Ars Longa

In the News…

How Many Bubbles Are There in a Bar of Soap?

By Marcus McGee
July 5, 2021

Some answers cannot be known, some questions are not meant to be answered, and then there’s sheer assholery, where the questioner seeks not an answer, but an opportunity to mock and deny. With some questions, it’s not that there is no correct answer, but there is no answer, period. Thus in the 1950s and 1960s, in Louisiana and Mississippi and Alabama, in Texas and Arizona, in Florida and Georgia and South Carolina and Virginia, the goal of the question at voting polls across the South was to intimidate, humiliate or otherwise discourage or deny voting rights for citizens of the United States who were racial minorities.

How many bubbles in a bar of soap indeed! It was a perversion of the literacy tests administered in the Southern states from the 1890s to the 1960s. Southern state legislatures used such “literacy tests,” poll taxes, residency and property restrictions specifically not merely to silence, but to wholly disenfranchise minorities. The restrictive policies were unsustainable, especially with the pangs of conscience that the Civil Rights movement was inflicting on the conflicted American psyche and America’s reputation among nations.

What happened?

The result was the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and specifically Sections 4 and 5. When Congress enacted Voting Right, their analysis had determined that racial discrimination in voting had been more prevalent in certain areas of the country.* Section 5 became known for its “preclearance” element.

These “covered areas” or jurisdictions would be monitored. Section 4 suspended such “tests or devices” (consider question above) as a prerequisite to vote and added other special provisions for 5 years, while Section 5 was “the requirement for review” of any change affecting voting made by a “covered area” by either the United States District Court for the District of Columbia or by the Attorney General. Basically, the Attorney General had oversight in those specified jurisdictions to remedy or cure future attempts at voter discrimination and other abuses.

In 1970, Congress recognized the need to extend the special provisions of the Act, renewing them for another 5 years, while adding partial coverage in 10 additional states. Then in 1975, Congress extended special provisions for another 7 years, when in 1982, the coverage formula was extended 25 years to 2006. In 2006, the special provisions were extended another 25 years. However, Section 4 did contain a provision that allowed a jurisdiction to “bailout” from under provisions in Section 5.

What changed?

In June 2013, the Supreme Court’s decision in Shelby County v. Holder held that “the coverage formula set forth in Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act was unconstitutional, and as a consequence, no jurisdictions are now subject to the coverage formula in Section 4.” Thus guidance information regarding termination of coverage under Section 4 from certain of the Act’s special provisions (preclearance) was no longer necessary. In short, there was no longer any oversight for states with a proven history of practicing voter discrimination in the form of new restrictive laws, redistricting or forms of intimidation.

In the aftermath of the 2020 general election and the thoroughly disproven claims of voter fraud and voting irregularities, many state legislatures (notably those from the “covered jurisdictions”) have enacted measures that include curtailing eligibility to vote by mail, prohibiting the use of ballot drop boxes and blocking early voting on Sundays ad other legislation that would restrict voting.

What now?

In response to the attempts at making voting more restrictive, in 2021, voting rights advocates in the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R.1, which is a comprehensive voting rights, elections and ethics bill. The measure would mark a huge expansion of voting rights and a major overhaul of campaign finance and redistricting laws. Those who oppose a new Voting Rights Bill hope to stop the effort in the Senate, where the minority party can kill in by employing the filibuster.

An Aside

Uncle Remus is the fictional narrator, or griot, in a collection of African American folktales from the South that feature animals in teaching, poking fun and storytelling. Of course Br’er Rabbit’s no fool—he knows what he’s up against. He knows the not-so-smart Br’er Bear just wants to eat him, and he knows Br’er Fox is sly, scheming and crafty. In fact, he knows it’s more personal for Br’er Fox, who is violent and sadistic and makes special efforts to cause Br’er Rabbit misery.

From Wikipedia: Some scholars have suggested that in his American incarnation, Br’er Rabbit represented the enslaved Africans who used their wits to overcome adversity and exact revenge on their adversaries, the white slave owners.

The lesson many descendants of Africans enslaved in the South understand is a reliance on wit and “thinking on one’s feet.” Too often the playing field is uneven and the deck is stacked, and that hasn’t changed in over 400 years. It’s why many Black parents and grandparents admonish, “You gotta work twice as hard and be twice as smart…” Br’er Rabbit is a survivor, and he’s no longer enslaved.

Recommended Reading

In 2012, I wrote about one Black family’s tradition of voting over four generations and the need for coming together. No further set-up. It’s called Obama’s Shirt. Follow the link—it’s a quick read.

