Goodreads

In the last two months, I spent a lot of time reading. Here's a list of the things I read and what I plan on reading in the near future. 

The Plague by Albert Camus
Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Marquez
Slan by A.E. Van Vogt 
The Day They H Bombed Los Angeles by Robert Moore Williams
The Science Fiction Hall of Fame collection 
Bring the Jubilee by Ward More
The Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals by Kant
Currently on page 800 out of 1400 pages in Plutarch's Lives
A little bit of Don Quixote 
The Tao Te Ching
Parts of Zhuangzi
The Art of War by Sun Tzu
Parts of a 90s cyberpunk novel called Vurt

Plan on reading/finishing:

Plutarch's Lives
Don Quixote 
War and Peace by Tolstoy
The Bamboo Cutter 
Tunnel in the Sky by Robert Heinlein
Being and Nothingness by John Paul Sarte 

It's a list of merit methinks. I've made a decent dent into my own personal library collection. I hope to complete the collection sometime in the near future. Reading has been the one thing that has helped me the most during this pandemic, lockdown, and quarantine. Let's hear it for the great interior life activity of reading! 

Zen and the Art of Positive Thinking

What's up my fellow late-night readers? Today was my first day back to work after two months off. Here are some takeaways about what it was like being back in a blog titled Zen and the Art of Positive Thinking. 

First, I went to work with a strong, positive attitude. I already knew that everything had changed; the store was remodeled, everything items' placements were switched around, most of the young people were replaced by other young people, there's not really any younger women or girls my age that work in my department anymore, hours have been cut severely, and on top of that, the windows and doors are shuttered with plywood for fear of rioters and looters. Whew!

Even knowing all that, I went in thinking this will be fine, this will even be good. And it was. For the most part. I only had a few moments of weakness at the end of the night, where business was so slow that for the last three hours there were hardly any customers at all. I was so bored that I mentioned it to the security guard and the manager. "It was the most boring night of work ever."

I've never seen that happen in any place of business that I've worked at before, and I've been in the retail business for 15 years. Where most of all the customers stop coming in at a certain time. Astounding. In fact, business is so slow that the company is losing so much money that they're going to have to cut hours even more. You put that with possible rioters and looters and the COVID-19 pandemic and you have a recipe for disaster. 

So, yeah, there's all that. But where do I come in? Well, I went into work today and did the usual thing. An older coworker who knows me really well said, "You're different." I said jokingly, "Oh yeah, a lot of soul searching, good time." I played it off as a joke but the fact that she recognized that was an important moment of the day. For it was at that moment that I realized I had become more relaxed. I'm not talking as much because I don't feel I have to fill in space as much. And when I speak I only say what is needed, only going into more details if time and interest are there. Girls are more responsive. Women too surprisingly.

Second, it's not all about being a hippy and having good vibes. That's one aspect of this. It's also about the body. At my job, the work is very strenuous and if you strain yourself just a little too much doing one little thing then you're body's equilibrium gets off balance. 

I was jokingly thinking about this today at work as if I were thinking about 'nen'. Nen is an idea I got from a Japanese anime called Hunter x Hunter. Yes, this is a little silly but hear me out. 

Nen is the body's physical energy and capabilities. Differing from the mind's energy, nen is what's used to focus the body, keep it in shape, and allows you to do strenuous activities for long periods of time without using too much energy. This saves you time by allowing you to work hard in a reasonable time period, getting your tasks done more easily, while at the same time, conserving your body's energies so that not only will you not be tired at the end of the night when you go home, but you might actually be re-energized. 

Yeah, that sounds pretty wacky, doesn't it? What if I told you that nen, or something like it, is actually a real thing? Of course, you won't always feel renewed after a hard day of work. On the contrary, some nights you'll be exhausted, but the point is that you work in such a way that you're hardly ever straining your body, and your muscles are so lucid, that there's hardly anything you can't do, and it won't make you too tired when you go home at night.    

You don't have to be super athletic or strong. Simply standing up straight with no tension is nen. Breathing slow, small, shallow breaths is nen. Even breathing takes up energy. If you breathe too much too fast your body will respond in a certain type of way that is stressful and energy-consuming. Breathing is an essential and important element. "Breathe, breathe in the air," as the Pink Floyd song goes. 

Obviously, these things aren't going to save the world. But they will make your workdays a lot more manageable. Some days will be like today; essentially perfect for all practical purposes. The point is to put this to practice all the other days and not weaken. 

Back to work. The grind continues.

