This year, 2020; it started like so many others but by March it had derailed into a train wreck. First it was Covid-19, then Black Lives Matter and police brutality created a social firestorm. For the first time in my memory, there was no safe place to go, to be and you couldn’t count on the police to protect the people. With the most powerful military arsenal ever, with riches beyond imagination we faced a physical threat that we can neither explode nor buy off. There is no way to get around pandemic. The only way is through it and you have to be disciplined as people and as a nation. Populous hyperbole and partisan rhetoric seem to satisfy simple, selfish sheeple but bullshit by any other name . . .
For the first time in my memory the ugly underbelly of White Privilege revealed itself so clearly it couldn’t be ignored, couldn’t be denied, couldn’t be defended. If you stack the cards in favor of any group, it means the cards are stacked against everybody else. People of color and poor people in general have been living under that yoke forever. It serves the status quo, it is good for business. It has been that way for so long you take it for granted, you learn not to bite the hand that feeds you. All white people benefit from White Privilege. It’s like daylight at dawn; it covers white people wherever they are. But the sun never comes up on people of color.
So now, in response to this crisis the current strategy from our high command is denial. Racism is bad, law and order is good and the pandemic has been called off. Everything is fine now; go back to work, go play golf, life is good. Be glad America is great again.
The date, July 4: our birthday. This nation celebrates 244 years of both great and sullied history. What kind of patriot are you? Are you like a child who idolizes the parent: my dad can whip your dad and my dad can do no wrong! So when my parent does do wrong I rationalize that it was a necessity under the conditions and rewrite the book of ethics. Or, it can be like the parent who holds the child accountable. “Do no harm; fix or replace whatever you break.” Nobody is perfect but the “Do no harm” thing feels better than “My dad can whip yours.” Can I love my country, can I celebrate its noble ideals and the virtue of good deeds and still hold it accountable? If I can mot do that then patriotism is simply the glory of ill gotten gain and not getting caught.
Happy Birthday U.S.A. We need to feel good, at least feel better about something. That something should be a universal plus for every American. It’s not us versus them, it’s just us. What we celebrate should reassure every human everywhere that America is moving in a more humane, a more generous, a more forgiving direction. That message has been received loud and clear. Playground bullies and self righteous bigots understand my drift and they don’t like it at all. Addiction to privilege is so deeply rooted it has been redefined. Now we should think of it as, “Divine Intervention” and “Inalienable Rights”. It works so well, God must have ordained it. In their scheme, what is more American than exercising my Liberty to exploit your weakness? What I’m asking for, what I’m hoping for won’t happen in my lifetime. I’m too old and progress is slow; one funeral at a time. But I have today. It’s all I have. I’m still breathing and food still tastes good. I’m celebrating 244 years of good and evil. We are human beings after all, we do the best we can; and that’s not bad for high functioning monkeys.
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