Surely Not in My Lifetime…

Or…

How Humans May Simply Be Unable to Conceptualize Personal Mortality…

[let alone the extinction of our entire species.]

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I really thought that we’d find a way,
to share information and get folks to say,
“Holy Fuck are we fucked, hey?!?
If we’re saving ourselves, best get on our way!”

Though most folks seem, it seems to me,
happy trudging along not daring to see,
what’s coming to be?
[The end of the world – fast and furiously.]

Many listen to those who assure and deceive,
(mostly to secure more… oh, my, the greed!)
that “All is well, there’s nothing to see!”
As the dangers increase. Every day, indeed.

We’re the frog in the pot,
Not sensing the hot,
Just a bit more each day,
Makes it easy to not!

But the changes we’re seeing,
exponentially breeding,
defy the strength of our mentality…
Bringing an end… to our very Being?

How many are we losing?
How many due to choosing
to follow the deceivers?
And leave the rest of us boo-hooing.

How to know who’s talking true…
With all the misinforming cues?
That each contain a bit or two…
of fact to keeping us swilling lie-filled stew?

And to what ends,
do we depend,
on those who lie,
and truth do bend?

Are we hungry for something,
that with a bit of truth rings?
Because it’s less painful?
Than a true reckoning?

Yes, that is one way,
to survive each day,
in Blissful Ignorance,
rather than be swayed.

By the reality around us,
literally drowning us,
in cognitive dissonance…
“Hush, Baby! Hush!”

Don’t look for solutions,
or make resolutions,
let alone change your lifestyle,
that’s full of delusions!

Just keep on doing,
What you’ve always been doing,
as we wipe away the dreams…
that all our children are hoping.

Or maybe join with all those trying,
to keep humanity from dying?
Indigenous & Water Protectors,
for our Water, we’re vying.

Because Water is Life,
without Her, there’s just strife,
How can tension over this fact,
require such a big knife?

To find common ground,
and in abundance abound,
Are those feet I hear coming?
Can you hear their sound?

As hundreds and thousands and millions arrive!
All of us merely hoping to survive…
the insanity of the Corps(e),
and their endeavor to thrive.

We can’t have it both ways,
Our face or ass we must save,
meaning a bit of humility
might be what we crave?

A return to the simple day,
the natural and peaceful way,
reciprocal care for the Mother of all,
as we find ourselves willing to say…

Let’s choose life over death!
Let’s end all the mess!
Let’s take back our power,
Together we can redress!

Perhaps only in our little space,
can we put on this courageous face,
and make the changes that will bring,
success at a quick enough pace.

Putting emphasis on enough,
letting go of extra stuff,
giving up the personal excess,
so each of us can have some love?

Maybe it won’t end up saving the race,
or our planet tattered like lace,
but in the mirror we will find,
a face that we can face.

Considering… blissonance.

I’m not IN… for Walz’ MN

Tags

Beat Saber, Black Lives Matter, Brooklyn Center, Chauvin, Daunte Wright, George Floyd, Kim Potter, Murder By Cop, wrongful death

Where police surround buildings and fire “non-lethal” rounds at Minnesotans (sometimes taking out an eye, or inflicting other damage).

Amidst the week’s long trial of the cop that murdered George Floyd – and yes, I use the term murder because we all witnessed what he did… he murdered George, someone with whom he had bad history… [no wonder he didn’t testify, it would have made the premeditation obvious] – we have yet another black man murdered by a cop in Brooklyn Center.

This time, it’s a “mistake” in that the female officer Kim Potter pulled, not her taser – a device meant only to stun – but her service revolver, a device that fatally wounded a man “unintentionally”. Apparently, even though everyone can clearly see the BLACK GUN in the body cam footage, she was too flustered to realize she hadn’t drawn her brightly colored taser, but her pistol which would render a young father dead.

My question is this:

Why would we design a tool meant to only stun to be SO MUCH LIKE a tool meant to inflict potentially lethal damage?

