A Public Diary During the Coronavirus/COVID-19 Pandemic ~ Day 97
Tonight Solstice is here
Tonight the Solar eclipse comes
Today Juneteenth celebrations continue
Today the sun shines on my face and I say thank you
June 20, 2020 gives us plenty to place hope upon
the path is still perilous yet there is reasons to stay positive
persist through the tyranny, the hate, the fear, the old stories
we come together to press on and bring forth a better tomorrow
It hasn’t all been burned to the ground though in many ways it has
and from the ashes new growth, power, and beauty can be seen
this movement moves showing no signs of slowing or stopping
our responsibility to rise and manifest a greater future is upon us
I bow deeply, humbly, to the Black and Brown communities everywhere
for they are shining and showing the way with incredible resiliency
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Above is a video I put together today. It is from footage of that first night I was out downtown when things got pretty wild and stores got smashed up (like the Apple Store and Louis Vuitton) and the second video and stills are from my visit out there the other day. After they were all boarded up the next day, like with Minneapolis and so many other places, incredible artists came out and did beautiful murals to pay homage to those who died from the police brutality and violence and you know, systemic racism and white supremacy. It’s a contribution to the Black Lives Matter movement and a reflection from how things can burn to the ground, or in this case brake down a bit, and then beauty and hope can rise out of the pain and suffering.
I have optimism in my heart for a future that we can all be proud to live in. At least all those who are not racist, hateful assholes. Because this change is coming and it is a sight to behold. Indeed, I have been bearing witness as the Juneteenth Celebrations take place as I write these words here in Portland, Oregon. The Jack London Review is hosting a livestream of what has been an annual Juneteenth celebration for over 50 years now. Janelle Jack, the granddaughter of Clara Peoples who brought the Juneteenth annual celebration here to Portland is carrying on this beautiful tradition and as we find ourselves in the midst of this incredible civil and human rights uprising, the celebration is being seen and heard farther and wider than ever before. Since 1972 there has been an organized event for Juneteenth here in Portland. Peoples had been celebrating and honoring the day with her fellow Black community in Vanport since 1945. Isn’t that amazing? Portland’s history with racism is impressive in how awful it has been, especially with the story of Vanport which, I will not go into depth about but will share a link to the story of how that Black community living in Vanport was literally wiped off the map in a matter of a day when a massive flood came through town.
Intense learning is happening by so many right now, me included. I by no means have learned all there is to know, heavens no, that is not the case or even close to. I’ve been working towards learning about these social justice issues in earnest for these past several years and I feel as though I’ve barely scratched the surface of it all. And I recognize I still fuck up plenty and am part of the problematic white storyline fairly regularly in spite of really trying not to be. This is going to be a great reckoning period my fellow white folks, bulk up. I thank you for your courage and willingness to unlearn a shit load of what you’ve been taught and also, a great deal of what was simply programmed into us through our television, movies, advertising, and capitalistic consumer culture that is the most prominent culture we white folks even have here in the good ol’ US of A. We had marketing agencies and Hollywood shape our culture. That just is what it is.
Well, I cannot stop stomping my foot as I write these words. The concert that is being streamed right now is fantastic. And hearing stories about Black resilience and what Juneteenth means to many of the people being interviewed is incredible. I’m grateful for technology at the moment because I’m writing my words here on the computer, my phone is streaming a live feed from Facebook of the Juneteenth celebration here in town and I’m playing the audio via bluetooth through a decent speaker. The picture quality of the video is top notch and the sound is fabulous.
This past week has had some great things coming out of the Supreme Court and I for some reason just had this flash of one thing that wasn’t so great. And it was a case that had a 7–2 ruling in favor of a pipeline going the Appalachian Trail and through some sacred grounds out there on the East Coast and pipelines in general, those dirty fucking black snakes, are something I’m never a fan of but that this case somehow snuck through most of the news this week because of the great other rulings is pretty shitty. RGB, Ruth Bader Ginsburg was one of those 7 Supreme Court Justices who voted in favor of that pipeline. Ain’t that some shit. I do not know what compelled her to do that but that just sucks.
What does not suck is this music. Oh my, I hope this is being recorded and others can tune into this later on. So good.
Today is the 97th day of this daily public pandemic diary. Which means I have just a few more days before I reach 100. That’s a fucking trip. Speaking of trips, on Wednesday the missus and our son and I are going to take a little road trip to go camping for two nights. We’ll be heading to Paulina Lake which is in a flippin’ cauldron and has hot springs right on the shoreline. I’m super stoked for this. A good healthy dose of a couple days of nature and unplugging from technology more or less for the duration is going to be so nourishing. And soaking my bones in those hot springs, don’t even get me started…
That trip comes just after the 100th day of this daily writing I’ve been doing and I suppose is as good as any for me to take a day or two off from it all. I could potentially still bust out a writing and drive into town and find some wifi and publish them but I don’t even know if that will be a possibility and to be quite honest, I’m good with taking a pause at that time. Whether or not I pick it back up afterwards is to be seen, I don’t know if I’ve ever actually written consecutively for a 100 days before. Pretty sure this will be a first. 100 days with an average of over a thousand words a day means that put all together, this little writing adventure is easily yielding over 100,000 words all connected to the first three months or thereabouts of this global pandemic. A lot has happened over the course of this time and it will be something to look back over this on occasion to see where I was at, too.
