Maybe that is what we, the people, should write as an epitaph to the experiment that is known as the United States–Go in peace. Let another experiment built on facts and grounded in history take its place. Grandiloquent words and phrases cannot provide cover for the lies that this country was built on, especially when the grandiloquent words and phrases were never given credence by the actions of the ones in power. When it came to laws, policies, and procedures the grandiloquent words and phrases could never compete with the stark reality of the blatant hypocrisy on which this country was founded.
Mother Nature is responding to the evil that is the United States–ice, drought, fire, flood…
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On a hot May morning, this squirrel lounged on a tree limb, daring anyone to disturb its peace!
Almost end of May and gas is about $4.50 a gallon and more. Oil companies are loving this windfall from a totally unnecessary war. Their payback for support of a corrupt regime?
I asked a cousin who grew up in Jim Crow what it was like. He was born during the 1930s. He said we survived because we knew the rules. We knew “our place” and the consequences for those who did not know their place. I think terror was the norm, so they didn’t feel the terror. Terror was merely a part of their environment, not noticed until the terror became active, seeking…because terror must vent or the terrorized might forget the consequences?
Pinnacle(?) of Homo Sapiens—(T)eacher and pupil alike, were suffering from hookworm disease. Their emaciated, misshapen, or bloated bodies, their sad, pale, listless, hopeless faces, marked with habitual suffering, faces which no art could charm into a smile that would not be ghastly… (c)hildren in the South, between six and sixteen years of age, weighed down, arrested, and stunted physically and mentally…relief in death. Excerpt from The Country School Of Tomorrow by Frederick T. Gates (1913) If one looks at the people in the South today, 2026, not much has changed. The diseases are different, but the results are the same. Gates did not mention the dental health of the people that he photographed. As noted above, those sick ignorant people did not smile. He probably would have said something like the few teeth they have are blackened and rotten and that would track with the dental health of the Southerners today. They were also, in all probability, filthy and lice infested. These ignorant, low-intelligence people have always voted to be the lower caste whites. One would think that in over one hundred years there would have been some change in their mindset, but a crumb from the ones in power and an avenue to blame an “Other” for their misery is enough to maintain their loyalty to a system that treats them as disposable.
2026 Memorial Day–For the first time, I visited my father’s grave in the veteran’s Zcemetary. When he passed, some twelve years ago, the Veterans cemetery was new and there were not that many graves. In twelve years, today, 2026, there were row upon row of veterans who have served in the military. Whoever picked this land for the cemetery had compassion and empathy for the families that would visit. The cemetery is partially surrounded by woods and it is far enough from the road so there is little or no road noise. There’re benches scattered throughout the cemetery where one can sit and be at peace with the souls within. You might ask…why the long interval. 
My answer…the cemetery is a two to three hour drive away and I don’t drive those distances anymore and, when one has issues with a parent, it sometimes takes time to realize that the parent did the best they could, given their upbringing. This year…when my brother who lives even father away than I do said he was going, I asked him if he would stop by and pick me up. Maybe, I should have asked before. I’m glad I did. My brothers have their rituals. One brother brought a floral memorial for my father and my other brother strew rose petals and buds on my mother’s grave and and other relatives.
While in Kentucky, we finally found the church graveyard where my maternal grandfather’s relatives are buried. I say finally because the first time, a couple of years ago, when we tried to find the church the directions weren’t that precise and we ended up on a narrow paved road that was marked as a two-lane road but, in reality, was a one lane road split into two lanes that weaved its way through fields of soybeans and corn, if I remember correctly. The church is no longer active, but someone or ones had funded ground penetrating radar to find the unmarked graves in the cemetery. There were colored pennants marking the graves.
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There were few headstones and there were two or three of my grandfather’s relatives, but most of the graves were unmarked. Scattered throughout the graveyard were fragments of headstones…most unreadable. Going there was a whim so I didn’t have any tracing paper with me. I took pictures. The church was collapsing in on itself. I don’t recall if the person who told me where the cemetery was located also told me how long the church had been inactive. She did tell me that a cousin…probably a third cousin of mine, had mowed the graveyard. Maybe, he is still mowing it as someone had mown and cleared the cemetery of underbrush.
My mother is buried in a different cemetery. So, this Memorial Day, I visited three cemeteries. That cemetery is very well kept. It also has a section where there are unmarked graves. I don’t think anyone has tried to identify the graves and who is buried in that section. Someone has cleared most of the brush, but I understand that in the trees bordering the cemetery, there are graves. One of my Aunts’ headstone had tipped over. There was a dance class at the church that is responsible for the upkeep of the cemetery and the dance instructor knew who to call about the headstone.
Driving through Kentucky…Miasma, pall, gloom, heaviness, something not quite right are the words and phrases that come to mind, but don’t quite capture the dreariness and lack that permeates the land we were driving through. I had the same feeling the first time I had the misfortune to visit Mississippi. I was driving from Memphis and there was this palpable difference in the surroundings once I crossed the state line…like a miasmic veil of woe, discord, neglect, and despair. (I do recognize the same veil in rural Tennessee. Urban areas, even in the South, have a different vibe.) Part of the not quite right were the fields of winter wheat. Field after field…all the same height and color. I thought crew or buzz cut, but the wheat in this year 2026 has been hybridized into a uniform height and color. Field after field could be superimposed one upon the other…no difference. Something feels so wrong about those fields of winter wheat. 
There were some fields of corn with the same uniformity of height and color crowded together in fields where it would be difficult, if not impossible, to walk through the fields. My grandfather and father planted fields of corn and we would play hide and seek in the rows of corn. Not in these fields of corn! I know no till farming, etc. is supposed to be better for the earth, but crowded in a field…does the corn get enough nutrients? Maybe…fertilization with manufactured fertilizers is a science, is it not?
It’s been raining for a week and one of my tomato plants is showing stress from too much water. Before this latest rain, the tomato plants would be drooping and the soil in the pot would be dry to the touch and I would water…every other day. It’s not supposed to stop raining until Saturday or Sunday. I’ll plant my garden then.
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The possible has been tried and failed. Now it’s time to try the impossible. — Sun Ra
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