I
haven't checked in, or written a great deal, lately. Time and events
have been rather overwhelming and when I do write, I find I write out
of a sense of urgency, or because I'm so enraged by what I've
witnessed, I cannot hold it in. My orchestra is on hiatus, for how
long? Who knows? I live in a Red State, which has completely and very
ham-fistedly bungled any head start the Medical Community possibly
had on containing the Coronavirus and they re-opened much, much, too
soon, as we are now seeing. The global window is rapidly closing, and
there is a new swine flu virus in Asia, that is, supposedly, not
transmissible to humans, although people who do work with swine
there, have tested positive for it, but are asymptomatic, and there
are no signs that the virus is transmissible from person to person*.
Shortly
after I wrote my previous post regarding the evictions en masse in
the lower-income housing not very far from my house, and the
heart-breaking image of the children's toys came the death of George
Floyd and the Revolution took to the streets. I really had nothing to
say on that, other than, “about time” and “I can be your
Trotsky, should you need one”, but felt the people were eloquent
enough in their righteous anger and fury over the dis-enfranchisement
and the breaking of the contract that America should have kept with
Black Americans and POC. Besides, I mentioned “fault lines” in my
last post prior to all of the civil disobedience and Here. We. Are.
We all do want the same thing and deserve it: equal treatment under
the Law, Safety, and Fairness. What could be easier?
courtesy of:junkee.com
Elijah McClain
But, apparently,
we still have nameless gorms who prefer living in the bad old days of
Jim Crow and “Whites Only”, or more recently "White Power". Again, I'm really glad my folks
aren't here to see this travesty of a country we've become. I
remember my father and his sister telling me of the time they were driving in the old flivver, with their father, Grandpa Wallace, in like 1937, in the back woods
of Michigan, and they happened upon three white men, trying to string
up a black man, who was on a lonely road, in the wrong place, at the
wrong time. My grandfather, being a Wallace, stopped the car and like
something out of “To Kill A Mockingbird”, confronted the men. He stood them down. Being the cowards that they were, they left the scene, leaving the black man alone.
My
father was pretty young at the time and I got most of the story from
his older sister, Mary, my namesake. It seems the black man was
walking the back roads of the lower peninsula of Michigan, looking
for work. His people were in Illinois. My Grandfather came from a
long line of crofters in Scotland. Sir William was originally a farmer before he led armies. He was also literate, having been schooled by his uncle, the local Priest. Anyway, his great-great-great-great, many times over grandson took the man home and fed him,
and gave him a place to sleep for a few weeks, while he helped my
Grandmother with chores and my Grandfather in the fields. Winter was
coming, so when the hard frost hit, my folks paid the man, and sent
him home. My folks being of Scots blood didn't hold with all of this
“colored this” and “colored that”; they had also known
oppression in their day. , However, I really, really digress.
This
is about the life and death of Elijah McClain; a young man I barely
heard of until this week. There were a few things in the news about him. But,
there's been so much lately. We started the year with an Impeachment
Trial, Kobe Bryant died, which was huge and then, went right into
Covid-19, with a side-helping of Aliens, courtesy of the U. S. Navy,
in the early days of the Pandemic; I guess on the off-chance we'd all
have whip-lash and have forgotten how to read. We closed the Economy,
and then, when cases slowed, we opened the Economy, and... OOOPS! Too
soon! Now, we're dealing with exponential increases in cases of
Covid-19 and our global window is closing. We may as well just throw
in the towel. Period.
But,
back to Elijah McClain. A gentle-souled, sweet young man who lived in
Aurora, Colorado. By all accounts, he was a wonderful person. He
worked as a massage therapist and his clients loved him for his
sweetness, warmth and the way he lit up a room. He played the violin
and on his breaks, he would go to the local animal shelter and play
for the homeless cats and dogs there. “It soothed them,” one
young lady said. I wish I knew more about Elijah. I wish I knew him
when he was alive.
