One Week

It's One Week before the 2020 election. These are the first news items (the ones before the weather and drive time reports) from the 4:30 am KIRO Morning News:

• 1.     Protests continue through the night in Seattle near Broadway and Pine.  Yesterday, in Philadelphia, another police shooting when Walter Wallace, Jr wouldn’t put down his knife.
• 2.    Amy Coney Barret is sworn in as the newest Supreme Court Justice
• 3.     Election 2020 campaign stops for Trump (Michigan, Wisconsin, Nebraska) and Biden (Georgia). Ballot returns in Washington (2,2 million have already been returned statewide). Assurances from Secretary of State Kim Wyman that ballots are secure (the counting machines are not connected to the internet)
• 4.      Coronavirus in Washington – new cases yesterday 587, 25 deaths.  New cases per 100,000 in a two week period are 111.2.  Goal is 25.
• 5.      Seattle City Council approved a stop gap measure to fund an 8 person team to coordinate outreach efforts for the homeless (after council previously approved measures to defund police). The first affordable high rise in Seattle for 50 years broke ground yesterday.  The 17 floor tower on First Hill will house low-income families and homeless seniors.

I started to write some thoughts on these topics, but I realize - once again - that I can't write them succinctly or with clarity. I'll try again with brief comments: 

1. In police encounters, Black people are more likely to be shot and killed than white people in the same circumstance.  Incomprehensible. All these years I accepted and believed it was true, but didn't understand the depths and layers of individual and systemic racism until starting my UW ISS classes.  The murder of George Floyd this year and the writing and information that came out afterward made it clear that I have more to learn.  I THINK I've learned it now...but I thought that before.  I'm open to figuring it out.     

2. Feeling powerless to stop the religious right takeover of the Supreme Court.  I wish people understood what we'll be losing when they didn't vote for Hillary Clinton in 2016. We were steamrolled after that.  I support adding more Justices to the Supreme Court.

3. I worry this is the calm before the storm.  I dropped my ballot off on 10/17/2020.  I confirmed on the County website that my ballot was accepted. I am hopeful that Biden will win. Like most other people, though, I know Trump could win.  It's all the stuff after November 4 that sounds scary.  We've been setup by Trump for a rocky time after the election if he doesn't win.  I'm afraid it will be rocky even if Trump wins.  Who's United States will I be living in if that happens?  Not the one I thought I was in, that's for sure. Also - what good is a Biden win if the Senate is still in the hands of Mitch McConnell?  We have to win the Senate and the House and the Presidency.  That's what the Republicans have led this country to...nobody can compromise (Newt Gingrich's Contract with America, Tea Party).  It's not healthy. Yup - this is the calm before the storm.

4. Coronavirus is confusing - what's the right level of caution? I'm erring on the side of extreme caution. It feels excessive.  But, I don't want to get it.  I don't want to get the flu either.  

5. Does anyone know how to solve homelessness?  The immediate concern is to get people into a safe space.  But, then we have to start looking at how and why people don't have homes.  Mental Health, Drugs, Income Inequality.  Overwhelming.  

That's the state of things one week before the election.