Tag: White Supremacy

Opinion

Recognize Heroes

We need to recognize heroes regularly in America. We elect presidents and public officials who are contemptible and we expect our future to be good. We cannot have a good future when we hold up corrupt figures (like Donald Trump) as leaders of our society. We look at our politics and both sides shake their heads while one side (Republicans) consistently lies to uphold their viewpoint. America is in a moral valley of epic proportions. We will either break towards fascism and deep evil, or rise towards hope and saving our species from self-destruction. Heroes like the two white men in Portland who stood up on May 26, 2017 to defend minority women from threat by a crazed white supremacist and lost their lives. They should be recognized. Do you know their names? Talliesin Myrddin Namkai Meche, and Rick Best were killed protecting the lives of two Somali women on a light rail train. MIcah David-Cole Fletcher was wounded in the fight. These men are heroes and we should recognize their heroism regularly as a part of what decency means in modern America after the filth of Trump. It is not enough to label the evil and hold them accountable, we must recognize selflessness and what we should all strive to be.

Opinion

One White privilege – voting your class or your race

Heather McGhee in her new book “The Sum of Us” says that white Americans have voted their race more than their class, which is why Republicans are where they are. I have observed this phenomena and not known what to call it. Republicans can behave badly, lie, be corrupt, and attack working people and still win. I knew that it was due to racism, but had never heard it put more concisely than Ms. McGhee put it. America is on the edge of choosing fascism over democracy as Republicans in state legislatures propose laws to restrict voting because they lost. Trump has spun his lie of the election being stolen into a movement to restrict voting access. Republicans believe they can destroy democratic norms and still win due to racism in the American electorate. The near future will tell us if America as the shining city on a hill is dead. The world sees us for who we are because it is so obvious. Trump is not hard to figure out. He is a corrupt, racist, sociopath for all who observe him without hoping he will damage their fellow humans of another race/class in America. For those wretched souls who believe he can help them he is reportedly a savior. There are sad days ahead unless Joe Biden can restore hope in America. Research, vote, and work to restore the American dream and republic!

Opinion

American Aces

Winston Churchill is quoted as saying “empires of the future will be empires of the mind”. To me he is saying that the old tribal empires are the past, and the future will be driven ideas. Until recently America was perhaps the most admired nation in the world. Four years of Trump’s xenophobia, fascism, and racism have left even allies feeling that they cannot trust America because Americans put him in power. We allowed our strengths of truth and diversity to be undermined by a clownish wannabe dictator. America is on the comeback trail under the leadership of Joe Biden, but our problem is a Republican party that has surrendered to the ideas of white supremacy and Trump. The fight against the idea that tribalism will give followers a better life than other Americans can be won by truth, courage, and the embrace of the humanity of all. Dr. King said that “we will learn to live together as brothers, or we will die as fools.” The struggle to save our republic is critical on multiple levels. Failure will result in chaos, collapse, and on-coming climate disaster. Be an ace. Research our societal issues and stay active in our politics; activism and voting is better than any alternative.

Opinion

Lies are killing us

Texas GOP leadership of Texas has been in effect for decades and has delivered an infrastructure that has failed to serve it’s citizens. The same leaders urged citizens to not wear masks. The situation is bad enough when citizens face freezing to death in their homes, or being poisoned by toxic water. But Texas politicians have started to spin lies about the Green New Deal, windmills, and how citizens should expect nothing from their government. Texas has been warned numerous times in the past about winterizing it’s energy infrastructure and done nothing. Republican behavior in Texas and across the country is appalling because they continuously get away with failure due to tribalism reinforced by lies. The invasion of Iraq, COVID19, the Capitol insurrection, and more are the result of people not fearing accountability. If Republican wholesale lying does not stop, the destruction will increase. America needs to hold Republicans accountable, to do it we must all stay vigilant, stand up for the right to vote, and the truth.

Opinion

Go big, or go home

President Biden has plenty of work to do, and so far he has done the job of restoring faith in our republic and his leadership of it. The president has been clear in stating what he wants to do and how he will go about trying to achieve bipartisan support. The Republicans want to pretend that the insurrection, and their attempts to hobble the Obama administration before wasting money on a tax cut for the rich with Trump did not happen. President Biden saw all of it and knows that he cannot waste time negotiating with people who have only bad faith towards him achieving anything for the American people. The president knows that he has to play both the long and the short game to be successful and if anyone can do it, he can. The administration’s job right now is to help those who are in jeopardy from the pandemic before moving on to climate change, racial injustice, immigration, infrastructure, and healthcare for all Americans. Many of these issues are interrelated whether Republicans realize it or not. America’s enemies will attack us where we are weak, which right now is our societal divisions and lack of a strong healthcare system. If COVID was an attack it was successful, and the next attack could be stronger and more devastating. America needs a robust healthcare system that services every citizen. The next four years will require a lot of money to be focused on strengthening our society to compete for the future.

