All lives matter. African-Americans have lives. Therefore black lives matter.
Nice little syllogism, that, proving the facts of a major national issue in eleven words.
Logically speaking it's a sound argument with a valid conclusion. I never thought it would lead me to a long silence, let alone a crisis of conscience.
Recently the editor of Vox Populi called me out for a post I had submitted on this subject. It was, she declared, superficial and inadequate to the importance of the question.
She was right.
I am a white man of the Baby Boomer generation. I was raised in a middle-class racist family in an all-white, very small mostly racist town in a largely racist Midwestern state. By racist I mean that people of other races, ethnicities and nationalities were habitually spoken of disparagingly. A variety of epithets were used, depending on the background of the subject. I don't think anyone wished harm to any of those they spoke of--it was just the language one used.
My thoughts and speech echoed those of my family until I was about 13 and had a personal view of segregation during a visit to the South. My most persistent memory of that trip is of the "Colored only" and "White only" signs. They were everywhere: On drinking
fountains, public restrooms, theater entrances, swimming pools--I clearly remember an arcade in an amusement park where side-by-side pinball machines were racially labeled.
It troubled my naive teenaged brain. I decided to experiment and started using "Colored" facilities whenever I could. Nothing happened. But I learned there could have been serious repercussions had I been "colored" and used "white" facilities. I could only ask why skin color made such a difference--and I'm still asking.
It's easy to say "Black lives matter." We can shout the slogan, wave it on a sign, wear it on a T-shirt, put it on our Facebook page, and feel virtuous. But do we mean it? Do we feel it? Or are we just being politically correct?
We need to remember that throughout much of American history black lives didn't matter. Or didn't matter much. After long debate in the Continental Congress on how to determine the number of persons in each state for the purposes of representation and taxation, it was decided that each Negro, i.e. slave, would count as 3/5 of a person.
We also need to consider that black deaths matter. How many of us remember that the first person to die in the struggle for American independence was an escaped slave named Crispus Attucks, who was given a hero's burial in Boston? How many slaves lie in unmarked graves throughout the South? How many were innocent victims of lynching? How many were never mourned?
I for one cannot come close to imagining how alienated African-Americans must feel from American history. It has been common knowledge for a very long time that many, if not most, of our Founders were slave owners. We even know some intimate details of slave/master interaction thanks to Thomas Jefferson's relationship with Sally Hemmings.
The journals of the Continental Congress are full of matter-of-fact debates about how to treat "negroes" (the world is usually not capitalized)--not as people, but as property. Samuel Chase of Maryland, a signer of the Declaration and member of Congress for 20 years, put it plainly: "The negroes are wealth,"¹ i.e. chattel.
How do we reconcile the fact that some of the greatest men in the early
history of our country contributed to its most infamous institution?
Were they hypocrites, or pragmatists, or did it enter their thoughts at all?
Does the greater good offset the injustice?
--- Diogenes, July 13, 2020
¹ A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: Journals of the Continental Congress, July 30, 1776: http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?hlaw:2:./temp/~ammem_Jvz3::
U.S. Constitution
The voice of the people
13 July 2020
08 July 2020
The China Connection
A farmer in China's province of Inner Mongolia was recently diagnosed with Bubonic Plague.
That's shocking to us, but hardly surprising. China has been exporting plagues for millennia.
Of the more than 20 pandemics in recorded history, and even a few prehistoric plagues discovered by science, the great majority have originated in China. The path of contagion into Europe typically followed trade along the Great Silk Road.
Yersinia pestis, the bacterium that causes Plague, is endemic to China. Three major outbreaks, in 541, 1432, and 1855, killed millions. The second, a.k.a. the Black Death, may have killed as much as one half the population of Europe. The 1855 outbreak, which killed at least 12 million people, was finally only declared inactive in 1981, but remnants still pop up from time to time.
