Thursday, July 14, 2016
The id Post: This Is Already Worse Than 1968
The id Post: This Is Already Worse Than 1968: by Irene Daniel I remember waking up on the morning of June 5, 1968 to the sounds of my mother sobbing into a bath towel. Robert Kennedy h...
This Is Already Worse Than 1968
by Irene Daniel
I remember waking up on the morning of June 5, 1968 to the sounds of my mother sobbing into a bath towel. Robert Kennedy had been shot in Los Angeles after winning the California Democratic Primary just the night before. A few months prior to this event, we had all witnessed the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., in Atlanta.
And there were riots all spring and summer long, in this year of violence kicked off by the TET offensive in the Vietnamese war; which led of course to more protests and civil unrest of all kinds, all across the country. It was a year of many horrors for us.
Many writers and pundits have remarked upon the many similarities between the election year of 1968 and this one. The violence, racial tensions, economic inequality and lack of meaningful opportunities for Americans of all stripes, all seemingly coming to a crashing crescendo at convention time. Frankly, and not to minimize the shock of multiple assassinations and riots, I think this Year of the Monkey is even worse than that of 48 years ago.
It's worse because we should know better by now.
The vivid memory of that morning in June in 1968 stands out for me because of the extraordinary shock felt all over the nation and around the world. This was something that didn't happen very often. We can't say that anymore. Turning on the TV and witnessing some out-of-this-world insane violence is, woefully, no longer uncommon. Sometimes there are multiple such events in one week, as we have recently experienced in Louisiana, Michigan and Texas. Are we getting too used to this?
I don't want to get into the weeds of statistics of measured violence; I am just expressing what it feels like to me as an American. The frequency of these horror-filled events, as well as the variety and diversity of their targets and victims, just seems scarier and more immediate to me. I'm glad I don't live in a big city anymore.
It happens to people who are black, Muslim, Mexican and other people of color who are disproportionately targeted by police. It happens to people in churches. It happens to people at the movies, at the grocery store, at work, at school, and on and on. It seems that any one of us at any time could be taken out by a bullet. Life is cheap, and cheaper for some than others.
I won't take this space to blame and shame or to pretend that I have a solution. I don't. None of us can find a solution by blaming and shaming our fellow Americans. I think we're getting a little too used to that merry-go-round too.
The frequency of violence, lack of civility combined with the intensity of vitriolic rhetoric -- 50 years post Civil Rights Movement mind you, make this year feel much worse, much scarier than 1968, in my opinion. And we haven't even begun the conventions yet!
On this Bastille Day, a testament to French Liberty and an international dateline of demarcation, I hope that celebrating freedom comes to mean more than the right to hate whomever you choose.
And as I write this, I learn of another disaster of violence in Nice, France, as they celebrated Bastille Day.
Please, let's not get used to hearing this kind of news.
Copyright 2016, Irene Daniel, all rights reserved.
I remember waking up on the morning of June 5, 1968 to the sounds of my mother sobbing into a bath towel. Robert Kennedy had been shot in Los Angeles after winning the California Democratic Primary just the night before. A few months prior to this event, we had all witnessed the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., in Atlanta.
And there were riots all spring and summer long, in this year of violence kicked off by the TET offensive in the Vietnamese war; which led of course to more protests and civil unrest of all kinds, all across the country. It was a year of many horrors for us.
Many writers and pundits have remarked upon the many similarities between the election year of 1968 and this one. The violence, racial tensions, economic inequality and lack of meaningful opportunities for Americans of all stripes, all seemingly coming to a crashing crescendo at convention time. Frankly, and not to minimize the shock of multiple assassinations and riots, I think this Year of the Monkey is even worse than that of 48 years ago.
It's worse because we should know better by now.
The vivid memory of that morning in June in 1968 stands out for me because of the extraordinary shock felt all over the nation and around the world. This was something that didn't happen very often. We can't say that anymore. Turning on the TV and witnessing some out-of-this-world insane violence is, woefully, no longer uncommon. Sometimes there are multiple such events in one week, as we have recently experienced in Louisiana, Michigan and Texas. Are we getting too used to this?
I don't want to get into the weeds of statistics of measured violence; I am just expressing what it feels like to me as an American. The frequency of these horror-filled events, as well as the variety and diversity of their targets and victims, just seems scarier and more immediate to me. I'm glad I don't live in a big city anymore.
It happens to people who are black, Muslim, Mexican and other people of color who are disproportionately targeted by police. It happens to people in churches. It happens to people at the movies, at the grocery store, at work, at school, and on and on. It seems that any one of us at any time could be taken out by a bullet. Life is cheap, and cheaper for some than others.
I won't take this space to blame and shame or to pretend that I have a solution. I don't. None of us can find a solution by blaming and shaming our fellow Americans. I think we're getting a little too used to that merry-go-round too.
The frequency of violence, lack of civility combined with the intensity of vitriolic rhetoric -- 50 years post Civil Rights Movement mind you, make this year feel much worse, much scarier than 1968, in my opinion. And we haven't even begun the conventions yet!
On this Bastille Day, a testament to French Liberty and an international dateline of demarcation, I hope that celebrating freedom comes to mean more than the right to hate whomever you choose.
And as I write this, I learn of another disaster of violence in Nice, France, as they celebrated Bastille Day.
Please, let's not get used to hearing this kind of news.
Copyright 2016, Irene Daniel, all rights reserved.
Saturday, July 9, 2016
The id Post: Piercing Revolution and Peaceful Evolution
The id Post: Piercing Revolution and Peaceful Evolution: by Irene Daniel Born of violence revisited from time to time war gives way to weariness and longing for the sublime Then building and...
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