Do you ALL recognize that we are only one more celebrity death or hurricane away from being "done" with Ferguson? Even another dance craze, magnitude "Gangnam Style", may be enough to additively camelback Ferguson, killer cops, and uncomfy racism off the "front page" and back into the wasteland of used-news. And the questions of "WHY that is?" and "WHO gets to choose the news?" aren't worth the paranoia they're written on - they're just a few more worthless questions that effectively change absolutely NOTHING.
But boy, wasn't "Ferguson" fun while it lasted, didn't it feel good to get all incensed & empathetic & shit for a little bit? THIS IS MURDER - AS INFOTAINMENT.
Fold ->
(I have decided to run this as I wrote it Saturday evening. Now, there has been a mini-smattering of positive-action diaries, posted HERE - Daily Kos - but the relatively simple question -
WHAT DO I DO? -
sure as hell hasn't penetrated to the MSM! Torch me if you wish for that, but PLEASE - KEEP THINKING! And suggesting, and, and... well I DON'T know what to do. And neither do the vast majority of people, and THAT'S why I wrote this. Yes, capitalization sucks? So get MAD - but do suggest something too!)
In all the hoopla, no questions that actually lead towards permanent changes are seriously and IRREVOCABLY being raised - meaning, questions that can't be UN-asked, can't just be buried via the attrition of time. You can easily read 10,000 words on Slate, or CNN.com, or Daily Kos, or anywhere, really - 10,000 words asking "Is there racism?" "Can cops shoot whoever they want?" "Is militarization of local cops bad?" "Is so-and-so a thug?" Is-this, is-that.... And not a single answer to any of these questions will make a bit of difference.
To my mind, there are four important questions that can LEAD somewhere:
1) What is the role of state government in regulating racist behavior?
2) What is the role of federal government in regulating racist behavior?
3) What is the role of state government in regulating police conduct?
4) What is the role of federal government in regulating police conduct?
And then the next, obvious four questions:
What can I, as a single citizen, DO about 1, 2, 3 and 4?
Now these questions at least lead to more -
who do WE talk to;
what sorts of laws are options;
what do other, safer cultures do differently that works;
what hasn't worked.... there's all sorts of things that would grow out of the questions that as of yet, still remain completely unasked. Notice I did say "REGULATE racist behavior" - fuck retraining, fuck sensitivity school, we need to put murderers in prison and if the current laws won't do that we need better laws.
If one were leaning a bit towards cynicism, one might also ask:
By treating this as just another branch of entertainment, "reality-based Law & Order-ish" cop show, are there any benefits for certain entities? Who benefits from keeping it corraled in the "outrage stage" and relentlessly re-focussing on that, eventually shifting towards "just another liberal tantrum" stage... and never, ever veering into the law-changing territory of REAL ACTION? But that question really leads nowhere, too. We already know there are assholes. And while I'm not trying to be an asshole myself here, MAYBE - just MAY BE - someone who knows what to DO will get incensed enough to tell us lost li'l sheeps what the fuck to DO about this stuff! Because after reading my requisite daily 30,000 words from ALL sources - I still haven't got the single, foggiest notion of what to DO. Do you? How do you, could you, directly harness, then AIM, the outrage into the "changes-MADE stage?"
Think about this for a second - in all the verbiage, projectile-diarreporting blasting us from all directions - there has yet to be a single (MSM!) word that tells ME - and YOU - something to DO. Sign another fucking petition? For God's sakes, that's pathetic, feel-good MIS-direction, OK? You feel a little bit happier, and that much less inclined to DO a fucking thing! Cynical I may be, but I can still comb up one last little tiny hair of optimism that the outrage of millions of citizens - tens of millions - can still, somehow, be directed toward some sort of improvement in some part of those four areas above. But if anybody knows anything specifically about effecting a genuine turnaround here, even the first baby-step - you'd better spit it up before American Idol starts up again, or "#Ferguson" will soon be just another folder tossed into the "liberal weenie hissy-fit" filing cabinet, shrunk to another mere puff of smoke. Michael Brown recedes into the fog of the other 400-to-600* "justifiable" homicides-by-cop each year, and - there we go, right back to business-as-usual.
Here are a few RECENT Daily Kos diaires, some of which suggest a few things - but surely, these will bypass the 97% of people who don't read here!
http://www.dailykos.com/...
http://www.dailykos.com/...
http://www.dailykos.com/...
*(No shirt, shetlock)