"The Unbearable Truth Today..."

All of this would be funny if it weren't true...

This is why I can say, "If my life ends a day from now or 10,000 days from now, I really don't care. I'm tired of the sh*tshow." 

As I celebrate Dr. King's holiday this weekend, I'll reflect on the truth that I am the descendant of slaves whose stolen lives and labor helped make this nation the richest and most powerful the world has ever known. I remember as a young man being proud that my forebears were strong enough to endure the unbearable for nearly 400 years to eventually claim their right to the American dream. 

I was born less than 100 years after the de jure end of slavery and at the dawn of the end of de facto slavery. My great-grandparents were plantation slaves. My grandparents were second class citizens denied life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness at every turn in the segregated south. My paternal grandfather was not able to cast his first vote until age 50 despite being a freeborn citizen of the nation who sent him to war in 1917. 

My parents were both products of the great migration. They bravely fought for and claimed their birthright to live their American dream alongside Dr. King and a plethora of others who risked everything to call America to reckoning over her treatment of those she called less than and who had nevertheless made her great. 

My parents succeeded beyond their wildest dreams, I grew up in a home where until I was about 7, I didn't even realize how privileged we were. My parents had worked and struggled, fought and climbed from the mire of racism and oppression to firmly ensconce us in the upper echelons of middle class. 

Well into his 80's, in a 2003 newspaper interview as Ford Motor Company's longest serving employee, when asked why he'd worked so hard and for so long, my father said it was so his family could live in Russell Woods. This despite the restrictive covenant on the deed to our home that stated, "only persons of the caucasian race" could own property or live in our neighborhood.

And so as many of us are enjoying a long weekend for the MLK holiday, I can't help but wonder if it was all for naught. When 70 million of my fellow citizens elected a racist, homophobic, narcissistic lunatic for the second time, one who is hellbent on turning back the hands of time on every front, what hope for the future should I have. 

While I wonder what will become of my children and grandchildren, I'm tired of watching the nation I pledged to defend with my life, become the new Roman Empire in its own last days before the fall. I fear the end is nigh, and not only my own.

"Fear Eats the Soul"