Blog Archives

(In response to comments on a strange little website called “Patriots4Freedom” about Dumpy’s bang-up job as President.)

You folks who refuse to see the danger this President poses to the democracy of our country are amazingly agile at finding excuses for him and for defaming “the Left” at every opportunity, and it is just stupid.  The Left “…no longer cares for the truth or the well being of most”…??

Ahahaha! Wow…that really takes some brass ones to even consider saying or putting to print. This President has LIED...PROVABLY lied-thousands of times in the span of just over 2 years, and has repeatedly exposed and expressed his loathing or disinterest in anyone not named Trump or anyone who disagrees with him. His policies, if you can find any, are not for the betterment of the world, they are for the betterment of his own bank accounts and those of his similarly afflicted family and associates. His choices for cabinet are the complete opposite of what’s best for the people of our nation…and are clearly made for approval and “luv” from dictators and other impudent, out-of- touch corporate royals. None of them gives a shit about you or me. And still, you line up behind his mammoth ass and kiss it while he convinces you to believe that those of us on your left are your “enemies” rather than fellow Americans. 

You say, “the Left is caught up in a religious crusade whose meme is not only that the end justifies the means, but the end is a pyramid of power for its own sake as those who sit atop will be the high priests of entry to heaven and hell.”  

Now wait a minute. First, my experience has been that it is YOU, on the Right, who are the ones judging who goes to heaven or hell. We are smart enough to understand that those kinds of decisions are far above our pay grade,  Also, we are NOT the folks who have appropriated and weaponized religion. A pyramid of power?! On the Left!!?  Have you ever actually talked to a Lefty? Can you really not see, or is it your choice to not see that the real PYRAMID OF POWER starts with Trump, moves to his children, on to his circle of corrupt and ELITIST cabinet members, then disgraces himself and us…both of us, you and me…by embracing and approving of murderous dictators around the world, all while blowing off our greatest allies and claiming that he is ‘cleaning out the swamp’? 

You have a lot of nerve suggesting the Left has any interest in your “religious crusade”… or in becoming “high priests of entry into heaven or hell.”  The way you people have appropriated religion or Christianity as your own, private hate group to beat the life out of American liberty is shameful. There is very little in the “Christ” part of the Bible that encourages us to hate one another, or that shows any patience for bullies who attempt to hurt others. That you are willing to accept this liar in chief as a “man of god” would be hysterically funny if it weren’t so Twilight Zone weird. That you would emulate such a vulgar hustler and further his propaganda against entire groups of humans, including people of your own country, neighborhoods, even your own families is surely not very “Christian”?

The condescension of your language in describing “the Left… frolicking…pursuing the power over life and death”[because we] “cannot create life, [so we] glory in ….the taking of life” is such a stupid trope it’s ridiculous. I don’t know where you get the idea that we lefties “cant create life”…? Really? As far as I know, we lefties are about as fertile as you right wingers, and most of the lefties I know have lovely, strong families. We also are generally the ones whose goals are to create BETTER life for those around us, through music, art, poetry, literature, theater; by working to ensure our neighbors have enough food to survive, enough heat in winter, clean air to breathe, clean water to drink, health care to protect themselves and their loved ones, information about ways to prevent having more children than they can possibly afford, and offering help, counseling, guidance and hope when they need it. 

We are NOT the folks who resist having employers provide a decent living minimum wage. We are NOT the folks who believe that health care is a privilege for the wealthy and not a right for every citizen.  We are NOT the folks who believe that destroying the Earth God gave us is our right because He said that we”have dominion” over it and that means we can strip from it every mineral and resource, pollute the waters and air, too,  because even if we do f–k it up, He will just come in and “fix it”. or maybe He’ll just call it a day, get Armageddon going and take all of you self appointed “good guys” up in the Rapture and kill off the rest of us ne’er do wells and our stinking planet.  None of that sounds like a very respectful way of treating such a gift. 

In the meantime, we Lefties are the folks who do NOT allow an entire AMERICAN city to languish in the brutality of poison in its drinking water. We are the folks who do NOT allow an entire island of AMERICAN CITIZENS to suffer the aftershock of the worst hurricane in the island’s history, withholding resources desperately needed to survive, including food, water, electricity, or medicine because “it costs too much”, and anyway, that nasty mayor of San Juan was disrespectful to Donny Dump”.  

No, no, no!….I’m so sick of you folks passing yourselves off as the truly righteous, truly believing, truly favored children of God because you want to “save the millions of babies” lost to abortion around the world.  Your claims of being the party of the “right to life” is another one of those despicable Orwellian doublespeak terms that props you up and allows you to feel morally superior because it’s all about “babies”.  And it’s bullshit. 

