This afternoon I turned on MSNBC, just as they began providing live coverage of George Floyd's bereaved brother, Terrence, leading a march to a makeshift memorial. It was a grieving process, infused with a political process. Incredibly moving. People were chanting "George! Floyd! George! Floyd!" As the chants reached a crescendo, I could feel a surging power and sense of peace welling up inside of me. By speaking Mr. Floyd's name in such a powerful way, it was a recognition of his full humanity. Everyone there was encouraged to take a knee, while many people were bowed in prayer. He said that he understood everyone's anger, but "if I'm not wilding out, no one else should be." Floyd said they want us to destroy ourselves. Don't give that to them. He encouraged people to educate themselves and to vote in all of the political races. Terrence asked people to "stop looting, but keep protesting." I was very moved by his courage in the midst of his unspeakable grief.
@laura-f This breaks my heart. In 2006, I attended a conference there where Barack Obama gave a speech. He had given the address at the Democratic National Convention and became an overnight sensation. Afterwards, everyone sat in silence, and someone finally said, "I think the hand of God is on that man." Everyone agreed. So many other speakers from both sides of the aisle, but he stood out over the three days.
Apologies for so many posts... found a good resource to share. Someone is actively keeping track of disinformation regarding the police brutality protests. Please feel free (strong nudge) to check it before posting stories about the protests:
It was very emotional, and found his statement today from a USATODAY source :
"Floyd's brother, Terrence Floyd addressed a crowd of protestors and called for peaceful demonstrations and a stop to the looting and rioting." My family is a peaceful family, a God-fearing family. Let's do this another way."
The family has hired an independent autopsy; the report concludes Mr Floyd died at the scene of asphyxiation, and Chauvin will likely get a first or second degree charge.
It's gratifying that justice is going to be served and his life will be honored with the respect he deserves ...
This brought tears ... Terrence's plea .. "Let's do this another way."
The United States appears to be extremely close to a full-blown civil war. I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that. Donald Trump has chosen to deliberately ignore the grievances of the protesters who want to end the totally unjustified killings of unarmed people at the hands of the police. By so doing Donald Trump has put himself squarely on the side of evil and the most blatant tyranny we have ever seen.
Donald Trump thinks all has to do is flood the country with an extremely massive military presence and he can force his will on the masses. He seems to greatly underestimate the severity of the public backlash he is provoking. Most Americans of course would not support the widespread destruction of stores and looting that occurred some places. Donald Trump is sending the message that he sees no problem with blatant abuse of power by the police when this has happened.
- @vestralux. Yes! I have a bad feeling about Anonymous too. Something wrong with it. I feel angry and anxious for no reason. I'm fearful. They appear to be powerful enough to do serious damage to whatever they choose. They promise "great things coming soon." Feels cultish. Even their masks scare me. I wish I could rejoice in Anonymous' great return like everyone else. But I've got butterflies in my stomach. Does anyone have read on Anonymous?
To those who are concerned about civil war -- I agree, we are closer than we have been since 1860. That being said, as many of you on here know, my husband has some contacts high in government, but more relevantly right now, he knows more than a few former Special Ops guys from the various military branches (e.g., green berets, seals, Delta Force, etc.). These are the people who have spent a chunk of the last 20 years in various parts of the middle east (e.g., Lebanon, Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan).
To a man (they are all men), they have all expressed some version of the following, I'm paraphrasing and condensing:
"As far as civil war here right now, I don't see it. I spent a lot of time in failed democracies. All the protests and violence and stuff you see going on right now, for someone in Beirut that's just a Sunday, not a revolution. If I think we're getting close, I'll let yo know."
I keep thinking about the many radical acts attributed to Jesus of Nazareth in his efforts to rebuke and subvert the corruption within the established order of his day. In four separate books of the Bible, it's written that Jesus physically flipped over tables and even made a whip out of cords to drive out merchants from the temple. He wasn't afraid to be seen as disruptive.
He wasn't burning or vandalizing anything to make his point (except law and tradition), but for Christians, if the Son of God himself could muster such anger, isn't our own outrage—however imperfectly expressed—all the more understandable?
There's a passage from Luke where Jesus stands to read the words of the prophet Isaiah, and reading them again today brought me a deep sense of wonder and awe.
16 He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up to read, 17 and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:
18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”[f]
20 Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. 21 He began by saying to them, “Today, this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
– Luke 4:16 - 21, New International Version (NIV)
Perhaps the terrible pain and outrage we have suffered in the events of the first half of 2020 are necessary for compelling us to act: to overturn the tables, to rebuke corruption, to overthrow the old order. By year's end, we might even look back and see that 2020 was in fact the year of the "Lord's favor." (Reminder that the Judeo-Christian God's "favor" is rarely soothing, but instead tends to demand duty with the promised reward of liberation.)
I'm no longer a Christian in the traditional sense, but reading those words in Luke moved me and brought a sense of much-needed peace.
