Reflections, Observations, and Analyses Pertaining to the Canadian Political Scene
Thursday, May 28, 2020
So Painful To Watch
George Floyd's death at the hands of Minneapolis police is very difficult to watch. I suspect the aftermath will make for equally painful viewing, yet turning away can hardly be the answer.
I've been mulling over how near America is coming to a racial boiling point? Black people are getting tired of seeing unarmed black people killed by police officers and it's pretty hard to dismiss their anger. At the same time they're beset by this pandemic and a federal government, headed by a skilled race-baiter, that really doesn't give a damn about their plight. That is compounded by the turn out of heavily-armed, combat clad white supremacists intimidating anyone they cannot abide and muttering code words such as 'boogaloo' to signify Civil War II while Stephen Miller, the white supremacists' inside man, whispers sweet nothings into Trump's receptive ear.
It was Detroit in '67, LA in '92, and now the embers of discontent in Minneapolis. Mass unemployment, the virus that rampages through the ranks of the poor (black and white), a healthcare system sculpted in the image of Ayn Rand, and a dangerously uncertain future. A lot of people have been dealt a very shitty hand. How does that play out?
Considered in the aggregate, Mound, the answer seems increasingly clear. If the November election doesn't rid the United States of the infection raging in its top office, I see little prospect of anything other than a terminal prognosis.
A few days ago I read the average funeral cost in the US runs to just over $7,000 without the concrete vault that most cemeteries require. Factor in the problem that many employed Americans can't come up with $400 to cover an emergency and you see the bind the economically disadvantaged, those most likely to contract Covid-19 fall in. I'm sure that was in no small way a factor in the mass grave burials we've seen in New York and elsewhere, including several European countries. Give it another four, five centuries and anthropologists will have a treasure trove of discoveries.
I've been mulling over how near America is coming to a racial boiling point? Black people are getting tired of seeing unarmed black people killed by police officers and it's pretty hard to dismiss their anger. At the same time they're beset by this pandemic and a federal government, headed by a skilled race-baiter, that really doesn't give a damn about their plight. That is compounded by the turn out of heavily-armed, combat clad white supremacists intimidating anyone they cannot abide and muttering code words such as 'boogaloo' to signify Civil War II while Stephen Miller, the white supremacists' inside man, whispers sweet nothings into Trump's receptive ear.
ReplyDeleteIt was Detroit in '67, LA in '92, and now the embers of discontent in Minneapolis. Mass unemployment, the virus that rampages through the ranks of the poor (black and white), a healthcare system sculpted in the image of Ayn Rand, and a dangerously uncertain future. A lot of people have been dealt a very shitty hand. How does that play out?
Considered in the aggregate, Mound, the answer seems increasingly clear. If the November election doesn't rid the United States of the infection raging in its top office, I see little prospect of anything other than a terminal prognosis.
DeleteA few days ago I read the average funeral cost in the US runs to just over $7,000 without the concrete vault that most cemeteries require. Factor in the problem that many employed Americans can't come up with $400 to cover an emergency and you see the bind the economically disadvantaged, those most likely to contract Covid-19 fall in. I'm sure that was in no small way a factor in the mass grave burials we've seen in New York and elsewhere, including several European countries. Give it another four, five centuries and anthropologists will have a treasure trove of discoveries.
ReplyDeleteThat is very disturbing information I knew nothing about, Mound.
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