I’ve been thinking about July since Macklemore released Fucked Up:
It’s July and the Americans have just opened a concentration camp that has merch. It’s July and Carney wants to decimate the public service (except for the army, CBSA and the RCMP). It’s July and Canada is on fire. It’s July and ICE continues to kidnap people and deport them to third countries. It's July and Israel continues to kill Palestinians who are desperately looking for food. It’s July and coolness seems a distant memory. There have been so many flash floods. We bake and then we drown and then we bake again.
Climate change is cooking us; it’s sickening, disabling and deathly. The current heatwave has lasted almost a week and won’t break until Friday. The air is dirty; a very fine grey curtain has been drawn over the blue sky and the unrelenting sunshine. Despite the many reasons to wear a mask, most people insist on going about their day barefaced. In North America, we continue to drive our trucks and take our flights. Can't stop, won't stop.
Summer used to be my favourite season. My nostalgia for summers past is imbued with the knowledge that summer, as I knew it, is forever lost. Summer is now baking heat or terrifying storms. I am struggling to come to terms with these new conditions, which I know will only worsen. How can we live like this?
One day, it will be my turn to drown in dirty water or lose consciousness because of the heat. And once swiftly tossed aside, the show will go on because the system consumes as much as it encourages consumption.
Things are accelerating at a clip that makes even simple endeavours feel pointless, which must be the reason why the system is intent on grinding people down as much as it can. Things are falling apart and the way to keep people in line is through fear.