By Ruth A. Sheets
Happy New Year! Yes, I’m a bit late, but those things that come into one’s life unexpectedly did that the past couple of months and I am finally somewhat back on track.
Yesterday was Dr. King Day and I can’t help but wonder what Martin Luther King, Jr. would think about this nation were he to return in 2024. I know he would notice the improvements in life for many people, particularly Black Americans, but he would also see that the equality he hoped for 56 years ago has not been achieved. That would probably hurt. He would be appalled at what the Republican Party has become, pledging allegiance to a man who has no moral compass, who quotes Hitler, and has a large following in this country, even having been made president.
I am also still getting used to the fact that we are now in the 3rd week of the year 2024. I am still working to get over 2023’s passing. It was a difficult year as most have been lately. The airwaves and other media have been filled with unkindness toward so many people, presented by folks who should know better, including words from the past that were once used to reduce Jews and so many others to the level of vermin that can be crushed, or rather, ought to be crushed underfoot.
I understand that the main person spewing these words is becoming less and less capable of fully understanding what he is saying and doing, but that is no excuse. Donald Trump’s handlers are well aware of what they are helping him to articulate and are providing the words for him to read at his rallies. The media is again covering Trump as though he is a rock star, mostly underplaying his antisemitic, racist, Hitleresque language and dictatorial desires. I guess the media are hoping the institutions of our government will be strong enough to keep Trump in check if he is elected president again. They either naively or intentionally ignore Trump’s speech for their own purposes, but it is not clear to me what those purposes are. Maybe it is as some claim, the money that rolls in every time Trump does something outrageous and people just must know what he said, as in 2016. This morning, I heard a reporter for NPR call Trump’s claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him, a lie. That is a rare occurrence, even more than 3 years after the election. Trump’s cult fans go along with the lie because for some reason it works for them, thinking they have some kind of special knowledge only Trump’s true followers have, a truth they say they just know; they need no evidence, they just know.
I am also thinking about the war in Israel/Gaza and wondering why President Biden has not put more pressure on Israel to stop the bombing of Gaza. Israel claims the attacks are specifically targeted while homes, vehicles, and hospitals are destroyed and 24,000 Gazans are dead and many more wounded. I get it that Biden and Netanyahu have a long-running relationship, but Biden has known for some time that the Israeli Prime Minister is a right-wing fanatic who cares for Israel, but the Israel that wants to rule the entire land where Palestinians now life: The West Bank and Gaza. The Palestinian areas were not part of the 1948 agreement so the current Israeli government wants to steal land that is not theirs. They seem to care little for what happens to the Palestinian people in either the West Bank or Gaza, seeing them all as enemies. They may be enemies now, but Israel has worked hard to make them that way. It has been heartening to see how many people all over the world are demanding a cease fire. I especially appreciate the people who support both the Palestinians and the Israelis and want the war to stop on behalf of everyone living in the Middle East.
Each day we hear that asylum-seekers are being shuttled from Texas to wherever, often the immigrants have no idea where they are going. They have been dropped off in dark suburbs of big cities in the cold when they are wearing only summer weight clothing the items they wore on their way to the US. No warning may be given to the communities where they are left off. Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas has said immigrants should/could be killed at the border but then if he did that, it would be murder. Yep, Gov. it would be murder. You all down there are already trying to kill immigrants with your illegal river constructions. In my life, I have found that having a disability has helped me and others to appreciate other people and the challenges they face. It appears Gov. Abbott’s disability has taught him to be cruel and insensitive. Wait, maybe he was like that before he became disabled and just developed the negativity over time in his own resentment of his condition. I don’t know, but for him, cruelty is the point, and a huge helping of racism, xenophobia, misogyny, and homo/transphobia are at work with and for him too.
Evangelicals and other super conservatives need groups to focus their hatred upon. They get a lot of push back for targeting Black and Latinx Americans, so they put a bit of effort into making their racism less overt. The problem for them, they need someone to victimize, so have focused on LGBTQ persons, trans persons in particular, even making laws that no one can receive gender affirming care in their state. It was just young people at first, now it is anyone who wants such care. This should be unconstitutional because it is private and personal, stepping into a medical realm those legislators know nothing about. That should be left to medical personnel, not politicians who are totally ignorant of the entire topic. Those red-state legislators just know they must hate people who aren’t satisfied with the gender they were born into, no understanding necessary.
Things are not all bad, though. Unions are beginning to find more traction across the country. The Labor Relations Board is finally starting to do its job of assisting workers and curbing the anti-union activity of rich corporations. The struggle has not yet been won, but at least some of the media is covering the efforts of a range of workers who did everything they could to get what they deserve as workers before they took the drastic step of striking. Anti-union activity is still strong with corporate America.
The nation’s roads, bridges, railways, and airports are being repaired due to the infrastructure act and now, instead of complaining about the bad roads, we are whining about the inconvenience of the construction, as though it is worse and permanent. Never satisfied, are we!
The economy is doing well despite efforts to push us into a recession as many conservatives expected. The problem is that many people are not seeing it because prices in the stores are higher. They are probably unaware that the huge corporations we have permitted to monopolize much of our food and other necessities can set prices wherever they want and we don’t have a lot of power to do much about it unless we stop buying those necessities. They are, of course, making big profits, even record profits. Some are calling it “greedflation.” That term seems appropriate, but our media don’t seem to like it enough to investigate or use it.
In Pennsylvania, the state Supreme Court handed down a
ruling that what is happening related to funding for public schools does not
fulfill the demands of the PA constitution. Some movement has been made
to get more money into the districts that are struggling most and some changes
have been made. The bulk of the money, though seems to be held up on
technicalities. The hope is that things will get moving in the next few
months. We’ll see.
Public schools everywhere in this nation need a deeper commitment from all of the people in their districts. Book banning, dropping Black history classes, maligning teachers and librarians, need to stop. All schools need quality courses in civic education so students will understand more about how this nation works so they can actively participate and vote knowledgeably.
When given a chance to decide, people in states across the country are choosing to say that women have a right to decide about their bodies and that abortion should be legal. The right-wing folks don’t like it, but this is a democracy even though they are working really hard to change that. More citizens are trying to get abortion rights as a referendum on their state ballots this year and hopefully will be successful. People Want bodily autonomy not politicians making decisions for them.
