BRICK bats — “Somewhere Else”

Susan G Holland remembers

Pop sat in the livingroom on his chair — the one with his imprint saggily evident in the shape of the cushion and in the patina of the worn upholstered arms. He was an encyclopedia for a little girl growing up in the suburbs in the 40’s. He mentioned in some conversation,“brickbat.”

“What are brickbats, Daddy?”

I had never heard the term used, and seldom have heard it used since.
I think it was part of an era my father grew up in — and he grew up in semi rural Maryland in the early 1900’s.

Always good for a story, my dad told me about fights the tough guys had down in Easton MD in those days, and that you had to watch out or you’d get hit by a brick bat. Those heavy building materials that came in a solid clay box shape and were so hard they could hold up a house!

Just read a bit of international news about a brick bat. What does a “thug” look like?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/07/31/labour-mp-steve-mccabe-attacked-brick-motorbike-thug/

So the use of these things as weapons by thugs is not yet obsolete. And, with the ruins of some brick cities and towns and the anger in today’s streets, the brick bat will be used again surely, and not in “some other place.”

I have etched in my brain news videos of stones being used in stony places to pelt people in non-peaceful skirmishes. A stone is the weapon of choice in certain lands where stonings are used also for punishing offenders of the law!!!

We have not run out of bricks, just as they have not run out of stones.

Isn’t it ironic that things made of earth have been adopted by humans as hurting and killing tools? What we use to build with, we use to destroy with.

Surely not brickbats here in civilized America? I mean, look — our most hallowed halls of learning are built magnificently and proudly with bricks! Think of the Ivy climbing up some aged brick building at a place you’ve seen or learned in, and think of the dignity it implies. The place where advanced learning is dispensed and where Degrees are issued to the smart ones who get to go there. Those who say they are qualified to govern us with wisdom and respect for people!

But check again. Where have you recently heard of destruction and vandalism in the name of someone’s chosen cause that has torn down the very campuses built so haughtily! The faculty assaulted. The message turned to war against people who disagree with a strongly held political view.

There are brickbats hurled by language these days. They can kill.

And it is we Americans (remember the land of the free and the brave?) who are hurling accusations and cries that sound much like “Off with their heads.” We have crowds of hatred and division. People standing against firehoses and tear gas in defiance. Defiance! Demanding a WIN for their side.

Will we see the likes of Tienanmen Square right here in America?

Will we see in US streets sights like the clean up of dead people after the Hungarian Uprising in 1956?

(that’s the year I graduated from High School!)

It isn’t stuff that happens “Somewhere Else.”

It happened in these places because hoards of people were so badly treated by their governments that they turned to using brick bats, and throwing themselves into a conflict that could only lead to blood in the streets.

Has the America that said we could sit down and reason together, and sort out differences at a table in a good brick building like reasonable humans — has that America given up reasoning, and taken to using stones and brickbats to lash out at what they don’t like.

Somewhere Else is here.

Whether it’s religious fervor, political power-grabbing, or righteous indignation — people who gang up together to protest violently are opening the door to tanks and crushed bodies.

Who knows when brick bats will turn into mustard gas or sarin gas? Is this where we are going, folks?

Thankful that I did not grow up in rural Maryland where I had to watch out for brick bats on my way to school.

Hopeful that I will live out my life in a country that has grown mature enough to settle things with smarts and dignity.

©SGHolland 2017