This week, I learned something about myself that I didn’t know. When I hear something on television or read something on the internet that strains my comprehension, my head tilts right and down in a Scooby-Doo kind of way. It never tilts left, which may be a disappointment to some of my friends. There’s probably a left brain/right brain reason for the tilt direction…it may even indicate whether I am very creative (probably not) or perhaps that I have a propensity for something darker (probably, particularly these days).
It’s just as well that it only tilts one way, otherwise I would be sitting around looking like a bobble head with some of the things that have come across in the last week. Granted, with all that has happened, there was bound to be a good deal of incoming. And, since I only unfriend on Facebook if you post something that might get us all on a list at Homeland Security, there’s been a remarkable number of…shall we say…interesting things coming down the pike.
So I’m just going to step into it. Black lives matter. This is a declarative sentence. Perhaps in its current usage, it should be followed by an exclamation point and become an exclamatory sentence. Black lives matter! How is that statement racist? There isn’t a silent “only” at the beginning of the statement. And there doesn’t have to be a silent “also” at the end. The sentence with the opposite meaning…that is, black lives don’t matter…is obviously and inherently racist. My point in touching this touchy subject is to encourage everyone to discuss the validity of the BLM movement and its supporters based on its issues, not its name. Because if you don’t, I’m going to get a crick in my neck from tilting right and down.
I also need some help avoiding that crick because of the frequent use of the term “senseless violence.” I suppose the obvious counterpoint to that term would be “purposeful violence,” such as murdering one’s husband who is both unfaithful and heavily insured. What happened in Dallas last week was nothing as passive as senseless violence, it was a “murderous rampage.” Now that gets the point across, and the “senseless” is silent.
But, even if you avoid “senseless violence” while talking to your friends about the BLM movement…and I encourage you do that with friends who don’t look like you, I know I’m doomed to that crick in the neck. Because as long as Donald Trump is out and about saying that anyone’s mind is shot—I’m not even going to get into that here—you know that my head is going to be leaning right and down.
Now, where did I hide those muscle relaxers?
