"If it doesn't fit, get a bigger hammer" or “Don't force it, get a bigger hammer”

I can't figure out if the president is trying to channel his inner German, Tim the Tool Man Taylor, or Arthur Bloch... Regardless, the idea that he's telling the governors of the US to use MORE force, be more dominating in their approach to leadership, that they're weak and that they're "going to look like a bunch of jerks" if they don't "dominate" the situation, while his press secretary says, on his behalf, "what stops anarchy is action," is the complete wrong message.

In a time like this, when frustration is justly high, it's a message of empathy, sympathy, unity - SOMETHING to bring us together - that will help.

Instead, he's instructing governors to call in the national guard, use more force, arrest, and jail for up to ten years. That will end everything in his mind.

Meanwhile, we have the family of George Floyd calling out for Peace. Continue to protest the injustices, but do not riot and destroy.

We have our last president saying to protest, but not riot and destroy, and to remember that change comes in the ballot box.

True leaders unite and see what they can do to fix problems - they don't stoke the flames.

Our current president, as reporter Jim Acosta put it a few days ago, "is a president at times as we know who likes to light the match, set the fire, and then run away from the flames."

As people die from COVID-19, he's safe as everyone around him gets tested regularly. He can flaunt not wearing a mask, encouraging others not to as well.

As people protest, demanding justice, he demands force is used against men and women, as he is secure in his bunker without fear of harm.

Color blindness should not be color indifference

Right now, I could be writing this from anywhere in the country, inside or outside, in a restaurant, or loitering, hanging out on a boardwalk, and no one would blink. In fact, I’m usually ignored to the point that you’d think I’m invisible (couple of stories there). I never thought much of it aside from the humor… Not until the last week.

I was raised color blind. I am thankful to my father for that. In the military, shoulder to shoulder with other soldiers, starting in Vietnam, it was about your fellow man for him, not about the color of their skin. For me, I was raised on military bases, which were always a melting pot. No one told me someone was this or that. To go 80’s on it, “people are people, so why should it be? You and I should get along so awfully…”

As I got older, I entered the workforce while I lived on a military base, still a melting pot, working around men and women, but I never gave much thought to color, nor gender – just the work. Good work was good work, bad work was bad work. That stuck with me when I moved into Corporate America and the world moved into being more PC and we really had to mind our P’s and Q’s. But, I was looking at people as people, not male or female, their cultural background, or whatever. I just cared if they could do the job, compose an email at above a 4^th grade reading level, and follow processes.

I’m not saying this to toot my own horn…

What I missed somewhere along the way is that there is a difference between color blindness and color indifference.

In the early 00’s, there was a crackdown on, let’s call it, indecent usage of the internet. Before that time, I let it be known, “don’t send that $%#@ to me,” when it was circulating. When guys would say things about women on the clock when I was younger, I wouldn’t say anything. It would make me uncomfortable, but I would just walk away, shrug it off, or mumble nonsense. I didn’t stop it.

I’ve realized now that I’ve done the same thing with racial intolerance. People have said things to me… “around” me over the years. Despite doing MY best to treat everyone equally, regardless of their gender, ethnicity, sexual preference, gender assignment, or physical ability… By not saying something when people say things that, in my heart of hearts, I know to be wrong, I’ve helped to perpetuate intolerance on multiple levels. Don’t get me wrong, some people knew what they said made me uncomfortable, but I didn’t do enough. I know that now.

I have to do better… We have to do better.

To the “where I’m writing this” example… I could be writing this from anywhere, while an African American man could get harassed by a police officer in La Mesa, CA for sitting, doing nothing, waiting for a friend. While I’m “invisible”, others are profiled and targeted for no reason. Is that right?

If I had asked the same lady in the Ramble in Central Park to leash her dog – I’m a geek comic writer / editor just like Christian Cooper – would she have called the cops on me and said I was threatening her? No.

I can’t even imagine with what happened in Minnesota… It’s too horrible. That SHOULD NOT have happened. I have had an experience with a counterfeit $20 bill, but it was such a NON-ISSUE when I was younger. It was given to me as change over twenty years ago and I didn’t catch it, it was noticed when I tried to use it somewhere else. Oops, and it was handed back to me. I believe I ripped it up when I got home. It happened so long ago that the details are fuzzy except the broad strokes – that’s just how little of an impact it made on my life. It was an inconvenience in that I was pissed that I was out $20. I lost $20, while George Floyd lost his life.