Opinion

Those who would rather shatter it than share it

Poet Amanda Gorman spoke of people who would rather shatter our republic than share it. The description sounds completely appropriate in light of the MAGA crowd and Republicans threatening the vote for 2020 and beyond. Republican legislators around the country are working to make voting harder, in a country that already has low percentages of the eligible population participating. The United States increasingly seems a country where a percentage of the population views the rest as targets for submission, not fellow citizens. The main tools in the conflict to control America are lies, threats, gerrymandering, and terrorism from Republicans; Democrats counter with demographic trends leading to political dominance because the other side offers nothing for working people. The Republican issue is failing to believe in conservative theory leading to policies and solutions the majority of Americans will vote for; so they lie. Our politics can be fixed if we can get Republicans to get back to practical solutions to problems rather than just knee-jerk anti-spending and anti-socialism. Capitalism is the engine of our society, but is not the best solution for every problem. Do you want police officers paid by the number of tickets they issue? America and Republicans can easily do better by rejecting Reagan’s idea that government is the problem. Real life is more complex than zero-sum thinking allows for. Sharing is far better than a broken country for all of us.

Opinion

Book review: Stony the Road by Henry Louis Gates Jr.

Stony the Road (Reconstruction, White Supremacy, and the Rise of Jim Crow) by Henry Louis Gates Jr. is a history text. The book is dry and factual; not exciting. If you want to know the various ways that Black Americans were attacked and used as the antithesis of White; this book is a top resource. Today many of us know that people believe what they want to believe, but illiterate former slaves had to deal with an array of forces working to humiliate and diminish them. White was ultimately defined as everyone with European origins viewing and working to keep Black people inferior. Doctors, scientists, journalists, etc. were all in on a conspiracy to feed White egos and marginalize Black ones. Details are a strength of this book; the election of Woodrow Wilson in 1912 and his White supremacist policies, racist movies like “Birth of a Nation” (1915), Whites feeling anxious about Black troops coming back from World War I leading to the terrorist Red Summer of 1919. The book starts with Reconstruction after the Civil War and follows the hellish reality the Black Americans lived with through the 1920s. If you want to understand more about the history of White Supremacy in America put this book on your list.

Opinion

Moving forward

The Democratic controlled House of Representatives and Senate is where the action is for rebuilding the base of the republic. Joe Biden has told us what he wants to do, but he needs congress to make it a reality. Trump has been impeached but now should be convicted and banned from ever holding office again; unless we want to see more like him in the future. The COVID19 pandemic threatens to morph into a new threat with variants overtaking vaccines if we do not act quickly to finance the fight against it. Assistance for people financially damaged by the pandemic and the rest of the economy is needed sooner to prevent more damage later. Civil rights for all Americans to be treated with dignity is urgent as our society battles extremism and hate. Climate change has it’s own timer and does not care if we respond or not, but if we care for future generations the time is now. Democrats have been given control and now must show supporters that they really care about the issues important to voters. I am hopeful that we will see boldness from congress and the Biden administration. Stay focused and be ready to provide feedback and support to your representatives and the administration.

Opinion

The Fear of God

Republicans like Ted Cruz continuously lie with impunity about the Paris Climate Agreement and other issues. Cruz implied that Joe Biden cared more about what the citizens of Paris cared about than the citizens of Pittsburg (borrowing a line from Trump). The idiocy of the line could not be resisted and a Democratic representative asked if the Geneva Conventions were about what the citizens of Geneva cared about. Republicans like Cruz and Hawley do not care about the truth because they do not respect the voters in a system where the conservative media supports lies to support an evil agenda. Evolutionary Biologists say that when events occur that are ruthless and amoral they are not an accident. The events are attempts to maintain an advantage for future generations and the perpetrators. There is no consequence for Republicans lying because there is less fear of God than the prime motivation of maintaining an advantage. The old saying is that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Trying to create advantages for progeny is as old as humanity, but it easily turns into evil (we used to have royalty that claimed their inherited advantages came from God). Every respectable American must be focused on their soul and character before party. Too many Republicans have sold our in the pursuit of power and the rot threatens to destroy the country. More information about the degeneracy and corruption of the Trump administration will be coming out. Make sure that you hold the line and ask your representatives to do the same and not allow the truth to be a casualty of the pursuit of power. Stand up for the truth and the soul of our nation. Make sure that criminality does not go unpunished, or worse rewarded and invited to return in the name of white power.

Opinion

“We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.” “Why America may go too hell.” – Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

On this MLK holiday every American needs to reflect on current events and where we go from here. The two quotes in the title of this post are great words to ponder. I don’t want my country to go to hell, but we seem to be drifting in that direction. Our culture has become toxic to the decency and dignity of the average citizen. America has media empires built on consistently lying to advance a viewpoint that some people are better than others, and democratic government is a problem. We are far away from believing that all men are created equal, or that the truth will set us free. Evil and selfish people believe that they should control other people while getting a pass for themselves because they are part of an entitled group. We used to believe that some people were royalty and they had special entitlements, now we are fighting the racist lie with the same foundation. There is nothing that says we will make it to a better future for all humanity. Dr. King and great leaders have tried to save us from our worst impulses, but we live in a world where people are fine with supporting evil. The rationales for supporting treachery, corruption, and authoritarian creatures like Trump are increasingly absurd, but Republican majorities of citizens continue to do it. The level of degeneration in our country is dangerous, it will take every decent person to protect our democracy and hope for a better future. Dr. King said that we will get to the promised land; I pray he is right. Be ready to support American institutions, the dignity of your fellow citizens, hold evil accountable, and protect our republic.