But you can bet I learned quite a bit from Tiger King and solidified some theories I hold. And don’t worry, none of these theories will have you wondering where I keep my tinfoil hat. Yet just as our Flag is a symbol of our nation, our cultural obsession with Tiger King is just one symbol of how far we have sunk as a nation. And that is saying a lot considering the examples we have today which have blown the lid of the sinking which has been in progress since day one, July 4th, 1776.
When the pandemic first hit home I realized we were living in a situation unprecedented in any of our lifetimes. And while many of us had no idea what the real threat of Covid-19 was, those of us who are capable of thinking for ourselves knew damn well it was not a hoax. People stormed the stores in search of toilet paper. Dried goods flew off our supermarket shelves nearly as fast. Some stores started charging ten times the normal price for everyday items like eggs, water and meat. Young children and the elderly were said to be at the highest risk. A truly global pandemic locked us in our homes, sent millions to the unemployment line and the biggest topic in our collective discussion was:
A goddamn reality show.
People were and still are dying from a virus with no known cure. And we cannot get enough of a story about people treating each other so horribly. My newsfeed was filled with meme after meme of some goofy-looking dude with a Grade-A mullet. It got nearly impossible to sift through the B.S. and find some real information. Even then, I found much difficulty in finding accurate information. Everything was opinion, even newscasts asked more questions than they answered.
Still, I saw glimmers of hope; drive-by birthday and graduation parties, children putting drawings of goodwill in their windows, volunteers delivering food and other necessities to those too at risk to leave their homes. Zoom taking our various devices by storm much like MySpace and Facebook did a decade and a half ago.
Then came Memorial Day 2020. You know, the one we celebrate with the same shallowness in which we conduct our daily lives. While families were at home barbecuing and eating off red, white & blue paper plates, George Floyd was taking his last breath. And his last breath gave renewed life to a struggle against a 400-year history of aggression, colonization and racism.
I would suggest you pick up a history book but as the opening line in Braveheart states, history is written by those who have hanged heroes; meaning our history books are written by the ones who won the wars. Why else do you think Christopher Columbus is still treated as a hero?
Still, I am finding it difficult to put into words the thoughts and emotions I have experienced these past few weeks. I have seen cracks in our collective story for years and now, they’ve been busted wide open. And hopefully, we will be able to pull our heads out of our collective asses before this land ends up looking like the burned pile of rubble that used to be the Minneapolis Police Department…
Again, we see the rebel flag in the news. Defenders say it’s part of heritage. So was the swastika. And the cultures which had used it for centuries renounced its use once Hitler started using it…
On that note, some people in the South continues flying the flag of a vanquished enemy. Do we still allow the swastika to be flown? Or how about flying the Rising Sun over the USS Arizona next December 7th? I think not…
Flags Part Deaux: While we are all in an uproar about people kneeling during our National Anthem, why aren’t we in the same uproar over those who change its color, use it as an article of clothing or display it in any way not clearly dictated by the Flag Code? Guess we cherry-pick the code much as we do with the Constitution and Bill of Rights…
I’ll never kneel during the National Anthem but I’ll stand beside Colin Kaepernick’s right to do so…
Though not without era-common faults of his own, Theodore Roosevelt was among other things a great writer, orator and President. He once said "To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public." Looks like those who still stand beside our current President haven’t read any of his books…
Come to think of it, I’m not sure 45 has read any books. Least of all the bible. I’ve haven’t read the entire bible m’self, but I think somewhere in there it says “Thou shalt not mace citizens to clear a path to the House of the Lord…
A twitter post referred to Melania Trump as the Third Lady. Did we count Stormy in that figure?...
Herbert Hoover said “We cannot do everything at once but by god, we can do something”. I am inspired by the change brought on by recent protests. Next thing I would like to see is a calling out of the Catholic Church for some of the actions taken on their behalf. In their wisdom, they were saving the Kumeyaay and every other tribe they encountered from eternal damnation by showing them Hell on Earth…
Living in the past can be a bad thing, unless one learns from it. Of all the images of the 1992 LA riots, what stands out most to me is the leaders of the Bloods and Crips declaring a truce. In comparing those riots with the ones we’ve just witnessed, I’ve learned there was better community leadership in the streets of LA than there is in the White House. Sad to see our president has less unification skills than two of the most notorious gangs in the land…
Saw a comment recently which described the murder of George Floyd as “…one dumb person made a terrible mistake”. Wrong on both counts. It was four people, and it was not a mistake…
Recent protests in San Diego County have given the proverbial fifteen minutes to a local man. He was mildly amusing for a moment, then I couldn’t wait for him to get arrested so he would shut up. After the fifteenth or twentieth “Someone stole my bag!” I muted the stream, yet not before hearing him claim a “black guy” stole it. His words flowed effortlessly, almost knee-jerk. 14:59, Arturo…
There were two others who are worthy of mention; the so-called “Snake King” who risked life and limb when La Mesa was burning to bring us the story local media are neither willing or able to bring us and our new amigo Jorge out of Escondido, whose comments were as funny as the George Lopez show used to be. Way to go, guys…
In the old days they used to say “If you’re under thirty and not a democrat you have no heart, if you’re over thirty and not a republican you have no brain”. BREAKING NEWS: If you choose to be neither, you get to think for yourself…
When the Giants left Brooklyn for San Francisco in 1958, the Bay Area community was ready to embrace them. That is, except for the various realtors who refused to sell a house to Willie Mays…
If all lives really do matter; why do thousands of migrant children not count?...
I don’t know if a multi-billion dollar border wall would have stopped the coronavirus, but I am certain it would have stopped the riots from reaching so far north to Minneapolis. Oh wait…
There’s an old saying which states “If you’re under 30 and a democrat you have no brain, if you’re over 30 and a republican, you have no heart. Here’s hoping the next generation realizes if you make the conscious decision to be neither, you get to think for yourself…
Solutions are never easy but for even the worst problems they are usually quite simple. Makes me wonder what kind of world we would be living in if we all just took the advice our grandparents gave us; wash your hands and treat others as you would want to be treated yourself…
