Thursday, June 18, 2020

May 28, 2020 Thursday SIP Journals - Rumble Strip, Voices of the Pandemic & BLM, Minneapolis Burning


....  from the podcast RumbleStrip


I find this podcast to be so well-crafted,  with compelling stories of a specific place and time in Vermont. Her seven stories titled Voices from the Pandemic, a compilation of audio-diaries of what it's been like during the quarantine, draw upon her audience from around the world, pulling us into what is already memory.  We hear from France and Spain and New York and Toronto and Scotland and South Africa and Texas and California and Vermont, too, of course; we hear pots and pans and clapping, the heartbreak of loss and loneliness, the triumph of getting through another day in an apartment with young children. I listen to them for the sounds, the stories, the moments captured of this time we all share.

And from there, we step right into the upheaval and protests stemming from the George Floyd murder in Minneapolis on Monday, Memorial Day, May 25th. The video of the death shot from a bystander and posted on social media showed stark contradictions with the report the officers filed - and sparked horrified outrage around the world. The utter callousness of police officer Derek Chauvin when Floyd could no longer be a threat, even as the onlookers urge the officer to ease up. The lack of intervention by the fellow officers as Floyd repeatedly says "I can't breathe." And the still body of George Floyd, who had called for his mother as he lay dying. Who will ever forget that? 

Tonight, a police station in Minneapolis is burning. Black Lives Matter protests are everywhere today. I step further back into memory, to the riots of the sixties, the burning of downtowns, the frustrations and anger with our nation's  racism  spilling out everywhere. The callous disregard for its consequences that spills over into today.

https://www.rumblestripvermont.com/episodes/

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