NATION ABUSE

by Ruth A. Sheets

May 26, 2020



This morning, I heard a report on NPR wondering how many people receiving unemployment at the higher level due to the pandemic were now earning more than when they were on the job.  They duly interviewed a woman for whom this was the case.  This was followed by the statement that people still on the job, like hospital janitors,  are getting less than those on the new unemployment.  Instead of immediately suggesting that perhaps those essential workers should be getting higher pay, there was no comment, no response. 



This was followed by a report from the University of Chicago that about two-thirds of the people receiving the higher unemployment were getting more than when working.  How did they figure this?  If that is the case, why are American workers being paid so poorly?  Than I remembered that U. of Chicago is the home of Milton Friedman’s maximize shareholder payments and profit should be the only goal of corporations.  It seems to me this institution’s statements regarding employment should not hold much weight.  Lower-wage workers are not worthy of their notice unless they seem to be getting more than the owners and shareholders of corporations think they should get, and that should be as low as they can get away with.



Now, some low-wage workers are getting a little more and finding out they can get more groceries and not have to stress over every penny spent.  That should be seen as a good thing, but not by Republicans. 



All evidence lately is that REPUBLICANS DON’T CARE.  They complain about low-wage workers while swimming in money, their own and that of donors and the government.  That is hypocrisy, but REPUBLICANS DON’T CARE.  They are so busy worrying about the rich they see the poor only as drains on society.  This is despite the fact that a huge amount of tax-payer money goes to subsidize rich corporations and to bail them out should they get into some trouble, usually of their own making. 



At the same time I am hearing this NPR report, I am reading a book about Larry Nasser and the way he groomed the girls he sexually abused.  The coaches did the same by making it nearly impossible for the child athletes to trust their own judgements about anything. The grooming was subtle and persistent and lasted for decades.  Any girls who reported that something was wrong were either dismissed or didn’t want to jeopardize their athletic careers.



It seems to me Republicans have been grooming the people of the United States for decades.  We have been told that what we know is not true, our experiences of what is and should be America are impossible.  The media went along with it because they were owned by huge corporations that owed their place to Republican-conservative entities (you know, the Supreme and lower Courts and Congress.). They slowly but surely pushed some ideas that should have been unsavory, but have gained credence in some mainstream places.  Consider the following.  I suspect you’ve heard all of these more than once. 



- Nixon wasn’t really that bad.  Watergate wasn’t anything and Nixon got a raw deal.

- The country is in such a bad state that we need to get rid of unions.  They are harming progress and no longer useful.  All they do is ruin companies.

- It is OK to break the law for a good cause.  Getting money from Iran to support the Contras in Central America is OK because they are trying to stop Communism (The Contra were brutal murderers in reality.)

- Welfare queens are everywhere and ripping off this nation.  We need to stop them by cutting welfare.  If they can go around in style, they don’t deserve welfare. (Even a lot of Democrats bought into this one because it “seemed” right at some level.  Racism is not exclusive to Republicans, but it thrives there unchecked.)

- Democrats are OK with crime.  They want criminals released to rape your women.  (That was the theme of the Willie Horton ad by George H. W. Bush who was OK with its racist message.) 

- The country should not have a BORING president.  You want someone you could have a drink with.

- 9-11 was caused by the Afghanis, so we need to make them pay. (This is despite the fact that 16 of the 9-11 bombers were Saudi.  We needed their oil, so it was better to dismiss that when possible.)

- Iraq has weapons of mass destruction and we have to get them before they get us.  Our soldiers will take care of that awful regime quickly and we all will be safer.  Mission accomplished!

- The people of New Orleans deserved what they got.  They didn’t evacuate when they were told to leave.  Brownie and FEMA did a great job.

- The United States is a post-racial society.  We treat everyone equally. (That was never true and was made clear when Barack Obama ran for president.   Suddenly that post-racial society turned out to be exactly what it was.)

