Darwin Day

Today is the day for the balanced state as a part of the state of truth, for with it we recognize that the myriad things are in equilibrium.

On this date in 1963, Lee Harvey Oswald was shot and killed in Dallas by Jack Ruby.  Impermanence is swift.  Two days earlier, Oswald had shot and killed President John F. Kennedy.  I was in the fourth grade at the time and the news was very confusing and upsetting to me.

On this date in 1859, Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species. In addition to our birthdays and the solstices and equinoxes, I propose that we should also celebrate the great events in intellectual history, such as Darwin's publication.  Happy Darwin Day, y'all.

The average number of new covid cases in Georgia is still hovering just above 1,000 cases per day, as it has since the end of last month.  It's not going up, but it's not going down either.  It looks for all the world like it's here to stay. Welcome to the new normal.

But the big news today is that the jury in the murder trial of three white men who shot and killed an unarmed black jogger in Brunswick, Georgia last year found all three defendants guilty.  The case was so egregious that it's actually kind of shocking that the verdict was even in question.  But a case when white men are tried for the murder of a black man in the Deep South by an almost exclusively white jury is never a sure thing.  I think all of America collectively let out a breath of relief when the guilty verdicts were read and justice was served.

Georgia can still be counted on to do the right thing on occasion, be in electoral votes for Joe Biden, or producing Senators Warnock and Ossoff, or justice for Ahmaud Arbery.  

This might be the happiest Darwin Day ever.