When facing the enemy...

I met the enemy face to face yesterday.  

I had just finished workout and as my body doesn't recover like it used to, I headed for the hot tub in hopes of easing the aftereffects.  The hot tub itself is huge and can easily fit 20 people and because I'm not big on idle chit-chat, I wear a pair a headphones so I can listen to a podcast while I soak.

Most times the hot tub is empty but yesterday I wasn't that lucky.  The man started talking as soon as I entered the room but I couldn't hear him so I had to turn off my headphones.  He continued to talk though I was too far away to hear over the sound of the whirlpool's action.  In hindsight I wish I had hit the record button on my cell phone as what followed still doesn't seem believable.

He said, "All those vaccines have nanites in them."

Those were the first words I heard and while they came as a shock, I really shouldn't have been surprised.  As I waded past him I noticed he wore a hat in the hot tub.  No one wears a hat to a hot tub unless they want someone to see it.  His read 'Gun Owners for Trump'.  I hadn't noticed before entering because the hat's coloring scheme was two-tone camouflage which made seeing the words impossible from more than 10 feet away.

For the past year most of America has sat in isolation seeing images of the other.  Black vs White.  City vs. Rural.  Biden vs Trump.  Now we are finally more able to venture out and meeting one another and the first results aren't encouraging.

These days many people who proclaim to love freedom have willing taken labels that has replaced free thought.  Sometimes I wonder how many of us really listen to the words we hear but instead take marching orders from our group without question.  The ability to pick and chose our own news source has conditioned us to toe the line for our side.  I'm sure he made some assumptions about me since I am white, over 50, and male.  In America these days, that demographic means there's an 80% chance you're a Trump voter and also more likely anti-vaxx.  People just assume.

My first reaction was to call him a 'fucking idiot'.  Nothing frustrates me more than stupid people and this was a stupid statement.  I am not the type to look for confrontation especially with someone whose hat proclaims he has a gun, though I doubt he had one under his swimming trunks.

"Oh?"  I decided to see where the conversation might lead.

"They got video of them injecting someone and then using a magnet to pull the nanites back to the person's skin.  You can only see it viewed under a black light though."

"Really?"  

I wasn't really sure how to respond but I know I had a hundred thoughts going through my brain right then.  The man clearly wasn't vaccinated and by law should have been wearing a mask obviously me pointing it out would have been useless.  I wasn't wearing my mask because I am fully vaccinated though I do wear it in enclosed places where distancing is impossible or in places clearly marked as needing masks.

This guy looked to be about 70 years old with broad shoulders and a beer gut that that mostly likely caused the scale to tip somewhere north of 250 lbs.  In other words, a prime candidate for problems if he caught Covid but I didn't dare ask.  I really didn't want a follow up questions, as I didn't want an argument and I have a bad tendency to go from 0 to 100 when I get angry.

I asked, "Can people who've gotten the shot get these nanites out with magnets?"

"Oh no.  The chips  are embedded in their brains now.  They haven't started transmitting yet though."

"Interesting."  At this point I have to admit being a bit worried.  Even the most logical among us has that brief thought of 'What if he's right?'.  I mean it sounds crazy but it's human nature to think through the crazy.  'Nah'.  I told myself after a brief internal discussion.  'It's an insane theory.'  I mean, hell, if a global conspiracy wanted to put chips in us, there are a thousand other ways to do it.  A global pandemic and a vaccine that anyone could put under a microscope is very public.

That did lead me to the logical next question.

"Who is controlling the chips?"  I knew the answer could only be a half dozen places.  I honestly expected him to say the Jews.  Bill Gates was another clear possibility as his charity has spent a lot of money to reduce the spread of disease in places like Africa.  Of course another option was the Democrats themselves.

"China."

"China is putting nanites in the vaccines?"

"Yeah.  China created Covid in a lab, released it, and then put nanites in the vaccine."

That raised a bunch of questions for me.  "How would they do that?  If I remember correct, the vaccines used in the United States are being made in Michigan and New Jersey by Americans.  China and Russia have their own vaccines but that's not being used here."

"China is working through the CDC."

"Oh."  I nodded, not sure how to respond to that kind of conspiracy.  Whenever I'm faced with a situation like this I always try to meet the other person halfway.  I always try to see merit in every person's views but this guy was clearly off the rails.  My only thought now was to possibly get him to question his beliefs.