With all the video games in the decades throughout my life, we’ve seen an amazing array of designs, not only for controllers but for new types of fitness gadgets from Wii Fit to Virtual Reality controllers.  My wondering as I contemplate the murder of Daunte Wright, is why they didn’t design tasers to be more like a light saber or Wii fit paddle or FUCKING ANYTHING… besides a lot like a God Damn GUN?

I’m not the only one with this idea…

Alpert said a major factor in why officers mistakenly draw their firearm is that stun guns typically look and feel like a firearm. St. Paul, Minnesota, Mayor Melvin Carter brought up the same point during a news conference Monday.

“Why do we even have Tasers that operate and function and feel and deploy exactly like a firearm?” Carter asked. “Why can’t we have Tasers that look and feel different? That you could never mistake for deploying a firearm so that we can ensure that mistake that has happened before can never happen again?”

EXPLAINER: How does an officer use a gun instead of a Taser? By SEAN MURPHY April 12, 2021 (my emphasis)

If there has been confusion – and there has been, as recalled in the above AP piece which mentions police fucking up like this in the past in Oakland, Tulsa, and St. Louis – then WTF are we not doing something about it? Is it because things are operating fine according to the managers? Or is it too much trouble to re-design & re-train?  I mean what’s a couple more dead black folks… to the system? Apparently no worry… as we watch settlements instead of solutions.

How many trials will the citizens of Minnesota pay for – and how many settlements to families wronged by police action will be paid – before we see real change?

It seems a simple solution is in order:

Design Tasers to look, feel, and deploy DIFFERENTLY than Guns.

Will we see solutions? Or just more cops acting like the real criminals are those protesting their unnecessary and avoidable murders? 

Perhaps our children can again light the way as adults seem to continue to fail…

While I was visiting my son in Colorado, we had a chance to experience Virtual Reality via a game called Beat Saber.  This game is kind of a Star Wars meets Guitar Hero.  The design has music playing with blocks associated to the beat which you slice through with light sabers (blue and red, so use the correct one for each block! And slice in the correct direction and a mid-point for best point totals…) to keep the music going. 

Watching Celia play was amazing like a swing dancer cutting those blocks with a flip of the wrist.  I too liked the swing of the patterns which guide you – yes, running the game without the slice indicators is FAR HARDER to manage as you must think to decide the best approach.  Tom, on the other hand is stiff and robotic aiming for max precision on his blows. We also played Skyrim which was fucking amazing to experience! Running down hills of snow and shooting arrows… too cool.

While we enjoyed our vacation and helping our kids get settled in a new home, it was bittersweet being away from home watching many horrors unfold, from the Chauvin trial to the new daily atrocities facing people of color in the Deep North.

If our children have access to tools that clearly differentiate between gaming systems, is it not reasonable to expect that our police officers can do the same for tasers and guns? Especially as it is literally a matter of life and death?

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The Guardian… Remembering Daunte Wright – a loving father whose namesake must now grow up without him.

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Journalists are taking a stand against the egregious behavior of Minnesota law enforcement, now ordered by Judge Wilhelmina M. Wright (no irony there?) to obey the law with a Temporary Restraining Order. (FFS – is that what is required for police to obey the fucking law???)

The examples within this document referenced below are a depiction of the unlawful ways Minnesota law enforcement is dealing with protest, including violating the freedom of the press… simply working to document and protect Minnesotans and tell the story for citizens who are not present.

While it is good to see the Minnesota Department of Safety and State Police ordered to obey the law regarding journalists, there is no mention of County or other local law enforcement being held to the requirements of this TRO.

…April 16, District Court Judge Wilhelmina M. Wright issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) enjoining all “agents, servants, employees, and representatives” of the Minnesota Department of Safety and the Minnesota State Patrol from committing violent and threatening acts against journalists, including:
(1) “arresting, threatening to arrest, or using physical force—including through use of flash bang grenades, non-lethal projectile, riot batons, or any other means. . .
(2) Requiring Journalists to disperse, or arresting Journalists for not dispersing;
(3) “using chemical agents” including pepper spray and tear gas; and
(4) “Seizing any photographic equipment, audio- or videorecording equipment, or press passes.”
Yet as discussed on our call, reports from journalists on the ground indicate that over the last several days—and even last night after the TRO was in effect—law enforcement officers have engaged in widespread intimidation, violence, and other misconduct directed at journalists that have interfered with their ability to report on matters of intense public interest and concern. …