Back To Reality

Hello, world. I've been on a leave of absence from work since April. Tomorrow I get back to my retail gig at the market. I thought I'd jot down some thoughts on the time I spent away from work. 

I've been in my own quarantine without having caught the virus since April. I didn't see or talk to people in person other than people at the grocery store and my family. I really started to miss those everyday actions and interactions with people. I went out on a lot of long walks on most days. Even tonight I went for a long walk. 

The time I spent away for two months was great. Time spent enjoying an interior life. This pandemic calls for the individual to have an interior life. If you don't have an interior life this pandemic is going to be very rough for you.

I caught up on a lot of reading. I read The Plague by Albert Camus, We the Russian dystopian novel, Slan the first mutant novel sort of like X-Men, The Day They H Bombed Los Angeles the first zombie novel from the 1960s, an entire Science Fiction Hall of Fame collection of short stories from the 1930s-1960s, Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Marquez, The Satyricon by Petronius Nero's style expert, The Art of War, the Tao Te Ching, parts of Don Quixote, 75% of Plutarch's Lives, and parts of Zhuangzi. All of these things have merit and were well spent reading time. I was particularly impressed by Love in the Time of Cholera. How it goes to such excruciating and yet humorous details about the tribulations of undying love. 

Reading was probably the one thing that I couldn't do without during this time. I learned a lot reading Plutarch's Lives about famous men of antiquity [my favorites are Pompey, Crassus, Ceasar, Pericles, Romulus, and Nero], their virtues or lack thereof, military conquest, and the culture, history, and philosophy of ancient Greece and Rome. I plan on finishing Plutarch's Lives within the next week or so. I got into reading Plutarch because my brother turned me onto a podcast about the History of Rome, Mike Duncan's History of Rome [downloaded over 100 million times] so I supplemented that with Plutarch. The book was given to me by a customer at my work. She thought I would like it because I've told her that I've read certain things in history and philosophy.

I also spent a lot of time gaming. I played a lot of Heroes of the Storm, Overwatch, and Team Fortress 2. My go-to games for the last six years. I started playing ranked Heroes of the Storm a lot more and that's been a good experience. I took a break from competitive Overwatch but still plan on playing it in the future. Likewise, I've been on a break from Team Fortress 2. So it's mostly been Heroes of the Storm ranked mode. Playing online games competitively teaches you how to be a team player and a leader. To improve and rank up in games takes determination, will, skill, and sheer luck. Although I probably played way too much I would say it was a good experience. Therapeutic even.

I also spent a lot of time reading the news, watching the news, and discussing politics with friends on social media. If you aren't following up on the news you should wise up and start paying attention. There's so much happening in a single 24-hour news cycle nowadays that not reading the news for one day will put you far behind on the issues. I read the news every night before bed and sometimes also in the morning when I wake up. It's a routine.

With the pandemic still ravaging the human population in America and the unending systemic oppression of black and brown people by police still haunting us every day, keeping up with the news will make you a smarter, more informed individual. You don't want to be an everyday low information person. Those people sound dumb when they speak before others and they speak the loudest as well. Do you want to be like them? If not, then keep up on the news. You don't have to be a news junkie but a few articles every day goes a long way.  I recommend Rachel Maddow [for a general but important view] on msnbc for TV and the Nytimes [for a national view] website for text-based news.

Lastly, I want to say that I did a lot of thinking and soul searching, without even going anywhere, doing anything in particular, or leaving my house. This is the time for us to do that; during a pandemic that's put millions of Americans out of work, during a period of civil unrest where police brutality and racism is running rampant. I thought a lot about what I want out of life. Goals, dreams, actions, near, far-term, the future, and all the metaphysical feelings associated with it. The time off really chilled me out. I see now more than ever that the world exists based on your reaction to it, as well as others'. You can only control yourself, your own actions, and your own thoughts. If you can bring people into your life and make them meaningful to it in some way then perhaps that's what we are all here for. "Love is life's sovereign goal." If more people saw life in that way, the world would be a much better place.

Communication Breakdown

I had a good experience today. I went out for a walk when I saw an older acquaintance of mine, a neighbor. A woman that I've talked to about life, and work, with here and there. 

We got to talking about what's going on in the world and it was a great experience. One of the problems right now is that people are so divided because they aren't communicating with each other in such a way that they're understanding each other. There's a big miscommunication campaign going on right now in the media, government, social media, and even in real life with our friends, neighbors, and acquaintances. 