- We have come a long way.  We don’t need the “Voting Rights” law anymore.  Jurisdictions should not have to report any voting changes.  Since racism is no longer a factor, states will do the right thing. (Hours after that ruling, nearly all the southern states began to enact voting restrictions that would make it harder for citizens to vote, particularly people of color, poor people, and students.)  

  - Corporations are persons, therefore, they should be able as persons to give whatever amount of money they want to political candidates.  Money is speech.  It won’t change anything.   

- Mueller and his committee didn’t actually find anything.  They just want to hurt the president.   Russia didn’t do anything that bad and their interference didn’t affect the election outcome.

- The president is above the law.  He can’t be indicted, and those horrible Democrats, they had no grounds for impeachment.

- voter fraud is everywhere.  You can see it wherever you look.  We can’t have vote by mail because the Democrats will use voter fraud to win elections. (Actually voter fraud is extremely rare, and the recent cases were Republicans doing the fraud.)

- The kids aren’t really in cages.  They are just chain-link fences to keep them safe.  We’ll get them back to their parents eventually.



There are so many more ways this grooming has happened over the past 45 years or so.  Actions we would once have seen as impossible (a president lying more than 17,000 times in public in just over 3 years in office) are now seen as almost normal. 



Republicans feel entitled to do whatever they want to the people of this country.  Aren’t they the patriotic ones, the homeland security ones, the build the wall for our safety ones?  What is their goal?  The only thing that is clear is that they want money and power.  They care little or nothing for the needs of the people, even in the midst of the pandemic.  We have been so groomed that we barely protest

- when the EPA stops regulating polluters and the quality of our air and water decreases.  

- when drugs and pesticides are pumped into our people and our earth despite their destructive outcomes

- when the president does little or nothing to stop a killer virus that at this time has taken nearly 100,000 lives.    

- when Republican governors “open” their states before the virus is adequately tested for or controlled, for the economy, stupid.

- when people of color are the hardest hit by the virus due to the poor conditions they were forced to endure before the virus struck

- when the crisis of global warming is dismissed as a hoax.



It is hard to protest during a pandemic, but if we don’t protest, we will further fall victim to the constant lying and deceit of the current Republican Party at all levels.  Since all candidates depend on large infusions of money, Republican candidates just need to be threatened that if they don’t go along with the boss’s commands they will lose their seat.  They will do whatever is commanded.  It won’t matter if they actually care personally because their need to keep their office is paramount.  (You know, someone worse could be elected.)


So, we have to decide how much more abuse we will take before we say “enough,” and stand up for ourselves like the women who had been abused by Dr. Nasser and the coaches did.  It was painful for them and will be painful for us, but after this pandemic, we need a new world where people and our planet are at the center instead of money, power, and profits.  I suspect we will all do a lot better and will not have to hear the whine that the little money extra given to low-level unemployed workers is higher than the pay of those on the job.  It really is our choice what happens.  The Larry Nassers of the world have only the amount of power we give them.  Ignoring their abuse is not the answer.  We owe ourselves and future generations something better.  

CRUELTY AND BEYOND

by Ruth A. Sheets

May 21, 2020



I just finished reading an article that made me say “enough!”  It seems ICE is making an appalling  choice available to immigrant mothers in detention, a kind of Sophy’s choice.  This time if a mother gives up her children to ICE, they can be taken from the detention/internment camp.  If she does not agree, the child or children will remain in detention and potentially suffer with her the ravages of COVID19.  There is simply no language to describe the cruelty of this and the inhumanity of anyone who would offer it. 



The families being given this choice are innocent of anything but wanting to escape violence and poverty in their home countries.  They came here for refuge and safety and get cruelty beyond belief.



What is going on here?  Who is it that gave ICE either permission or the order to commit these acts of inhumanity, and in our name?  This unnecessary agency is under the Department of Homeland Security and is the knee-jerk response to 9/11.  How the agency morphed from protecting us from terrorists to destroying families is a long troubled trail of agony and injustice.



