It began with reports of tragic incidents in parks senior centers even churches. Older people were taking their lives singly, and in small groups. Older Black people, and 'only' Black people. It was just a few at first. Local news gave minor coverage.
Reporters interviewed family, and friends of the departed. They had no answers. To all it was inexplicable. There were some doctors giving chapter, and verse about depression among the elderly but that was it.
These "departures" as they would soon be called went on for several more days. Then stopped as suddenly as they had started.
Life carried on. The suicides were buried as other news cycles piled on top of them. Celebrity scandals, and other trivia took their places as the centers of interest.
However a few months later it began again. This at the start of the Holiday season. Once more just a few happenings. Again no apparent reason. Slight coverage, and once more forgotten.
Then came Christmas night.
All across the country from coast to coast came reports of not just handfuls, but of whole communities of Black people departing. The dead were found everywhere. In places of worship homes their cars public transportation even sidewalks.
As the night progressed it burst onto the many mediums. What was this "Black Death"!? Some suspected everything from poisoning by the government to space aliens.
Emergency medical teams all over the country were trying to save those they could. How could this have come to pass. The truth though before us was unseen.
Except for a few.
Then came Christmas night.
All across the country from coast to coast came reports of not just handfuls, but of whole communities of Black people departing. The dead were found everywhere. In places of worship homes their cars public transportation even sidewalks.
As the night progressed it burst onto the many mediums. What was this "Black Death"!? Some suspected everything from poisoning by the government to space aliens.
Emergency medical teams all over the country were trying to save those they could. How could this have come to pass. The truth though before us was unseen.
Except for a few.
Some more thoughtful commentators noticed that it was mostly the "Civil Rights" generation of Black Americans. The late middle aged, and elderly that had decided to leave.
An "Exodus" of a kind was in progress.
The year 2017 had seen the spread of regressive politics all over the world. America with it's recent election of a President sympathetic to white nationalism was no exception. Violent incidents against the "usual suspects" in the wake of that election. Especially in the summer, and fall of 2017 was particularly troubling.
...the leavings continued.
Emergency services were overwhelmed. Mass burials commenced. Parks ball fields even playgrounds became final resting places.
This as political, and religious leaders pleaded with those likely to depart to reconsider.
As the new year came, and went others applauded the horrific "Event". David Duke spoke at an early spring mass Nazi Klan rally in Atlanta. A city with now with only a portion of it's former Black population.
Duke said to cheering tens of thousands of white nationalists, "...I see the hand of G-d in these glorious days!" "He has made his judgment, and returned America to it's rightful owners!"
'And so it went.
The National Guard performed regional mass burials. Regular Army units defended the former communities of the departed where there were still many Blacks living. This defense was against organized raids by white nationalist militias. They were looting shops, and homes of the departed. That, and lynching what living blacks they could find.
The president had no coherent response.
However the vice president in a rare show of humanity made a special nationwide media appeal to those yet to perish.
He said, "....I know,...we know how our great nation has failed many of her loyal citizens. Yet we have made progress. Yes I admit slow painful progress towards justice. I plead with you to have the faith in this great republic you have always shown in the past. We are brethren."
The departures continued even increased.
The numbers are not complete, but as of the present date December 25th 2018. The first anniversary of the "Great Departure". It is estimated that one fourth of the Black population of the United States is gone. That is 9 million 400+ thousand people of African American decent have taken their own lives rather than live within our borders.
The Departures continue.
11 comments:
Many years ago a friend made his Great Departure.
The world is not a better place for his having done so.
Another friend of mine was once a U.S. Navy Corpsman. As part of his duties he would some times do work in various sections of Naval Hospitals. This included attending to patients who had attempted suicide. By his account, the overwhelming majority of them were happy to find themselves amongst the living. Surprised but happy.
I understand, but not always. Sometimes a decision is made to leave. This story is based on hearing of Jews in various parts of Nazi Europe during the War,...leaving. They seeing no real hope anymore.
Two hundred+ years of Slavery. One Hundred years of legal persecution. The another Sixty of Shadow Persecution with no end in sight. So yes that generation. The "Civil Rights" generation might now in the current environment see no other option. That is finally accepting that for 'them' at least there will be no justice. None.
