Tag Archives: rights

Big Anniversaries

It’s been 250 years since the founding of the United States; 25 years since the attacks of 9/11. What has this country learned in the interim?

On July 4, we should have been celebrating the survival of our democracy. Instead, we worried about our democracy surviving Trump. He moved the official party to his 80th birthday on June 14, because, as we all know by now, everything is about him. History and tradition be damned.

After 250 years of struggle to fulfil our founders’ hopes for a country of, by, and for its people, we have moved backward from those goals. The right to vote, women’s right to control our own bodies, the right to clean air and water, our right to live in peace, and most egregiously, our right to free speech – all have been set back by decades. One thing we have learned is that in spite of the Constitution, our rights are not guaranteed. We have to fight to keep them, because the only one the Right wing cares about is the right to bear arms. Every other freedom we enjoy is a constraint on their ability to manipulate us for their own ends.

What did we learn from 9/11? George W. Bush and company twisted the world’s sympathy into initial support for two long, bloody, unrelated, and unnecessary wars. What at first seemed like a hunt for the actual terrorists turned into an American jihad against Muslims everywhere. Osama Bin Laden and his henchmen were Saudis, but the Saudi rulers and the Bush family go way back, so Saudi Arabia got a pass. Instead, we attacked poor Afghanistan, as though the Russians hadn’t done them enough damage. Then we hit Iraq, with the excuse of Weapons of Mass Destruction that did not exist.

We lost 3,000 American lives on 9/11. Our post-9/11 wars killed more than 3 million people, directly or indirectly. Iraq is recovering, but far from thriving, and depends on authoritarian state power to maintain stability. Afghanistan is ruled by the Taliban. Women there are chattel again.

Did we learn to refrain from unnecessary war? Iran shows that although most Americans might have learned this lesson, Trump has not. Did the U.S. learn that the best way to prevent terrorism is to stop being a violent bully on the world stage? Gaza shows that we still don’t get it.

The post-9/11 wars got us used to the idea of invading and ruling other countries. Encouraged by our failure to hold W accountable, Trump decided our armed forces could also occupy contested domestic territory. In a recent New Yorker article, a former Assistant U.S. Attorney described Trump’s plan after the ICE murder of Renée Good: “Occupy Minneapolis like it was Falluja.”

Americans have not learned to live with all the people who want to be here. We need immigrants to pick our crops, take care of our elders, and provide young workers to support our aging population. Yet we have allowed Trump to demonize the very people we should be welcoming. The symbol by which we are known internationally is no longer Lady Liberty. It is the armed drone rising over your village – in Iraq, or at your local ICE protest.

The upcoming midterm election gives our country a chance to show that the struggles of the past 250 years were not in vain. We can demonstrate that democracy, though badly damaged, is still operational. And peace, though undermined everywhere by Trump’s aggression, is still an achievable goal.

One side of our politics offers endless war, increasing wealth inequality, racism and xenophobia. The other side offers peace, fairness, and tolerance.

It shouldn’t be a hard choice.

Freedom: yours vs mine

When people object to the requirement to wear a mask in public, smoke starts coming out of my ears. Freedom comes with responsibility. You are free to risk your own life if you want to. But since when is it okay to risk other people’s lives? If you are free to refuse to wear a mask, you are free to stay the hell away from the rest of us.

Every older American, every person with heart disease or diabetes, is scared right now. We’re scared to leave home. We’re scared of crowds. We don’t go inside anywhere unless we have to. Too many in this country are in denial about COVID-19, encouraged to be stupid by a reckless, ignorant president. Just because we all wish like anything it was over, doesn’t mean it’s over. Has anybody missed seeing the spike on the graph?

You might be young and healthy. Others are not so lucky. Do you think you can be a good person if you endanger people less fortunate than yourself? Do you think other people’s lives mean less to them than yours does to you? Maybe you don’t notice older people or those with disabilities. We are even less visible than usual these days. But we’re here; there are people who love us, and people who depend on us. We want to live just as much as you do. You see going maskless as freedom; we see it as life-threatening.

I’m not just talking about COVID parties, insane though they are. I’m talking about people who walk through neighborhoods with their masks below their noses. I’m talking about bikers and runners wearing masks down around their necks. Nobody likes having to wear them but that’s the best way to control this pandemic. Are you saving that mask for conversations? When you’re exercising, you’re breathing harder than usual. You know you could have no symptoms and be shedding the virus whenever you breathe, right?

Sure, you’re free. Be free like a grownup. Wear the damn mask.

Victories large and small

On June 19, 1865, two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation, slaves in Texas were finally freed. Juneteenth, the anniversary of that event, gives America a formal moment to recognize all the emancipation that still hasn’t happened, a century and a half later. Millions across the world remind us that black Americans are not free from fear of police, not free of public or private racism, not free to start a business or buy a home or even vote the way white Americans are.

Earth is in our hands

Humanity has barely begun to meet our many pressing challenges: racism, pandemics, overpopulation, poverty, tyranny, pollution, war, nuclear proliferation, climate change. We must not be discouraged. Centuries of struggle against cruelty, self-interest, and short-sightedness might be starting to turn the tide. Recent events prove the following principles:

Protests work. They changed the culture in the 1960s, and they are changing the culture now. A strong majority of the American public finally acknowledges that racism is a terrible and enduring problem. Police who killed unarmed black people are facing murder charges. Racist symbols from statues to cereals are going down. Many cities and states seem ready to move funds from police departments to mental health services, education, and housing. So far, these are small victories, but they have momentum.

Sustained pressure works. Years of public education and lobbying have even reached the Supreme Court. Two very conservative judges voted with the majority to give LGBTQ people the right to be free of workplace discrimination, and to stop Trump’s effort to deport the young “Dreamers” protected by DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals). These are both major victories. They reward many years of committed activism.

Science works. Scientists told us this would happen: in states and countries where almost everyone wears a mask outside the home, COVID-19 infection rates are falling steeply. Where people refuse to take this elementary precaution, the virus is spreading by leaps and bounds. Science also gives us new ways of getting energy without burning fossil fuels, and tells us what will happen if we don’t use them. Science allows women to control reproduction; politics too often won’t let them, leaving many women in desperate situations. The moral here is, when politicians and scientists disagree, listen to science.

Voting works. Protests and science can only do so much. In the end, we get what we vote for. If all the people who believe in one person, one vote, had actually voted, we’d have gotten rid of the Electoral College by now. The Senate would be representative instead of giving lopsided power to the old slave states regardless of population. If more of us voted, we’d have gotten Gore instead of George W, Clinton instead of Trump. Trump detained 70,000 immigrant children last year, and since then has destroyed our economy, done his best to ruin the environment, and cost hundreds of thousands of American lives. This November, we have a chance to vote that evil, lying, cynical schmuck out of office. That would be the biggest victory in a long, long time.