First of all, I realize that refusing to believe that our planet is in climate crisis leaves room for you to dispute the notion that everyone should “go forth and multiply”. But the truth is, we are dangerously close to the point that we are going to run out of clean water and healthy food, among all other resources.  Pretty soon, rather than going to war for oil, we will be fighting for something as simple and absolutely crucial as WATER. But that’s a whole different discussion.

Secondly, the number of “right to lifers” who decry the importance of abortion rights & care for women-real, live, sentient, breathing humans-and then find themselves wholly advocating for it when their mistresses or daughters find themselves “in distress” is absurd.  Even PRIESTS and pastors who diddle in the parish pool are known to send those “mistakes” to the local hospitals to get rid of the evidence of their own duplicity…they don’t use the clinics, of course, because that would mean they were just as “dirty” as the women who depend on them for help because they have no other means…as in, the wealthy politicians and the piously religious go to hospitals and abort the pregnancy in private so nobody who might pay attention knows WHY they are there. Could be, oh, I don’t know…a kidney infection? Bladder? Anxiety? Exhaustion? Because it’s ok if you LIE about that in order to… not upset your fellow hypocrites? 

And just in case you missed it, the Left, despite what your faithless leader has told you, do NOT want open borders, we do NOT want criminals and rapists and drug dealers coming into our country….why on earth would you believe such a stupid thing?   We welcome our suffering neighbors to the south and Middle East seeking the safety of the US and who already love our country and are willing to work to become a part of it. We welcome those traveling to the US in order to find work, to find a better life for their families. We DO want sensible, humane regulations and immigration protocols that those in DC making the laws deem important enough to fully fund and operate. 

We do NOT want to take your stupid guns…(although I’m beginning to think that maybe we really SHOULD…) we just want to make as sure as is possible that those owning guns have the proper background, training, mental health, and a healthy respect for life-human and animal- before they are allowed to possess an instrument designed for one specific purpose–to KILL.  We DO believe that those of you who are paranoid enough to think those are bad things are probably so vehement against regulating them that you know you wouldn’t pass the test. (And those are your pals with entire armories of weapons.) 

So what do Lefties really want? Here’s a sample:

• We DO want to provide an evidence-based, standard, guided education for our children and vaccines to keep them safe from life-threatening illness while they are in their classrooms. 
• We DO want the children coming into the classroom fully fed and able to think about the curriculum and not about how hungry they are. 
• We DO want our first-responders to be able to help in a crisis with the proper, workable equipment, including overdose antidotes for those in trouble, and proper training and social awareness to not make a crisis worse.  
• We DO want our roads paved and maintained, access to the internet and other technology for everyone, safe and secure cyber environment free from propaganda within and outside our country
• We DO want everyone to be able to choose their educational path, and when they do, 
• We DO want them to be able to support themselves with the dignity of a living wage, proper health care, medical/parental leave when needed, the ability to work a 40-hour work week and time off to be with family. 
• We DO want to ensure the rights of every American citizen to vote-a constitutionally guaranteed right- and to have their votes counted; 
• We DO want to ensure the rights of every human being to love who they love, and to protect those who don’t fit a narrow societal definition of family, marriage, identity or self worth.
• We DO want to know that the food we eat, the water we drink, and the air we breathe are safe and not lethal; 
• We DO want to be able to preserve the beauty of nature-the mountains, the oceans, the trees, the cities- and not have those beautiful reminders desecrated by spilled toxic goo or melting ice caps or flooding rivers brought on by industries with a singular, mercenary goal…MORE MORE MORE!
• Finally, we DO want to preserve LIFE… life that is living, life that thinks, emotes, loves and is loved.  We DO want to preserve the lives of women with families, with hardships, with aspirations, and who may have made mistakes.  And just so you know, there isn’t a woman on this planet who WANTS to have to make that kind of choice. NOT ONE. Even “Lefty” women don’t “frolic” or find joy in such a painful choice.  But IT IS HER BODY, IT IS HER CHOICE. Those of you who find such religious justification for denying women those choices are pretty pompous in your belief that its up to YOU to decide what happens between a woman, her partner, her doctor, and her GOD. Your lack of faith in your God’s justice is further proof of your own inflated self-importance. Who are you? Are you so convinced of your own significance that you think you can make God’s decisions for Him? How does that work, anyway? Humble servant or vain usurper?

