Maybe If...

I’m tired of hearing about us being executed every week/day. It’s an ongoing struggle to stomach the news of another shooting accompanied by footage and numerous eye-witness accounts attesting to the gross misconduct FATAL interactions police officers are having with unarmed civilians without any sort of accountability.

I’m tired of having to defend the reality that we are living in a society full of racism and prejudice that nobody wants to outrightly address in a constructive or compassionate way. I feel helpless, contributing to this discussion yet again with another article, with more words, but words aren’t protecting the young black men and women from being slain in the streets, in their homes, in their cars, words aren’t keeping police officers from abusing godlike tendencies to terrorize and intimidate, words aren’t enough to console the families who have lost loved ones way too soon and have to face the world with an emptiness no one else can imagine.

I think the hope is that these words will change the hearts and minds of a population of people who refuse to see beyond their close-minded notion of what this country stands for in their warped heads as opposed to the reality of its past, present, and future if they don’t consider the immense harm that’s been done and continues to be done to not only people of color but everyone living in this country. It’s baffling to me that people can live in such a bubble that another human dying, regardless of race, is not enough to alert them to a very serious issue plaguing this country.

Maybe if words are used just so, the people who condemn Colin Kaepernick’s protest will understand that it’s coming from a place of exhaustion not disrespect. Maybe if words are used just so, the people who scrutinize the video tapes of black people getting killed, looking for a fault of the civilian rather than face the fact it’s open season on a population of Americans. Maybe if words are used just so, those people who believe we no longer have a race problem will understand the problem never disappeared, but manifested itself in more subtle ways, buried within state policies and procedures, creeping in judiciary and political systems, manipulating basic human rights, and recently exploded onto the world’s main stage disguised as the Trump campaign. Maybe if words are used just so we can have a discussion about why prejudice is such a pervasive, yet utterly uncomfortable topic and actually try to reverse some of these stereotypes fueling the hatred. Maybe.

In the meantime, I hope people with friends who “don’t get it” will continue to use words to educate and persuade those people to take the time to “get it.”

Sigh. Love each other.

#Blacklivesmatter

Thoughts

I’m undecided if my sheer disinterest in the Olympics stems from a strong indifference towards sports in general or because the thought of having an event of that caliber means spending an insane amount of money that can be used for far more significant improvements on people’s everyday lives. According to The Guardian an approximate £11bn is being spent on the Olympics, the money coming from the government and an Olympics committee. INSANE. Although, I understand the allure of the Olympics. It’s an age-old tradition that we’ve somehow managed to maintain for all these years and it’s a celebration of the body, mind, and commitment of every single athlete. I get it. However, I will never really understand the logic behind spending so much money on an event when the world is in turmoil and the only thing to fix it is well money. Imagine if the money spent on the Olympics went to a third-world country for a system to give them running water- a luxury for a lot of the world and a dream for the rest. I don’t mean to be a hater, but I cannot deny the ludicrousness of the entire thing.

In other news, there was a shooting at a Sikh Temple in Wisconsin and the amount of hatred and violence in this country has been a problem for centuries and if we’re going to fix it we need to talk about it. However, the lack of open dialogue about shooting events has been baffling. We need to talk about some painfully honest issues, but leaders of this country are just not taking their roles seriously and actually leading this country in a discussion of guns, violence, and hate. It exists. We all know it does, even the most naive that want to believe racism was left in the ’60s and that 2012 brings an idealistic beacon of tolerance. In their heart of hearts they know. I hope, because the worst enemy of a situation like this is denial. 

And now for something truly exciting. MARS EXPLORATION.