She's a Jewish woman. She talked about her experiences growing up Jewish but not telling people she's Jewish, and how often she saw that white people made discriminatory comments about jews. She said she's been working on herself her whole life but that the brutal murder of George Floyd really was a shock where we have to question who we are as a nation. 

I told her that police brutality isn't just a black thing and that it's actually more of a white thing because there are more white men as leading police commissioners that make or abuse police policies in their precincts. But of course, I added that it's also the human condition, that is, it's a human rights issue that everybody should talk about.  

I told her about how I'd been racially profiled in Wisconsin as a teenager. And that I was lucky no police encounter ever escalated to the point of violence.

The point is that when we communicate with people in a meaningful way, others can see you, and you can see them, for who you/they are as an individual. Not as a number, race, or religion. When everyone sees one another for who they are as an individual, we can come to a better understanding of who we are and respect each other's lives and liberty in a more meaningful way. 

There's so much division in the nation right now, it's astounding. Just because somebody isn't the same skin color as you doesn't mean that they are any less of a human being. And if you think that talking about racism doesn't help then you might be a racist. The reality is that while sometimes talk can be petty, and downright disruptive, in the long run, talk is what brings us together, where we can show solidarity towards our fellow man, where we can see that although we don't have the same skin color or the same religion, that we are all in this together and that we all deserve love, dignity, and happiness.

So I urge you to talk to your fellow friends, neighbors, coworkers, acquaintances, and even talk to random strangers on the streets, everybody you want. The more you talk to people the more you can get to understand them, even if it's just a little bit at a time. This is walking the Earth. 

A little bit of understanding goes a long way. Communication is the key to victory against the evils of civil unrest and police brutality. Talk to people. Ask questions. Be smart. Make your own social circles. Have a diverse group with a variety of ideas and positions. We all have to talk to each other and make ourselves loud and clear. This is how things are changed in the world. Start small, end up with big achievements. Our voices together are unmatched by any President's tweet. The power of the vote has blood on its hands, it's the most valuable power the citizen has. Use it. Through communication, voting, and protests we can make the world a better place. 

Communication breakdown, It's always the Same
Havin' Another Breakdown, Drives me Insane   

The Importance of Rest

One of the things I, as well as others, overlook is the importance of rest. We live in a 24/7 news hour frenzy where new things are happening all the time. Including when most of the population is asleep in America during the late evenings. 


One of the things that have helped me to deal with the stress of today's turmoil is making sure I get enough rest. I've even experimented with changing my sleeping patterns. I'm mostly a late night sleeper. I like to go to bed at 2-3 am most days and wake up around 1030 am. For about a week I tried a morning schedule where I went to bed as early as 930 pm and woke up at 5 am. As you can imagine, if you're a night person, no matter how much sleep you get, you will not like being a morning person.

Anyways, I can't stress enough the amount of turmoil going on in the country right now. I believe that most of my friends, peers, and acquaintances have been lulled into a false sense of security. The reality is that COVID-19 is still running rampant, killing people every day, and the protests while itself is a good thing, is actually bringing out all the provocateurs and racists to the streets, where more black and brown people will get hurt by said racists as well as cops. What's a guy to do? 

Well, for starters make sure you stay informed and that you vote. Stacy Abrams had a good op-ed in the NYTimes yesterday about how important the vote is. Don't forget that. Read through a variety of news periodicals online and not just your favorites. Take part in political talks on Facebook if you like to get your point across to a lot of people. Always be aware that we are not safe right now, nobody is really safe from COVID right now, nor is anyone safe from police brutality, especially if you're a black or brown person or protester. If you aren't worried about anything you are completely oblivious. Not everybody has the luxury of being oblivious because we work hard jobs, have rent, and have family to support here or abroad. 

Remember those white people who stood on state capitol buildings because they wanted to go back to work during the height of the first wave of the pandemic? [They were carrying AR assault rifles, some of them.] That's what oblivious looks like. Protesting something so trivial in the middle of a pandemic. Now, some people have compared that to the protests that are taking place now, protesting the brutal murder of George Floyd. To that, I say it's not the same thing at all, yet the risk is the same, if not worse. The problem is that we have a serious pandemic sweeping the globe but nobody seems to take it seriously enough because if they caught COVID they had a very mild case or they don't know anyone that's died from the virus. Trust me, if everyone had a personal friend, family member, or acquaintance that died from COVID, every American would take this virus so seriously that we would've already quelled the disease like China, South Korea, and Japan. 