So you can take your sanctimonious ignorance about who we are versus the bully you choose to follow blindly, and you can choose to think about your life, your ideas, your actions and prejudices, allow your eyes and your minds to open,  or you can continue ignore the obvious dangerous impulses of the radical, bloviating Right causing growing levels of hate, misogyny, prejudice, superstition, and ignorance. That misery is being fueled by those YOU choose to revere in spite of the hate, superstition, loathing they feel for YOU. One way, we can go back to having conversations; the other, we can go back to war. 

This is in response to the statement that Dumpy Trumpy made at a rally yesterday (in Wisconsin?) about doctors and mothers taking “babies, wrapping them up in blankets, then deciding whether or not to kill them…” I can’t figure out how to get the video here, but that’s probably just as well. Besides I’m sure you know the one, you’ve seen it or heard it plenty by now.

Whether you are for or against abortion, right now, it doesn’t matter. Because this is an “urban legend” or meme that is as big a lie as it is disgusting. God, get Steven Miller out of his …ear…long enough to tell him a bedtime story that doesn’t include this kind of outrageous lie that is being told over & over again on tin foil hat websites, and that is now being spewed by the President of the United States. There is only one reason to make this kind of speech, and that is to take this huge, ongoing, gut-wrenching issue and shrink it down small enough for the stupidest people on earth can seize on a totally false, fictitious, ugly smear against “the harrible Left, those evil Democrats”, especially against women, intelligent, logical, and compassionate people who would NEVER even be able to come up with such a thing.

This is a stupid assertion by a stupid man in order to keep his stupid minions at his beck & call. The thing is, you can see him smirk while he tells the story/lie…even HE doesn’t believe it; he just wants you to BELIEVE he actually gives a shit about anyone, including fetuses and especially the women responsible for having to make such a choice. The man is reprehensible. Why is he still in office? And worse, why are so many stupid people still listening to the kind of garbage he throws out to them? Well, here’s a thought…he’s made all kinds of lovely promises and delivered on NONE of them to anyone who has ever had to work, so they grow ravenous for ANYTHING he will give them…even if it is just hate and filthy bullshit.

www.facebook.com/100007314182271/posts/2234802570106861

         OK, so most people who know me or have spent any amount of time with me knows how much I love going to the theater. I started acting in little plays with the Dayton Children’s Theater when I was four or five years old and until I was a teenager. I have loved it, watched it, and participated in it ever since. A night out with friends or my kids often includes a trip to the theater, often to enjoy a lighthearted musical or action movie. I love to have fun and to laugh, of course, but I also love to experience the depth of emotion in more dramatic, sometimes “dark” productions. So, it was inevitable, I suppose, that I was drawn years ago to a local group in Akron that called itself “The Bang and the Clatter”. An innovative “black box” theater in downtown Akron, now in the Merriman Valley in the back of Bricco’s restaurant and the restructured group is now called “none too fragile” theater company.
       In case you don’t know, two surviving founders of the original company, Sean Derry and Alanna Romansky, have taken their considerable talents and created a theater that has consistently chosen and performed new, cutting-edge dramatic productions that can blow your socks off. (I know…I’ve gone home “barefoot” several times after seeing one of their shows) Their current production, titled “Boogieban”, is no exception. It is the winner of a John S. Knight matching grant award, an award that is well deserved. It is the world premier of an amazing show about the effects of war, terror, and PTSD on two veteran soldiers from two different wartime experiences- the Viet Nam War and the war in Afghanistan.
         Adjectives like “excellent” , “brilliant”, “amazing” are not worthy of this show. I know, I know, you have heard me sing the praises of this group forever. But, this show is different. In a lifetime of love for theater, this may be the first show I believe is a true piece of art…really. All of it, from the writing, directing, and acting, to the sound effects and lighting, are just about as perfect as any live production can be. But it is more than an evening of entertaining theater, it is a measured, deliberate unveiling of intensely real, exceedingly deep trauma left on the souls of the two soldiers we see on stage.
      Last week, I saw the show for the first time at a Sunday matinee that was arranged for veterans and that provided a talk-back forum afterward with the playwright, the military consultant, the director and cast. I learned a lot.
       The playwright, D.C. Fidler, is a former professor at UNC Chapel Hill and the University of West Virginia. He spent decades studying and teaching psychiatry, cultural psychiatry, educational psychiatry, and acting. He wrote scripts and music for over 50 medical educational videos, served on various prestigious Arts and Medical boards and committees, and authored the textbook Psychiatry for Actors: Building a Character Using Psychiatric Principles. It was his curiosity about the effects of war and trauma that led him to write this play, and every one of the veterans attending last week’s performance said, in moving and poignant commentary, that “he nailed it”.
The authenticity of this story only continues when we know that the man playing the role of a military psychiatrist is a British actor, director, and drama therapist named David Peacock, who has had years of theatrical accomplishments, and who now works with veterans suffering with PTSD as a drama therapist.
    I cried when I saw the show last week; no surprise there, right? For some reason, I believed that tonight, because I had already seen it before and would be prepared, that I would be able to watch it with dry eyes this time, and not be pulled into the compelling drama on stage.