Over. Twenty. Dollars.

The racial tension that has built up for decades has only gotten worse in the last five years due to our current political climate, but this shouldn’t be about that. The last five years HAVE shown us, however, live on television – from protests waving Nazi flags to politicians quoting hateful rhetoric – the dirty little secret in America is out in the open… Racism is alive and well.

I think all of our eyes are VERY open today to that fact.

There’s a piece of graffiti that I’m reminded of that someone posted – “Make racists afraid again.”

While I think we all know what, over the last five years, has “uncorked” the rhetoric, it has intensified over the last three. People have come to think it’s okay to say what you want and do what you want to the point that it’s okay to walk into a state’s capitol, armed with AR-15’s and wearing tactical gear, yelling to open up America… As long as you’re white.

It’s okay to loiter, to wander, and get close to chaos… as long as you’re white.

The last week has taught me the true meaning, FINALLY, of white privilege. And, by God, I’m sorry it has taken me this long.

Peaceful protesters were not treated well in recent days by the police – tear gas, rubber bullets, bean bags, and arrests.

White reporters left alone while an African American reporter was arrested. Same general positioning, different response.

Is there some sort of inequity here?

I see that it’s not okay to sit idly by – if you’re in a group and someone says something or does something that is not acceptable, you HAVE to call them out on it. You don’t have to judge them on the past, but if they do something, say something and give them the opportunity to move forward.

The next time something happens that you’re not comfortable with – something said or something done – let them know it’s not okay.

LET’S START TODAY. NOW.

This goes from tossing around derogatory names for different ethnicities to treating people differently or “less than” for any damned reason.

Again, we’re in the middle of a reality check here… I’m shifting my way of thinking. I’m just asking my friends, my family, everyone… please… take the time to think about it and see if you can take this journey with me.

We are all one people, but we do not experience the world the same way.

We can treat each other equally AND celebrate our differences.

When we look to people, and this includes those in power, we need to hold them by the same standards – We can’t allow our leaders to judge others based on race, gender, physical ability, sexual preference, sexual orientation, or identification – they are part of us, but they are not the sum total of what comprises US.

WE the people, not We the people*.

*only if you agree with me.

To everyone:

Extend a hand.

Start to heal.

Make some changes.

#JusticeForGeorgeFloyd

Folksonomy and a Taxonomy

Have you ever been a little bit curious about what the whole folksonomy versus taxonomy thing was all about? Well, I wasn't so much, it seemed pretty cut and dry when I read about it in a class I'm taking right now on Web 2.0, but I did get a little more information out of it than I thought!

Taxonomy is the old school way of categorizing things. Much like creatures on the planet, with genus, species, sub-species, etc, Taxonomy categorizes by taking a higher level category and making it more and more granular until you hit the item in question. Take music, for example. Say you would like to categorize the band Metallica. You would put it in Music, Rock, Metal, Heavy Metal, Thrash Metal, and then it would be alphabetical by "M" for Metallica. If you haven't tried it before, go to Yahoo and try to find any band or any movie just by clicking through categories.

Folksonomy, on the other hand, is all about tags instead of categories. You may throw tags on a web site, making things easily searchable with a search engine. This even works to the level of certain web sites. Photo web sites do have conventional categories, but they also have tags, allowing you to bypass a specific classification, pigeon-holing the photo, and calling it what it is. A photo of a celebrity, like Matt Bellamy, could have tags such as "Muse", "Matt Bellamy", "band", "music", "Custom Guitars", etc... Each of those would find pictures that fall into that tag including, conveniently, the one you tagged. What's the benefit of this? Well, on a lot of sites, people can tag others' photos, posts, etc, to relate them to other people, paces, things, sites, whatever. So if I take a picture of a group of people and post it on FaceBook, for example, tagging three people I know who I took the picture of, someone else might come along, see the picture, and tag several other people, etc. How do you think sites like Ancestry.com manage to work so well? It's a combination of individuals entering in their own personal data and random people finding relations they may not have known about.

Bottom line, though... The two are related in the sense that you end up loosely categorizing things using folksonomy, but how things are "categorized" in folksonomy isn't necessarily in a way you could call it taxonomy.

Clear that up?

folksonomy and a taxonomy.