Since the 1890s new kinds of zoonotic diseases have come out of China. The newcomers have been associated with swine, birds, and now bats. They generally tend to be types of influenza passed from animals to humans. Because they originate in other species we have no natural immunity to them. Because they mutate often, a vaccine developed one day may not work the next. And because they spread quickly and easily, treatment programs tend to lag a few steps behind the contagion.
So, Diogenes, why this textbook-dry commentary on disease?
Because, dear reader, even though plagues have indeed killed an untold number of people, the "primitive" cultures that dealt with them, having no medicine, no idea of germ theory, and little idea of hygiene, were many times able to slow and even stop the spread of disease. How?
Isolation. The doctors of ancient and medieval times, having no means to cure their patients, watched them closely. They discovered that people who congregated in groups tended to become infected, while non-social individuals did not. They advised families and heads of villages to watch for symptoms and as quickly as possible when a symptom appeared, to close the afflicted person away from others. It took years for the information to get out and for it to spread, but it proved an effective technique.
This is a lesson we have only just relearned; we call it social distancing. There is no indication that medieval doctors suggested wearing masks, but people in the presence of illness frequently covered their mouths and noses against the stench, which may have had some prophylactic effect.
We know about germs, and anyone who has had an 8th-grade health class knows how diseases can be spread. The unpresident clearly missed that lesson.
The Dolt-in-Chief wants schools to open in the fall. He and his Republican minions want to pretend there is no contagion. In the midst of a pandemic that has infected 3 million Americans, he gathers or hires groups of people to sit in close proximity, without masks, to listen to him speak drivel and blather. He continues to deny the reality of this plague.
Someone should sneeze on him.
--- Diogenes, 7/8/2020
That's shocking to us, but hardly surprising. China has been exporting plagues for millennia.
Of the more than 20 pandemics in recorded history, and even a few prehistoric plagues discovered by science, the great majority have originated in China. The path of contagion into Europe typically followed trade along the Great Silk Road.
Yersinia pestis, the bacterium that causes Plague, is endemic to China. Three major outbreaks, in 541, 1432, and 1855, killed millions. The second, a.k.a. the Black Death, may have killed as much as one half the population of Europe. The 1855 outbreak, which killed at least 12 million people, was finally only declared inactive in 1981, but remnants still pop up from time to time.
Since the 1890s new kinds of zoonotic diseases have come out of China. The newcomers have been associated with swine, birds, and now bats. They generally tend to be types of influenza passed from animals to humans. Because they originate in other species we have no natural immunity to them. Because they mutate often, a vaccine developed one day may not work the next. And because they spread quickly and easily, treatment programs tend to lag a few steps behind the contagion.
So, Diogenes, why this textbook-dry commentary on disease?
Because, dear reader, even though plagues have indeed killed an untold number of people, the "primitive" cultures that dealt with them, having no medicine, no idea of germ theory, and little idea of hygiene, were many times able to slow and even stop the spread of disease. How?
Isolation. The doctors of ancient and medieval times, having no means to cure their patients, watched them closely. They discovered that people who congregated in groups tended to become infected, while non-social individuals did not. They advised families and heads of villages to watch for symptoms and as quickly as possible when a symptom appeared, to close the afflicted person away from others. It took years for the information to get out and for it to spread, but it proved an effective technique.
This is a lesson we have only just relearned; we call it social distancing. There is no indication that medieval doctors suggested wearing masks, but people in the presence of illness frequently covered their mouths and noses against the stench, which may have had some prophylactic effect.
We know about germs, and anyone who has had an 8th-grade health class knows how diseases can be spread. The unpresident clearly missed that lesson.
The Dolt-in-Chief wants schools to open in the fall. He and his Republican minions want to pretend there is no contagion. In the midst of a pandemic that has infected 3 million Americans, he gathers or hires groups of people to sit in close proximity, without masks, to listen to him speak drivel and blather. He continues to deny the reality of this plague.
Someone should sneeze on him.
--- Diogenes, 7/8/2020
06 July 2020
Putting The Hate On Trump (Repost)
(Diogenes is temporarily involved in other pursuits. In his absence we will be reposting some of his more popular pieces.) ---RB
I hate Donald Trump because he makes me want to do violence.
