Guns and Racism

 That's what it's all about today in America.

Dr. Fauci (most people's favorite doctor) agonized today how gun violence is our second 'pandemic'.

And that's true.

Guns are killing more people than anytime outside a war. The mass shootings are one thing, the killing of people of color is another, the killings in domestic violence against spouses and children is yet another.

I am a white man. We own our house and cars outright. We have a bundle of savings, SS and a generous pension from the Episcopal Church. We're better off than we've ever been. We are 'privileged'  in many ways.

We are not pulled over by cops for little reason.

We aren't living paycheck to paycheck.

We aren't on welfare.

(An aside here: Bern and I were on food stamps when we were living in a trailer in Morgantown when I was a cameraman at a public TV station and she was finishing college. I went to get our food stamps on my lunch break and found myself in a room with people of color while three white people, who should have been handing out food stamps, were eating their lunch. I lost it. I went behind the counter and started opening drawers, looking for food stamps. The workers called the police and their boss. Both arrived at the same time. The boss fired the three workers on the spot and offered me a job, after we talked, as a Social Service Worker--which got us off food stamps and into a great apartment.

Imagine what would have happened if I had been black or Hispanic! And this was 40 years ago.

That's what white 'privilege' is all about.)

Much must be done right now.

Wear a mask, even if you're fully vaccinated.

Work for racial justice.

Work to severely limit guns.

A strange time we live in and there is much to be done....