Every 13 or 17 years there is an emergence of Periodical Cicadas in parts of the eastern USA. This is a year for the 17-year emergence. I wish I were able to be in North Carolina, west Virginia or West Virginia to check in with this phenomenon. What were you doing in 2003? What do you think you’ll be doing in 2037?
This must appear on the internet somewhere – I’ll be looking for it.
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A most extraordinary life cycle. The mind boggles at how they manage to keep track of the years and emerge at the right time.
I was protesting the UK govt’s illegal war in the Middle East, also the way that Westminster was bungling and overriding the Scottish Parliament, the presence of nuclear weapons on the Clyde, and also warning that the massive overreach on government surveillance was setting up a potentially massive human rights issue. I saw one of the now constituent parts of the University of the West of Scotland, then a quasi independent college, engage in some truly horrific transphobia against one of its nursing students who transitioned during her training and got pretty much no support from the Student Union or her local MSP.
Also I got beaten up by the cops, and none of their fellow cops did anything when I tried to complain about police brutality.
So not much has changed in the long defeat, has it? All change for no change, mainly because people keep trying to be “reasonable” and “see both sides” and refuse to believe there are problems until they directly affect them. Just, for once please, take someone’s word for it when they say there are big problems and you need to fight back. Being reasonable only works when the other side is not engaging in bad faith tactics, and the bastards are always engaging in bad faith tactics.