Uh, no.

        It is impossible to see this show and not be affected by the paid experienced by these two characters; for me, that meant weeping through the entire second half of the show. The intense emotions exhibited by both actors is visceral, and felt a bit like they’d grabbed my heart and were squeezing it… gently at first, but with growing intention as the show progressed.
       Soooo, you may ask, as several of you have, “Why on earth should we go see such an intense production? I want to escape from problems when I go out, not add to them…”
      I know that for many people, going to see a play or movie is a brief “night off”, a time to have fun, not a time to get bummed out or to risk (I’m looking at you, guys) crying in public. I get it, I do. But think back to when you first saw It’s a Wonderful Life or Apocalypse Now. Every now and then, it benefits us to step out of our comfort zones, allow something outside of ourselves to dig deeper into our hearts, and risk what we may find on the other side. Remember watching Ghandi, Do the Right Thing or Philadelphia? Think of reading To Kill a Mockingbird, or The Color Purple. None of them easy or “fun”, but our souls and lives are wholly enriched by the experience. That’s why you should make every effort to see this show. This is a World Premier…Professor Fidler has written a script for an expanded cast of seven, and there are talks of making it into a movie!
       But there isn’t much time left to see it. Tonight’s show (Nov. 30) is sold out, but there are seats available for Saturday night, and for an extended run next weekend on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. If that doesn’t work, then you will have missed an inspiring and affecting presentation. You may have a chance to see this premier edition later if you are traveling in August or September, though, because our dynamic Akron theater group is taking “Boogieban” to debut in Chicago at the Chicago Dramatists Theatre! Or maybe, if you are lucky, you could even see it at the 13th Street Repertory Theater in NEW YORK CITY! Whoot! Whoot!
       Lebron. The Black Keys. And now, none too fragile theater! Our Akron pride is showing!

You don’t have to take my word for any of this….it’s all just my opinion as a theater lover and someone who loves the folks involved.  But, if you’d like to hear from someone who actually knows what she’s talking about, visit the f/b page of Kerry Clawson, the long-time arts critic for the Akron Beacon Journal. She knows a lot about the Arts here and everywhere!

http://www.facebook.com/kclawsonabj.

none too fragile theater also has a f/b page, but you’re going to have to find that on your own….I can’t get the link to move over! 

Just about everything I do or have done in my life is due to my love for children. Over time, that led to my Just about everything I do or have done in my life is due to my love of children, and over time, that led to my activism and passion for “the underdog”. One of the manifestations of that preoccupation in my early 20’s was to begin working with developmentally and physically challenged kids as part of the Akron School System. I had joined a friend and her mother in helping to lead a Girl Scout troop for the girls at Barrett Elementary that met every other Wednesday, and when the coordinator for the classroom asked if I thought I might like to work with them more regularly, as in, the teachers needed an assistant, and I jumped at the chance. One fun advantage was that I could get to know more of the kids, including the boys in the class, none of whom I’d ever met.

I learned a lot from those kids. The greatest lesson was that I learned to see, talk and relate to them not as “handicapped kids”, but as just kids. The girls liked the Girl Scout stuff-it got them out of their classes every other Wednesday afternoon, after all, and they always loved the camping adventure we planned each spring. And it was truly an adventure…each of us “big sisters” was assigned a “little sis” to hang out with for the week; and we were to attend to all of all the mobility issues our little sis had (including getting wheelchairs, walkers, crutches, braces, etc. into and out of the cabin, setting them up at the long wooden picnic tables down the center for meals and crafts, and finally, get the girls into bed at the end of the day…without killing them or creating more problems for them) We also were charged with any food issues the girls might have; (several were unable to feed themselves due to “uncooperative limbs”, (their term, not mine) some had feeding tubes, some had dietary restrictions); as well as hygiene issues (some were in diapers, some had ostomy bags, some just needed help getting from wheelchair to toilet).

