Paralleling the mighty Mississippi on a vaguely southernly heading through the delta lands this morning. Three hours in we made the turn towards home with Memphis in our six. 

I saw a note earlier today advertising a short course on an “authentic writing practice”.  I wonder what that means these days. The trend towards homogenized thinking seems to be encouraged by the information outlets on all sides. In other words, I hear less about what is actually “happening” and more about how I should  properly respond to that. Today, on the news that I normally avoid listening to, I heard that Big Tech is filtering/restricting access to information about the Covid vaccines. Draw your own uninformed conclusions about that because that’s the whole story as it was “reported”.  Almost everyone I know has been vaccinated… and I’ve heard “be afraid” warnings targeted at both the vaccinated and the unvaccinated populations. Everywhere I can turn, either R or L (middle ground/moderate reporting seems non-existent) for news of current events, funnels me towards the message of “be afraid”. The chaos is epidemic. 

Last summer (2020) canceled travel and we sat home relearning how to wash our hands. I, having been raised by the ultimate germaphobe, was well prepared to spray Lysol over every package that came into our home. It was curious to see grocery checkers in masks hunkered behind sheets of plexiglass handling grocery items which had recently been up and down every aisle in the store, past every potential cootie present in one of the few places where cootie carriers congregated six feet apart with their sanitized hands and facial adornments.  “Be afraid” hung heavy in the air where Muzak had been replaced by PSAs reminding us to social distance.  

Huge tent cities began to pop up under the freeway system in Austin as the homeless population inexplicably swelled and be afraid finally found perch as I, all on my own, inside my head, began to wonder where all the additional “homeless” had come from. Austin PD was defunded around the same time that a small group of people decided to stop traffic on I35, a major N|S corridor through central Texas. I saw one of the billboards while south bound and entering Austin via I35. 

Austin Police Defunded Enter at Your Own Risk," reads one of the billboards. ... Amid calls to defund the police, the Austin City Council last month voted to cut $150 million from its police department budget. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott criticized the decision, saying in a statement that it "paves the way for lawlessness."Sep 13, 2020

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In fact, CNN reports that “Those seeking to disband police consider defunding an initial step toward creating an entirely different model of community-led public safety.” 

So-called “community-led public safety” is not led by police and pushes police to the background or out of the picture entirely. Where does the money taken from the police go? The answer varies by city but generally falls into a few buckets.

“Those dollars can be used to fund schools, hospitals, housing and food in those communities, too — “all of the things we know increase safety,” Phillip McHarris, a doctoral candidate in sociology at Yale University and lead research and policy associate at the Community Resource Hub for Safety and Accountability, told CNN.

(https://nationalpolicesupportfund.com/what-happens-when-cities-defund-police-departments/

4 March 2021) 

In Memphis we were seated next to a couple of armed Federal Agents where we had dinner on Beale St. I saw several uniformed security guards, none equipped with so much as a fly swatter, leaning against buildings on our walk from the hotel to the tourist attractions nearby. We were cautioned more than once by the locals to be back in our room “way before dark”.  

The Peabody was splendid. The fountain ducks did their thing (for the unmasked smiling crowd).  That was the high point in Memphis … well, honestly, for me, the duck parade was no big deal … visiting with a woman who had moved to Savannah during the Katrina storm relocation away from New Orleans and was in Memphis traveling with her daughter and grandchildren, was my most fun Memphis moment. New Orleans people tend (imho) to be “authentic” and she wasn’t coy with her opinions. 

On the drive to Louisville I told my husband that if I owned the Peabody, I’d start auctioning architectural salvage from it right now. Memphis is papered in “help wanted” signs and the declining downtown area is populated by glassy eyed beggars. We “heard” that the hotel is running at a very limited capacity due to staffing shortages. I’m obviously no expert but the street level shop windows are curtained with painters brown paper and hotel entry was closely monitored.