I have held to a nonviolent philosophy for my entire adult life. I have never aimed a weapon at anything more threatening than a field target; I was last drawn into a fistfight when I was 17; I have no wish to harm anyone.
And I want to punch Trump's lights out.
I have dreams of throttling him, my hands around his neck, beating his head against the wall while he sings The Beatles' song "I'm A Loser." I want to rip that orange obscenity from his head and shred it with my teeth. I want to throw him into a pool full of crocodiles. I want to wash his lying, profane mouth out with lye soap. I want to tie him to a chair, tape his eyes open, and force him to watch a video loop of President Obama scolding, "Donny, you've been a bad boy." I want the Statue of Liberty to spank him, and the ghosts of Lincoln and Jefferson to haunt him forever. I want a personification of the COVID-19 virus to chase him naked through the streets of Manhattan. I want him to know himself for the fraud and freak show he is, no more worthy to sit in the Oval Office than slime mold. I want him reincarnated to a place where he is the only white person and the rulers are violent, misanthropic women. I want him to know the bone-chilling, knee-collapsing, bladder-emptying fear of authority felt by the oppressed, the disenfranchised, and the marginalized. I want a hundred afarit to drag him into the earth. I want him to know exactly what Putin, Xi Jinping, and Erdoğan actually say about him. I want him tarred and feathered and ridden out of DC on a rail. I want to tattoo 666 on his ass. I want him to know his biography is full of blank pages. I want him afflicted with boils and unscratchable itches. I want the unspeakable beasts of Chthulu to find him. I want the Holy Bible to burn his blaspheming hands. I want his libelous tongue to cleave to the roof of his mouth. I want him placed among the traitors in the mouth of Satan in the deepest pit of Hell. I want him mute. I want his image expunged from every public place and his portrait never placed in the Gallery of Presidents. I want him forgotten. I want his legacy to be shame. I want him to know just how much he is hated. I want him to be bullied and intimidated. I want him ostracized. I want him humiliated. I want him to cry.
During the Thug-in-Chief's first campaign I sometimes asked rhetorically, "Will someone take this bastard out and shoot him?" I was advised by cooler heads to tone it down, and I did. No more. There are not enough denunciatory, damning, condemnatory, insulting, judgmental, censorious, reproaching, disparaging, derogatory words in all the English language sufficiently to describe him, nor any punishment he does not deserve.
He has defiled, flouted, soiled, profaned, fouled, besmirched, sullied and dishonored the office of President, the laws of this country, the Constitution, the legacy of the Framers, and the idea of democracy itself.
He is a cancer and a plague on freedom and on our rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
He must be stopped, deposed, and extirpated.
--- Diogenes, 7/6/2020
05 July 2020
One Angry Man
Here we are in the silly season, when political campaigns begin ramping up and candidates strive to present their best sides and demonstrate their good qualities.
Alas for unpresident Donald Trump, who has neither a good side nor any good qualities. He lacks jollity, folkishness, charm, and he sure as hell lacks presidentialness.
All evidence suggests he has only one emotion: anger. He seems incapable of responding to anything positively. He can bring anger out of an audience like a camp meeting preacher can bring out the spirit.
The problem is, you can't build on anger. Anger builds on itself with no mitigation, manifests as hate, and will ultimately always end in violence, the last resort of the incompetent.¹
We should be concerned about where that anger goes. It obviously gets poured out on those around him--the press, his staff, even COVID-19, which he hates because he can't control it. He carries so much anger that he radiates it.
Some of that anger must surely be turned inward, and that is Freud's definition of depression. If Trump is angry with himself and has become depressed he is far more dangerous than your everyday angry man.
On July 3 and 4 he delivered similar speeches at gatherings meant to observe Independence Day. They were, of course, campaign speeches and were of such hyperbolic demagoguery as to stagger the mind.²
Both presentations were belligerent in nature, effectively declaring war on his newest shadow enemy, the "Fascist Left." In both speeches he reached astounding new heights of hypocrisy, reflecting his acts and policies back on this ghost entity, shamelessly blaming the left for his own bad deeds, and attributing the effects of his policies, his racism, and his xenophobia to this phantom fifth column.
