Filmmaker and activist Michael Moore. (photo: Dog Eat Dog Films)
30 June 15
t
was one of those weeks, this past week. A week in which we witnessed
profound history being made. A week when a large chunk was taken out of
the wall of hate that criss-crosses this country, a nation founded on
genocide and built on the backs of slaves. A people who pride themselves
on being ignorant, and thus are easily manipulated with fear by those
in power. We know the routine, we've tallied up the score.
But now…
There is massive change in the air. While angry white
men stew and wonder what happened to their roost, the young, the women,
the working poor, the people of color have forged an intense political
bond. Having raised their voices higher, having suddenly been filled
more with a sense of hope than one of despair, this alliance is now
poised to catapult further. Even in a month of unspeakable tragedy in
the birthplace of the Civil War, the race war that one young man who was
inspired by the politics of hate had hoped to ignite saw his sick dream
backfire into a (nonviolent) war against racists. Blacks and whites
have held hands in Charleston. Wal-mart and NASCAR have eliminated the
Confederate flag. Two Republicans on the Supreme Court have voted to
support the vision of the black man who lives in a white house down the
street. That wall of hate, devoid of any healthy foundation, has begun
to crumble. It's a new America that is fighting its way out of the
cocoon. On Thursday the Census Bureau announced that, for the first time
ever, there are more millennials than baby boomers in the Untied States
-- and, for the first time, there are now more children under 5 who are
of color than those who are white. The paradigm has shifted; all we had
to do was stay active, stay engaged, refrain from hate and then watch
the decrepit right-wing ideology wither and fall off its mysoginist,
homophobic, white-privileged vine. It is a New America, but it is not a
free America - yet. Free of corporate control, free of Citizens United,
free of income inequality, free of an ongoing environmental catastrophe,
free of Jeb Bush, free of profit-making health insurance companies,
free of a privatized prison system, free of a failed war on drugs, free
of the scourge of capitalism.
No, we're not free yet. But it's the closest we've ever been.
I'm ready for Week Two. How 'bout you? What else can we make happen before America's 239th birthday this coming Saturday?
Comments
+25
#
2015-06-30 08:55
I would disagree with
Roger that we are the closest we've ever been to being free. Yes, more
people now have some rights they didn't have a few days ago. But where
is the right for labor to organize? Where is the right to vote for
minorities, seniors and students? How is it that a Constitutional right,
abortion, is under siege by a few religious nuts. How is it that the
wealthy are not paying their share of the tax burden, indeed they get
tax cuts and the rest of us are expected to take up the financial slack.
I could go on: Soc. Sec., food stamps, all assistance. Granted, most of
these circumstances are occurring in Republican-led states;
nevertheless, it is beyond debate that the Rep. Party has, since
Gingrich's Contract with America, made this country less free by the
year. It seems to me the only thing we can really hope for is that as
elderly white men die out, more and more blacks and Mexicans will
replace them at the polls. THEN we'll be the free country we once were.
+22
#
2015-06-30 09:50
Change is a LONG,
SLOW, arduous process. Michael is right. It certainly beats Hell out of
what we've been forced to contend with for the past 150 years! It is an
ongoing battle, winning the hearts and minds of people who have been
living in Wonderland for so long. Sadly, many of them will remain in the
company of Dormice and Mad Hatters but SOME will slowly edge into the
21st Century and Freedom WILL ring out again in these great United
States. Don't criticize, twhiskers, ORGANIZE and help us to vote the
Neanderthals OUT in 2016!
+24
#
2015-06-30 12:19
Please, do not insult Neanderthals by comparing them to the current Tea Party loons.
+13
#
2015-06-30 12:30
Quoting Old4Poor:
Unfortunately, the Tea Party Loons and Thugs aren't extinct yet; we can only hope!
Aye -at least they had some measure of functional brains.Please, do not insult Neanderthals by comparing them to the current Tea Party loons.
Unfortunately, the Tea Party Loons and Thugs aren't extinct yet; we can only hope!
