What we find is this: Calgary is being smothered under a blanket of snow over a couple of dozen inches thick. Traffic is treacherous and everyone who thinks that running light rail transit above ground in a country that experiences five months of winter a year should be shot and left in a ditch to be repeatedly showered with defecation.
That being said, I'm actually going to lead off with my iPod playlist, because we can comfortably segue from there.
Shower Songlist
- Blue Light, by David Gilmour
- How, by Lisa Loeb
- Auf Achse, by Franz Ferdinand
- Flight of the Phoenix, by Grand Funk Railroad
- No Time, by The Guess Who
- Natty Dreadlock-Rastaman Vibration-War Live Medley, by Bob Marley
From here, let's look at the lyrics of the last track.
Until the philosophy which holds one race superior and another inferior
Is finally and permanently discredited and abandoned -
Everywhere is war - Me say war.
That until there are no longer first class and second class citizens of any nation
Until the colour of a man's skin is of no more significance than the colour of his eyes -
Me say war.
That until the basic human rights are equally guaranteed to all without regard to race -
Dis a war.
That until that day - the dream of lasting peace, world citizenship, rule of international morality
Will remain in but a fleeting illusion to be pursued, but never attained -
Now everywhere is war - war.
Placed in the context of the American political atmosphere of identity and division, Marley's words seem to echo strongly. The fact that race has been repeatedly displaced as a point of discussion means that the current political establishment has no intention of actually addressing, let alone resolving the issue of unequal treatment under the Constitution on the basis of skin colour.
To rephrase that, whenever the point of unfair, unjust, and unequal treatment is raised, it is recategorized as something else. NFL players began taking a knee during the national anthem to protest police brutality being disproportionately applied to people of colour. Instead of discussing police violence, escalation tactics, and the extension of stop-and-frisk-style profiling based on skin pigment, we are asked to discuss patriotism. Taking a knee is not seen as protest, but as disrespect for the national anthem. And disrespecting the anthem means disrespecting the flag. And disrespecting the flag is somehow disrespectful towards America's teeming and swelling ranks of veterans of their interminable foreign wars.
Cops shoot unarmed black men at an alarming rate around the country, but a protest of that state of affairs is translated into a conversation about anthems, flags, veterans, and patriotism. Somewhere in that translation, the question of race is buried, and the political establishment dodges another point of controversy.
Why does the establishment want to avoid discussing race? Because it it part of the mechanics of American governance. I'm reminded of President Lyndon Baines Johnson's famous quotation,
I’ll tell you what’s at the bottom of it. If you can convince the lowest white man he’s better than the best colored man, he won’t notice you’re picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he’ll empty his pockets for you.If you think that sounds a little cynical for the 36th President of the United States to say, you can check the veracity of the quotation HERE. To quickly summarize, if you want people to vote against their own best interests, let them vote in favour of their basest instincts.
To extend Johnson's thought about pockets, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. reached a similar conclusion: race is inextricably tied to economics. Both King and Johnson believed in a "War on Poverty" because scarcity and need breed desperation and degradation. When economic hardships are no longer a factor, discussions of a shared humanity can be more easily facilitated. Unfortunately, in order for the political status quo to maintain its structure, a disadvantaged underclass is required and thus racism is an institutional function.
More on this later, but for now I must needs bid adieu.
Until next time, goodnight England and the Colonies.
—mARKUS
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