In the midst of the Covid pandemic, we have been shocked by the brutal murder of George Floyd by Derek Chauvin, a white police officer. We--I'm not using the 'royal we' but the 'decency we'--have been encouraged, despite reports of looting, by the widespread demonstrations protesting his death. That 'decency we' has also become the 'majority we'--a good sign. We all hope that much-needed changes will result.
The police abuse did not stop with Floyd's murder. On Thursday, June 4, 2020, a week and a half after the black man's death, a protest demonstration took place in Buffalo, New York. Although there was no need for a show of massive force against peaceful protesters, the police were ready.
Martin Gugino, a 75-year-old activist, a member of the Catholic Workers Movement, a man with impeccable non-violent bona fides, approached the police, despite commands to back away. (He has what has been reported to have been a cell phone in his hands; he apparently had been trying to show the officers a screenshot of the First Amendment. He certainly had no weapon). Two officers brutally push him to the side; he falls and lies on the ground, bleeding from his head, apparently unconscious. They pushed him hard, with the compassion of inhumane drill sergeants, kicking a stray dog aside who got in the way of a small-town military parade. It was shocking. (Gugino, a small countercurrent against waves of riot police, reminded me of the photo of the man defiantly standing before a tank in Tiananmen Square).
I felt that shove. I am the same age as the victim.
Pushing over a 75-year-old is categorically different from pushing over a younger or middle-age individual.
Fear of falling is a recurring nightmare of old age. A person seventy years old has three times the chance of dying from a 'low-ground fall' that is, a fall from level ground, than a younger person has. The chance of falling increases dramatically with age, since the older you are, after 60 or so, the chance of losing your balance rises. Injuries incurred during a fall tend to be more serious as well. Bones are more brittle and thinner, making them much easier to break; older people know that breaking your hip, for instance, can signal the loss of independence, the beginning of the end. Recovery from even a minor injury tends to be much longer once you are old. As an example, my wife had a minor fall in our house about two months ago. No bones were broken, but she was unable to exercise or take a walk with me for weeks. If the accident happened years ago, she would be incapacitated for only about a day, we estimate.
I still take a basket full of laundry down the dozen or so curving steps to the laundry room in the basement of our house, but I am extra careful. Watch out, Dorsett, a voice tells me, this could be it!
When an older person falls down and hits the back of his head, the chance of a serious, potentially fatal, cerebral hemorrhage increases greatly. Many older persons are on blood thinners, as I am, making that dreadful complication much more likely. I know of several cases of falls among the elderly which resulted in serious complications, including death.
Most states define elder abuse as willful injury to a person 65 years old or older. The police officers look three to four decades younger than the 75-year-old peaceful protester. It was a crime!
I heard and read many of those who commented on this incident. Not one mentioned that it is a breakdown of civilization when one shows no respect to elders. It's like pushing a modern-day Jesus off the Mount of Olives so one can rush to the top to take a selfie.
The next day after the abuse I read that 57 members of the riot squad resigned in protest. Maybe I'm getting senile, but I first thought that they had resigned in solidarity with the man who was brutally pushed to the ground. Yeah, right. (There is a ray of hope: the two officers who pushed Gugino, Aaron Torgalski and Robert McCabe, have been charged with second-degree assault).
You are supposed to respect the elderly, not strike them down. That this dictate of civilization was not even mentioned in the news, indicates to me how far we've declined.
2.
Trump will be 74 in less than a week. By the way he sways back and forth while attempting to stand still, it seems to me that he has an old-age balance problem. (Despite all the crimes he has committed, pushing him over would still be a crime!)
Has he learned a little bit of compassion and empathy with old age? Here's a recent tweet of the president, regarding the incident:
Buffalo protester shoved by Police could be an ANTIFA provacateur. 75 year old Martin Gugino was pushed away after appearing to scan police communications in order to black out the equipment. @OANN, I watched, he fell harder than was pushed. Was aiming scanner. Could be a set up?
This is nuts. A ridiculous conspiracy theory supported by the President of the United States?! (His source, One America News Network, is much further right than is Fox News).
Between the scanner that wan't there and the scanned equipment that also wasn't there, Trump has injected an icy image of hateful paranoia. A man who believes this could push down his grandma and claim that aliens--that is, his alien mind and his alien heart--made him do it.
I am shocked again. Yes, those with even a rudimentary analytical ability have known Trump's number for a long time. Yet Trump, like an asymptote on a graph, always manages to get closer to zero.
It's worse than that:
Trump is a symbol of a general breakdown of civilized norms. The Republicans who still follow him--and there are many--have lost all moral authority in their pursuit of the gods of greed, hate, and delusion. Citizens who still support Trump--and there are many of them as well--follow their increasingly tarnished idol, and are unaware that their Pied Piper is leading them--and us--into a dead-end cave where all is lost. We must not let that happen.
