This is how we be in our own Phase 3.
This is how we be in our own Phase 3. blightylad-infocus/gettyimages.com


This time: a FedEx facility in Indianapolis. This time: 8 dead people and as many wounded. The nightmare, which is believed to have lasted for about two minutes, came to an end only when the killer, armed with an automatic rifle, joined the dead. CNN reports that "the incident marks at least the 45th mass shooting in the United States since the Atlanta-area spa shootings on March 16." That's right. Forty-five mass shootings in just two months. And please, no "going postal" jokes today. We are tired of mass shootings. We are tired of cops shooting black people. "It's like a jungle sometimes it makes me wonder how I keep from going under."

The sweep of homeless people in Capitol Hill's Miller Park is happening this morning.


As you watch the footage of the sweep, recall what Jo, the street kid in Charles Dicken's second-best novel, Bleak House, said to the constable when ordered to move:
"I'm always a-moving on, sar," cries the boy, wiping away his grimy tears with his arm. "I've always been a-moving and a-moving on, ever since I was born. Where can I possibly move to, sir...?"

The driver who hit and killed a cyclist in Seward Park on Sunday, April 11, is still unknown. How is this even possible? How can you hit-and-run with a whole car in our day and age, and in a major city? The window of the suspect's car is said to have been shattered. The police think they have some of the information on the car's licence plat: "BKU 053." The wife and daughter of the victim, Mike Colmant, want the driver in the dark brought to the light of justice.

I must bring this up again. But why are cars still allowed in Pike Place Market? What this madness shows is the super-strength of the hold that car culture has on even our urban imagination.

Because we are clearly heading into the fourth wave of the pandemic, Governor Inslee, who prematurely reopened the economy in March, is now turning to "nice weather" for help. Go outside, bask in the sun, enjoy the spring-warm air, that sort of thing. The name Inslee has given this new approach in the year-old fight against the pandemic is "Take It Outside."

Today, three counties are officially back to Phase 2: The counties are Pierce, Cowlitz and Whitman. They "failed to meet the Phase 3 metrics for reopening."

Red states are generally behind blue states in vaccination rates. This, of course, is no surprise. There is close to nothing in the US that's not informed by this particular political division.

American Jesus apparently loves cops accused of shooting black people and Kyle Rittenhouse, the young man accused of killing two BLM protesters on August 25 of last year. We now know all about this white supremacist Jesus because the information on a Christian crowdfunding website was compromised and named names. The Guardian found that many of the donors on this site are, of course, police officers.

Speaking of this police.

What can go up again this weekend? Bird feeders. Bird lovers were told to take the damn things down and also to drain bird baths in January because of an "outbreak in pine siskins." Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) made this recommendation because feeders and baths bring birds together, and this avian togetherness helped "spread the disease through droppings and saliva." Three-and-a-half months later, WDFW has seen a sharp fall in the number of sick and dead birds. Avain social distancing seems to have worked. You can now put feeders back in trees and fill those baths with water.

And now for the greatest poem in English about birds. The poem is by Emily Dickinson.

SPLIT the lark and you’ll find the music,
Bulb after bulb, in silver rolled,
Scantily dealt to the summer morning,
Saved for your ear when lutes be old.

Loose the flood, you shall find it patent,
Gush after gush, reserved for you;
Scarlet experiment! sceptic Thomas,
Now, do you doubt that your bird was true?

77-year-old Seattle man falls from tree and dies. This happened on Thursday, shortly after noon. He was on a ladder trimming the tree. The sun was out and in the leaves. The lethal fall was 15 feet.

This is how we will end the last AM of the week: