Are You Woke?

A couple of days ago, someone tweeted the question “Are you woke?”  Over the years I’ve come to recognize injustices whites have subjected to blacks/people of color.  I bypassed the question, though because I didn’t think it was right for me to answer.  “Woke” is a term that is rooted in the black community, advice to become aware of when and where there are injustices.  I started seeing the word used often after George Floyd was murdered.  However, the word goes way back over 50 years.

Teachers didn’t talk about racial injustice when I was in school.  If a teacher went off topic, it was usually about the Viet Nam war.  At the same time and in the news, there were Civil Rights protests, unrest, and rioting in some of the cities across the country.  There were never any discussions about those important issues.  So, I learned about racial injustice out of school.

On the news, I saw images of police holding snarling dogs threatening peaceful civil rights protesters.  Fire hoses were used full force against people who were just marching in protest of Jim Crow and segregation laws.  The images were cruel and barbaric.  I thought to myself: I thought we were all free to vote.  Wasn’t that in the 14^th or 15^th amendments, passed 100 years ago?

I read To Kill A Mockingbird, identifying strongly with Scout.  I also got a history lesson in what life was like for blacks in the 1930s.  It was shocking.  Could this be true?  Why didn’t we learn this in school?  Like Scout, I devoured books and went to the library to investigate the topics of slavery, Jim Crow laws, and segregation.  Wow! It really was true that there were separate water fountains and bathrooms for blacks and people of color even into the 1960s.  Whoa!  No wonder people were protesting.

We used to go to a private swim club.  After I read Mockingbird, I looked around and noticed that all the members were white.  People of color began picketing the swim club.  They wanted all races to be able to swim in the pools and quarry.  My Deaf parents and friends suffered discriminatory practices from the hearing world so I was surprised that they supported the club’s stance to keep people of color out.  How could they be so bigoted when they, themselves, were excluded from Hearing world most of the time?  The excuses they used to support a segregated pool were so lame, so stereotypical.

Did the Deaf community realize how much the civil rights movement helped advance their own civil rights?  All my growing up years, I saw how the Hearing World treated the Deaf: labeling them “deaf and dumb”; regulating how they were taught in schools for the Deaf where using sign language was forbidden; limiting their job opportunities to machinist, printer, seamstress, keypunch operator.  Deaf people grew weary of being suppressed and began their own civil rights movement.  Other groups of people who’d suffered discrimination began to win their own civil rights.  All of these came about because blacks who’d been suppressed forever rose up and said enough, we want to be treated equally like everyone else.

It's still not happening though.  In most recent years, it’s become very clear to me that many cops are still operating with a white supremacist mindset.  They see people of color as a big threat, just as what happened 400 years ago.  It’s an attitude that persists from parent to child to grandchild and on and on and on.  So, a black person minding his or her own business in a white neighborhood is perceived as a threat.  See what happened to Trayvon Martin or Ahmaud Arbery.  George Floyd was brutally murdered by cop Derek Chauvin, who spent 19 minutes with his knee on Floyd’s throat and choking the life out of him.

I read posts and tweets from black parents of sons, fearing for their futures and cautioning the boys about being confronted by cops.  It’s not just the sons either.  Breonna Taylor was sleeping on a sofa in her apartment.  Cops arrived to serve a warrant and broke into her apartment by mistake.  They began firing and she was hit and killed.  There have been so many cop killings of black people and, most of the time, they aren’t prosecuted.  Derek Chauvin was a rare exception.

Meanwhile, when white mass shooters don’t kill themselves first, they are arrested without much incident.  What is going on here?  A white supremacist with an AR-15 who just mowed down a crowd of people is less of a threat than a black person at a traffic stop?

I am very aware of social injustices and am also very aware of the evil white supremacy plot to remove fundamental rights and return us to the restrictive bad “old days”.  It’s clear that white supremacists want to regain control again and remove the rights gained over the last 80 years.  I wouldn’t say I was woke though.  That word doesn’t belong to me.  It belongs to the people most in danger of losing all their rights.  I am aware of what’s happening and why, and I’m actively trying to help prevent the overturn of our democracy.

 

The Beat Goes On

 The Beat Goes On

Dan Rather’s email newsletter asked this morning: “Are you Angry?” https://steady.substack.com/p/are-you-angry?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email&utm_content=share

Hell, yes, I am.

I am beyond frustrated and feel totally unheard.  I’ve been trying to sound the alarm on Facebook and Twitter with articles about all the evil goings-on that have been transpiring but either (a) everyone is ignoring my stuff or (b) they don’t care enough to comment or (c) they don’t care at all, period.  Maybe they feel helpless.  Maybe they feel hopeless.  Maybe losing our democracy isn’t that important to them.  They are too busy with their own lives.

The Democratic leadership seems to be asleep at the wheel for the most part except for The Squad in the House and candidates running for seats in 2022.  I see numerous posts that it’s time to end the filibuster (so actual work in Congress can get done), time to codify Roe v. Wade and other fundamental rights, time for justice for the uppity up tRump & fellow traitors.  It’s all talk.  Blah blah blah.  Why don’t the Dems try to introduce the legislation they’re yapping about?  Even if it’s a lost cause, let the American people see who the real traitors are: the GQP.

The message is SOSDD: vote vote vote.  I’m sure many Democratic voters will turn out (or I still have hope they will) but will that save us from the downward slide we’re headed on?  Media doesn’t help.  Instead of praising President Biden for all he’s accomplished, the Beltway Press trashes him for gasoline prices and inflation.  Neither of those are even his fault.  The media trumpets whoever is in the White House always loses bigly in the first midterm.  Yeah, thanks.

I am frustrated with the voters who either don’t see a point in voting in the midterms or are too wrapped up in the economy to consider what the evil GQP is up too.  I get it that times are hard right now.  TB and I struggle to stay afloat but this inflation and issue with gas prices is worldwide, not just a U.S. issue.  The biggest issue, for me, is a choice between democracy (voting blue) or autocracy/theocracy (voting red).

Look at what rogue SCOTUS is up to.  It comes out that right wing Christian nationalists have been going INTO the Supreme Court to pray with some of the justices (guess who) and then exhorted them to overturn Roe v. Wade. https://www.nationalmemo.com/far-right-christian-boasts-of-praying-with-justices-inside-supreme-court-building Um, is this not a conflict of interest?  These clown justices are supposed to be impartial, are they not?  Well, they are not impartial and they’re flaunting it.

In a recent newsletter from Robert Reich, https://robertreich.substack.com/p/the-republican-party-god-guns-forced?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email&utm_content=share, he describes how the GQP and SCOTUS is attempting to kill our democracy.  He mentioned the term Dominionism and provided a link to go with it.  I wasn’t sure what it meant so, of course, I had to go follow the link and see for myself.  https://politicalresearch.org/2016/08/18/dominionism-rising-a-theocratic-movement-hiding-in-plain-sight  You know, I knew that right wing evangelical “Christians” were extreme but reading this reinforced the belief these people are dangerous and not in their right minds.  They believe God wants them to set up a theocracy by taking over government, schools, libraries and other cultural institutions.  Where did they get this bug juice idea?  I’ll need to read further.  One thing I know: these people are NOT Christians.  Christians follow Jesus’ teachings which are all about love and inclusion, not hatred and cruelty.

Here's examples of cruel anti-Christian behavior: voting against feeding, caring for, and educating children (GQP does this all the time).  The GQP and fundamentalists are so hot about restricting abortion and maybe all kinds of contraception but have absolutely NO interest in what happens to the babies once they’re born.  They’re totally unconcerned about the mothers, too, pregnant or not.  They’d like to cut WIC and childcare assistance.  If a mother’s life is in danger and needs an abortion, well, let the mom die.  If the baby will die upon birth, tough.  If the baby will be stillborn, no early delivery.  Cruel.

The GQP has made no secret of wanting to do away with Social Security and Medicare.  These are programs that most of us have paid into throughout our working careers.  Why are they always so up in arms about it?  It’s not their money, after all, it’s OURS.  Yet, they’d like to see seniors as poorly off as they were before President Roosevelt brought about social security.  And what’s frustrating is that although the GQP is trumpeting their plans, a lot of seniors don’t seem to get it.  They think it won’t happen.  https://dailysoundandfury.com/we-should-be-scaring-the-crap-out-of-everyone-starting-with-seniors/

How are they doing this?  Slowly, slowly over the years these believers have been placing allies in positions of power.  They are everywhere now: SCOTUS, local, state & federal governments, school boards, on the police force and, no doubt, the military.  Lord knows the police and military are filled with white supremacists as well.

Yes, they are.  Just look at how police treat black and white suspects.  In Akron, Ohio a young man named Jayden Walker was shot and killed by a bunch of cops who claim Walker was armed.  They say he was running from a traffic stop and turned as if to fire.  The coroner said the Young had 60 bullet wounds in him.  Sixty.  Maybe Walker was armed, maybe not.  Hopefully there will be an investigation here as there was in Minneapolis when George Floyd was murdered in 2020.

