MeDotOrg wrote: ↑Fri Jun 05, 2020 10:06 pm
There is a temptation to become weary and fatalistic. I look at what is happening with horror and detachment. We're like lobsters in a pot who think the water is just getting nice and toasty. I see what can potentially happen within myself. Becoming numb and insensitive is a fear for myself and people in general.
I appreciate and agree with your assessment of his lack of emotional development and his inability to relate empathetically to virus victims, essential workers, those who have lost jobs and persons who made themselves witness the murder of George Floyd on camera for 10 minutes.
I know exactly what you are saying about the potential to become detached but can I tell you that over the past few days my own mindset has shifted dramatically to optimism? Prior to this, every time I listened to Trump make comment in public, I found myself regularly saying "Screw you" right out loud and to the screen. I don't feel that way right now. I will tell you what changed.
When I look at the crowds of protesters nationwide, I realize this is NOT the sixties type of Civil Rights protests. Why? There's at least half and half mix of Blacks and Whites marching, in some cases predominately Whites in certain parts of the country. There are protesters swelling the streets OVERSEAS for civil rights. THEN I listened to Al Sharpton's speech at Floyd's funeral and he noted the very same things!!! I admittedly don't care for Sharpton but crap, he's got a voice and I assume that people do pay attention to him.
On that count a lone this is markedly different from the sixties, MeDot. And yes, there are outlier groups inciting violence, I will give you that. And yes, the President is clearly ill equipped to deal with any of this in a socially proactive way because let's be honest, the man doesn't have a heart or a conscience with which to address any of this but the thing is...even going back to the Covid briefings, for once he put himself in front of the cameras instead of at rally's and has shown himself for what he is, deficiencies and self interest included. You have to have no damned brain not to see this.
I believe it was yesterday or last night when I viewed two things from Cory Booker. One was his passionate speech in response to Rand Paul who stopped the Anti-Lynching bill/law from going to Federal level. Had he has more than 2-3 minutes to respond during the debates, we would have laid eyes on a different Cory Booker than what we saw during those debates. I also listened to a brief interview with Booker and Stephen Colbert and from that, I became aware of the fact that he's proposing (or they are working on) a nationwide data base that logs in instances of police brutality. We didn't have one already?!?!?!?
Then there is the Lincoln Project folks that EA said isn't a powerful enough organization to do anything--but I am seeing it differently as Republicans are going to that very "side". And, the Republicans who still attempt to defend Trump make themselves look like increasingly inept, pathetic, immoral and corrupt puppets for Trump who have no back bone whatsoever.
You know who has the back bone? WE do.
If you stand back and take a look, the America that is protesting for Civil Rights this time isn't just doing it because they are Black. They coming out in droves because it is the thing to do right and like me, they are plainly sick and tired of this crap. Trump is getting push back and criticism from all sides. Mattis and Kelly have both spoken out--I say God bless them for that--and Mattis in particular with a strongly worded treatise which I am sure has resonated with not only civilians but with the military that Trump seeks to exploit.
Finally, there is this part which may seem but a small action, but I think it does make a strong statement. If it were not for
17-year-old Darnella Frazier (17!!!) filming the sadistic murder of George Floyd head on for 10 minutes,
allowing herself to be traumatized in the process as she watched through the camera lens of her cell phone, we would NOT have realized the full and ugly impact of this heinous deed. Think about that, a 17 year old young woman, MeDot, stood there and filmed it all from start to finish. If that were me at age 17, I think I would have cut and run, then watched from afar. But NO, she had the courage and the insight to stand there and film it. Her video is the lengthy 10 minute clip we've all seen and that made all the difference between this being just another new report vs giving us the chance to
watch it happen before our very eyes. She sacrificed her own mental health and physical safety to do that. God bless that girl, God bless her!
These are just a small number of observations and thoughts that changed my outlook completely over the past few days. Oh and not to mention the fact that Trump has got himself barricaded in the White House in spite of his swaggering about dominating communities. So the rat has finally trapped itself and by god, he finally got that wall, didn't he? And the same guy who pledged to drain the swamp has now built a virtual mote around the People's House to protect HIMSELF from the society he claims to love.
“F”. Him.