In a minute, you'll understand my intentions are pure in naming this blog.
About Guns
According to Jonathan M. Metzl, the author of the nonfiction best seller Dying of Whiteness, the American Wild West was not so wild. Frontier townsfolk preferred no display of weapons on their main streets, thank you very much. A cowboy could openly carry a weapon to town - for repair.
Fast forward to 2020 when most states grant the right to carry concealed weapons. Several states grant open carry rights. Today, a patriot can shop the veggie aisles with an assault weapon slung over his back. And, although the United States has four percent of the world's population, the country has more that 40 percent of the world's guns. Every town is a shooting range.
Who Can It Be Now?
Yet-to-be deputized Trump militia men roam the edges of our citys' ongoing protests, trigger fingers itching. But, who can say if these disguised men are freelancers or federally deployed floaters, i.e., human capital shifted around the country like store clerks, startling department managers upon arrival? Are they United States Marshals or border patrol agents dispatched from the Oval Office? No one can say. The gunslingers and tear gassers are free to be incognito, stoking violent scenes fit for Trump's re-election campaign ads.
Freelancers purchase their camouflage from mail order hunting catalogues. Feds wear battleground gear under the ludicrous banner, "Operation Diligent Valor" funded by our tax dollars. Whatever the mission, they intimidate protesters who object to police brutality. Brutality deployed against those outraged by brutality and breeding fresh outrage.
About Roses
In early July, PBS television's American Experience presented a two-part, four-hour documentary The Vote to mark the 100th Anniversary of the passage of women's suffrage. In the 70-year drive to win that vote, suffragettes faced counter-lobbying by women who feared its passage would topple the pedestals from which they commanded their homes. Those were the days. No suburbs, but plenty of housewives.
In Tennessee, opposing women's groups brandished roses as symbols in a War of the Roses. They cornered state politicians in a Nashville hotel lobby to show where they stood by wearing roses on their suit lapels - a yellow rose for the vote or a red rose opposing it.
As newspaper columns covered events in polite society and "clubdom," women cultivated gardens of yellow or red. They sent Valentines laced with the symbolism. A young conservative lawmaker took the world by surprise when he followed his mother's counsel to "Be a good boy" and voted Yellow.
Chilling Parallels
The path to suffrage was not all roses. In a scene that chilled me to the core, documentary footage showed five thousand suffragettes marching in D.C., overwhelmed by 100,000 jeering men. The U.S. Cavalry rode in on horseback to rescue marchers from the assault.
Today, civilized society sees a warped version of "cavalry" show up in unmarked rental vans to shove and tear gas mothers who link arms in Portland, Oregon. These battle-ready employees of our government attack protesters as if fear for human life were not due cause to take to the streets. American moms marched to defend protesters, chanting, "Feds stray clear. Moms are here."
Fueled by Resentment
The physician Metzl subtitled his Dying of Whiteness book, How the Politics of Racial Resentment Is Killing America's Heartland. In his travels, he found resentful people will deny their families health care and government programs as militantly as they bear arms. After decades of Foxy messaging - Protect the rich since one day you may be rich - they fear "Welfare Queens" profit from handouts and rob them of future wealth.
The message is front and center for the current administration. On July 26, U.S. Treasury Secretary Mnuchin pressed that Pavlovian button, claiming it was unfair to spend tax payer dollars to give $600 to those unemployed by the pandemic - as if they are not taxpayers afraid for their very lives.
We're Making History
The recently deceased Honorable Congressman John Lewis supported the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act and said, "A democracy cannot thrive where power remains unchecked and justice is reserved for a select few. Ignoring these cries and failing to respond to this movement is simply not an option — for peace cannot exist where justice is not served."
It's all historic:
- When it comes to guns and brutality, stand for sanity.
- To mark the 100th Anniversary of suffrage, make the way clear to vote by mail.
- Call on senators to support justice in policing.
- Guns N' Roses fans: Click Welcome to the Jungle.
In Brighter, Breaking News
As July ends, I'm celebrating the birth of fine artist Vincent Mancuso, shown here rendering the pastel, "Thanksgiving Table."
Happy Birthday, Mio Morito!
A moment's peace: "Being There" a pastel by Vincent Mancuso