Change is in the air–on the TV, the web, your town and around the world. That’s what this post is about. We will will get there shortly. Black Lives Matter.

November 3rd is less than five months away. The current poll numbers show Trump losing the election to Biden in a big way. Neither Mueller nor impeachment could put him away. COVID-19 and now Derek Chauvin, George Floyd’s killer are bringing him down. Well, actually, it’s his own ineptitude—his own incompetent impulses to crises way over his capacity.

That’s a discussion for another post. Today is about the changing times. To the rapidly evolving response, finally, to one more killing of an unarmed Black man. But first a brief explanation of a style change at Views.

Hereinafter, Trump shall be known here as “Biff.” Biff was Marty McFly’s primary antagonist in the Back to the Future movie trilogy. Search your recollection or the web for the physical resemblance. What urges the change are the character traits. Traits they share, like being a bully, dumb and good for nothing.

Biff’s tweets are typically false, insulting, vulgar, and sometimes libelous. We will call them Drumpf Droppings. (Biff’s grandfather Friedrich Drumpf, changed his name sometime after coming to America). Droppings are what birds leave everywhere. Drumpf Droppings extend the analogy—befouling America with their filth.

We’ll talk more about Biff’s declining election prospects another day. Today it’s all about what’s happening in America’s racial attitudes.

The Times They Are a-Changin,’ was a Bob Dylan album from 1964. There were indeed lots of changes in the sixties. Among them, a variety of laws were passed protecting the civil rights of African-Americans. Laws tell people what they should and shouldn’t do. They provide punishment for infractions. What laws don’t do is change people’s attitudes. That takes time and some intervening events.

For everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven. That’s how the beginning of a verse from Ecclesiastes goes. The reverend Al Sharpton cited the Bible passage at the first eulogy he gave for George Floyd. Pete Seeger wrote a song based on the entire passage. The Byrds version of the Seeger song was titled Turn! Turn! Turn!—an oft repeated refrain calling for change.

Change has been a long time coming.

Blacks have been killed in America since they arrived as slaves in 1619. They’ve been killed at the hands of police for nearly as long. Why is real reform on the table now? Was something special about George Floyd? Certainly special and loved by family and friends. Not the first unarmed Black man killed by a cop. Not the first on video either. What changed since Eric Garner’s death in New York City? What since events in Ferguson, Missouri?

Maybe it is the season. Maybe the time to turn. Continue reading The Times They Are a-Changin’ →