Looking Down the Barrel

 It is Janary 29, 2021 at 1:50 AM EST and I cannot sleep.  The stuff tumbling in my head just won't let me... so here i am looking at the only option that may get me a good nights sleep. Brain dump....

I am perplexed by where we are as a country, we are looking down the barrel of calamity and the folks that should know better are the ones with their finger on the trigger.

We are not a perfect country. We are far from perfection and that is obvious not only via the inequities that we have been governed under that have roots far before this country was even "established". Roots that would determine power structures and hierarchies and lay the ground work for how non white people would be treated in this world regardless of the country they were in, even if they were the native inhabitants of that country.  But, here we are January 2021... 

The United States has been the role model for democracy in the world. We have been that social experiment that other countries look to either directly or indirectly to determine how they wish to rule or govern.  We have served as that comparative point as countries have struggled with Democracy, Monarchy or Dictatorship rule. We have been the underlying force or the catalyst in some of these countries as they have fought through the process of modeling their governments.  And at the end of the day love us or hate us these countries look in some way to US to understand the possibilities of what may be. Today, you have to question what kind of example are we.  

Let's do a movie flashback - four year earlier.  The United States and the world are stunned to learn that Hilary Clinton lost the election.  Although winning the popular vote by a spread of more than 4 million she lost on the basis of our electoral college a voting representation created to appease slaveholders following the civil war which would place the power of determining the presidency squarely in the hands of primarily southern states regardless of their population. There was a lot going on with that 2016 election - the Russians, probably the only ones not surprised by the outcome,  had a strong influence in our electoral process. But at the end of the day we accepted our fate and oh what a fate it was - 4 years of chaos, lies, swindling, hypocrisy and baiting the most basic and divisive elements of our society. The elements of race misogyny, and xenophobia to name just a few,   We watched as our federal courts even at the highest level got stacked with judges that would continue to push for the status quo of racial inequality, gender bias, and maintaining a social and economic framework that would keep white men in power.  So much there to unpack.  

Move the timeline forward November 3, 2020 election day... so much activity leading up to this day.  The turnout was historic - 62% of the voting population exercised their right to vote. Over 156,000,000 votes were cast. The most ever votes for a sitting president of 74 million but he was beat. He was beat by Joe Biden who garnered 81 million votes or 51.3% of all votes cast translating to an electoral win of  306 votes to trumps 232.  This in trumps own words represents a "landslide victory" as this is the margin that he won the electoral college by in 2016.   The race was too close to call on election night and counts and recounts took over a week and Biden was finally called President- elect. Oh and not to mention that Biden has a Female Vice President who is also a woman of color - Black and Indian.  With all of this trump refused to concede and began his tantrum touting the election was rigged, no way could he have lost and, the inciting begins. 

The remaining part of November and December 2020 see no less than 60 challenges of the election taken to court by trump and his team.  The challenges are with either withdrawn or thrown out... all this talk of fraud and the election being stolen and no data, no examples, nothing provided to substantiate any of these claims. But yet, trump and his base continue to challenge... and this goes all the way to the Supreme Court of the United States and gets thrown out... but still he holds tight... it was a steal. And now there are congress people and senators refusing to accept the results of the election that trump's own people said was the most secure election in our history.  Did I mention this is all in the midst of a pandemic where at this point over 300,000 people have died from Covid-19.... yeah that has been going on since March 2020. And, our economy was tanking, folks out of work and support resources slow and trump and his team creating a full cluster around relief and prevention and vaccines being rolled out.  Food lines are as normal as covid testing lines.  

January 6th. A day that will now rank in history with events such as  D-Day, Pearl Harbor, 9/11.  This was the day a coup was attempted in the United States of America. A true seditious insurrection.  January 6th is the day that the electoral votes are ceremoniously presented to Congress and Senate and the winner of the presidential election is formally and finally validated which then culminates with the inauguration on January 20th.   This day started with a "Stop the Steal" campaign like event headed by trump and his cronies. Calling on his thousands of supporters who had flooded into Washington DC to storm the Capitol and keep him in power.  It was horrible. It was seditious.  He had militia, he had neo-nazi's, he had proud boys.  These rioting thugs carried the trump flag higher than the American flag their mission to overthrow the government to keep their leader in place. People died this day.  Hundreds were injured the majority of them law enforcement... so apparently from a group that lived by the motto "blue lives matter" they demonstrated that only holds if the blue lives work with them not to stop them. One police officer was killed, bludgeoned to death with a fire extinguisher, others were beat and stabbed - one was stabbed with an American flag pole. This was horrible and played out on the world stage for all to see televised around the world. Here this country which is the role model for democracy was under siege and that siege was led by the sitting president and supported in the legislative body by some members of Congress and some in the Senate. Shame on US. 

And as horrible as that is here is the most harrowing piece of this.... now that a new president is at the reigns our Republican representatives want to sweep this under the rug.  Let bygones be bygones. Did I mention that 99.9% of the rioters/insurrectionist where white folks.  The insurrection failed so, what the heck just move forward. Before Biden was inaugurated Congress voted to impeach trump for his acts of treason and because of the tight timeline an impeachment trial could not occur until he was out of office. Since trump  is now  out of office many Republicans are saying oh well let's move on and suggesting Democrats are being divisive by keeping this going.  This from the party that bitch slapped Democrats for 4 years while acting as a barrier to anything that would move the country forward.

