THE WEEKKKEND

So how was your weekkkend?    Mine began by seeing Blackkklansman which shook me to my core and the core of my funny bone and on Sunday I got to see the “amazing” “fantastic” turnout of Neo-Nazis, who paraded in from of the White House in numbers that equaled a small town protest to save the local squirrels.

The good news was that the anti-protestor protestors showed up en masse in fairly big outnumbers and kicked some serious sign carrying and vocal ass.

The take away for me was the reminder that White Supremacists in America, like Trump’s base, are a minority.

You would not know that by watching TV, because of cable news’s insistence of carrying live coverage of Trump rallies which always reminds me of the furor over the Fuhrer at those once upon a time Hitler Youth social gatherings where genocide seemed like a fun thing to do on a Friday night.  The fervor got you into a uniform.  Sort of like everyone wearing a red cap and goose-stepping their way towards the members of the free press.

I cannot imagine what it must be like for a WWII military survivor, who risked his or her life to destroy the Axis powers, to have to sit back and watch an American President encourage the fine people of fascism.

If you think the rise of fascism is a mild news story, take the time to read about Jews in Paris who were punched in the face by racists who had razor blades in their fists.  

I often invoke the memory of Kitty Genovese when I write about these times.  Kitty was famously butchered on the streets of Kew Gardens New York in the early sixties, while, as the legend goes, anyone who was in earshot of her screams, did nothing.  Phil Ochs, the folk balladeer, wrote a song about our American apathy called “Outside of a Small Circle of Friends” which I encourage you all to Spotify.  Here’s a brief sampling of the lyrics:

Oh, look outside the window
There's a woman being grabbed
They've dragged her to the bushes
And now she's being stabbed

Maybe we should call the cops
And try to stop the pain
But Monopoly is so much fun
I'd hate to blow the game

And I'm sure
It wouldn't interest anybody
Outside of a small circle of friends

And:

Sweatin' in the ghetto
With the colored and the poor
The rats have joined the babies
Who are sleepin' on the floor

Now wouldn't it be a riot
If they really blew their tops?
But they got too much already
And besides we've got the cops

And I'm sure
It wouldn't interest anybody
Outside of a small circle of friends

What I loved about Sunday is in the end, the biggest story was about Omarosa (which I have dubbed “The Days of Whine and Omarosas”)

Apathy got Trump elected.  Tens of MILLIONS of eligible voters stayed home because they were numb and/or indifferent.  And look what their from behind Kitty Genovese closed door prize was.

It seems like it is American human nature to not do anything when faced with any kind of oppression or cruelty.

Perhaps its because so few Americans get to live out their dream and wind up instead living lives of quiet Hillbilly Elegy desperation.

But I think today it goes beyond that.  

While technology has created medical miracles thanks to the staggering speeds with which computers can now think and analyze, it also leaves millions of people in its kiss my rear view mirror.

When I was young we dreamed about the future in the most romantic ways, with our eyes open or closed, often lying on rooftops, staring into the infinite skies which seemed to be a reflection of our anything goes lives.  We had heroes to inspire us.  Movies to make us swoon.

Today, sadly, companies provide the future for us as a kind of one-stop shopping service.  You don’t have to do anything to earn the future.  You just have to pay for it.

It seems like every day there is obsessive cult chatter about the next Apple toys, the next 4K-it-over flat-screen TVs or a pair of way over your headphones.

Forget Trump’s stupid parade.  Day after day, rain or shine, we stand on out on our metaphorical street corners patriotically cheering for the next technological marvel to be Amazon droned with an A-Z smile to our front doors.

Fashion has it’s non-stop, patriotic Adidas and Nike Airshow too where the next hot sneaker is ready to fly right past you with the greatest of Yeezy.

Here is the thing:

We are all a part of the #mewantnow movement where the only satisfaction is in knowing that we will never, ever be satisfied while Trump is gilded by association.

P.T. Barnum famously said leave em wanting more.  He also said, “however mysterious is nature, however ignorant the doctor, however imperfect the present state of physical science, the patronage and the success of quacks and quackeries are infinitely more wonderful than those of honest and laborious men of science and their careful experiments.”

Perhaps the difference for a guy like me is that I lived through the sixties.  I was part of my high school graduation protest which involved our throwing our diplomas into an onstage makeshift coffin which symbolized that we were marching towards our certain death and not destiny.  A grim, military execution-like drum beat accompanied us en route to the handshake podium until finally one parent snapped, grabbed the small drum out of the kid’s hands and the rest, in a matter of seconds, was fist flying, chair throwing chaos.  Needless to say, we were not welcome to come back and pick up our real diplomas.

If it were today, I’m sure we would have been snarky on Facebook or Instagram and felt like we had done our part.

I know that you have some serious website shopping to do so I won’t keep you much longer other than to say it’s time to wake the hell up and do what those few hundred real Americans did in DC yesterday.

They fucking showed up.

The level of hate that America FEELS about Trump which I have personally experienced in my travels in both the north and the south, rivals the kind of rage that we leveled at Hitler and the “Japs.”

I hear people say all the time,  “I wish someone would put a bullet in his head.”

All the time.

The kind of violence that we have all eye witnessed from the Zapruder film to The Godfathers and Bonnie and Clyde to every single public shooting around the world, have made things like murder and even assassination seem abstract and, while not exactly quaint,  a way of life.  Part of the need for immediate gratification.

And that scares the hell out of me.

So what do you say we all take a breath and take the whole idea of shooting anyone and put it where it belongs: in the cold, dead, blood-stained hands of the  NRA.  I mean they are the best at what they do. No one does murder like them.

We have to remember that change takes time, effort and most importantly, personal involvement.  

We have to remember that we are not impotent.  That we are not victims.

That we have the power to evoke real change.

Have you not seen the Parkland affect?

Learn from them.

Be like them.

Be resilient like them.

Be relentless like them.

Make a meh-rica care again.

There are far more important things to do outside your small circle of friends.