Right Side Up/Upside Down

 

I’m so tired of the Upside Down. Anyone who’s watched the series “Stranger Things” will understand what I mean immediately. For those that haven’t, the Upside Down is a parallel world, similar to our own but is dark and evil. In the last few years, I feel I’ve been traveling back and forth between Right Side Up World and the Upside Down.

                                       Upside Down
 

When I’m in the Right Side Up World, I’m spending precious family time with my hubby, my adult children, my grandson in NJ, and my granchildren and great grandchildren whenever they're visiting. All is well and we’re surrounded with love. In the Right Side Up World, I’m walking on a trail in the park and surrounded by nature. In the Right Side Up World, I’m writing or reading a book. In the Right Side Up World, I’m a tutor, working with elementary aged children to boost their language and reading skills. Right Side Up World is a happy place.

                                         Right Side Up World

The Upside Down is intrusive. It’s physically and emotionally draining. In the Upside Down, 45 is calling for another insurrection because he is afraid of being arrested. He should be ignored and ridiculed for that, but this is the Upside Down: he has what used to be the GOP under his thumb. He also holds the leashes of some very violent supporters who want nothing more than civil war. Truly, I am so sick and tired of this foul, evil creature. I think it's entirely possibly he’s the real Anti-Christ.

The Upside Down is filled with the power hungry and cruel minions of demon 45. They’re busy infiltrating state and local governments and have been for some time. And why? So that they can bring about laws to restrict voting rights, restricting women’s rights to choose their health care, and restricting children’s rights to a decent education. South Carolina would like to set the death penalty for any woman that gets an abortion. Florida and other red-led states have been happily banning books that have anything to do with different races, cultures, religions or sexualities.

The list of banned books is daunting. But 45’s foaming at the mouth fanatics in the House have proposed The Parents Bill of Rights Act (H.R. 5). I belong to the NEA, and this morning I got an email from them. It read, in part: “The bill would undermine local control, a bedrock principle of U.S. public education. It would also facilitate censorship and book bans, with the federal government cast as a national school board that dictates what students can learn and read.” I suppose they are trying to take control away from local districts because not all across the country are in lock-step with this act of fascism. No, the party wanting smaller government control wants to involve MORE government control in education.

I wrote to Representative Andy Kim. It wasn’t necessary because I know he wouldn’t support this noxious bill. But people need to write, especially when they have a red representative. These people need to hear from us that this is NOT okay. They probably don’t care to listen to their voters and haven’t been anyway.

In the Upside Down, there is no justice unless you’re in the 98% and especially no justice if you’re not white. Traitors and participants in the January 6^th insurrection not only are walking around free, many are serving in Congress right now.

I don’t like this world at all. I’m sick of it. I would like to withdraw and hide but that isn’t the right thing to do. The right thing to do is to keep fighting it.

Spending time in the Right Side Up World helps recharge my batteries so I’m off to do that now.

This Is The Twilight Zone

 

I have such a case of sensory overload.

President Biden somehow got into Ukraine, an active war zone, met with President Zelenskyy, and spoke on the anniversary of Russia’s unprovoked invasion. His speech made it pretty clear that the United States stands with and will support Ukraine. Putin will not win this time. This is major because Presidents don’t just go into a war zone where they might be injured or killed. The Ukrainians are amazingly resilient and patriotic, and I’m sure President Biden’s visit gave them a big boost. But Repubs are whining and complaining about it. They’re criticizing President Biden and are openly supporting Putin.

There are traitors running the House of Representatives. On the same day President Biden visited Ukraine, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene began advocating a “divorce” between red and blue states. That’s funny that she uses a word like divorce, where couples either happily go their own way or they fight each other forever. What MJT is talking about is not divorce. It’s succession That is treasonous. But this isn’t the first of her traitorous behavior. She’s one of those who were involved with the January 6^th insurrection. Why else would she have asked tRump for a pardon in his last few days of office?

She is sworn to uphold the Constitution. She’s in violation of that oath. No one is doing anything about it except saying “bad” to say that. Kinzinger and Cheney are the only two Repubs that have openly condemned MJT. MJT isn’t the only traitor. There are over 140 treasonous Representatives and Senators.

Why? Hello? Fourteenth Amendment? You know, the part that says a person who is a traitor can’t serve in Congress?