"I do agree that China is an increasing problem for the United States and it's going to get worse."

"Yeah."  He nodded back.

"Do you know the history of China?"

He nodded but didn't say anything.

I said, "They were probably the strongest country in the world for much of history.  Many ancient inventions including things like the printing press and gunpowder were invented there first but they grew too big and complacent just about the time Europe started down the path to the Industrial Revolution.  Europe used that growth to dominate the world for most of the 19th and 20th century.  China calls this time the 'Century of Humiliation'."

I could see him nodded at what I was saying, as it fit his narrative.  I decided to indulge it a bit more.

I said, "China is a society built from the top down.  The United States is a society built from the bottom up.  By that I mean, communism sets plans to push their people to state-set goals.  Capitalism uses the profit motive to satisfy demand for goods and gives a better standard of living." 

"The American way."  He said.

I said, "Yep but the problem is the Chinese turned capitalism against us.  They used their underdeveloped economy and cheap but well educated labor to entice American companies to build there.  They did whatever these companies wanted and that gave anyone who invested in China an advantage in price and quality.  Soon, if a manufacturing company hadn't moved their company to China, they weren't competitive.  The American business watchword in the 1990s and 2000s became outsourcing.  It slowly enriched the Chinese economy who relied on American markets for the goods they now produced.  But the Chinese didn't use this increasing power against us at first.  They are too smart for that.  After all, they had once endured a century of humiliation.  They know how to be patient."

"Exactly."

I said, "One question I wonder is how can our country respond?  Our leadership in Washington is divided.  That's part of the nature of democracy but ours is so broken that nothing gets done.  Meanwhile the leadership in Beijing is unified because that's the nature of a dictatorship."

I see the guy nodding and agreeing with me which was great but also knew this was probably where we would split ways.

I continued, "The only solution is our people and our government leaders have to start working with each other.  They have to compromise and form a unified vision.  They can't continue to only block the other side or we will see China patiently destroy our economic advantage little by little.  We need long term planning for our economy.  We need aggressive regional trade agreements.  NAFTA and TPP were a good starting points but imagine if we encouraged American companies to build those Chinese factories in Mexico instead.  American workers would complain mightily but we'd weaken China and strengthen a neighbor whose citizens are coming across our border looking for jobs.  It's a win/win solution but instead all we hear from Washington is hot air."

He didn't respond but I could tell I got him thinking.

I said, "And the one thing we have to always remember is China is patient and as they are a dictatorship their leaders don't have to win a popularity contest.  It's why we need to insist our leaders start doing this for the benefit of the country but right now the Chines know we aren't working together."

He said, "We need a revolution."

"That would kill our economy.  Right now the only thing propping up China's industries is American markets but American markets rely on the power of the dollar and the financial system.  China isn't ready to go on its own right now.  Why would they risk that by releasing a pandemic on purpose right now? Why not wait another ten years when they have more control of the world's economy?"

He said, "Because of they have control chips."

I shook my head.  I didn't have a good answer to that which wouldn't involve insulting the man's intelligence so I made a joke.

I said, "I guess if this is true and as most vaccines are from four countries - America, Europe, Russia, and China, then I'm glad Americans are getting the American vaccine.  That way the chips will be controlled by Americans and not Chinese or Russians."  I could see on his face, I thought this joke much funnier than him.

At this point the timer on the whirlpool action had long run out and he decided to get out.  I did notice he was giving me an odd look.  Perhaps he now saw me a double agent.  Or maybe I'm overthinking it and he just saw me as a know-it-all blowhard.  I decided not to say anything as he he got out of the hot tub and dried off.  Just before leaving he asked, "Do you want another 15 minutes?"

I said, "Sure.  Thanks."

Just before pushing the button he asked, "Did you know anyone who has taken the vaccine is going to die in three years?"

I shook my head, my brief thoughts of fear dissuaded by the rational part of my brain a second later.  "I hadn't heard that."  I'm not sure if he heard my response over the roar of the pulsing water.  

As I watched him leave, I thought it probable he'd pegged me as a liberal who had taken the vaccine and his final comment was a passive-aggressive way of saying 'fuck you' to me in parting.  And if so, perhaps my first instinct was correct and I should have correctly called him a 'fucking idiot' from the very start.

