George Orwell was right.
January 30, 2022
If you want to keep a secret, you must also hide it from yourself.
The School Board in McMinn County, Tennessee recently announced a decision to ban author and creator Art Spiegelman’s Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel Maus from their eighth-grade curriculum.
McMinn County, TN may be a poster child for the current divisiveness in America.
This rural county is home to just 54,000 residents and until very recently, was over 90% white.
As a whole, the State of Tennessee has been, and remains, predominantly Christian. About 81% of the population identifies as Christian, and 52% of Tennessee residents identify as Evangelical Protestants.
Plagued by the legacy of a mediocre public education system, poverty is rampant in McMinn County: Over 17% of residents live below the poverty line, including 24% of children (under 18) and 12% of seniors (65 and over).
The McMinn County School Board recent action helps to reinforce the notion that adults who themselves are products of a mediocre public education system are often incapable of making sound and fully informed decisions based on solid facts. Or, we might say that these folks have been deprived of critical thinking skills due to the inadequacy of their public school system.
Over the past decade, we have witnessed an alarming increase in public displays of frustration, rebellion and even violence among adults who are constrained by the toxic combination of extreme religious ideologies and vulnerability to unreliable or false sources for (mis)information.
George Orwell was correct, and only WE can prevent the vociferous minority from subsuming the will of the majority.
Fundamental Christianity in 2022
January 29, 2022
The Dangerous Intersection of Evangelical Christianity with White Supremacy
White supremacy sometimes manifests as colorism, a persistent issue within India, Latin America, Africa and nearly every community of color. When a mother tells her children not to play out in the sun because their skin will get too dark, she is reinforcing the myth of white supremacy by encouraging proximity to whiteness via lighter skin.
The most dangerous combination seems to occur at the intersection of Fundamental (Evangelical) Christianity and White Supremacism – the belief that Caucasians are superior to all other races.
Fundamental/Evangelical Christianity states that ‘only those who trust in Jesus Christ alone as their Savior receive God’s free gift of eternal salvation’.
White Supremacists adhere to the aberrant beliefs that (a) Whites must have dominance over people of other backgrounds, especially where they may co-exist; and (b) White people are genetically superior to other people.
In a 2019 nationwide survey, 86% of white evangelical Protestants and 70% of both white mainline Protestants and white Catholics said that the “Confederate flag is more a symbol of Southern pride than of racism”; nearly two-thirds of white Christians overall said that killings of African-American men by the police are isolated incidents rather than part of a broader pattern of mistreatment; and more than 60% of white Christians disagreed with the statement that “generations of slavery and discrimination have created conditions that make it difficult for blacks to work their way out of the lower class.”
The Southern Baptist Convention itself was organized prior to the Civil War in Georgia by Southern Baptists who were strongly opposed to the abolition of slavery. It delivered the invocation when Jefferson Davis was inaugurated as President of the Confederacy.
Today, the Southern Baptist Convention has a membership of over 16 Million, and is thought to be the second-largest Christian denomination in the U.S.
When I came of age in the late 1960’s in Buffalo, NY – a true northeast rustbelt city – we really didn’t have time for any of this nonsense, and I naively believed that our nation had progressed beyond the foolish notions of the Confederacy.
Four decades later, Donald Trump and his loyal following of ultra-conservative Evangelical Christian voters truly surprised and shocked me, and many others.
Robert Jones, a graduate of the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, may have said it best when he stated that Trump inspired White Christians, “not despite, but through appeals to white supremacy,” attracting them not because of economics or morality, “but rather that he evoked powerful fears about the loss of White Christian dominance.”
You can deny if you like, but denial doesn’t change reality.
This is the year 2022, and there is no turning back.
We are competing in a 21st Century World Economy, and it is high time for those of us who don’t have time for all of this foolish nonsense to call the bluff of the revisionist Confederate Civil War re-enactors.
Here in the U.S., we need to move on; come together; find common ground; join hands; and work side by side to strengthen our technology and innovation capabilities and return to a leadership role by influencing international economic, scientific, trade, and security institutions.
Alternatively, we could continue to allow petty and insignificant micro-inequities to distract and divide us domestically, which will encourage other nations to move aggressively to assert leadership and shape the direction of global rules and institutions.
Update on Florida HB-5: Restricting Women’s Rights
January 22, 2022
The Florida bill which would severely impact the ability of women to make personal choices about their own reproductive health (known as HB5) passed its first House committee hearing on January 19, 2022, and it is now heading to new committees for further discussion. (The companion bill in the Florida Senate is SB-146). Among other things, the bill will place severe restrictions on women’s access to abortions in Florida.