We’re slowly becoming more lawless, at least among the rich, mighty, and powerful.

MJT and many of her colleagues also espouse that they are christian nationalists. I absolutely insist on calling them christian with a small c because they aren’t Christian. Jimmy Carter is a Christian. He follows New Testament Jesus, who was all about welcoming immigrants, sheltering and feeding the needy, protecting children, and all-inclusive. You know, everything the Repubs are not.

These christian nationalists are dangerous. They want to declare the US a Christian nation, which is something the authors of the Constitution NEVER intended. They want to force their morals and beliefs on us and using violence is just fine with them. They are like a snowball rolling down a hill and picking up more along the way, becoming bigger and crushing. They could destroy our democracy.

Lots of people don’t agree with their mad desire to indoctrinate everyone, penchant for violence, and involvement in crazy conspiracies. The problem is that not enough people are bitching about it or trying to do anything to stop it. I write and write about it and I feel like I’m talking to myself.

You know, if Jesus was here today he’d be called either a socialist or a communist. He was all about telling people to set aside their worldly possessions to follow him. The story about feeding hundreds of people with just a few fish? Isn’t that about socialism, sharing everything with everyone?

Try discussing that idea with a christian nationalist. They’d say you were a blaspheming demon. And, yet, repeatedly, Jesus showed us he was with the poor, the sick, the hungry, the disenfranchised and loving everyone. “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.” “Let the children come unto me.” “Love your neighbor as you love yourself.”  Jesus was woke.

New Testament Jesus would not be welcome in Florida, where “woke comes to die.” He would not be welcome in Texas. Texas and Florida have both been involved in taking advantage of and mistreating immigrants by placing them on planes or buses and shipping them, without warning, to blue states. For various reasons, I don’t think he’d be welcome in any red state.

I don’t believe Jesus would approve of what some of these red states are doing to trans/LGBTQ kids and adults. I don’t believe he would approve of them forcing dishonest history on students.

Each day, I find it harder to look at even my unbiased newsletters because of the increasing stories about fascism and intolerance spreading across this country.

This is what Real Jesus was teaching: Loving God is the greatest commandment. Then, love your neighbor as you love yourself. Would you want to be treated the way Blacks, Asians, trans/LGBTQ and immigrants are being treated now in some of these states? Hell, no, you wouldn’t. You would want to be treated with respect, decency, and kindness. That’s what we’re supposed to do. Half the country isn’t doing that.

So, what is the solution? I will keep posting even if I’m just talking to myself. I will vote. I will volunteer to make calls. I will find organizations to join. I’m most interested in Rev. Barber’s.

But everyone needs to be doing these things. Too many of us are just complacent and so fascism continues to spread.

I was listening to songs from the Viet Nam era and this one really hit me today. It’s the same thing, 50+ years later.

Eve Of Destruction 

When did Missouri become part of Iran or the Taliban?

It's not just Missouri. This has been happening over the past year in the red states. Fascism. Control of anyone not a white male Protestant.

Focusing just on the Missouri House for a moment, there is a new dress attire just for women. I don’t think it has become the rule yet, but it was proposed that female legislators would have to make sure their arms are covered. I mean, WTAF? Women must be controlled and not allowed to make choices in dress for themselves now.  This is still the United States, right? Well, for white misogynistic men, but wait! A woman introduced this. Now my mind is truly blown.

This was the total rotten cherry on top of toxic icing on a poisonous cake called GQP Gone Wild.

Look at all the red states that have restricted or outlawed a woman’s right to choose. They were champing at the bit to do it even before the corrupt Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. I just read a heart-breaking story of a pregnant mother who, learning that her baby was going to be born without a skull, was told she could not end the pregnancy. She was sent home to endure a heart-breaking pregnancy and to bid her baby goodbye at birth because he or she would either be born dead or die within minutes.  She’s not the only one that has to endure a pregnancy with the outcome of delivering a dead or dying baby. It’s cruel and inhuman.

And what about the mothers who begin to miscarry, but it’s not completed? In these red states, doctors’ hands are tied, and they are unable to help these mothers. Many of them develop life threatening complications and the doctors are still not supposed to intervene. Inhuman. Cruel.

Then there are the women and children who are raped and are now forced to carry their rapist’s child. Nowadays, said rapist can sue for visitation. That adds insult to injury.

“It’s a man’s world.” That’s the Rethuglican point of view. We are stuck with them for the next two years.

