24/02/2022
DISCLAIMERS: I am not a BIPOC. I watch streams and mudlark through Twitter. I KNOW Facebook likes to mess up the Twitter links, I can’t change that. Copy-paste to share, won’t work otherwise. Please support the on-the-ground journalists bringing us the information, and also the organizations working to change our reality for the better.
BLACK LIVES MATTER.
Portland, Oregon, Texas, Ukraine. February 19-24, 2022.
An Abbot, a Smith, and a Road-man walk into a war.
There was a protest/march/memorial planned at Normandale Park in PdX for Saturday evening. BEFORE the protest, some of the Portland-area protest infrastructure started to gather. If you weren’t aware, these include people who give rides to others attending, food and water providers, medical care, often people who are doing outreach for mutual aid organizations, and traffic control. The last one is very important, and prior to marches, includes coordinating where protesters can park, and organizing the vehicles that will eventually help protect against vehicle-based attacks (which are common).
A small group of female-presenting people, wearing hi-visibility jackets, were coordinating traffic near the park (about a block away from the main group of the protestors). This group included June “T-Rex” Knightly. T-Rex was a 60 year old woman, used a cane to walk, and was well known for giving rides to protestors. Another of the people directing traffic was wearing a go-pro that was recording.
Benjamin Smith came out of the house he rented and attacked the people directing traffic. The initial attack was verbal, he then escalated to shoving, and then to shooting. T-Rex died at the scene, another person is reported as being paralyzed, and others were seriously injured as well. As they were being attacked, the traffic coordinators called out for help, and a volunteer security-person, who has a legal concealed carry weapon, ran to the scene and shot Smith in the hip.
Benjamin Smith is a white supremacist whose neighbors describe as “unhinged” and “really wanting to kill people”. His rhetoric surrounding BLM and Antifa was extreme, and was influenced by consuming fascist media. As will surprise no one, PPB released factually untrue press releases, and local news outlets released the name of the person who shot Smith, exposing them to fash attacks.
Let’s shift battlefields, if not wars.
Very early Thursday morning (local time), Putin physically invaded Ukraine. Earlier in the day there were cyber attacks. As of the time I am writing this, there have been attacks in at least three cities, with rumors of ground forces advancing, air skirmishes between fighter jets, and missiles. Putin claims that Ukraine is being ruled by fascists, and that he is invading partly to de-nazify the country. Ukraine does have a long history of embracing white supremacists, and some of the groups that the US media has earnestly reported as being “national guard” are in fact violent fascist militias (air raid sirens are wailing over the voice of the reporter I am listening to, my skin is crawling). HOWEVER. The legally elected president of the Ukraine is Jewish. The Ukraine conflict (not the Ukraine SIDE, just the conflict) is currently a beacon for white supremacists who feel that they need to actively fight and kill. The same people who have been barricading streets, and breaking into government buildings, and confronting their enemy on their local street corner.
Our last front to visit in today’s tour-of-fascism is laid in the policies of the state of Texas. Governor Abbot has declared that needed health-care for trans (and other gender non-conforming) youth is now classified as criminal child abuse. As fascists are wont to do, the most vulnerable are targeted first, and so the focus of this push is to further traumatize foster-youth, and the families who are caring for them. Gender affirming treatment is essential to the health and survival of LGTBQUIA+ humans.
I am tired. I think that if you are reading this, it’s quite likely you are also very tired, and feeling spread thin across all the things you must care about in this reality. But TODAY, right now, human beings are dying on your local street corners, and at airports in Ukraine, and in a state of despair named after friendship. I hope that at LEAST you can gather enough strength to watch, to witness, to hear the truth being spoken. And hopefully, to ACT.