ICE was clearly active during the Bush and Obama administrations, but it became virulent, malignant under the current administration.  Mr. Trump has made no secret of his hatred for anyone who is not rich, white, straight, and male.  For most of us who don’t fit that category, it has meant cuts in funding for necessary services and infrastructure maintenance.  It has meant obstruction to voting, increased pollution in areas where we live, dismissal of the needs of front-line workers and more.  For immigrants, asylum-seekers, refugees, and undocumented persons it has meant criminalization, imprisonment, concentration camps, separation of children from their parents with no paper trail, unwarranted deportations, and more.  It  has meant that anyone seeking our help is condemned to Mexico’s Northern border where those already suffering and stressed people are preyed on by actual criminals.  They face rape, murder, enslavement, and other agonies for no apparent benefit to this country. 



So, what is going on?  Here is my theory.  Immigrants are coming to fill the place African-Americans, Jews, Irish, and other hated groups once held.  African-Americans and Latinx persons still are in the ranks of the hated.  But, there is now more attention placed on the brutalities they have faced and continue to face, so white straight men wanted a new target, one a little less prominent and present in our society.  They needed a target they could readily convince a lot of privileged white people to hate and blame for all their ills. 



Dumping folks into concentration camps with no reporters allowed to know what conditions are like inside has emboldened the current administration to approve atrocities that would most likely not be permitted to occur if the victims were white.  It has been easy to call these mothers and children criminals.  This makes whatever is done to them OK with the rich and wannabe rich white people who are far removed from the suffering and are encouraged to believe these folks are the cause of all their woes.



Of course, the immigrants, asylum-seekers, refugees, and undocumented persons are not the cause of white problems, but are often conveniently, the vehicle for easing their worries.  These people often work the fields, living in conditions none of the privileged would allow their pets to live in.  The white privileged eat the food they pick, though.  These immigrants et al work the meat processing plants under outrageous conditions that allowed COVID19 to spread unchecked.  The privileged eat the meat and cheer on Mr. Trump’s order that the plants start up again no matter the risk to the workers. 



Perhaps this treatment is the new lynching.  It is not as brutal as was done to African-Americans nor as public, but it does produce fear, intimidation, pain, and often, death.  In addition, a lot of Republican politicians benefit from the hate they spew and the pain they cause.  They get elected by the people they have injected with anger toward and hatred and fear of the “foreigner.” 



How has the United States permitted this cruelty?  Why are so many Americans willing to stand by while the cruelty sprouts up around us and grows with the sunshine and water of hatred and fear.  Are we really so frightened?  Are these mothers and children truly a threat to us?  Are those farm and processing plant workers so threatening that we have to force them to work under whatever conditions the bosses decide are right for them?



When do we as a nation say “enough?”  When do we declare that we are better than that and work to change it?  When do we start living the words of the “Declaration of Independence” that all men (people) are created equal?  Is it so hard to believe that other people are of as much value as we are and we are of as much value as all others?  Clearly it is. 



We can’t change Mr. Trump and his gang.  I suspect they have been cultivating their belief in their own superiority for so long they won’t/can’t change.  The only way to  deal with them is to vote them out of office and ditch their fearmongering as the garbage it is. 



We also need to work on ourselves to be sure we are not dismissing others because they don’t look or act like us.  Do we respond when we hear of inhumane treatment of others?  Do we call people out when they make comments that are not only inappropriate, but hurtful to others?  Do we promote peace?  If we do not, perhaps, we need to make some changes in our own lives so we don’t keep moving down the slippery slope toward accepting things as they are, cruelty and all. 



A first step might be to ask ourselves if we would be OK with someone offering us the choice the imprisoned immigrant mothers have been given.  Would we give up our infants to strangers so those in power could do to us whatever their corrupt minds could manufacture?  If our answer is “no,” the answer should be “no” for everyone else too.  If we can’t get to that place, we need to do some heavy lifting to rework our values and re-examine our beliefs about humanity and our place in it.  An election is coming up in November.  Let’s pledge to take the necessary steps to end the cruelty. 

OPEN LETTER TO DEMOCRATS

by Ruth A. Sheets

May 16, 2020



Dear Fellow Democrats.

