I don’t post items here as much as I think I ought to, and I think that this is because the items I post here are longer and more ‘in-depth’ analyses than items that I write elsewhere. The items I write elsewhere are really quite short. However, as short as they are, I think they are no less poignant, or valuable as social commentary. Therefore, I have decided to place some of those here. All of these are posted on either the “Rants and Raves,” or “Politics” sections of Craigslist. One of the reasons I like posting there is because the very nature of the platform forces me to be brief, and we all know that if given the opportunity, I can go on, and on! Anyway, here are two of my more recent posts:
Protests: Posted 20 April, 2020
For almost a week, now, I have watched coverage of people protesting the “Stay at Home” orders issued by governors. In one particular image, I noticed a man carrying a sign that read “If you sacrifice liberty for security, you deserve neither.” I have been familiar with that saying for a long time (that guy didn’t come up with that), and do, for the most part, agree with it.
However, there is another saying at play here that is extremely important, and tempers that saying, in 2020, with a bit of reason. This second saying is: “Your rights end where the other guy’s nose begins.” It is here, where these two sayings converge, that the protesters and those who support them from their couches and keyboards, go off the rails, and lose any semblance reasoned adulthood.
Each of these people, as well as you and me, have the right to be free in our person, our thoughts, our beliefs, and our lives. What we do not have the right to do, is to exercise these rights at the expense of the same rights in others. I understand their desire for things to be like they were. I wish as much as anybody that we could go back in time, and that this entire global pandemic would never happen, but I can’t. I can’t, you can’t, America can’t, the world can’t.
The world will never be as it was, and what the future shape of this global society will look like over the long-term is anybody’s guess. The problem, now, it that these protesters seem to think that their desire for freedom of mobility (and that’s what it is, really, a desire to be mobile again) is more important than the rights of others to live at all. This virus is a killer. It doesn’t kill everybody, but it kills at a very high rate compared to similar viruses, and epidemiologists the world over are amazed at how efficient it is at transmitting itself from one host to the next.
Therefore, I urge everyone reading this to know that your rights, liberties, and freedoms are important, but they are not all-important, and neither you, nor they, exist in a vacuum. We exist in this whole thing together, and we must all help to guard the rights of everyone, and one of those rights is to not be harmed by someone else exercising their perceived liberties.
The last point I want to make is definitely directed at the protesters and their supporters. I hope you understand, that as the people from Info Wars, and other conspiracy theory factories are telling you to get out there and protest against this made-up, deep state scare game code-named “Covid-19,” they are doing so as they hunker down in their germ free homes, studios, and bunkers. You get out there and get sick from an imaginary virus, and spread it to others, while they sit at home, safe from what they tell you isn’t real. Each of you needs to be aware of that.
Peace, and stay safe
The Signs: Posted 04 May, 2020
I saw some news coverage today of the armed, “patriot” rallies from the last couple of days. One thing in particular, has struck me about these gatherings: The Signs. To be honest, you can carry a million American flags wherever you like, but if your message is as Un-American as is that of these people, then these flags, and their value as a symbol of anything that is good, and decent, and holding any compassion for anyone, fades to nothing. All that is left is the hollow attempt of the flag-bearers to hide their hatred behind something they have no right to even touch. The only flags to which they have a right are the confederate flags that outnumber the American flags at their rallies and the swastikas they dare not pull off the wall of their ‘man caves’ at home.
In reference to signs, I saw a woman carrying a home-made sign that read: “ARBEIT MACHT FREI, JB! Arbeit Macht Frei. I don’t know what could possibly possess a person to carry such a thing, but after hours of careful consideration, I have decided that it comes down to three different possible goals on her part. Before I continue, for those who don’t know, “Arbeit Macht Frei” is German for “Work Sets You Free,” and these words adorned (for lack of a better term) the entrance to the Auschwitz extermination camp in Nazi Germany.
So, here’s what I think this woman was trying to say:
1. She’s too absolutely stupid to know anything about those words, and how they have become synonymous with hatred and death. In her stupidity, she took four Scrabble games, threw all of the letters in a bag. then reached her hand in, grabbed some letters, and that’s what came out. She then took her Sharpie, scribbled it out on a piece of foam-core from her local Hobby Lobby, and the next thing you know, there she is on global news, proudly holding Arbeit Mach Frei above her head.
2. She knows at least something about where those words come from, and what they have come to symbolize, but is too insensitive to anyone else’s experience in this world to give a shit. She’s a neo-conservative because first, they’re all white, and second, because they seem to not give a shit about anybody but themselves, and that suits her just fine. Oh, yeah, and that wall. She loves the wall.
3. She is keenly aware of all of the horrific connotations that surround those words, and chose them carefully. She brought that sign out of the depths of the darkness of her soul for a very specific purpose; to say in a loud and clear voice for all to see and hear: “Yeah, you’re damned right! Arbeit Macht Frei, you fucking Jews!”
Unfortunately, I think it’s number 3.
“People” (again, for lack of a better term) who carry signs like this, who tote around flags of the Confederacy, and mark themselves as cowards beyond what has heretofore been the known limit of cowardice, by thinking that they are somehow intimidating the rest of us by sporting guns in public, lose a lot in this world. Two of the most important things they lose are the right to call themselves either a “patriot,” or even an American. They are something less than either.
Well, that’s all for now. I hope you found those two posts rewarding.
Peace and Love to all,
Neimand