Hop's Thoughts

Heat, humidity, thunderstorms.  Rinse and repeat. Things are not back to normal, although I do have some "work," coming my way. Pride Month overshadowed by Black Lives Matter. Black Lives Matter must incorporate Pride Month more. Golf and Nascar are all that exist in sports.  Oh yeah, and cornhole. Corona has taken a back seat to social justice.  Timing is everything. Fear has subsided.  We're fools not to see the writing on the wall. Tiny houses no longer interest me the way they did. Land interests me.  Cats, dogs, turtles, birds, groundhogs, foxes, and chipmunks interest me. People haven't changed. Sigh. Trump 2020 is becoming a reality.  The blue wave has turned into a ripple.  I see it on social media and hear it within sincere conversations. "What happened to us?" Nothing happened. This is who we are and who we are destined to be, without change. Not change in leadership, but in philosophy. Good parents praising their graduates.  Remember wh...

We all know those people who live in Home Goods or Marshall's, buying every gadget one could possibly imagine to clean. Most of us find many of them superfluous, knowing a little elbow grease works a lot better than the As-Seen-On-TV Swiffer or vacuum. I always find great irony when one goes to use one of these items and needs to wipe the dust off first. I realize, we're a lazy society and being that we never need to fear a malaria outbreak or some other insect involved disease, but how do people reach adulthood without the common knowledge of how things work. How does someone not know that mosquito netting only works if it's closed? How does someone not know the garbage and recycling doesn't magically disappear every few days? How does someone not know that welcome mats actually serve the purpose of wiping dirt off, so you can then take your shoes off before  entering the house? Drains: They aren't self-cleaning! Washing dirty hands often requires cleaning a dirty ...

During the 2016 election cycle, I was often called intolerant for not agreeing with my friends' xenophobic outbursts. The irony, of course, is it was the angered party's sincere feeling that White America had suddenly become oppressed. I lost friends, received death threats, and had many people convinced I could not see their views, simply because I defended a woman and the rights of people who looked and lived in a manner that was different from myself. The crazy part of being intolerant was that the people screaming it lived the exact same lives I did, yet I felt no burden at all. The Intolerance Paradox was a common theme four years ago. Today, we may need something new. The same privilege that creates racism, defines entire areas of the country, and is ignored and misunderstood by nearly two-thirds of this country, is also creating an odd paradox. At what point, do our freedom of speech without repercussions, our freedom of not having a fear of police retribution, and our c...

Rayshard Brooks died on video. Three white guys discussing it.  One said, "Why'd he run?" Another said, "He stole a weapon and fired it at the officer." The third said, "How'd it get to that point?" "Did you see the video?" said one. I said that I had. "Did you see the entire video?" said the other I said that I had. "From the moment they pulled up and he was asleep in the drive-thru?" said the second. I admitted I had not, then found myself questioning my own judgment and assumptions. "Watch FOX News. It's on there." Immediately, I knew. Four hours later, I checked FOX News. I checked every news outlet. I still haven't found it. Then I watched and listened.  The narrative. The commentary. The blame. The excuse. I watched nearly two hours of videos. Three men. Two viewpoints. One video. All because of the news outlet they chose to watch.  THIS IS AMERICA!  When did we allow ourselves to stop believing...

Racism is ignorance. Individual racism is willful ignorance, plus fear. Black people have been oppressed since the very day the slave ships brought them here. Systemic racism is a set of laws and standards put in to protect those who enslaved them. Slavery, at one time, was a form of currency, which depicted wealth.  Policing, in its earliest form, was a job given to poor White people to watch slaves/ Oppression was the system of policing that kept Black people from organizing. With organization comes power. The Second Amendment had more to do slave control than anything else. The Emancipation Proclamation freed slaves and created fear of retribution. Jim Crow Laws were enacted to create a society of "free" slaves. Without money, freedom actually weakened Black people's ability to organize. For nearly 100 years, Black people simply attempted to be viewed as human.  The Civil Rights Movement and the following Acts were simply appeasement and a voice. This right to vote and...

Unlike most, I've pretty much enjoyed this reprieve from real life. While I hate that I've lost people to the virus and others have taken ill, I can't complain about my personal existence through this time. I have not been as fortunate as others when it comes to the financial bailout, but I have had enough money to get by. Much like before the virus, that's how I live my life. There is, however, frustration mounting. It is not coming out of boredom or an inability to live normally, but one borne out of personal failure. Self-reflection, mostly positive, has taken place daily during this hiatus from normalcy, but then George Floyd was murdered, spawning emotions I've felt often, but not like this. How many times have I said, "Enough is enough?" How often, weeks later, was I saying it again? Last night, I watched Ava DuVernay's 13th, a documentary on the 13th Amendment and its failure, due to a single loophole, which allowed slavery to continue, through ...

I was about six or seven lines in and the area had a brown-out. A transformer popped, as is the case a lot around here during the summer. I switched gears on what I was going to write about. Going to be hot today. Reminds me of Do The Right Thing. Timely. I was thinking about the protests last night. Metaphors and analogies. A sip of strong, black, iced coffee triggered these thoughts. I used to drink it with milk. I'd watch as the milked spread out in thin strands, expanding, eventually changing the main ingredient into something very different. Softer, less bitter, but, not coffee anymore. I view our opinions as to the milk, different varieties of creamer. A dilution of the product. I often wonder if people like coffee or the idea of coffee. Sweetened, almost pale, tasting nothing like the original product. The mass marketing of the two worst coffees you'll ever taste, praised by the same people who think they understand coffee. This is how I view our current climate. White p...