Author’s Guide to the Two Universes of the United States

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How is everybody?  I hope you’re all well.  I have been on a trip over the last week or so.  It was a most unusual trip as trips go. I was snatched, abducted though a wormhole.  (A hole made by a worm). And then I was rescued and brought back through that same worm hole.  Wormholes are fascinating things, and for our purposes here, I will borrow the definition from Wikipedia.  To wit:

“A wormhole is a speculative structure linking disparate points in space time, and is based (or biased) on a special solution of the Einstein field equations…”

I have often described living in the United States as living in one of two parallel universes, with only one of the universes being aware that there are two separate universes.  That description may register with the reader immediately, or it may seem arcane.  I offer you my experience because I think it helps to illustrate the point.

Every journey starts with a point of origin, and this point of origin is the place with which you are all familiar.  It is the place where your life journey started, shared with your mother at the moment of your birth.  Your conception, gestation, and birth all occurred in this place that we all have in common.  We are united in our experience of this reality irrespective of our differing cultural circumstances.  We are all human.  We are united in that aspect to such a degree that we have the expectation of being recognized as human.  This is the reality that we all know.

Until it isn’t.  The parallel universe does not see where, and to what degree, there are humans who are not recognized on the condition of their humanity, and not treated accordingly.  We can see the original and assumed universe, but can be silently, and suddenly snatched into the separate, invisible classification on conditions not normal, required, nor fair for all parties…members of the human race.  

Fairness and openness has a special purpose in our regular universe in the United States.  And whether this concerns the public sector, which involves government and its separate institutions like the legislature, or law enforcement, or the private sector, like public accommodations, sidewalks, schools, lunch counters, or blogging websites, fairness is foundational because a lack of faith in any structure makes it unusable.  It does not fit within our concept of what the United States purports to be.  In common parlance, a lack of fairness is referred to as “unAmerican.”  We all have the familiarity with, and the expectation of, why this is so.  As Americans we tend to be loudly proud of it.  We write songs about it, and tell everyone who will listen that this is so.  This is so deeply believed in the United States about the United States that symbols of these principles, from time to time, are debated as being more valuable than the human life that it is meant to represent.  

Four years ago, Colin Kaepernick knelt in order to draw attention to a lack of fairness within the ordinary universe where fairness is assumed.  We all know that story by now, don’t we?  Kaepernick, a professional athlete, was vilified for kneeling silently.  He was told, and it was repeated by millions, that he was disrespecting a flag.  By now, four years later, due to the deaths of many, many people at the hands of over-zealous and sometimes racist policing, some within the universe of fairness have begun to acknowledge that kneeling is not the assault on the flag that they had been led to believe.  Kneeling was not about any piece of cloth, but rather about events between human beings, some of which result in death.  Kneeling was not what it had been unfairly described as.  

Colin Kaepernick’s career as an NFL quarterback got snatched through the wormhole.  Time is precious in all aspects of human life, and more precious in some than others.  For a world class athlete, youth is extremely valuable.  In the time it took much of the public who could not see policing as generally too hostile to non-white members of the society that we share, Kaepernick’s career was choked out.  He may or may not be offered a chance to compete as a result of this change in perspective, but he has been away from competition at the highest level for four years now, and as he has aged, his skills have also eroded due to lack of use.  He is lucky to be alive, you may say.  In a sense, we all are.  You are lucky to be alive, but is that the level of your expectation?  No.  You’re American.  Your expectation is a free, unblocked pursuit of your life.  Mine too.  I expect it.  

While I was on my vacation to the alternate universe where I can’t be heard from, I could see that another young man was murdered by police.  This man’s name is Rayshard Brooks.  I’ll spare you the details as this just happened three days ago.  You have plenty of time to make yourself aware of this incident, if you have not already.  More information about that is coming.  Now, Rayshard Brooks was a black man.  Given the circumstances, that probably does not need to be said.  And I can’t prove that the condition of his race was the reason that he was treated in such an extreme fashion by the police officer who shot him twice in the back while he was running away.  However, the disparity of the results in situations like these between white men and black men is so severe, that it can be known.  Just like, if you hold a bowling ball out of a second story window, it can not be proved that it will fall.  This theory remains unproven.  But, you can know that the bowling ball will fall to such a degree of certainty that you would not bet any amount of money on the chance that it would not…based upon the fact that gravity remains only a theory.  The ball is going to fall, and white cops are going to shoot a black man in the back…in this universe.  

This unfairness is repeating with such frequency and consistency that this society is now crumbling under the weight of its unfairness.  This is a cautionary tale because if a structure such as the United States can quake and possibly crumble under the weight of its unfairness, any private institution can as well.  This blogging website as a private institution will fail without transparent ethical practices.  Being that it is private, it is not mine to determine, but as a personal practice, I err on the side of justice.  I don’t use hate speech, for example.  Anyone who says otherwise is a liar.  The manner in which they do so, and the actions they take surrounding it support that case.  You may doubt it, but I bet you don’t spend your time doubting while standing under that window.

Last week, I was snatched through the wormhole between the two parallel universes of experience in the United States, starting with the false claim that I used hate speech in two posts.  I never did once.  I mention that the email said “two” because BindleSnitch has a three strike policy.  (Interestingly, we also don’t shoot fleeing suspects in the back for being asleep in their car, unless…) So I had a TWO strike policy applied to me, but that “two” has an actual value of zero in the original universe where we know and expect fairness, and a value of ∞ in that alternate universe because…that’s just the way it is.  Zero is plenty.  

Now, you might say, you’re lucky to be alive.  Yes, I am.  I agree.  I am alive, and glad for it.  I also expect it.  I don’t expect to have to hope for what others take for granted.  I’m not “tryin’ to drive you to da stoe”…as Hoke said in “Driving Miss Daisy.”  I got my own gig.  It is mine, and I don’t expect to need to thank anyone for allowing it to exist.  My parents conceived me in a world where I expect it.  I grew up in a town where it was my foundational expectation.  I graduated several times with the full expectation that I would work my way through it to pursue life as I saw fit, never taking from, or “hating” anyone.  I served as a United States Marine and an LAPD officer so that others with my expectation, or without, might have access to that fairness that I consider to be foundational.  

I am grateful that my situation was not deadly like George Floyd, or Trayvon Martin, or Breonna Taylor.  But that may only be a matter of time.  The underlying factors are the same.  I grant that you may not see them or agree.  Most of the nation did not agree when Colin Kaepernick started kneeling.  Many, many people had to die before minds were changed.  I don’t want one of those lives to be mine, so I am speaking out now when I was merely falsely accused of using “hate speech”, and disappeared to the alternate universe for people who are disliked for being black.  I know, I know…you don’t believe that.  Tell you what.  Stand here under this window.  I’m gonna take this bowling ball, go upstairs, and let go of it directly above your head.  After all, gravity is just a theory…right?

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