This is one of those weeks where I don’t know what I’m supposed to be writing. I’m The Big Gay Architect. I should be talking about one of those two things. I suppose I could mention the latest anti-trans legislation being pushed in Michigan and Florida, and one of the bill sponsors being asked if he’s transgender.
I could talk about the progress being made by The National Trust for Historic Preservation to block the Trumpster Fire’s attempt to slap another Mar-a-Lago ballroom on the White House. He wasn’t happy with either the head of the Trust or the judge hearing the case. To me that signals some progress in forcing the President to submit plans for review.
Or I could share the news about volume two of Out in Architecture. Contributors are working on new stories. Schedules are laid out for final submissions and the book’s launch date. Having provided an essay for the first volume, I am now helping a couple of writers share their stories. And there appears to be no shortage of potential contributors for future books.
But how do you write about any of that when you turn on the news or check social media to find border patrol agents have shot and killed another person in Minneapolis? How do you write something upbeat when you look at what’s happening? How do we keep our heads from exploding? I probably should have titled this post: “What the Actual Fuck?”
This latest shooting – and any of the shootings, because Renee Good and Alex Pretti haven’t been the only ones – is something we should all be talking about. We have a federal government doing as much as they can to trample civil rights and states rights. To trample free speech and the right to protest. To trample – and I never thought I’d be saying this – the right for someone to lawfully carry a firearm.
When you hear the NRA coming out against a Republican administration’s claim that no one is allowed to carry a gun at a protest, one would think the administration would realize something is amiss. Except the people in charge do not seem to care. Even Tom Homan coming to Minneapolis and Greg Bovino and his SS coat leaving is more about image than protecting and respecting the people in Minneapolis.
In less than a year, the administration and its cronies have done a great job of eroding public trust in law enforcement. Yes, there’s always been corruption in police departments. Yes, people have been shot. And yes, being stopped for being Black still happens. However, watching ICE, Border Patrol, and the Department of Homeland Security run roughshod across cities is enough to question anything the federal government or a federal officer is telling us.
It’s exhausting, and perhaps that’s the point. If the Tangerine Toddler and his sycophants wear Americans down, then they can do as they please with little pushback. They can really rig elections. They can imprison their detractors. They can get retribution for any perceived slights past or present.
Which made the protest last weekend in Minneapolis so uplifting. Citizens there know what’s going on is wrong. They know they could be next. Here in Dallas, we’ve been hunkered down like it’s the apocalypse because of the snow and sleet. Yet in Minneapolis, people were willing to brave freezing weather to make their voices heard. And to say enough is enough.
Maybe that’s where we should start.
