Woke up today really angry and I have some things I'm going to get off my chest. I've been withdrawing from Twitter lately because the toxicity of this place is not good for me or probably the country but it's time to say some things regardless of how people react. 1/
At the start, let me note that I've been writing online about police brutality, lack of police accountability, and racial injustice for over 15 years to a mostly unreceptive and sometimes hostile audience. So I didn't wake up last week and discover that these things existed. 2/
So while I condemn the looting, violence, and arson happening right now, I am fully on board with the message of the people who are peacefully protesting, and have been for a long time. Just so we're on the same page. 3/
That having been said, I am really fucking pissed off that apparently the life-and-death need to destroy this country was apparently not so life and death. The people who told us and scolded us (including public health experts), who told us there was literally no reason... 4/
that would justify ignoring them or violating social distancing rules suddenly find that literally no reason means "unless it's a reason that's societally important." They are saying this not figuratively but literally. 5/
So, having established that I think the fight for police reform is really important, I have to ask: was it not important to prevent tens of thousands of predicted deaths from suicide due to the psychological effects of the lockdown and ensuing depression? 6/
Is it not important that people, especially small business owners and employees, are able to feed there families? Is it not important that, you know, black people have jobs? Black employment was at historical highs in March, now LESS THAN HALF of black people are employed. 7/
I'll tell you one reason I'm especially raw today. One of my closest and dearest friends died last week. I am going to his funeral today. Thank God it's being held in Arkansas or else it probably couldn't even exist. 8/
He'll be listed on the statistics as a COVID death because he caught COVID LITERALLY WHILE LOCKED DOWN IN THE HIGH RISK AREA OF A HOSPITAL, but what killed him were complications for underlying health conditions that had him hospitalized since late March. 9/
For the last 8 weeks of his life, he lived totally alone. Even after he had already caught COVID, he was not allowed in person human contact from his friends and family, even if we signed a waiver and promised to not leave the hospital until we ourselves cleared quarantine. 10/
I'm really mad that my friend had to die feeling not only his body give up on him, but probably also the worst loneliness and isolation he'd ever known in his life. And I'm really mad for all the families of people who were not allowed to say goodbye to loved ones... 11/
Or even mourn them or say goodbye at burials. Because it seems to me that that shit is also pretty damn important to maintaining who we are as human beings. How many people sat there and suffered this same indignity silently because they were told there was no choice? 12/
I'll tell you what conclusion I draw from the lack of tsk-tsking and condemnation of these current protesters (yes, even the peaceful ones), that they are going to kill grandma with their activities. It's the only conclusion that can be drawn. 13/
That conclusion is that they didn't really believe what they were saying all along. Because an infectious disease does not care about the reason you are gathering or how important it is. It has no social conscience, or conscience of any kind. 14/
Which leads me to believe they were doing it because of politics, or desire to control, or whatever (I don't really know), but most definitely not because they actually believed we would all die. 15/
So much loss. So much damage. So much grief. For apparently fucking nothing. God, I hope people are held accountable for this somehow. The end. 16/
FYI I cannot handle Twitter today so I will not be reading replies to this thread, but feel free to achieve your catharsis by yelling at me if you wish. 17/
