“If we don’t end war, war will end us.” ~ H. G. Wells.

I learned the term ‘code switch’ a few years ago, and found it quite appropriate.  It describes the ability of many of us to change the way we communicate, according to our environment or our company.  Since I thought I was the only one who did it (I speak Jamaican patois among Jamaicans, use my original (ish) English accent when visiting England, and then some blending of the two with the American softening of consonants when in the US) it was quite shocking to find I was not!  It is partly a form of self-defense.  In the US you learn early that if you want to confuse the listener, pronounce the ‘tees’ in battery.  ‘Oh! You mean badery!’  Or if you want to get laughed at, say the word aluminium (al-you-min-ium).  Apparently, on this side of the Atlantic the emphasis is on the ‘u’ (‘oo’), and there is no i in the last syllable. 

So within a few months of living in the US you are gliding tees into dees (not water but wader), and trying to blend in.  I had done a similar thing when we moved to Jamaica, hence my ability to code switch.  But it is not just the pronunciation, there are also differences in actual words.  A friend of mine (a Trini) who lived for years in England and then moved to New York, went into a delicatessen to buy meat for her Sunday dinner, and caused consternation when she asked for a joint!  Joint, the typical cut of meat to roast in the UK, was an illegal substance to the shocked New Yorkers!  And we won’t even mention what trouble you could get into asking for a rubber (eraser in the UK).

When I was even younger, a child in England, one of the hot pop stars was Cliff Richard.  He was the British Elvis, a very bland, vanilla version though.  I can’t say I was a fan.  But one of his hits in the 60s was ‘Summer Holiday’, a bouncy, cheerful, upbeat pop tune.  Unlike in the US, Holidays were the extended period of time you were off from work or school.  The word vacation was not in our vocabulary. 

In working-class England in the beginning of the 20^th century, factories in the north of England would close down for a week at a time, allowing the workers to have a ‘holiday’.  Of course, it sounds very accommodating for the hard workers, but in reality it made more fiscal sense to close down the factory completely.  ‘Charabancs’ would be hired (primitive coaches, often just benches welded onto the flat bed of a truck) to take the workers to the seaside, so they could enjoy a holiday.  Unfortunately, knowing the British climate, sunshine and warm weather  could not be guaranteed, but for factory workers it was a treat.

Growing up in Jamaica, one of the similar treats for country kids was the Sunday School trip to the beach.  We would pile into a country bus before dawn (or as the saying goes in Jamaica, before ‘cock put on him draws’, before the rooster gets dressed!) to set off on the long, winding, bumpy, pot-holed road that would take us to the coast.  The bus ride was half of the fun (and more than half of the day!), as we would sing songs and tell stories to pass the time. 

It was the use of the word ‘excursion’ this week, by the current President, that got me off on this memory wander.  It may be symptomatic of our current cognitive state that most of us heard the word and thought ‘huh?’  Quite apart from the fact that it would be quite a euphemism to call what has been happening in Iran and the Middle East as anything other than war, something was wrong with the word excursion.  A cable news anchor even looked up the definition to see if she was missing something.  ‘A short journey or trip’.  Oh, he meant incursion – ‘an invasion or attack, especially a brief or sudden one’.  Regardless of word choice, the reality is far harsher, and we appear to be facing global repercussions.  Not to mention setting in motion events we can only begin to imagine. 

One of the historians who has been documenting as much as she can of what is happening in these terrifying times is Heather Cox Richardson.  One of her quotes about history, is that we cannot go back and change history (despite what this administration thinks, with its erasing and white-washing of facts), however, by studying the lessons of the past, it may not be too late to ‘change the future’. 

Those of us who have front row seats to the terrifying present, are watching the train wreck of US policy with fear and disgust.  This is not strange, it is nothing new, this arrogant hegemony, the ‘might is right’ philosophy has occurred over and over again in the history of the world.  And always it is the working man and woman, the children of people struggling to make ends meet, who pay the price.  It is not those who sit around in gilded ballrooms, reaping untold profits off of corrupt business dealings, who feel the pain.  And when some act of terror brings the ‘enemy’ closer to home, the pain will be even greater.

Ever since the first descent down the golden elevator, and the ugly, divisive words spoken then, I have hoped that the majority of the US population will show their true colors, will reject this backwards movement.  Unfortunately, the colors we have seen over the past ten years have not been pretty.  We have seen the ugliest tendencies of man given permission to be on full display.  We have seen bigotry, misogyny, racism, camouflaged as Christianity in the most unchristian, unholy Nationalist movement.  And now we are seeing a war unfolding before our eyes, a war which the cynics among us (according to a recent poll, more than half of registered voters polled) believe was started to distract from the Epstein files.

It is time for the US population to come to terms with the fact that this is US, these actions are being taken on our behalf, and that if it is not what the American dream should look like, we need to wake up and take it back.  But this will take a lot of soul-searching and educating, for there are hard truths to be accepted.  This is US, this is who the U.S.A. is in the eyes of the world.  And unless we the people do something about it, change will not come. 

I have been reading (listening to) a novel written by the Trinidadian author Monique Roffey, in which a group of women decide that the only way to effectively force a change in a society which tolerates brutality against women (up to and including femicide), is to withhold sex.  A sex strike.  There is even a term for this – Lysistratic nonaction.  To my shock, this has been implemented in at least seven countries (on three continents) over the past 20 years, and in some cases successfully!  Drastic times call for drastic measures!

On this Friday morning I am grateful that we can still find humor in scary situations, and have the ability to change the future.  I am hopeful that enough people of good sense, conscience and compassion will be the change that is needed in this world.  And I hold firm to the belief that there is a better way to solve world problems, but it is up to us to demand them.

Have a wonderful weekend, Family!

One Love!

Namaste.