QUARANTINE LIFE: SUNDAY THOUGHTS

I have opinions, habits, likes, preferences, ideas, and beliefs. Lots of them. Some are based on my experiences, others based on how I was raised, and some have come with age. Face it. There are some things in life that you do or don't do, not because you're a spiritually superior, disciplined human being. Some things are just no longer physically or mentally possible, or safe. It's not that you won't do one thing or another--you can't-- that is, if you expect to live and tell about it in any coherent way.

I realize that not everyone has walked in my shoes, nor were they raised in my parents' house. There are some things I simply do not want, like, understand, embrace, or find interesting. I can't get threatened, critical, envious, or sanctimonious, and commence to raining on everyone else's parade, though.

It is silly, unreasonable, and, frankly, abusive and flat out wrong for me to expect or demand that others think, or behave the way I do--no matter how good, reasonable, normal, or right I've concluded my way may be. Why not extend a hearty, "Do YOU"?

Why do some people seem to hate on sight? Who raised them?

I am glad that my parents were people of conscience; that things like education, faith, good citizenship, travel, communication, critical thinking, reading, and empathy mattered to them. They weren't perfect, but they endeavored to be people who saw the value in others, and the beauty in diversity. They weren't above admitting they were wrong, or offering an apology. They cared--sometimes too much. It had to be difficult trying to navigate a world where the expectations of others who hated you were always present, yet you still managed to be a decent, achieving, law-aiding, contributing citizen who taught your children to find good in the world.

I admit, I read about what's happening in our country, and make an effort to find the good, but sometimes, it's tough. In their quest to have their own way, some people go too far.

I'm trying to think of a time when the decisions of others didn't so devastatingly affect the world, like they have in the past two years, yet even those who were affected, managed to keep their heads high, and their outlooks positive.

There is a controlling atmosphere in America, whipped up by selfish, narrow-minded, chaos-loving people, and embraced by the misinformed, gullible people who follow them, that's spawning dis-ease and discouragement.

So many people are expressing their worry about the daily demise of a Democracy that hasn't ever been truly democratic. They're stressing over the backward track we seem to be on, where individual rights and freedoms were scarce, or didn't exist.

As a Black woman in America, I guess its encouraging that people are opening their eyes and seeing that evil doesn't play favorites, offer passes, or exemptions. If you sit back long enough and disregard the suffering of others, your turn just might be coming, and you'll need allies for YOUR fight.

Between the January 6th Hearings and recent Supreme Court decisions, many are finally realizing that we're all in this thing together. Some are finding that the very people and organizations they've been batting for, are positively monstrous.

People either forgot, or haven't been taught that their rights abruptly end when they infringe upon the rights of someone else. Just how long do those with such a twisted view of what America is, and who she belongs to, think that those they work so hard to oppress, will put up with their nonsense? How do they not see the mental, spiritual, physical, emotional, and even financial toll that their daily bigotry and hatred has taken on themselves? Being a monster can't be good for the countenance or heart.

This is why History is so important. How do complacent people forget, or downplay how the stories begin, while ruthless people forget how the stories end? How do leaders so deliberately trash their own reputations and legacies? There are a whole heap of people to whom history will not be kind.

Every day it seems that a handful of people wake up and think of ways to make others miserable, compliant, and fearful.

Every day, powerless people wonder what dastardly, unfair, deadly scheme the infamous "They" will concoct next.

Every day vigilant people are scrambling to put out fires, knock down barriers, dispel myths, rumors, and lies, rebuild what has been torn down, and offer help.

Every day there are pleas for somebody, anybody, to "Do something!"

What we see a lot these days, are mere performative gestures, and empty talk from those who could actually do something but, either their hands are tied, or their opinions, habits, likes, ideas, preferences, and beliefs won't allow them to see the humanity in others.

Where is the will?

Why the hesitation to mete out justice and relief?

Whose side are the supposed Good Guys on?

What deals are they making for themselves that precludes them from actually leading and caring about the welfare of those who depend upon them?

I guess a more pressing question is why on Earth do people continuously vote against their best interests? Could it be that their racism is so deeply entrenched and overwhelming that it supersedes care of one's own health, education, and welfare? Is bigotry and hatred of their fellow citizens the definitive thing that some voters have in common with the candidates of their choice?

Are they LOOKING for a fight? Wait...They ARE, aren't they? The really do want a fight, don't they? They certainly have been promised one for centuries by people who are so paranoid and ashamed of their own ancestry and history, that they're driven by delusions and nightmares of some racial retaliation.

Again...Do they learn NOTHING from history? Picking a fight with one group of people tends to create enemies one did not anticipate. They clearly have not learned the wise principle: Don't start nuthin'; won't BE nuthin'.

There's not the least bit of wisdom, integrity, empathy, understanding, intelligence, or humanity in some of the rhetoric we hear each day.

How does one not immediately see that a 10 year-old pregnant girl is a rape victim, and not want to do everything possible to help her?

How can anyone reflect on Uvalde, or any of the countless mass shootings, and still view their weapon as more precious than life?

How much money is more critical than safe drinking water, reliable utilities, and safe neighborhoods?

How hot does it have to get; how many natural disasters have to occur before climate change is taken seriously, but people are mad because a fireworks show was cancelled in an area prone to forest fire?

How is assuaged guilt and shame more important than the freedom that truth and accuracy in teaching bring?

What motivates people to want their children to be ignorant?

Why would 8 police officers shoot at one unarmed person 90 times, striking them 60 times, then find it necessary to handcuff them?

How did a piece of cloth become the source of so much contention where we disregard the health of the most vulnerable among us?

Where did this new brand of neighbor-hating christian come from?

Some leaders just appear to be evil, possessed, unhinged, and out of control--on purpose--then they go back to the comfort of their protected homes, while the yes-men and opportunists who surround them forget that when the you-know-what hits the fan, their low-hanging-fruit lives are going to be splattered and shredded first. (Just ask the January 6th defendants what their loyalty and willful ignorance got them.)

The atmosphere is not sustainable. We're not on the heels of a global pandemic, were still in its contagious shoes, contending with the damage of long Covid...and there's monkey pox ...and leaders who seem to have a problem with ensuring that we all have clean air to breathe, or streets that don't look like the wild, wild west.

There's so much loss, suffering, and upheaval, yet there are those who delight in adding to it.

Unfortunately, some decision-makers are never going to see the destructive nature of their hasty decisions and volatile words until the consequences show up at their own front doors. Then, there will be such urgency in fixing stuff that should never have been broken in the first place.

Evil is masquerading as good, and only appears to be winning. Even grace has a limit, and some leaders are wearing out grace's patience.

People are going to get tired of feeling helpless, intimidated, and afraid--if they aren't already. Leaders and their compromised minions never expect to be challenged, and certainly not by those whose experiences are deemed unimportant.

If history is any indicator, new leaders are emerging from the exhaustion.

This trouble, and the troublesome people who perpetuate it, won't last always (thanks for the optimism Mom and Dad), but LAWD have they made a mess of things.