The Hypocrite-in-Chief has finally found a speechwriter who can make him sound almost knowledgeable about American history. He merged bellicose harangues with attempts to show his understanding of American history and diversity, peppering both addresses with names of African Americans and women, gracing a few with his only adjective, "great."
Military power was a major focus of both speeches, as he read off lists of America's increasing military arsenal. All that was missing was a parade of weapons, à la Soviet May Day parades.
Lacking the intellectual capacity to channel his anger into something non-destructive, a depressed Trump is likely to strike out at virtually no provocation, and he has lots of weapons to play with.
We should be very concerned indeed.
--- Diogenes, July 5, 2020
¹ Attributed to Isaac Asimov.
² July 3 transcript: https://www.rev.com/blog/transcripts/donald-trump-speech-transcript-at-mount-rushmore-4th-of-july-event
July 4 transcript: https://www.rev.com/blog/transcripts/donald-trump-salute-to-america-speech-transcript
Alas for unpresident Donald Trump, who has neither a good side nor any good qualities. He lacks jollity, folkishness, charm, and he sure as hell lacks presidentialness.
All evidence suggests he has only one emotion: anger. He seems incapable of responding to anything positively. He can bring anger out of an audience like a camp meeting preacher can bring out the spirit.
The problem is, you can't build on anger. Anger builds on itself with no mitigation, manifests as hate, and will ultimately always end in violence, the last resort of the incompetent.¹
We should be concerned about where that anger goes. It obviously gets poured out on those around him--the press, his staff, even COVID-19, which he hates because he can't control it. He carries so much anger that he radiates it.
Some of that anger must surely be turned inward, and that is Freud's definition of depression. If Trump is angry with himself and has become depressed he is far more dangerous than your everyday angry man.
On July 3 and 4 he delivered similar speeches at gatherings meant to observe Independence Day. They were, of course, campaign speeches and were of such hyperbolic demagoguery as to stagger the mind.²
Both presentations were belligerent in nature, effectively declaring war on his newest shadow enemy, the "Fascist Left." In both speeches he reached astounding new heights of hypocrisy, reflecting his acts and policies back on this ghost entity, shamelessly blaming the left for his own bad deeds, and attributing the effects of his policies, his racism, and his xenophobia to this phantom fifth column.
The Hypocrite-in-Chief has finally found a speechwriter who can make him sound almost knowledgeable about American history. He merged bellicose harangues with attempts to show his understanding of American history and diversity, peppering both addresses with names of African Americans and women, gracing a few with his only adjective, "great."
Military power was a major focus of both speeches, as he read off lists of America's increasing military arsenal. All that was missing was a parade of weapons, à la Soviet May Day parades.
Lacking the intellectual capacity to channel his anger into something non-destructive, a depressed Trump is likely to strike out at virtually no provocation, and he has lots of weapons to play with.
We should be very concerned indeed.
--- Diogenes, July 5, 2020
¹ Attributed to Isaac Asimov.
² July 3 transcript: https://www.rev.com/blog/transcripts/donald-trump-speech-transcript-at-mount-rushmore-4th-of-july-event
July 4 transcript: https://www.rev.com/blog/transcripts/donald-trump-salute-to-america-speech-transcript
04 July 2020
Celebrate treason! Redux
Reposted due to the Great Pretender's outrageous acts of militarism and tyranny.
Originally published July 4, 2020
Today we celebrate a unique and momentous act of treason. Two hundred and forty-four years ago today representatives of thirteen upstart American colonies approved and adopted a document announcing their secession from the world's most powerful empire.
When the signers of the Declaration of Independence gathered in Philadelphia to take their historic action, they did so pledging "our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor." In a time when one's honor was everything, that was a mighty oath, which they knew would cost their lives if their uprising failed.
