As a Florida resident for 60 years I can report that not all of us have brain tumors. The county I live in votes consistently blue. There are islands of hope here and there....
It’s truly a sad state of affairs in this country. My strong bias is to blame it on parents, but it has nothing to do with the PTA or school boards. It’s what happens at home. Do the parents read? Newspapers. Magazines. Novels, non fiction? Do they talk to their children or does the kid play video games all day aside from schools? I know this is old thinking, but some of it needs to continue. We all learn in our own way and so do kids today, but they still need guidance and not from the school counselor.
Thank you for such an eloquent article. We cannot change what we refuse to acknowledge ... but that’s the hitch, isn’t it? DeSantis doesn’t want anything to change. He is the epitome of frightened people, believing that by giving others something (opportunity, justice, acknowledgment, etc) it will somehow take those things away from him.
Thank you so much for this article. It pulls so many of the serious issues we are facing together and paints a clear picture if the dangers we face as a nation from individuals like DeSantis. It is particularly important to me because I grew up watching as we began to face many of the issues we are facing now. I was in elementary school during Brown vs the Kasas Board of Education. We watched the integration of schools on tv while we sat at the dinner table. I was in high school during the marches for the Civil Rights movement and after that, the fight for women's and lgbtq rights. To see what is happening now is disappointing and disheartening beyond words. Never did I imagine that a whole political party would abdicate their responsibilities to protect our democracy, or that so many in the public would be not just easy, but eager to be manipulated into such a self and nationally destructive stance. it is so important to have your voice of reason to count on through this. Please, please continue to do what you do.
*By the way, at some point you might want to address the behavior of Charles Koch, and others from wealthy libertarian right wing who are continuing to use their PACs to manipulate public with anti Democrat nonsense, and now, openly campaigning with their money to control the next presidential election (there was an article about it in Reuters yesterday).
Living in the state where DeSantis has unchecked power, I have to ask: When a fascist governor has a super majority in both houses of the legislature, whose members are willing to write the laws he sees fit to his ends and block everything else, what is to stop him? As a low fixed income senior member of the queer community, I am at a loss to consider what I can do but wait for his term limit to occur in 2026. Who will follow him in the state that re-elects such a man bide wide margins?
I agree with you about DeSantis. His is full throated racism, Nazism and now also his plan to send women back 50 years. Starting in middle school, plans to chart young girl's monyhly cycles? You've got to be kidding me. Women of America, women if all races. We've got to send thus man PACKING before he gets any further along. Can he be impeached?
Lili R That’s exactly how I feel and see the game De Santis is playing. Let him be the fool who thinks we don’t see through him. We do and let him know it by not saying his name. He should be referred to “as the one who speaks with a false tongue”.
“(The police) are a very real menace to every black cat alive in this country. And no matter how many people say, ‘You’re being paranoid when you talk about police brutality’ – I know what I’m talking about. I survived those streets and those precinct basements and I know. And I’ll tell you this – I know what it was like when I was really helpless, how many beatings I got. And I know what happens now because I’m not really helpless. But I know, too, that if he (police) don’t know that this is Jimmy Baldwin and not just some other nigger he’s gonna blow my head off just like he blows off everybody else’s head. It could happen to my mother in the morning, to my sister, to my brother… For me this has always been a violent country – it has never been a democracy.” James Baldwin
“What is it you want me to reconcile myself to? You always told me it takes time. It has taken my father’s time, my mother’s time, my uncle’s time, my brothers’ and my sisters’ time, my nieces’ and my nephews’ time. How much time do you want for your ‘progress’?” James Baldwin
I try to read your entire articles, I really do, but you engage in a lot of vebiage that I usally end up skipping to the end about half way through (my wife accuses me of being wordy, and I don't even come close). After doing that, I have even went back and read the whole thing to see if I was missing anything, and most generally I didn't. I don't mind long articles if, after making a point, they give specific examples, such as what laws Desantis is trying to get pushed threw to show his bias for racism and banning homosexual discrimation laws. It is the main reason I haven't become a paid subscriber yet.
Of course race matters, America (In this country American means white. Everybody else has to hyphenate. – Toni Morrison) have always need BLACK brilliance, BLACK oppression, BLACK intellectual property, BLACK poverty, BLACK gifts, BLACK skills, BLACK talents, and BLACK muscles to keep them elevated, beneficial and relevant. This is why they have BIG ISSUE with Critical Race Theory being taught, nothing has changed. America invented laws., rules, codes, mandates, policies and legislation steeped into those 1800's draconian ways of which keep us where they need us because they legislate our current state.
I agree with all you say but it’s time to get the big gun reporters out and investigate De Santis’ real motive and plan for our country. It seems to involve the large growing group Moms for Liberty. Using the right words but they do not mean what liberty really is . Who is behind these white washed women? When was education ever questioned? Our children went to school, learned their lessons and came home . Who would even question the classroom library selections. The more the better was my feeling as long as they read . What is being hidden by these people? We need the investigative reporters to find out what the real game plan is . Is it Fahrenheit 451? Help us fight this evil with the truth of the DeSantis agenda ,Woodward and Bernstein.
As a Florida resident for 60 years I can report that not all of us have brain tumors. The county I live in votes consistently blue. There are islands of hope here and there....
