Chapter Four...

Another chapter reworked and input then printed out. I managed to get it all done before I went to the dentist, for my checkup. Still got all my teeth...though some are crowns. I don't count wisdom teeth in that; those left me decades ago. But I'm a bit achy from it because when they clean, they clean...whooh...

What I'm enjoying about this rewrite is seeing how it flows from one space of time to the next. Brendan's telling it in first person, and sometimes he circles back in his life to give more context to an occurrence, but overall it's pretty simple and easy to follow. Not a huge amount happens in these first chapters, but I reference demonstrations and sit ins and events that will set the whole Civil Rights movement in unstoppable motion. Granted, a lot of how I see this is with 20/20 hindsight, which isn't always accurate, but to see it playing out in the US in almost exactly the same way, 50 years later, is sort of validating my points.

Well...Brendan's points.

Over the 50 years prior to the Troubles, Protestants had ruled Ulster with an iron fist. Good jobs went to Protestants. Decisions were made in ways that would benefit the Protestant community. New housing went to Protestants while Catholic families were often ensconced in one room of a dilapidated maisonette -- their word for a tenement. Derry was like a step-sister to Belfast, and not even given the cast-offs from the capital. It was nonstop disrespect.

But then the Catholic community grew strong enough to fight back, and Protestants -- so used to being in control -- honestly thought they could just beat them into submission. But it didn't work. Over and over they tried it, but the Civil Rights Movement kept growing and growing, forcing at least the promises of change. Things reached a breaking point with the Battle for Bogside in August 1969, which forced the British Government to send in troops to stop the exploding violence.

Which they did. Until the British decided to side with the Protestants and blame everything on their favorite boogeyman -- the IRA. Which started the real spiral into death and destruction. (photo is by William L. Rukeyser.)

It's happening here. The BLM Movement started making the white men in power nervous, so they spread lies about it and used propaganda and violence to try and quell it, and it's only grown stronger. Which gave rise to the Proud Boys and QAnon, which gave rise to Antifa which led to the January 6th attempted coup. Now the GQP is threatening to destroy the country unless we let them have their way, in Washington...like a controlling lover who's been jilted. If I can't have you, no one can.

There are already violent confrontations around the country between the right wing and the rest of us. It's only a matter of time before we devolve into civil war, again...and Democrats are doing too damned little to prevent it. We are close to matching the Troubles in death and destruction, just on a very American scale.

God, I hope I'm wrong...