Consider this year’s 314 mass shootings in just 186 days. Do they make you… nervous about going to the mall, the grocery, the club, the church, theater, the parade? More often, do you just… stay home?
Cue Snidely Whiplash, twirling his moustache and saying, “Yes! It’s all going just as I planned.”
Plan? What plan? After all that’s happened these last few years, you really don’t know? Let my smart friend K — we share a motto: “All the news before it happens” — break it down for you:
Remember how it happened in “The Handmaid’s Tale.” There’s a slow creep, like an evil black smoke coming under the door, and then, all of a sudden, women’s bank accounts are frozen, and they’re sent home from jobs and not allowed to work. They try to protest but they’re met by militias with machine guns. That’s what we’re seeing: a slow theocratic takeover. There’s no edict yet. It’s like a rug’s being pulled out from under everyone everywhere slowly. And because it happens slowly, weak people become collaborators.
Far-fetched? Look at the news you may have missed just this week…
From Rolling Stone:
At an evangelical victory party in front of the Supreme Court to celebrate the downfall of Roe v. Wade last week, a prominent Capitol Hill religious leader was caught on a hot mic making a bombshell claim: that she prays with sitting justices inside the high court. “We’re the only people who do that,” Peggy Nienaber said.
On Twitter:
Not only did Judge Debbra K. Halford allow a Mississippi abortion trigger ban — “prohibiting abortions in the state” at any stage “except in cases where necessary for the preservation of the mother’s life or where the pregnancy was caused by rape” — to go into effect, she began the hearing with a Christian minister praying “Lord… We seek your truth, not our own.” Watch here.
Want to read the playbook? Buy the pocket-sized paperback of Timothy Snyder’s On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century. Snyder is probably our foremost Holocaust scholar. Here he compares what Hitler did to what today’s would-be autocrats are doing in the United States and elsewhere. The history of the 1930s and 1940s grids with uncanny precision over what we’re experiencing now. Here’s an excerpt.
Note the first line: “Do not obey in advance.”
Question: If you’re staying home because you’re afraid of what’s out there, is that obeying in advance?
There are other urgent suggestions. The one that most resonates with me is the imperative to get closer with your primary people.
If we don’t form stronger alliances that can be effective where we live and be part of a bigger effort to save democracy… well, as K says, “Do you want a yellow star this time, or is it only fair that you get to choose the color?”
And now for some good news from great people.
Read these wise words from Krista Tippett. For two decades she has been the host of “On Being.” The entire interview is interesting. These lines jumped out:
I talk about hope being a muscle. It’s not wishful thinking, and it’s not idealism. It’s not even a belief that everything will turn out OK. It’s an imaginative leap.
I don’t always feel robustly hopeful. Depression is something I’ve struggled with. I’ve found the world an unbearable place for months at a time in the last two years. But at the same time I don’t feel like there’s a place in my work for my despair.
THE DALAI LAMA’S 87TH BIRTHDAY
“Our own heart, our own mind, is the temple. The doctrine is compassion. Love for others and respect for their rights and dignity, no matter who or what they are: ultimately these are all we need. So long as we practice these in our daily lives, then no matter if we are learned or unlearned, whether we believe in Buddha or God, or follow some other religion or none at all, as long as we have compassion for others and conduct ourselves with restraint out of a sense of responsibility, there is no doubt we will be happy.”
THE GOFUNDME FOR AIDEN McCARTHY
Irina and Kevin McCarthy were killed in Highland Park. You may not know their names, but you know this: Aiden, their two-year-old son, lived because his father covered him with his body. Aiden was found wandering around. He’s now with his grandparents.
The family’s hope was to raise $500,000 on GoFundMe to support Aiden, his caregivers, and, almost certainly, the mental health professionals whose help he’ll need to navigate the world. In two days, 55,000 people have donated $3 million.
I was interested to see that the top donor, at $18,000, is William Ackman, founder of Pershing Square Capital Management, said to be worth $2.8 billion. I wondered if his firm invested in guns. It doesn’t, but on Twitter, Ackman wrote that he believes Kyle Rittenhouse is a “civic-minded patriot” and that the 18-year-old acted in self defense when he killed two unarmed protesters and wounded a third. Is there a disconnect here? Or is the $18,000 all that matters?
THE WEEKEND POEM
“The Young Watch Us,” from The Selected Poems Of Donald Hall
The young girls look up
as we walk past the line at the movie,
and go back to examining their fingernails.
Their boyfriends are combing their hair,
and chew gum
as if they meant to insult us.
Today we made love all day.
I look at you. You are smiling on the sidewalk,
dear wrinkled face.
THE WEEKEND RECIPE: STRAWBERRY COBBLER
FROM My Beverly Hills Kitchen: Classic Southern Cooking with a French Twist by Alex Hitz
It’s strawberry season, so… Strawberry Cobbler
serves 8 to 10
2 sticks salted butter, melted
2 cups whole strawberries, stemmed (frozen berries are fine)
2 cups flour
1 tablespoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups sugar
2 cups milk
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Pour the melted butter into a 13 x 9 x 2-inch baking dish, and add the strawberries.
In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flow, baking soda, salt and sugar, and slowly add the milk, whisking it until it is smooth.
Pour the batter over the fruit and bake for 45 minutes, until it’s more than golden brown. Set.
Serve warm with vanilla ice cream.
THE MOST BEAUTIFUL SONG: “RUBY’S ARMS,” BY TOM WAITS
There’s a connection between “Ruby’s Arms” and Kazuo Ishiguro’s classic novel The Remains of the Day. It’s this line in the book: “Indeed — why should I not admit it? — at that moment, my heart was breaking.” The line is a surprise: the narrator couldn’t be more restrained, you can’t imagine him announcing his pain, even for a moment. In an interview, Ishiguro says he wrote the line after hearing “Ruby’s Arms,” in which opposing elements — tension and release — do, indeed, break your heart. To listen to the song, click here.
I will leave behind all of my clothes
I wore when I was with you
All I need’s my railroad boots
And my leather jacket
As I say goodbye to Ruby’s arms
Although my heart is breaking
I will steal away out through your blinds
For soon you will be waking
The morning light has washed your face
And everything is turning blue now
Hold on to your pillow case
There’s nothing I can do now
As I say goodbye to Ruby’s arms
You’ll find another soldier
And I swear to God by Christmas time
There’ll be someone else to hold you
The only thing I’m taking is
The scarf off of your clothesline
I’ll hurry past your chest of drawers
And your broken wind chimes
As I say goodbye, I’ll say goodbye
Say goodbye to Ruby’s arms
I will feel my way down the darkened hall
And out into the morning
The hobos at the freight yards
Have kept their fires burning
Said, “Jesus Christ, this goddamn rain!”
I’ll never kiss your lips again
Or break your heart
Will someone put me on a train?
I’ll never kiss your lips again
Or break your heart
As I say goodbye, I’ll say goodbye
Say goodbye to Ruby’s arms
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This post was previously published on headbutler.com.
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Photo credit: iStockPhoto.com