Sadly, I have not posted since April. I can adamantly say that I am going to stop this series. The primary reason is that I would not want the job of such a dysfunctional country. Hopefully, I can pivot back to posting about fun things like poker, golf, puppies, or music. Politics make me angry and I do not need anger in my life.
During this Covid-19 stay at home situation, it has become glaringly obvious to me that our two-party system is extremely flawed and enables polarization. We will always be in the situation of having to choose the lesser of two evils. We need to shift to a Preferential Voting strategy. Do your homework if you want to know more. Several states have shifted to this strategy.
I was playing golf last weekend. Two strangers, I played golf with brought up elections. Their answer was to vote republican then we will figure things out. To me, that is a clear signal of how divided we are.
I will restate that I have not voted for either of the two primary parties in the past 20 years. Since I turned 18 years old and could vote I have voted in every election. Bullwinkle the Moose will likely be my write-in candidate. The sad news is that if I throw away my vote we will still have an incompetent leader elected as the POTUS. Honestly, I am not sure what I am going to do, but I will vote.
The other thing that has me so disillusioned is declaring essentially declaring Marshall Law on cities that are lead by the opposite party. Insanely poor leadership!
I am attempting to become more aware of Inclusion and Diversity. I am reading some really thought-provoking books, White Fragility by Robin Deangelo and How to Be An Antiracist by Dr. Kendi. I am almost done with White Fragility. I think the biggest take away for me is that the game is rigged. I used to equate the term White supremacy to organizations like KKK. The book has made me realize it is much broader than that.
I had the opportunity to listen to Dr. Kendi speak and I was inspired to read his book based on the dialog.
I committed to listening to some podcasts delivered by "people of color". Unfortunately, my first podcast has me asking more questions. I was listening to Friends Like Us podcast specifically episode called
All that Disparity and Inequality. I enjoyed the energy and the conversation, but Marina the host made a comment that the "White man is the Devil". I can only hope that this generalization has more context related to one of the comedians' stand-ups. I sent Marina an email, but sadly no reply. Based on my reading this is probably a legit sentiment, but I personally do not find statements like that to add value to the conversation. It is a polarizing statement. I hope Marina responds to my email. I could learn so much from her and her humorous friends. I will continue to listen to the podcast because as the books above the conversation makes me think.
Update: Since I posted this I watched some of Marina's comedy on YouTube. She is hilarious!
Then once again I was following some current events. Once again the media does us a huge disservice when they reported the Memphis story where parents dropped off 300 children at a miniature golf course. The photos I observed seem to imply that is was a racial issue. This could be my bias showing through. I am trying to work on my biases, but my trust in the media is so low that I wanted to know more.
Regardless, I will continue my learning journey. I will do my best to assume positive intent on everything I watch, read, or listen to.