WTAF 2023 (2022 upgrade)

 Ah, so much going on and my poor old brain is feeling feeble and exhausted. What shall I write about? The fact that Rev. Dr. Martin Luther’s King’s words are being twisted by the Rethuglicans? The controversy over the statue honoring Rev. King and his wife Coretta Scott King, showing their hands only and not their heads? How about illiberalism and christian nationalism, which is running rampant throughout half our country? Book banning? The Rethuglican plot to gut Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid? God, no wonder my brain feels feeble today.

There’s something else too: despite three years of taking necessary precautions, Covid is residing in the house. We’re vaxxed, boostered, and careful to wear masks when we’re out but indoors somewhere. We avoid people without masks. Yet, somehow, that sneaky virus crept into our house. So far, I’m the only one testing negative but I feel sick. My husband and son are both ill, both positive, but their cases seem “mild”. I say mild because we haven’t had to go to Urgent Care or the ER.  Still, they are both miserable. I’m the caretaker, making sure they are fed, taking Paxlovid (hubby), vitamins and OTC products to treat their symptoms.

Regarding the Rethuglicans, twisting Dr. King’s words to suit their agendas: it’s been going on with that party forever. Intelligent, open-minded people will see through it for what it is. The sheeple won’t understand that Dr. King’s words do not reflect things as they are NOW. We still have racial and social injustices. That’s what Dr. King’s messages were about. What to do about it? The thinking open-minded people in red states and districts need to VOTE these evil legislators the fuck OUT.

The statue? I was a little taken aback at first, but I looked at it a while and realized it was beautiful. The clasped hands show the deep love Dr. King and Mrs. King had for each other. What a way to honor their memory.

What is really aggravating me today is book banning, defunding libraries, and Gov Death Santis’ recent rejection of APA Black history in high schools. What the actual fuck! Half of our country’s legislators and too many voters have learned NOTHING about history because they’ve banned the true teaching of it.

Critical Race Theory (CRT) is not taught in any elementary, middle, or high school in this country. Yet the Rethuglicans keep howling about it. Governor Death-Santis proudly proclaims that CRT comes to Florida to die. His latest action was despicable. So, the College Board recommended adding an Advanced Placement (AP) class on African American History to high school curriculums in which the students earn college credit for passing the course.

The reason? It’s against the law in Florida! This is going to be another What the Actual Fuck Journal, dated 2023.  Against the law to learn facts about African American history? Meanwhile, there are other cultural AP classes offered that passed the litmus test. There’s been outrage, of course, about all this but he doesn’t care.

Death Santis wrote a letter rejecting AP African American History and added this sentence: “In the future, should College Board be willing to come back to the table with lawful, historically accurate content, FDOE will always be willing to reopen the discussion.” I bet that means white bread history with WASP sauce.

I feel sorry for the parents and students in FL who care about getting a complete education. I feel sorry for the teachers who are being bullied and terrorized with restrictive rules about what they can and cannot discuss in the classroom.

I think to myself: why would anyone want to live there? I understand being “stuck” because of the economy, the job, the family but …. I also think to myself I would drop it all for the sake of my kids. I would rather we sleep in a car in a free state instead of a fascist state. I was reading another article about situations like this; that it’s not so much about CRT but about illiberalism.  Anti-liberal thinking is spreading across the country.

Another topic that touched my hot button is book banning. Once again, this is about the fear of learning that others exist: other colors, other religions, other genders, other sexualities. I have read most of the banned books and the reasons given are so shallow. We're dumbing down our nation. But even more insidious, the Rethuglicans are quietly going around defunding libraries. That's scary.

Can you tell I am not a fan of the Rethuglicans? This is my use of what used to be the GOP. Now they are made up of GQP thugs. If there are any R's that don't hold with what the Rethugs are doing, they are sitting with their hands over their mouths, quaking. And if someone has the courage to speak against the thugs, they are ostracized (Sen. Romney), cast out (Rep. Cheney) or forced into retirement to save the lives of their families (Rep. Kinzinger).

