There was once a time when I was mulling over the idea of going to America for a friends summer wedding. Summer has been and gone and the wedding became a tiny event with just a few family. I think we all know which virus we can blame for that change of plans. I was thinking too about maybe visiting him at some point later this year or spring next year and going on a road trip somewhere. He’s good for road trips. In another unrelated plan I thought about going to Seattle and completing a coding bootcamp course. Coding because I want to learn how to write it, bootcamps because they’re intense and good ways to learn and Seattle because it’s apparently quite a cool city and it’ll always be synonymous with Nirvana and the grunge music scene in my mind.
None of these things are probably going to happen. Partly I don’t want to go too far from the UK at the moment considering we have no idea what will happen with this virus over the winter. With the American government responding worse than ours somehow it doesn’t look like the most appealing place right now either. On top of that though it really does look like the country is descending into what can only be described as the early stages of it’s second civil war. Am I being hyperbolic? Perhaps. But taking a look at current events with another person being shot dead it does make you take notice and raise an eyebrow. A few days ago some little seventeen year old right-wing kid shot three people protesting on behalf of Black Lives Matter, after another unarmed black man was shot dead by police. Today, or maybe it was last night, a man was shot dead but this time he was marching with Patriot Prayer, a right-wing group taking part in counter protests.
A year or two ago these two sides of the ideological divide in America were squaring up to each other wearing armour and carrying bats. A few people turned up carrying guns but more to flaunt they could and as a warning that they had them than to actually use. Now they’ve started using them. This is currently an incredibly heated situation in a country awash with guns. At the moment, to say this could unfold with further violence and shooting is not an overly dramatic statement to make. It is an election year with an unstable leader willing to push and step over the boundaries of common practice in his determination to hold on to power. I’m not suggesting he’s about to lead a fascist military coup or become a dictator but he’s likely to incite an already incited populace. Really this could go anywhere. For the time being I know where I won’t be going.
Observations and Misunderstandings 