I’m kind of riled at the moment despite having spent a good portion of my day being physically productive - which is not my typical routine. I made the mistake of reading a few comments under a Seattle Seahawks “social justice” post. I think it was a picture of Coach Pete Carroll wearing a “We Want Justice” t-shirt.
Let me just say that I once ventured to a Seahawk game. I went to a live game in Seattle. I have been to professional soccer games, baseball games, men’s basketball and women’s basketball. Football - as in American football - fans are, by far, the least educated people who can afford $100 tickets on the planet. And, for those of you who love the Seahawks, as I do, please do not take umbrage. I am sure you are the exceptions.
I can’t believe people are flocking to the president’s rallies, behaving like imbeciles or fangirls for the Monkees.
I can’t believe the president can literally flip-flop and contradict himself multiple times in a week, in a day, in an hour and no one publicly cares.
I can’t believe people have trouble understanding Black people’s grievances are significant and real and ongoing.
I can’t believe a man who openly embraces violence and incivility and flaunting laws is our commander-in-chief.
I can believe millions of Americans adore him and believe some of the most outrageous lies ever pushed by odious characters because - we are a country of 330 million - it is not the least bit odd that 10%, or 33 million, would be batty enough to wear a bronzed piece of crap around their neck if they thought it was shat out of a member of the insufferable boor’s family’s arseholes.
That’s why I am also never floored when the transgender, Black guy from Puerto Rico is interviewed wearing MAGA attire from head to foot. As I’ve pointed out before, the internet is crawling with weird flora and fauna.
I can’t believe, despite all evidence to the contrary, it appears most of the president’s supporters continue to adhere to the notion that the pandemic is not real. The sad part about that is, if they’d get in line long enough, we could figure out - as a nation, imagine that - how to navigate business in spite of the pandemic.
But it’s too late because the president pissed in the oats for the past 6 months and, now, they won’t even believe their ears when he’s caught on tape admitting he knew the consequences all along. Meanwhile, the government’s propaganda channels spew out similar nonsense.
I can’t believe our system of checks and balances turned out to be impotent when a barbarian finally arrived at the gate.
I can’t believe thinking people inside the government have not figured out how to derail this crass collection of grifters from robbing our country blind.
I’m not sure if I still believe JFK’s assassination was an inside plot. It’s looking less likely with each passing moment.
I can’t believe the indifference, the collective yawn, from many Republicans, especially white women, over the acceptance, nurturance and emboldening of white supremacists. Knowing that the psyche of the nation is every bit the tinder keg that forests throughout the West are.
I can’t believe that my narrative is the polar opposite of the narrative being espoused by some random blogger on the Right. I can’t believe we are that siloed.
I am fueled by red wine. As my favorite character in Game of Thrones, Tyrion, once intoned describing his particular talents, “I drink and I know things.”
NFL players were booed for showing unity in regards to social justice. Some folks, mostly white folks, don’t want politics to bleed over into their violent pastimes.
But, you know what? Ahmaud Arbery, Philando Castile, Trayvon Martin, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Jacob Blake, the old man who got a skull fracture when pushed to the sidewalk, the social worker in charge of the autistic man who laid on the ground with his hands raised and was still shot - and the list goes on - these victims do not have a soapbox to stand on.
Just like the victims at the Pulse Night Club, the children at Sandy Hook, the parishioners at the Black church in South Carolina, the high school kids in high schools across the country, the concert goers in Las Vegas - these people do not have a platform.
The media swoops in like a pack of seagulls, craps all over everything and swoops out heading on to the next tragic event to crap all over. Athletes, actors and social media influencers have a platform. They wield some clout. Not a lot, mind you, but some.
It is important that people with the means to speak out, speak out.
Who knows how many Americans Muhammad Ali influenced when he said these words about being drafted to go to Vietnam? Vietnam being the lost cause of all lost causes.
“Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go 10,000 miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on Brown people in Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs and denied simple human rights? No I’m not going 10,000 miles from home to help murder and burn another poor nation simply to continue the domination of white slave masters of the darker people the world over. This is the day when such evils must come to an end. I have been warned that to take such a stand would cost me millions of dollars. But I have said it once and I will say it again. The real enemy of my people is here. I will not disgrace my religion, my people or myself by becoming a tool to enslave those who are fighting for their own justice, freedom and equality. If I thought the war was going to bring freedom and equality to 22 million of my people they wouldn’t have to draft me, I’d join tomorrow. I have nothing to lose by standing up for my beliefs. So I’ll go to jail, so what? We’ve been in jail for 400 years.”
I think it is notable that the court case against Ali is known as “Clay vs United States of America”. The signs of America’s racist tendencies are everywhere.
That was in 1967. I was only 11 years old, but I will guarantee you that played large in my mind. One of my brothers managed to get “conscientious objector” status. My plan was to disappear into Canada. I would have been a lousy fugitive.
I could continue with my ‘can’t believes’ because they are endless. I know conservatives act like the Obama years were a nightmare for them but the Obamas never incited hate. They never came for their guns. They never forced good Christians to say Happy Holidays. They never ignored the part of the country that did not kiss their ass. They never agitated the far left to commit criminal acts.
The common thread here, in my wine-besotted mind, is racism.
Having a Black president and a Black first family was just too much for all of the ‘crackers’ in the country. Having a Black president to blame for the loss of jobs, for the opioid crisis, for their general malaise was just too convenient.
The insufferable boor and his insufferable offspring along with their insufferable mail-order stepmother and wife are the result of more than a century of pent up racist rage. And I don’t know what happens, regardless of what happens, on November 3rd.
Let me have another glass of wine. See if that helps me to know.