Trick: They Way We Treat Each Other is Monstrous

SOS.  Sustain Our Souls.  Save Our Selves.  What are we doing to each other? As a nation, we are suffering, and that pain plays out in different ways.  With a monster flu epidemic, I am scared of everyone that coughs on the subway, or in the theater. Maybe the fear of being needy or dependent has made us more fearful of each other. But change has changed, while some things remain the same. Coast-to-coast, we are still scared every time a police cruiser pulls up behind us; every time that IRS envelope is pulled from the mailbox.  Probably the one black man in the USA, who by his job description is for all people, is labeled racist by some in the media, and more in their homes. We politic our lives while some die when they could live, if care were provided.    This Stephen King novel of hate and indifference is scarier than any goblin, and haunts us like no ghost ever seen.

Hit by car no one helps

And if that’s Americans ignoring Americans, then what about evil and greed?   Scary; too.  We witness our judicial system taking lives and giving life sentences, pushing law to leverage government funds. Sure we commit the crime, but we do more time than most.  Statistically, its true. But reform has become big business, and the profit motive has pushed some to unbalance the scales of justice.   Former judges Michael T. Conahan and Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. face 48 counts of sending kids to jail to populate a private prison in exchange for money.  Even for perceived righteousness, the monsters are jailing our country’s youth.

Sarah Kruzan: Sentenced to Life Without Parole at Age 16

But what we know is that after Hallow’s Eve is All Saint’s Day.  And while the beatdowns go on in our heads and hearts, some of us our making time and making an opportunity for our forgotten.  Technology has been harnessed to create better gas mileage, and more immediate communication.  Thankfully, it has also been used to unlock some doors and set the innocent free. Saints be praised.

Innocence Project

And while big stuff is poppin, in our neighborhoods others are getting out too, and stopping.  No doubt Blacula exists, and many of us have been bitten.  While some of us argue which stakes should be driven where, the violence interrupters are doing what they do, heroes without costumes.

Cease Fire

Personally, I’m throwing a Spook party, where everyone dresses up like a famous black person.  A room full of Malcolms, Martins, and Micheals, dancing with all the Harriets, Mary McCloud’s, and Shirleys.  What would the holiday be without a friendly boo?  We still find funny in the struggle.  And the blues dance continues.

Whose Tube is a multimedia column by VeTalle Fusilier that analyzes web video and social media and how it  is being used to reflect and document global Black culture.