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What It’s Starting To Feel Like

flockblocked: The “Flock Safety restroom” sign is satire, but the joke works because the real surveillance network has grown incredibly fast. Flock Safety was founded in 2017, and today there are roughly 134,000–135,000 Flock cameras across the United States. What started as automated license plate readers has expanded into a massive web of cameras collecting vehicle data across highways, neighborhoods, shopping centers, public spaces, parks and communities nationwide.

That scale is why the debate is no longer about one camera on one street. It’s about Flock Safety, Flock cameras, ALPR technology, automated license plate readers, mass surveillance, police surveillance, AI surveillance, vehicle tracking, location tracking, government monitoring, police databases, data retention, privacy rights, Fourth Amendment concerns and civil liberties becoming part of everyday infrastructure. The sign is a joke, but the underlying question is serious: at what point does surveillance become so common that people stop noticing it?

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Dolly was far too kind to tell you this while she was alive, so I will: you and she had little in common. Oh sure, from a distance, it might seem that way, but get a little closer and dig a little deeper and the differences could not be greater…

Dolly loved people, all people. 

Unlike you, she loved without qualifiers, catches, caveats, or conditions. Her love did not come with strings or theological hoops or political litmus tests. In Dolly’s no one had to stand outside or prove their worth or earn her decency. 

Dolly loved America, real America.

She wasn’t about that flag-waving, Don’t Tread On Me, America First, Christian Nationalism, Send Them Back nonsense you continually peddle as patriotism. Her America was diverse, open-armed, inclusive, and kind; a place where everyone deserved to feel at home.

Dolly was a Christian, a Jesus Christian.

Her deep and abiding faith did not need to be loudly broadcast or worn as a costume. It did not seek to bend anyone to its will. It was not something she wielded like a hammer in forced compliance. Her faith simply and clearly showed up, in an unrestrained love for neighbor that reflected the open-handed, open-hearted compassion of Christ that you mock as toxic.

Dolly believed in family, every family.

A faithful, passionate supporter of the LGBTQ community, Dolly’s advocacy of family was not confined to some rigid, White Evangelical monument to straightness and whiteness. She understood something in the core of her being you never will: that love cannot be limited and will not be hemmed in.

Dolly Parton was not MAGA in any way; she was its beautiful counterpoint. 

She was a vaccine-supporting, nature-preserving, book-loving, trans-defending gay icon, and nearly everything she stood for flies fully in the face of the cruel, sneering, exclusionary narcissism of your vile, bloviating, spray-tanned messiah and his hateful movement, which you so joyfully partner in.

Dolly Parton showed respect to every single human being who ever had the good fortune of being in her orbit, whether at arm’s length or from thousands of miles away.

She left everyone feeling seen and heard and loved and respected, regardless of orientation, pigmentation, or nation of origin. 

She never saw anyone as an enemy to be defeated, never attempted to gatekeep blessings or opportunity, never demanded that someone earn her decency, and never dehumanized a soul.

Yes, you should aspire to emulate her and endeavor to replicate the generosity and unconditional love she so easily moved through this life with.

And you’re welcome to show her respect and gratitude; in fact, you should.

But please, don’t try to claim her as yours today, MAGA.

She simply wasn’t.

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Morning Tunes

Sade – Love Deluxe (1992)

Sade has been such an integral part of the soundtrack of my life since she first burst on the scene in 1984. One of my fondest memories of listening to her music was one afternoon when I was underground, waiting on MUNI at the Van Ness Station and I was plugged in and walk-dancing along the edge of the platform while listening to Stronger Than Pride.

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