The issue is not the Supreme Court, the pandemic, the protests, the right to abortion, or any of the very real and significant issues before us.  The absolute real reason you need to remove Trump and the Republicans from the Senate is all about tipping points, irreversible chain reactions, and unknown feedback loops. It’s about 1.5 degree global temperature rise, and that we have maybe 6 more years.  We may have already written our species death sentence.  If nothing is done, and they have four more years to not only do nothing but to actually make things worse, we certainly will have.

Vote on November 3rd, as if your future depended on it, because it does.

© words by  Dan DeMarle 9/21/2020

If I told you someone said something nice to me, you would say ‘oh that was nice.’ Yet if I told you someone said something racist to me, you would blame me and want a 1000 questions answered. If you can believe the first, why can’t you believe the second?  I am the same person in both situations.  You and your attitude and beliefs are what is different. Don’t ask me to explain it or prove it to you, I am the victim, ask yourself instead what is wrong with you?

© words by  Dan DeMarle 9/21/2020

Snarky post warning!!! I love the complete ignorance of anyone who lives in America, or is an American abroad, who says I don’t do politics!! You live in a democracy. Everything you do is about politics. You turn on a TV (FCC regulated), you pick up a phone (FTC, state and local taxes), you get in your car (oh boy to many federal agencies), you drive your car (again to many federal agencies, federal laws, and state laws), you drive on a road (who built it, who maintains it, federal, state, and various local dollars), you cross a bridge (OMG way too many federal, state, and local regulations and money), you go to the grocery store (building codes, building permits, federal and state regulations let alone all of those regulations related to its building and whether it was union or nonunion work), you buy a tomato from Argentina (OMG internal laws, federal law, state laws, etc… etc… etc..) Who makes those laws, who negotiates those trade deals, what judges rule on those disputes. Oh I know take a deep sigh (what’s in that air you breathe who regulates the pollutants), take a drink of water (OMG regulations, thank God, or you could be in Flint all over again). Then turn off your social media (regulations) turn off the light (OMG where do you live, near Canada? Where’s your power coming from, international treaties, federal laws, state laws, business laws, environmental regulations, fees, taxes). So sure when you say you don’t do politics, all your saying is you don’t want any power in any of this and guess what, that is exactly what they want. They won, you lost. Sucker….

Don’t be a sucker! Register, and Vote November 3rd.

Why is it that,

the names of Fort Sumter,

Bull Run,

Shiloh,

and Gettysburg,

resound even today

after more than a century and a half?

Yet, what happened in 1919 during the red summer

leaves a resounding blankness.

Two years before the Tulsa Massacre,

America ran red with black blood.

From April to December Whites attacked blacks

many black servicemen returning from World War I.

The city streets ran red.

Tennessee, Georgia

Florida, West Virginia,

Mississippi, South Carolina

Arkansas, Connecticut,

Maryland, Arizona

Pennsylvania, Alabama

Texas, Arkansas

New York, Louisiana

Nebraska, Kentucky,

Delaware, and even Syracuse NY.

Even the famed Buffalo Soldiers,

were attacked by local police in Bisbee, Arizona.

In Elaine, Arkansas when black sharecroppers tried to unionize,

white militias came from miles around.

At the end, 100 to 237 blacks and 5 whites lay dead.

When Southern Justice came in,

seventy nine black people were tried and all convicted by,

all white juries and 12 were sentenced to death for murder.

So when someone tries to raise that rebel flag,

When someone wants to tell you “all lives matter”,

Just remember the red summer,

Remember that no whites went on trial in Elaine, Arkansas.

Then when you say that could not have happened again,

Then read about Tulsa,

Tuskegee,

Emmett Till,

those four young girls in Birmingham,

then remember,

Philando,

Sandra,

Ahmaud,

George,

Breonna

and Daniel Prude.

Do not tell me it can’t happen again,

because it is happening everyday.

