It occurred to me tonight that what the world needs right now is what works for my cats. They were crabby today: Even though the sun is shining, it's cold. It gets dark early, which translates into being forced inside early. The food delivery person (me) wasn't attending to their needs. Even after said food delivery, there was further crabbing. Out came the cat nip oil. Spray it on the cat tree and the world is in bliss. Peace on earth.
This week has been weighing on my mind more so than most, probably thanks in part to extensive media coverage about Paris. Paris, in an of itself, is tragic, it's horrible, yes. Last Friday was their 9/11, I suspect. I am ashamed to say that it has struck me more than Beruit. Or Mali. This is not because I don't care about Beruit and Mali. It's because I have been to Paris many times, I can somehow see this as happening to me therefore. But I can also see the contradiction in this.
The rhetoric of our narrow-minded, xenophobic government officials and very vocal pundits has just exacerbated my overall sense of unease. That we are nearly on the anniversary of a post that I did in 2012 is not lost on me. That was about Sandy Hook.
Nothing that I will write here is original thought. It has likely been stated somewhere else. But I need to empty my brain. I listened today to the podcast of the Week In Review from KUOW. That podcast, or rather, the words of one of the commentators, really distilled it for me. I will put the link at the bottom, for whatever it's worth. The initial segment focussed on bigoted comments from a local legislator, as well as national figures and their blarney. They spoke of Jay Inslee's comments, as well as how Washington welcomed Vietnamese refugees when California didn't want them.
Knute Berger spoke of analogies. (The italics are my addition.) "It's striking the contradictions that are in some of the positions. If so-called radical Islam is the enemy why would we not help people who are fleeing the enemy? It doesn't make sense. We want refugees vetted at a level that the same people refuse to vet citizens when it comes to buying guns. In other words there are these contradictions about how much of a national security state is there and who is it for? Is it only for people of color, is only for people that you don't like?
"....The Pacific Northwest has a terrible racial history, and it's a history that we really don't want to think about. There is a reason that cities like Portland and Seattle are among the whitest in the country. It was by design, at least partly by design. A lot of settlers moved here to get away from the race politics of the pre-Civil War era and the Civil War era. They didn't want to end slavery, but they wanted to get way from the fight over slavery. So states like Oregon passed racial exclusion laws that said no black or mulatto could live in the state of Oregon. The Chinese exclusion was another thing, where we refused to allow Chinese to become citizens and we tried to literally bodily ship them out. Seattle at one time banned all native Americans from the city.
"We have two Americas. One is the America of the Statue of Liberty. And the other is the America when we freak out we immediately blame the Other."
Yeah. What he said. Have we not learned ANYTHING from history? Lists of Jews and Communists in Germany. Interning Japanese citizens. Forget about the fact that the majority of ISIS are not even from Syria. That isn't even the point. This excessive hyperbole, this blaming of the Other, it is shameful. It portrays a shocking lack of understanding of history, both regional and global. It portrays a disturbing undercurrent of bigotry.
That we think that terrorism only stems from one segment of people clearly belies facts like what happened in Oklahoma. Or Sandy Hook.
All of this, if it were coming from a few crackpots like Rush Limbaugh would disappoint me, it would irritate me, it would suggest to me that the crazies are getting air time again. The part that is disturbing is that there are people who are clearly buying into this: demonstrations against Jay Inslee in Olympia yesterday for standing up in a yes, symbolic act, but courageous non-the-less one, of embracing refugees.
And in addition, the high profile rhetoric of presidential contenders, namely Bush and Trump, galls me even further. You would somehow expect that people in very visible positions, people who ASPIRE TO LEAD THIS COUNTRY, TO REPRESENT THIS COUNTRY ABROAD would speak in a more measured tone, and more thoughtful and considered tone, using words that demonstrate a careful informed review of the facts. But no, instead they spew bigoted crap out of their mouths and perpetuate shocking and disgusting lies and further twist the facts for their audiences.
What does this say about us? That so many people find truth in these appalling statements, that they agree, and even encourage these people demonstrates to me a festering and ugly underbelly of racism and prejudice in our country.
I truly thought that Donald Trump would be a flash in the pan. He would flare and disappear back into whatever hovel he came from. That he has not speaks volumes. The rest of the Republican contenders and their hangers-on are no better.
So. If one of those bigoted yahoos make it into office, I may have to move to Canada. At least there the PM is speaking sense. But in the mean time, how can we aerosolize the human equivalent of cat nip oil? Because we all need to get along here.
Listen to the Week In Review, at least the first 20-25 minutes of the 11/20/15 episode. I only touched on part of the discussion.
And I'll shut up now.
http://kuow.org/programs/week-review
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