THE GAME OF THE DAY IS REWRITE THE RAT'S WORDS

The first thing I read this morning on social media is:

"Woke up to death threats by our own president"

The headlines in the New York Times I see next are:

"National Guard Deployed as Minneapolis Erupts", and

Twitter Places Warning on a Trump Tweet, Saying It Glorified Violence

"when the looting starts, the shooting starts. Thank you!" 
is the racist asshole's tweet.


Further in the paper there is an opinion piece by David Brooks:
If We Had a Real Leader

One thought in this piece has stuck with me, hours after reading it:

"Trump’s problem is not only that he’s emotionally damaged; it is that he is unlettered. He has no literary, spiritual or historical resources to draw upon in a crisis."

This is why listening to his speeches, tweets, and off handed remarks resemble that of a spoiled 5 year old, and when he is able to string together words to make cohesive sentences (rarely), he quotes misinformation, out of context often said by another evil villain from history.  In this case he plagiarizes words from a Miami police chief, named Walter Headley, who in 1967, was known to start race riots during the civil rights era.

Our great historical orators allude to literature, takes metaphors from literary texts.  Yesterday's times puzzle had a clue about MLK's speech. [what were] the final words of Martin Luther King Jr.'s I have a dream speech? The answer was 

"Free at Last", which were words taken from an old Negro Spiritual.  The speech is so eloquent for the pictures it paints in your minds eye as you read it.

It is visual language, though the picture it paints is a dismal one.

• flames of withering injustice
• crippled by the manacles of segregation
• chains of discrimination
• lonely island of poverty 
• in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity
• justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream
• battered by the storms of persecution 
• staggered by the winds of police brutality
• veterans of creative suffering

I cannot but cry whenever I read this speech.

But wait....I have decided to start a blog that is just more than rambling thoughts, therefore, I will think of an activity for my kid to do...so with these thoughts in mind- and thinking about no screen Saturday which is coming up tomorrow.  In the same spirit of fun like Sarah Cooper's TikTok videos...

THE GAME OF THE DAY IS: 

 REWRITE THE RAT's WORDS

Players: 2+

The Gear: pencil and paper

The set up: find one to two sentence quotes made by Racist Asshole Trump (RAT) and print them out.

I've fount this site a good source.  I know it's really hard to even read this stuff but if you pretend it's just a screen writing editing exercise, you will be able to stomach it.

Write out nouns on different pieces of paper and mix it up.

To start:  hand out one quote to each person playing and a noun from the metaphor pile.

the objective is to rewrite RATs words into a cohesive eloquent sentence that could have been spoken by someone educated and presidential.

 for example the nouns are: weather, fishing, fruit and skateboarding 

the speech snippet:   

That was incredible. We filled up a stadium like you haven't seen. The stadium was packed and thousands of people outside. And I saw the competitors -- our competitors. They'd have like two people on a street corner. That's -- it's incredible what's going on. This is a movement like -- honestly, like nobody has ever seen before.

That was incredible. We filled up a stadium like clouds filling the sky before a threatening storm.  you haven't seen. The stadium was packed like sardines in a can.  And I saw the competitors  soft like rotting fruit in the hot sun-- our competitors. They'd have like two people on a street corner. That's -- it's incredible what's going on. This is a movement like -- honestly, like nobody has ever seen before. resembling a skatepark after a new board hits the asphalt.  

So the new sentence would read:  
We filled up a stadium like a mass of clouds before a storm.  The stadium was packed like sardines in a can.  And I saw the competitors soft like rotting fruit in the hot sun.  This is a movement resembling a skatepark after a shipment of new board hit the asphalt.

This is the premise of the game. I'm not sure if it should be competitive and if so, how to make it so.

I will get back to you after trying it out on my family for no-screen Saturday.
So stay tuned...

These rumination started on my 12.7 mile ride this morning