Alas, Poor Bitey. I Knew Him Well.

I close my eyes.  I inhale.  Hold the breath for a beat.  As I exhale, I open my eyes.  Then I repeat it.  Close.  Inhale.  Hold.  Exhale and open.  I feel a small measure of calm.  I take that calm and try to fuel a little bit of optimism to entertain this idea.

I believe this time it will be different.  Yesterday, Roger Goodell, the Commissioner of the NFL issued an apology which was prompted by about a dozen prominent NFL players.   The apology included the following words.  “We, the National Football League, condemn racism and the systematic oppression of black people.  We, the National Football League, admit we were wrong for not listening to NFL players earlier and encourage all to speak out and peacefully protest…”. 

Four years ago, I watched as our football watching nation addressed the few players on each team who decided to take a knee as a silent protest of the violence against black men and women, which we are all familiar with.  I watched as it became a conversation about respect for the flag.  That notion gained a strong foothold in dominant culture.  I watched as rebuttal slogans were coined to the “Black Lives Matter” slogan.  The notion, which should not have been partisan, became so.  I’d offer that it still quite controversial, although police chiefs and corporate CEOs are beginning to use the phrase, showing their support.  

On Wednesday, Drew Brees was asked a question about the protests of police brutality, and he answered with the “respect for the flag” deflection.  By Thursday, Brees offered an apology.  His apology wasn’t one of those, “if I offended you…” apologies.  It was a real apology which stated a legitimate understanding of where his position had been wrong, and where his eyes had been opened.  Drew Brees showed us who he is in his contrition.  Heaven help me, I am feeling that dangerous feeling of encouragement.  The protective shell of doubt and cynicism would be so much safer.

Donald Trump, the mullet of American history, came out with a response to Drew Brees’s apology and stated that Brees should not have apologized.  If I could believe that there were such a being as the Devil, if someone could convince me that such a being exists, it would take no time at all to assign that condition to the person of Donald John Trump.  He seems absolutely committed to evil.  So, the backlash is coming.  It always does.  Glenn Beck began the tearing down of George Floyd.  Beck has mentioned that Floyd was once imprisoned, and asked, “is this who black Americans want as their…” symbol?  It is an evil question.  Glenn Beck is doing an evil thing.  Soon, there will be evil people following him, trying to obfuscate the peace message that is going out.  

My upbringing did and did not prepare me for life in the Untied States as a black man.  Born almost two decades after the end of WWII, my parents came equipped with their degrees and their professions, a house in a very nice suburb, with a school system as good as any in the country.  Not only did I never see a black person arrested, I never saw anyone else arrested during my childhood.  My parents and my teachers often said that in this society, I could be anything that I wanted to be.  That’s sort of true, but not entirely.  

In the United States, corporations can be whatever they want to be.  They can live forever, they can not be shot to death, or strangled, venture capital notwithstanding.  The ephemeral quality of human life makes it much easier to oppress.  In this country, the founding documents can state that which is supposed to be our creed.  It is supposed to be about freedom and equality, but it can be delayed…and it has.  And in that time that it is delayed, people grow old, and die and never see the country that they are taught to believe in.  

Humans are not quite the advanced creatures that I thought we were when I was a child.  Humanity has a huge PR machine that gives an inflated view of what a human is or is capable of.  Humans are incredibly disappointing, and it is exhausting.  A comparison of Donald Trump to Joe Biden is ridiculous, and if a human can’t see their profound differences, I am exhausted by their ignorance.  If they can, and they’d lie about what they see for the hell of it, I am exhausted with their mendacity.  It is not my purpose to isolate on that incident because there are millions like it.  It still makes me think that if I could find another planet, and this sort of mental and character weakness did not exist on that planet, and even if it took 5 or 10 years to get there…

…I’d have no compunction about sending bigots there on a ship in an exchange program.  What, you thought Bitey was leaving?  Nope.

Inhale.  Hold. Exhale and open.  

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