My first year at camp, my little sis was a girl named Kelly, and was the maiden voyage into the splendor of camping for both of us. She was a child born with a particularly unreasonable number of disabilities. Born with spina bifida, she would never walk, was hydrocephalic, nearly blind, nearly deaf, with clubbed feet and tiny webbed fingers. She spoke with the quiet of someone without enough breath to be loud. She was 13 years old, and had the sharpest, funniest sense of humor I’d ever known in a kid-any kid. At the end of that first trip, we laughed at the miracle it was that I hadn’t managed to kill her during our week together. She’d had to instruct me in most of the ways she needed help, and scolded me when I couldn’t do it right. The next spring she was no longer in diapers but had an ostomy bag, which she teased would be the way I would finally be able to kill her off, because she was sure that I had forgotten everything she taught me the year before.

I know people probably used to use the term “retarded” when they saw kids like her, but I never associated that kind of label with them. Because the accepted definition for that word just did not apply to those girls. Over the course of three years, we talked with them about how they saw themselves, and how they thought others thought of them, what they wanted to be when they grew up, just like I did with my baby sister. Those discussions occasionally led to us talking about that particular word. It was astonishing to learn that the word meant very little to them. We talked about it a few times, and by the end of that third year, they had taught us that they never thought of themselves as dumb, or stupid, or “retarded”. The kids used the word themselves, though, to describe people who were mean, who did stupid things or, the worst- people who tried to hurt other people. They never thought of themselves as “retarded” because they were not mean, and never tried to hurt anyone else, even if they did some dumb things sometimes.

Of course I’m glad that the word has become obsolete. I still haven’t used it, but for my last essay, but in the personal little dictionary that I keep in my head, the definition is still the one that came from Kelly, Stacy, Dao, Beth, Holly and the rest of the kids I love to this day.

I tell this story as a very convoluted way to explain and apologize for an awkward thing I wrote yesterday on Facebook. Unfortunately, it turns out that even with my incredibly proficient capacity for swearing as well as any old stevedore, over the course of the past two years, I have used so many of my favorite four letter words when talking and writing about the mob in DC, none of those words had the passionate impact I needed at that moment. So the search was on for the worst, most insulting, most hateful word I could find to describe that feeling at that moment.

Thats when I found the word “retarded”. I know that my beautiful, wonderful special needs kids were probably insulted with that ugly slur in their lifetimes, whether they were aware of it or not, and it hurts to think of it. And I’m pretty sure I know that even in the more enlightened age in which we live now, more than 30 years beyond my life with those kids, people still use that term as a slur. In every context, it is a hurtful, ignorant, and evocative term. Its what I wanted.

It’s not an excuse, really. It was a mistake to assign such a word a meaning that society doesn’t share. I’ve hurt and disappointed (and confused, I think) those of you who know me and know that even in the heat of a political tirade I don’t normally call names, I don’t lie, and I have faith that enough people working hard enough can overcome even the likes of Donald J. Trump. And Ill make you a promise….I don’t know if I ever have used the word, and I hate it too! That word will not come from me again. Not in speech, not in print. What I ended up doing was fighting down to Dumpy’s level, and god, what a terrible place to live.

The question was, “Why do Republicans hate Liberals?”

There was a video posted on FB that made the case that Conservatives are doing everything they can to keep us stupid.

My take is this: Conservatives are afraid. They are afraid of the “browning” of America, to start with, and that informs every decision or idea they have. Even their position on abortion has sprung from this fear…interesting that the Right didn’t take up the anti-choice mantle until “intellectuals” at conservative think tanks realized that it wasn’t the poor brown/black women who were having abortions, it was the more economically flush white women, and the poorer black and brown and white girls with black “baby-daddies” that were giving birth. …imagine how terrifying it was when they realized that the “browning” of America that they feared was happening even sooner than they anticipated!  

It’s the same with education… I attended a very liberal university back in the day, and I had some VERY liberal professors. But we were well aware of their liberal views, and were encouraged to debate them if they didn’t make sense or if they offended us. The problem? Those progressive, inclusive values that are at the core of lefty social & political ideals are so much more appealing to young people who are encouraged to think for themselves, rather than adopt (swallow) an ideology that is built on suspicion, fear, rigid rule following, and bigotry.  

So, how better to control the outcome of an education system that promotes the status quo than to control the amount and level of knowledge being shared? Than by making sure that the students all are required to learn the same, mandated syllabus, taught to the curriculum of conservative publishing houses that are the same publishers of the tests required by every primary school in the country?  A curriculum that carries with it the threat to teachers and school boards in every district that if those students do not do well, that their careers may be in jeopardy, or worse, their districts threatened with the loss of funding public schools so desperately need? Is it any wonder that the families of those publishing giants are giddy with excitement over the appointment of Betsy DeVoss, a 50+ year-old woman who, at the time of her appointment, had never even stepped foot inside a public school? An extremely privileged white woman with no concept of doing anything that is “not for profit”, she champions the concept of charter schools…schools that are run by private organizations- with the cleverly disguised intention of making money for the shadow sponsors of those schools. 

