CS 1112: Spring 2020

Postscript

Racial injustice — Economic injustice — Corona virus

Remember our past — Transcend its injustices — Fight for the future

The mismanagement of COVID-19 in our country is disgusting. How has mask wearing become a political choice? Facts are not opinions, they are truths. And the fact is, masking helps. Even if you are unsure of its validity, why not do it just in case to help protect loved ones, friends, neighbors, and even strangers?

The current wave of racial insanity started for me when I heard of a dog walker threatening a bird watcher that she would sic the police on him and thus added a new phrase to public discourse — “bird watching while Black”.

The taking of George Floyd’s life struck an unbelievably horrific chord with me on multiple levels. The ugly insensitivity for human life that those officers demonstrated made me sick. They murdered him, plain and simple. And how could it have occured in Minneapolis? I lived there in my mid-twenties. I was in culture shock when I moved there. The people I encountered were uniformly nice and friendly. I am guessing now it was just white privilege.

There is now a focus on the statuary of the generals who fought for slavery and the dissolution of our Union. They are all traitors who actively participated in a brutal system of enslaving men, women, and children for the privileges of wealth and comfort it brought them. Acceptance of slavery was not a social custom of a different era. It was just willful and sinful greed. There are things that are just plain evil — things that always have been and always will be morally wrong. Slavery and racism are two of those things. Furthermore, the flag of the Confederacy is not a loving reminder of a bucolic past. It is a totem of racial bigotry used to assault its viewers.

Our founders cannot be simply kept on pedestals honoring great deeds in isolation. We must recognize the entirety of their actions. The statues are reminders to many of the horrors inflicted on their ancestors. Those ancestors are our country folk. They deserved infinitely better back then and their lives need to be respected now.

We are not here for destruction or maintaining the status quo. We need to build a better community, a better world that actively fights racial and economic injustice.

I know the current spotlight is not focusing on something new. These injustices have been here for centuries. I do believe we are at an inflection point. And I will fight from now on to make it so.

Resources from previous semesters are available.