I saw a comet last night. Or I think I did. The sky was clear, somebody said it was near the Big Dipper, and I could “see” a smudge if I moved my eyes quickly from one side of the smudge to the other. I couldn’t look directly at it or it would disappear.
So I kind of saw a comet last night. It’s sort of like seeing America on TV.
There was news footage of men in brown camouflage fatigues in Portland, Ore., “Police” stenciled across the Kevlar vests they wore, spandex covering their necks, mouths, and noses, the men tossing tear gas canisters and arresting compliant people protesting for the last fortnight against police brutality toward George Floyd.
I think I saw America in the footage. But I had to move my eyes to either side of it because looking directly at it was too hard. If I looked directly at it, America disappeared. The real police, the Portland Police Department, seemed to be standing to one side, not helping the brown shirts but not stopping them either.
I watched helplessly with the real police as two brown shirts led a protester with his hands up in surrender to an unmarked SUV, put him in the back seat, and drove away. I think, but I’m not sure, I heard the person filming the scene say, “What’s happening here?” which captured my thoughts as well.
John Adams
Northfield