SLOW OR FAST, WHITENESS IS POISON!

 A pinched nerve, or a pain that feels like one, can make a person think. It can even be a catalyst for things coming together in some truly enlightening ways.
In my case, such a pain tied in with an interview with Dr. Jonathan Metzl, the author of Dying of Whiteness, which I read yesterday. I read the interview, not the book, although I probably should read that too.
Like the interviewer, Chauncey DeVega, whose work I highly admire, I have NO sympathy for those that cling to their 'whiteness'; even die for it. But Dr. Metzl said more than a few things that highlight certain facts. Rooted in irrationality, but facts nonetheless. We libs and progs seem to have difficulty in dealing with irrationalities; dealing with them and exploiting them for all they're worth has been and continues to be the hallmark of all fascists, here and elsewhere, and their fellow-travelers as well.
Anyhow, this morning I was lying beside my dear wife with something along my shoulder ridge that felt like a pinched nerve might feel, at least in my imagination. And for some reason, it occurred to me, isn't this how blacks and most other people of color feel in this country? Never really 'at ease' but in a degree of tension that can flare up at any time?
And then my mind returned to the interview with Dr. Metzl. One thing that I believe God asked me about that interview was, Don't you think poor whites feel the same way? Never really at ease, always afraid of being 'left behind'? Their trouble may not be as urgent as people of color, but isn't it there? I couldn't deny it. Poor whites may not have to fear for their lives when a boar in blue stops them the same way as people of color, but the unease is there.
That which I know as God is much likelier to ask questions than to command. And by such questions God leads me to the answers and the process engraves the answers on my heart, as the Book might put it.
In any case, both lower-class whites and just about all people of color share varying degrees of unease. For POCs, it includes fear of the thugs in blue murdering them for nothing at all. For lower-class whites such unease doesn't usually come to that. That's why the unease eats at them more slowly than with those of darker skin tones. Death by opioids rather being murdered by boars in blue. Or by suicide. A few downright alarming facts Dr. Metzl mentioned are: out of the 40,000 deaths by firearms yearly in our country, two thirds are suicides!  And eighty percent of those suicides are white men!!
No mistake about it; 'whiteness' is showing its lethality all the way around! People of color know it as a constant threat and an omnipresent boot on their backs; with palefaces it's a slow grind rather than a hard stomp but it looks as if the result is the same in the end!!
To enlarge on what I wrote before about our unease with irrationalities, we libs and progs need to get over that! We need to be able to grasp the irrationalities which are all too powerful in our place and time AND we need to remember that we can NOT get by with ignoring them! If we are to transcend poisonous ideas based on poisonous irrationalities we MUST know our enemies! Here, indeed, is a power and principality with which we must contend and which we, individually and collectively, must transcend if we are to live and grow! If we don't, young adults now living may see civilization crumble before their eyes!!
Also, remember that what Fascisti are really good at is twisting words and phrases the wrong ways. I suggest to my readers, by that they show whose children they have chosen to be--and it ain't God! Remember the 'original' twisting: Now the serpent was craftier than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?" (Genesis 3:1, NIV)
That second part. The original twisting. Remember that and also remember that the Greek word from which we derive 'diabolical' and all related words means to take a word out of its proper context and stick it where it does not belong! This is what all fascists and all who wish to justify their greed, envy and selfishness do! So be warned! We fight real powers of darkness, so pull no punches and don't be fooled by any crocodile tears from them!
Finally, (yeah, I hear the sighs of relief in the peanut gallery!) as I feel like I'm just capsulizing a very large subject, if anyone feels they've anything to add to this, please feel free to do so. That's why we have spaces for comments!

MORE PROMISE OR MORE PERIL?

