Something is Deeply Wrong in the American Psyche.

“It’s My Face Man!.I Didn’t Do Nothing Serious Man!.Please!Please!Please!I Can’t Breathe!.Please!Man!Please!.Somebody!.Please!Man!.I Can’t Breathe!.I Can’t Breathe!.Please!.(inaudible),,,,Man!Can’t Breathe!.My Face!.Just Get Up!.I Can’t Breathe!Please!.(inaudible).I Can’t Breathe!Shit!.I will!I Can’t Move!.Mama!Mama!My Knee!.My Nuts!.I’m Through!.I’m Through!.I’m Claustrophobic!.My Stomach Hurts!My Neck Hurts!.Everythin Hurts!Some Water!…Somethin!.Please!.Please!.Can’t breathe!.Officer!.Don’t Kill Me!.They Gonna’ Kill Me Man!.Come on Man!.I Cant Breathe!.I Cant Breathe!..They Gonna Kill Me!.They Gonna Kill Me!I Can’t Breathe!…I Can’t Breathe!.Please, Sir!.Please!Please!Please!I Can’t Breathe!”

Eyes finally shut, there is only silence, George Floyd is dead.

George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man dies at the hand and knee of a Minneapolis police man – handcuffed, pinned down by a knee kneeling hard on his neck for nine minutes, the policemans fist stuffed hard into his pocket to give extra downward thrust for more extreme effect. A distraught George Floyd all the while, pleads for his life to no avail while the whole world watches, helplessly.

Something is Deeply Wrong in the American Psyche. The Whole Thing about America is Wrong, Completely Wrong! A Sitting President Who Can Only Declare, If You Loot, We Shoot!: While a Presumptive Candidate, Intent Upon Taking His Seat Away From Him, Who, Rather Than Abashedly Shedding Honest Tears of Sorrow & Outrage for Yet Another Innocent Black Man Needlessly Murdered, Can Only Smile like a Cheshire Cat With a Political Agenda in Mind & Vaguely Declare the Need To Change Everything in the Future. The Reality of it all is Too Heart-Wrenching & Sickening! Too Painful!

This writer is an 80 year-old ex-pat, fiercely proud of his Irish-American defiant Wild Geeseheritage that, for centuries, has defied the White, privileged classes brutality against his own clans and people at large, but who chose to live afar in Canada nearly fifty years ago, in self-exile in search of something better which he did find that might best be summed up by the 2020 COVID pandemic expression, Try To Be Kind to One Another Because Were All In This Together, and so no longer could live in good conscience within the political and cultural systems of the land of his birth where this wasnt the case, and its harsh militaristic and law enforcement systems, historically, up to the present day, have perpetuated so much brutality against its citizenry in general and women and people of colour in particular.

Yet his heart, despite his body being removed from the turmoil of Americas terrible unrelenting scene, forever lives through the angst of Americas unending trials and tribulations as if he was a native born and bred still living within the troubled heart of it all.

The perplexing question that has never left his thoughts and still remains unanswered, is, Where and How in America did all the racial and sexual violence, hatred, prejudice, anger, rage and vicious indifference to life itself first begin? Is the on-going devolution of American culture and society, that now seemingly is approaching a critical meltdown stage, is simply the natural progression of two thousand years of a racist, privileged Western Civilization that began to horribly metastasize with the White Mans discovery of the New World and a pathetic repeat of the previous two thousand plus years of indifference to the slavery and brutality against all forms of indigenous and non-indigenous human beings, the natural world and its feminine realities; fueled by homo sapiens pandemic greed that actually has long since gone hopelessly viral ever since the species emergence into being?

In protest to George Floyds death at the hands and knees of four Minneapolis Policemen, Basketball Great Lebron The King James succinctly put the answer to the question in a political meme with a photo posted on Instagram, Do You Understand Now? Or is it Still Blurred to You?

Its Not Blurred to this writer.

Instead, it once again, like so many times before about the collective plight of Black Americans, Native Americans, Mexican Americans, Asian Americans and so many other black and brown and white human beings. An experience that is as deeply heart-wrenching, sickening and painful that we live in a time when the United States, as one nation case in point, has seemingly made so little progress in eradicating racial violence and racism, or political corruption, any more than it has reduced human greed. The travesty of the COVID Mayhem, especially for people of colour, that continues to evolve throughout the Americas and indeed the world, and the ruthless rule of those like President Trump, Jair Bolsanaro and other world leaders who follow their lead, are writ large examples of such ruthless rule.

Many wise and erudite ones already have written reams about all the whys and wherefores of how this all has come to pass, or what the outcome ultimately will be, but suffice it to repeat Lebron James Instagram question to us, all, Do You Understand Now? Or is it Still Blurred to You?

So Here We All Are, Caught Together in the Great Spiders Web of the Universe! What Do We All Do About It Next in 2020, As We Continue To Hurtle Through Endless Cosmic Space?

Jerome Irwin is a freelance writer and author of “The Wild Gentle Ones; A Turtle Island Odyssey” (www.turtle-island-odyssey.com), a three volume account of his travels as a spiritual sojourner, during the 1960’s, 70’s & 80’s, among Native American & First Nation peoples in North America. It encompasses the Indigenous Spiritual Renaissance & Liberation Movements that emerged throughout North America during the civil rights era. In addition to being a long-time political activist and organizer, Irwin has authored over the years a number of environmental, political, cultural, spiritual articles with special emphasis on Native Americans, First Nations, Australian aboriginals, and native peoples of Israel, Gaza, Palestine and Syria and racism against Black Americans (See article, “Kaepernick, NFL, America & U.S. Constitution Lock Horns in the Coliseum (Oct, 2017) . Irwin also is the publisher of The Wild Gentle Press. He can be contacted at 1398 Hope Road, North Vancouver, B.C. Canada, V7P1W7 or [email protected]