© words by Daniel DeMarle 9/15/2020

I remember exactly where I was when the planes hit the towers. It was a tragedy. A tragedy that a scared President and a vengeful congress used to start two wars that are still going on today. I remember finding out about how we were illegally taking people with no right to judge or jury to Guantanamo Bay Cuba, where some still are. I remember hearing the totals of the billions of dollars spent to keep them there. I remember extraordinary renditions, waterboarding, torture, and other massive violations of human rights, deaths by the probable hundreds of thousands if not millions in the middle east, I remember the Patriot Act and librarians and businesses not even being able to tell us that we were being monitored. I remember the NSA surveillance of US citizens that is still going on today. I remember how we the American people gladly gave up civil rights because we were taught to be scared. I remember the government not even letting us see the bodies’ of our brave US soldiers coming home, because they were afraid we might notice. I remember the terror and loss of the families that lost loved one’s in 911. But mostly I remember that we as American’s failed in our most basic duty to not be scared, to not be misled, and to hold our government accountable. There is no tragedy bad enough to give up our rights or to kill millions. We still have armed forces in Iran and Iraq, and some of them were not even alive when 9/11 happened. On this tragic day, let us remember that tragedy and honor the victims and their families, but let us also remember that due to the President’s and our government’s shameful response to that day. We all have blood on our hands and the surveillance technology that can watch us try to wash it off in vain.

© words by Daniel DeMarle 9/11/2020

The truth is

the problem with protests,

the problem with marches,

the problem with angry words,

is that they are all attempts to demand change;

to demand to be heard,

to demand power,

to demand a seat at the table.

That does not work.

Stop asking white people to give you something.

Stop asking men to give you things.

Stop asking people who are able to give you something.

Power given can be taken back.

A seat at the table can be withdrawn.

Asking for implies it is not yours.

Asking for means you must be given permission to have it.

The power was always yours.

They have just convinced you that it isn’t.

Stop asking and claim your power.

The system will not change if you ask it to change.

It will only change when you change it.

Asking someone to open a closed-door means they have the power to open it.

However, putting your hand on the handle,

results in an open door.

© words by Daniel DeMarle 9/9/2020

Rochester, NY 10:54 PM. There is a moment of silence between the police militarized attack on peaceful protestors. The marchers have been beaten back by flash bang grenades, tear gas, sonic weapons, pepper ball bullets. Many were injured and medics are helping them. The marchers are regrouping and planning on moving forward to attempt to continue the march and exert our right to peacefully assemble. They have guns and weapons, and we have masks, cardboard shields, and umbrellas. Later after pushing back this march they will corner marchers in a church where they sought haven and shoot bullets at the church.

In that short time, between all of that light, and noise and chaos I come across this woman in the street praying. Even amidst chaos there can be calm. There are times when there is simply beauty and grace amidst the chaos.

© photo and words by Daniel DeMarle 9/5/2020

After the fire, there is a moment, when the veils have been burnt away, and you see the world anew. The people you thought you knew, you realize were not who you thought they were. The friends you thought you had, were not. In the aftermath, you find you have to rebuild. Knowing what you now know, you realize, who was really there for you, who reached out, who supported you. Knowing that, you can sink your foundations deeper, or take what cloth remains and make a sail to fly away on. There is always a new dawn, though the earth may have shifted beneath your feet. People who survived police violence, can never quite view police the same way again. People attacked by racists, can have a hard time trusting others again. But the fact is now you know that that evil exists. It is not an abstract thing. You have had a glimpse into a small part of it, but were protected as well by your white privilege. Learn from that, and plant new seeds and grow.

© words by Daniel DeMarle 9/9/2020

Ok, let me explain my earlier post about silence. There are events that happen in my city that I call “poverty porn” They occur when outsiders come in to lead some type of event that is out of context, out of character, and/or belittling to the people who actually live in the community. These people mean well, but belittle those they try to help or support. A year or so ago, I joined such a group to go look for a lost person. It was on a street I have been on many times (because I get around a lot). The leaders treated it like an armed exhibition into a war zone, carried a gun and wore a flack jacket. I have been on that same street many times. It was overkill and it was poverty porn. The suburban volunteers I am sure got a thrill, similar to the thrill someone gets watching porn, something illicit, something not safe. I left after 10 minutes. When I left, it caused consternation because they felt they had to escort me to my own car half a block away.