 I write this as much to strengthen my own peace of mind and my resolution to fight on for the protection and extension of democracy as for anything, or anyone, else.
What I try to do with this post is to come to as accurate an ascertainment of the peril and promise of this present moment as I possibly can. And being who I am, I'll start with the perils.
1) 186 of our national legislators--143 in the House and 43 in the Senate--have basically given an affirmative nod to our homegrown Fascists to do whatever they will including murder and mayhem in the service of White Male Patriarchy. These false swearers have indicated their readiness to see democracy destroyed in this country and perhaps worldwide!
2) Many state GOP Parties seem to be in a Lunacy Race to see which one can pick up radio signals from space with their tinfoil helmets first or maybe to see who can get to Mars first by flapping their arms.
3) Wealth and income inequality on an almost feudal scale fuels this sort of insanity, be it racially and/or religiously based. And many of our 21st century dukes, earls, counts and barons quietly support these lunacies as their wealth and power silently grows greater and much more menacing to We The People and to the democracy which a majority of us still seek to preserve and extend.
4) The Democratic establishment and too many Democratic politicians still don't seem to understand how we need to STOP being nice-nice hall monitors and get bare-knuckle with the GOP over the consequences of their 'programs' and of the evil they do in letting even this pass simply because it's done mostly by white males! I could be wrong about this, though; time will tell.
5) I'm still bitterly ashamed over this: a majority of my 'fellow' palefaces voted for more fascism in the election just past. We owe democracy's preservation to our fellow citizens of African, Latino and/or Native background along with we palefaces who are 'woke' to varying degrees.
And this feels like this post's pivot point. Because enough blacks, Latinos and Natives were roused and registered and because they showed that they have what it takes to be free citizens of a free country (to a much greater degree, I suspect, than we pale people) by resisting all efforts to 'legally' disenfranchise them and for waiting for hours in order to be able to vote--they are the people who saved democracy and, thereby, the best in this country. Kudos above all to the brave and beautiful African-American women who were the foot-soldiers of this victory. They ought to be more of both the field officers and the top commanders from here on in and this is written by an Anglo-Saxon straight married paleface who becomes eligible for Medicare on his next birthday this August! And so to the promises:
1) As mentioned above, our communities of color are roused and mobilized to an unprecedented degree. Maybe more of us palefaces are a little more 'woke' as well. Especially those of us who tend to be 'green' (and not NIMBYs) to varying degrees.
2) Many former GOP contributors have now washed their hands of that Trumpery death cult, having recognized it as such. I don't know how to encourage this trend but probably there are those that do know how.
3) The young people. They are more open to those who are racially, religiously and/or sexually oriented 'different' than themselves than has yet been the case in this country. And the Stoneman Douglas high school alumni, along with other mass-shooting survivors, stand out especially in this group! David, Emma, all of you, I love you all and look forward to seeing you and your colleagues put and set our country on a brighter road than it's yet travelled!
4) This might be as much wishful hoping as anything else, but maybe mentioning it will impress more people how necessary it is: more of us seem aware this is a fight and a long one. I hope more of us are ready to fight, whether we're armed only with God's Truth and His justice or also with the kind of weapons we know our Fascists are itching to use on us. My opinion is, let's train non-violently first but also have guns and ammo (and know how to use them too) if and when it becomes necessary.
5) The depth to which democracy, as a habit, is embedded in our national life, however incomplete it's been till now. When we turn our gaze away from Washington and the loony state capitals, we might be surprised by what we see. We might also be dismayed by how many mini-despotisms there might be in this land such as John Wallace had in a Georgia county (watch the film Murder in Coweta County) but maybe the scale is more evenly balanced than we dare to hope.
I wouldn't call these lists 'complete'; they're just what occur to me right here, right now. If any reader has anything they'd like to add to either side, feel free to tell us all about it. In the meantime, friends and allies, stay awake, organize, organize, organize! And resist all fascist efforts at disenfranchisement especially their lie about 'wanting to make sure only the right people vote'. I hope y'all know what that is code for! Don't forget it and bring the truth about it to the unsure! And of course, vote and keep on voting in ALL elections from school board on up to presidential! That's how we'll wind up going for the road of promise and avoid the road of peril!