I don’t want to get too far away from Rewind. There is a part 4 coming, and I know that if I let it sit for too long, I will move on. There is a balance to be struck there: It is fine to step away from a story to let it cool on the back burner, but if you let it sit too long it is forgotten or the energy driving the writing is utterly lost. Yesterday I needed to step back and decide how to continue (day 2 was initially deep in my mind for final act and I was supposed to write a different scene idea for day 2, but yeah. 10 minutes later…) Today I need to step back for another reason entirely. I am seeing violence in the streets. I am nervous, and I need to speak to this feeling.
A long time ago I was at Iowa State University. I was participating in the VEISHEA festival. That simple week of partying turned into senseless rioting. I mean senseless. There was nothing to riot about. I learned later that it had happened ten years prior and then it happened again in ’14. All were triggered by small groups of people angry about something or other and everyone else piled in because they had some anger on their mind and a need to express it. This is precisely how riots work. This is also how they spread. In the time of rampant social media, they spread faster and farther. In the time of Covid-19 just about everyone has something to be pissed off about. As a result, we are seeing a swell of anger and violence that started off being about the death of black people at the hands of cops or vigilantes and the clear cut difference in how black people like myself are perceived and approached vs the lack of fear surrounding white people (See Michigan armed protests and more). The NYT argues that America is a Tinderbox, and they are correct.
Now that the economy has slowed to the point where we are without distractions we are facing the reality of the polarization of this clearly crumbling nation and we are flailing. This is not the end but the beginning of a long and dangerous period in America and I am truly worried about where we go from here. It doesn’t take much for people to decide to take matters into their own hands. What happens when we decide to choose sides and that open polarization erupts into violence against each other along more than just party lines? In Ames, IA there was not much to be mad about save for clear cut boredom. In today’s America we have a great deal more to be pissed about. I don’t see it ending well.