Uncle Sam is over two hundred years old. Mr. Trump, stop pushing him down!
The police abuse did not stop with Floyd's murder. On Thursday, June 4, 2020, a week and a half after the black man's death, a protest demonstration took place in Buffalo, New York. Although there was no need for a show of massive force against peaceful protesters, the police were ready.
Martin Gugino, a 75-year-old activist, a member of the Catholic Workers Movement, a man with impeccable non-violent bona fides, approached the police, despite commands to back away. (He has what has been reported to have been a cell phone in his hands; he apparently had been trying to show the officers a screenshot of the First Amendment. He certainly had no weapon). Two officers brutally push him to the side; he falls and lies on the ground, bleeding from his head, apparently unconscious. They pushed him hard, with the compassion of inhumane drill sergeants, kicking a stray dog aside who got in the way of a small-town military parade. It was shocking. (Gugino, a small countercurrent against waves of riot police, reminded me of the photo of the man defiantly standing before a tank in Tiananmen Square).
I felt that shove. I am the same age as the victim.
Pushing over a 75-year-old is categorically different from pushing over a younger or middle-age individual.
Fear of falling is a recurring nightmare of old age. A person seventy years old has three times the chance of dying from a 'low-ground fall' that is, a fall from level ground, than a younger person has. The chance of falling increases dramatically with age, since the older you are, after 60 or so, the chance of losing your balance rises. Injuries incurred during a fall tend to be more serious as well. Bones are more brittle and thinner, making them much easier to break; older people know that breaking your hip, for instance, can signal the loss of independence, the beginning of the end. Recovery from even a minor injury tends to be much longer once you are old. As an example, my wife had a minor fall in our house about two months ago. No bones were broken, but she was unable to exercise or take a walk with me for weeks. If the accident happened years ago, she would be incapacitated for only about a day, we estimate.
I still take a basket full of laundry down the dozen or so curving steps to the laundry room in the basement of our house, but I am extra careful. Watch out, Dorsett, a voice tells me, this could be it!
When an older person falls down and hits the back of his head, the chance of a serious, potentially fatal, cerebral hemorrhage increases greatly. Many older persons are on blood thinners, as I am, making that dreadful complication much more likely. I know of several cases of falls among the elderly which resulted in serious complications, including death.
Most states define elder abuse as willful injury to a person 65 years old or older. The police officers look three to four decades younger than the 75-year-old peaceful protester. It was a crime!
I heard and read many of those who commented on this incident. Not one mentioned that it is a breakdown of civilization when one shows no respect to elders. It's like pushing a modern-day Jesus off the Mount of Olives so one can rush to the top to take a selfie.
The next day after the abuse I read that 57 members of the riot squad resigned in protest. Maybe I'm getting senile, but I first thought that they had resigned in solidarity with the man who was brutally pushed to the ground. Yeah, right. (There is a ray of hope: the two officers who pushed Gugino, Aaron Torgalski and Robert McCabe, have been charged with second-degree assault).
You are supposed to respect the elderly, not strike them down. That this dictate of civilization was not even mentioned in the news, indicates to me how far we've declined.
2.
Trump will be 74 in less than a week. By the way he sways back and forth while attempting to stand still, it seems to me that he has an old-age balance problem. (Despite all the crimes he has committed, pushing him over would still be a crime!)
Has he learned a little bit of compassion and empathy with old age? Here's a recent tweet of the president, regarding the incident:
Buffalo protester shoved by Police could be an ANTIFA provacateur. 75 year old Martin Gugino was pushed away after appearing to scan police communications in order to black out the equipment. @OANN, I watched, he fell harder than was pushed. Was aiming scanner. Could be a set up?
This is nuts. A ridiculous conspiracy theory supported by the President of the United States?! (His source, One America News Network, is much further right than is Fox News).
Between the scanner that wan't there and the scanned equipment that also wasn't there, Trump has injected an icy image of hateful paranoia. A man who believes this could push down his grandma and claim that aliens--that is, his alien mind and his alien heart--made him do it.
I am shocked again. Yes, those with even a rudimentary analytical ability have known Trump's number for a long time. Yet Trump, like an asymptote on a graph, always manages to get closer to zero.
It's worse than that:
Trump is a symbol of a general breakdown of civilized norms. The Republicans who still follow him--and there are many--have lost all moral authority in their pursuit of the gods of greed, hate, and delusion. Citizens who still support Trump--and there are many of them as well--follow their increasingly tarnished idol, and are unaware that their Pied Piper is leading them--and us--into a dead-end cave where all is lost. We must not let that happen.
Uncle Sam is over two hundred years old. Mr. Trump, stop pushing him down!
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