At the time of the signing, hostilities between Great Britain and the colonies had been underway for more than a year. In a letter dated July 1, 1775, King George III wrote: "I am of the opinion that once these rebels have felt a smart blow, they will submit."
Well, Your Majesty, here we still are, and your rebels and traitors are our Patriots.
It would be fitting if, on this day when we honor our patriot forebears, we forcefully declare our own independence, forsaking and forswearing any link or allegiance whatsoever to unpresident Donald Trump, and pledge to do everything in our power to bring about his fall, to remove him from office, and to assign him to the dustbin of history.
Let us be traitors; let us be patriots; let us be Americans, speaking truth to lies, concord to divisiveness, and denouncing Trump to the world.
---Diogenes, Independence Day, 2020
Originally published July 4, 2020
Today we celebrate a unique and momentous act of treason. Two hundred and forty-four years ago today representatives of thirteen upstart American colonies approved and adopted a document announcing their secession from the world's most powerful empire.
When the signers of the Declaration of Independence gathered in Philadelphia to take their historic action, they did so pledging "our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor." In a time when one's honor was everything, that was a mighty oath, which they knew would cost their lives if their uprising failed.
At the time of the signing, hostilities between Great Britain and the colonies had been underway for more than a year. In a letter dated July 1, 1775, King George III wrote: "I am of the opinion that once these rebels have felt a smart blow, they will submit."
Well, Your Majesty, here we still are, and your rebels and traitors are our Patriots.
It would be fitting if, on this day when we honor our patriot forebears, we forcefully declare our own independence, forsaking and forswearing any link or allegiance whatsoever to unpresident Donald Trump, and pledge to do everything in our power to bring about his fall, to remove him from office, and to assign him to the dustbin of history.
Let us be traitors; let us be patriots; let us be Americans, speaking truth to lies, concord to divisiveness, and denouncing Trump to the world.
---Diogenes, Independence Day, 2020
03 July 2020
26 June 2020
Of, By, and For, Part 2
I needn't tell you the adversary I spoke of in Part 1 is the unpresident, Donald Trump.
He has declared war on absentee voting, because he rightly sees it as a threat to his re-election. Between now and November 3 he will be trying every dirty trick imaginable to win the election. Trump is amoral, and will see this fight as business as usual in his twisted universe.
We are fighting for control of our government. Lincoln said the American government is Of, By, and For the American people, and Trump wants to take it away from us any way he can.
Voting is the single most important thing we do as Americans, and any attempt to tamper with any citizen's ability to vote freely must be met with extreme resistance.
Trump, his allies and his minions may have means to cause trouble with in-person voting systems, but absentee voting is beyond their filthy grasp. It must remain so. The number of absentee voters will no doubt be much higher than usual this year due to the isolation and quarantines resulting from the threat of COVID-19. And that has the Criminal-in-Chief terrified.
The man has no shame, no sense, and is willing to destroy the very fabric of the nation if it could get him re-elected. His overinflated ego could bring about the collapse of democracy, and that's not hyperbole.
Absentee voting has been around a long time, beginning during the Civil War when it was offered to soldiers stationed far away from their home states. Military personnel have continued to be major users of absentee voting. Would Trump disenfranchise those in uniform who he calls "great people?" You bet. To him they're just cannon fodder.
Who else votes by mail? The elderly and disabled and others with mobility limitations; people isolated by the pandemic, which is likely to be most of us; and potentially all 13 million voters in the states of Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon, Utah, and Washington, where voting by mail is the primary means of casting ballots.
Finally, the supreme hypocrisy, the most shameless mockery, the most sickening casuistry: The Hypocrite-in-Chief and members of his family routinely vote by absentee ballot.
Donald Trump is more dangerous to this country than Russia, China and North Korea combined. He must be stopped by any means available before "Of the people, by the people, for the people" becomes an odd, empty phrase uttered by an unremembered Republican politician.
