Post 169 - August 27, 2020

Day 169…

I slept for about ten hours last night.  

The reason that that happened, I think, was a direct result of my deciding not to watch the Republican National Convention last night.

“When innocent people suffer, because our political system lacks the will, or the courage, or the basic decency to enforce our laws – or worse still, has sold out to some corporate lobbyist for cash – I am not able to look the other way… The irresponsible rhetoric of our President, who has used the pulpit of the presidency to divide us by race and color, has made America a more dangerous environment for everyone… This Administration has failed America’s inner cities. It’s failed them on education. It’s failed them on jobs. It’s failed them on crime. It’s failed them at every level. “

Those are all quotes from our current President’s speech four years ago at the RNC in 2016.

The fact checking from last night’s installment runs pages and pages long. One of the President’s daughters-in-law quoted a Facebook meme she saw online and wrongly attributed it to Abraham Lincoln.

Watching the President’s extended family doing their best to shore up the family business over these last few days is like watching the next season of Succession. All of them are doing their level best to suck up as much as they can for themselves from their positions in this Administration. Without his large family, there would be no one at all to fill up the speaking slots during this convention. After all, how many ordinary Americans can we listen to?

At least some of the immigrants who were naturalized on the air on the second night had no idea that they were going to be part of the Convention. They were basically tricked into appearing.

The Vice President concluded his remarks last night by saying “Let’s make America great again. Again.” This following a speech rife with misrepresentations and a remarkable avoidance of all of the events occurring in the country around him.

Just watching the snippets of recaps this morning is enough to make me lose sleep retroactively.

NBA players walked out of the playoffs yesterday in support of racial equality in light of the shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, WI. Three basketball games were schedule to be played yesterday and all three were cancelled.

Who cares? You may think it is a meaningless gesture but given the massive amount of attention paid to sports in this country, it was an action that was definitely noticed.

The White House certainly weighed in. The Vice President’s Chief of Staff Marc Short said of the players’ move of solidarity, “It’s absurd. It’s silly”. The President’s son-in-law said that the players were fortunate that they were able to “take a night off from work without having to have the consequences to themselves financially “. For the Republicans, it all comes down to the money.

The Women’s National Basketball Association, Major League Baseball, and Major League Soccer all also announced that their games weren’t going to be played. The racial issues themselves have clearly not been enough to garner serious attention from the government but this move has gotten their attention because it affects sports and money.

The vigilante shooter who killed two people during the Kenosha, WI protests against the shooting of Jacob Blake is a 17-year-old white male. He is not from Kenosha. He is from Illinois - rural born and bred.

There are TikTok videos of him assembling guns and firing them. There are videos of him in the front row of one of the President’s rallies in Des Moines, IA, on January 30. In an on-the-street TV interview with him before he killed those two people, he talked about how it was his duty to have come into Kenosha and be part of the militia that was protecting citizens and their property. He considered it his “job”. He was part of a youth Police Cadet program.

Fox host Tucker Carlson defended him this morning.

The Kenosha Chief of Police, Dan Miskinis, expressed his concern that protesters were breaking the city’s curfew rather than condemning the armed militias.

There is a video that seems to show the armed 17-year-old on the street after the shooting where local Police officers move past him without so much as pausing. This kid had the same kind of weapon that the McCloskey couple waved at peaceful protestors from their front lawn in St. Louis, Missouri. They were invited by the Republicans to speak at the Convention. It’s a shame that this kid was arrested for Homicide on Wednesday morning after having fled Wisconsin or else we could all hear him praise the President this evening on the final day of the RNC.

I am not going to watch the Convention tonight either. If I didn’t think I could face the Vice President twisting the truth last night, I certainly don’t have the stomach to face the President outright lying tonight.

While everything that is going on now is dark and anxiety-provoking, there should be some comfort in knowing that history will look back at this with different eyes than people are using to see it now. History rewards the people who stand up to oppression and vilifies the oppressor.

Abraham Lincoln was seen as a dangerous agitator who was going to destroy the country because of his stance on slavery. He is now viewed as a hero.

The artists who were blacklisted during the McCarthy era were going to destroy the country. They are now viewed as heroes for having stood up for their right to free speech.

When Muhammed Ali spoke out against the Vietnam War, he was stripped of his boxing titles and not allowed to fight. His views were going to destroy the country. Today he is looked upon as a hero.

Four years ago, when Colin Kaepernick took the knee, he was seen as a dangerous agitator who was going to destroy football and our country.  That opinion is already changing. It’s just a matter of time before a huge statue of him kneeling is unveiled - maybe right in front of the football stadium in San Francisco where his team was based.

Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, the women who fought for their right to vote, the LGBTQ people who stood up for their right to live as fully recognized people, the list goes on and on and on.

History remembers THEM, not the small-minded, cruel and ignorant people who opposed them.

There was this brown guy who started preaching a message of love and acceptance 2,000 years ago who was seen as a dangerous agitator. He began a movement that now has 2.3 billion followers around the world.

This Convention will be over tonight, and, in a few days, we will be on to something else, this travesty all but forgotten.

Let it go and get some sleep. You will feel better.