I'm black. I love my black self. I love black people worldwide. I also have active sympathy for people, who are being bombed to smithereens in real time in front of our eyes, no matter what they look like. I am angry that black residents in Ukraine are treated unfairly, and I will continue to speak out against that. However, no one can make me feel guilty as a black person for feeling sympathy and wanting relief for people who are under active, and unprovoked attack. Heck, BECAUSE I am a member of a group that is often under active and unprovoked attack, I have sympathy for those folks. They don't have to look like me.

This is on another topic altogether, but one that is still important to me and germane to your political point of view. A meme pointed out today that if the Republicans had a 51-member majority in the Senate, then Judge Ketanji Brown-Jackson, whose confirmation hearing we watch today, would be being ignored with lockstep glee the same way that Merrick Garland was ignored in 2015.

If there were black folks who didn't join the game, not "play" it, in the last election, and WIN, then we wouldn't be sharing this moment now. Watching Republicans play dangerous games with her reputation and dignity, when they already know they are not going to support her, makes me sick, but it also makes me more determined to be in the game so I can ENSURE THAT THE REPUBLICANS LOSE and justice wins. If "the game" weren't important, then they wouldn't be trying so hard to keep us out of it.

I have an "old wrinkled-ass neck." My old neck, which supports my brain, means that I have the age, the experience, and, I hope, the wisdom, to know what's best for me and people like me. Just because it's old doesn't mean that it hasn't fought for justice. In fact, because I am old and my time may be limited, it makes me fight that much harder for everyone who is suffering.