I have finally succumbed to the realization that to defeat the child-man Trump and his fellow playground bullies, we will need to use some of the tactics these bully children have used.  It is truly painful for me to come to this because I believe it is better to give good for bad, turn the other cheek, and all that.



I have discovered, as many of you have, that when dealing with young spoiled children, kids who have no controls placed on them, it is not possible to use methods one would use with thinking caring adults.



So, here it is.  We need a three-word slogan that can be repeated online, on the air, at virtual rallies and town meetings and more.



The three-word slogan, REPUBLICANS DON’T CARE!



It could work something like this:



REPUBLICANS DON’T CARE

that your parents and friends are dying of COVID19 because proper PPE is not available for first line workers.



REPUBLICANS DON’T CARE

that it is wrong to suppress the vote for any American citizens.  They love doing it.



REPUBLICANS DON’T CARE

that our postal service is being strangled to keep people from voting safely.



REPUBLICANS DON’T CARE

that your children are forced to attend schools that don’t have the funds to provide the best education for them.



REPUBLICANS DON’T CARE

that you don’t have health care.



REPUBLICANS DON’T CARE

that you might have to choose whether to get your mom’s medicine or eat that day.



REPUBLICANS DON’T CARE

that you will have to choose whether to exercise the right to vote and put your life at risk, or not vote at all.



REPUBLICANS DON’T CARE

that farm workers live in appalling conditions, work incredibly hard, get paid a pittance,  while Big agriculture gets the money.



REPUBLICANS DON’T CARE

that the Environmental Protection Agency is letting polluters put your health at risk.



REPUBLICANS DON’T CARE

that the wages of many workers have increased less than 5% in more than 40 years while CEOs have seen increases of a couple hundred percent.



REPUBLICANS DON’T CARE

that your rights are slowly being taken away by the unqualified judges they are putting on the courts as lifetime appointments.



REPUBLICANS DON’T CARE

that they are lying at rates nearly unheard of while claiming what good Christians they are.  It works for them.



REPUBLICANS DON’T CARE

that you were raped and forced to carry an unwanted pregnancy.



REPUBLICANS DON’T CARE

for you and your needs if you are not rich, white, straight, and male, or perhaps, a totally submissive woman.



I am sure far better writers than I can word these more effectively, but I do believe this is the direction we should go.  People don’t want to believe their leaders don’t care especially when they voted for those leaders to care for people like them.  When they get a whiff that maybe their leaders don’t even like them, they don’t want it rubbed in their faces.  Maybe, though, that’s what we need to do for a change. 



So, let’s tell the truth, but do it in a way that voters will take notice that the REPUBLICANS in power really DON’T CARE about anything but money and power, theirs.

OPEN LETTER TO REPUBLICANS IN CONGRESS

by Ruth A. Sheets

Dear 2020 era Republicans,

Wow!  There seem to be no depths to which many of you will not go these days.  Even in the midst of a pandemic, you worry more about coddling huge corporations than taking care of the PPE (protective gear) needs of front-line workers.  You cover for every misstep Mr. Trump makes as he fumbles his way through challenges that he neither understands nor really cares about.  You in the Senate of the United States continue to approve nominees from partisan operatives to stack our courts with people you are pretty sure will be unfair to most of the people of this country, you know, the ones that are not rich, white, straight “Christian” males.  You are OK with the Senate being neutered by Mr. McConnell for his own purposes, possibly yours too, that isn’t entirely clear yet.

As you Republicans all well know, Mr. Trump is not fit to hold the office of president, but you just love him because you can manipulate him into doing the damage to this nation you have wanted to do for a long time.  Among the damage:

