In which we wonder

We’re starting to think we allowed too much time in the invites between opening registration and clearing the waitlist. One week seems like enough to allow even the most gadding gadabout to get to a computer and sign up. I’ll note that for the future.

I have to admit I’m looking forward to the topic releases on 8/15. There is a possibility that both LD and PF will be arguing reparations. I had strongly been hoping for the use of that topic on the LD side, but I had a conversation with someone early in the season who was positive that the membership would never vote for it and therefore it would never happen. I’m beginning to believe he might have been right, and it would be a real shame. I can’t imagine a more important subject than race, and by me it’s so much better that it actually be the resolution than a resolution preempt. The events of this last year have to have been a wakeup call to even the most obtuse privilege-ensconced souls that we are nowhere near a non-racist society. Talking about things up front will never hurt.

Of course, from my perspective, raised in the second half of the 20th century, the state of affairs today is saddening. One sort of expected that civil rights would simply extend to all and racism would fade as society in general became more enlightened. Not a post-racial society, perhaps, but a less racist one. As it turns out, that sort of thinking was borderline idiotic. I mean, there may be less racism, or maybe there’s fewer racists, or maybe not, but the issue is not a matter of quantification. The racism that exists is too strong a poison to be affected by dilution. And looking around, we start to question whether some sort of innate fear/hatred of identifiable others is not a factor of a particular society but an innate feature of humanity. That’s beyond sad. That borders on despair.

 I wish I could be more cheerful. But on this subject, there is no cheer. One can only hope against hope that, somehow, we find some direction that makes sense.