I had a much different blog episode in mind for tonight. I was planning to write something about the conventions and how they play to the audience as theater. I wanted to use some of my leftover professional expertise on the subject to talk about how audiences view performance, and why the vision of the director is so integral to the process. I wanted to explore the kinds of reactions to the DNC, and perhaps contrast it with the opening salvo of the RNC.
But that isn't going to happen.
Kenosha happened.
Here, watch the video tape:
I have watched this multiple times. Every time, I want to vomit.
SEVEN shots. Count them. One, two three, four, five, six, seven. SEVEN.
You have just witnessed an attempted execution.
Just like in the movies. Only, this one is for real.
Have we become so inured to violence through the media that some cop thought it was okay to empty his clip into Jacob Blake? Are we getting used to "unarmed Black man shot by cop?" This is so hauntingly familiar... but it shouldn't be.
It's still horrifying. At least for now. But how many more before we yawn, and say, "Oh, another one?"
SAY HIS NAME:
JACOB BLAKE
There is nothing, NOTHING you can say that can justify what America and the rest of the world
I am sick to my stomach watching this. If you're not, you have other issues to deal with besides justifying what happened to Jacob Blake.
SAY HIS NAME:
JACOB BLAKE
At least, at this writing, Mr. Blake is out of surgery and in stable condition.
How do we talk to our kiddos about this? What do we tell them about the dead ones,
Philando Castile
Breonna Taylor
Ahmaud Arbery
George Floyd
and all the others? What words do we use to convince the little ones of every color that the police are not be be feared? Or should we tell them that at all?
I don't know.
What I do know is that the last three years have been a dog-whistle for all kinds of hate. It has to stop. Now.
We, the People, are the only ones who can stop the hate. And we cannot stop it by standing around patting ourselves on the back because we don't do that sort of thing. Stopping the hate requires action on our part. We have to vociferously say NO. We have to stand up and be counted in the polls.
Do not let them take away your right to say NO.
Otherwise, We, the People, are the same as those good Germans who drew their living room curtains closed so they wouldn't see what was happening on the street.
Think about that as you prepare to vote.
The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week
צדק, צדק, תרדוף
Tzedek, tzedek tirdof
Justice, justice shall you pursue.
(Deuteronomy 16:20)
Act justly, love mercy, walk humbly. "..with liberty and justice for all."
ReplyDeleteI learned a long time ago not to compare anything to the Nazi Holocaust nor to slavery.
ReplyDeleteUS citizens who do not vote while tens of black citizens are subject to police excessive force are NOT THE SAME as Germans who stood by while SIX MILLION Jews were systematically exterminated in gas chambers. Jemele Hill is ignorant, but you should know better. Puke. puke. puke.
By the way, the definition of execution requires a death. Get the facts straight.
Point blank range, in the back: the intent was unquestionably to kill...execution style. That he remains alive, is a miracle on its own. And I said he was alive and in stable condition in the blog.
DeleteI have adjusted the line to read "attempted execution," just in case another read is confused.
As to your other point about the Holocaust, I did not compare anything to the Holocaust ...I drew a parallel between the inaction of the German people and the silence Black Americans have endured in this country. Silence is complicit. That is a fair comparison.
the WP
Entirely appalling :(:(
ReplyDeleteBut...but...Donald said the shooter simply "choked" -- like a golfer who missed a 3 foot putt. Surely, it was not intentional?
ReplyDelete