-destroy the post office even though it is provided for in the Constitution, to benefit rich corporations who will donate to your future campaigns
-Destroy public lands on behalf of hugely wealthy  donors
-force through judgeships for people who are neither qualified nor ethically suited to be a judge of anything
-slow and impede the response to COVID19 at the expense of many lives.  Your president is OK with it since they are mostly old people and people of color who are dying, and in blue states too, win-win-win!
-You give most of the money in stimulus to the huge corporations who, by rights, should be able to fend for themselves with all the other corporate welfare you have blessed them with over the years.
-You are trying to reinstate the “Patriot Act” which was wrong when it was passed by the frightened white guys in Congress who couldn’t think of anything else but to take away people’s rights and supports in a time of crisis, unfortunately shaming and lying colleagues into going along with you.
-You allow our Justice Department to become Mr. Trump’s lapdogs, instating and dismissing cases at the president’s whim
-You dismiss climate change (global warming) as a hoax, which of course you know it isn’t, and that it’s serious.  What does that make you, hypocrites?
-You are OK with gerrymandering, voter suppression in its many forms, and forcing voters to go in crowds to vote and risk their lives or give up the vote.

I could go on because there is so much I didn’t get to, but alas, you wouldn't read it anyway.  You all are deeply under the spell of a man who thinks and acts like an 8-year-old school yard bully and you all know that about him.  He is moving into the beginnings of dementia.  You all know that too and still cling to him because Republicans, you know, are ethically bankrupt.  You knew Mr. Trump committed the crimes he was impeached for, and more.  To prove you knew, you made it so there could be no witnesses in his trial.  That says nothing about Mr. Trump's innocence, only your guilt.

As a teacher, during Teacher Appreciation Week, I am alas, saddened to see the lack of critical thinking employed by Republicans for the past 70 years or so, from McCarthy to Trump-McConnell.  Thank goodness there have been a few bright lights among your party’s members, but ah, , too few.  I can’t help but wonder if we teachers are just not teaching critical thinking sufficient for people to make better decisions or if something else is at play.

And then, there are the ethics.  I can’t help but wonder if you are all OK with the lying and cheating that many of your party are using to obtain and maintain office:  gerrymandering, voter suppression, purging the voting roles.  You know the purpose of all these things is to deny voting rights to your fellow citizens.  You do it under the guise of protection from voter fraud, but in recent years, nearly all the voter fraud in the extremely rare cases where there was any, was done by Republican voters.

I can only hope you all will do better in the future for the sake of all of us, but the nearly certain thing, change is really hard, especially if you are getting the changes to our country you want for your own benefit.  You might start to think a bit about why you want so many to have fewer rights than you have, why you continue to blame poor people for their poverty, why you think rich people deserve more than everyone else and keep pumping money into their pockets.  Why do you despise young people so much (except your own kids, of course) that you dismiss their demands for a strong positive response to climate change (global warming), voting rights, poverty, human rights, sensible gun control, and their other issues.

Your party hasn’t exactly covered itself in glory this past quarter century.  Don’t you think it’s about time you stage your own rebellion and occasionally, put the needs of others who perhaps don’t look, think, or believe like you, ahead of your party’s destructive agenda?  Sadly, I don’t see that happening.

If you were ready to rebel at all, you would be telling McConnell, “no more nominee approvals until the nation is back on its feet, and no more incompetents approved.”  You’d tell Mr. Trump to listen to the experts, and he himself is not an expert on this.  You’d be 100% behind laws to insure every American citizen has the right and ability to vote unimpeded in every election.  You’d see the pain Americans are experiencing now and you’d be standing with them doing everything in your power to get those frontline workers everything they need to care for themselves and the people they encounter.

I know, I hear you laughing or, some of you, tossing a curse in my direction.  Oh well, another fault of us teachers.  We haven’t taught you to take and learn from a critique. 

CHANGE OF FUTURE

by Ruth A. Sheets

We need a very different future than was on the drawing board before COVID19 hit.  Our representatives and fellow Americans need to take a variety of actions to change the trajectory of this nation and the world.  COVID19 has clearly pointed out problems our leaders have chosen to ignore in the past.  The time of ignorance is now gone and we must step up to meet the challenges facing us.

The following are some actions we can take to reshape the future in ways that will benefit everyone.