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How Hank Aaron was very important to me

Hank Aaron died today.

I was 7 years old when he broke Babe Ruth's record for hitting the most home runs in Major League Baseball history. The furor over that event seems silly in hindsight but it dominated the news during the winter of 1973-74. Of course, there were other stories going on like Vietnam and Watergate but a child's memories are attracted to some stories and not to others. To me, it was the only story that mattered. 

I grew up in a small town and small towns love to talk. My memories of that winter held discussions by relatives talking about Hank Aaron and how he was stealing Babe Ruth's record. That didn't make any sense to me. 

How was he stealing Babe's record? 

On the playground, we played a simple game called 'kickball'. The rules were simple. It was very similar to baseball only it substituted a rolled bouncy ball and a kicker for a pitched baseball and a batter. When you kicked the ball if someone caught it you were out. When you were running the bases if someone hit you with the ball and you weren't on a base you were out. If you kicked the ball hard enough and you were fast enough you could touch all four bases and get a home run. I was one of the lucky ones in my class because I could kick the ball well and run very fast. While there was some disagreement with a few of my classmates, most everyone agreed I was the best kickball player on the playground (a skill I was sad to find has few real-world applications).

During the runup of the 1974 Major League baseball season, I remember being happy I was able to have a discussion with adults. Of course, I took Hank Aaron's side in the discussions. We were a lot alike, Hank and me. He hit home runs. I kicked them. 

I think Hank Aaron was the first black man I ever noticed. It was either him or Morgan Freeman's characters on the TV show Electric Company. Hank seemed nice in interviews but I noticed he also looked tired. When he eventually broke the record I remember being proud as he made his slow saunter around the bases like a runner at the end of a very long race. I remember he also looked happy. 

We are not born racists. Racists are made and just like my classmates I was being groomed to be a racist at age 6 even if I didn't know it. 

Some people blame TV/movies and others blame stereotypical depictions in stories. These do play their part but the truth is much more insidious. It is passed down between generations on the schoolyard. When I started school I was innocent in the ways of racism. I'd never seen a black person in town and it was only later in life I realized I grew up in a sundown town. If you are unfamiliar with the term, it's a reference to signs that were put up just under a town's welcome sign that said something to the effect of 'No Blacks Allowed' though usually not stated that nice. Blacks could pass through but they couldn't stop and if they were caught in town after dark, it was an excuse for the town's male population to group up to teach a lesson.

In popular history these imagines are usually associated with people like Bull Connor and places in the deep south but it was just as prevalent in the North too and especially in the rural Midwest where I was born. If anything, southern towns were more honest in their racism. Midwestern towns usually didn't put up signs and most of these men weren't in the Klan but the beatings happened just the same. 

Blacks who had moved North in hopes of escaping the racism of the south were slowly herded into the cities, these areas eventually acquiring the name ghettos, the same name the Germans called the cities they forced Jews to live before the Nazis came up with a different, more Final Solution. 

I knew none of this when I first arrived on the playground. The playground at school was a broad new world. Before this time, our conversations had been limited to Mom, Dad, a couple of neighbors, and the occasional visit from relatives. Being from a small town we had a small class so we were eased into social interactions with an entire class totaling fifteen boys and fifteen girls. The bravest jumped headfirst into the chance to become individuals. We were free to talk and interact with anyone we chose. Anyone but the girls. That dividing line would not be broached until many years later. 

But I digress... 

It was on the playground I first heard the words of a rhyme. It was shouted any time two boys got into a disagreement, a common occurrence on the schoolyard that usually was nothing more than a wrestling match that ended with grass stains, not blood stains.

"Fight, Fight, A *Black and a White. If the White don't win we all jump in."

* - The word used wasn't Black. It started with an N and it's a word I refuse to say or type. I will be using *Black to denote it's use. 

Recess at school was done in shifts. Kindergarteners got three of them as I remember. 1st, 2nd, and 3rd graders got two. 4th graders and higher only got one. As there were more recesses than grades, there were times when separate classes had to be on the playground at the same time. As it was more dangerous for rowdy 4th graders to be on the playground at the same time as smaller Kindergartners,
the schedule matched up Kindergartens with 1st graders and 2nd graders with 3rd. 

