Tag Archive | Senate

When Who You Are is Wrong

Jun18

Uncle Ben’s rice.  Aunt Jemima pancakes.  Mrs. Butterworth’s syrup.  Confederate officers’ statues.  Fort Bragg.  Fort Hood.  Andrew Jackson on a $10 bill.

Like the target for Target, I wonder how many of us actually see the branding any more?  But the minute it is gone, we would notice.  And that’s the point.

The continuing murders of people of color – beautiful shades of brown, honey, caramel, mahogany, and black – never should have begun, much less never stopped.  The protests around the world are hugely peaceful and relentless.  The violent rioting that erupts is minimal and always makes the news.  The point is, changes have to be made.  Reforms have to be enacted.  The world has come together to demand it, and we won’t stop until black lives matter, are kept safe, respected and honored.

It’s incredible that in 2020, this has to be said – again.  Franklin Delano Roosevelt wanted another Bill of Rights for all people, not just for pasty-arsed whites.  Lyndon Baines Johnson enacted civil rights legislation that the southern – confederate – states, are still fighting today through the current Republican Party.  Really, people!?!  Really!?!

But then I guess we shouldn’t be surprised.  With Richard Milhouse Nixon denying us universal healthcare through creation of a for-profit parasitic environment, denying healthcare to and bankrupting our citizens…Ronald Prescott Reagan favoring the wealthy with his lying “trickle down” theory, robbing the Middle Class; his denial of aids and subsequent deaths to a disease that could have been researched early and treated…George Walker Bush faking an excuse to put our sons and daughters in a lifelong, brutal war, taking the economy and tearing it to shreds for yet again, the Middle Class, while keeping the wealthy rich…to the inexperienced reality show male currently squatting in the Oval House…we shouldn’t be surprised that our fellow citizens are being murdered to maintain the elite, white supremacy so convenient and desired by the current Republican Party office holders.

I am an Independent voter, with a record of choosing good people in both the Republican and Democratic parties.  The Republican Party was not always like this, and Republicans weren’t always like that.  This is the party of Abe Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt, two of the most admired presidents in history.  The year the Republican Party started turning its back on these types of greatness and focused on greed and power can probably never be confirmed.  But the Vietnam War and Watergate in the 1960s and 1970s showcased the direction it had gone.  With the public advent of Phyllis Schlafly writing of and organizing the extreme conservative ideals of suppression and intolerance under the appalling guise of “faith”, the Republican Party has only gotten worse for all but the 1%.

Now as a country, we face daily humiliation for the unethical, bullying and most likely illegal, behavior of a childish, insane male and his cohorts in ethical, moral and legal crimes.  Our nation’s lack of affordable and effective healthcare is 3rd world level.  Our refusal to separate church and state is denying civil and reproductive rights to targeted groups.  The Supreme Court is no longer divided on its legal opinions, it is defined by who is politically liberal, and who is politically conservative.  It isn’t just the branding of products that needs to go to reflect true humanity.  It’s the entire branding of the Republican Party.

Uncle Ben.  Aunt Jemima.  Mrs. Butterworth.  Confederate officers’ statues.  Confederate names of forts.  Jackson’s face on currency.  Donald Trump in the Oval Office.  The Republican Party in the Houses of Congress.   They all need to go.

The  Democratic Party needs to review its own legacy as well and take a lesson from Thomas Jefferson:  Combine the efforts in opposition to the current Republican Party, and create a two-pronged approach.  This country would do well to muster its human values and common sense and come together.  As a united force through a Democratic-Independent Party, humanity and tolerance can overshadow the elite and discriminatory Republican Party.   That is, if the current good, humane Republicans cannot get their Lincoln Party back.

 

Dear Mr. Mitch McConnell, a Few Questions:

Mar22

As a graduate of the University of Kentucky College of Law (1967), I am perplexed as to why you fear a placement on the Supreme Court?   I am assuming you studied the law at the University, and understand that the Constitution and its intentions are meant to be respected, honored and followed, to the best of someone’s ability.

  • Are you fearful of the Constitution’s intent?
  • Do you lack courage to do the right thing, or are you naturally an anxious person?
  • Has this recent nominee made judgments against your top campaign donors (NRA etc.), and you are afraid of losing their funding?

As a law student, obstruction to justice, obstructing the law – such as promoting the blockade of a Supreme Court justice nomination – you learned that it is not only unethical, but illegal.  Yet you are choosing to be unethical and perhaps, illegal.

  • Why are you willing to break your oath to uphold the law?
  • Why does the oath you took to serve the citizens of your country no longer mean anything to you?

I am confused why you are personally against the President of the United States to the point where you continually show disrespect for the position.  You have done little else but try to thwart the good the President has accomplished while personally demeaning the man.

  • Are you prejudiced against darker skinned people?
  • Are you personally threatened by President Obama’s thoughtful, gracious approach?
  • Is there jealousy involved?

The NRA contributed heavily to your re-election campaign.  You insist they approve the nominee.

  • What was the selling price?  How much was the trust of the citizens of Kentucky worth?
  • Did the NRA treat the citizens of Kentucky to dinner and buy them flowers first?

You were voted into office to represent the citizens of Kentucky.  But your confrontational actions are affecting me in my state, too.  In fact, you are systematically destroying the backbone of the United States you (supposedly) represent…its middle class, its women and children.

  • Are most Kentucky citizens bigoted like you?
  • Do most Kentucky citizens want women demeaned, education destroyed, and the working class eroded?
  • If not, who – besides your own personal agenda – are you representing?

One last concern.

I continue to read your “stances”, and I wonder if you ever feel shame for your behavior, or guilt that you, as a grown-up, who is in such an influential position, has no awareness of the common good…or guilt for being so openly and proudly hostile, in how you treat others who may think or act differently than you.

  • Do you really…really…believe you are earning your lifetime pay and benefits, and leaving a legacy that children want to grow up and emulate?
  • Do you really…really…believe you get re-elected after abusing your position so?

You have a pattern.  Whenever you have a choice between money and ethics or the law, you choose the money.  When you do not get your way, you become uncooperative and belligerent.

  • How do you define “wisdom”?
  • Do you have any answers at all, that the intelligent, wise and mature in our society would describe as common sensed?

Inquiring minds want to know.