By comparison, a white supremacist young man took a sniper’s position and mowed people down during a 4^th of July parade.  He ran, too, but was caught and arrested without incident.

Why is that so many times cops kill black people, many of them doing nothing wrong, but they handle white mass killers and criminals with kid gloves?

I’m reading a book called 1619 which is one the GQP absolutely despises because it threatens the ideals of white supremacy.  Why do police kill so many black people?  It all goes back to the very beginnings of this country when blacks were slaves.  There were so many slaves, they outnumbered the whites that owned them.  The whites were always afraid of uprisings and reprisals and enacted the most brutal, cruel rules and laws you can or cannot possibly imagine.  And apparently that fear is still there.  There is also some nonsense about a fear of whites being replaced as the majority.

Well, they should be.  We’re a melting pot after all.  Too worn out to continue.  Tomorrow is another day.

 

 

Where Do I Even Begin?

 

Where do I even begin?

Of all the issues that have been going wrong this summer, this one is at the forefront of my mind today thanks to Michael Moore’s column here https://www.michaelmoore.com/p/he-knew-no-one-would-expect-a-woman?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email&utm_content=share.  I knew the killer was savvy enough to realize that he should dress up like a woman and put heavy make up over his facial tattoos.  After all, of all the mass shooters this year and any year, not a one has been a woman.  He was able to get away easily, running from the scene like any panicked woman would.

Here is what I didn’t know: Highland Park is made up of a third of citizens of the Jewish faith.  Half of the people killed were Jewish.  OH.  Why was this not reported?  That makes this, in addition to being a mass slaughter of humans, a hate crime.  But no one has said anything like that yet, and I think it’s because it hits too close to home.

We are made up of an overwhelmingly large population of hateful white supremacists.  White supremacy has been around since even before our country was founded.  White nationalists are rising again to regain “supremacy” in this country.  They claim they are Christians but they are not.  They do not follow Jesus’ teachings of love, acceptance and inclusion.  I don’t know why they think they reign supreme; we originated in Africa and the Middle East, not in white countries.  Where do they get this misbegotten notion that whites are better than everybody else?

There’s always been slavery among all the races.  One group has to subjugate another, humiliate and enslave the losers’ citizens.  It’s as old as groups of people on earth.  The US, sadly, has been no slouch at it.  It’s just that the white supremacists don’t want to face it, as the Germans did their truth about anti-Semitism and Hitler.

Since Congress has no interest in doing anything about restricting automatic killer weapons, surely there will be another mass shooting soon.  Here is a link from the FBI about what to do when (and it’s inevitable, when) there’s a mass shooting around you: https://www.fbi.gov/about/partnerships/office-of-partner-engagement/active-shooter-resources

What with our do-nothing Democrats and gun control as well as seeing to it law breakers (i.e., Rethuglicans as well as violent white supremacist anarchists) face consequences, it’s no wonder no one has any confidence in the government, police, or other federal agency these days.  The obstructing Rethuglicans aren’t any help either.  Congressional legislators are at the very bottom of the heap for peoples’ confidence and trust.

Gallup Polls have been around forever and, while I’m hesitant to completely trust the results of polls, theirs have been pretty much on the up-and-up.  No one has faith in government anymore.  Approval and trust have dropped not only for federal government, it’s also down for the police, medical profession and healthcare, banks, news media, justice system state and local, and just about everywhere else you can think of except for the military.  I guess we hope our soldiers would defend the Constitution even if no one else will.  I have my doubts, to be honest.  There were military folks at the insurrection, right in the thick of it all.  https://news.gallup.com/poll/394283/confidence-institutions-down-average-new-low.aspx It’s kind of depressing to think you can’t trust your own government or formerly trusted agencies to look out for your best interests.  They used to once upon a time, or did they?

One major drop in approval was for the “Extreme” Court, rogue SCOTUS.  I feel sorry for the three clearly thinking justices (Sotomayor, Kagan and now Jackson).  They are being drowned out by the outrageously right wing Christian nationalist judges who want to strip away our fundamental rights.  I think those six are salivating at the thought of being able to totally screw up the viability of our votes.

I can’t stand the idea that my vote might become meaningless.  If they get away with it, SCOTUS can legalize all the nefarious crap tRump pulled trying to overturn the election by having the states reject votes they don’t like and reissue new electors who’ll vote the way they want.  So, in 2024, the Democrat wins the popular vote and even the Electoral College but before it can be all certified, the red states can call “do-over” so that the Rethuglican candidate would win.