I started reading a book called The Last Train.by Peter Bradley. He learned not too long ago that his grandparents were exterminated in a Nazi concentration camp and that his father barely escaped with his life. I read the introduction and my understanding is that Bradley meant to keep the family history quiet but recent events (guess who and what) brought him to the decision that he had to tell the story. History is repeating itself right now.

There is still so much to write about but today I have to conclude with the inevitability of our unwanted guest, Covid.  Now all of us have it. Thanks, tRump. You screwed it up.

I Despise Systemic Racism and Bigotry

 

One issue that has bothered me since I was a teenager is racial injustice/white supremacy. I have written that I did not learn about racism and bigotry in my classrooms. What I learned came from independent reading. The more I read, the more disturbed I become about it. The catch word seems to be “woke.” I do not use the word for myself because it started in the Black community, a way of recognizing and looking out for acts of racism.

I am becoming increasingly aware of the injustices that surround me. I am increasingly aware of my own white privilege and the ability to go about my business without bigoted laws restricting me. It first hit me when I read To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee and I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou. I noticed news stories highlighting the differences in treatment of people of color. This year I read Across That Bridge by the late Rep. John Lewis, The Sweetness of Water by Nathan Harris, The 1619 Project by Nikole Hannah-Jones, Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann and The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison.

I read articles that focus on injustices not only against Black people but also any people of color: Native Americans, immigrants from the southern countries and from the Middle East. I saw the differences in the way we treated immigrants from South America and Afghanistan compared with refugees from Ukraine. The immigrants from South America or Afghanistan are not treated as well as the whites from Ukraine. Disgusting.

What set me off today was an article from NBC about a boarding school called Red Cloud. They are trying to right the wrongs the did to the Native American community. One of the actions they are taking is looking for the graves of Native American children buried there. These boarding schools were meant to kill Native American culture and indoctrinate them to join white society. That fact got my internal fires going. It brought back memories of my mother’s experience at a school that forbade the students the use of their own natural language and tried to force them to fit into the hearing world. What an awful thing to do to children.

Not too long ago, I saved an article from Daily Skimm about systemic racism. The article covered our history, detailing how we treated Black people until the civil rights movement. But despite all the gains, there is still racism built into our foundation. The article explained how things are now, and we still do not have equality across the board.

There was also an Arca Max opinion piece by Leonard Pitts called The Caucasity of Nope. I was chilled by these words:

“The word is a new coinage, a portmanteau of “Caucasian” and “audacity” denoting a brand of white arrogance and entitlement that has become tiresomely familiar in recent years. It often plays out in episodes — sometimes fatal — wherein some white person takes it upon themselves to police people of color who are just trying to live their lives.

“Nope,” it says, “you may not jog down that street without identifying yourself to me.”

“Nope, you may not barbecue in that park without justifying yourself to me.”

“Nope, you may not swim in that pool without explaining yourself to me.”

If last week’s headlines are any indication, there is now a new nope. It says, “You may not vote early in certain precincts without confronting me. And I will be armed.”” It brought back memories of Trayvon Martin killed just for walking through a gated white community and white people calling the police on Black people just going about their business. They were not doing anything wrong; the whites who called in complaints just did not like having people of color there.

This systemic racism is not only against Black people, immigrants of color, and Native Americans. In the dark souls of people who claim to be Christian is a hatred for the LGBTQ community. They are often the victims of vile invective, rejection, and now mass shootings. Just recently a shooter entered Club Q in Colorado Springs, a place in which the LGBTQ community could feel comfortable and accepted and began shooting people. Fortunately, a couple of brave patrons got the gun away from the shooter and beat him up, restraining him until the police arrived.