--- Diogenes, 6/26/20
Bonus link to an important defender of free elections: https://www.brennancenter.org/
He has declared war on absentee voting, because he rightly sees it as a threat to his re-election. Between now and November 3 he will be trying every dirty trick imaginable to win the election. Trump is amoral, and will see this fight as business as usual in his twisted universe.
We are fighting for control of our government. Lincoln said the American government is Of, By, and For the American people, and Trump wants to take it away from us any way he can.
Voting is the single most important thing we do as Americans, and any attempt to tamper with any citizen's ability to vote freely must be met with extreme resistance.
Trump, his allies and his minions may have means to cause trouble with in-person voting systems, but absentee voting is beyond their filthy grasp. It must remain so. The number of absentee voters will no doubt be much higher than usual this year due to the isolation and quarantines resulting from the threat of COVID-19. And that has the Criminal-in-Chief terrified.
The man has no shame, no sense, and is willing to destroy the very fabric of the nation if it could get him re-elected. His overinflated ego could bring about the collapse of democracy, and that's not hyperbole.
Absentee voting has been around a long time, beginning during the Civil War when it was offered to soldiers stationed far away from their home states. Military personnel have continued to be major users of absentee voting. Would Trump disenfranchise those in uniform who he calls "great people?" You bet. To him they're just cannon fodder.
Who else votes by mail? The elderly and disabled and others with mobility limitations; people isolated by the pandemic, which is likely to be most of us; and potentially all 13 million voters in the states of Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon, Utah, and Washington, where voting by mail is the primary means of casting ballots.
Finally, the supreme hypocrisy, the most shameless mockery, the most sickening casuistry: The Hypocrite-in-Chief and members of his family routinely vote by absentee ballot.
Donald Trump is more dangerous to this country than Russia, China and North Korea combined. He must be stopped by any means available before "Of the people, by the people, for the people" becomes an odd, empty phrase uttered by an unremembered Republican politician.
--- Diogenes, 6/26/20
Bonus link to an important defender of free elections: https://www.brennancenter.org/
25 June 2020
Of, By, and For, Part 1
When Abraham Lincoln succinctly defined American democracy as "of the people, by the people, for the people," he was indirectly referring to the one great power Americans had, that no other people at the time could claim: the power freely to elect their leaders.
We the people still have that power, and there has seldom been a time in the history of this nation that we have had more need to use it confidently and wisely.
We now face a ruthless adversary who would reduce our power by denying it to as many of us as possible. He seeks to accomplish this foul act covertly and subtly by targeting communities of voters who are already marginally disenfranchised.
He believes, and there is reason to fear, that he has the means to suppress in-person voting in communities and regions known to be inimical to him.*
There are several ways such an action could be engineered. Intimidation and misinformation about voting requirements and polling places and hours are blatant examples, but voting machine tampering, system hacking, and poll worker espionage are his more likely tools.
The unexpected spread of COVID-19 threw the country into chaos, and had a dire effect on election planning. One outcome of the confusion was the reduction in polling places, which played right into the foe's hands. As an example, consider Kentucky, the home of Archdemon Mitch McConnell, which cut its number of polling places statewide by 80%. That's not a typo. 80%.
One result of such reductions is that some voters may have to travel to vote, creating a barrier to voting for those who lack transportation. Kentucky's Jefferson and Fayette counties, two of the state's most populous, and with the largest African-American populations, were reduced to one polling place each in the June 23 primary.
As if in response to the threat of suppression both counties saw record voter turnout, a sign of hope that the American people understand the importance of voting in a crisis.
Another sign of hope is the increased use of absentee voting. No ballot box, no waiting. Just fill in the ballot, put it in the provided envelope and send it via U. S. Mail to the elections department.
The adversary hates this. He fears absentee balloting because he cannot control it. We must guard it assiduously.
Continued tomorrow.
---Diogenes, 6/25/20
*Several books and articles discuss this threat. I suggest One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression Is Destroying Our Democracy, by Carol Anderson: The Bloomsbury Press, 2018.
