I've been thinking a lot about the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse this week. Seeing a hometown landmark collapse into the Bay is...a lot, especially when you've had nightmares about that very thing. D:

Really impressed with Mayor Brandon Scott and the way he's been handling the tragedy. But it's another layer of emotional toil to process the political narrative spinning out of all this, how the right uses this to gin up anger about DEI and the latest bogeyman.

Scott saying how "black men have been the bogeymen for these people since they've brought us to this country" really hit me where I live, and the way he's had to navigate not only his grief and concern, but also his anger and poise strikes me as an excellent example of the additional shit we have to deal with because of it.

We can never mourn the dead and the economic loss. We have to constantly relitigate our whole right to be in the positions we are whenever something happens, whether it's out of our control or not. Seeing Scott have to grieve this huge tragedy while fending off racism at the same time is just the way it is. It's exhausting and unfair, and there are still people who won't even acknowledge that it happens at all.

I see you, Brandon Scott. You're holding it down for my hometown just the way 70% of the voting public knew you would. I'm so glad you're there to lead Baltimore out of this dark time.