Two days before a sudden and extreme snowstorm, on a 98-degree day, ash is falling from the sky like snow. I can catch it in my hands as it falls outside my house in Capitol Hill. We are living in a climate emergency.
My friend's Facebook post distracts me from the sadness I feel after reading a New York Times article about racism in one of my former hometowns, Omaha. This is against a backdrop of my constant anxiety about the coming presidential and legislative elections. To take my mind off these dispiriting events, I try to focus on something else.
Oh yes, Covid-19 continues unabated.
This pandemic, which was unimaginable a year ago, has raged around the world for six months. It is unchecked in the United States, killing more Americans in one week than died in the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Unlike 9/11, however, there is no united effort to respond to Covid-19, or even to acknowledge its seriousness. Instead of focusing on sound public health policies and procedures, we are treated to a daily barrage of conflicting information, much of it propaganda calibrated to affect the outcome of the election.
The truth doesn't seem to matter to Americans. The White House certainly has no interest in actual facts. The powers behind the politicians (you don't think Donald Trump is smart enough to pull this off by himself, do you?) would rather exploit the ignorance and stupidity of half the population and stoke fear and paranoia in the other half. This creates an atmosphere of confusion and crisis which distracts us from their dastardly agendas to consolidate wealth among the richest.
Trying to make a positive contribution, I spent the summer co-facilitating a course designed largely for white people to educate other white people about racism. One presumption is that people of color are tired of trying to alert us to the consequences of centuries of slavery and ethnic cleansing which are the basis of our American way of life. Another presumption is that white people are more likely to listen to other white people when challenged to examine their complicity in racism and their resulting privilege. One goal of the course is to replace white fragility (our automatic tendency to avoid the topic of race and to get defensive by saying things like, "I'm not racist - I have black friends," which only serves to shut the conversation down) with the ability to actively participate in anti-racism as valuable allies.
As I studied the curriculum by reading countless books and articles, and watching many videos, my eyes popped open to the continuing reinforcement of ideas and institutions designed to keep oppressed people (especially blacks) poor and disenfranchised.
I always knew that many Americans are racist and that there was such a thing as institutional racism. But I never understood the insidiousness of racism or the ways I and other white people (even we good, liberal ones) personally benefit from it. I also learned how there is a direct line from slavery to our current judicial system which intentionally, legally, and systematically oppresses people of African descent. The most visible, but far from only, example of this is the way we police, which is basically designed to to keep order so that the status quo can be maintained. I could go on and on, but there is plenty of material about this already. I recommend starting with the book, Waking Up White by Debby Irving, and the movie, 13th, which is available on Netflix.
As if worrying about the election and systemic racism while mostly unable to leave home because of pandemic lock-down aren't enough, there has been smoke in the air for several weeks. It smells like a campfire when we open the windows.
While California garners most of the national attention, many other western states also suffer the effects of devastating wildfire. This year's Pine Gulch fire near Grand Junction, one of many in Colorado, is the biggest in state history, incinerating more than 139,000 acres. Erosion and flash flooding always follow these fires which also threaten human homes, drive wildlife into less friendly habitats such as suburbs and freeways, and generally scar the beautiful mountains for which we are known.
These enormous fires are not the natural, cleansing fires that have occurred since prehistoric times. They are instead a result of misguided land management which for at least a century, suppressed all fires, resulting in a buildup of ground vegetation and debris which ignite into today's hellscapes. These fires pollute the air we breathe from the Pacific to the Mississippi. And this doesn't include other fires burning around the world from the Siberia to Brazil, contributing as much as 10 percent of annual carbon emissions worldwide. My friend is not exaggerating when she says that ash is falling from the sky in the middle of Denver.
The fires, of course, are only one manifestation of the greatest and most ignored problem our world has ever faced: climate change. No matter how the 2020 election comes out, global warming is happening right in front of us. You can see it not only in the size and intensity of fires, but the increasing frequency and strength of storms, floods, drought, and other record breaking weather phenomenon. While Colorado has always had erratic weather, this week's sudden slide from record heat (101 degrees F a couple of days ago) to winter storm is not normal, especially in early September.
Which brings me back to our national government which is completely indifferent to the climate crisis, preferring instead to, well, just go back to earlier paragraphs.
I've spent every day since 2016 thinking that things couldn't possibly get worse. But every day, I am proven wrong. Is there anything left to think about? Something that might sooth and rest my weary soul? Probably, but that's another subject for another post.
