(4) BLUFs: Juneteenth Special

Happy Juneteenth!

Ironic, 2020 don’t feel like freedom to me, but let’s celebrate how far we’ve come, and the glorious future we’re gonna make happen! Get some. No slack.

#1 BLUF: Awesome! I’m signing! But the why the fuck do we need a petition?

It’s funny, in the Army I earned the Global War On Terrorism Service Ribbon… I know terrorism when I see it. What blew my fucking mind when I saw this story is the revelation that the KKK isn’t ALREADY labeled a terrorist organization! WTF??? Since our government clearly needs a kick in the ass:

Sign the petition here!

Fuck the KKK everyday, same as Al Qaida, Nazis, and any other group that supports hate and oppression. Amen.

#2 BLUF: Long over due! Better late than never.

I caught this article on LinkedIn. General Petraeus has been very vocal on race related issues lately above and beyond what is typical in my experience among General Officers, active or retired, even now. I applaud him on it. You can find his profile here if you want to follow the issues he’s addressing.

I shared with him in my comments the same sentiments I have with many others over the years: from when I joined the Army in 1998 through 18 years serving our country it always boggled my mind that we ever allowed confederate homage on any of our bases, just the same as we wouldn’t name them “Fort Hitler” or “Fort George III.” It’s always been bass ackwards, I guess better late than never that we’re finally gonna get it fixed now.

#3 BLUF: Bitch, the divorce was final over 150 years ago. Move on.

I can appreciate it that there are many people who aren’t willfully racist and feel offended in some way to be seeing confederate monuments coming down. Just as I was a Soldier, I can acknowledge that many good men died for the South that were just following orders and deserve some honor as part of our American legacy and the history of many good Americans in our country today.

With all that said, I am definitely on the side of confederate monuments coming down, and I submit to you that them coming down doesn’t need to be taken as disrespect to you, those who don’t intend to be racist yet don’t want them to come down.

Think about it like a divorce analogy: My ex wife don’t wear my ring no more. We had the moments we had, nothing will ever erase them. They happened, the good and the bad, and shaped us to be the people we are today… our marriage shaped our children… and undoubtedly will shape our children’s children in some ways too.

There’s lots of pictures and stories and traditions that will endure in the future as a result of the history between me and my ex, that’s for sure. However, publicly the rings come off after the split, that’s just how it goes.

Same goes with monuments of confederacy and ways of living we have evolved to know are against our values to honor anymore today. In my family I’ve got white “rednecks” deep down south and black “thugs” up north too, all good people, with very different emotions about history. It is what it is.

But America ended its relationship with the confederacy in 1865, a divorce by war. The confederacy got no property on this soil in that settlement, nor any entitlement America wear its jewelry either. It’s been over 150 years, it’s dysfunctional to not move on.

It’s great to see these monuments finally coming down, it opens up the future for better than we’ve ever had before.

#4 BLUF: Big homerun on a fast moving curve ball… but we’re still not in the lead.

I was surprised and relieved to hear of the rights upheld on behalf of LGBTQ people in America this week, ESPECIALLY given my concerns about the conservative nature of the Supreme Court these days. However, I see this as just an affirmation of basic human rights LGBTQ which is long overdue…

… and assert that the onus is on all of us to propel equality in our corporate cultures and people practices, and demand better rights and agency for workers with much more vigor than we do now still. We are not leading the way among major economies in that regard, so lets not get full of ourselves like we are. Stay hungry!

We still need to advance corporate transparency in pay and D&I, close pay gaps, hiring gaps, neutralize health care as a means of corporate leverage on workers, and defend Americans from restrictive measures like parts of the controversial AB5 in California that unjustly limits independent enterprise… and much more than that. There’s many more chains yet to be broken. Just sayin.

Happy Juneteenth 2020!