Information flowed between grades almost always moving from older to younger. That's how we learned the rhyme I stated earlier. It's also how we boys learned a game called 'Smear the *Black'. 

This too was a simple game.  It is usually played with a ball and anyone who holds the ball was now the *Black.  It was the job of the rest of the boys to try to tackle him. Everyone took turns being the *Black and the one who stayed up the longest without being tackled was determined the schoolyard champion for the afternoon.

My breakthrough occurred when we were taught another stupid schoolyard taunt derived from another more common taunt. I wish I could remember the exact sequence but it has been almost 50 years. It is possible it only occurred on my playground, thought up by some nascent racist many years earlier. 

It started off when a boy offered to shake the hand of a loser after a game. The other, usually a poor loser, would say, "I'm not a *Black, I use toilet paper." The words sound stupid now but were seven and this was the most popular thing on my schoolyard in 1974. For a time, we didn't even need to play a game to say it. We'd just go up to someone and ask to shake their hand. I didn't get it. What did they mean? 

To this point, I hadn't considered the word *Black with anything negative. It had never been part of my vocabulary.  To me, the word *Black was the guy who carried the ball in a game where people wanted to tackle me.  

It was Hank Aaron who ended my confusion. 

The news reports were filled with stories of the constant hate he was receiving. The one I remember said, 'I'm going to kill you *Black'. I couldn't understand why this guy was so mad he wanted to kill Hank but I also couldn't understand why he'd used that word. 

As I was at an impasse and my friends were no help, I decided to ask my Mom. As I recall, she explained there were a lot of people in the world with hate in their hearts. She also told me I was never to use that word ever again (a promise I've kept for almost fifty years). 

A day later my best friend came to my house and we played a game. I don't remember who won but afterward, he told me I needed to offer him a handshake. When he gave the response "I'm not a *Black, I use toilet paper", I gave the response, "That's ok. I'm Hank Aaron." 

Now I know my words weren't Shakespeare but I remember being very happy with the response. 

After that, I used Hank's name as a sort of defense every time anyone used the word my Mom forbade me to say. As I was the best athlete in my class of fifteen, I'd run around taunting them with the words 'I'm Hank Aaron' at anyone that tried to tackle me, something none of them were able to do. 

I became a pre-pubescent social justice warrior of sorts, explaining to anyone that would listen how we weren't supposed to say the word *Black.  History has shown my efforts to reform my friends weren't successful but I did get them to change the name of the game we played from 'Smear the *Black' to 'Smear the Queer'.  I later realized this to be a hollow victory.

Hank Aaron was the first man outside of my family I idolized. I like that he never said much, he just did his job. Hank was near the end of his career when I started following him and he only hit another three dozen home runs after breaking Babe Ruth's record. It didn't matter to me. 

I've thought a lot about Hank and his record in the past few years. When we were kids I remember my grandmother telling me that her generation had screwed things up but ours would make the world a better place. She was no saint and probably as racist as most in town but I took her words to heart. 

I assumed everyone in my generation believes as I did that racism was bad and we would end it. It was a naive hope but one I hung on to much longer than I would have if I'd been paying attention. Racism doesn't happen to a generation overnight. It is little words and sayings. It is little beliefs and learnings that have crop up over decades. It doesn't have to be overt.  Watching another person commit the smallest of racist actions isn't racist per se but it's not-not-racist either. 

We all go through life believing ourselves to be the hero of the tale. We aren't the bad guy. Racists tendencies hid in the darkness for generations until they found a champion let them engage their anger. Words and sayings that had long lay dormant were back stunning elites but few others. The Midwest which had long hidden its racism under the veil of secrecy came out proud to join the hate of their southern brothers and sisters. 

I think a writer I like said it best - 'We're all in the South now.' 

Hank Aaron joined the Braves as an executive once his playing days were over. He was respected, one of the best in a field dominated by white men. He quietly toiled and did his job to help his team win a few championships. He never complained and he never spoke much. That was Hank. When the George Floyd riots happened last summer I wondered what Hank thought but as far as I know, he never made a comment. He did release a statement last year after the passing of the great civil rights leader, John Lewis.

The same could be said of Hank Aaron. I never met Hank Aaron but he was always important to me. 

He will be missed.

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