Post Alpaca Lips Posts

Photo by LinkedIn Sales Navigator on  Unsplash I wrote about this memory, first as a condensed, tweet thread last Juneteenth . I worked part time for a black business owner, as I attended Brown Institute for radio in Minneapolis from 1983–84. Initially, I was one of only two workers. Both of us were white. And why was that? Race in America is complicated. Later it was myself and two black workers, one of them worked directly with Bill on reupholstering. Then one of the black employees was working with me after the upholsterer left. The remaining worker had been in the Navy. We became quick friends, being the same age; he even invited me to come with him to a party Prince was putting on. My last coworker was a 4th generation Latino Minnesotan; a great guy, too. Finally, after 10 months it was just the boss and me. Then one day… “Bill” stood in front of me… . He had arrived here via the The Great Migration from 1950s Alabama. He ran his own, small upholstery shop for 30 years by 1...

 Essay first published on Medium . The rush to create a Constitution in 1787 , due to rebellion and divisions among the states, likely made our democracy possible. Today, our precious incrementalism has turned farcically harmful. The more we debate a great idea, the less time we have to legitimately deliberate on, and successfully implement, a nearly great solution. Worse yet the once great idea is reduced to a caricature of its original form. . Nothing is ever perfect that humans finally get their hands on; that is why the nearly great solution. That said, we hold on longer, and mess with things even more than normal imperfect humans should. Stalling, obfuscating, and ranting do not give debate more value. . American Ingenuity Turned To Goo. . We The People still have great, big ideas, but as we debate them over and over again, they ooze out as gray matter goo. Our attempts to solve colossal problems becomes a blended brain matter drainer. Then we squeeze, and strain ...