@vestralux Your insight is such a deep blessing. I just read your post re: Floyd’s actual dying. ??? Grateful to hav erased it.
I never thought this would be possible however i will say I am incredibly grateful for what Anonymous is doing. I want them to bring to light the things that have gone wrong. Honestly, I view them as a dark knight or batman watching from afar. At this point, I am thankful...beyond thankful for the exposing of terrible things.
The other thing I am beyond thankful for is the regular mom and pop's who are keeping their community safe. We are at a place where we NEED to come together as a community. That includes out safety.
It's a sad state of affairs right now however I do believe we can get stronger.
Well put, @vestralux: "And that problem is a privilege so pervasive, so deep and ancestral, it just can't see itself."
I am white. My son* is Black (I adopted him as a newborn). Although I try with all my heart, and engage both my maternal instincts and my intellect, I know I can never really know what it's like for him as he moves through the world.
*And recent graduate of Berklee College of Music--must also share some mom-pride here!
T say he will deploy military if state officials can’t contain protest violence
"If a city or state refuses to take the actions necessary to defend the life and property of their residents, then I will deploy the United States military and quickly solve the problem for them," Trump said, referring to himself as "your president of law and order and an ally of all peaceful protesters.”
To activate the military to operate in the U.S., Trump would have to invoke the 213-year-old Insurrection Act, which four people familiar with the decision had told NBC News he planned to do.
But the president could invoke the Insurrection Act to deploy active-duty troops without a request from a governor. Those troops would be allowed to conduct law enforcement missions. To invoke the act, Trump would first have to issue a proclamation to “immediately order the insurgents to disperse and retire peaceably to their abodes within a limited time,” according to the law.
I am white. My son* is Black (I adopted him as a newborn). Although I try with all my heart, and engage both my maternal instincts and my intellect, I know I can never really know what it's like for him as he moves through the world.
*And recent graduate of Berklee College of Music--must also share some mom-pride here!
Nothing has shaken or moved me more deeply than the testimonies of mothers of Black sons. My heart breaks for the fear they must carry. And for the weight of centuries of oppression and stigma that your sons are forced to hold on their backs for the whole world.
Many years ago in college I took a powerful Race and Ethnic Relations course. White students were asked to simply sit and listen as minority students (those who wished to) told us about their personal experiences living in the world as it is. It became a really potent, supportive space and I vividly remember a young Black man breaking down in pain about how many times he'd seen women—even of his own race—reach to lock their car doors as he walked through the parking lot on campus.
We're all taught to fear people who look like him, to assume they are preparing to commit a crime and are already guilty of others. The worst part, he explained, is how deeply this suspicion had penetrated his own conscience because even he had found himself experiencing the same assumptions and biases toward Black men.
People are murdered everyday because of the success of structural racism. And this is just one of countless reasons why it's so important to me to do everything I can to help dismantle it, even when doing so is hard for people. White lives aren't threatened because we're talking about our privilege; only our egos are.
Congratulations, mama! I'm right here celebrating your son's success with you. May he thrive. ?
Recent talk about a full-fledged civil war in this country has always been *a bit* overwrought, and you don't need to be a military insider to understand why. My estimate is that a good portion of a country's adult population - maybe at least 30% - would have to be willing to shoot their own neighbors for ethnic/religious/political differences in order to bring about sustained civil unrest (political scientists have probably posed better estimates). Don't let the hyper-distortions of social media and cable news fool you; the US is nowhere near that threshold. There are vast differences between America now and America in 1860. Neither are we Biafra in 1960 or Bosnia in 1990. One of the crucial features that sets the US apart now is that there's no clear dividing line that delineates "us" and "them." There are colored and non-Hispanic white Americans, but the only people agitating for a race war are a very. very, very small minority of white people and a cohort of aging die-hard Black Panthers. There are also Democrats and Republicans, but get a grip. A Bosnian who lived through that country's civil war would probably dismiss our partisan squabbles as child's play (and what of the near-plurality of Americans who don't belong to any political party?)
So I'm going to be blunt: the aspirations of far-right white supremacists to start a race war in this country are idiotic. It ain't gonna happen. None of the conditions exist for a full-fledged uprising. As we're seeing with the current protests, white nationalists can cause localized, short-term mayhem. They can also carry out lone wolf terrorist attacks. But that's it. Their belief that they can initiate a civil war is about as cogent as Charles Manson's delusions that he could start a race war by shooting up 10050 Cielo Drive.
He hasn’t yet. He used the military to clear a path for him so he can do his pathetic speech in front of a church. A photo op holding a bible. What a joke
I love this
"I reject the notion that the federal government can send troops into the state of Illinois," said Pritzker, a Democrat. "The fact is that the president has created an incendiary moment here. He wants to change the subject from his failure over coronavirus, a miserable failure and now see a moment when there's unrest because of the injustice that was done to George Floyd that he now wants to create another topic and something where he can be the law and order president."