POST #950: Random Observations

My seventh shameless selffie  in as many years

 

As you might imagine, 2020 has been a prolific year for anyone who makes his or her name by commenting on the complete train wreck that is the era of Donald Trump. I've written more pieces since the new year than I do most years combined. Everyone paying attention in 2016 knew that this administration was going to be a rolling catastrophe, but I don't think any of us could have predicted with any degree of accuracy the scope of the disaster without looking like extremist lunatics. And the irony is that the worst is yet to come. Isn't that something?

 

1. Rethinking the School Openings: 

Is the opening up of American schools in September a safe thing to do? At the moment, no, it is not. What these silly politicians fail to realize is that, sure, a child's chance of dying is far less than an adult's. But many of those children will be exposed to the virus, and they will come home and expose their parents, siblings and grandparents, more than a few of whom will die, not to mention some of the children themselves. And is it fair to put the lives of their teachers at risk? Is it realistic to expect these kids to come home and be isolated from their moms and dads? If this catastrophic pandemic has not improved by September or - Heaven forbid - if it's worse, opening up the schools will be an act of unprecedented irresponsibility.

2. All Lives Matter?

Well, yeah! But the reason for emphasizing "BLACK LIVES MATTER" is that it has been a given for America's entire two-hundred and forty-four history that white lives do, indeed, matter. It has not always been such an obvious thing with regard to people whose skin is a shade darker than mine. When Thomas Jefferson composed the Declaration of Independence in 1776, he wrote, "all men are created equal". He was referring to white men only. In fact, he wasn't even referring to white women. When James Madison wrote, "We the people" in the preamble to the Constitution in 1789, what he really meant was, "We the white people". When Theodore Roosevelt famously wrote of "the man in the arena", I have a sneaky suspicion that he was referring to some white guy. And call it a silly little hunch on my part, but I don't think that black lives mattered all too much to the sadistic police officer who murdered George Floyd in cold blood on the streets of Minneapolis on May 15. White America has over two centuries of fixing up to do.

Black Lives Matter. Say it.

3. On to Seattle:

Not content with making a bad situation intolerable in Portland, Donald Trump and Bill Barr have decided to send their army of jack-booted Brown Shirts to Seattle, Washington. Where they show up next is anyone's guess, but I will make a bet with anyone who's willing to take it: there is no way those unmarked thugs are going to show their faces in New York City. Can you even imagine a spectacle such as that? The Big Apple is a town not to fucked with. But I have no doubt that what is happening at this moment in the Northwest is merely a harbinger of worse to come. They're planning on an attempt to overthrow the government of the United States. That attempt will fail miserably. The next six months are going to be the weirdest of our lives. Fasten your seat belts, boys and girls!

4. Paraphrasing TR:

"The credit belongs to the man [or woman] who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself [or herself] in a worthy cause; who at best, if he [or she] wins, knows the thrills of high achievement, and, if he [or she] fails, at least fails daring greatly, so that his [or her] place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat."

Theodore Roosevelt

 1858-1919

His sister Bamie could have said it, too.

5. John Lewis Goes Home:

John Lewis has  had the widest-ranged funeral I think anybody's ever seen: from Washington to Selma, Alabama, back to Washington, then on to Georgia where he will be laid to rest. Yesterday provided the most moving scene I've witnessed in a long while. A simple wagon drawn by two horses, carried his body across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma. In the spot where John was nearly beaten to death on Bloody Sunday fifty-five years ago, rose petals were scattered about the road.

The flags of the nation should today be at half mast. They're not, of course. It's one more shame in a litany too vast to count.
`
Tom Degan
Goshen, NY

SUGGESTED LISTENTING:

The Battle Hymn of the Republic
by Herbie Mann

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJT_acVUjV4

I dedicate this to the memory of John Lewis. It's impossible to listen to this beautiful recording and not think of him.

His truth is marching on, baby!