Op-Ed

When’s the last time you had your mind blown? Was this something that only happened in the 1960s?

Well, I had my mind blown a few days ago, when I took part in a sort of reunion I could never have imagined. It wasn’t a “reunion” so much as a reopening of the counterculture — specifically, the revival of a publication from the late ’60s called the Western Activist, a renegade (you might say) student newspaper that emerged at my college, Western Michigan University, in 1966.

Once again . . . once again . . . once again . . .

I’m sure you know what I’m referring to. Yeah, another — the latest (?) — mass shooting in the United States, this one at Old National Bank in Louisville, Kentucky, on April 10, two days ago as I write. Five killed, eight injured. The shooter, an employee of the bank, was killed in a shootout with police. Three officers were injured, including a rookie officer (ten days on the job), who was shot in the head and is struggling to survive. The gunman’s weapon was a nice, reliable AR-15-style rifle, legally purchased at a local gun shop a week earlier.

That’s the basic data.

The Ron DeSantis led Florida Republicans are working faster than the speed of light in trying to dismantle the inner structure that have sustained Florida’s middle-class society in a liberal democracy. The team is working in almost every aspect of our society in doing so. For example:

A- Gutting public sector labor unions with the exception of those that are tied with law enforcement (pretty clever maneuver since Republicans are going to need those workers to crack the heads of other workers); now in DeSantis’ Florida majority in Labor Unions is defined as 60% of the membership. Florida is a right-to-work state, and nobody is forced to become a labor union member.

B- DeSantis has declared a war on education that includes culture wars against Black history, LGBTQ+ community, and whatever makes white people feel uncomfortable about American history, “woke” people issues, etc. African American history has been banned as an AP course.

C- Women's reproductive choice is being hit with an abortion ban after six weeks of pregnancy and is almost certain to become law.

D- Attacks on LGBTQ community meant to take away their right to exist in dignity.

“At school he was told he would never write . . .”

Here was a kid – here was a man – who refused to listen to the authorities, and refused to be anything but fully human. And yeah, he could write. His spelling may have been iffy, but he could write. His name was Taro Joy. He drowned three years ago, in Bali, where he was living, at age 48 – but thanks to his mother, Penny (quoted above) and the rest of his family, his words and thoughts and deep reaches into the collective soul live on. They have just put out a book of his lifetime of writings, a book of his prose and poems: The Tao of Taro.

The phrase 'fake news' continues to be deployed routinely in US politics. In a polarized political atmosphere, both Republicans and Democrats distrust media organizations affiliated with opposing parties. This means that most of what is uttered or written by CNN is 'fake news' for Republicans, and much of what appears in Republicans-affiliated media is 'fake news' for Democrats. 

 The phrase is now so prevalent and has multiple meanings to the point that it is impossible to agree on a common definition. Even 'fact checking' organizations or news desks contribute to the troubling phenomenon of 'fake news' by selectively fact-checking news and information affiliated with one side of the political aisle, while ignoring the other. 

Today (4/1/23) The Wall Street Journal had as a front-page article on its REVIEW section titled “How Florida Became America’s GOP Hot Spot.” Written by several authors, it is a magnificent gloating piece celebrating GOP electoral accomplishments and becoming one of the major hubs of conservative heavyweights in the nation.

Florida not only has living in it the two top Republican presidential candidates but has also many other luminaries of the conservative world. The article to its credit recognizes that Florida once was one of the nation’s biggest swing states, but that now it is solidly conservative. 

They give credit to the vibrancy and creativity of conservative thinking in the state. I say hogwash. The reason that the Republican Party enjoys such reputation has much to do with the betrayal of Democratic economic principles by the Democratic Party leadership in the last few years. 

Glasses up for those French workers and Middle-Class people that are trying to save Western Civilization and its liberal democracy! 

In many other parts of the Western world, not so much in the Global South, for some people you are being classified as spoiled brats that want to retire at the tender age of 62. Some of these people criticizing the French workers and their allies have spent their whole lives getting kicked in the ass and can’t understand living any other way.

These are the same people that stay silent when children and adults are getting killed daily by gun shots in the USA. According to ABC News’ Kiara Alfonseca, so far in 2023, 9,870 people have died from gun violence in the U.S, as of March 27, according to the Gun Violence Archive – which is an average of more than 114 deaths each day. 

Our people have been so accustomed to get kicked in their behind that sadly they don’t seem to understand to live any other way. Here in Florida now it will be legal to carry guns with you without the need of licenses, permits or any proof that you know how to use a firearm. 

“Chief Drake said it was too early to discuss a possible motive for the shooting, though he confirmed that the attack was targeted. The authorities were reviewing writings, and had made contact with the shooter’s father. . . .”

Yeah, they’ll figure it out.

The latest mass shooting: Six people dead, including three 9-year-old children, at the Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee. The alleged shooter, age 28 – a former student at Covenant – stomped into the school on March 27 carrying (God bless America) two semi-automatic rifles and a handgun. He/she, apparently transgender, was eventually shot dead by police.

In other news . . .

https://www.globalresearch.ca/the-us-corporation-as-psychopath/5345811

 Region: USA

This is from one of the people I’m least likely to bother quoting:

“We need a national divorce. . .  From the sick and disgusting woke culture issues shoved down our throats to the Democrats’ traitorous America Last policies, we are done.”

The words are those of our fellow American, Marjorie Taylor Greene, sputtering unhinged right-wing comedy for all the country to hear. The point she’s making, of course, is anything but unique. The right-wing chorus of snarling contempt is everywhere, focused essentially on a single word, which is the darling enemy of the moment: Woke.