UC Recap – August 31st – September 5th
August 31 – September 5
Uptown Love in the Time of Coronavirus: We Are There
You may be tempted to look away. To not fully face the abyss that hovers on the horizon. To find solace and comfort in established norms and the niceties of representative Democracy. The Tyrant and his Republican minions could care less about your precious Democracy. They will collude, conspire and disenfranchise their way to another electoral victory. They have done it before, and they are doing their best to pull off a repeat performance. We are there.
The barbarians are not at the gate, they are in the White House. The least scrupulous, cruelest, and dimwitted President that has ever taken the oath of office is in power. The Swamp Thing has taken over the swamp. Tyrant Trump is the most powerful man on the planet. Read that last line over to yourself once again. Yes, the failed real estate mogul turned reality tv star who made pro wrestling cameo appearances and hawked everything from Trump wine to Trump steaks to Trump University is the man in charge of the greatest empire the world has ever known. We are there.
Ignorance may be bliss, but it is also lethal. It can also be weaponized. The Tyrant has radicalized his base and is constantly and deliberately inflaming and stoking their seething intolerance and xenophobia. They are armed, agitated and angry. We must face the fascism that has sprouted, blossomed and bloomed on our shores. We are there.
Yale Historian Timothy Snyder wrote a timely must-read book entitled On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century that will keep you up at night. In it he writes, “Be wary of paramilitaries. When the pro-leader paramilitary and the official police and military intermingle, the end has come.” We are there. It may already be too late.
Pa’lante, siempre pa’lante!
Keep checking us out at www.uptowncollective.com.
Led Black
Editor-in-Chief
The Uptown Collective
The UC’s mission is to become “the” definitive, transformative and community-based force impacting the arts, culture, business and New York City’s overall perception of Upper Manhattan. Its objective is to reset, reboot and positively redefine Uptown’s artistic, political, cultural and business spheres via the online space as well the collective’s initiatives and functions.
