https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/02/letter-from-a-birmingham-jail/552461/?
On MLK Day, I read the letter from a Birmingham jail. This letter was written over sixty years ago and today it is still relevant. We are still fighting for the same rights. Our group economic status is worse than it was when MLK wrote the letter. In reading the letter, I was surprised at MLK’s future sight. I was surprised at the understanding that a long term goal might benefit from what would appear to be an unrelated issue. Or maybe the understanding that many things are interrelated, often tangentially. It’s the butterfly effect, i.e., the teeniest change can have unforetold, life altering effects.
Some of us have lost that future sense. Do you think that we will get reparations if the United States elects a dictator? Do you think we will get reparations if the United States is a theocracy? Do you think we will get reparations if a rich oligarchy controls the government? Do you think you will get reparations if fascists gain control? At this time, we get the crumbs of a corporatocracy. Our best bet for reparations is a functional democracy. But many of us, with eyes mired in the present, look to those who have, in the past, lied to, cheated, and stole from us to realize that their zero-sum mindset is wrong. The same people, that have passed laws and created policies and procedures to harm us and ensured any laws passed to benefit us are turned on their head to benefit them. MLK recognized them and their broken promises. I think he finally realized that “wait” meant “never” and that the stronger our economic position, the more we can demand in a capitalistic democracy. The white supremacists stole, with malice and violence, the beginning of our financial freedom and our continuing efforts to gain a financial foothold and, now, we must begin in earnest to re-build, yet again. But this time, with the knowledge, that when they come with violence and/or subterfuge, they will not leave with anything that is ours.
The temperatures have been in the single digits for a couple of days. Why is the drip of water so loud? To keep the pipes from freezing, the water is dripping and the loudness of the drip caught my attention. I watched the drip drip for some seconds. Then, I closed the door because the repetitive drip is annoying until I tune it out or I adjust the volume of the music from my favorite playlist.
Back to future sense–why do some of us keep buying the same sway-backed, toothless, lame horse outfitted in reins of pyrite and regalia of gold nylon? We take those pyrite reins and proudly walk away leading our golden steed. Do we ever realize that we are dragging a dead horse to nowhere? When will we notice the flies, the putrid odor, and the circling buzzards?
“Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds” is the unofficial mission statement of the Post Office. Frigid temperatures and snow let us know how unofficial the motto is. No shade to the Post Office. I thank the Post Office for not having its carriers delivering mail in this weather. The temperature is brutally cold and the streets are treacherous.
The former president didn’t even offer thoughts and prayers to the victims and families of the last school shooting. He told them to get over it. I guess that is the sentiment behind the meaningless mumbling of thoughts and prayers. He didn’t sugarcoat the sentiment. But he is also saying get used to school and other mass shootings. This contributes to the chaos that will keep his base voting for him and he will do nothing to stop it. But his base just can’t see how they are being used.
I’m not a great numbers person. But, bear with me. If 10 percent of the registered voters vote and 50 percent of that 10 percent vote for a particular candidate, how is that a landslide or a mandate? In my scenario, 90 percent of the registered voters didn’t vote. I don’t know the percentage of the Iowan registered voters who actually voted. But I understand that the majority stayed home. Why do the media spin the former president’s “win” as “decisive”? Expected, but not decisive. And decisive of what? That his base turned out on a frigidly cold day and evening in Iowa? I understand the braggadocio of the former president. He is a lying narcissist. He boasted that the skimpy crowd evident in the photographs of his inauguration constituted a great crowd. Why didn’t the media put this “win” in context?
Back to the frigid temps. Fewer insects to bite and annoy one this summer! I think we’ve had the low temps across the required number of days to reduce the insect population.
https://www.history.com/news/great-plains-blizzard-1886-kansas-big-die-up?cmpid=email-hist-inside-history-2024-0117-01172024&om_rid= I like history. I read this article because of the year 1886. My great-grandmother was born in the spring of 1886 in south central Kentucky. Seems like blizzards, during the winter of 1885 to 1886, wreaked havoc across the United States. There was a blizzard in south central Kentucky in February 1886 per this article–https://hoptownchronicle.org/snapshots-in-time-an-1886-snowstorm-was-like-nothing-hopkinsville-had-ever-seen/. Our few inches of snow cannot compare to the 1886 blizzards!
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