EffieBlack
EffieBlack's JournalThe Sun, the Scientist, and the Skeptical Villagers: A Fable
It was 9:00 at night in the Village, the Sun had gone down and everything was dark. The darkness frightened the villagers, so they left their houses and gathered on the Village square.
“It’s DARK!!!” the villagers cried. “The Sun is gone and it’s never coming back. It will be dark forever!!!”
Hearing the commotion in the square and having been through this before, the Village Scientist climbed out of bed, put on his clothes, and went out into the night to talk to the angry, frightened villagers.
“it's ok,” he told the angry crowd. “The Sun isn’t gone. The Earth is spinning slowly on its axis as it moves slowly around the Sun. Our part of the Earth is turned away right now, so we can’t see the Sun. But it’s still there. It’s still working. And in the morning, when we turn all the way back around, we’ll see it.”
Most of the villagers then remembered that this is exactly what happened this morning and yesterday morning and the day before and the day before that for as many days as they could recall and they immediately felt better.
“Of course!” they said. "The Scientist is right. Just because we can’t see the Sun doesn’t mean it’s not there and that it’s not working.”
And they went back to their homes and went to bed, sleeping peacefully because they were confident the Sun would come up in the morning.
But some villagers were not so sanguine. They remained in the square and got angrier and more frustrated.
“We can’t see the Sun. If we can’t see it, it’s not there,” they cried. “It’s gone and it’s gone forever. And without the sun, we’ll freeze and die! “
“But that’s just not TRUE,” said the Scientist. “The Sun is NOT gone. Just because we can’t see the Sun doesn’t mean it’s not there. It’s still there warming other parts of the earth. And when we finish our rotation, it will shine on us again. So, please, everybody, please, just calm down. Why don't you go home and get some rest.”
“Get some REST?!” the skeptical villagers cried. “How DARE you tell us to go to sleep when the Sun has vanished and won’t come back and we’re all going to die!”
“But you’re wrong,” said the Scientist.
“STOP TELLING US WE’RE WRONG! And stop telling us to shut up! We have a right to our opinion!”
“I’m not telling you to shut up. I’m just trying to reassure you that the Sun hasn’t gone anywhere."
“Oh, YEAH?! How do you KNOW the Sun will come back tomorrow?"
"Because that's how it works."
"Do you know for 100 percent certain the sun will come back tomorrow?" they queried.
"No, I'm not 100 percent certain. I guess there's always a remote chance that it won't. But that is so unlikely to happen that it's not even worth talking about."
"Who are you to say what is and isn't worth talking about? What makes YOU think you know better than we do?”
“Because I’m a scientist who studies the Sun and you aren’t?”
“So what?” screamed the angry skeptical villagers. "You don’t know everything. And you don’t know for sure that the Sun is still there because you can’t see it either. You’re just guessing.”
“OK,” The Scientist said, shrugging. “Suit yourself.” And then the Scientist went home and back to bed.
But the skeptical villagers stayed up all night crying and yelling and shaking their fists at the dark sky.
“Sun, you get back here!” they hollered. “You get back here RIGHT NOW!!!”
Then suddenly, the morning dawned and the Sun rose over the village.
And as the Sun rose, people came out of their houses from all over the village, well-rested from a good night’s sleep. As they went on their way, they passed the Village square and saw the skeptical villagers, exhausted from lack of sleep, but feeling triumphant. “It's a good thing we stayed up all night yelling at the sky. We forced the Sun to come back today.”
Whereupon the other villagers looked at each other, rolled their eyes, shook their heads and then went on their way.
"The Caucasians' Guide to Celebrating Juneteenth"
This is tongue in cheek
Now that you have officially discovered Juneteenth,* you need to become familiar with the traditions, customs and history ... Before hopping on the Juneteenth bandwagon, you first need to realize that you have no say in driving the narrative about this special day.
Left to your devices, Juneteenth might become a day when you parade around in African headwraps drinking Hennessy just like y’all celebrate Mexican Independence Day on May 5 by donning sombreros and taking shots of American tequila.** So, to protect the legacy of this special day, The Root created this handy-dandy guide to help you become familiar with existing in spaces you don’t own.
Welcome to the Juneteenth Project...
1. Thou shalt not have any holidays before Juneteenth. Juneteenth is the most American holiday. The only reason anyone would be against it is if they were still lamenting over the loss of slavery (so everyone with a Confederate flag). Plus, when those slaveowners sent the Declaration of Independence to King George, most of America (Black people, women, Native Americans, white people who didn’t own land) were not included in the “all men are created equal part.”
2. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor: No calling the police. Just for this one day, don’t be afraid when a Black person is cooking out in the park or walking around existing. This day is about freedom, remember?
3. Thou shalt not whitesplain: Telling us how you already knew about Juneteenth doesn’t mean anything. You’re supposed to know. Black people know about Columbus Day, St. Patrick’s Day and President’s Day but we don’t brag about it.
https://www.theroot.com/make-juneteenth-great-again-the-caucasians-guide-to-ce-1847124121
Our Republic Has Held
And ... SCENE!
The Judiciary has held.
We’ll have many more fights, frustrations, and disappointments. But in this very important instance, our Judiciary has been strong and held.
But it was a joint effort. Dedicated activists, skilled lawyers and, most important, undaunted, unafraid, and unbowed VOTERS pulled together and forced democracy to work. Yes, there were many problems, suppression, intimidation, but in the end, the Judiciary came through and we prevailed.
The Judiciary HAS held
The Judiciary is STILL holding!
Note who appointed this judge ...
https://twitter.com/KristenClarkeJD/status/1329563481599840260
Trump is now 1 for 32 in post-election court challenges. Praying the courts can continue to hold for another 9 weeks!
The Judiciary branch IS holding!
We're almost there.
May 2019
A few weeks ago, a dear old friend, a Republican-appointed federal judge, trying to console me during a moment of despair about the future of our country, said to me “The Judiciary branch is strong and will hold.” When I expressed skepticism, he leaned toward me, looked me dead in the eye, and said as firmly as he could without shouting: “We are strong and WE. WILL. HOLD.”
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100212113242
The Judiciary is holding
A few weeks ago, a dear old friend, a Republican-appointed federal judge, trying to console me during a moment of despair about the future of our country, said to me “The Judiciary branch is strong and will hold.” When I expressed skepticism, he leaned toward me, looked me dead in the eye, and said as firmly as he could without shouting: “We are strong and WE. WILL. HOLD.”
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100212113242
"You Want a Confederate Monument? My Body Is a Confederate Monument"
Most Black Americans could have written this essay.
Almost all of us who descend from slavery are the products of rape.
By Caroline Randall Williams
I have rape-colored skin. My light-brown-blackness is a living testament to the rules, the practices, the causes of the Old South. If there are those who want to remember the legacy of the Confederacy, if they want monuments, well, then, my body is a monument. My skin is a monument. ...
Dead Confederates are honored all over this country — with cartoonish private statues, solemn public monuments and even in the names of United States Army bases. It fortifies and heartens me to witness the protests against this practice and the growing clamor from serious, nonpartisan public servants to redress it. But there are still those — like President Trump and the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell — who cannot understand the difference between rewriting and reframing the past. I say it is not a matter of “airbrushing” history, but of adding a new perspective. ...
But here’s the thing: Our ancestors don’t deserve your unconditional pride. Yes, I am proud of every one of my black ancestors who survived slavery. They earned that pride, by any decent person’s reckoning. But I am not proud of the white ancestors whom I know, by virtue of my very existence, to be bad actors.
Among the apologists for the Southern cause and for its monuments, there are those who dismiss the hardships of the past. They imagine a world of benevolent masters, and speak with misty eyes of gentility and honor and the land. They deny plantation rape, or explain it away, or question the degree of frequency with which it occurred.
To those people it is my privilege to say, I am proof. I am proof that whatever else the South might have been, or might believe itself to be, it was and is a space whose prosperity and sense of romance and nostalgia were built upon the grievous exploitation of black life.
The dream version of the Old South never existed. Any manufactured monument to that time in that place tells half a truth at best. The ideas and ideals it purports to honor are not real. To those who have embraced these delusions: Now is the time to re-examine your position. ...
Either way, I say the monuments of stone and metal, the monuments of cloth and wood, all the man-made monuments, must come down. I defy any sentimental Southerner to defend our ancestors to me. I am quite literally made of the reasons to strip them of their laurels.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/26/opinion/confederate-monuments-racism.html
The Black delegation apparently met yesterday and is offering a sweet deal
https://twitter.com/sashabeauloux/status/1277239068204716032Sasha
@SashaBeauloux
The Black delegation respectfully submits:
We surrender Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina
And would happily accept Gregg Popovich.
If Mr. Popovich is not available, we request to surrender Mr. Scott nonetheless.
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