It’s truly a sad state of affairs in this country. My strong bias is to blame it on parents, but it has nothing to do with the PTA or school boards. It’s what happens at home. Do the parents read? Newspapers. Magazines. Novels, non fiction? Do they talk to their children or does the kid play video games all day aside from schools? I know this is old thinking, but some of it needs to continue. We all learn in our own way and so do kids today, but they still need guidance and not from the school counselor.
Thank you for such an eloquent article. We cannot change what we refuse to acknowledge ... but that’s the hitch, isn’t it? DeSantis doesn’t want anything to change. He is the epitome of frightened people, believing that by giving others something (opportunity, justice, acknowledgment, etc) it will somehow take those things away from him.
Thank you so much for this article. It pulls so many of the serious issues we are facing together and paints a clear picture if the dangers we face as a nation from individuals like DeSantis. It is particularly important to me because I grew up watching as we began to face many of the issues we are facing now. I was in elementary school during Brown vs the Kasas Board of Education. We watched the integration of schools on tv while we sat at the dinner table. I was in high school during the marches for the Civil Rights movement and after that, the fight for women's and lgbtq rights. To see what is happening now is disappointing and disheartening beyond words. Never did I imagine that a whole political party would abdicate their responsibilities to protect our democracy, or that so many in the public would be not just easy, but eager to be manipulated into such a self and nationally destructive stance. it is so important to have your voice of reason to count on through this. Please, please continue to do what you do.
*By the way, at some point you might want to address the behavior of Charles Koch, and others from wealthy libertarian right wing who are continuing to use their PACs to manipulate public with anti Democrat nonsense, and now, openly campaigning with their money to control the next presidential election (there was an article about it in Reuters yesterday).
Living in the state where DeSantis has unchecked power, I have to ask: When a fascist governor has a super majority in both houses of the legislature, whose members are willing to write the laws he sees fit to his ends and block everything else, what is to stop him? As a low fixed income senior member of the queer community, I am at a loss to consider what I can do but wait for his term limit to occur in 2026. Who will follow him in the state that re-elects such a man bide wide margins?
I agree with you about DeSantis. His is full throated racism, Nazism and now also his plan to send women back 50 years. Starting in middle school, plans to chart young girl's monyhly cycles? You've got to be kidding me. Women of America, women if all races. We've got to send thus man PACKING before he gets any further along. Can he be impeached?
Lili R That’s exactly how I feel and see the game De Santis is playing. Let him be the fool who thinks we don’t see through him. We do and let him know it by not saying his name. He should be referred to “as the one who speaks with a false tongue”.
Dan and Elliot,
I LOVE "Steady".
However, I am constantly frustrated that I cannot pick up threads! It makes communication with others on this site impossible. Please correct this!
“(The police) are a very real menace to every black cat alive in this country. And no matter how many people say, ‘You’re being paranoid when you talk about police brutality’ – I know what I’m talking about. I survived those streets and those precinct basements and I know. And I’ll tell you this – I know what it was like when I was really helpless, how many beatings I got. And I know what happens now because I’m not really helpless. But I know, too, that if he (police) don’t know that this is Jimmy Baldwin and not just some other nigger he’s gonna blow my head off just like he blows off everybody else’s head. It could happen to my mother in the morning, to my sister, to my brother… For me this has always been a violent country – it has never been a democracy.” James Baldwin
“What is it you want me to reconcile myself to? You always told me it takes time. It has taken my father’s time, my mother’s time, my uncle’s time, my brothers’ and my sisters’ time, my nieces’ and my nephews’ time. How much time do you want for your ‘progress’?” James Baldwin
I try to read your entire articles, I really do, but you engage in a lot of vebiage that I usally end up skipping to the end about half way through (my wife accuses me of being wordy, and I don't even come close). After doing that, I have even went back and read the whole thing to see if I was missing anything, and most generally I didn't. I don't mind long articles if, after making a point, they give specific examples, such as what laws Desantis is trying to get pushed threw to show his bias for racism and banning homosexual discrimation laws. It is the main reason I haven't become a paid subscriber yet.
“Not everything that is faced can be changed. But nothing can be changed until it is faced,” James Baldwin.
Of course race matters, America (In this country American means white. Everybody else has to hyphenate. – Toni Morrison) have always need BLACK brilliance, BLACK oppression, BLACK intellectual property, BLACK poverty, BLACK gifts, BLACK skills, BLACK talents, and BLACK muscles to keep them elevated, beneficial and relevant. This is why they have BIG ISSUE with Critical Race Theory being taught, nothing has changed. America invented laws., rules, codes, mandates, policies and legislation steeped into those 1800's draconian ways of which keep us where they need us because they legislate our current state.
"This is a battle for the minds of the voters of the future. This is about what kind of nation we will become."
Thank you, my Friend!
I agree with all you say but it’s time to get the big gun reporters out and investigate De Santis’ real motive and plan for our country. It seems to involve the large growing group Moms for Liberty. Using the right words but they do not mean what liberty really is . Who is behind these white washed women? When was education ever questioned? Our children went to school, learned their lessons and came home . Who would even question the classroom library selections. The more the better was my feeling as long as they read . What is being hidden by these people? We need the investigative reporters to find out what the real game plan is . Is it Fahrenheit 451? Help us fight this evil with the truth of the DeSantis agenda ,Woodward and Bernstein.
STAND! ....in the CENTER!
For HUMANITIES Sake!
I Fought, for This Nation!
Lars NOT let it Go down the TOILET!