*The “covered jurisdictions were Alabama, Alaska, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina and Virginia ( as well as areas in Arizona, Hawaii, Idaho and North Carolina)

Vita Brevis

In the News…

By Marcus McGee
June 25, 2021

Tragedy

We all awoke yesterday to the news that a “upscale” condominium in Surfside, Florida, collapsed with 163 residents inside. Later in the day we saw the video. It did not look good. We watched a huge section of the 40-year-old Champlain Tower South fall flat at around 1:15 a.m. To our eyes, it seemed a first section on the left fell, destabilizing the rest of the tower, followed by the first floor of a second section on the right, causing a cascade of crumbling reaching up the building’s 12 floors, which fell flat, like a pancake, trapping or killing nearly everyone inside beyond a growing billow of dust.

It made no sense. This was not some low-rent inner-city project with a negligent super and dispassionate owners who had stingily deferred building maintenance. Rather, it was an upscale condominium with and oceanside view—a 136-unit condominium where the owners were likely residents, where a three-bedroom, ninth-floor unit recently sold for $710,000. And wait—scratch 12 floors. while the plans submitted by the developer to the city initially called for 12 floors of residential units, this developer decided to add a penthouse, increasing the building’s height by 15 feet, which was above the town’s height ordinance upon completion, a footnote that may have factored into the collapse. Thirteen floors—is anyone superstitious? And why the penthouse? Well, a 4,500 square-foot penthouse closed for $2.8 million a month before the collapse.

Over the weeks, months and possibly years to come, there will no doubt be efforts at accountability and blame, there will be lawsuits, penalties, explanations and assurances that no such thing will ever happen again, but we should never forget the real tragedy—five people dead and 151 missing (quietly presumed dead). How and why it happened and who should be blamed will not change that. It happened.

Life can be hard that way. No doubt there will emerge stories from victims’ families with regrets about something more they could have done, and there will be stories from residents who, for whatever reason, were elsewhere at 1:15 in the early morning of June 24. In the best of times, we sometimes convince ourselves that we have a modicum of control over our lives and over the lives of those we love, when we don’t. It’s the nature of tragedy. None of us can ever be immune to it. It sucks.

Tragedy can strike in any place and at any time. There is no place we can hide, no amount of control that we can exert over it. We can’t protect ourselves, let alone those we love. All we can do is attempt to live our best lives and believe there is a reward and protection in that, whether from God or from karma or from wherever we might put our faith.

And we can begin by finding appreciation in every day we live, and in the people we care about. Yet sometimes it’s not enough to feel an internal, unstated sense of appreciation. We have to share it, externalize it, express it—and sometimes shout it… before it’s too late. If you love someone, find a new way to express it every day. And hugs! Covid-19 has made physical contact awkward for some, but hugs are incredible. We need them. So find a safe way to hug the people you love, and hold them tight.

The collapse of the Champlain Tower South in Surfside was a tragedy that will touch us all for some time, whether we realize it or not, and that is because we are all connected—we’re all in it together. We only have to look to human-induced climate change and the extreme hot weather we are all experiencing. It doesn’t matter whether we believe in it or not. If it’s getting worse, we will all be affected.

In the words of Dr. King: It really boils down to this: that all life is interrelated. We are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied into a single garment of destiny. What affects on directly, affects all indirectly.

We should all take a moment to mourn this disaster, for the families who have lost loved ones, for all of humanity, and for ourselves… but hold on to the people you love—and if there is anyone who you think might not be absolutely certain about how you feel, go to them or call them and tell them that today.

Vita Brevis

By Marcus McGee
June 18, 2021

In the News…

Juneteenth

On tomorrow, Saturday, June 19, “Juneteenth” will be celebrated as a federal holiday for the first time in the history of the United States. While Juneteenth has been celebrated for years, notably on the first time on June 19, 1865 when African American slaves living in Texas learned for the first time that they were “free.” What’s remarkable is that slavery in America was abolished by President Lincoln on January 1, 1863, when he issued the Emancipation Proclamation. Nine hundred days! That’s how long it took for blacks in Texas to realize their freedom, extended 2.46 years late.

It was the 1800s, after all, an era before tweets, Internet stories, 24-hour news cycles, and unaided by the Pony Express, which existed as a horse-mounted mail service between Missouri and California from 1860-1861. News travelled slowly, and since Texas was the slavery state farthest west, Negros living in Texas were the last folks to get the news, which came on June 19, 900 days late, and delivered by Army soldiers at Galveston by Union General Gordon Granger.

So from the beginning, Juneteenth was a Texas thing, where former slaves celebrated the end of slavery, 900 days late. Over time, however, and because the end of slavery wasn’t being celebrated anywhere else, blacks in other states began to join the annual celebration and to create traditions related to the event, which included church and community events, barbeques, food festivals and speeches by former slaves and their descendants, the equivalent of an African American Fourth of July. It was also celebrated in Coahuila, Mexico, and in eastern Canada.

