Month: June 2020

COVID

So it’s the first week of June, in the incredibly weird year of 2020.  The world is still in a global pandemic, though that seems to have been forgotten.  As of this morning, 108,062 Americans have died of COVID-19.  There’s an “app” for that, http://www.ncov2019.live.  A high school kid in the state of Washington wrote it, with accurate data for the states, nation and world.  It also has a “survival calculator”.  Put in your age range, your gender, and a couple of pre-existing conditions, and it will tell you what your likelihood of surviving COVID-19 is.  As a 63 year-old man with previous cardiac issues, it’s not a promising number that shows up in blood red – 54.08% chance of dying from COVID-19 if infected.

Here in Ohio the numbers are still scary, with 2,267 now dead from the disease.  Has it only been three months? 

Occupation

And it’s the second week of protests over the murder of George Floyd.  Protestors marched again all across the country last night.  They did the block around the State House in Columbus, and at our local Courthouse in Newark, Ohio as well.  There, the Sheriff’s deputies mingled with the crowd, talking and listening to the concerns.  As one deputy put it, “it was more of a community gathering than a protest”.  

And we are in the age of Donald Trump.  The President has ordered parts the 82^nd Airborne, the “American Division”, stationed around Washington, DC.  Those troops haven’t hit the capital streets yet, but they are ominously waiting near by.  The Secretary of Defense used the term “controlling the battle space” to describe American cities.  Even the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs “scouted” Washington DC in fatigues and boots, perhaps looking for the “high ground”.  Its like an old 1960’s black and white movie, Seven Days in May, except this time it’s the President who seems ready to militarize the nation instead of a cabal of generals.  I sure hope there’s a real-life Kirk Douglas character that will stand up for civilian control.

Gone Camping

Jenn and I and the dogs have gone camping.  We hoped it would be some escape from the steady torrent of ugly news.  But, even hear in Appalachian Ohio, cell signals get through loud and clear.  The world is in your pocket, or on the TV screen in the camper, or in the messages from friends in the protests.  You can’t get away.

But it is a strange contrast.  We’ve camped here before, and camping in a pandemic doesn’t feel like much has changed.  The camp store is only open a couple of times a week, and the worker has a face mask on.  But we aren’t particularly “social” campers anyway, so staying appropriately distant from the few others who have weekdays off in June isn’t difficult.  In the brief conversations we have, it’s about how the weather has been, and how well behaved our dogs are.  

Our Dogs

Our Yellow Lab, Atticus, is three.  All of a sudden, the wild crazy two year old Lab that we knew, hung onto, and loved, started to mellow.  He’s not barking at every other dog, not getting frenetic in the car and camper.  We knew it would happen, but it’s still kind of a shock.  But here he is, at seven in the morning, standing beside the picnic table as I pound on the computer, listening to the birds and feeling the gentle morning breeze.  If you ever met this wild man, you’d be shocked.  Who is this new guy, and where did our Atticus go?

Our older dog, Buddy, isn’t so sure about this camping thing.  Instead of just going out back to do what needs to be done, now it’s walks.  Camping trips are “Buddy boot camp”, with miles of long walks as Atticus pulls us on.  I think Buddy likes being out somewhere new, but he’s getting older and out of shape.  Sleeping in the camper is a good thing for him.

More Dogs

Dogs are a big part of our life, and it’s not just Atticus and Buddy.  There is a small group of dedicated people who go and find lost dogs, and Jenn’s becoming one of them.  The group she’s part of, Lost Pet Recovery (LPR), goes all over Ohio searching for lost dogs and cats.  It’s not like looking for a lost child, because the child wants to be found.  Lost dogs are terrified, of everything and everybody.  They won’t even come to their own families after a couple of days “out”.  In fact, chasing a lost dog is almost a guarantee that they will stay “lost”.

So it becomes a matter of spotting, tracking, and trapping.  It’s kind of amazing:  there are people in LPR who take calls and messages, people who chart maps of sightings, people who put up signs.  And then there are the trappers, who put large cage-like traps out at the most likely places, and set up mobile camera surveillance.  That’s what Jenn likes to do, find the spot where the dog likes to go, and bait a trap with McDonald cheeseburgers and chicken tenders.  Then wait, sometimes for days, and hope the dog takes the bait.  

