The most revolutionary thing one can do is always to proclaim loudly what is happening. –Rosa Luxemburg

The air was crisp, the kind when wearing a glove is not required but debated. I ended up wearing one on my left hand, leaving the right free to handle the camera. There was no wind, the water still as a mirror. When the rain started the ponds looked like having goosebumps, or tears falling from the sky, I couldn’t decide which, since either applied to me as well.

Occasionally the stillness was disrupted into small waves from water fowl churning up food. Watercolor palette – beauty, and so quiet that I could hear myself think. Thoughts about the Rittenhouse verdict, only interrupted by unfamiliar duck calls and the flapping of wings. Thoughts about the fact that as an abolitionist you cannot wish for incarceration of an 18-year old. Thoughts that the injustice of this verdict, even if it was within legal bounds, will enhance vigilante tendencies in this country and encourage white supremacists to hunt down protesters with impunity. Thoughts that acquittal does not mean innocence, just that the prosecution could not live up to the burden of proof in face of this moral deprivation. Thoughts about the abundance of lethal weapons in the hands of angry people.

Thoughts that one of the key mechanism of change – education that reveals the truth – is actively and consciously undermined in the strategic playbook of the authoritarian Right. Thoughts that violence begets violence – the defense team of the acquitted party getting death threats, Oregon ACLU women representatives voicing their condemnation of the verdict receiving multiple threats of rape.

It is certain, in any case, that ignorance, allied with power, is the most ferocious enemy justice can have. – James Baldwin.

Thoughts about how history repeats itself, thinking of the German Freikorps of the 1920s, roaming bands of armed young men killing political opponents without state sanction.

All things are subject to interpretation. Whichever interpretation prevails at any given time is a function of power not truth. – Friedrich Nietzsche

Thoughts about justice.

That Justice is a blind goddess
Is a thing to which we black are wise:
Her bandage hides two festering sores
That once perhaps were eyes.

― Langston Hughes, The Panther and the Lash

Thoughts that I am in the company of diverse others who provide solidarity.

Politicians:

Rep. Jerry Nadler: This heartbreaking verdict is a miscarriage of justice and sets a dangerous precedent which justifies federal review by DOJ. Justice cannot tolerate armed persons crossing state lines looking for trouble while people engage in First Amendment-protected protest.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: What we are witnessing is a system functioning as designed and protecting those it was designed for. My heart still breaks for the communities and families whose grief now compounds, and the countless others who will be denied and deprived in similar scenes across the country.

Even with Rittenhouse not guilty, backfiring is always a possibility, whether it’s this young man going through life under constant suspicion by others or future acts of vigilantism waking others up to its dangers. Justice may not have been served, but Karma may still be around.

The Black Caucus: It is unconscionable our justice system would allow an armed vigilante — who traveled to Kenosha, Wisconsin and killed Joseph Rosenbaum, Anthony Huber, and wounded Gaige Grosskreutz — to go free.

Clergy:

Bishop Talbert Swan: If you don’t take issue with white men and boys carrying AR 15‘s to protests against injustice and the extra judicial police shootings of Black people, you’re part of the problem.

Bernice King: Let me clarify that not being surprised does not = not being pained, traumatized and deeply disappointed.

Ethicists:

Walter Shaub: Anyone who has spent 5 minutes in the US or read a history book knows why the shooter got off — and that the judge and jury just sentenced us all to more of this.

Lawyers:

Sherrilyn Ifill: Yes. As we’ve been saying – for decades. Truth? How we go forward is largely in the hands of white Americans. Is this the country you want? Because these outcomes reflect a system designed to protect your privilege. Are you speaking out, protesting, advocating, voting to change it?

Historians:

Ruth Ben–Ghiat: Right-wing playbook in a nutshell. Fascism started as armed bands in the countryside and cities killing leftists and progressive priests and getting away with it. King did not call on army to disband them during March on Rome Mussolini made PM. Read #Strongmen for the details.

Writers:

Elie Mystal: Well, that sucked, having to explain the verdict to my kid. Even though I clearly told him what *would* happen, he still didn’t believe me, thinking that I was “underestimating” the jury. I wasn’t. :(. Sadly, part of growing up Black is learning to never underestimate white folks. Travyon Martin was an unarmed 17-year-old kid. He was killed carrying a bag of skittles. The right-wing called him a threat. Kyle Rittenhouse was 17 years old and armed. He shot and killed 2 people with an AR-15. The right-wing calls him a hero.

Jacqueline Woodson: I’m broken-hearted but not stunned. I’m angry but not irrational. I’m done but not stopping.

Activists:

Paul Lee Teeks: BREAKING: Kyle Rittenhouse has been found “not black.”

Colin Kaepernick: We just witnessed a system built on white supremacy validate the terroristic acts of a white supremacist. This only further validates the need to abolish our current system. White supremacy cannot be reformed.

Kaitlin Byrd: If you’re a white person feeling tired, violated, angry right now: imagine how Black people feel? We remember all the names you’ve forgotten.

Zakir Khan: White allies, we need more from you.

George Takei: Call me when they acquit a 17 year old Black defendant who was armed with an AR-15 and who killed two people at a Trump rally in “self-defense.” Until then, sorry if it’s hard to believe there is anything close to a level justice field.

And one from the past, who summarized why we cannot ignore the racial component in any and all of these miscarriages of justice: James Baldwin in a 10 minute exchange with a conservative on the Dick Cavett show.

Fighting the autumnal mood while uplifted by fall’s beauty, I am clinging to the words of a wise woman:

Let this radicalize you rather than lead you to despair—Mariame Kaba.

(Christian) Music today is usually sung during this time of the year (27th Sunday after Trinity, or during Advent, Bach’s Cantata Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme (Awake, calls the voice to us.) The incomparably beautiful Cantata is based on the Parable of the 10 Virgins, which basically says: Be prepared when judgment day comes. (The 10 virgins waited for the bridegroom to arrive at midnight. 5 had not brought enough oil for their lamps and so hurried to buy some, missing out on the arrival of the groom, forever left behind.) I think we can disregard the eschatological meaning, but take the sentiment to heart: Wake up, see what’s going on, be prepared. Change is on us.

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