Happy Mother’s Day

5/7/20
Every Friday, I make art representing the weekly death toll. It’s become a sad, yet cathartic night.
4/23/20
I am not an epidemiologist. I only have a lowly bachelor’s in science degree. Even though, I know how viruses spread. I am well versed in public health, thanks to my stint in fighting the Opioid Epidemic.
Some of the lawmakers in my state of Ohio are trying to limit the powers of the director of the health department. They are calling her a dictator and freely liking her to Nazis. In any context this would be offensive. However, it’s even more offensive because our Director of Public Health in the State of Ohio is Jewish.
Perhaps white people have become confused about what exactly oppression means because they haven’t actually ever been victims of oppression. White people (and god forbid you mention white privilege on social media as white person because you’ll be crucified…I know, I’ve done it) think that the government is taking away their rights because they can’t get a haircut or go the to gym.
Meanwhile, a young man may have waylaid a jogging trip to check out a home that was under construction. As a white person, I can tell you I’ve done this on many occasions. I’ve stopped by a house under construction in my neighborhood to take a peek. And when I was in the market, I freely entered properties that were up for sale with unsecured doors and looked around at the property.
Nobody shot me for it. Nobody decided I was a threat and hunted me down to shoot me without due process of the law in the middle of a street. Not one citizen decided that they were law enforcement, judge, and jury for committing the crime of trespass. Also, none of those people decided that even though I trespassed, the punishment for my crime was death.
When you were mother fucking Colin Kaepernick for taking a knee for silently protesting the culture that supports a draft dodging, self-proclaimed pussy grabbing reality star, perhaps you effectively gave up your rights given to you by the US Constitution.
There are not fine people on both sides. It is perfectly fine to call out white supremacists. It’s perfectly fine to call out antisemitism. These are not fine people. And if we don’t call them out, we become them. We do not want to become them.
History tells us what becomes of people who normalize this reprehensible behavior. Will we listen?