Following that came articles about how much the LGBTQ community has suffered over the years. I knew that “Christians” condemned the community. I thought it was stupid and hateful, but it did not register with me until a friend at my church confided that she was gay. She could not come out in the open because she would not be able to serve as a deacon anymore. That got me and I learned there was a group of church members who were afraid to come out.

It made me mad. My faith is wrapped in the New Testament. Jesus’ great commandment was to love God above all and love our neighbors as we love ourselves. There was no command to love only our white race. There was no “love all your neighbors except if they’re Black, brown, Native American, have a different faith, or of the LGBTQ community.” Fortunately, the leaders of my faith voted accepting members of the LGBTQ community.

Unfortunately, that did not extend to other evangelical, right wing conservative churches. My National Memo newsletter featured an article with the headline “Trump Lawyer Ellis: Club Q Victims Deserve ‘Eternal Damnation’”. How awful and disgusting is that? Her point was she did not know if any of the dead had found Jesus and if they did not, they were burning in Hell. Remember that good old saying: if you cannot say anything nice, do not say anything at all.

These people classify the LGBTQ folks as evil predatory groomers of young people. They think God and Jesus condone extramarital affairs and sexual predators if they are straight.

My feeling is that the LGBTQ community is more Christian than the christian nationalists. I give them a small c because I do not believe they follow Jesus’ teachings. Jesus supported the poorer, outcast people.

When he threw over the tables at the Temple, he was protesting against the upper classes who took advantage of the poorer people and defiled the Temple with their money-making stalls. The merchants and Pharisees Jesus disapproved of is very comparable to the GQP as it is now and to the billionaires who do not pay their fair share of taxes. Why should we lower classes pay more in taxes than billionaires?

I still hope we can change. The recent election gave the Democrats a thin win, but it was still a win. That is in part due to Gen Z, and that is where my hope is. Gen Z is made up of young people now 18-25 or so. Gen Z is much more diverse than my Boomer generation was. Like Boomers, they are not willing to take the status quo put into place by Newt Gingrich and Republicans thereafter. Whereas Boomers took to the streets to protest, Gen Z is much savvier and more than tech capable. They have conducted peaceful rallies, but I think much of their action is done through their phones and their votes.

Gen Z is proactive in signing their younger peers up to vote in the future. In 2024, Gen Z teens who are now juniors and seniors will be able to vote too.

Because Gen Z is so diverse, I am also hoping that they can break down the systemic racism. It must start with the kids, preschoolers. The teachers need to be free to explore diverse cultures and different abilities so that the little ones become accepting of each other. As they get older, they should learn the painful but true history of this country. How else can there be change in the system without understanding its roots?

One more book keeps my flame of hope going: Hope: A Survival Guide for Trying Times by Jane Goodall & Douglas Abrams. I wish christian nationalists and young people would read the books I did. Reading them could open eyes, as they did for me.

 

Election Day Eve

 

I was thinking I should write something about the election tomorrow. My thoughts are coming and going at a hundred miles per hour. Sometimes I feel worried and very anxious, and then I think about the huge number of people—especially young people and women—who have already come out and cast their ballots.  Early in-person voting ended or will be ending and those who haven’t voted yet or mailed/deposited in a designated drop box will have to vote in person.

In some states, that can be a scary experience.  There’s already been reports of vigilantes geared up and carrying weapons showing up at drop boxes in Arizona to “make sure everything is done right.” The first response was to restrict these vigilantes from carrying their weapons etc., which was appealed and then a seniors group filed for a restraining order. A federal judge, Michael T. Liburdi denied the request.  He didn’t think armed vigilantes constituted a threat to voters dropping their ballots into drop boxes.  Great decision.

Every day, someone in the Rethuglican party says or does something that is increasingly disgusting, misleading, deflecting, inciting, or outright declaring the fascist policies they want to institute if they regain control of Congress. Important swing states are Pennsylvania, Florida, Georgia, Wisconsin, and Nevada.  Michigan could go either way. Even our own representative, Andy Kim, has gone from basically no-contest to toss-up.  A lot of it is because of Rethuglican gerrymandering. How they got away with that is a puzzle to me.

