What
shall we do? let us, that have our tongues,
Plot
some device of further misery,
To
make us wonder’d at in time to come.
-Titus
Titus Andronicus Act
III, scene i, line 135
It’s kind of a weird thing to say, but then, this is a
pretty weird play. It really would seem that Titus and his family don’t need
too much more misery. Two of Titus’s sons have just been led off to be executed
for a murder they didn’t commit, and now his daughter Lavina has been brought
in. She’s been raped, and had her hands cut off and her tongue cut out. I mean,
really, they need no further misery in order to be wondered at in time to come.
Now something just occurred to me. From my perspective everything in the past week or so is framed within a picture where the
backdrop is the news of things going wrong. First it's the pandemic, then the economic meltdown, and now the country being torn apart over the issue of race and riots, and all with no leadership whatsoever from the top. And the more I read and think and listen to people, both famous and
non-famous, talking about it, the more and more I come to realize that not enough of us white folk are doing a very good job of understanding what the minorities
are going through. And I wonder, are any of those
on the receiving end of the injustices thinking let us plot some device
of further misery, to make us wonder’d at in time to come. Oh I don’t
mean that they’re actually wanting things to get worse. But maybe they’re
thinking, What the hell do we need to happen before someone notices? How horrific does it really need to be before these white
people actually get it?
So I guess that’s today’s question, and it’s just a little
bit of a twist on Titus’s question; but both wondering
about some device of further misery.
There's no sugar coating it today. It's this morning's cover of the WSJ. Yes, there's a lot going wrong right now, and I'm not sure when it's gonna start getting better.
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