It isn’t only women the Rethuglicans seek to oppress. It’s also children, people of color, members of the LGBTQ community, non-White-Anglo-Saxon-Protestants, the elderly, and the physically/mentally challenged.

Children? They are being denied correct knowledge. They are forbidden to learn the country’s true history. This is ridiculous and pathetic: Gov. Ron DeSantis of FL had math books scoured for anything that might remotely be related to CRT. CRT isn’t taught in any public school anywhere in the country, yet Rethuglicans yell and scream about it all the time. Death Santis proudly proclaims that CRT comes to Florida to die.

Not just Florida. In Ohio, a third-grade teacher was reading Dr. Seuss' book The Sneetches to her class. Do you remember that story? The star-bellied Sneetches were elite. They got the best of everything and looked down their noses at the plain bellied Sneetches. The two groups were the same except for the stars. Plain bellied Sneetches suffered bigotry and discrimination from their star bellied brothers and sisters.

And so, the plain bellied Sneetches began to wear stars on their bellies so that they could be treated equally, with respect. Did that happen? No, the star bellied Sneetches had theirs removed and continued to ostracize the others. A gentle lesson in what racism can do.

One of the little ones figured it out. He raised his hand and when called on, saw this is how the white people were treating the Black people. This kid was astute and totally right on. If only his little mind continues to expand with exposure to books like this and classes taught with true history, not whitewashed, he would grow into an open-minded young man.

But no. There was a school district official sitting there, and now she jumped up and stopped the discussion. What was she afraid those kids would learn from an open discussion? Her excuse for stopping the discussion was because the teacher was supposed to focus on the economics in the story. Who decided economics and racism couldn’t be discussed together? I think the students of Ohio are about to be as cheated as the ones in Florida and the other red states that moved to have any discussion of slavery, Jim Crow, Japanese internment, and so many other topics removed from school curriculums.

That’s not what America’s about. Presidents from Abraham Lincoln to John Kennedy to President Joe Biden have emphasized the importance of a quality education. But the Rethuglicans would like to keep everyone stupid and swallowing their Kool-Aid. Now the GQP-Rethuglicans are running the House.

In addition to some of the most ridiculous posturing and vindictive bills they’ve been introducing (which won’t pass the Senate or President Biden and so are wasting time), they have no legislative agenda other than to force the US to the brink of defaulting. Why would they do that? They want to extort the Senate and President so that they can make massive cuts into Social Securityand Medicare.

It doesn’t matter that those dependent on Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security can barely support themselves. It doesn’t matter that they want to take away money we’ve been putting into the system for years and years. It doesn’t matter that seniors already are on the verge of losing their homes because prices have gone so high, they have to decide between paying the rent or mortgage or food. The gas and electric bill or prescriptions. Once again, it’s cruel and inhuman.

I feel a heavy weight on me. Every day the news is full of just awful stories. If it’s not this, it’s about the corrupt tRump, unscathed and living the life of Riley, thumbing his nose at justice. It’s more white cops killing more innocent black men. 2023 seems to be a continuation of 2022, a year filled with GQP evil. Now I must go lie down and pull the covers over my head.

 

And Another Thing

I just finished reading Recitatif by Toni Morrison, a short story in which there are two main characters.  One is black and one is white.  Who is which is never identified, leaving the reader to figure it out.  I wrote a review of it for Good Reads and another book group I belong to but I had further thoughts about it that I wanted to pursue in my blog and journal.  This is the review I wrote:

I’ve been wanting to read a book by Toni Morrison, especially The Bluest Eye which has gone on a list of banned books in some states.  A lot of really good books are being banned, and I want to make sure I read them all.  Anyway, I saw Recitatif offered by an E-book list and, as usual, found a copy at my local very accommodating library.

I didn’t realize that Recitatif was a short story.  There was a lengthy introduction by Zadie Smith.  To be honest, I think Smith’s essay was longer than the short story itself.  I appreciated the insights into Toni Morrison, but I am a bit annoyed that the essay gave away the whole story before I got to it.  I wish she’d just left it at the information about Morrison and the fact that the reader doesn’t know which of the two main characters are black or white.  That’s all I needed to know to begin the story.

