Jubilation, despondence, and chaos. That’s where America is living right now. Some are looking forward to a brighter future. Some are struggling to hold onto the past. And me, I’m feeling a little hopeless.
You don’t really need to look much farther than Stowell Road in Santa Maria to see where the good ol’ U.S. of A. is really at—struggling to manage reality, division, and self-righteous anger. People are losing their minds, and giving in to their convoluted fantasies.
On Nov. 8, Trump’s #StoptheSteal sheeple had a run-in with a 20-year-old resident who wasn’t so keen on the tantrum-throwing loser of the 2020 presidential election who keeps telling his followers that the only way he could have lost is election fraud!
The war of words between sides is really just the tip of the problem. The body of it is how people are reacting. With anger, promised violence, and actual violence.
It’s unclear what exactly happened in the lead-up to Jason Garza gasping for air on the concrete in the middle of the road because an unidentified young man wrapped him in a complete bear hug as Trump supporters screamed at him and nobody helped.
“Welcome to MAGA country motherfucker,” somebody said, according to video captured of the event.
Wow. Be proud of yourself, Santa Maria! This is what you’ve got to show for yourself. Very patriotic!
Supposedly there was an exchange between rally attendees and Garza, Garza threw a water bottle or something along those lines, was chased by a vehicle, and he hit another vehicle, causing a multi-car accident. Garza said that as he tried to dial 911, he was dragged out of his vehicle, put in a chokehold, and had his cellphone taken away.
Social media is out of control, with Santa Maria residents yelling at their neighbors in all-caps, coming to unverified conclusions, and feeling self-righteous about their moral high ground. Slow clap for the Instagram crowd.
Video of the incident starts while Garza is already on the ground struggling to breathe. It’s 4 1/2 minutes long. As he gasps for air, in the waning minutes of the video, a couple of bystanders finally plead with the crazed man to release the chokehold as police sirens wail in the distance.
So humane.
Should Garza have possibly thrown things at people exercising their First Amendment right? No. Should rally attendees have reacted by trying to scare Garza? No. Should Garza have been paying attention to the vehicles around him as he tried to drive away? Yes. Does a man deserve to lose access to a steady supply of oxygen for five minutes because he caused an accident? No. Should a crowd of citizens yell and swear at an obviously helpless man under duress? No.
Do we have a problem here? Yes.
We have a big problem.
If you can’t see how that whole situation is a problem, if you can’t see how resorting to violence is a problem, then you are the problem. If you can’t extricate yourself from your ideologies to view the reality of a situation, then you are the problem. If all you want to do is yell in self-righteous anger, then you are the problem.
The canary thinks Americans need to act like adults. Send comments to canary@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Nov 12-19, 2020.
