RBG

 On election night of 2016, I was sickened by the results.  All of those people I knew that either didn't vote or voted for a 3rd party candidate because they didn't believe their vote mattered.  It mattered all right. 

And for the last 4 years, we've had a leader that openly expresses his hatred.  Hatred for black people, hatred of disabled people, hatred of women, hatred of Democrats.  

Last night RBG died.  And the white men in power immediately pounced, vowing to replace her with someone that wants to keep white men in power indefinitely.  Within two hours, Mitch McConnell vowed to confirm whoever Trump nominates.  

An editor for The Atlantic, when interviewed today, called the Democratic party the "party of inclusion", and the Republicans the "party of restoration".  I started to think about this, and while I believe I know what inclusion is, I wasn't so sure about restoration.  Restoration to what?  Restoration to when?  How far back do we go?  Back to 1776 when our country was declared free of England?  Slavery was legal, women didn't have a vote, and white men held all the cards.  

Or maybe restoration means going back to the 1950's, when slavery was no longer legal, but people of color were still prevented from voting, or eating in a "whites only" restaurant.  When a boy could be lynched and hanged because a white woman said he flirted with her.  

I prefer the party of inclusion; that's no secret.  The country where every vote counts, and every person is equal.  Equal if you're a woman or man, black, brown, or red, rich or poor, gay, transgender, or straight.  The rights that we have had to fight for, claw for.  The rights that Ruth Bader Ginsburg spent her life defending.

Rest with the angels Ruth.  You did good.

Gerbils and the Black Plague

 In the years 535-536, a sudden change in climate occurred throughout the known world.  The sun turned blue, and a haze filtered what little light there was.  Temperatures dropped, crops failed, and people died.  The theory is that a volcano erupted somewhere in the world and caused a temporary change in climate.

In a little corner of Africa, gerbils who hosted the Yersinia bacterium were forced to leave their isolation and venture further and further to survive.  They met rats for the first time, and rats lived near human populations.  

Five years after the event, the plague first arrived.  150 million people died worldwide, and we learned about it from our history books.  The Black Plague that decimated the world started with climate change.  

Now, the climate is changing again, not due to a volcanic eruption or an asteroid hitting the earth, but because of our own actions.  Modern medicine gives us a sense of security we don't deserve, and in my lifetime HIV, Ebola, SARS, H1N1 and now Covid-19 have erupted and for the most part, been dealt with.

Today, wildfires are burning in California, Oregon, Colorado, and other places because of man-made climate change.  Here in Minnesota we've gotten used to hazy skies in the summer when wildfires burn in Canada.  

Bigger and badder hurricanes are hitting the coasts, one after another.  

We are actively working towards our own extinction event.