Culture

Just Imagine

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Imagine what the response would have been if these heavily armed “protesters“ were of any other race than white…

– A lot of dead and incarcerated non-white “protesters,” that’s what the response would have been for those of you with failed imaginations.

Now, try to imagine that none of these “protesters” are trump cultists emboldened by their dear leader’s violence-inspiring rhetoric…

– Unimaginable, isn’t it.

Courtesy of Washington Post

Outside the House chamber, the protesters crammed into the hallway and stairwell, periodically chanting, “Lock her up!” and “Let us in!” Their chanting could be heard faintly from the House floor — and ultimately, the Republicans gave the protesters what they wanted: a refusal to extend Whitmer’s emergency declaration. In Michigan, legislative approval is required to extend emergency declarations beyond 28 days; Whitmer’s expired Thursday night, with no such approval to renew.

After a day of armed protesters and a GOP lawsuit threat, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer extends state of emergency, Washington Post, May 1, 2020

#americaisoccupiedterritory

Regarding That Which Despicable Beings Create

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Always a conundrum — what to do with something good created by someone bad.

I mean, take HP Lovecraft for instance. Are horrors authors and readers still praising him so for his early contributions to the genre? Fortunately for me, having read his work long before learning he was such a virulent racist, I find his writing flat and uninteresting and way, way overrated so shunning him to the dustbin of the disgraced is no problemo.

But there are a lot of other types of situations and scenarios out there that can put one in such an unpleasant conundrum…

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Two Learnings from My Recent Rememborizing Efforts: One cool; One cautionary

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As I discussed in my last post, I’ve embarked on an effort to memorize stuff that interests me. I’m finding that the more I memorize stuff, the easier is to memorize and retain new stuff.

So as I just finished up memorizing the poem Invictus, I decided to go large and take on the grandest, and perhaps greatest, of all letters penned on behalf of these United States, The Declaration of Independence.

Yeah, maybe I am getting a little cocky/in over my head taking on such a significant body of work — significant as in packed with meaning, and, especially, significant as in packed with a lot of words. One-thousand, four-hundred and fifty-eight of them to be exact.

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Fake News is so Poe-thetic

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I read an Edgar Allan Poe story today entitled The Angel of the Odd.

It’s a fun, fast, Kafka-meets-Twain, easy to forget kind of read.

But what is most memorable to me about the story is that it is entirely set up around the protagonists drunken dismay over what we would call the “fake news” of the day…

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WAR IS OVER

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I’m a BIG Yoko Ono fan and I really dig her WAR IS OVER campaign. I especially dig all the free WAR IS OVER downloads she offers in a multitude of languages at http://imaginepeace.com/warisover/.

And I especially especially dig this WAR IS OVER message written in flag-speak!
war-is-over-flags

#itsanavything
#youwouldntunderstand

Kaepernick

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Unjust laws exist; shall we be content to obey them, or shall we endeavor to amend them, and obey them until we have succeeded, or shall we transgress them at once? Men generally, under such a government as this, think that they ought to wait until they have persuaded the majority to alter them. They think that, if they should resist, the remedy would be worse than the evil. But it is the fault of the government itself that the remedy is worse than the evil. It makes it worse. Why is it not more apt to anticipate and provide for reform? Why does it not cherish its wise minority? Why does it cry and resist before it is hurt? Why does it not encourage its citizens to be on the alert to point out its faults, and do better than it would have them?  Why does it always crucify Christ, and excommunicate Copernicus and Luther, and pronounce Washington and Franklin rebels?

HENRY DAVID THOREAU

 
#blacklivesmatter
#protestsmatter

 
 

No Point In Asking

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When I first began articulating this post in my head, it was framed around the question, “When will it all end?”

But after just a few seconds of contemplation around it I quickly realized that question is quite ridiculous.

Obviously, we are no where near a point in which we can even begin speculating about the end to all this madness.

And after last night’s shootings, I am quite sure we are actually at a new beginning.

A tragic new beginning with an ancient foundation of seemingly immovable hate.

Not just for the other’s race, or the other’s politics, or the other’s finances, but a hate from where all other hate stems.

A hate for ourselves.

We Americans are like the spoiled, bully rich kid who, because he’s always had everything given to him, it is impossible for him to see that everything is all there is.

He wants more and if he can’t have it he is going to whine and kick and piss in his pants and make it a living hell for anyone and everyone around him.

We Americans have it all.

But it’s not enough.

Guns in our society are a problem. But they are not the problem.

We are the problem.

And we know it.

And we hate ourselves for it.

#lookwithin
#stopthehate
#startthelove
#blacklivesmatter