Rethuglicans have been very clever at placing their followers into positions of authority on school boards, as election agents and secretaries of state.  Red governors and red secretaries of state could throw out or contest votes that go against them.

Then there’s the violence that just sickens me. A twisted tRumper broke into Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s house.  He didn’t find her there and, instead, brutally attacked her husband, Paul Pelosi, with a hammer.  Instead of condemning the act or sympathizing with the Pelosis, Rethuglican legislators chose to mock and joke at what happened.  I only saw messages condemning the violence from Senator McConnell and Rep. Kinzinger.  There were just crickets from everyone else.  Where is the morality?  Have these MAGAs flat out sold their souls to tRumpism?

I knew that members of the January 6^th committee had to have protection and also needed protection for their families.  I knew that other people were being threatened either because they wouldn’t fall in line with tRumpism or to scare them to the point they wouldn’t speak out against what MAGAs were doing.  Now MAGAs target the families. 

When Paul Pelosi was attacked so brutally and Rethug legislators chose to either mock or keep lips zipped tight, I felt like my mind was blown.  I remember a time when the R’s and D’s would work together to find common ground in spite of their differences.  What’s happening now is absolutely horrifying.  How do you begin to connect with soulless people like that?  The ones who object but are too afraid to speak up are complicit too.  By not condemning what MAGAs are doing, these cowards are supporting the violence, the outright lies, manipulation, and terror tactics employed by their party.

Some of them claim to be “Christian” nationalists but they aren’t at all.  It makes me so mad to see them proclaiming to follow the teachings of Christ…but are doing the exact opposite.  The awful policies they want to instate are anti-Christian.  Jesus wouldn’t approve.  Obviously, these “Christian” nationalists aren’t reading the New Testament.

And what is this nonsense about the United States being a Christian country? It’s not and never was intended to be.  Obviously these MAGAs also haven’t read any of the quotes by John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, or even Ronald Reagan.

John Adams said: “As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion,—as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquility, of Mussulmen [Muslims],—and as the said States never entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mahometan [Mohammedan] nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.”

Thomas Jefferson said: ““If, therefore, from the settlement of the Saxons, to the introduction of Christianity among them, that system of religion could not be a part of the common law, because they were not yet Christians; and if, having their laws from that period to the close of the common law, we are able to find among them no such act of adoption; we may safely affirm (though contradicted by all the judges and writers on earth) that Christianity neither is, nor ever was, a part of the common law.”

And this from former President Ronald Reagan, a Repub hero: “We establish no religion in this country, church and state are, and must remain separate.”

In this country, people practice many different religions.  How dare the MAGAs think they can force us all into one?  That’s really scary.

MAGAs are against anything that would serve people, including social security, Medicare, Medicaid, reproductive rights, the right to love and marry whomever you want, and to blatantly discriminate against people of color, different religions, and different sexuality and gender identity.  What they propose to do is absolutely brutal to the already badly damaged middle class.

Why do people vote against their own best interests?  It continues to boggle my mind.

I don’t even know what point I’m trying to make. That’s how frazzled I feel and how fired up my brain continues to be, protesting against all this evil.  I write and post and tweet but it doesn’t seem like I’m heard.  I do feel engaged and positive when I phone or text bank. I am connecting directly with voters and I feel as if I’m doing something useful and helpful.

Tomorrow is Election Day. If we voters really love the US and the Constitution, then we’ll all make sure to vote blue.  I already did.  I’m praying for good news when all the results are counted.

