Ah the talking heads. I just heard some bloviating douchebag on tv declare that officers in Arizona are being trained to enforce the new “Papers, please” law in a just fashion.
Thank gawd I wasn’t drinking something at the time or I would have ruined the compy with a spit check. Was there ever a just way to enforce slavery? How about relocation of native peoples? A just way for Americans to throw Japanese-Americans into concentrations camps? A just way for the Nazis to carry out the final solution? A just way to keep women from voting? A just way to sterilize the disabled?
There is no compromise on justice. A thing is either just or unjust. You can’t make an act of injustice ok with good intentions or kindly actions or even with the entire weight of the law and constitution on your side. There were lots of laws for all those situations above. Not a damn one had anything to do with justice.
I just discovered a mess of comments that shouldn’t have been stuck in the mod que (including more than a couple comments from yours truly).
if you posted something and don’t see it, that’s prolly why (unless you are an unruly douchebag or an estranged family member, then you are exactly where you are supposed to be)
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been told to calm down and wait, these things take time and they don’t happen overnight, blahblahblahblah. I am generally being fed this particular shit sammy when some well meaning fauxgressive is trying to get me to stop screaming about how some half-assed measure to rectify injustice being not enough.
Incrementalism. It is a hallmark of democracy. Change happens, but it happens slowly, they say. If you want quick change, they threaten, go with a dictatorship. I think (pun intended) that this is a red herring of a statement. I think incrementalism is meant to lull us into a false idea of progress. I think the ginormous amount of energy we spend just to move a pebble of injustice off our chest is how they demoralize us, exhaust us, and give us the false impression that we are actually doing something useful.
Fuck that.
(only slightly off topic, but a funny aside- Wonder’s fiance and I recently had this conversation about my little benevolent dictator fantasy. WF: but there is no such thing as a benevolent dictator Me: Dude, if I was queen of the universe everyone would have enough healthy food, a safe place to live, medical care and education and I wouldn’t give a shit what you do with your personal life or what god you pray or don’t pray to WF: Okay. )
The other day I watched the movie version of John le Carre’s The Russia House. I haven’t read all of his novels, but I’ve read most of them, and the premise of The Russia House may be my favorite of all time. If you love your country, sometimes you have to commit treason to save it.
While I have no current plans for treason, this is the grand political end of a tip I once got from a favorite art teacher. “If you are struggling with a piece and there is something in it that is too precious for you to change, it is that thing that is fucking you up. Get rid of it”. It works for paintings and essays and political theories too.
But what does any of this have to do with my bitchy little blog? I keep saying the same thing to people lately “If you love the Democratic Party, the only way to save it is to NOT VOTE FOR IT”. I know, it sounds so wrong. I know, it’s hard to part with such a precious thing as party identity. But it is that refusal to ditch the broken part that keeps us from fixing the whole. It’s not as sexy as giving up the secrets of the Soviet Union’s military lie to the Brits. But you won’t get arrested (yet) for not voting for(or volunteering, or donating to) a legacy party.
The problem can’t be solved by erasing the edges of the existing parties and redrawing them in new places. It takes a dramatic act, the erasure of a precious thing, to effect change. That is how you can “be the change you wish to see in the world”, not by doing the same thing over and over and calling it progress.
I don’t need a passport to walk on this earth Anywhere I go ’cause I was made of this earth I’m born of this earth, I breathe of this earth And even with the pain I believe in this earth so I wake up every mornin’ and I’m steppin’ on the floor I wake up every mornin’ and I’m steppin’ out the door I got faith in the sky, faith in the one faith in the people rockin’ underneath the sun ’cause every bit of land is a holy land and every drop of water is a holy water and every single child is a son or a daughter of the one earth mama and the one earth papa, so don’t tell a man that he can’t come here ’cause he got brown eyes and a wavy kind of hair, And don’t tell a woman that she can’t go there because she prays a little different to a god up there, You say you’re a Christian ’cause God made you, You say you’re a Muslim ’cause God made you, You say you’re a Hindu and the next man a Jew And we all kill each other ’cause god told us to? NAW! Hello, hello! (Hello, hello) Bonjour, bonjour! (Bonjour, bonjour) Hola, hola! (Hola, hola) Konnichiwa, konnichiwa wa! Hello, hello! (Hello, hello) Bonjour, bonjour! (Bonjour, bonjour) Hola, hola! (Hola, hola) Konnichiwa, konnichiwa wa! Follow me, follow me let me take you to the dance hall now to come on, rock this rhythm (rockin’ rockin’) Follow me, follow me, follow me let me take to the dance hall now now to come a skankin’ Follow me let me take to the dancehall now to come a rock this rhythm Follow me let me take to the dancehall in a Spearhead style Now hear this! So you dance to the rhythm bounce to the rhythm shake to the rhythm and you roll the rhythm sweat to the rhythm get wet to the rhythm make love to the rhythm clean up to the rhythm when you movin’ you come alive and when you grooving in rhythm we survive, so don’t panic, don’t panic no drum machine, this is all organic just Sly and Robbie on the drums and bass Sticky on percussion and we mashin’ up the place givin’ you a beat you can rock and roll to givin’ you a sound you can shake your soul to, so hip-hoppas, punk rockas roots rockas, even Woodstockas don’t need a passport, just send a postcard send me a message, let me know how you are whether you’re walkin’ or drivin’ in your car throw your hands high, tell me who you are Hello, hello! (Hello, hello) Bonjour, bonjour! (Bonjour, bonjour) Hola, hola! (Hola, hola) Konnichiwa, konnichiwa wa! Hello, hello! (Hello, hello) Bonjour, bonjour! (Bonjour, bonjour) Hola, hola! (Hola, hola) Konnichiwa, konnichiwa wa! Boppin’ from Nigeria to Botswana Bop from Botswana to Ethiopia Bop from Ethiopia to Zimbabwe, now Bop from Zimbabwe to Mexicana Bop from Mexico to Braziliana Bop from Brazilia to ‘mericana Boppin’ from America to Japan Boppin’ from Japan to China Boppin’ from-a China to a Pakistana Boppin’ from-a Pakistan to Australia Boppin’ from Australia to Palestina Boppin’ from-a Palestine to Israel Boppin’ from-a Buyaga [Buyaga], Jamaica Boppin’ to Italia [Italia], España [España], Britania [Britania] Boppin’, boppin’, dance to the sound Hello, hello! (Hello, hello) Bonjour, bonjour! (Bonjour, bonjour) Hola, hola! (Hola, hola) Konnichiwa, konnichiwa wa! Hello, hello! (Hello, hello) Bonjour, bonjour! (Bonjour, bonjour) Hola, hola! (Hola, hola) Konnichiwa, konnichiwa wa!
Or at least it means I have to jump into that “let’s be totes obnoxious for the good of humanity” role way more often than I actually like to. And i’ve got nearly 2000 posts where I do jump into that role, so I ain’t chicken.
Y’all I am tired, dead fucking tired, of having racist drivel pop up on my facebook page. I find myself, after reading yet another thing hating on brown people (but not really, they all say) with hands shaking in anger and my stomach doing flip flops of revulsion. And for a second, just a second, I debate saying something. Just drop it. Let it go. I could you know. I’m white. I could slink past it and not give it another thought and no one would know. That’s privilege for ya.
But I don’t. I make myself obnoxious. I call it out for what it is. That is what I can do as an ally. It is my one small teaspoon.
I do need a fucking stiff drink though. It would be so much more fun to play obnoxious do gooder if I could do it with a vodka tonic in hand. And it’s still early.
