if the word "carnage" had ever been used in a previous address?
I heard words with no fixed meaning congeal into
alternating
sen
ten
ces
that would sound
equally comfortable in
millennial Burlington
or
Munich between the wars.
I watched out the window, like a party insider, and wondered
why they chose to host 30 Republican Governors
overlooking the parade route's designated protest area?
A truly amazing American idea:
"the approved protester"
g
n
i
t
s
i
o
h
a sign reading:
FASCIST
as the motorcade passed by.
Three blocks away
"anarchists"
set fire to
one car
one trashcan
and smashed
two windows
(no coffee was injured)
Remember what "anarchists" looked like at the end of the last millennium?
Before the "revolution" of social media?
I watched the following day, like a voyeur, as
groups gathered in Cumberland Park to raise
signs and voices and pose for the camera.
Facebook
Instagram
Twitter
ex p l o d i n g
images
of protests
images
of solidarity
images
of change
"Liberal" media outlets proudly compared:
this inauguration to that.
I watched on Sunday, bleary-eyed, as the Press
Secretary admonished the media for misrepresenting
the image and the absurdity of his admonishment
led to the propagation of more images:
protest
and
celebration
These images
deafening as cicadas
left
me feeling
more sad and afraid
than any time since that cold
Wednesday morning in November.
"The spectacle is not a collection of images...
it is a social relationship between people that is mediated by images."
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