Derelict Sunday and Flag Day

Today is a two-for: Derelict Sunday and Flag Day. After the past two and a half months in America, our glorious flag is not blowing freely in the breeze. More like snagged on a cactus.

 First the pandemic hit and hospitals in New York City were overwhelmed. The national economy froze and unemployment soared;  Lines of cars stretched for miles at food banks. 116,000 people died of a disease almost no one had heard of last year. Then a Minneapolis police officer was filmed kneeling on the neck of a black man, George Floyd.

When people are broke, and there doesn’t appear to be any assistance, there’s no leadership, there’s no clarity about what is going to happen, this creates the conditions for anger, rage, desperation and hopelessness, which can be a very volatile combination.
 
No one knows how dark things could get, only that, in the Trump era, scenes that seem nightmarish one day come to look almost normal the next.  We will get through it. Let’s start by listening and being kind to each other.