One
night last year, on August 24, 2019, Elijah went to get his brother
an iced tea. He wore an open ski mask because he suffered from anemia
and he would get cold. I know what that's like. Someone called the
police and reported a “suspicious person, wearing a mask and waving
his hands”. Although unarmed and just listening to music, police
say a “struggle ensued”. A carotid hold was placed on Elijah and
when he didn't calm down, he was injected with Ketamine**, a supposed
“therapeutic dose” to calm him down. It put him into cardiac
arrest. He was transported to the hospital and put on life support.
His family finally had him taken off life support on August 30,
brain-dead and covered in bruises.
courtesy of:Junkee.com
Elijah, playing his violin to the stray cats in the shelter. It soothed them the shelter workers said. My cats love it when I play.
This
is the bare-bones, brief story. For months, the body-cam footage was
not released by the APD. When released, an officer can be heard
admitting that Elijah had done nothing illegal prior to his arrest.
Another officer accuses Elijah of trying to grab one of their guns.
In the meantime, Elijah can be heard trying to say he's turning off
his music; he vomits, and says his house is “right there”, then
apologizes. “I wasn't trying to do that. I just can't breathe
correctly.” One of the officers can be heard threatening to sic his
dog on Elijah and also that he showed an “extreme show of strength
when officers tried to pin back his arms”.
Very
little of the officers' protocol can be observed however, due to
their contention that their body cams all fell off during the arrest.
The autopsy was inconclusive, and subsequent news reports seemed to
point to McClaine himself as the unwitting cause of his own demise,
because he struggled so, but, as Mari Newman, an attorney for the
McClain family stated at the time, “Whatever the report says, it's
clear if the police had not attacked Elijah McClain, he would be
alive today.”
The
officers, as officers in just about every one of these cases, with
the notable exceptions of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and most
recently Rayshard Brooks, got off, initially, but a ground-swell of
outrage and a plea from the Aurora, CO community and then, the
nation, led the Attorney General of CO to re-open the Elijah McClain
case and take a good, hard look at the injustice that was done to
this fine, young man.
As
a musician, I feel this. As a human being, this is just beyond the
pale. Last Thursday evening, there was a violin vigil held for Elijah
McClain in Aurora, in a park. Many string players showed up to play
and practicing social distancing, they were playing Pachelbel's
“Canon in D”. I know this piece by heart. I can riff on it, play
it blues-y, play it jazz-y, play it in my sleep, play it upside down.
But, I didn't get to hear much of what these talented, young
musicians were doing, because the cops showed up. They showed up and
they did what they do best. They threw a bunch of pepper spray or
tear gas and they were in full riot gear. I could not hear any music
over the screaming of “NO! NO! NO! NO! NO!” My poor kitty Allie
could hear this and she got distressed. What is so wrong with us as a
country that we can no longer assemble as is OUR RIGHT UNDER THE LAW!
Not just any right, but our 1st AMENDMENT RIGHT!
These
people weren't preaching sedition, or treason (why bother, we have a
treasonous bastard for a President?), nor were they plotting the
overthrow of the government, although it may be time to start
thinking about a major change, because this shit ain't working!
courtesy of:@ohsnapitztab via the CUT
MUSIC
transcends color, sex, orientation, religion, culture, time and
belongs to everyone. I will NEVER get to hear Elijah McClain play,
but boy, do I wish I did. I think I really missed out on something
lovely. The more we take the beauty and grace out of our society the
uglier we become. I, for one, don't want to see this happen. Say his
name. Elijah McClain. Remember him. Say his name. Someone must; I know he's
indelibly etched upon my heart.
====================================================================
*CNN Report, June 29, 2020
**Ketamine was approved for use on humans in 1962. Prior to that it was used primarily as a horse tranquilizer. It is known as Vitamin K, Special K on the street and is known to cause seizures, dementia and can cause arrhythmia when used in people with heart conditions.
For more information, please see this site: https://www.thecut.com/2020/06/the-killing-of-elijah-mcclain-everything-we-know.html
