The prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday (#SoCS) is: “sky’s the limit.” Write about something that has or seems to have no end.
I was hoping to have a prompt that would send my consciousness someplace other than where it’s been for the last 4 days (four years?), but even “sky’s the limit” isn’t sending me in a hopeful direction.
Things that seem to have no end? Yeah. You’re with me.
Eleven more days isn’t soon enough. And it will be more than eleven days, anyway. He’s not going away, really. “They’re” not going away. The problems facing this country are not going away. Will four or eight years of a morally and ethically grounded administration be enough? Nope. (yeah, I know some of you will fight me on “morally and ethically” when it comes to anything “liberal” or “progressive”. Don’t care. Fight me…)
Know why a new administration won’t turn things around?
Because the problem is more than four years old. Hell, it’s more than 400 years old. From the moment a white, European, male stepped onto this continent, we have ALL been victimized by white, European, males.
Let me add some descriptors to make that more accurate:
White. European. Straight. Cisgendered. Wealthy. Males.
For them – the sky’s the limit.
Sure, some of the rest of us can see the sky and think we are boundless, but there’s glass there that you can’t see. Try to fly, and you’ll bash your head.
Are there exceptions? Sure. They made sure to teach us about George Washington Carver and Frederick Douglass in high school. They made sure to tell us how well the Pilgrims got along with North America’s indigenous people (I refuse to call them Indians or even Native Americans – ask me why). Oh, yeah, they DIDN’T tell us that we later moved and/or exterminated those same people with whom we model “THANKSGIVING” on… Huh.
When we elected a Black man as president, I thought maybe, finally, we would all start to really have the ability to fly as high as we could dream. Turns out, all it did was turn up the hate and wake the bigots who had been at least somewhat shamed into semi-silence for a while.
Sigh.
When the President of the United States can send a TAPED message to TWITTER in the middle of violent insurrection in one of the most sacred edifices of our nation and say “We love you. You’re very special … I know how you feel”, WE HAVE A SYSTEMIC PROBLEM.
How to fix the system?
I honestly don’t know.
I have some suggestions, but that would go on for pages, and I’m choosing to stop here lest you stop reading.
Here’s my teaser: if we REALLY want the sky to be the limit, we ALL need to be astronauts, and that DOESN’T mean everyone joins the Air Force.
#SoCS comes from the website of Linda G. Hill.
Here are the rules:
1. Your post must be stream of consciousness writing, meaning no editing (typos can be fixed), and minimal planning on what you’re going to write.
2. Your post can be as long or as short as you want it to be. One sentence – one thousand words. Fact, fiction, poetry – it doesn’t matter. Just let the words carry you along until you’re ready to stop.
defying atrophy 