Texas House Bill 1016 in 1980 declared June 19 Emancipation Day in Texas, a legal state holiday, and on June 17, 2021, “after unanimous passage in the United States Senate and subsequent passage in the House, President Biden signed a bill making Juneteenth a national holiday.”

On an interesting note, the Emancipation Proclamation declared an end to slavery in Confederate states. However, there were two Union slave states, Kentucky and Delaware, who were not affected, and so slavery did not end in those states until after the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which constitutionally abolished chattel slavery on December 6, 1865.

That was 156 years ago— ancient history in the minds of many, but we must consider the day an occasion to reimagine the psychological and fiscal impact of slavery on the the generations of African Americans who live and have lived in its wake. To reimagine slavery—an existence that was less than human, human chattel—to be owned, like a tractor, a plow or a mule—for generations. That has had an impact, a legacy that won’t be cured unless there is some intelligent, fair, counteracting weight applied on the distal dish of the skewed scales of justice.

But where’s the grist for the great stories? Think 900 days! If slavery wasn’t bad enough, imagine 900 days of living as a slave, when you were actually free. Imagine working two extra years for free when you should have never been working for free in the first place. Imagine the families hearing the news. Imagine how the relationships between slaves and their former owners changed. And the attitudes of owners who benefited from 246 years of free labor. How would the necessary work get done, and what would be the pay structure. Who were the first black sharecroppers? Imagine that first generation of freed blacks and their stories.

Certainly the wealthy black community in Tulsa, Oklahoma—just north of Texas, was a realization of some of those stories. Oklahoma was a territory that had been established for the resettlement of Native Americans from the American Southeast—many of whom had been slaveowners. Yet Oklahoma did not become a state until 1907.

Tulsa was segregated, as a 1916 city ordinance mandated segregation by forbidding either Black or White people from residing “on any block where three-fourths or more of the residents were members of the other race.” In the Greenwood District, black businesses and families prospered, largely due to serving the black community. By 1921, Greenwood was the successful community known as the “Black Wall Street,” only to be destroyed and devastated on Memorial Day that same year.

Yes, the stories are there, and it is up to us to seek them out, listen to them, and to use our unique gifts in sharing them. It’s a good thing that Juneteenth is now a national, federal holiday, but we can give it true meaning by fleshing out its bones with its unique stories, lessons and histories.

VOD – Video of the Day – No Commentary

Vita Brevis

By Marcus McGee
June 16, 2021

In the News…

Reading the News

As conscious content creators, we apply an added filter when considering the news, and yet it is easy to get so caught up in political opinions and personal convictions that we miss incredible stories and novel ideas that are staring right back at us, begging to be written or developed. We only have to let go and channel the creative nature within. Instead of struggling to find something provocative or shocking to bring to the world, we should focus on the ordinary and everyday, and make something novel of them. Henry David Thoreau said it most properly — The only thing that you can grow is the thing you give energy to. With the right filter and lens, the daily news can be the source of your best ideas, your greatest work, since every great work of fiction is nothing less than a shadow cast by non-fiction.

For example, we might consider standing back apace and taking it all in, synthesizing from that greater perspective. So what’s in the news today? Well, we’ve got cyber hackers using ransomware to successfully extort the world’s richest and most powerful business entities for millions of dollars, and these companies pay up, despite being urged by their governments to resist doing so. Multiple news sources are also reporting record high temperatures that will affect lives of hundreds of millions across the globe, literally changing the face of Earth in terms of population. Many news commentators insist that global warming, for whatever reason it exists, will lead to extreme conditions in many places, leading to flood and drought, to famine and pestilence. In many places, fresh, clean water for drinking, agriculture and environment will become more valuable than gold.

Do we see an opportunity for a story here, from these news stories that might initially seem unrelated? As content creators, what if we found a way to connect these separate news stories and synthesize something completely new and provocative in terms of how many people who have been affected by these stories will relate to original content based on these relatable issues?

Here we go: H2O — We begin with a group of cyber hackers who are forward thinking, who realize that clean, fresh water is perhaps Earth’s greatest commodity. The origin or nationality of this hacker group is not as important as where they live–in a region where fresh water is abundant and self-sustaining. Global warming and the environment provide the pressure on their targets as limited water supplies shrink and dry up. The cyber group provides added pressure by hacking into the computers controlling filtration in local water supplies, the dams, reservoirs, water districts, etc. Ultimately, the new entity attains a level of control of 40% of the Earth’s fresh water supply, pitting nation against nation, and corporate entity against corporate entity. Perhaps the project answers the questions: Is there a limit to human greed and selfishness? Is there a point when something greater must prevail? Just an idea off the top of my head. But I get something like this every day when I read the news.

Yesterday, the U.S. Senate approved legislation that will make “Juneteenth” a national and federal holiday. If you have to ask what Juneteenth is, you probably need to read more news, but I will provide an explanation in greater detail on June 18, after the legislation passes in the House and the President signs it into law.