We the people still have that power, and there has seldom been a time in the history of this nation that we have had more need to use it confidently and wisely.
We now face a ruthless adversary who would reduce our power by denying it to as many of us as possible. He seeks to accomplish this foul act covertly and subtly by targeting communities of voters who are already marginally disenfranchised.
He believes, and there is reason to fear, that he has the means to suppress in-person voting in communities and regions known to be inimical to him.*
There are several ways such an action could be engineered. Intimidation and misinformation about voting requirements and polling places and hours are blatant examples, but voting machine tampering, system hacking, and poll worker espionage are his more likely tools.
The unexpected spread of COVID-19 threw the country into chaos, and had a dire effect on election planning. One outcome of the confusion was the reduction in polling places, which played right into the foe's hands. As an example, consider Kentucky, the home of Archdemon Mitch McConnell, which cut its number of polling places statewide by 80%. That's not a typo. 80%.
One result of such reductions is that some voters may have to travel to vote, creating a barrier to voting for those who lack transportation. Kentucky's Jefferson and Fayette counties, two of the state's most populous, and with the largest African-American populations, were reduced to one polling place each in the June 23 primary.
As if in response to the threat of suppression both counties saw record voter turnout, a sign of hope that the American people understand the importance of voting in a crisis.
Another sign of hope is the increased use of absentee voting. No ballot box, no waiting. Just fill in the ballot, put it in the provided envelope and send it via U. S. Mail to the elections department.
The adversary hates this. He fears absentee balloting because he cannot control it. We must guard it assiduously.
Continued tomorrow.
---Diogenes, 6/25/20
*Several books and articles discuss this threat. I suggest One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression Is Destroying Our Democracy, by Carol Anderson: The Bloomsbury Press, 2018.
24 June 2020
The Trump Sickness
There are times when I approach writing this blog with the same sense of avoidance many of us feel when we're tired and not in the mood to work out but lace up our trainers and go to the gym anyway.
It's not that I lack for subject matter or ideas. The daunting factor that strikes me every time I sit down to write is the knowledge that I am going to have to read something that Trump, or worse, a member of his family or a follower, has said.
Just looking at their words on a screen makes me feel ill with what I have come to think of as the Trump sickness.
Trump is all the things I hate and despise, not only in politicians, but in anyone: racist, dishonest, corrupt, unethical, intolerant, xenophobic, cruel, mean, misogynist, bully, threatening, megalomaniac, demagogue, irascible, disrespectful, champion of violence and inciter of unrest, and I'll stop there; it's a very long list.
I find most of the same behaviors among many of his followers and family members, plus stupidity, moral blindness, slavish acceptance of lies, bigotry, violent urges, lack of imagination, inability to distinguish between fact and fiction, and between right and wrong.
Trump spends a lot of time insulting people by running them down and calling them names, which only means he's inviting others to do the same to him. Most of us like to think we're above such behavior, and if you are you're a better person than I, as this rant demonstrates.
The United States is a government of laws, and its society is based on that of Great Britain--arguably the most civilized nation of its time. Even before Trump became president he has been spreading hate and division, defying the laws that govern us, flouting the norms by which we live, and sending the country into a downward spiral toward third-world brutality.
This need not be a death spiral, but every one of us needs to rise up and take political action to save the nation. Be righteously angry. Be Proud. Be American.
--Diogenes, 6/24/2020
It's not that I lack for subject matter or ideas. The daunting factor that strikes me every time I sit down to write is the knowledge that I am going to have to read something that Trump, or worse, a member of his family or a follower, has said.
Just looking at their words on a screen makes me feel ill with what I have come to think of as the Trump sickness.
Trump is all the things I hate and despise, not only in politicians, but in anyone: racist, dishonest, corrupt, unethical, intolerant, xenophobic, cruel, mean, misogynist, bully, threatening, megalomaniac, demagogue, irascible, disrespectful, champion of violence and inciter of unrest, and I'll stop there; it's a very long list.
