I wanted to relax on the couch this morning, but the stories coming out of Minnesota leave me needing to write. I don’t have as much emotional skin in the game now that my Trump supporting mother has passed, but I can’t help but reflect on the stories I was told growing up, and the deep hypocrisy of this moment when it comes to the government being perceived as the enemy, and Americans possessing the right to own guns. I grew up in a perpetual belief that the government was coming for you, and that having a gun was the only thing that stood in their way—making what I am seeing unfold on the streets of Minneapolis very revealing about the fear we are steeped in growing up in this country.
My heart goes out to the families of Renee Good and Alex Pretti. My heart swells and overflows for you. I am thankful for the citizens of Minneapolis for putting their bodies on the line, and going out in the cold to stand up to this. I think Minneapolis people reflect the heart of America in this moment, and I feel a kindred spirit with Alex on where he stood on gun ownership and fascism. I won’t own a gun anymore after my best friend Derek blew his brains out with a gun I gave him, and I was pushed to give the kid back his guns, only never to see him again. I don’t need them. But the double standard being applied to people not he right with guns and people on the left with guns hit’s my America body right in it’s solar plexus.
In this moment I think about how much all the men my mother brought into my life wanted this. They knew the government would make a turn towards fascism. They knew that “they” would need their guns. They believed it so hard for so long, that they were left with no choice but to make it happen. The men I grew up with are so scared of the world, they knew nothing else. They bought the end times rhetoric so thoroughly, that they are determined to bring it to life. I don’t have anyone on the right that possesses a direct line to my heart anymore, so I find myself able to take very level headed approach to what I am seeing. I have done a serious amount of work to deprogram myself over the last decade—leaving me on much firmer ground.
It feels like we need this moment to expose the illness at the core of America. The illness that has been here since the beginning. Now feels like the time. Now is the time to confront the sexism and racism at the core of who we are. It is clear that the right wing of this nation wants confrontation. They are wanting cruelty. They want it to be videotaped. They are pleased that they get to live in the live action video game they have been playing over and over for years. I am very proud of my fellow Americans in the street. I am less proud of the politicians on the left in this country. I am very concerned with the strength of our institutions and the role that the technology sectorthat I work in is complicit and willfully blind to what is unfolding. I think this is the time for those of us at the center and the left to have an honest discussions around what it means to be American in this century.
I am proud that I live in New York City right now. I am proud that I don’t feel the need to own a gun. I am proud that Los Angeles, CA, Portland, OR, and Minneapolis, MN were chosen as front lines for this administrations assault. They are just the right cities for proper resistance. This is what the right in this county have always dreamed of and wanted. Let’s deny them. Let’s do it compassionately. Let’s come together across class and race to show them who America really is. I know we have it in us. They may have always wanted this, but we are much bigger. Even though this illness has been with us since the beginning, we have become much bigger than it. We are much more. We are diverse now, and they are scared of that diversity. Let’s take to the streets. Let’s capture images. Let’s tell stories. Let’s take care of each other. Let’s not be afraid. Let’s deny them this moment.
