December 11th

Unlearning is harder than learning and when the only thing that stops the daily mass shootings is a pandemic in which the police will still shoot you in the back and the government will still execute you because hundreds of thousands dying won’t sate the blood thirst of the greatest country on Earth, the only path forward is diving headfirst into an alternate reality or eventually succumbing to the desire to tune it all out and watch old television shows. From sea to shining sea, minds are racing while trying to figure out how to escape during a pandemic while freedom for others is feeling the air on their lips and nose. I’m just trying to pry a life preserver from my Millencolin albums.

All my favorite bands are three or four or maybe five heterosexual white men and I whole-heartedly endorse the kids taking a shit on my grave someday. Respecting your elders is the greatest trick the Devil ever pulled. If you don’t have anything nice to say about the generations brave enough to try what you wouldn’t then there’s no need to say anything at all.

I don’t really understand what the youth are doing and I don’t believe I am supposed to. What I do know is what I was doing at their age: playing my role as a nail that doesn’t want to get hammered back down into the wood. I’m Justice Stewart in ‘64, stop asking me to explain things to you. I’m hanging on by a thread myself. I am using deductive reasoning to determine that the kids are alright because you and me aren’t and they aren’t like us.

Your favorite song is by a rapist. Your favorite filmmaker signed the Polanski letter. You get all your news filtered through signatories of the Harper’s letter while you rant about “safe spaces.” What’s not connecting?