I find most of the same behaviors among many of his followers and family members, plus stupidity, moral blindness, slavish acceptance of lies, bigotry, violent urges, lack of imagination, inability to distinguish between fact and fiction, and between right and wrong.
Trump spends a lot of time insulting people by running them down and calling them names, which only means he's inviting others to do the same to him. Most of us like to think we're above such behavior, and if you are you're a better person than I, as this rant demonstrates.
The United States is a government of laws, and its society is based on that of Great Britain--arguably the most civilized nation of its time. Even before Trump became president he has been spreading hate and division, defying the laws that govern us, flouting the norms by which we live, and sending the country into a downward spiral toward third-world brutality.
This need not be a death spiral, but every one of us needs to rise up and take political action to save the nation. Be righteously angry. Be Proud. Be American.
--Diogenes, 6/24/2020
23 June 2020
Words Acting Badly
Some of the biggest words in the English language actually have relatively few letters. Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis is undeniably a big word in terms of letters, but the "big" thing I'm talking about is meaning.
Many words in our culture are overused, misused, and misunderstood. Being something of a logophile, I thought I would attempt to rescue a couple of the more persecuted ones.
Hero: We sometimes say a person is "our hero" because they have done something nice for us, perhaps getting our broken-down car started, or finding a lost dog.
The term rightly refers to a person who displays exceptional courage, especially in a dangerous situation. Today the term is frequently, and wrongly, applied generally to police officers, firefighters, and military personnel. Anyone in any of those professions could be thrust into a situation requiring genuine heroism, but not everyone who dons a uniform is a hero.
In the United States military the highest award is the Medal of Honor, awarded for conspicuous "gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty." During WWII 473 military personnel were awarded the medal out of some 16 million who served. That's how rare true heroes are.
Desecration: This is a terribly misused and misapplied word. It means "to make unsacred," and usually pops up in reference to a flag or other national symbol.
The problem is, you can't desecrate something that wasn't sacred in the first place. "Sacred" and its related words have very narrow definitions, all related to religion. Neither the flag nor any national emblem nor the Constitution is sacred because they were not created for the purpose of worship. The Founders would be horrified by the thought that someone might venerate the flag as a sacred, that is to say, holy, object.
Owing allegiance is far different from expressing reverence. This nation was created "in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty" for those who live here, whom the not-very-religious Founders believed deserved "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."
We salute the flag. We do not bow to it. We pledge allegiance to it as the primary emblem of our country. We do not pray to it. It is a symbol; nothing more.
--- Diogenes, 6/23/2020
Many words in our culture are overused, misused, and misunderstood. Being something of a logophile, I thought I would attempt to rescue a couple of the more persecuted ones.
Hero: We sometimes say a person is "our hero" because they have done something nice for us, perhaps getting our broken-down car started, or finding a lost dog.
The term rightly refers to a person who displays exceptional courage, especially in a dangerous situation. Today the term is frequently, and wrongly, applied generally to police officers, firefighters, and military personnel. Anyone in any of those professions could be thrust into a situation requiring genuine heroism, but not everyone who dons a uniform is a hero.
In the United States military the highest award is the Medal of Honor, awarded for conspicuous "gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty." During WWII 473 military personnel were awarded the medal out of some 16 million who served. That's how rare true heroes are.
Desecration: This is a terribly misused and misapplied word. It means "to make unsacred," and usually pops up in reference to a flag or other national symbol.
The problem is, you can't desecrate something that wasn't sacred in the first place. "Sacred" and its related words have very narrow definitions, all related to religion. Neither the flag nor any national emblem nor the Constitution is sacred because they were not created for the purpose of worship. The Founders would be horrified by the thought that someone might venerate the flag as a sacred, that is to say, holy, object.
Owing allegiance is far different from expressing reverence. This nation was created "in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty" for those who live here, whom the not-very-religious Founders believed deserved "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."
We salute the flag. We do not bow to it. We pledge allegiance to it as the primary emblem of our country. We do not pray to it. It is a symbol; nothing more.
--- Diogenes, 6/23/2020
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)