I Thought Everyone Disagreed with Nazi Germany

 I always thought that everyone was horrified by Nazi Germany.  Slowly, oh so slowly, it's beginning to dawn on me that just might not be true.  Or maybe some US citizens just don't connect the dots between what Trump and the current Republican party are doing and compare to what happened then.  A lot of people are working hard trying to keep a roof over their head and food on the table and have a lot of fear of the other.  We live in our own algorithims and sources of information that skew the "facts."  Yet, we are in scary times.  I recognize I have my own fears. 

Did you know that the Nazis came and studied our Jim Crow laws in the mid 1930's while instituting the Third Reich?  I learned this while reading "Caste: The Origins of Our Discontent" by Isabel Wilkerson.  She describes three caste systems which include India, Germany and the United States.   

I was stunned.  

I'm still stunned and trying to unlearn what I thought was true about our country. 

I had some learning to do. 

What exactly were the Jim Crow laws? The following is from the website of the Jim Crow museum in Big Rapids, MI. 

Jim Crow was a racial system which operated between 1877 to the mid-1960's.  It was a way of life through a series of rigid anti-black laws which legitimized anti-black racism. African Americans were second class citizens. Here's the kicker that I had a hard time stomaching. "Many Christian ministers and theologians taught that white people were the Chosen people, black people were cursed to be servants, and God supported racial segregation."  All major societal institutions reflected and supported the oppression of black people.

Many learn the words Jim Crow in history class for a nanosecond, maybe?  If the right is able to continue to have their way, that little blurb will not be in textbooks, if it is not already gone.  But dive into it and understand the implications on today's situation. ICE is gathering up people based on their looks and throwing them into concentration camps.  There is no due process.  

Around the time of the pandemic, I began reading social justice, anti-racism books with a church group.  I was really naive, and stunned again to learn how the church was instrumental in this systemic racism. 

It makes it easier to understand that many good Christians are indoctrinated and cannot fathom that the land of the free, home of the brave has not fully embraced all of it's citizens.  The Civil War did not end the persecution of blacks, as our government and it's people moved to different and really effective methods of keeping blacks "in their place." 

Currently, the similarities between Trumpism and Nazism are numerous and on clear display everyday: 

Rhetoric and Scapegoating

"Enemy of the People" Framing

Use of Populism: he is the sole savior of a nation in decline

Executive Power and Loyalty 

Retaliation Threats to those who disagree 

Admiration for Authority

I really, really try to see both sides of the current divide.  I read books and read FB posts thoroughly.  I occasionally get caught up but I try to understand.  I wonder how often Trump supporters try to understand why my "side" believes what we do. 

It truly seems unsurmountable right now.  The onslaught of Trump's actions are so fluid and neverending and designed to overwhelm with so many distractions.  The lack of Congressional response to reigning in his actions as we are a three branch system exactly for this reason, is reprehensible.  Checks and balances are the heart of our democratic republic and why we moved from England and it's king.  It is disheartening to say the least.  Greenland is a distraction from rising healthcare costs and the inability to bring food prices down. With midterms coming up, Trump floats not having an election.  What?!!  His degradation of our solid electoral system only occurs if he thinks he's going to lose but if he wins, all notions of a rigged system vanish immediately.  Let's not forget, he tried to overturn a fair and legitimate election and then released the insurrectionists. 

In times like these, I have to turn to historians like Jon Meacham.  From his book, "The Soul of America: 

The Battle for Our Better Angels"  Jon argues that despite intense historical divisions, America's "better angels" (compassion, unity, shared principles) have often triumphed.  We have to turn away from hyper-partisanship and fear and use lessons from Lincoln and continuing all the way up to the Civil Rights era.   We have to appeal to our best instincts not our worst. 

We cannot give up.  We have to speak up.  Even if it's uncomfortable.  There are ways to speak up and not agitate.  No ones mind is changed by arguing. It is by listening to other's stories. 

I really hope our democratic republic is able to survive.  Our norms are being massacred daily.  I'm hoping for better angels.  That is all I can do, and call my representatives, and say out loud that what is happening now is atrocious.  We have to speak up in whatever way we can.  

Namaste. 

 

The Beta Fish Took Three Days to Die

My eldest daughter has adopted four successive beta fish in the last years when she was at college. They kept her company and she enjoyed seeing them as she worked at her desk.   (I remember that I started with gold fish my freshman year in college and worked up to a cat by graduate school.)  This last fish who resided on our kitchen counter did me in emotionally as Riley has been home since her graduation.  Towards the weekend,  he stopped eating and laid on the bottom and seemed to be actively dying. Even now my stomach tenses. 

Every death, even of a beta fish, is a microcosm of other grief and death. 

She named them after royalty of course - starting with Louis I.   We realized during Louis III, that traveling from Birmingham to Baton Rouge for school breaks in a venti Starbucks cup might not be good on their system so we made changes.  Due to my husband's efforts, one of them ended up with a heater for their tank and we stopped turning the light on because the tank turned green due to too much light.  We joked about the now grand summer house here in BR. 

Beautiful little blue Louis started looking peaked several days ago. And then he stopped swimming and lay on the bottom. One day rolled into two and he just kept breathing.  The other betas expired more quickly from what I remember and/or they were in Birmingham.  And a few short years ago I had my own Beta that lived for several years. 

The doctor, my husband, announced he was deceased on the first day.  But when I looked I still saw movement.  He didn't actually pass until three days later.  Doctors!

For three days, I had to stop and stare for a good amount of time and see that his little gills were still moving. Louis IV wasn't giving up without a fight. At several points in time, Riley and I talked to him and told him it was okay, he could let go. 

I then had a divine idea, and I pulled out the remains of our other pets.  Pookie (OG cat),  Princess and Morgan (sister cats) and Annie (our first dog)  I surrounded the aquarium with their little wooden boxes.  As Riley pointed out, these were his aunts and uncles.  I wanted Louis IV to know our past beloveds were welcoming him into the great unknown.

I don't know if it brought Louis IV comfort, but it really brought me comfort to surround him. Daughter #2 thought it was a little off,  I thought it was a beautiful gesture.  There was also talk of a Viking burial at sea...

Every time I checked on him, I had these small waves of grief.  They didn't last long but they brought tears to my eyes. I haven't been crying lately at all after a long period of lots of grief. As I said, all present grief brings up past grief.  Most of my grief is around abandonment. I didn't want to abandon Louis.  That is why surrounding him with our previous loved ones brought me such peace. I couldn't stay with him as his breathing slowed. I thought it was brutiful.  He was a tiny little living thing but he was alive. 

One really had to stare and not blink for a while because the movement was so faint as time went on but he was still alive. He moved twice during this time.  The last time, he was partially inside his castle which we thought was a sign, and on the third night, his gills finally stopped moving. 

It was time, he had passed. 

We waited until the next morning to say goodbye.  Riley caught him in a net and the four of us gathered around her bathroom toilet and she plopped him in. The three others said a quick word and then I started my message.  The really neat thing these last years, is learning how to express myself.  Ha ha.  Riley wasn't up for it (!)  and flushed the toilet before I finished.  

Oh well. 

The deed was done.  But I know Louis knew I cared for him and I wished peace on his little soul.  He knew. 

Namaste.