That we don’t know who is of which race challenges all of the fallacies about “others” we may have grown up with.  The story leaves the reader guessing.  Can you guess by social status or by dress or eating habits or religious beliefs?  There’s no right answer and none is given.  It’s up to the reader to decide.  I couldn’t decide; it was a fifty-fifty coin toss and I didn’t want to make a pick that way.  Smith’s essay was a big reason why I couldn’t make up my mind.

It's an awesome short story.  Please read it.  If you get a version with the introduction by Zadie Smith, take my advice and read the story first.  Then read the introduction for Smith’s analysis of it.  She provides a really clear case why a reader would decide one character was Black, the other white.  I now have The Bluest Eye requested from my trusty library.

My thoughts now:

One of the very enlightening pieces of the introduction by Zadie Smith had to do with an address Toni Morrison gave at Howard University way back in 1995.  She prefaced it by listing the 10 steps leading to oppression.  When I read the steps, it made me think of Nazi Germany and how Jewish people were demonized.  You know what, though?  It applies here, too, in the good old USA and not just with the MAGAs.

After reading those steps, think about the 1619 project and slavery.  I wrote about this in an earlier entry.  When the slave population began to outnumber whites, the slave owners began to fear an uprising. Slaves became the enemy, step 1.  Slaves were marginalized and referred to by derogatory names, step 2.  Get help from governing bodies to pass laws to control slaves, step 3.  Abolitionists were often discredited, mocked, and event attacked, Steps 4-5.  I can’t think of any example of step 6.  Slaves were thought to be dumb and animalistic and that view was spread, step 7.  Step 8 might be quarantining slaves to the owner’s property and making them live in slave quarters.  Step 9, allowing small celebrations every now and then, dancing, singing, playing musical instruments.  Step 10, silence?  Well, slavery was the south’s “peculiar institute”.  Does that count?

That’s most likely where it all began in this country.  White supremacists continued to hold these views through Reconstruction and on into the Jim Crow era.  Things began to change with Brown vs. Board of Education in 1954 and the Civil Rights movement in the late 50s-mid ‘60s.

Blacks aren’t the only people demonized.  There’s been hatred, terrorism, and racism directed toward Catholics, people of the Jewish faith, women, people of color and the LGBTQIA community.  See what’s happening today with the MAGA movement:

White supremacists fear “other” groups because they see they aren’t the dominant group anymore.  All these groups become “the enemy”.  That’s step 1.

Step 2.  Name calling and verbal abuse of “others”: blacks are called the n-word; immigrants and Americans born of immigrants are told “go back to where you came from”; antisemitism; nasty names and physical attacks on members of the LGBTQIA.  TFG is especially expert at this.

3.  Fox news and other ultra-conservative white supremacist media eagerly support and spread negative misinformation about “others”. 

4.  Get rid of any dissenters.  Example: CNN’s been purging many of its correspondents and journalists who aren’t leaning right.  CNN used to disseminate balanced news but has since been bought out by an ultra-right wing conservative billionaire.

5.  Discredit dissenters.  See what happened to Rep. Liz Cheney, Rep. Adam Kinzinger, and most if not, all GOP that disagreed with TFG or voted for his impeachment.

6.  Recruit members of “others” to join them; this way they couldn’t possibly be racist

7.  Label “others” with criminal behavior.  Immigrants from the south were labelled as “rapists” and criminals.  People who support teaching critical race theory in schools and other social programs are ridiculed by conservatives as being “woke”.  Some are accused of “grooming” or otherwise warping the minds & bodies of minors.   Social media platforms dedicated to white supremacist groups run rampant and spread all kinds of lies and myths about “others” and The Big Lie

8.  TFG and other white supremacist/ultra conservatives sue the heck out of state & federal government agencies and corporations that support laws they don’t like.  As for a “special holding area”: that’s where immigrants crossing the border are placed.  And what do you suppose indigenous reservations are?

9.  Reward loyalty; persecute dissention.  How about TFG’s latest offer to pardon and support all his treasonous MAGA/white supremacist pals that stormed Congress, attacked law enforcement, and terrorized everyone?  Way to raise a well-armed militant private army.

10.  For years and years, conservatives have been plotting on taking over our democracy.  It all started during the Nixon administration with the Lewis Powell memo.  Conservatives have the patience of spiders and have created quite the intricate webs.  We’re only beginning to uncover all the plotting that’s been going on the last 50 years.

Scary, isn’t it?

One more thought to go: read this article.