Florida Representative Fentrice Driskell (D-Tampa) perhaps said it best, “This bill is terrible for all Floridians, particularly for those who are low-income, live in rural areas, or are people of color who have historically faced inequitable access to quality healthcare, or low-income people who cannot afford to travel out of state for a safe abortion. It is not the government’s place to interfere with one of the toughest decisions a person will ever make. That private decision is one of faith, healthcare, personal freedom, and protecting the emotional and physical future of women and their families. Tallahassee politicians should not be involved.”
Kudos to Rep. Driskell for speaking out clearly and eloquently on basic human rights.
Florida HB 5: Reducing Fetal and Infant Mortality
January 18, 2022
HB 5 will be presented in the Florida House ‘Professions & Public Health Subcommittee’ on January 19, 2022.
This proposed bill has a very clever title.
The real purpose of the bill is to codify into Florida law, “A physician may not perform a termination of pregnancy if the physician determines the gestational age of the fetus is more than 15 weeks.”
HB 5 is a direct affront on the rights of all women to make personal decisions relative to their own lives.
Whenever arbitrary restrictions are imposed on open access to comprehensive reproductive health care services, the actual outcomes have disproportionate adverse economic impact — and direct deprivation of human rights — on young women; low-income women; and women of color.
These are socially and economically disadvantaged women, almost always members of a protected class.
The great majority of published public opinions opposing open and unrestricted access to comprehensive reproductive health care over the past 4 decades – including both contraception and abortion – center on personal ethical, moral or religious values.
Nationally, the loudest voices opposing open access to comprehensive reproductive health care services come from a small minority of predominantly college educated white evangelical Christians.
When people bring their personal religious beliefs or values into any public debate, they risk imposing illegal, unwanted or restrictive religious practices and beliefs on others who have been granted the Constitutional right to pursue their own – perhaps significantly different – beliefs.
I am aware of no rational person who considers abortion to be a primary means of family planning or birth control. Abortion is a last resort, a means to be employed only when all other options have failed.
I’m hopeful that you will reach a conclusion similar to mine on this Bill: Florida’s government should focus on supporting our residents and improving health care, not taking away their rights, especially rights that can materially impact their health, livelihoods, and futures.
I encourage you to join me in asking members of the Florida Legislature to carefully and objectively examine the broad implications of HB 5 prior to taking a position on the Bill.
Meet Ron DeSantis, Florida’s governor
January 13, 2022
Ron is a native Floridian who worked his way through Yale University, where he was captain of the varsity baseball team, and he graduated with honors. He then graduated with honors from Harvard Law School, where he earned a commission in the U.S. Navy as a JAG officer. During his active-duty service, he was deployed to Iraq in support of various SEAL missions.
In simple words, his pedigree sounds impeccable.
Since his election to the office of Florida governor, Ron DeSantis has consistently engaged in political theatre by evoking confusion; separation; and division of the people of good will who call Florida home, apparently seeking immediate and durable personal political gratification.
Instead of taking a strategic leadership position to engage and protect the people of Florida based on factual scientific knowledge, he has issued a number of Executive Orders which are arbitrary, capricious and serve to support his personal campaign of rancid rhetoric and dangerous disinformation.
DeSantis married his wife Casey in 2010, and they are the parents of 3 young people: 2 daughters and one son, all under 7 years of age.
His Executive Order 2021-175 (which bars Florida school districts from instituting mask mandates in public schools) was an egregious example of misguided government overreach which may well prove to be a death warrant for many economically disadvantaged Florida students. Can you imagine how or why a father of 3 young children would reject protecting youngsters from potential airborne transmission of a lethal virus?
Now, in his “State of the State” address delivered on January 11, 2022, Gov. DeSantis had a simple message on COVID-19 to Floridians: “We were right,” he said, “and they were wrong”.
‘Florida was right to reopen the state early’, DeSantis said. ‘The federal government’s restrictions are wrong. Ideas such as critical race theory must be stamped out, and both China and the U.S. border with Mexico remain as serious threats to America’.
According to DeSantis, “Florida has become the escape hatch for those chafing under authoritarian, arbitrary and seemingly never-ending mandates and restrictions.”
I reject his irresponsible behaviors, divisive rhetoric and his constant efforts to actively quash any debate on subjects where he has taken a stand.
I am proud to join millions of other Floridians who actively oppose his future political intentions and any and all attempts of Ron DeSantis to run for public office again.
A new look at the Republican Party
January 13, 2022
During my college years, I was introduced to the writings of Franz Kafka; that may help explain my rather bizarre sense of humor.
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