She and those who support her can do that by claiming that their schools are part of the public school system, because there is no tuition required for students to attend. They can do it because the charter schools take the money earmarked for public education in their communities and supported by federal dollars and divert it to the charters.  

And what freedom that gives those “providers”! Without mandates from the local school boards, (who are elected to ensure the education of local students in some semblance of local community values) charter schools are free to choose their own curriculum, textbooks, rules of behavior, and focus in content and achievement. The big sell for those “new” schools is that they can supposedly enrich each student according to their individual needs by teaching to DIFFERENT tests…tests that are not required to fulfill even basic accountability standards and that over time, have consistently proven to be wretched failures (even according to the lax standards the schools set for themselves!) in order to be “better” than public school standards of achievement.  

In the meantime, those “sponsoring” the schools are making money off the backs of the children attending those poorly functioning, non-accountable schools whose real goals are not providing a better education for students in order to ensure a well-informed citizenry, but instead, are providing money in the pockets of already wealthy sponsors. The schools for hyperactive children, the schools for African-centric focus, the schools for troubled teenagers, the schools for kids who only want to do their learning on a computer rather than in a classroom can claim to have the best interests of those children at heart.

… and yes, some of those schools actually are conceived in altruistic idealism, believing that some individual or corporation has a better way to teach… while actually creating a system more segregated than George Wallace’s Alabama in the 1960’s. Separating children by color, disability, religious intolerance, learning styles, etc. does nothing to encourage unity or acceptance of others; rather, it is a means of indoctrinating the children with a curriculum chosen by those wealthy (predominantly white) sponsors in accordance of their own conservative values. 

Why?Because the earlier the children can be taught not to think, but to BEHAVE, the easier they are to CONTROL.  And the more likely the (private, Christian, conservative, for profit) institutes of higher learning like Bob Jones University or Hillsdale College or Jerry Fallwell’s Liberty University (do we include the now-defunct and disgraced Trump University here as well?) will be truly accepted by the citizenry, despite their superstitious, Bible-centered, authoritarian worldview on issues crucial to preserve life on this planet. Away with the study of science and the relationship between human consumption and the destruction of natural resources needed to sustain life on this planet. Better to claim a (false) set of higher-ordered, theological explanations for the wealthy, industrial scions’ destructive actions and not have to defend them to properly educated, critically thinking people who call their decisions into question.

Decisions like allowing poisonous coal ash to flow into shallow water basins than to have to figure out how to clean it up. Decisions to build school campuses, parks, baseball, football, and soccer fields on top of leaching former hazardous waste sites in order to calm local residents into believing that the hazardous manufacturers are truly civic-minded philanthropists. Decisions to allow the filthiest fossil waste to be extruded from the earth and sent down a PIPE, through sacred Native lands and crucial clean-water reservoirs of potable drinking water for thousands of people, all in order to sell that filth to another country at billions of dollars in profit for corporations who pay their workers a barely-more-than-poverty wage and their executives millions of dollars EVERY YEAR for the privilege of….what? Maintaining a culture of advantage for those already wrapped in entitlement? 

Sadly, those wealthy industrialists at the top of the economic pyramid, despite claims of wanting to create a well-informed, educated public, are LYING. Because a well-informed, educated public does not serve their best interests. 

• What advantage would they have, for instance, in helping those on the lower levels of that social/economic pyramid gain a foothold into higher levels of society? 
• Why should they want to share that higher level with a citizenry that will only question the motives or actions of the top-tier folks? 
• Why risk sharing the economic “pie” (switching metaphors) with others when the understood goal is to achieve and maintain wealth, power, and social standing? Especially when those at the top of the pyramid (shifting back) can insure their ability to capture even MORE wealth? 
• How best to eliminate those who might question the fairness or democracy in creating what is in essence a return to a feudal society? 
• What if they could teach (indoctrinate) those menial laborers to behave, not question, and to accept what they are told and act accordingly? 
• What could they do to insure that their white, wealthy, entitled progeny grow up believing in their ultimate superiority? That the reason for their wealth and preeminence is because it’s been ordained by a God who wants it that way? 
• What if they believed that it is “God” who gave us “dominion over the Earth” and that means we can therefore do whatever we want to do with it? Because He would never allow us to do anything that He couldn’t fix, or that He didn’t want us to do, right?

