Do Black Lives Matter – Really?

Before you react to that shocking headline, hear me out.

The nation is erupting to the senseless death in Minneapolis of George Floyd.  Riots are occurring in cities throughout the country.  Most people are incensed.  But what are they incensed about and why?

A friend on Facebook posted a question for us all to consider: “At what point did you become enraged enough to speak out?”  Was it when you first watched Colin Kaepernick in 2016 take a knee during a national anthem?  Or were you more disturbed by the act?  Was it when you watched George Floyd die before your eyes and under the knee of a policeman?  Or were you more affected as the riots began to burn? 

Kaepernick attempted to bring to the nation’s attention the problem that black people were dying at an alarming rate at the hands of the police.  He attempted to take a peaceful approach to bring attention to a serious problem.  Four years and 700 black lives later, another senseless death occurs; a death that should be considered to be an act of terrorism due to its racial overtones. 

To bring some statistics into the conversation please refer to this link that illustrates the deaths that have occurred at the hands of our policemen.  Remember as you review this page and find the number of black people killed to be less than whites, that blacks represent only about 12% of our total population.  There is also some interesting information on the mappingpoliceviolence.org website illustrating, among other things, that 99% of the killings by police from 2013 to 2019 have not resulted in the officers being charged with a crime.  Granted, police have a very difficult job that takes them into a lot of violent situations, but are they truly innocent of wrong doing in all of the deaths that occur?

But let’s turn to the riots. If you find yourself upset about the violence that is occurring in response to this killing, then I ask what you think should be done?  How much of this senselessness do we need to endure?  What steps can be taken to stop it?  Kaepernick’s peaceful approach did not work.  Years of “sensitivity training” of the police forces has not worked.  Are we supposed to simply stand by and allow this brutal and obviously racial situation to continue unabated?  What will it take to make a change?

As we contemplate the killing and the riots we also need to recognize the environment in which these events are happening.  We are just opening up the country from a fearful exposure to a killer virus; a virus that remains virulent and active.  As a result, unemployment figures over the last few months have skyrocketed to 20-30% levels.  In poor black communities the unemployment numbers for young black men are even historically much worse.  Hopelessness, fear, poverty, illness and then this; a black man strangled to death for all to see.  It seems to me this was dry tinder simply waiting for a spark.

So how do we respond?  What steps should be taken to calm the storm, return to our homes, repair the damage, and secure the future?  Will it help to bring justice down upon the killers in this situation?  Or will they be acquitted like so many others?  Will a calming rhetoric from our political leaders bring us a sense of healing and direction?  Or do we need to threaten harm, arrest and kill more often?  That seems to be the approach our President is taking.  “These THUGS are dishonoring the memory of George Floyd, and I won’t let that happen. Just spoke to Governor Tim Walz and told him that the Military is with him all the way. Any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts. Thank you!”

As usual, I find little reassurance from the tweets of our President.  As always, it seems to me that he looks for ways to inflame a situation instead of provide assurance and calm.  A reassuring comment filled with “thoughts and prayers” would fall short but it would be significantly better than calling for more violence which is certainly not the answer.

I have no answers to this.  It is a grim situation, at best, but more likely an explosively time bomb whose fuse has already been lit.  I end this piece with the same question from my friend that inspired this writing: “At what point will we become enraged enough to speak out?”

The Butcher of Brooklyn?

Blogging is not always an easy activity to maintain.  It requires inspiration and time.  Time I have had plenty of as I, like most people in the world, have been sitting at home, isolated from the normal routine of running a company that I had established over the past 10-years.  All routines that I had become accustomed to were gone.  The daily commute, the greeting and interactions with employees in the office, the lunch hour break, the drive home…; all gone.  In their place came idleness, along with it a lack of inspiration.  The daily activities around work ceased to exist.  Making plans, focusing on the growth and profitability of the company, and developing personnel to become the best they could be…; all ceased to exist.

Instead, what followed were worry, fear and nothingness.  Nothingness in the sense there was really nothing to do.  Yes, I had to manage dwindling cash flow needs and submit tons of loan paperwork.  Yes, I feared of a future that would be grossly different than it once was and yes, I worried about my employees.  In the midst of the doom and gloom I had to put on a happy face, an encouraging face.  I needed to lift others in spite of my own sinking despair.

