Browsed by
Tag: George Floyd

The Answer is Blowin’ in the Wind

The Answer is Blowin’ in the Wind

Comments 1 comment

Would You Like a Lime with That Week Thirteen – The End

 

“Hey man, c’mon, c’mon we are going downtown, there is a huge protest going on.  There is going to be thousands of people in the streets.”

“Thousands of people?  You mean to tell me I can’t sit next to you at a bar and have a cocktail, but I can stand next to you in a protest and throw a Molotov Cocktail?”

“Yeah man, c’mon lets go.”

“Wait, wait,  wait, what about all that anxiety and social distancing and the economic disaster we just created due to the virus?  What was that all about?”

“C’mon really?  Are you still talking about the virus? That’s so last month.” 

“No, people with businesses lost their whole life’s work and incomes and some are just now beginning to open up again, isn’t that important?”

“Look, we don’t have to wait for them to open, we can just go in and take whatever we want.  It’s that easy! It’s a riot!”

“I don’t get it.  We can’t assemble twenty five people to worship in church but thousands can protest in the street?  There is something not right about that.”

“Dude… church?  There is no church anymore.  You don’t have to go to church any more, you watch it from your kitchen. Your kitchen is your church.  And besides, there is no God in all of this anyway.”

“Wait, wait, yes there is…  I think there is…God has to be in all of this…where is God?…I want my God back…”

 

Bob Dylan released Blowin’ in the Wind way back in 1963.  I would have been seven years old.   By the end of the decade much would change for this country.  The 60’s had proven to be one controversy after another with protests in the streets common.  Though there were definite similarities to some of the causes, like civil rights, and it’s hard to believe we are still talking about it all these years later, the hypothetical conversation above still can only be unique to this time.

Though I read that Dylan denies that Blowin’ in the Wind was written as a protest song, it certainly fills that need perfectly, and has been described as the anthem of the civil rights movement.

“How many roads must a man walk down
Before you call him a man?…

how many years can some people exist
Before they’re allowed to be free?…

… how many times can a man turn his head
And pretend that he just doesn’t see?

The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind
The answer is blowin’ in the wind”

 

Some think that this theme of “blowing in the wind” may have been taken from a passage in Bound for Glory, Woody Guthrie’s autobiography, where Guthrie compared his political sensibility to newspapers blowing in the winds of New York City streets and alleys.

 

To me sadly, we just experienced this generation’s 9/11 in Mr. Floyd’s death.

We just had the incident. The moment when the whole country came together in a crisis, the one where everyone agreed, and the one that presented the perfect opportunity to build on.

But, like boo boos and never letting a good crisis go to waste, this opportunity seems to have been hijacked for other purposes, at least initially.

Mr. Floyd’s death can’t be in vain, there has to be some result.  And just like the 60’s, peaceful protest will prevail and changes will be made to tighten up some of those wrongs that still plague our society.

But laws and protests aren’t going to solve this problem, we can’t force people to change.

And there are always going to be bad people out there.  We can’t erase whatever the genes are that cause some people to be abusers, murderers, racists, and whatever else is bad in people of all colors in this world.  We need to acknowledge those people exist, and exist disguised and wearing many coats, and some uniforms, and deal with them appropriately.

But the rest of us, the majority of us, those of us who came together for a brief moment on Memorial Day or in the days after, need to not waste another fifty years and just remember to trust each other and to treat each other with love.

We have to look at ourselves and decide what we can do to help make this problem go away one by one.

We need God back because we need God’s help.

God has to be in all of this.

Because God is love.

 

And God is in the wind.

 

Week Thirteen and the end of the tag line.

 

 

 

George Floyd

George Floyd

Comments 0 Comment

Would You Like A Lime With That Week Twelve

 

George Floyd.

 

Just like in the book I introduced last week, Ralph Tells a Story, where Ralph struggled to get ideas to write about, I had no story for this week.  I was okay with that.

It was a hectic week.

Memorial Day Monday was nice.  Kim and I took long bike ride on the W&OD Trail.  But with the holiday that meant we were facing a four day work week.  And though Covid 19 social distancing was beginning to be relaxed across the country, Northern Virginia was still waiting for Friday.

Then on Tuesday I had to make an unexpected trip out to help my mom with an issue with my dad.  So early in the morning on Tuesday I made the familiar trip out to the Eastern Shore of Maryland.  The fog on the Bay Bridge was so thick, with no other traffic around me, I felt like I was traveling in my own little bubble of disoriented visibility, waiting patiently for the signs of the Kent Island shoreline.  Concerned about the weather, and traffic and arriving on time, I ignored my usual Little Steven’s Underground Garage and opted to listen to the news channel instead.  I heard an interview with a pastor from somewhere in the south talking about his plans to open up their church.  Proud of his progress, his plan included taking the temperature of every one of his congregation before they could enter the building.  Very responsible move I thought.  Then he said something like this, “Anyone with a temperature of 104 degrees and above were not going to be allowed in.”

I admire this pastor for trying to open his church, but I am not sure he should be the one in charge of the reopening committee.  I am not sure that a gathering of people with temperatures ranging from 100 to 103.9 degrees is going to have a good outcome.

And then of course there was,

 

George Floyd.

 

This Memorial Day was unlike any other. Yes, it is true that we remembered those who fought bravely for our country and lost their lives in that effort. But we did so more quietly. There were no concerts, no ceremonies, no parades, no barbeques.  Sure, there were some wreaths placed and flags displayed. But the beaches and boardwalks seemed to be the big story as crowds flocked to the ocean to celebrate the reopening in phase one.  But then there was also,

 

George Floyd.

 

Though I was not at work on Tuesday, like most of you,  I did my 7 PM meeting on Zoom from the deck as the sun was setting over the river to the west.  I decided to spend the night to make sure all was well and got up at 5 AM to head back home and to work.  Like the trip out, the trip home included thick fog once again.  As a result of the weather and my concern about getting to work on time, I listened once more to the news station so I could hear the traffic, the conditions on the Bay Bridge.  And once again I heard about,

 

George Floyd.

 

Now with just three days left in the work week to get my stuff done, I was home late and tired on Wednesday and Thursday. Then it was Friday, with the weather warm and with no story idea in my head, I put aside my need to post for this week and settled in for a relaxing evening on the deck.  After dinner, I called my mother to check in on the day’s events and how my dad was doing.  After we finished talking about all that, she told me about how angry she was.  How angry she was about,

 

George Floyd.

 

After hanging up the phone with my mother, Kim called her dad and I went inside the house.  I finally decided I needed to view the video of the incident that I had been hearing about on my journeys earlier in the week and the one that everyone else was angry about.  The one about,

 

George Floyd.

 

It is true this Memorial Day was different.  And though the reopening of our lives as we remembered them had begun to a small degree, there were no parades, no barbeques, no ceremonies, no concerts.  And yes, we still we remembered our fallen soldiers as we should do on Memorial Day.  But this year we will also remember the last eight minutes and fifty-three seconds of the life of

 

George Floyd.

 

Maybe it is time we remember that every day.

 

George Floyd

 

The Coronavirus Post Script:

 

And remember to keep in your prayers:

Healthcare workers and their families. Remember “Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy” (Matthew 5:8);

All those sick or compromised from the virus and all other health issues;

Those non healthcare caregivers working to take care of a loved one while isolated at home;

Families who have lost loved ones;

Those who have lost jobs and businesses.

And keep reaching out to those who may need some attention.

 

 

Week Twelve