Start me up, I never stop. We are not like computers. We all need to make sure we get plenty of rest. The body must be shut down and restarted like a computer every day. Some of us need more sleep than others. I would say the average for me is 7 1/2 to 8 hours but I've done well with six hours as well. Although that isn't ideal. 

Today I had a lot of errands to run. I left the house at 1030 am and got back home around 5 pm. I was so tired from all the running around that I slept from 5 pm to 11 30 pm almost straight, waking up but not even getting out of bed. Obviously, for most people this would disrupt their day, they would fall behind on their plans and errands, not contact their friends and family, it would cause them to stay up much later, and overall they wouldn't like the experience. 

However, although I know that sleeping the day away isn't ideal I also recognize that I needed it and that sleep is more important than ever nowadays. Think about how important sleep is for our mental health and well being. Without sleep or only a little sleep, we would all be mindless zombies. I missed my usual daily activities today but in the end, I was greatly rewarded because I got enough rest, I feel great, and I'm fully recharged for whatever the night brings me as well as tomorrow's morning. 

Sleepytime, time, all the time. I can't stress enough how important sleep is. Most of the time when I'm irritated, annoyed, or stressed out its mostly because I'm too tired and need sleep. With all this chaos going on in American cities right now, the pandemic ravaging the land, the highest unemployment numbers in record history, and a possible rigged election already in the works for 2020, I would say that this is the most stressful time period of my young life. The kicker is that it could only get worse. 

The second wave of COVID could hit much harder and cause a longer and more extreme shutdown and quarantine. The protests and police brutality could fizzle. They could pass measures that attempt to reduce police power but in the long run they might never defeat systemic racism and the brutalization by cops unto black and brown Americans. Trump could win reelection and the United States could become an even more diffusive firepot led by a despotic Nero. 

So sleep it off. Tomorrow never knows. Keep everything in your memory and your records because everything going on right now is particularly noteworthy. This is a historic time period. Always be skeptical, always be questioning. Don't focus on the noise being made by idiots or people dumber than you. The future is you. The world outside is important but so are you and your own personal life. In order to be at your best, you need rest.

How Social Media Propels and Fuels Our Ignorance

Social media is a godsend in today's day and age. Think about it this way. I'm not a paid gigging writer but because I write daily on here my ideas are shown to countless thousands of people. Without it, I don't know if I would still be doing the blog. Would it be worth it if nobody read my writing?

Social media is important. But there comes a time when we have to see it for what it is and realize that deep down, social media propels and fuels our ignorance.

I'm a smart guy. I work in retail where most of the workers and bosses aren't so smart. I'm a big fish in a small pond in that aspect. When I go online on Facebook and interact with countless friends, peers, or even acquaintances, it's like my job times a million. What I mean to say is that intelligence drops down and everything else turns up to eleven. You can now see my point clearly. 

The problem is that social media has become a cesspool for bots, scammers, provocateurs, and hackers. Some of these are very easy to spot, others much less so. Most people on Facebook go on there to have a good time; they see what's new with friends and family, they like a few posts, they may or may not post something themselves, and then they continue on with their lives. But other people, myself included, often spend a lot of time on Facebook, not really sure what we're looking for, but we know it when we get it, that shot of dopamine; oh somebody liked my stuff! 

Of course, that's only one way of seeing Facebook. The other side of Facebook that I'm seeing right now is a lot more sinister than what it was originally intended for. After the brutal murder video of George Floyd was shown on social media, it's clear to say that pretty much everyone has seen it. Unless you live under a rock. But it's already having a bad ripple effect. Now there are pictures and videos of white people posing with their knee on their friends' necks, smiling, in a mockery of the murder of George Floyd. 

On top of that, the nationwide protests have sowed much discord on social media. My friends are my friends. Meaning that most of them are well to do, college-educated, professional people who, although they've never been brutalized by a cop before, they stand in solidarity with black and brown people and support them in the cause for more rules and regulations to stop these murders of black and brown men by police officers. It's what you would expect. But, at the same time, I think that just agreeing to stand with black people in and of itself isn't a solution, rather it's almost like a pat on the back, "my people systematically destroyed your race, and I'm sorry, but this is the most I can do," I get it. We get it, white people, you realize that the white power structure is rigged against blacks and you're sorry for it. But there's only so much I can take of my white friends posting BLM memes. The truth is that to be a true ally of black people you have to go a much farther mile, one that most white people wouldn't touch with a ten-foot pole. You can't just protest right now and say, "I'm an honorary black man now." It doesn't work like that.  