It’s an all-consuming task.  There are traps going now, in Lancaster, in Wapakoneta, in Dayton and another down in Cincinnati.  The “happy endings” are awesome, but there’s lots of disappointment and sometimes tragedy as well.  A dog crossing I-75 got lucky and survived to be trapped.  One crossing State Route 16 didn’t.

Crisis

All of that comes in on the phone as well.

It’s Wednesday, and we’ll be back home on Friday.  There’s a protest downtown Saturday evening; I think we’ll go.  You can write about all of this, but sometimes you’ve got to get out and actually do something as well.  I’ve ordered new bandanas.  At least we’ll have stylish masks even if we’re not socially distanced.  

There is a question in this pivotal year of 2020:  How many crises can we take?  We haven’t even really gotten to the election yet.  We might have to go camping some more before this is all done.

Trump World

You know, this whole set of essays is called “Trump World”.  It’s about our world in the time of Trump, and as the author, though I often write about the President’s actions, I try not to write about Donald Trump every time.  But today, I am going to write about what he did yesterday, and how the symbolism he hoped for turned out to be emblematic of his entire view of America.

We Get It

This last week has been one of outrage.  Most Americans are sickened by the video of George Floyd begging for his life, as a police officer in Minneapolis “puts him to sleep”.  And most Americans recognize that it happened once again to a black person, only the last in a series of outrageous killings of black people in the past few months.  The first two were covered by the COVID-19 pandemic, and it took time for them to percolate up to media visibility.  But the murder of George Floyd instantaneously galvanized Americans.  It was if someone way saying:

“The hunting down and shooting of Ahmaud Arbery wasn’t enough.  The ‘no-knock’ execution of Breonna Taylor didn’t get you.  So how about we just murder George Floyd on the street in broad daylight in front of witnesses.  Get it now?”

We get it.  Many people get it.  Young folks who never considered themselves “political” or “activists” get it.  They are in the streets, crying out for justice, not just for Ahmaud and Breonna and George.  They are demanding justice for all black Americans, who have lived in fear of the authorities for too long.  “No Justice, No Peace” is their demand:  black and white, young and old, men and women marching.

First Amendment

The First Amendment to the United States Constitution is clear:  Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech or the press, or the right to peaceable assemble, or petition for the redress of grievances.  So when those mostly young people stand in front of the Ohio Statehouse, or march down the streets on Minneapolis, or gather across Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House in Lafayette Park, it’s not about privilege.

It’s about rights.

The City of Washington DC made a “deal” with the demonstrators.  The city authorities said, they could exercise their legitimate right to speech, assemble, and petition until 7:00pm.  Because of the rioting and the looting that had occurred, after that time the city instituted a curfew to clear the streets.  So demonstrators gathered in Lafayette Park to make their voice heard.  They wanted it heard by Donald Trump, the President of the United States.  They wanted him to know their outrage, and their demand for change.

Photo-Op

Their presence was inconvenient for the President.  On Friday, when things got out of hand, his Secret Service security rushed him to the “bomb shelter” underneath the West Wing, for fear that the crowd might reach the building.  They didn’t, but the image of Donald Trump tweeting from the basement was too much for the man to bear.  He looked weak.

So the weak man decided to lash out.  On Monday he determined that he would give a 6:30pm address in the White House Rose Garden.  He didn’t want it to be interrupted by chants.  And to prove his “religiosity” to his Christian base, he determined that he would walk across the park to the St. John’s Episcopal Church.  A small fire had been set in the basement on Friday.  Trump, a man who couldn’t walk with world leaders at the G-20 summit and had to use a golf cart, now wanted to make this one block “pilgrimage”. 

He would have to walk across Lafayette Park.  It was twenty minutes before curfew.  Security wouldn’t allow the crowd to stay.  Besides, the President wasn’t interested in hearing their views, or facing confrontation.  So the tear gas was fired, and the rubber bullets flew.  The mounted Park Police rode forward, and the crowd, now denied their legal rights, was driven away.  All so Donald Trump could stand in front of the church, waving a Bible he likely has never read.  He thought it would make a good “photo-op”.

Domination

The President wants to “dominate” the streets.  He wants to use an arcane law, “The Insurrection Act” to send the US military into cities, whether the Mayors or Governors want help or not.  He needs to show “strength”, especially in cities controlled by Democratic Party leaders.  He’s lashing out.

I am a Star Wars guy.  There is a phrase said by Obi Won Kenobi the Jedi Master as his former student, Darth Vader, moves to kill him.