The virus along with the associated economic collapse was bad enough but coupled with it was the unceasing attack on our democracy by the President.  No matter how bad the news on the virus and the economy became, he could make it worse.  No matter how much he illustrated his inability to lead in a crisis or how strikingly wrong his continued onslaught of tweets became, the likelihood of his reelection seemed to improve.  A destroyed democracy played directly into his hands.  A strong economy, reelect the President… a failed economy, reelect the President?  The logic was baffling and nonsensical.  It still is perplexing at best and terrifying at worst.

How can one continue to be inspired to write when no matter how things change, the results are the same?  No matter how naked the king seems to be, no one seems to notice.  I guess it is a simple matter that they don’t care.  If people do not care that their democracy is being destroyed, why bother writing about it? Whose opinions will be swayed by my attestation to the facts?

The election process by which democracy is assured is being destroyed.  First, people will need to be willing to risk their lives to vote if the virus is still rampaging through our society in November because of the attack on mail-in alternatives.  Second, the hand-shaking approach to meeting candidates and hearing their ideas is gone.  The only method of “getting the word out” about political alternatives is now wholly dependent on a damaged and partisan news media system that no one trusts, pays attention to, or who are totally swayed by.  Third, partisanship has infected every aspect of our society.  Wear a mask; you must be one of “Them.”  Drive an electric car, you are a maggot of a democrat.  Wear the wrong color clothing; attend the wrong place of worship; be of the wrong race, culture or creed; say the wrong thing to a delivery person (that’s another story)… all of which can result in you finding yourself suddenly in a hate-filled, execrable, and heated confab with no hope of resolve or reason.

Where will of this lead us?  I believe we are all looking for answers to that question and so far I do not like the answers I am finding.

There is a universal desire to return to a sense of normal.  People mostly decry that they dislike the extreme partisanship that has sickened our country/world, and yet, it persists and grows.  Most people feel they would like to see an end to the bickering, and yet, they continue to bicker.  Most people would prefer to spend peaceful times with their families recapturing the feelings of love and hope  that only a family can bring, and yet, they are quick to attack others for wanting the same.  Everyone wants justice… as long as they can define what that justice looks like.  Most people cannot stand to see hate, racism, lies, name-calling, bullying, and bigotry and yet, Trump continues to get away with everything he says and does with people continually willing to vote and support him.

  

If you are hopeful for a peaceful revolution through the ballot this November, forget it.  The likelihood that Trump will lose is very slim and even if, in some way, Biden somehow pulls off a miracle victory, Trump will not “peacefully” leave office.  He will declare it invalid and grab a tighter hold of the power he claims to be his.  

I know that many of you do not believe this to be true.  You have faith in the remnant of democracy that we have left.  All I can say to you is this:  Who will stand up and stop him?

No one has even attempted to rein him in during the last four years, no matter what he says or does.  The polls illustrating his support have not wavered an inch.  Congress has not only been ineffective, the Republicans are fully enabling his every deed.  He has his own sycophants spread throughout government and the courts who are willing to do everything he demands.  They are afraid of him and yet, empowering him at the same time.

You can pick and choose which totalitarian regime in history to compare as they all will provide examples of what is developing in our country today.  If you are finding it difficult to think of a good example, I highly recommend reading Madeleine Albright's book,  Fascism: A Warning.  In this reading you will find plenty of examples. 

The one that comes to mind to me this morning is the regime of Idi Amin in Uganda.  A populist leader, Amin began his governance by offering to return wealth to the common man.  “We are determined to make the ordinary Ugandan master of his own destiny and, above all, to see that he enjoys the wealth of his country. Our deliberate policy is to transfer the economic control of Uganda into the hands of Ugandans, for the first time in our country's history.” – Idi Amin.

Since we all know that he became known as the Butcher of Uganda, something along the way happened to change this relatively hopeful beginning.  What happened was a campaign to eliminate a class of people who were different than the majority.  Amin developed an entire culture of hate, attacking legal residents of Uganda as aliens and enemies to the country.  The cry “die cockroaches” rang through the throngs of para-military gangs who raped and murdered their way to one of the worse genocides in world history.  Over 500,000 Ugandans persecuted and killed in eight years of war.  A war committed upon themselves.

I can hear you now… “Gary, you can’t possibly begin to suggest that Trump is the next Idi Amin and that here in this beautiful country of peace and opportunity we will face murderous gangs racing through our streets untouched and uncontrolled, killing hundreds of thousands of innocent souls?  Here?  In the United States?  Never.”

I ask again: Who will stand up and stop him?  

After all, the count is already up to over 100,000 Americans dead in just 3 months.