police has changed. They are wildin’ on white folk. I have seen so many unprovoked acts of violence against ya’ll, that I am deeply concerned for those who look like me. You need to know that the whiteness that protected you before is gone. When you get pulled over, you need to put your head on the dash and stretch your arms out. So that way the Officer knows that at that moment you will not be a threat. You cannot play your music loud, because it will attract the police. You have to be inside your residence when the sun is down or else you are subject to being questioned about where you were and what you are doing. When questioned by police you must stay calm, any perceived agitation can cause them to fear for their life and justifiably kill you, because you caused them to be afraid.

I want you to survive your encounters with the police. In Phoenix we have an estimated 2,900 officers. 2,610 of those officers will never have any incidents of misconduct. 87 of those officers will be cleared of misconduct. 100 will have less than five credible misconduct complaints. 74 will have over 10 credible complaints of misconduct in their career and 29 will have over 100 credible instances of misconduct.

2,610 officers allow themselves to serve with 29 officers who terrorize this city and disgrace the oath and badge that they all wear. If I gave you a bag of 2,900 Skittles and told you that 2,697. of the Skittles were normal, but that 174 of the Skittles would make you very sick and 29 of the Skittles could kill you, would you trust eating the Skittles?

I want you to remember this feeling right now. I want you to take it all in. I want you to understand that this is what it means to be a nigger. Your whiteness might be restored, but I will still be a nigger and I cannot change that only you can change that.

I do not want you to talk to your family about politics, because I know that is divisive. People have strong and differing opinions on whether a regressive or progressive tax strategy is best for our Country. People of good faith can debate, in earnest, the importance of our NATO allies contributing at the same level as our country. People of good will can differ on the roles of charter schools in our country. That is politics and politics can be divisive.

I am asking you to discuss your values at the Thanksgiving table: why is the future of a young white man who is convicted of sexually assaulting a woman more important than the need for that woman and the community to have justice? Why is it acceptable for a white man to be paid $0.13 more than a black man for doing the same job at the same level. Why is it acceptable for a white man to be paid .22 cents more than a white woman? Why is it acceptable to incarcerate 12 black people for every 1 white person in the states of Iowa and Minnesota, but no where else in the world? Those are values. We do not have to be unified in thought and purpose, but we must be committed to one another if we expect to make any progress. Our values are what guide us and if you cannot not communicate your values to your loved ones, what hope do I have? What hope do we have? If you do not love your family or those closest to you to feel free to express your values, not your politics, then, I say in love, that you really do not love that person. Love that thin is no type of love that can heal this nation and improve this world.

I love you that is why I will not provide you with absolution of your guilty or failure to know these things that have been deleterious on our body politic. I will not condone nor condemn, but only ask you, in love, what are you willing to lose for me to no longer be a nigger? Are you willing to be dis-invited to Thanksgiving, because your family thinks that black lives do not matter? Are you willing to challenge your loved one when they make a remark that is not rooted in fact, but steeped in hate? What are you willing to do? Talking to black people about what you are feeling is not the best use of their time, but sharing your values and how they make you feel with those you love is appropriate and needed.

That is the reason I do not make some post shareable, like this one. I do not want to fight with your uncle, or the guy you went to high school with who has never left your hometown and wants to quote MLK to me, when his comprehension of MLK is shallow, self-congratulatory and fails to recognize that when he was alive white people viciously hated him so much he was killed in the name of white supremacy. That is why you have my permission to copy and paste this or anything I write and post it on your wall. Your friends and loved ones are not proximate to me, they do not know me, but they know you and love you and in love might we start to share our values so that you and your bloodline will stop being white and me and my bloodline will stop being niggers.

In the immortal words of Toni Morrison “Love is or it ain’t. Thin love ain’t love at all.”