Today there was a ride in honor of Daniel Prude. It was a silent ride. I joined late and did not realize it was a silent ride. So clearly blame me. The ride headed down Jefferson Avenue. So you have a lot of bikers, with very few people of color, riding expensive bikes, some in full bike gear down Jefferson, which has been the central point of the BLM rallies. As we ride, one of the older black men who hang out regularly by School 4 asks for some pocket change from the riders and says as I pass “I actually live here.” I see that same group of neighborhood elders regularly on my bike ride home.

When we get to the corner where he died for some reason we stop. The leaders of the ride all jump off their bikes to take selfies with his memorial. One of the actual BLM protest leaders was there early and tried to get us to chant. These are the same chants used at every protest. She needed us to chant and be loud. The three teenage girls who live two doors down wanted us to chant. They have seen a week of protests. They live right there. They needed us to recognize what had happened here. The young lady half out of her car half a black down wanted us to chant, to say his name. They all tried to lead us in the chants, which by now, are like saying a prayer. At that point few did. The neighborhood was saying we don’t want silence. We want noise. If you are going to come tour our neighborhood then join us in our grief. Say his name…… Say our name. What this was, was another example of poverty porn. The riders got a little thrill going by the place Daniel Prude died. They thought they were doing something by riding in silence to honor him. The community on the street, however, wanted to hear our voices and to have our voices join in their anger and in their grief. “I actually live here.” Instead, they got silent tourists enjoying the thrill of seeing the site of a snuff film.

There are times and places for silent rides. This, however, when the wound was so deep was not one of them. If you want to take a selfie of a memorial come anytime, but try doing it during a protest the people actually want to see and hear. Say his name… Daniel Prude, No justice ……… …….

© words by Daniel DeMarle 9/8/2020

Last night 9/6/2020 (Sunday) is a night many in the community will wrongly sing Kumbayah about. The marchers for Daniel Prude were allowed to march to the Public Safety Building. The police were hardly present.

So why wrongly?

Because, this is not a game of capture the flag. The Public Safety Building does not contain the Ark of the Covenant. It is an administrative building, and yes a symbol. If it was a game of capture the flag, then in the RPD conceded the field.

So what was accomplished, at a basic level, the RPD ‘allowed’ the marchers to assert their/our basic constitutional right to freedom of assembly. That was it. After two days of using military equipment, weapons, etc… on protestors, attacking using weapons against, injuring without provocation, and denying that basic constitutional right, they conceded the field.
But in the words of Don McLean

“We all got up to dance

Oh, but we never got the chance ‘

Cause the players tried to take the field

The marching band refused to yield

Do you recall what was revealed

The day” Daniel Prude died?

This is about much more than a game of capture the flag. This is about the need for systemic reform of policing in Rochester. This is about Black Lives Matter. This is about institutional racism in our policing, in our government, in our school systems, in our city/suburban relationships, in our housing, in our press coverage (with some notable exceptions), and in our health care. This is not about a building. It never was. It’s about what happens in the building, in the Hall of Justice next door, in the jail behind that building, in the RCSD administrative building a block away. It’s about what does and does not happen in Pittsford, in Greece, and in all of those other suburbs.

This is really about the fact that when I wear my BLM shirt white people can not see it, talk about it, acknowledge it, as if it did not exist, and at the same time people of color love it and me when I wear it. One group can’t see it, one totally embraces it. Until my fellow white people can see it, the march is not over. But this is ultimately not about white people. They are fine with the system as it is, they cocreated that system. This is about many things but in part, it is about “equal justice under law” The words on the supreme court building, it is making sure the color of your skin, your gender, your sexual orientation, your disability does not condemn you to less. It is about forcing white people to acknowledge that shirt and what it means.

This is about so much more than a building. All we “won” back last night was our constitutional right to freedom of assembly.

© words by Daniel DeMarle 9/7/2020