In The Neighborhood

We Americans like our neighborhoods. 

That doesn’t mean we’re best friends with all of our neighbors.  In fact, there’s some we might not even like at all. 

But there’s an unspoken bond when you live m close by, especially in a city.  And that goes beyond keeping the street nice, ceding the right of way when you leave for work in the morning or holding a door open at the local store, or even in your own apartment building.

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
Ok well maybe not this nice, but we’re civil

Speaking for most Americans, I’m not sure we were even aware of it en masse until recently. 

But recently there have been a lot of threats, particularly in cities, and particularly from outside the neighborhood.

And speaking for most Americans who live in these densely populated areas, as I have my entire life, I can safely state that a threat to ONE of us, is a threat to ALL of us.

Wise words from a wise man

And that we defend each other.

With everything we’ve got.

So when masked government men speed into our neighborhoods in unmarked cars looking to randomly cherry pick our neighbors off the street for no other reason than the color of their skin, an unpaid parking ticket or their presumed attitude, the very least you can expect any one of us to do is to blow a f-king whistle.

Whistlestop GIFs - Find & Share on GIPHY
Now considered a crime apparently

More likely, what you get is a relentless barrage of unprintable expletives and a united front, nee protective shield, from you f-king with anyone, even the neighbor we don’t like at all.

You might think you have the power right now but believe me, you don’t.

Not in the long run.

City people protect their own and DO NOT back down from a fight. 

EVER.

Mommy Dearest Gif
Expletives needed here

We might lose rounds one, two, three and ten but eventually – EVENTUALLY – we WILL win. 

You will not come into our town under the guise of some Gestapo protection and get us to give up the people we see at the market or the car wash or on the road or down the street no matter how determined you are to WHITEN your load.

For starters, we LIKE color.  That’s one of the reasons we live in the city to begin with.

The Weekly Wrap: As ICE Operations Turn Deadly, Local Officials Push Back
Salt the streets, get ICE out!

So when you three times shoot someone like Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, a Christian, a singer and a poet, and the spouse of a woman who was co-parenting her six-year-old son since his biological father passed away several years ago, for her whistle and her “attitude” as she drove away in her Honda Pilot filled with kiddie toys and old plastic sippy cups, don’t pretend she was a “domestic terrorist.”

Especially when we have the whole thing recorded on video from five different angles via a dozen different cell phones.

Wife of woman killed by ICE agent: 'We had whistles. They had guns.'
Justice… for GOOD

But do expect A LOT more than whistles, curse words and compliance the next time you come to town.

In any city and in any state.

Anywhere in the country.

You think you’re having a hard time in Minneapolis amidst all that Minnesota “nice?” 

Hunt for some bigger “game” and see what happens.  And know this is not a call to or a threat of violence.  We city dwellers are too smart to play your game. 

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey sharply criticized ICE following the death of  the woman, saying federal agents should “get the f*** out” of the  city.Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey sharply criticized ICE following the
I’m with him

We play the long game and we’ve learned from the best.

And often in streets of the very cities you are trying to invade.  We know the terrain and the people and it’s not as easy as you believe to make all of US who disagree with YOU to disappear.  

I grew up in the boroughs of New York City, went to grad school and lived for several years in the city of Chicago in my early twenties, and for decades have made my home in Los Angeles.

a group of people are dancing on a stage and one of them says in the greatest city in the world .
Take your pick

If you believe a lot of what you hear from the federal government – and I don’t know anyone who does these days – I should be statistically dead in a ditch, the victim of some violent crime or surrounded by a cesspool or garbage left in the streets by illegal immigrant families whose culture threatens my very way of existence, not to mention my job.

I can assure you none of these are the case and that I’ve been alive a lot longer than many of the people that tell you it is.

I’m Stephen Miller’s worst nightmare.  A “stupid white hippie protestor” from his home state who knows exactly who he is and what his tactics are. 

The Simpsons Slingshot GIF - The Simpsons Slingshot Hippies - Discover &  Share GIFs
Take that!

A guy who grew up 15 minutes from his boss and understands his ignorance and avarice.

And a person who graduated from an Ivy League adjacent school with an advanced degree when JD Vance was seven-years-old and went by a different name, though I couldn’t truly tell you which name it was because he’s changed it so frequently. (Note: Always a warning sign).

What I do know is that there are a sh-t ton more of my type than their type, ready to stand strong, in every single CITY across the country.

In the name of RENEE NICOLE GOOD.

Forever and ever

And so many others.

For as long as it takes.

Now listen to words of Philadelphia Sheriff Rochelle Bilal as she espouses our all-too-familiar “say her name” mantra and be inspired to action.

Thoughts and Prayers

I’m not religious but I have nothing against praying.  Or even thoughts. 

But too often they don’t seem to go together.

Convenient place to hide

It would be easy this Labor Day Weekend to post a fun song, a political song, or a snide song. One about workers uniting, workers goofing off, or one about a pregnant woman going into labor because, well, it’s a pun on the holiday, right?

But let’s not.

Instead let’s take a few moments to think of the two kids who were murdered while praying at a Catholic school in Minneapolis, and the other 18 who were injured – many of whom are quite young and some of whom are fighting for their lives. 

In particular, I think about the best friend of a 9 year old I saw on the news who recounted how his buddy instinctively jumped on top of him and saved his life by taking a bullet in the back.

Supposedly he’s going to fine but I can’t help but wonder about the effect this traumatizing event will have on the rest of their adult lives.

I pray they’ll get over this but let’s face it, that’s just an expression in my case.  And even if I went to a synagogue and formed a minion of a hundred or a thousand different Jews (Note: If they even let me in after all this time), I would instinctually know it will take a lot more than that for these two kids to emerge unscathed.

Depressing and true

Meaning, my prayers might comfort me and others and even be reassuring to some of the families but I don’t magically think that this will replace good parenting, therapy or community love and support in helping these kids heal.

No more than I believe a blessing from the Pope, or whoever else one believes in, will replace a good surgeon when it comes to removing the bullet(s) from that young man’s back.

No more than I believe gun control of some kind – perhaps even a ban on assault weapons nationwide, won’t reduce the increasing number of mass shootings, many of them at schools.

Coming to a store near you

And no more than I believe that if this last shooter was indeed a troubled young person from the trans community, demonizing that community will do anything but spread hate.

Especially since the hundreds of mass shooters that came before this were almost entirely young straight white men.

Certainly, I’m not on a campaign against THOSE people.

Or any person of faith.

Where to even begin?

Despite what Vice President J.D. Vance desperately wants to lay at the altar of all those, including myself, who believe something must be done to eliminate the proliferation of guns in the U.S.  (Note: There are now MORE GUNS THAN PEOPLE IN THE U.S.)

That would be the majority of Americans.

The ones who are angry, sad and often enraged that at times like these the thoughts and prayers police, a MINORITY of the country, can constantly be counted on to change the subject to how anti-faith community the rest of us are for demanding action.

See ya there

If they so virulently believe in the power of thoughts and prayers why not spend more time sending some of that to “endangered” blue cities instead of armed masked men with guns and military grade weapons, a la all those shooters, to patrol what they see as our dangerous, crime-ridden streets in the name of peace and safety?

Does it not occur to them that the images of so many men with guns on patrol in the tranquil city streets and surrounding suburban and rural communities of Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., Chicago and who knows where’s next, might give even more people ideas?

Totally normal stuff right?

Something to think about.

And maybe pray on.

Lana Del Rey – “Looking for America”