ACCOMPLISHED

I have a dear friend who works in DC in a federal capacity and he has been sharing what has been happening in his office since the new administration took over. It’s as if they are intentionally making it a more hostile working environment each day because they would rather people quite than to fire them all. My friend’s most recent post was an email from Elon Musk and the HR department stating that all employees must reply to their email with approximately five bullets of what you accomplished last week. If the email is not sent in by 11:59EST Monday the 24th, you should expect to be fired.

Well…the email address got out into the world and the internet is having a heyday, sending emails of accomplishments to hr@opm.gov. People have been emailing in their own bullet point lists of accomplishments and when I heard this, I laughed out loud at what a delightful form protest this is. IT’s like the very definition of joyful protest. So last night, I sat down and compiled my own email of accomplishments:

In the past week, I have successfully completed an over night time lapse of Zika virus infected Hela cells, troubleshot issues with the Phenix screening microscope and completed laser power checks on all microscopes. I trained a new user on the slide scanner and then imaged a batch of slides on the Nikon spinning disk. Those images were then processed for further analysis.

On a personal note, I maintained the health of my sourdough starter. I also completed section five on French lessons with Duolingo. I swept, vacuumed and mopped. Food was prepped for weeknight meals and I brushed my teeth.

I hope this satisfies the five accomplishments requirement for the week. I look forward to updating this again for the next week.
Thank you,
Cindy Maddera

I sent the email and then realized that I forgot to mention that I had also trimmed my toenails, which feels like a pretty good personal accomplishment. This was my only regret here because the minute I hit the little send button, I felt giddy and elated. First of all, this is such an easy protest against that fascist idiot, but after sitting down and thinking about the things I did accomplish last week, I felt pretty dang good about myself. Far too often, I get to an end of a week (the actual end, like Sunday night knowing I have to start all over again the next day) and I feel like I’ve accomplished very little. Except now I’m realizing that I could have added so much more to that accomplishments email.

I didn’t mention that I troubleshot issues with my windshield washer. I’ve been driving practically blind most of all last week because every time I hit the washer button, nothing would come out. And yes, for the jerk face in the back, I made sure I had windshield washer fluid. What I could not determine on my own was if the pump for the washer was actually running. I couldn’t hear it from inside the vehicle and needed Michael to stick his head under the hood while I engaged the washer. Of course, this is when the washer miraculously started working again. We believe it had something to do with above freezing temps and washer fluid designed for warmer climate. I’m still going to say that we fixed the windshield washer and I learned a whole lot about the inside of my car. Like how the car was low on brake fluid. And that feels a little more important than the windshield washer.

The more I think about it, them more accomplishments I can come up with and I can’t wait to send in my report for this current week. For the first time this year, I feel motivated and this is such a lovely way to start out the week. I spend a lot of time on Sundays preparing for the week ahead. I chop veggies for the week. We start the week with clean floors and organized lunches. Now I feel like I’ve discovered one more thing to add to my list for preparing for a week. Each Sunday evening, I’m going to sit down and compile my five bullet points of accomplishments, maybe even add more than five, and then I’m going to send that email off to Elon.

In case you want to email Elon about your accomplishments, you can do so at hr@opm.gov.

DISAPPOINTMENT

End racism #standupkc

Recently, I was watching footage from the 1950s lunch counter sit-ins and there’s a few things that really stood out to me. First, the young black men sitting at the counter never once lifted a hand to defend or ward off the attacks of the white crowd that surrounded them. The took the abuse and the beatings. Second, those young black men were handcuffed and arrested for sitting peacefully at a lunch counter. The white men who accosted those young protestors were not arrested. They were not held accountable for aggravated assault. The thing is, this behavior hasn’t really changed. If you really take the time to dissect the footage from recent Black Lives Matter protests, you will see white people instigating violence while the black protestors are met with abuse.

We have a history of legal hypocrisy in this country.

I don’t know why some protests lead to riots, but here are some thoughts. When J was killed by a car bomb in Iraq, I felt rage. I still feel rage, but at that time I was angry over the circumstances of his death and wanted to hold everyone, including our government accountable. At times that rage was and is so blindingly hot that I feel like throwing furniture across the room. If there was a crowd of people standing around me, inciting and encouraging my rage, I would throw furniture across the room. The protests that I have witnessed here have been peaceful until a small handful of people with a different agenda have shown up on the scene. That handful of people have all been white and they have shown up with one purpose and that is to instigate violence. They are the ones encouraging the rage.

There is a group of influencers out there that do not want you to ever raise your own voice and question authority. Those influencers mesh together the words riots and protests in a way to confuse you into believing that those two words are the same action. They play up the violence in order to scare you and control you with that fear. Because those influencers do not want you to question. They do not want you to speak out for justice. Protests are a sign that something isn’t quite right with this country. They put a magnifying glass over the ugly parts. Protests make us aware of our faults and in the case of the Black Lives Matter movement we see that racism and civil rights are still, STILL, a thing in this country. Our faults in this country are embarrassing and shameful. We can either be brave enough to acknowledge those faults and be part of the change to make things better or we can allow those influencers to continue control us with fear.

I am disappointed in those people who have fallen for the rhetoric of those influencers. I am disappointed that they don’t have it in themselves to question the voices of those influencers, to not even pause and wonder if they are getting a whole story from those influencers. I am disappointment in how easily and how readily those people are to believe the voices of those influencers. I am disappointed in how easily they can be persuaded to lose their first amendment rights. What happens when it’s their turn to question authority?

Sometimes a forest has to burn to the ground in order to promote new growth.