Kentucky Tornadoes

​Of course they told them they couldn't go home. It's high season for scented candles. If you go home you'll be fired, they were told. Not true! a spokesperson for Mayfield Candle insisted. I believe the workers. I remember 9/11 when people were ordered to stay at their desks rather than leave the building. A friend of mine defied the order and left and is alive because of it. I am thinking of the horrific shirtwaist fire where the windows and exits were locked and women leapt to their deaths. The point is no matter what the cause of the tragedy - human or nature - profit always overrides the needs of humanity. The job and the output of said job always overrides the needs of humanity. And now, he said-she said begins. The lawyers are circling. T.V. reporters also, looking for the "get," because there's a great deal of profit to be made from this tragedy. From any tragedy, because even tragedy is monetized. Tragedy is a great source of cash. I am wishing that every cent of that profit went to the survivors but it won't.

Once upon a time in the late 70's, sitting on a stoop in Manhattan getting stoned with my best friend. We were discussing the fact that all life was being reduced to dollars and cents by the powers that be. We were discussing the inevitable over-turn of Roe because the boys, and the girls who worshipped the boys' and their  God, would never let it stand.

Religion and capitalism, two systems power that had been eyeing each other across the ballroom for years, with a spattering of inter-marriage here and there, decided it was time to dance. And dance they did. Schlafly stopped ERA - 'you'll have to go to the bathroom with men.' Heritage Foundation was established and Morton Blackwell's Leadership Institute. Paul Weyrich, one of the founders of the Heritage Foundation, went on to establish ALEC. Carefully organized, with money to burn, staying under the radar, and using divisiveness - the greatest tool EVER created by man for man - rabid conservatives got exactly what they wanted. Money and profit taking precedence over the needs of humanity and the planet, and an evangelical supreme court. And its all wrapped up in God's will and the will of God is mysterious and not for human beings to understand. People will do whatever they need to do, and believe whatever they need to believe, to feel safe.

Tornadoes hitting Kentucky were not the will of God but the result of climate change. That the tornado hit the candle company was also not the will of God; tornadoes know neither rhyme nor reason and aren't famous for compassionate choice. Someone is no doubt going to write me and say, “well they might have died if they’d gone home.” To which I respond, “but they were home,” and no I don’t expect everyone to understand that comment.

Our hearts are with the survivors; our hearts are with those who lost loved ones. 

Live loud, love fierce, and suffer no fools. Katherine Manaan
Secretary: Kitchen Table Caucus

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