So I've seen a lot of that. And I've also seen a lot from the alt-right and conservative side as well. Now, I don't have too many alt-right friends but I have many conservative friends who are older than me. In terms of the alt-right, I've seen a lot of political propaganda supporting Trump and justifying the brutalization by police to protesters. I see a lot of young people that are Trump supporters trolling the left in posts, asking them questions, about facts. When has Trump or his base ever cared about facts? The reality is that it is Trump's actions that warrant his removal from office. Although he never tells the facts either. He always lies about everything. "I didn't hide in that bunker from the protesters, I was inspecting the bunker, I inspect bunkers." 

As far as my older conservative friends go, I can sometimes see their point of view. They're business owners and some of them even protected their businesses with guns out on the streets where looting took place. They support Trump no matter what but some of them also think that there's no right or left, they're both corrupt, but for whatever reason they still support Trump. Most of these people are in their 40s/50s, they have money, and some of them are musicians. The musicians lean more heavily towards the libertarian idealogy like the 1970s never ended. 

When you interact with all of that going on, as a real, legitimate person, you see that's all rather a waste of your time and efforts unless you want to come to some sort of understanding. When someone takes the time to agree with you on something they just read it off for a second, either react to it or don't, and then leave it forever in a vacuum. The people that really interact the most are the provocateurs, the ones that want to rile you up, the internet trolls that the internet is based on.    

Not to mention the countless articles that are distributed on social media. This is what people construe as facts. But the sad reality is that most of the articles I see shared on social media aren't from fact worthy websites. In fact, they're from crappy websites run on the old javascript engine, where there are ads in the news articles. Has nobody on social media ever heard of the guardian, the LAtimes, the NYTimes, or the daily news? How about WSJ? Nope, I've hardly ever seen articles from any of those reputable periodicals. But I see plenty of news from Buzzfeed. Some from Slate and Politico. Those last two aren't bad but still.

The fact that people use these illegitimate sources to prove their points and to show off facts, shows that we live in an era where facts don't matter, as these sources often report fake news, false facts, like the President himself. It's like 24/7 Fox News. This is a grievous blow to the historical accuracy of this time period we're all living in and to real journalism, which still takes place sometimes by people like Rachel Maddow and the Washingtonpost staff journalists like Robert Costa, Phillip Ruecker, and Ashley Parker. 

Moving forward, I think we all have to be a lot smarter when using social media. Things have changed so drastically from 2016 to 2020. Remember, social media was used by Russian hackers to help get Trump elected. Is that the kind of election we want to continue to have in the future? So we have to be more vigilant in detecting falsehoods from shared articles, proving, or disproving facts. Not only does the article have to report the facts but they have to get every detail of the facts right otherwise their merit is diminished and supports their enemies. You got that?  

This is a difficult thing to write about. I'm sure there are plenty of other people who agree with me on this or have similar thoughts on the topic. Personally, I only log into Facebook a couple times a day. After checking it out for five minutes I log off. By logging off it forces me to reset and think about if I really want to go back again and for what purpose. The times have not been kind to social media. And although the movement of the protests has been spearheaded by social media, remember that it was the widespread sharing of the brutal murder that sparked all this unrest in the first place. There was an anti-lynching bill today. Well, that brutal murder video was a lynching for the entire world to see. The internet has become an angry mob, but to what purpose, only time will tell.  I'm hopeful that positive things can happen out of all this. 

Lastly, I want to conclude by saying that one of the problems with social media is that your friends agree with you and those that don't, well they aren't your friends and you unfriend them because they're Trump supporters, too far left, or too far right, and not centrist enough. That's why I actually like having conservatives on my friend's list because I don't want to only interact with people who agree with me. To understand the complexity of the situation, you have to sometimes put yourself in another person's shoes, so if I can see why this 40-year-old businessman supports Trump no matter what, maybe I can learn more about what makes him or her tick, and come to an understanding between us, between them and the left, and the world. It's all about understanding. Of course, I disagree with them but when I see their points they make in favor of or against certain issues, I can see the slips and cracks where their reasoning is faulty, and show them the reason why they're wrong, explaining it to them in a way that we don't have to fight or attack each other, but recognize each other as fellow Americans with the right to share and express our ideas.

Sometimes you're being attacked not because you're black but because you're the smartest guy in the room. Always have friends that are not just allies, but are as smart as, or smarter than yourself, you want more of those kinds of friends. This ensures that if you make a blunder, they can always swoop in and save the day, whether it be a workplace conflict, business, or even social media. Imagine you make a great point on a post, only to have your much dumber associate tarnish it with some inane comment? 

