Autumn in the Air

Autumn is beginning to show itself in cooler nights and a few gold and red leaves starting to drift from nearby trees.

I love Autumn. Maybe because the worst of the Texas heat is gone for another year. Hopefully no 100+ days in the forecast until next July, but also because of the bold colors.

I just finished a jigsaw puzzle that pictures a lovely Fall country scene, and this is what comes to mind when I think of this time of year. Bright orange pumpkins. A blanket of yellow and orange and red leaves. A golden sky at sunset. Cool breezes blowing through open windows.

While cleaning in my office the other day, I came across a calendar that I’d saved from 2018. I’m sure I saved it because each month had an inspirational quote. This is the September quote, and I was a bit surprised at the source.

On Twitter Sunday, Sharon Hurley shared a link to an article over at The Medium. It was written by Marley K. in the form of a letter asking for a divorce from White Supremacy and it’s quite an enlightening read. Harsh in places with some rough language, but, oh, how it needs to be read, especially by people who still don’t understand how White Privilege has worked through the years to hold people of color back.

That “holding back” and forcing people of color to work so hard for so little, is what is fueling the Black Lives Matter protests and the civil unrest.

And let’s be clear. The leadership of the BLM movement and most of the members are not condoning or encouraging violence. They are not forming bands of marauders who are going to stream into the suburbs and break into peoples’ homes.

BLM was not behind the awful behavior of a few people who stood outside the emergency room in Los Angeles where two sheriff’s deputies were in critical condition after being shot as they sat in their squad cars.

BLM did not send a killer to that dark street to take out those officers.

Here are a few quotes from Marley’s article, which has been taken down from The Medium as I update this blog post in 1-23:

“I, Black female American and a descendant of enslaved people, would like to formally file for a divorce from you. It’s you, not me. Yeah, I said it. It is you, not me.

“See, this here is an arranged marriage and I never consented to it. You weren’t my first choice. Who willingly chooses to marry their abuser, to be left unprotected, and neglected.”

“What you’ve failed to realize after all these years of marriage is that you need me, I don’t need you. I can survive without you and you know it, that’s why you won’t set me free. You can’t survive without me, and you know this too, which is why you will do anything to keep me in this unhappy marriage.”

The link to that article came only a few hours after I’d listened to an interview with author Yaa Gyasi on Fresh Air during which she expressed a similar sentiment, saying that the problem with racism rests firmly in White society.

Because of all my recent reading about racism and White Privilege, I’ve come to realize that I knew so little about the issues. Some of the new insights will be explored in the next book in the Seasons Mystery Series, Brutal Season. as Angel and Sarah grapple with their new reality in the face of police brutality and the BLM protests in Dallas.

The third book in the mystery series, Desperate Season, will launch on October 2, and leading up to release date there are two ways of getting a copy of the book if you’re interested. It’s on a special pre-order price at Amazon for only $1.99, which will guarantee you get the book.

Order Here

Or, if you’re the gambling type, there’s a giveaway at Goodreads where folks can enter to win one of 50 copies of the e-book.

Enter Here

This story has Sarah and Angel, two Dallas Detectives fighting to rid the streets of a nasty new drug that is killing too many young kids. Or, as Sarah says, “One dead kid is too many.”

That’s all from me for today. I do hope you have a good start to your week. Stay safe. Say well. Do we dare hope that the nasty COVID 19 is waning, or is it too soon to get excited?