 “If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine.”

Donald Trump should take note as he ignores the Constitution and the legitimate grievances of Americans.  The election is only five months away.

Live on Your Phone

For younger folks, this weekend seemed like the apocalypse:  choppers in the sky, marching in the streets, burning buildings and drifting clouds of gas. They stood against authority, represented by the police, and in some cases, the National Guard.  But if you’re old enough, this is really nothing new.  It doesn’t look much different than the 1960’s, though watching live on social media adds a heightened immediacy, even if you can’t feel the rubber bullets.

Like the 1960’s, many young people felt drawn to stand for something, even in the midst of a world pandemic.  A cause they could understand:  inequity, a system unfairly stacked against their friends.  They wore masks, perhaps for COVID-19, or to maintain some anonymity from the facial recognition software.  Or maybe they thought it might help ease the pain of pepper spray.

Black Lives Matter

The issue is stark:  authority that treats African Americans and particularly black men, differently than whites.  It isn’t really about the individual police officer; many of them walked with the protestors, or kneeled down in prayer and solidarity during the early hours.  As we would have said in the 1960’s, it’s “the system” that somehow designates black men for different treatment.  Black Lives Matter may be a movement, but it is more importantly a statement of what “the system” does not seem to recognize.  The statistics of racial imprisonment, and the litany of names where black men and boys were treated as “less,” is far too long to ignore.

Standing for the system, in place of Bull Connor or George Wallace, is the President of the United States Donald Trump.  While he made the perfunctionary phone call to the grieving family of George Floyd, he was unwilling to listen to their grief, talking over their words.  He also chose the racist 1960’s Miami Police Chief’s term to express his view on Twitter:  “when the looting starts, the shooting starts”.  The President placed a greater value on property over life.  

Lines Being Drawn

The lines were drawn up, just like an old Civil War battle.  On one side the well equipped police:  helmeted, padded, respiratored, equipped with gas and “non-lethal” force.  On the other side, t-shirted and face masked protestors, seeking a target for their anger.  Behind the line, organizers were calling out: “white bodies to the front”.  They believed that the police would be more hesitant to advance. 

The Protesters were looking for confrontation.  They were looking to vent their anger and frustration.  And the police knew there would be only one ending to this, no matter how many hours of peaceful protest preceded the final act.   Many individual acts of kindness and solidarity might occur during the day, but conflict was inevitable as the sun went down.  The cry went out from the protestors: “No Justice, No Peace”.  And added to it:  “F**k the Police”.  

Burn Baby Burn

Violence begets anger and frustration.  None of that is an excuse for vandalism and destruction, but it happens.  How to impact a “system” that has all of the tools to drive you away?  Destroy the products of that system:  the stores, the restaurants, and the symbols of prosperity.   Both sides looked to deflect the blame for these seemingly random acts.  

The “system,” voiced by Attorney General Bill Barr, claims that dark subversive forces led by “ANTIFA” are encouraging destruction.  The protestors claim that police “provocateurs” or white nationalist groups like the “Proud Boys” or the “Bugaloo Boys” (that’s a new one) are subverting the cause.  While both sides may have some facts, the reality is that frustration creates anger, and anger needs an outlet.  Cities have burned in frustration for centuries, it doesn’t require someone else to light the fuse.

So the riot goes on.  The police fulfill their role, and the protestors get their confrontation.  And for some of us, we wait for the chant of  “Attica, Attica.”  But that’s merely an echo of another time.

The Choice

Dr. Eddie Glaude is Chairman of the African-American Studies Department at Princeton University.  He presents America with a stark choice:  “we can either embrace change, or double down on the ugliness”.  Historian John Meacham puts it a different way:  “do we want history to see us as Bull Connor, or transformative”.   

We are at a crossroads in America in so many ways.  In the middle of a world pandemic, made infinitely worse by the mismanagement of the Trump Administration and 104,166 Americans already dead, we are now forced to face our society’s inequities.  In a nation aching for national leadership, we have leader who hides from protest in the White House bomb shelter.  At a time crying for national unity, the President is doubling-down on polarization to encourage his own voter turnout.

So it will be up to the individual cities, the mayors and the police chiefs, to reach across the line and find common ground.  They must withstand the crashing waves of frustration and anger, and then find ways to transform “the system”, changes that will answer the legitimate demands for fairness.   It will have to be from them, because the Commander-in-Chief can only tweet out division from his bunker.