We all should turn off the TV and find calming tasks for part of our day. But “head in the sand” has never been my bag although I certainly have the skin color and SES to support doing so. What would really help is for this nation to have competent leadership.
5 Likes
@KKC and others- Are you familiar with the Youtube videos of “Liberal Redneck” Trae Crowder? His commentary is awesome, highly articulate, no holds-barred- he speaks for the demographic of Southern liberals who many of the big city liberals seem to forget exist. His latest, on the Minneapolis outrage, is well worth watching. In some of his videos he talks so fast and crams in so much, I have to watch them twice to catch all of it.
I am and have seen several of them. I have not seen his newest one but I’ll do that now.
Thank you @Helsi, but unfortunately the violence was already there. It is time for the streets to fill up 
If only the the alternative wasn’t a halfway-senile career-politician who thinks America is fundamentally flawed and that Daddy Government is somehow the answer.
I can’t stand that these are my two options. I wish the Republican Party would have had the courage to suggest an alternative to The Orange.
Strange. We, on this forum, can’t see each other, so we could be green or purple, black or blue and we value each others opinions equally. WHY when we See each other do we change? I don’t have the answer, just making a comment.
1 Like
I like to think that I don’t.
JF
1 Like
I like to think that I don’t either, but that doesn’t make the opposite likely true. This is coming from a person who is liberal, non-xenophobic, woke, read Malcom X and all the other black authors, friends of all races etc. Now, more than ever humans are viscerally visual.
btw We and our guests feel and are safe up here, we have 2 Dobermans! My hub who is non-woke bought a handgun after the King LA riots. But we happily (to me) have no bullets for it.
1 Like
I consider myself very liberal and all that. I have a gun primarily because it was my dad’s and I inherited it. I do have shells for it (it’s a shotgun). And ironically, as long as Trump is President I feel safer knowing I can protect myself from the police state if need be. Just like a gun nutter… I’m like, “they won’t take me alive!” LOL. It’s ridiculous to think that I can protect myself from government tyranny but at least I have a chance of taking one oppressor out with me.
(maybe kidding, maybe not)
@gypsy completely seriously, killing people messes with your head. It’s a terrible option. Even those highly trained to do it like cops and military suffer from PTSD when they do it. So it’s not an option to take lightly and I’d never do it except to protect my own life in a very immediate life or death situation.
2 Likes
I’m really intrigued by your comment and interested in learning more. Can you explain the “cancer that is in our people” ? It seems quite serious. Is this some medical or psychological condition? Is it a condition that exists only in the United States? Does it infect individuals, groups, or both? Is it man-made? How does it spread? To help find the solution, one must identify the problem and the potential causes.
LOL. It is serious, you should read up on it. It’s malignant and symptoms are flaring recently. I don’t feed trolls however.
1 Like
I’m not a troll. I am serious. “cancer that is in our people” is a serious statement and you made it. I assume you are American? If so, your statement seems to implicate an entire nation but does not address the cause. I have my own thoughts. I’d been predicting for weeks, to my friends and family, that indefinite lockdowns of entire cities, throwing people out of work, would not go well. I also predicted the virus would be the LEAST of our problems. Is this playing out now? The problems are solvable, especially if people are optimistic and don’t spend their entire days on-line reading inflammatory news and opinions from a relatively small group of powerful people who seek to gain financially from the destruction. Thus, my thoughts don’t take me to a dark place of “cancer in our people”.
This is what I meant with that post. The cancer is racism. There are scholars who are better able than I who can explain how it weaves through our American story (yes, I’m American) from 1619 on. So look them up if you are genuinely curious. This didn’t start with Trump, Republicans or Covid and it won’t end when they no longer have power.
5 Likes
I probably wouldn’t do it even to protect my own life or property. I had a Bf once who said he’d kill for me. I said he’d better not. Had, another time, a housemate that slept with a gun under her pillow, I thought she was already crazy and that clinched it.
2 Likes
OK thanks for clarifying. First point, it is naive to think is unique to the US. Racism happens all over the world, in different forms, in some cases by law, in other cases it is more of a a societal condition due to recent or even ancient history. I don’t know of examples today in the US where racism is the LAW. Yet we do have annoying racial classifications used for census forms, college applications, etc, seemingly for political reasons. (my teenage daughters, of “mixed race” yet have been raised be “American” are generally puzzled by such forms. Anyway I digress) In many ways, racism can be called “tribalism”, and is used successfully by politicians of ALL stripes who want to exploit people’s differences rather than things they share in common, for their own political gain. Lately, this seems to be an obsession for those on the political “Left” (in my opinion). IMO obsessing over 400 year old history is not a good way forward, in terms of resolving racial or tribal differences. It leads to more division, not less. There is a difference between learning and obsessing. Society should focus on resolving differences and moving forward. Examples: The Irish nation had a bloodly civil conflict for years that centered around events that happened decades or centuries past. Everybody was of the same “race” but the differences were tribal in nature. My final point, as societies become stressed (pandemic, lockdowns, emotional and financial pain, etc) society becomes more fragile and volatile. It happened before in the 60’s and the nation recovered and moved forward.
It is naive to think that our particularly toxic brand, which is bound up with slavery, is all over the world. You are coming at me with a spin on the “all lives matter” rhetorical fallacy and I’m not interested. “All nations are racist” isn’t interesting to me at this point as I’m living here and interested in continuing to do so.
That’s how I feel about much of it but it’s a package deal. People tell me to forget history but let’s preserve statues of Confederate traitors. People tell me to forget history until they want me to stand in respect for some bit of cloth that is suddenly now of sacred significance.
I don’t know about recovered; since this disease is like cancer, it goes into remission but it keeps coming back. I, unlike some of my more left wing friends, do think we moved forward. It’s a step forward, then back. Two forward, one back.
2 Likes
@host3333 History is a very crucial part of understanding how things came about and how they can be guarded against going forward. These things do not exist in a vacuum.
One of the attitudes to come out of the Holocaust was “Never forget.” It is important to understand how 6 million Jews and other people like the gypsies, came to be regarded as less than human and fodder for gas chambers. And how people allowed it to happen.
1 Like
The preferred term now is the Roma or Romani.
Thanks. Hard to keep up with what is politically correct 
1 Like
I’m sorry if you misunderstood my post. I did say to learn from history. My point is ancient grievances should not be obsessed over. For example, parts of the middle east are still obsessing over grievances and land claims from 2000 years ago and as a result both sides become intractable. No progress can be made when ancient grievances take center stage.