Personal note: When I wrote Alberta in 2016 as a fictional work, my main sources came from contemporary news. The story involved an OLM (Our Lives Matter), abuses by law enforcement, conspiracy theories, political intrigue and a character, Justin Luck, the billionaire businessman whose ambition is to foment a second Civil War in America. A secondary storyline involves the issue of “personhood.” Give it a read. For anyone who would like a free personal eBook copy, please email me a request.

While I am working on becoming a competent blogger, I realize that your comments and sharing are necessary to the growth of this post. If a news story has ever inspired creation of content for you, please share your experience here, and share with us how to support you by purchasing your work. Let’s make each other successful! I look forward to your shares.

VOD – Video of the Day – No Commentary

Vita Brevis

By Marcus McGee
June 14, 2021

In the News…

Daily Snapshot

I’ve never been a late sleeper, no matter what time I get to bed. On a normal day, I’m up at 5:00, and I spend the first two hours reading the news for the day from at least four sources. I guess my reading is not “fair and balanced,” because there are media sources that I don’t consider news, on both sides. Journalistic integrity, methods and standards matter, so rather than listening to blowhards and chicanery from media barkers in equal parts, I prefer “sane and sensible.” It doesn’t take a journalist or a trained analyst to know the difference. And while I realize that a story can’t be shared without a subtle opinion, editorial or otherwise, no one appreciates being told how to think or feel about an event or development for a political end or for propaganda purposes. I realize, however, that I am not without my own biases.

When I read the news, I am looking for new concepts and ideas for stories, examining the “what is” with the “what if…” in mind. “There is nothing new under the sun,” and it’s a waste of time to imagine re-creating or perfecting the wheel. All the great ideas are already there… in the news, if you have worked to developed your imagination.

So what’s in the news today, Monday, June 14, 2021? And specifically for content creators? Well, the U.S. is trying to figure a way to deal with ongoing Ransomware attacks, where computer hackers are breaching the protocols of huge companies’ security systems and shutting down the companies’ abilities to do business unless paid a huge ransom in Bitcoin or some other crypto currency. Colonial Pipeline paid $4.4 million and JBS (U.S. beef supplier) paid $11 million. McDonald’s and the Teamsters Union have also been attacked. There are more than a few creative projects that could emerge from this news, with all the money, the intrigue, the betrayals, the sub-plots and the surprise twists and turns along the journey.

Then there’s the status of Covid-19 vaccinations in the U.S. and the world, along with the concern about more contagious and dangerous Delta variant: 20.7% of the world population has received at least one does of the vaccine, 0.8% of people in low income countries have received the same. In the U.S., 52.8 of the population has received at least one shot. And while the coronavirus is in decline for most of the country, some states, including Alabama, Florida, Texas, Wyoming, Colorado and Washington are reporting increases in new cases, with Florida recording 441 deaths in the last week. What would happen if a profoundly more deadly variant emerged and swept through populations and pockets of unvaccinated families? It would be a horrible and arguably avoidable tragedy, but incredible stories would emerge. Yet praying nothing like that would ever happen, the potential stories could be told anyway. What if?…

Christa Pike is a woman on Tennessee’s death row who is set to be executed for a murder (with torture) conviction from a 1995 case. She had two accomplices, Tadaryl Shipp, who was also involved in the murder of Colleen Slemmer, and Shadolla Peterson, who served as lookout. Pike, who was 18, was sentenced to death, while Shipp, then 17, was sentenced to life (eligible for parole in 2028), and Peterson got a six-year probation sentence. Pike’s lawyers cite that she was abused/neglected as a child, was born with brain damage and raped twice as a child. Maybe there is story there, and maybe the story will inspire a character or a novel story in fiction?

The heat is on in the West. Headlines: Climate change is making Rocky Mountain forests more flammable now than at any time in the past 2,000 years; and Farmers abandon crops, Utah residents asked to pray for rain amid record hot weather in parts of the US; and Potentially deadly heat wave to shatter records across the Southwest; and Across US West, drought arriving dangerously early. Predicted temperatures: Sacramento – 110°, Los Angeles – 100°, Las Vegas 117°, Death Valley 127°. Heat, drought and huge populations. The potential for problems, solutions and innovations are endless, and the potential for engaging, riveting stories is there.

The world’s largest family head, Ziona Chana, 76, died in his native Indian village of Baktawng Tlangnuam. This man had 39 wives, 94 children, 33 grandchildren and one great grandchild. They all lived together in a 100-room, four-story mansion. He was a construction worker with a strong back, but he was also the head of a polygamous Christian religious sect. Apparently, he had his wives on a rotating system for sharing his bed (circa 10 blessed nights each year!). Wouldn’t it be interesting to hear the story from one of his wives’ point-of-view?

VOD – Video of the Day – No Commentary