Their children grandchildren, and great grandchild may live in a somewhat better country. This due to slow demographic changes. These changes which btw are the spark behind today's fearful white Nazi/Klan rear guard actions.
Yes in this century 'they' will fade into a vaster multicultural republic. However for these specific black people,...like me. There is no hope. So they in this fable made a decision. A final, and supreme judgement on America.
What will happen next? Other than as I wrote the celebrations of a few,...what? How will the rest of America respond to this brutal historic act of desperation?
Well...
"A final, and supreme judgement on America."
That's how I see it. People are down on suicide - you know, bullshit like saying it's "the coward's way out," or selfish, etc. - because it's a blow to their vanity. A person who kills himself is saying to society, "You people are such rotten company, such miserable excuses for human beings that I would rather be dead than spend another minute in your company" - and then proving that he means it in a way that is absolutely impossible to refute. So people denigrate them, making up nonsense in order to pretend that they haven't failed miserably as a society and as human beings.
Z
On the other hand besides five fingers.
A dear comrade that read the "Departure" story suggested I resume the saga of "Mid-Shipman Pip". It might restore my hope in things she thought. My friend loved the "Pip" story. For over a year she told me that she's been looking forward to more.
This combined with your encouragement I may consider this. Love kindness, and creativity in the face of horror is reasonable.
Perhaps 'more' than reasonable.
As I recall the story left off during a great storm engulfing the good HMS Foretina. Perhaps our hero Pip, and his new beloved Royal naval cadet Allahabad are upon the rigging doing their duty together. Thus becoming even more bonded in affection.
"Once upon a time,..."
Yes! Allahabad Wellington and midshipman Pip are an item!
One of the most radical things they could do is learn not only to sail a vessel themselves, but to navigate. I've read that back in the day in the British Navy, ordinary seamen were forbidden to learn to navigate, because that is real mastery, real power.
Z
Years ago I heard the story of Walter Benjamin who died 20 September 1940 in Portbou Spain. At that time, so the story is told, he faced being repatriated to France and so as a stateless person he would most likely fall into German hands. He took an overdose of morphine.
Despite his suicide, Benjamin was buried in the consecrated section of a Roman Catholic cemetery.
What can one say? I am happy that, who ever made the decision, allowed that in his death he should not be exiled. If the man had been denied burial it would have been an ultimate act of cruelty.
I am far from happy that the man ended his days in such comfortless despair. Further evidence that we have come a very far way from Paradise.
For the most part what I know of Benjamin comes from what others have said of him, but I have read this passage:
"This is how one pictures the angel of history. His face is turned toward the past. Where we perceive a chain of events, he sees one single catastrophe which keeps piling wreckage upon wreckage and hurls it in front of his feet. The angel would like to stay, awaken the dead, and make whole what has been smashed. But a storm is blowing from Paradise; it has got caught in his wings with such violence that the angel can no longer close them. The storm irresistibly propels him into the future to which his back is turned, while the pile of debris before him grows skyward. This storm is what we call progress."
There is that notion that the angel wishes to awaken the dead and make whole that which has been broken. That time has not yet come.
There is a hope though, which is born of that angel's wish.
Are Pip and his pal some cute kids or what?
Actually, that's Aliabod isn't it? Allahabad sounds like a town in Pakistan.
Z
India, actually. I just looked it up. And Aliabad is also a town in India, or Pakistan, or Afghanistan, or Iran - all of them, in fact!
Z
I spell checked the name. "Allahabad" is what I found so Allahabad it is. Also yes I've actually put pen tp paper on a new installment,...give me a week or so. It'll be a short episode picking up exactly where we left off after the storm.
They head to port for repairs. There our heroes get shore leave together.
Stay tuned.
Yes Patrick our lads are young turn of the 20th century Royal Navy midshipman. These at the time would be in their early to mid-teens. At the very start of life, and on their first adventures. An exciting, and special era of a life in reality or fiction.
Over a year ago I wrote a short episode about them within a larger story about dreams morphing one into another. I haven't written any fiction since. I mean other than the very dark "Departure" fable. The events of my life, and the world,...well I just no longer had the heart to continue. However the grim times we're in now move me to dream of other better worlds.
Stay tuned.
Post a Comment