Never mind how screwy that thinking is in an educated, scientific, rational sense…how is it that they are able to justify destroying so precious a gift -our Earth- from a God they believe will reward them with Paradise one day? Maybe because they are convinced that they are supposed to maintain their elevated status while they deplete and poison the earth in places they would never want to live anyway.  These are the same folks who attempt to convince you that destroying the Earth and bringing on the “End Times” means that you (and they, of course) are the folks that are going to be lifted up in the Rapture while the rest of us are left to deal with the nightmarish turbulence brought on by our own weak faith or disrespect for the rules so obviously laid out by God’s chosen. 

In essence, it boils down to one very simple, very basic motivation for everything… its about POWER. Power to make laws that create a society that reflects and rewards a superior status for those already in power; power to create a society of privilege in this, the real world, and in the fantasy of the next. It is about the power of belief in the righteousness of their own white, wealthy, entitled superiority that motivates their every decision. 

There is a well-worn phrase that has grown in popularity and in our language over the decades, a phrase that has lost its value and has been transformed into a dog-whistling invective used to question the sanity of those it is used to describe… and that will probably be directed at the ideas presented here by those who disagree.  But I will tell you that no, I am definitely NOT a “conspiracy nut”, nor am I buried in fear or suspicion.  What I am is an educated, informed old woman who has studied the Right for decades, not in an attempt to discredit them but to try to UNDERSTAND them; and at 61 years old, this is where I’ve landed.  

It is laughable to me to hear the constant chorus of accusations of “left wing mainstream media bias” by the Right regarding every aspect of a FREE society- the very FREE society that they proclaim to embrace!  A left-wing bias in the media? Sure….because we all know how “liberal” the owners of the five multi-billion dollar conglomerates that own nearly every communications network in the Western Hemisphere are.  

A “left-wing” bias in education? A bias they work so hard to “correct” by discrediting the educational systems that embrace the notions of free speech and critical thinking, offering instead educational institutions that encourage specific, well-defined doctrine.  That leads then to a question that many of us on the Left have been asking the Right for years: that is, “What exactly do you consider Leftist/Progressive/Democratic? And why do you consider it a bad thing?” 

The fear that drives the Right to squash the Progressive point of view is the fear that the Progressive worldview is so much easier and yes, FREE, than that of the Right.  We Lefties know how much less complicated it is to NOT fear our neighbors. We know how much better it is to learn about other races, cultures, religions, and customs, instead of rejecting them or not having to spend so much energy on maintaining the illusion of our own “correctness” or godliness.  You folks have a tendency to dismiss the concept of liberal “political correctness” with contempt, a foul derision directed toward those of us who consider the politeness of our language nothing more than GOOD MANNERS. You accuse the us of trying to “STEAL”  institution of marriage by welcoming our gay brothers and sisters into its structure, and of WANTING to allow terrorists, rapists, and murderers into our country.  We do know how exciting it is to explore scientific advances and wonder at the intricacies of the biological evolution of our world rather than being helpless bystanders believing that there is some old white man in the sky that is sending down telegraphic messages to a select group of people telling them what to do in this life, in this world, so they can have better seats at the table in the next one. But we aren’t “godless” because we are enthralled by science and the understanding of the natural world.  Believing in God and believing in science, despite your efforts to make it so, are not mutually exclusive. I don’t know if there is a God as you believe in it, but I’m pretty sure your conviction that there IS one is probably not based on scientific discovery. And your reckless attempts to “Christianize” the United States and intimidate our leaders into an agenda you claim to have heard from the guy in the sky has done more to split our nation into simmering cliques of just-under-the-surface-antipathy toward others as any war has done.  We don’t want to disregard or disrespect your god or your religion, we would just appreciate the same from you.  

Progressive people accept that there are things we don’t understand, but that it isn’t our job to reject the things we cant explain, and it isn’t yours either. Some people like Rap music and some like Country. Does that make one better than the other? Of course not.  And the presence of both around the ether doesn’t “make” a Rapper into a cowboy, no matter how many times he listens to it.  Some people like cats, others prefer dogs. Is one better than the other? No. But no matter how much time a cat plays with her brother dog, the cat will NEVER turn into a dog.  Or vice versa. But…do either of those things have anything to do with how you live your life? You will never turn into a dog, either, no matter how much you love him or toss the frisbee or sleep with him at the foot of your bed.  You can control the circumstances around his behavior, the place he sleeps, the medicine he takes in order to stay healthy, but you will never be a dog, and he will never be a cat.  

