Hello, dear readers of all hues and views. I know. It's been a while. Life has pulled me back into the current, and I have a lot of swim time to go before I can stumble back on to the bank, and start putting down what's been on my mind, in my heart, and roiling in my gut.
The main story for me has been all about preparing to go "home" to a state I'd never visited before starting this blog; a state deep in the South of the USA, a region that I once believed I should avoid at all costs; one that tried with others to secede from the Union in order to continue prospering from the labor of African-heritage slaves and from the "legal" abduction and enslavement of their children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren: altogether about ten generations up to the Emancipation Proclamation and shortly thereafter the end of the hardfought, bloody, catastrophic Civil War waged between North and South --this very South-- in order to keep it going. My new home is in Georgia.
We fell in love with Savannah, bought a house and plan to live in it until we can't. This will be a semi-retirement for me. I'll eventually ramp up some kind of private practice and resume seeing clients and training counselors, coaches, and therapists (After all, it's what I love to do). But for the next while, I'll be readjusting to a different life. It's a welcomed change.
Savannah possesses a unique combination of attributes in comparison with much of the rest of Georgia: diverse, FRIENDLY, progressive, picturesque, close to the beach, historic, and with plenty of arts and music culture. Also, it doesn't freeze your ass off in winter or bury you in snow. And the city loves any excuse for a party or parade. In short, despite the sand nats, alligators, poisonous snakes, high pollen count, excessive heat in summer, the unexploded hydrogen bomb in the Savannah River, and being nestled in the heart of, well, MAGATSland (Hey, you can't have everything, and Savannah votes hardcore BLUE), it's not a hard place to love. So home it is. But I will sleep with one eye open.
And not just for the snakes and 'gators.
Which comes to the point of both this post and my little blog here. After some thought --and a look at my renewal fee-- I decided to call it, for now at least.
Is there more to say about social justice, nationally, locally, and personally? Plenty more. But at this stage in my personal proceedings, I have other gardens in more urgent need of tending.
I'm relatively sure I'll be back in a while, so I'll try not to get too comfortable...
Stay on point. Keep educating yourselves. There's nothing the puveyors of blatant, subtle, and insidious injustice love more than blissful (although agitated works good too) ignorance. The ongoing machinations of exploitation, manipulation, coercion, and oppression are still with us.
And now to THE TRUE MEANING OF "WOKE," GODDAMMIT.
Until it got whitewashed, weaponized and table-turned, that is:
"Stay alert!"
"See through the BS!"
"Read the FINE PRINT!"
"Watch! Look! Listen!"
"Read the room: your life could depend on it."
"Sense the subtext; decode the coded messages."
"WATCH YOUR SIX!"
"Don't be lulled into a false sense of security"
"Stay woke" was for people of color. It means "STAY ALIVE AND FREE" in a society that is far more likely to incarcerate or kill US than it is a white person.
The word was coopted and perverted; whitewashed to admonish people to not just be aware, but to call out and root our racism, to challenge and wrestle with the Powers That Be. Not a bad thing. Not AT ALL. Just not the same thing. It was meant to protect people of color when in hostile territory (i.e.the ROW where whiteness prevails, or when it comes to visit your community). And like every other whitewashed term, it ended up weaponized to our detriment. funny how that happens...
But nevertheless, the core truth of its original meaning persists in today's world.
Don't get too cozy... don't be too "uppity."
I'd love to think we are past all that. But I know better. Life can turn on a dime. Remember THAT.
"Stay woke" was never meant for white people. Your becoming ever more conscious of implicit and unconscious bias; socialized, institutional, and systemic racism is not becoming "woke": it is seeing the world clearly and aspiring to your humanity. Let's see somebody weaponize THAT. You need another word. Or maybe no "catchphrase" at all; just actions and real, thoughtful communication.
PLEASE stop using and joking about that word. It's been contaminated. It's like going from sincere Germans adopting the Jewish admonition to "Never forget," and it ending up then being abused by NeoNaziis in order to deny and mock the Holocaust.
Truly.
Please just STOP. Cede this one to the enemy.
But DON'T STOP calling out social injustice, racism, bigotry, sexism,, homophobia, and gender discrimination. Don't let these revisionist assholes win.
With that, I'm signing out for now.
Yorumlar