Democracy Dies in Darknesse

There's been a lot happening in the last couple of months. Hell, in the last eight days. We've been under quarantine dealing with COVID-19, the worst pandemic since the 1918 Flu, which has killed over 100,000 Americans. On top of that, every night for the last eight nights in a row, people have taken to the streets, risking the spread of COVID-19, to protest the brutal murder captured on video of George Floyd, a nonviolent black man.

We've all seen the brutal murder video on social media or news media outlets. It's hard to watch. An officer was seen with his knee pinned on George Floyd's neck. There were people there who witnessed the murder, and it was filmed by a 17-year old girl. George Floyd died eight minutes later, his last words being, "I can't breathe." He called out to his mother in his dying words. The national outcry for his murder has been resounding over a week later still.

There was a lot of rioting and looting reported and seen on video. However, what the media isn't reporting nearly as much is the peaceful protests that are going on in the midst of the chaos. This is sort of like the 1960s but there's one major difference.

There weren't this many different and varied people all protesting the same thing in the 1960s. That is new. This will lead to many young people becoming 'awakened', tuned in to the systemic issue of police brutality against black men in America. This will lead them to other issues that are important to them, specifically them, their families, and their communities, making them more educated and more effective in voting and voting measures.

This is the way we can change America. Yes, peaceful protests are good. And yes, some of it will be bloody, as were the protests of the 1960s. But, we can't let the media use us, the protestors as an angry mob. We must galvanize our forces, register more voters, and vote in the right people that will help our cause, whatever that might be. In this case, fixing the problem of police brutality against black men, it's going to be a long fight that could take decades.

Police departments are local entities, not national. So to stop this problem, one would have to go to the heart of every single local police department and vote for the right police leaders, and all that could take a very, long, time. But the people demand justice, now! Right? It's not quite so easy. You can quell the chaos, but you cannot stop the wheels of justice. This is where time works for you. That's where all those protesters come in.

Personally, I've been accosted by cops many times. I'm a black man. Luckily, I was never harmed or arrested. But many times as a teenager in Wisconsin, the cops would ask to see what was in my backpack and check it. They were racist cops but I got lucky. They could've been looking for a violent offender one of those times and things could've escalated in some way. I could've been George Floyd. Any black man could. That's the problem. That's why we're enraged.  

As if that wasn't dark enough, there's a small chance that despite all this, the protests won't change much, and more black deaths at the hands of white police officers will take place? What will be the response then? Well, who knows, right? This goes to show that one justice for one death isn't enough and that we must go beyond, into voting measures that will counter this. Am I hopeful? Yes. Optimistic? Yes. But thinking about how bad the protests have been, how the issue has hundreds of years of white racism and hatred, there's a feeling I get that these protests won't be enough, as powerful as they are. Your protest voice is strong, but your voting voice is much stronger. That's my opinion. I thank and value all the protesters. I just wish there weren't so many looters and rioters. Not to mention the businesses burning down their buildings for insurance money. But that's another story the media isn't telling.

Next, it's all one story, it's all apart of one single story, which is ours right now; 2020, winter lockdown, beginning of summer quarantine, COVID-19, George Floyd's death, past 100,000 cases, the second wave has hit, Trump orders military to attack protesters for a photo op at church, Trump Administration stops anything to do with the containment of coronavirus. Although it is morbid to put all of this together, I think it's really important to see it all as one big picture, rather than say, just the protests, racism, police brutality, or just COVID.

When you see it for what it really is, you have to ask yourself one question; What is the turning point for Republicans? At what point will they stop, will they let this President step down or be removed out of office before they give him unyielding powers? Is there never a time where they will say no to this President, will they ever relinquish power, will they ever realize that they're fueling this frenzy, this angry mob, and to what purpose? I'm no conspiracy theorist but it doesn't take a genius to know that the Republicans will do anything it takes to keep control and to keep Trump in power. They've proven that time and again. And anyone who disagrees with Trump gets fired and replaced by a croony who does agree with everything he says. It's no wonder democracy is dying in darkness. We have a Nero rather than a President of the United States.

This is why your vote matters more than ever. That, and taking part in your community, helping them in whatever ways you can. You can protest if you want, but voting is even better. If you do both, then you are a Godsend. Don't forget that great things happen out of catastrophe. We will achieve great things together as Americans in the coming days, months, and years. This lodestar democracy has seen better days but with your help, and more importantly, your vote, America can live up to its name, and we can live in a better, more nuanced America, where the peoples' voice is heard as well as felt.