The skin of some people is white and others have brown or maybe really brown skin; does that make one better than another?  No. Our nation’s history has imparted that false sense of superiority in the souls of many white people, but there is no one group better than another….there are merely differences. 

Some people are good in school and there are others who are not; some people are able to move without help and others depend on braces or chairs or caregivers in order to be mobile. Because their ability to learn or move or speak is different from most does not make them less of a whole human being. Or better or worse than you or me.  And no matter how much time you spend with a disabled person, no matter how much time you spend caring for him/her, or helping them bathe or eat or get in and out of bed, that person cannot ever turn you into a similarly disabled human being.

There are boys who like to kiss boys, and girls who like to kiss girls. Why? Who knows.  What is it that draws you to your husband or wife? I’m not sure there’s ever been a definitive answer to those questions. But as people who profess to love “freedom” and equality for all, it is not our job to decide that there is one way of living that is “right” for an entire population, and one that is wrong.  A progressive people realize that it IS our job to recognize those differences without condemnation or abuse, because there is room for everyone in this life who does not wish to hurt others. That it’s ok for that black family to the right and the Mexican family to the left and the Asian family across the street and the Muslim family on the corner to share a street, a neighborhood, a workspace, a school, and a planet with us, despite the warnings of the ostensibly “liberal media” suggesting that those neighbors are probably conspiring to murder you in your sleep or attempting to replace Democracy with Sharia Law while you aren’t watching.  

Unless you have been taught to THINK, not simply react, your world will continue to get smaller and smaller, your fears will continue to grow and evolve according to those in control, and the end of the world as we know it will arrive faster and with less pomp and circumstance than you’ve been promised. 

There will be no “rapturous” end to life on this planet; it will be just as ugly and predictable as any critically-thinking, fact-based prognosticating scientist will tell you. 

It will not come as a surprise, or as a result of menacing, interplanetary warriors, or because of the white guy in the sky. 

It just might come, however, because of the accelerated demolition of the things we humans require to survive. Poisoning the air makes it more difficult to breathe. Chemicals infused into our food supply has often been shown to make us sicker and more susceptible to various cancers or immune disorders. Turning our rivers and ponds into toilets for industries to dump their poisonous waste, or attempting to change the ways of mother nature and strip the oxygen-supplying greenery from the planet or dam the rivers that keep us alive will devastate humanity.  We’ve seen it. And assuming that those things will not touch you because you have a superior place in society or because you have enough money to buy clean water or a physician who will cure you of the illnesses we create is not only arrogant, it is stupid. 

And as I understand it, wasting the gifts of life and love doesn’t exactly fit God’s plan. Neither is hating your neighbor, or hoarding your money, or assuming you are better or smarter or more precious or important than anyone else. But that is the foundation for the policies put forth by the Conservative movement, and it’s what has divided civilizations since time began. And those are the things that we Liberal/Progressive/Democrats have been trying to tell you. 

We don’t want your guns….we just want to not get shot.  We don’t want to take your money, we just want you to contribute to the pot like everyone else. We don’t want to stop you from being “Christian”, we just want you to practice what it is you claim to be.  We don’t want murderous, dangerous criminals to invade our borders and not be able to know who they are, we just want to welcome those who are trying to escape those murderous thugs, protect their families and live a good life without fear. 

Every great movement in history has been about doing things for “the common good”. Jesus said to love even your enemies. Ghandi said assigning people to a life of poverty or misery, not allowing an ascension to a better life, no matter how righteous, was wrong. Abraham Lincoln, Nelson Mandella and Martin Luther King fought against the oppression of one race of people by another, and all of them paid a high price for that fight.  One of our greatest modern Presidents, John F. Kennedy, wrote what I think is the best description of what it means to be a Liberal, and is the way I’ve tried to live my life, the way I’ve tried to raise my children, the way I’ve attempted to treat everyone I meet. 

Kennedy’s Elegant Quote in Defense of Liberals and Liberalism

• What do our opponents mean when they apply to us the label, “Liberal’?  If by ‘Liberal’ they mean, as they want people to believe, someone who is soft in his policies abroad, who is against local government, and who is unconcerned with the taxpayer’s dollar, then the record of this party and its members demonstrate that we are not that kind of ‘Liberal.’ But, if by a ‘Liberal,’ they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people – their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights, and their civil liberties – someone who believes that we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that is what they mean by a ‘Liberal,’ then I’m proud to say that I’m a ‘Liberal.’

  John F. Kennedy
  Accepting the New York State Liberal Party 1960 Presidential Nomination
  The Commodore Hotel, New York, NY.
  September 14, 1960

 

Now tell me what Conservatives believe.