That terrifies me.

Here’s another thought that terrifies me while I’m thinking about treason and white supremacists: during the House Committee Jan 6^th hearings, there were video tapes of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers conferring before the Capitol assault.  I’m sure they’re all in communication with all the other hateful supremacy groups out there and I’m also sure they welcome the addition of the mass shooters with their depraved manifestos and plots.  What if they all come together in one force?

Anything is possible.  

Next on my mind: what our stinking Democratic leadership should be doing to protect women's health rights...and all our other fundamental rights~

Also: why did it take 60 bullets to stop an unarmed Jayden Walker at a traffic stop but the Highland Park mass killer was arrested without incident?  Could is be an issue of race?  One man was black; the other, white.  Guess which is which.

More SCOTUS: why are right wing Christians coming in to pray with the justices IN the Supreme Court?  Inquiring minds want to know.

The Fourth

I’m not feeling it this year.  To be honest, I haven’t felt much like celebrating July 4^th since tRump took office.  I felt more festive last year but not enough to do much more than watch the musical “1776”.  It’s been a favorite of mine, enjoying the songs and funnier scenes.  One part of that movie has always upset me and I’ll bet you can guess what it is:  the section wherein the legislators fight over whether the rights of slaves should be included in the Declaration.  It should have been but these were flawed men, slave owners many of them, and the topic would make up a separate post handily.

There is a poison spreading in our country.  This poison has always been there for at least 50 years but has now infected so much of our democracy that you can’t really ignore it anymore.  There are evil plotters out there dismantling our system of government, and they say they are patriots and Christians.  They are neither. 

Robert Reich wrote a column today about what it means to be a patriot: https://robertreich.substack.com/p/on-this-july-4-the-true-meaning-of?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email&utm_content=share It’s an excellent piece and expresses exactly what I feel inside. 

As for what it means to be a real Christian, you’d have to follow and at least abide by the teachings of Jesus Christ.  To read the words of some of these so-called Christians, it’s easy to see that they are actually anti-Christian.  These are the folks who believe in forced birth but are against caring for the mothers and babies later.  They are the folks who would remove Social Security and Medicare.  They are the billionaires that don’t contribute to any charities and/or don’t pay taxes.  They are the ones perpetuating social injustice, white supremacy, and racism.

The recent actions of the “Extreme” Court and Rethuglicans in Congress run so counter to what the founding fathers hoped we’d be.  Those founding fathers weren’t perfect, don’t get me wrong.  Better days were coming as future politicians and judges began tinkering with the Constitution, adding more amendments along the way to provide protection and equality for everyone.  Now, though, it seems as if all the fundamental rights people had to fight for are in danger of being overturned by the rogue Court.

I used to love the Fourth, especially when I was little and unaware.  I loved the parades with their marching bands.  I loved going to the beach and playing in the water with my brother and cousins.  Best of all were the fire works when it got dark enough.  They were always spectacular.  Over the years, unpleasant truths were acquired but I still loved the fireworks.  I can’t even enjoy those anymore; they’re too much like bombs going off.  That’s in my nightmare scenario of what could happen here.

Why?  This is what Robert Barnes wrote in The Washington Post: ““The Supreme Court on Thursday said it will consider what would be a radical change in the way federal elections are conducted, giving state legislatures sole authority to set the rules for contests even if their actions violated state constitutions and resulted in extreme partisan gerrymandering for congressional seats.””

That means elections can be rigged to favor the party wanting to be in power, in this case the Rethuglicans.  They have been plotting this out for years and years.

Suppose the Democrats win in 2024 after SCOTUS overturns how we vote.  Rethuglican states can throw out the votes they don’t like and choose their own electors to deliver scam votes.  The will of the people won’t matter anymore.

From there, the Hartmann Report plays out the entire nightmare results https://hartmannreport.com/p/the-nightmare-scenario-scotus-is?r=e29jo&s=r&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email Massive protests, shootings of the protestors by Rethuglican supremacist militias, and eventual take-over of our democracy.  What happened in Germany in the 1930s is happening here, now.

And people are just going about their lives like nothing is amiss.

If we don’t start doing something, if we don’t start demanding that Congress pass legislature to protect our vote, our freedom is definitely doomed for everyone.

So.  Not celebrating the 4^th may be the last chance I have to protest the loss of our freedoms thanks to the rogue SCOTUS.  I fully expect some attempt to monkey with my vote in 2024 if Congress doesn’t act to protect our votes.