So, current day here we are staring down that barrel of calamity.  What is the precedent this country is willing to set.  Insurrection only counts if it is successful?  That you can be a complete criminal in office and once you are out of office we just move on, no accountability.  Does that mean that folks that commit crimes against humanity once out of power are no longer responsible for their crimes.  How many years did we hunt down war criminals after WWII, after the genocide in Rwanda? Are we saying because those events are long over folks are no longer accountable. We had a sitting president who for his own egotistical and greedy reasons was willing to topple our government. Willing to teardown the country. Tear up the Constitution so, he could stay in power a job that he really didn't want as demonstrated by his last 30 days of office being in hiding.  At the end of the day we all know this was about his ability to say "look how great i was, people were willing to overthrow the government because I was so great". And worse yet we have people still sitting in seats of power defying the oath they took and still calling the election a fraud.   We are a hot mess. And, if we don't get our shit together we will continue to be a mess. trump, some of his cronies, some congress people and some senators broke the law. They committed crimes which put our democracy at risk.  They must be held accountable.

Accountability is key.  Those in power who incited, supported, planned and helped execute this insurrection should be brought to face the charges and the consequences.  The so called leaders that want to look the other way need to do the job they were elected to do and protect the constitution and thereby protect the citizens so we can continue with this social experiment and push for all to have access to the  aspects of this country that have been so elusive for so many for so long.

Good night. 

The Virus

 

In March of 2020 I started writing this blog, we were just going into lockdown.  I was living and working in Baltimore at the time and thought being locked in alone would be the perfect time to pick my writing back up.  But even in the middle of a pandemic while being locked down life or sometimes the lack there of can get in the way.   This is what I started with....
The world is experiencing a pandemic.  It is a coronavirus.  It is a "novel" virus meaning it has not been seen before.  It has been tagged Covid-19. The first inklings of a new virus was sometitme in the December/January timeframe.  It is spread from person-to-person.

• Between people who are in close contact with one another (within about 6 feet).
• Through respiratory droplets produced when an infected person coughs or sneezes
• These droplets can land in the mouths or noses of people who are nearby or possibly be inhaled into the lungs.

And, that is where i stopped. 

Fast Forward to January 2021.  We are now nearly a year into this pandemic. As of this writing 86M folks world wide have been infected 21M of those infected are in the United States and, of that 21M nearly 400K have died. The US accounts for nearly 25% of the cases worldwide. The virus has affected the black and brown community more severely than the white community. The current administration is directly responsible for the rampant spread and related deaths.  The president, it pains me to even write his name, first ignored the information provided, then downplayed it, then hog tied our leading scientist and medical leaders, then politicized the number one prevention - wearing a mask to the point where his followers stormed state houses and local governments whining about their civil rights being infringed upon to the point that the virus has now run rampant across our country.  We got a first hand view of selfish behavior by those entitled and emboldened by the dumbest individual ever elected to high office.  We watched our economy tank, our education system having to reinvent how to teach remotely, small businesses being shuttered and food lines that had not been seen in this magnitude since the great depression. Our health care system has been taken to brink of collapse with hospitals running out of bed, field hospitals being errected. Nursing homes are a death sentence for their residents, if the virus breached a nursing home the results are catastropich. Depression and other mental health issues have been exasperated due to isolation and domestic abuse rose as folks were forced into close quarters for extended periods without relief. 

As other nations around the world are taking actions to protect and support their citizens the "leaders" in this country looked to an asshole for direction and got shit as a result.

What the pandemic has shown us, what those of us in the Black community have always known, is that there are serious inequities in healthcare, both access and delivery, all based in race.  Black and brown folks die from the virus 3 to 4 times more often than their white counterparts.

Essential employees are the folks that most of you walk past and don't even acknowledge such as sanitation workers, grocery store workers, postal workers, food service workers, janitorial staff, transportation folks, first responders, and teachers. The invisible workers that you don't think about but they are always there and most not even making liveable wages and yet, we found we can't function without them. And let's never forget our front line clinicians and hospital workers who have tirelessly held the line working in war zone like environments and all they ask is that you wear a mask, take precautions and act responsibly. But, some many of our citizens are oppositional to the very activity which is no swear off anyone's back that spread continues seemingly unimpeded.  At one point cold storage trucks were rolling into cities to handle the dead as morgues and funeral homes could not handle the volumes. 

The Corona Virus - Covid 19 is a great summation of what the past 4 years in this country have been - a shit show.  

In November 2020 the asshole was voted out and in December the first vaccine was approved for distribution in the US.  Another cluster.  Of the 25M doses available in this country only 5M have been distributed at this point. Again the fuckery of an administration that can't strategize or execute on a plan for exiting  through an open door let alone moving the vaccine to every state. 

People still refuse to wear a mask and continue to attend large gatherings and super spreader events - the White House hosted at least 4 such events infecting staff, politicians, secret service and anyone else that attended either by choice or requirement (employment). 

Many of us have experienced a loss due to someone dying from the virus either directly or indirectly and yet there is fear over receiving the vaccine primarily because folks are concerned that the government had too much say in what was or wasn't done around development so the trust level is low. 

I wear my mask, limit my interactions and trips outside the house and will get the vaccine when it is available. And, I pray. 

Hoping to reach a point of "post covid".