Here are newsletters where I get trustworthy information:

Voter Intimidation by Dan Rather

Political Violence by Dan Rather

Dispatches From A Collapsing Nation

An Unsettled Time by Dan Rather

Musk, Trump, and the Demeaning of America by Robert Reich

Tsunami of Truth by Michael Moore, the latest in an ongoing series

For Your Sunday Reading Pleasure: "Christian" Nationalism

 

The religious right used to support Republicans for their stands on “moral” issues that were important to them.  Now, though, they support Rethuglicans just to keep them in power and to try and establish a theocracy.  It doesn’t matter what sins Rethuglicans engage in; the point is to gain control of Congress.  So, they support the treasonous former guy and candidates like Hershel Walker, J.D. Vance and other outrageous people running for any office with power.

Hershel Walker is the former football player running for the Senate, to represent Georgia. The incumbent is an actual Christian, Rev. Warnock.  Walker’s talk has been all exaggeration and lies.  He claimed to be a total opponent of abortion.  That alone would appeal to the religious right but, more importantly, he was a Rethuglican.  So, when truths were revealed about his lies and hypocrisy, they rallied around him anyway instead of condemning him.  He was exposed as an irresponsible father, impregnating women and then abandoning them to care for the children he helped create.  He paid for at least one to have an abortion.  Say what! So much for his right to life proclamation.

Paying for abortion should have been a deal breaker for "Christians", but it wasn’t.  It didn’t matter to the religious right that they already had a real Christian practicing minister in place. The only thing that mattered was getting Warnock elected.  What hypocrites the religious right are exposing themselves to be.  But they don’t care.

I am angry about the way Christian teachings and beliefs have been hijacked and twisted not only by the religious right but now by fascist leaning “Christian” nationalists.  Those people have entangled themselves in the Bible but mostly from the Old Testament.  Some of the angriest and rigid verses are found there.  There is some negativity in the New Testament but Jesus’ teachings revolved around love, kindness and care for each other. 

I am not a devout quoter of the Bible and I don’t remember which book in the NT this story comes from but there was a passage in which Jesus was saying that he’d been turned away when he was in need.  His followers were upset and protested that they’d always tried to meet Jesus’ needs.  His answer (my paraphrasing) was that every time they turned away someone who needed shelter, didn’t share food with someone hungry, didn’t care for the sick, didn’t care for children, and acted with prejudice/racism against foreigners, they were actually turning Jesus away.  His basic teaching was to love God above all and to love your neighbor as you love yourself. 

Think about it.  Think about the things you do for yourself to meet your needs.  Then think of the homeless vets living under bridges, immigrants fleeing for their lives from a violent country, hungry children in families that can’t afford to buy all the food they need and are struggling just to keep afloat…the list goes on and on.  There is much we can do to “feed my people” as Jesus asked.

These days, it seems only Democrats and some Independents are willing to do this.  Rethuglican legislators vote against every single piece of legislation that would address the needs of most people in this country.  Rethuglicans are no longer asking themselves WWJD.  They are asking themselves: what must we do to gain the power to control everyone?

Daily Sound & Fury recently had a very good article about why fascist leaning politicians and voters have glommed onto “Christian” nationalism.  I highly recommend reading it.  Sadly, the people who NEED to read this most likely or definitely would not. 

There’s another article from MSNBC Opinion that is also very good at explaining how and why Christianity is blended with nationalism.  From this article, I learned a new term: dominionism.  What is that? The article defined it this way: “Dominionism specifically calls for Christians to reclaim the “seven mountains of dominion” in society for God: family, religion, education, media, entertainment, business and government. “

This is serious, scary business.  I absolutely do not want “Christian” nationalists controlling the education of my great grandchildren, nor do I want them involved anywhere else except for their own churches.  I do not want a country with one religion only.  That is fascism.  And when you mix in the white supremacists and extremists, it becomes Nazism.

Sunday is supposed to be a day of rest.  As for me, I am joining two phone banks.  One is for my own representative, Andy Kim, and the other is for swing states/close races across the country.  This is how I can fight back against the extremists.  I can vote.  I’m not feeling very optimistic today but I will keep fighting.