Etch The Edges

Dennis and Derrick talk THE Election, the 2020 Election. President Donald Trump is seeking a second term, a belief in his vision of America, which to be clear is not the best, a stark departure from the ideal of America. We can say with plain certainty that the vision of the worst President since Andrew Johnson is the elevation of a nation that disenfranchises, marginalizes, and institutes a permanent underclass with fewer rights for not just minorities, but anyone who is deemed not loyal. 

Dennis and I are back at it and we are to be honest … getting tired. We discuss the townhalls, the classic conversation management of Savannah Guthrie, dealing with the President, a man with who operates from a world of disrespect and voccarhea, vocal diarrhea. We also have to give the President an “A” for his performance. We fully expected him to go full toddler. He did not. He maintained. To be sure the A was an A of low expectations, but it was an A nonetheless. Dennis and I fervently want to see a world where people on any given side of the ideological divide can converse and work together to create sound policy, some give and some take for all Americans. However, in that world we must all acknowledge when we have made a mistake, when we have put ourselves in a position to do ourselves harm. It takes qualified leadership, honest and worthy leadership, leadership that embraces critical thinking, is patient, measured, and exercises wisdom. On November 3rd, my sincere hope is that we will have that leadership, and will start the hard work of truly making America great, no MAGA.

Last week Ice Cube met with Donald Trump, and all hell broke loose. He got dragged mercilessly and the memes even now are so off the chain as to promise he will be traded in the next draft not even to white people but rather to five head five horned flying purple people eaters. Black Twitter apparently wants him cancelled yesterday, or at least half. The other half wants the first half to shut the hell up and get off the plantation. It’s a helluva distraction. And as expected he has hit back but not in an overly negative manner. He’s remained out front and he has spoken to people that can help change the narrative, and help him grow. On this episode of Etch The Edges we share our perspective. Cube lacked knowledge to speak and engage. He lacked the cred to hold the position. He has the right to speak but he has not earned the right to speak for us. However, his intent is well met and he should not step back from the firing line. If he is willing to learn what he needs to learn and leverage what he has at his disposal we can and should stand with him. But until then, he needs to go back to school. And to be clear, he must never, ever ever ever, ever threaten the vote.

President Trump had a disastrous performance during his debate with Vice President Biden. Dennis and I agree it was a horror show of the worst kind. Yet, it was perhaps one of the best debates we at Etch The Edges have ever seen.  Biden spoke directly to the American people.  Despite what some said, he most certainly did speak on policy points. Powerful points derived from research, science, facts. And when Biden told Trump to shut up ... well, though it may have been a slip in decorum given who we were dealing with my family jumped for joy at Biden putting the narcissistic 78 year old tantrum toddler in his place. Listen to Dennis and Derrick chop it up as we slide through October on our way to November 3rd! 

On Etch The Edges we always seek to Lean Into Discomfort and seek to understand perspectives  by sharing our stories, our very lives. On this episode we hear from Bernard Mills, a man who in his own words says he was that guy that you didn’t want to meet in the street. His life circumstances were geared towards the pipeline. Prison was his future. But the light that was his true self could not be dimmed, and over time he fed that light, sought truth, and became educated. Prison is now his past, but he has purposefully made it his present. His story on becoming better, and helping others in the system do the same is worth hearing. His desire to change the system and transform prisons is innovative and definitely gives us hope for what we can do, and what we can be.

This episode of Etch The Edges is part one of a three part series where DS Brown and his family walk the talk of the edges of our political divide. It’s “The One About OHMYDAMN what in the WORLD?”  In it they cover RBG, Breonna Taylor, Race in America, and the ideological divide. They go deep and they wade wide as they consider this political climate and the impact it could possibly have on us all. Listen to Part One as DS Brown laments the passing of RBG and our political climate such that it is.

In Part Two of Etch The Edges “The One About OHMYDAMN what in the WORLD?” Erica Brown joins us as we continue the discussion of RBG, Breonna Taylor, the climate of racism, fear, loathing, loss, and hope, do we still have it?

In Part Three of Etch The Edges “The One About OHMYDAMN what in the WORLD” we hear from The 13 Year old Political Pundit, Elle Lindsey Brown. People, the cultures we create and the society in which live is her thought space, and the impact of politics on it encompasses is where she likes to focus her ever aspiring critical thinking mind.  She understands the edges as well as the ideological and in this episode we get to hear her passion on relevant topics.

On this episode of Etch The Edges our good friend Dennis Mercon is back with us to discuss the state of things after we lost RBG. Our country is painfully divided and nowhere is this more evident than in our dialogue. The point and purpose of the program is find common ground. Once again with Dennis we have found common ground. It is worth hearing from his perspective as white man who understands the power of privilege why voting is important. It may be too late to do anything about RBG, but the lesson of this moment must be understood fully, and internalized. Voting matters.

On Etch The Edges we must always remember the goal is to LEAN INTO DISCOMFORT and have the hard conversations in order to close the ideological divide. And even if we can’t close the divide we work to bring the edges close together, close enough to understand why the people on the other side think the way they do, do the things that they do. Our voting youth are absolutely critical to this discussion. Generation Z, what I like to call Generation NOW are the foundational future on which our hopes rest. They are pragmatic. They understand the issues. They seek truth and believe in action. In this episode we engage three young women of NOW, each of a different ethnic background, each diverse in her own right, all three resting firmly on common political ground.