Hi again, everyone. I know you haven’t heard from me since April, but I was taking a little time for myself. I needed a break from burning my writer’s candle at both ends with a flamethrower, worked on my very first YouTube video, and I may make more. We’ll see.
Enough excuses for my absence! Last time I wrote in this space, we were suffering from the COVID-19 outbreak, and everything was shut down. I said our institutions needed to be razed, and I’m starting to think the universe was listening. As of right now, we’re still social distancing. Places are slowly opening back up, (way too soon, and we’re probably going to get fucked for it,) and people were just starting to poke their heads out from hiding to see if they’d survive the killer virus which has claimed well over 100,000 Americans at this point.
Then, the murder happened, and our priorities shifted BIG TIME.
George Floyd was an unarmed black man who’d been arrested for passing fake checks. A crime, surely, but while being arrested, a white police officer and three officers on scene four complete pieces of shit unnecessarily held him down with a knee to his neck for NINE MINUTES until he DIED. Floyd was even caught on camera complaining that he couldn’t breathe. Four cops, all on film, strangled a man until he died, and at first, everyone thought they’d get away with it.
…Again. Because this sort of nightmarish injustice happens so often without repercussions.
So, the world, (who’d been slowly going mad sitting in isolation, as commanded by the system,) just witnessed a man get straight-up murdered by the enforcers of the system keeping them locked down, and they all justifiably lost their collective shit. Suddenly, the social distancing and murder virus (which is still peaking, by the way; it hasn’t gone down at all,) took a back seat to something people felt was more important right now:
Moral Outrage.
So, the nation has masked up, (even celebrities of all sorts,) and in many cities, began peaceful protesting. Or at least, it started out peaceful. Then, it turned into rioting. Now, a lot of people are saying that the right-wing nuts, the anarchists, and the stupid white people of the nation are what started the rioting. I don’t know how much of that is true, or how accurate mid-riot reporting can be in a world where people can Tweet whatever they want, and have people believe them, but I’m willing to believe this.
A police station in Minneapolis (where the murder happened,) was burned down. There have been reports of pallets of bricks being delivered to the riots, to bait people into turning violent, to give the police justifiable cause to haul them away. President Trump threatened to have protesters shot, and went into lockdown at the White House. It’s been a crazy, fucked up week.
It took three days of rioting and protesting for the murderer, Derek Chauvin—again, who was caught on film murdering someone—to be arrested. People had to try and destroy a city before anything was done. The police and the military have been mobilized, and they are not being kind to protesters right now, whether peaceful or not. Children were pepper-sprayed. Unarmed crowds were hit with tear gas grenades and rubber bullets, and on a smaller note, social distancing has basically gone out the window right now.
People are so enraged about systematic racism—as they fucking should be—that a murder virus has taken a back seat. These people are protesting in the name of what’s right, and they’re endangering themselves more than they may realize. Or, maybe they realize it, and this was just a pressure cooker of simultaneous events that caused it to blow up into the streets. I can’t say.
I can honestly tell you that I will never understand racism. I’ve rarely ever had it leveled at me, and I have never understood racism against someone else. I’ve had bigoted relatives, who’ve judged people on their ethnicity, and I was always disgusted and ashamed by it. But I’ve never had to live with that constant threat, and I never want to. There are people out there who live with this sort of fear and oppression every day because of how they were born, and I will never understand it or support it.
To the protesters out there, I say keep it up. You are the first step in what I hope becomes a massive revolution. I’m sorry that I’m not out there with you in the streets, but I am cheering you on from the stands, like a fucking coward. You’re all doing something great and important. Never be told otherwise. I respect the hell out of you right now.
I genuinely hope this sparks a big revolution. This viral pandemic shone a spotlight on the fact that our system doesn’t work, and then that system almost got away with murdering a man on camera. Our country is bailing out corporations instead of people, because the people in power need capitalism to thrive, or their power-mongering, money-hoarding way of life is threatened. But we need to realize that we are the ones who are threatened right now; by a system of government that has us re-opening too soon, (because the upper-middle class has been inconvenienced,) and by the public servants who would rather kill, gas, and riddle the public with rubber bullets. The rich one percent are going to have to be dragged from their ivory towers, and thrown into the dirt with the rest of us.
The system is crashing. The enforcers of that system are showing their blatant, bald-faced tyranny. They want you to submit and obey, and go back to your homes and sit down with your masks on until everything goes back to normal.
NORMAL IS BAD. THE OLD, PRE-PANDEMIC SYSTEM HAS FAILED US. WE SEE THE PEOPLE HIDING AND PROFITING FROM BEHIND THE CURTAIN NOW. THEY KNOW THIS, AND THEY WANT TO STOP YOU FROM FIGHTING BACK.
DO NOT GO QUIETLY. LET YOUR VOICES REMAIN HEARD THROUGH THE TEAR GAS, THE CURFEWS, AND THE OPPRESSIVE VOICES TRYING TO SILENCE YOUR JUSTIFIED OUTRAGE.
KEEP FIGHTING BACK. WE NEED THIS CHANGE. WE NEED A NEW NATION.
FIGHT. BACK.
We have the right, under the Constitution, to overthrow a corrupt government, and put in a new one. This is the “scary change” we cannot shy away from anymore. We cannot keep letting a for-profit system stop us from getting healthcare and universal standard pay we clearly need right now. We cannot allow a regime of jackbooted thugs to kill innocent people based on their skin, in the name of “public service.” We cannot continue with the America we have mutated into.
This is our chance at a new Boston Tea Party. This is our shot at fighting for what we believe in. Not just complaining for it, but really fighting for it! We need more civil leaders to stand up, and as a country, say to those in power who have destroyed our nation that we aren’t going to put up with this nightmare anymore.
Don’t blow this chance for change, and definitely don’t let them take it from you. Be what America started out as: A group of people who wanted a better life, and told the people in charge that they were going to have it, even if it killed them.
Grab your euthanasia, America, and say your tearful goodbye to ol’ Fido.