On today’s call, the question was posed whether this type of tension between law enforcement and the media is commonplace these days, or whether Minnesota is a unique example. Certainly, we live in politically and socially tense times and that is true across the country. But the abuses perpetrated by law enforcement officers in the Twin Cities over the past several nights—and going back to last summer—are alarming and, yes, threaten to set this State apart. They also are clear violations of the First Amendment, and for those officers subject to the TRO, they are in direct violation of the TRO.

30+ News organizations write to Governor Walz

And where is Walz? On FB, his update on this issue is… pretty quiet… except to blame Republicans… for his inability to manage the situation. And how about protecting the CITIZENS of Minnesota – you know, those people who elected you? Where we at with that, Timmy Four-Fingers? Silence.

A silent spring?

Tags

Inequality, reciprocity

With all the Enbridge work in the wetlands behind our home, we’ve been concerned about how our many relatives have been affected.

We watched as the trees were clearcut with speed.

We witnessed the lumber matting thudding into place to create a road behind our home closer than the road in front of our home.

We watched as the dozers ran over the land cutting the scrub remaining from the slaughter and the grabbers snatched up the dead, piling them into giant brush piles to burn and pollute the air.

We listened to the fires crackling in the woods for hours, filling the Mississippi River Valley, and the scenic drive along County 2 from US Highway 2 to Itasca State Park, with smoke.

Now we wait. To hear the frogs return. To listen to the sandhills breeding in the water-rich land.

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More than just the Enbridge destruction of recent weeks is affecting whether or not we’ll hear sandhills return to our swamp.

This time of year, the yard is typically full of water with our little man-made pondlet overflowing into the yard. The melting of winter usually disappears our little pond into a lakelet that has remained in recent years until May or June.

This year, the small plastic pond liner is the only thing holding any water. Looks like severe drought is in order as we watch ditches, usually flowing steady, trickle by along the county road out front… another product of the changing climate, in large part brought by the fossil fuel industry that Enbridge serves.

So quiet in the swamp.

We did hear a few sandhills flying over in the last week, but the throng we typically hear has not yet populated our backyard wetlands. We’ve heard nothing of the peepers. All I can think is that the dozers crushed them all in their hibernation.

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Time will tell if we’ve gone too far to save ourselves.

Do we not realize… if the birds and insects disappear, eventually we will too?

How long can we keep up the charade of living as if reciprocity to the land is something with which we need not concern ourselves?

Have we actually bypassed all our opportunities to save the planet on which we reside… for our own long-term habitation?

What will the pandemic, and emerging drought, bring for the humans of the USA in 2021?

We watch as the rich gather up their stock market returns of 60-70%, remembering days when an 8% ROI was a good thing. We wonder how they can feel happy about money made in a system of so much corruption.

Meanwhile, homeless encampments – the only option for many who are now over year from their last paying job – are overrun with bulldozers as police remove the unwanted residents. Similar to how we eradicated the mosquitoes, mice, beaver, fox, wolf… who interfered with OUR management of the land?

How soon until that revolution I’ve been predicting for decades becomes a reality? How soon until so many feel they have no option but to process through their frustration and overwhelm with suicide? Or homicide?

As mass shootings continue… and people mindlessly travel without considering COVID risks… and many hope for the world to “go back to normal”, I believe we will never again go back to where we were before 2020.

And I wonder if we will continue to spiral down the drain to our own extinction… or if we will find many and myriad small communities gathering to help each other as we weather this largest storm we’ve ever seen coming at us.

I hope for love to win. For us to come together and feed, clothe, protect those not provided as much in our unequal system of sharing of the resources we have. For those who win most to realize this doesn’t bring happiness… when so many suffer for our winning. For all of us to find the goal of our common happiness and security as the most worthy of them all.

While it may be naive… I believe voting still matters. But the rest of this… let’s get going!