1. Global warming will move front and center in our thinking and every action.
a. we must become less of a super consumer society and more a reduce, reuse, and recycle kind of folks, with recycling plants all over the place.
b. Everyone will need solar panels and electric vehicles should become the standard.
c. Burning coal, except at limited levels will be outlawed,
d. Massive funding of renewable energy sources will take place, like the “man on the moon” efforts of the 1960s.

2. The flora and fauna that share our planet will have a more prominent place in our thinking and planning.  –

3. Our oceans must stop being our dumping place and our places for drilling and destruction.

4. Health care in this nation should be universal and supervised by the government.  No one should be making money on the suffering of others beyond salaries and general expenses.

5. Education should be funded at levels sufficient to provide children and young adults with the knowledge they will need to effectively maintain a career, participate actively in the life of the community in which they live, and be active informed citizens in the society.

6. The United States Postal Service, which is called for in the Constitution should be appropriately funded and should be able to perform basic banking  activities, particularly for lower income persons who may not be able to afford a bank.

7. Our prison system needs to be revamped so rehabilitation and treatment are the goals rather than just hiding away people of color in private for profit institutions.  No prison should be run by any entity but the local, state, or federal government who sentenced the prisoners.

8. Immigration will be addressed.  We need the general public to understand that refugees would not
be leaving their homes unless circumstances forced them to do so.
a. There should be a path to citizenship for all who were brought to or came to this country as children and it should not cost them a fortune.
b. The detention/concentration camps for immigrants will be closed and those imprisoned in them will be quickly and properly processed, most allowed to stay here.
c. Anyone who is a parent of US citizen children should have a path to citizenship too so they can stay and provide for those children.
d. In short, deportations need to stop.
e. Bans on citizens of other nations unless we are specifically at war with that nation or face a pandemic must stop permanently and not be allowed to be manipulated by a president or political party for its own edification.

9. Voting at all levels should involve automatic registration upon reaching 18 and mail-in options for anyone who chooses that, particularly during a natural disaster.
a. Voting security will be a priority.
b. voter suppression and gerrymandering will be permanently disallowed.  

10. Congressional procedures must change.
a. No one person in Congress should be able to block all legislation and votes on issues critical to the people of the nation and use extortion as Mr. McConnell has done for the past 5 years.
b. There should be a 60 vote majority in the Senate or a +5 votes to the number of senators in the majority to approve anyone for a lifetime appointment to a court.
c. Lobbyists must be removed from central positions in our government and lobbying should be a volunteer activity in which no favors or gifts can be passed to or from government officials.  Corporations and individuals with huge money pots should not be able to have more governmental influence than less wealthy individuals and groups.

11.  -Women and men will be legally recognized as equals and people will be respected and heard no matter their race, age, gender, LGTB status, political party, or any other factor.
a. Women will have the right to choose what happens to their own bodies
b. All kinds of reproductive health care will be available to all persons on request, including contraception and pregnancy services.  
c. LGTBQ citizens will have the full rights of any citizen without exception.
d. A committee will be assembled to begin addressing issues of reparation for African-Americans related to slavery and the racism that followed.

12. Workers will have basic rights and a living wage through a “workers’ bill of rights which will include paid sick leave, child care, and other needed services and protections.

13. Taxes on the wealthiest will be considerably higher than pre-COVID19, after companies are up and running and workers are back on the job, perhaps, a 2-year window after the crisis is past).

14. We will become more prepared for everything including natural disasters, pandemics, and more through appropriate funding.

15. We need to employ experts to get these actions going and share findings with everyone who can help.

16. We need to set ethical standards for whom we will nominate for public office and hold them to those standards.  The “lesser of two evils” should no longer be an acceptable means for judging a person’s ability to govern.  This one can’t be legislated, but it can be promoted through all media.

17. Dividers among us need to take a back seat for a while so others can succeed in bringing us together to accomplish this work.

This is an ambitious agenda, but we will need an ambitious agenda if we are to have a prosperous nation and a livable world, and we are running out of time to get this going.  This time of “sheltering in place” may give us all time to think about how we will live the next few years, what kind of world we will leave our children and grandchildren, what kind of people we will become through and beyond this crisis.  We have the time, let’s use it wisely.