Ranting – StormCloud

Quick Update

With autumn 🍂 now in full swing, Sun still in Libra ♎ and about to dive into Scorpio ♏ in 10 days, thought I’d publish a fast 411 for interested parties.

Fall also pushed #COVID numbers back up once schools started. (Not that the cases ever stopped or even plateaued, mind you.) This is the data as of right now in #Montana, per the Montana COVID website: https://montana.maps.arcgis.com/apps/MapSeries/index.html?appid=7c34f3412536439491adcc2103421d4b

I recently learned firsthand the unpleasant experience of being tested for COVID, in spite of social distancing and wearing a mask. Why? Because motherfkkkers out there made a cheap and easy communal health-saving object into a goddamn political agenda because stupidity. People: if your nurses and providers are quarantined, sick, or DEAD because of coronavirus, who the fuck do you think will be left to care for your desperate-to-be-oppressed ass? Wear a fucking mask!

I am a Registered Nurse. I’m also a single (divorce) parent of 4 with 2 attending college and 2 in the public school district (via remote learning). At the moment, I’m working on getting To Kill A Mockingbird by white woman Harper Lee removed from the curriculum as it’s tone-deaf, outdated, and poorly written material. (Seriously, it’s dry as (a bad) fuck. Written in first person using vocabulary no 11 or 12-year-old would ever use, let alone as a narrative. It’s a terrible book.) Its use in schools promotes racism and is also an example of systemic racism in play. There are many (and much better) books out there that are more appropriate learning material, including many by Black and Indigenous authors.

So, yeah… My available time to contribute to my website is virtually non-existent at the moment.

This isn’t to say I don’t have plans in the works to share. However, until they’re closer to fruition, I’m holding them close. Suffice it to say, the personal projects I’m working on have to do with #tarot, #orgonites, and YouTube. (I’ll get back to writing novels eventually.) I’ll include teasers as time permits… here’s one now:

For now, for I encourage you to follow me on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/StormCloud_73

… and Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/stormcloud073

… for quick updates and peeks into what’s up in things StormCloud.

One last thing: #VOTE 🇺🇸

Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., speaks during a campaign event at Alexis Dupont High School in Wilmington, Del., Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2020. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Addendum to HMDDIM

Since I sent in my previous opinion letter, I was informed the current protest organizer is young, and therefore, less likely to have been present for the examples I listed.
That’s fine and good – then obviously that portion doesn’t necessarily apply to her. Regardless, the point remains.
I said what I said, and I’m not here for #NotAllProtestors. Those to whom it’s applicable in Lewistown (and in general) know damn well who they are.

And I’ll go deeper for those on the defense & denial bus:

Normally, I wouldn’t bother to respond to negative texts/emails/PMs/DMs… yet in the interest of better communication…

Yes. That’s tone-policing.

I’m not surprised I’m neither understood nor backed by white people in or around my Circle on this or any of the Black issues/racism I experience in Montana. This is due to the systemic racism (such as race color choices in 4th-grade behavior cards) that is innate in one’s upbringing and that expresses as passive-racism.

Just because people aren’t active in school administrations doesn’t mean they’re gone. Nor are the majority of the 4th-graders that woman taught through generations – including my own. They sit in that town, make the laws. Hell, are the Law. Play golf. Select cars. Vote for trump. Etc.

Everything about small towns “patriots” hold more precious than Black lives (and feelings) is saturated in systemic racism. I experienced it constantly.

So for you to text/email/PM/DM me my opinion was cruel and overly self-indulgent reads as you gaslighting.

Telling Black people their post was inappropriate? We voice our opinion at the time, and are absolutely entitled to express it.

Let me explain something to you:
This is Black folks’ business. If you can’t be quiet and listen, support, educate yourself, and learn… especially without getting triggered… Stay in your lane.

If viewpoints and communication to me were based my words triggering you, instead of you actually taking a moment to pay attention to what I wrote… that’s all on you.

HMDDIM

How much difference does it make?

People of Lewistown, of Central Montana:

My older son texted me today that Lewistown community members were protesting on behalf of the Black Lives Matter movement.

It’s nice to hear that people are showing care… now.

Where was this care when I, alone, protested Blackface in elementary school wax museums (2012). When I, alone, protested the use of race colors in 4th-grade behavior systems (~2010). When I, alone, protested books with the word “nigger” being permitted during Lewistown Schools’ school-sanctioned events (“Family Fun Reading Night”, ~2008).

Eleven years I lived in Lewistown. Eleven years I fought alone. Only I stepped outside of a comfort zone. Only my voice made any sound.
I no longer live in Lewistown; in that respect, Lewistown’s innate, systemic racism won whilst the people of Lewistown lost.

So yes, it’s bittersweet to hear Lewistown’s community is, finally, protesting against racism. However, talk is cheap, and systemic racism is a marathon.

It’ll be interesting to see if Lewistown and Central Montana can go the distance. I hope, for your own sake, you can.

**Long road ahead…** photo by StormCloud

Black Lives Matter: then, now, and always. ✊🏾

Addendum

Background article links: