The Revolution Continues blog is news, views, opinion and other expressions of hope from a leftist point-of-view. (We are not affiliated with any candidate, political party or organization. All are welcome.)
A system that makes you pay to exist, compete to eat, and obey to survive is not a civlization; it's a prison with shopping privileges. —Anonymous
Round Peg Revolution
by C.A. Matthews
There’s
an old saying that goes, “You can’t fit a square peg into a round
hole.” When I saw the above meme, I was momentarily taken aback. In this
instance it’s the “round pegs” telling the “square peg” that they’re
not going to change to fit the “square hole” or system. The round pegs
insist that it’s better if the system is changed to fit all pegs. No peg is left behind that way.
Wow. That’s pretty deep, isn’t it?
What
is the “system” these pegs are talking about? Could it be the system of
government or a political system the pegs live under? Could it be the
economic system the pegs have to work in? Could it be the social system
that dictates what is considered moral and what isn’t in peg society?
Could it be all three?
For ease of argument, let’s say the pegs’ “system” includes all three dimensions—social, political, and economic.
Now
notice the square peg’s countenance and gesturing in the meme. It's
frowning and pointing. Its demeanor is disapproving and demanding. The
square peg is shown carrying a briefcase—sure evidence of a closed mind
if there ever was one!
I’ll
admit I’m jumping to conclusions with the scanty facts presented, but
you’ve got to admit that any peg which has sharp corners, carries a
badge of honor for business-types (the briefcase), and displays a stern,
condescending attitude toward others who are different from it is
probably not a very nice peg person.
I believe the technical term for this type of peg would be an “asshole.”
The
round pegs, on the hand, seem friendly and outgoing. They’re willing to
work with the square peg to build a better system—a better world, you
could say. Their willingness to think outside the box—or rather the
“square hole”—and include a wide variety of pegs in their system
demonstrates flexibility and their ability to handle a greater range of
experiences. They’re not stuck with four sides and four corners. They’re
“fluid” not “rigid,”open to change and desiring that all pegs thrive in
their system.
Square
peg with its briefcase and finger pointing tells us that it’s “The
square pegs’ way or the highway!” The square peg system is unyielding.
All pegs must re-shape how they think, how they act, who they are, and
what they do to survive in order to fit into the square peg system.
There are no options, no consideration for individual differences,
talents, or tastes apparently in a square peg world.
To find out more about the differences in the "peg systems," continue reading the rest of this
article on Substack. You can do so by copying or clicking on this link:
There you'll see related article and video links, all the graphics, and
be able to leave comments. You can become a free or paid subscriber and
receive weekly posts in your email box, along with occasional special
articles just for paid subscribers, too.
This
article is the 520th blog posting of The Revolution Continues. We began
in June 2015, and we're still going strong. Please keep reading,
sharing, and subscribing to help TRC continue for another ten years.
I’ve had a rough week. I’m feeling very irritated about life, the universe and everything.
After
I watched a video of a State Department spokeswoman blaming just about
everything the US has done to further Israel’s cause of genocide against
the Palestinian people on “Hamas,” I was livid. But then I read a great
comment by Mark (@babasonicos) on Caitlin Johnstone’s article that summed up this spokeswoman’s programmed propaganda response beautifully: “Hamas ate my hamster!!!”
It’s
the ultimate liar’s “The dog ate my homework!” type of excuse. This
coming week I’m sure we’ll hear a version of “You sunk my battleship!”
to explain why the US is committing war crimes by bombing Yemeni tribesmen during their celebration of Eid.
Nothing new there. But after that belly laugh at the absurdity of the
US State Department trying to cover for our total lack of morals and
compassion, I knew what was really bothering me.
I’m tired of the bullshit.
I’m tired of being gaslighted.
I’m sick to death of the lame lies we the poor and oppressed are supposed to believe without questioning.
Here
we have billionaires like the Elongated Muskrat showing their true
colors to the world with their greedy, self-centered, and non-empathetic
behaviors, but we can’t even get the simple truth out of a State
Department spokesperson about why the US taxpayer is being forced to pay
for a livestreamed genocide.
Come on! Give us a break! We all know the real reason behind this inhuman insanity...
To learn how to discern the lies from the insanity,please
continue reading the rest of this article by copying or clicking on this
Substack link:
There you'll see related article and video links, all the graphics, and
be able to leave comments. You can become a free or paid subscriber and
receive weekly posts in your email box, along with occasional special
articles just for paid subscribers, too.
This
article is the 514th blog posting of The Revolution Continues. We began
in June 2015, and we're still going strong. Please keep reading,
sharing, and subscribing to help TRC continue for another ten years.
Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day. (Happy Black History Month, too.)
It
does seem funny wishing a good day in honor of a late great American
(assassinated by our own security state), but what else can I say?
I
suppose I could say “Happy Inauguration Day!” but some folks would have
a complete and utter meltdown if I dare mention Donald Trump being
sworn in as president for a second time. So, I won’t say that, but what
could I say instead? Maybe: “Trump is living in the White House again.
Get use to it”?
I
find it interesting how most of the individuals I know who have
constantly worried and fretted over or made fun of the “Orange Man”
won’t live any differently whether Trump is president or not. They still
have their white privilege. They still live solidly middle- to
upper-class lives. They will keep their jobs or be able to retire as
planned. This is in complete contrast to the poor people that Dr. King
spoke about frequently who struggled to pay their bills and never once
considered retirement to be possible...
And now a short excerpt from our guest blogger's piece:
Swords Into Plowshares
by Coast Watcher
...Instead
of scrapping one or both of the huge and expensive super-carriers
Britain could instead donate them to the United Nations for use as
disaster relief ships. Able to travel quickly to wherever they’re
needed, each carrier could house dozens of search-and-rescue helicopters
and other aircraft. Current hangar space below decks can be repurposed
as hospitals equipped for emergency surgery, storage space for medical
supplies, food, water, disaster relief equipment, tents and anything
else required in a disaster relief operation. The ship’s nuclear power
plant can be hooked up to shoreside facilities to provide electricity
wherever local power generation has been damaged or destroyed...
Please continue reading the remainder of these two essays by copying or clicking on this Substack link: https://therevolutioncontinues.substack.com.
There you'll see related article and video links, all the graphics, and
be able to leave comments. You can become a free or paid subscriber and
receive weekly posts in your email box, along with occasional special
articles just for paid subscribers, too.
Subscribe to The Revolution Continues on Substack today. Power to the people!
This
article is the 503rd blog posting of The Revolution Continues. We began
in June 2015, and we're still going strong. Please keep reading,
sharing, and subscribing to help TRC continue for another ten years.
Free the indigenous people of Palestine from the internment camp created by their occupiers! Free Palestine! Watch this short video from 2 years ago to understand better what's going on there today. Related article links are located in the links section below this week's blog post. It's a post inspired by an incident this past week that proves the 1%/capitalists/occupiers are everywhere and could be anyone, even a person you thought you could trust to be on the people's side...
Why The Revolution Hasn’t Started Yet
Part II: Team Work by C.A. Matthews
If you want our society to change for the better so you don’t have to keep asking, “Why hasn’t the Revolution started yet?” then you need to grow up emotionally and treat your fellow workers as equals, worthy of your trust, respect, and forgiveness. Anything less won’t cut it. —from Why The Revolution Hasn’t Started Yet
I never thought I’d be writing another piece along these lines—and so soon—but needs must.
The Revolution hasn’t started yet because some of us are still not on the same page as to what being a socialist means. I’m not talking about technical terms or academic explanations. I’m talking about what it means to want to make the world a better place.
Hopefully I explained it well in my first essay that wanting to make the world a better place means that you want it to become a better place for all human beings. And I meant all, not just for those you like or those who look like you, think like you, or like the same kinds of food, books, music, movies, and video games as you. If we make a decision to leave anyone out, then we’re not truly wishing to reform society to bring about equality. We’re just wanting to change things a little bit to make life easier for ourselves and those who are essentially clones of us. That’s not socialism; that’s just maintaining the capitalist status quo.
When we make the decision—consciously or unconsciously—to leave out the other 99% of human beings and keep the good stuff only for the 1% we agree with and like to be around, then we are not acting like a socialist. The 99% versus the 1%… Now, where have I heard those percentages before?
The Revolution hasn’t started yet because it’s not going to start with just the 1% who want it to begin in order to meet their own personal wants and desires. No person is an island unto themselves, so you have to acknowledge that, by the end of the day, the Revolution must involve the whole planet and the entirety of its inhabitants or else it’s a bust.
We can’t go it alone, in other words. The Revolution is going to take a team effort. So we must form teams and nurture them.
To be a team working toward a socialist Revolution means we have to respect and trust our fellow team members. We make a promise to each other that we’ll work together to reach our goals of equality and that we will be there for each other, come what may. We can’t bail out on our team members when times get tough. We can’t just walk away without giving a decent reason as to what why we wish to leave the team.
We make a promise when we join the team to keep the lines of communication open. That means we can’t hold grudges and stuff all our hurts or confusions deep inside ourselves. We have to share what’s on our minds. We have to talk—and listen—to each other as equals, respecting each other’s unique perspective.
Sure, we might need to take a break or some R and R occasionally, but we don’t leave our fellow teammates out in the cold without any explanation about what’s going on with us. We can’t afford to keep our fellow workers out of the loop or else misunderstandings could occur. Misunderstandings can break up the team and destroy the efforts we’re making as a team. Because we truly respect and trust each other and want only the best for all of humanity, we won’t risk breaking up our team. We should see our team of fellow socialists as an essential tool to make the whole of Planet Earth safer, healthier, and happier.
Breaking up a team for personal wants or desires comes across as an action a capitalist would take. A capitalist is an individual who sees himself or herself as being intrinsically better than others and possibly more deserving of attention. It’s a person who relishes getting their own way and telling others what to do since they know better, so it isn't necessary to share the limelight or the decision-making processes. A capitalist might join a team and say they’re doing it for the sake of the Revolution, but they see the others on the team only as being good for window-dressing and grunt work purposes. The voice and image that matters are the capitalist’s.
To reiterate, socialists treat everyone with respect, freely giving their trust and forgiveness to their fellow workers. This is necessary for all to benefit from the better society socialism is building. No one is left behind! Socialists aren’t doing all this work on their own for their own glory—they’re members of a team, working together to realize the dream of a better world for all of creation, human beings as well as the plants, animals and the totality of the environment.
The reason I’m revisiting my previous article this week is because of the actions of one of the persons it was inspired by. Suddenly what I thought was true of all socialists, that we all are working hard together to bring about the better society, might not be quite as true for this particular person as I first believed. I might have projected my hopes and dreams onto this person, thinking he was happy to be working toward building this better world as a member of our big team. I was wrong. Recent events have convinced me that maybe deep down this person wants to do things on his own because it would be of more benefit to his own team, the 1%.
It’s heartbreaking to come to this realization. I’m deeply disappointed, but it’s better to discover the truth now rather than later. Later on when the corporate contributions via political action committees (PACs), Super PACs, and millionaires’ checks come rolling into this person’s campaign war chest, we’ll see how, slowly but surely, this candidate’s focus will shift toward his wealthy capitalists donors at the expense of the working class.
It might have already happened at a $250 a ticket soiree held in this person’s honor. The workers who thought they were on the same team, but who couldn’t afford this type of luxury, weren’t welcome. Worse yet, the venue where the event was held is known for being hostile to its own workers unionizing. That doesn’t sound like a place a socialist would want to be seen partying at, let alone allowing it to host their fundraiser. Why cater to capitalists at the expense of those you presumably wish to help unless you feel they are not worthy of your help to begin with?
This is not a campaign I’d be proud to be a part of as a socialist. The duopoly candidates accept corporate money via PACs/Super PACs and host champagne receptions with rich capitalists. I thought the candidate was on our team—the workers who wish to bring about a better society—but maybe I misunderstood. He seems to be on a team of one.
Our team was doing hard work to help this candidate get on the ballot in multiple states. Ballot access work for alternative party candidates in the US truly takes a team effort. We really felt that the candidate was a member of our team, and he respected our efforts. We were all equals.
But it seems this person prefers to pay strangers to collect signatures for his ballot access instead. It explains why he suddenly announced he was leaving our team’s party in the middle of our ballot access work. He wants to be free to take PAC dollars and kiss up to rich capitalists to raise funds to pay for these professional petition circulators. He didn’t seem to appreciate our team’s volunteer efforts, even though we had been doing quite well gaining ballot access so far.
In a recent online interview, this person demonstrated that he isn’t really into “grassroots democracy” which is practiced by our team’s political party. He stated plainly that he didn’t want to go through our team’s party primary or its debates or even attend state party events in order to meet with fellow team members.
This person said in the interview that meeting with members of the party was a waste of time and took him away from the real people he wanted to reach with his campaign. He even stated a horrible falsehood that the party didn’t reach out to people of color and that nobody in those communities even knew who we were, but they knew who he was, so it was better if he just walked away from our team’s party now.
Ouch.
Does that mean the people of color who are members of our team's party don’t count in his eyes? Those who worked hard for his campaign's ballot access don’t count? Those he claims aren't worthy of his time don’t count? That he doesn't consider any of us to be his equals?
And this person claims to be a “socialist”?
Apparently, this person, who freely joined our party, wants to be free to use campaign finance methods such as PACs that have totally corrupted the duopoly. Can’t he see that by pushing away the enthusiastic volunteer ballot petitioners and accepting large sums of cash from millionaires/billionaires is exactly what the capitalist corporate-owned-and-operated candidates of the duopoly do? Does he believe those large sums of money won't affect him like they've have for every candidate before him?
If he wants to run his campaign like a capitalist/duopolist, then perhaps he’s not really interested in building a better world for all that he thinks he is.
The Revolution hasn’t started yet because some folks, who may have fooled themselves into thinking they’re socialists, are actually arrogant lone wolves of the capitalist class. They don’t hunt in a pack. They want to do it all by themselves, and you should be grateful to get anywhere near their presence without a minimum $250 donation.
You could say that they “don’t play well with others,” but that’s assuming they even know we “others” exist in the first place. A socialist would acknowledge that their teammates can provide invaluable insights and assistance. A socialist would have the humility to ask for and accept help from others they see as equals instead of ditching them and buying help. A capitalist feels free to walk away from those they see as “less than” at any time and hang out with their rich friends because they're more important. It’s called hierarchy.
This person, a candidate who likes to call himself a “Jazz Man,” is really a solo artist. He wants to do things his way without a thought to how his fellow band members could be of benefit to the cause. He’s not interested in making harmonious music with others. He said in the interview he felt he was better off without our party volunteers around, bringing his image down, keeping him away from the real people who counted more, in his opinion.
In other words, "Screw the workers who can only donate their blood, sweat, and tears instead of big fat checks!"
The Revolution hasn’t started yet because we the workers, the loyal teammates, need to stop relying on capitalists to lead us through this corrupted and corrupting system of government. We must start leading ourselves without the so-called leadership of famous personalities and other arrogant types who believe their own press releases. We must build our own teams of equals and call the shots.
We must do it ourselves. Worker standing beside worker. As equals. As brothers and sisters. Together.
That’s what authentic living is, in my view: meeting life just as it is, without egocentric filters, distortions or manipulations, come what may. This is the only way to really live our time on this earth, to really experience each moment instead of missing it. It’s also the only way for ordinary people to respond to tyranny and abuse with the emotional energy it requires. —Caitlin Johnstone, We Must Never Let Ourselves Become Desensitized To This
I spy this question almost weekly—if not daily—on the social media platforms I frequent. I ask it to myself almost every night before I go to bed… Why hasn’t the Revolution started yet?
Many pundits and experts cite current statistics about the reality of Bidenomics. All I know is that I pay $3.69 for a block of cream cheese that I paid about 99 cents only three years ago. The facts don’t lie: Capitalism kills, particularly those of the working class.
Why hasn’t the Revolution started yet? The question is pertinent. Its answer is desperately needed.
Why hasn’t the Revolution started yet? What’s holding it up? What is holding us back from taking decisive action? Why hasn’t the magical Revolution Fairy descended from on high and seized the means of production away from the capitalists and given it to the workers yet?
That last question reveals the answer to the first question. The workers don’t really want to work hard to bring about a socialist utopia. They want someone or something else to do the heavy lifting, sort of like their capitalist bosses want the workers to do all the heavy lifting for the bosses. And so the Revolution is going nowhere fast, and “Nowhere” is not a destination to head toward if one is serious about changing the world for the better.
While we travel slowly to Nowhere, the members of the working class aren’t exactly idle. They’re spewing out their hate and frustrations on each other more often than not. The workers might say they believe in socialism, equality, and sharing the benefits of an egalitarian society with their fellow human beings, but the evidence isn’t quite there. If those who long for Revolution truly longed to bring about the beautiful socialist transformation of our economies and governmental systems for all humankind, they would demonstrate their altruism and goodwill in their everyday actions and manners, right?
But the workers, those supposed lovers of Revolution, don’t demonstrate brotherly love (sisterly love or neighborly love) for their fellow workers. Often they show outright contempt. It’s ugly and unseemly.
Case in point, the chat room of a popular socialist podcaster on YouTube recently. The podcaster is interviewing a new worker in the campaign for high office of a revolutionary dreamer. Questions are asked of the new worker. He doesn’t hesitate to answer and elaborate on his new position and his personal history and experience. The discussion on camera is fine and illuminates aspects of the new worker’s position in the campaign.
But this is not the chat room occupants’ focus. Many are ignoring the conversation on screen and are repeatedly calling the new worker a “psychopath” and a “liar.” They don’t show any altruism or goodwill in their actions. Their rhetoric becomes even more spiteful and hate-filled as the interview continues, particularly so when the new worker expresses a mutual longing for socialist Revolution as well.
By the end of the interview, anyone reading the chat room dialogue would think it wasn’t a socialist podcast but a capitalist brow-beaters’ convention. The chatters claim to be leftists or socialists who want Revolution, but their actions say otherwise. They revel in cruelty. They verbally attack those in the chat room who won’t join in the snarkfest against the new worker alongside them.
If you claim you want to bring about a better world for the entirety of humanity based upon a socialist society, then you must demonstrate that you want this better world to be for all human beings. You must forgive your enemies and give your fellow workers the same chance. You must treat everyone as equals, not treat some better and some worse. Otherwise, you’re not a true revolutionary. You are still a capitalist, and you belong in one of the duopolist parties.
Why keep asking, “Why hasn’t the Revolution started yet?” when you know it’s not going to start while they’re still more capitalists than socialists in the world.
The Revolution can’t start while there are some who continue to think themselves better than their fellow workers, that they merit better treatment because they are somehow more moral and more deserving of forgiveness. The brutal chat commentators calling the new worker a “liar” over and over again are saying that they are superior to him because only they as his superiors can know the truth. The new worker is painted as “less than” because the chatters see him as less worthy of their trust and respect.
So it follows that the cruel chatters can label the new worker a “psychopath” without any self-awareness that their own behavior is psychopathic in its need to inflict pain upon another human as much as possible through degrading comments. Name-calling is a puerile way to assert dominance in a conversation. The so-called “socialists” in the chat room (and elsewhere on the internet) who resort to name-calling, cursing, and using vulgarities to describe others aren’t ready for the Revolution. They simply don’t see other human beings as equals—or perhaps even as human beings at all.
Even worse, these name-callers’ actions mirror those of their capitalist bosses. They keep ordering others around and insisting upon their own superiority. How can a socialist Revolution start when it’s supposed supporters’ actions mimic those of the capitalists’ selfish ways?
There you have it—the real reason behind why the Revolution hasn’t started yet. We the workers are not ready for change. We don’t want the world to become a more just and caring place for everyone. We want some to suffer horribly for their past mistakes, over and over again. We withhold forgiveness from other workers for making mistakes even though we ourselves make mistakes daily.
We the workers don’t want equality. We want to act just as bad as our capitalist bosses who berate us and lord over us. With such horrible examples like this coming from so-called socialists, how will we ever convince others to learn the benefits of socialism and join in the cause?
The Golden Rule is a good place to start if you truly want to create a socialist Revolution. Treat others as you would like to be treated. Love your neighbor as you love yourself. Walk a mile in another person’s moccasins.
Stop kidding yourself into thinking that acting superior and snarky and showing zero empathy for others is somehow an expression of “socialism.” It isn’t. Capitalists act superior and snarky and show zero empathy for the workers all the time. This is why the world is as screwed up as it is today.
If you want our society to change for the better so you don’t have to keep asking, “Why hasn’t the Revolution started yet?” then you need to grow up emotionally and treat your fellow workers as equals, worthy of your trust, respect, and forgiveness. Anything less won’t cut it.
Why hasn’t the Revolution started yet? The simple answer could be YOU.
According to the Census Bureau’s latest report on poverty in the U.S., the supplemental poverty rate among children more than doubled between 2021 and 2022, jumping from 5.2 percent to 12.4 percent in just one year. This represents an increase of over 5 million children experiencing poverty in 2022, for a total of about 9 million children.
Poverty also increased for all ages by 4.6 percentage points to 12.4 percent in 2022. This marks the first increase in the supplemental poverty rate since 2010, and marks the largest one-year rise in poverty rates on record, according to the Census Bureau.
Coming soon, the first book from The Revolution Continues blog: The Little Red Book of Revolution
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When my mother first got off the ship in the United States of America, I wonder… Did she feel welcomed?
It was right before the start of the second World War. Mom had lived in Brazil all of her young life. Now, her parents thrust her into a strange, new world full of different people, weather, flora and fauna. Being scolded by her mother to “speak only English,” she soon lost the ability to converse in Portuguese, remembering only snatches of songs and nursery rhymes in later years. Mom learned that she had to speak English only because now she was American, for better or worse.
Nowadays, it almost always seems to be “for the worse” whenever an immigrant attempts to enter the US. They may be desperate to escape persecution and violence in their home country, but once they arrive in the US or at its border, their fears not only aren’t relieved—they’re often magnified.
I wrote about the end of the infamous Title 42 program and the new Biden Asylum-Transit ban a couple of months ago in The New Title 42. The mainstream media’s continual emphasis on the urban myth of the US southern border becoming inundated with immigrant hordes after the pandemic ban was lifted has not happened. However, the re-traumatization of asylum-seekers seeking safety has just begun.
How welcoming is that?
From the terrorists masquerading as Customs Border Patrol agents at our borders, to the outright Jim Crow decrees from our state legislatures, it can’t get much more unwelcoming in the United States of America in the year 2023 CE. If you think I’m kidding, get a load of this:
A group of Chinese citizens who live, work, study, and raise families in Florida, as well as a real estate brokerage firm in Florida that primarily serves clients of Chinese descent, are filing a lawsuit to combat Florida’s discriminatory property law, SB 264. Signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, the legislation unfairly restricts most Chinese citizens — and most citizens of Cuba, Venezuela, Syria, Iran, Russia, and North Korea — from purchasing homes in the state. Unless the courts act, the law will take effect on July 1, 2023…
Today’s lawsuit argues that SB 264 will codify and expand housing discrimination against people of Asian descent in violation of the Constitution and the Fair Housing Act. It will also cast an undue burden of suspicion on anyone seeking to buy property whose name sounds remotely Asian, Russian, Iranian, Cuban, Venezuelan, or Syrian.
Gov. DeSantis has argued that this law is necessary to protect Florida from the Chinese Communist Party and its activities. But this misguided rationale unfairly equates Chinese people with the actions of their government, and there is no evidence of national security harm resulting from real estate ownership by Chinese people in Florida. From Chinese Immigrants Sue Florida Over Unconstitutional, Discriminatory Law
This horrible law brings to mind the first immigration law passed in the United States, The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882:
From
1882 until 1943, most Chinese immigrants were barred from entering
the United States. The Chinese Exclusion Act was the nation's first
law to ban immigration by race or nationality. All Chinese
people--except travelers, merchants, teachers, students, and those
born in the United States--were barred from entering the country.
Federal law prohibited Chinese residents, no matter how long they had
legally worked in the United States, from becoming naturalized
citizens… The Geary Act, passed in 1892, required Chinese aliens to
carry a residence certificate with them at all times upon penalty of
deportation. Immigration officials and police officers conducted spot
checks in canneries, mines, and lodging houses and demanded that
every Chinese person show these residence certificates. --From
Digital History
We’re
really come a long, long
way in the good ol’ US of A, haven’t we?
Working
in immigration advocacy, I am always shocked at how woefully ignorant most Americans are of how
poorly we treat and have treated immigrants.
Consider
this sobering
fact:
It wasn’t until the middle of America’s involvement in World War
II (1943) that Chinese-American persons—people of Chinese ancestry,
born and raised in families that had lived for several generations in
the US—were allowed to become naturalized
citizens.
Just because your last name was Li or Chin, and it wasn’t Smith or Schmidt, you couldn’t vote even though you were born in the US, went to school all your life in the US, and raised your own family in the US. You and your children weren’t entitled to any benefits of citizenship simply because your ancestors were born far, far away, across a big, wide ocean. Funny how those “Smiths” and “Schmidts” whose ancestors also came across an ocean were able to claim US citizenship and vote without any problems, though.
Wonder what the big difference is between these two groups, persons of European ancestry and those of Asian ancestry? Hmm... Do you think it has anything to do with their skin color perhaps?
And
you think the
Chinese
had (and
still
have)
it bad? When did American Indians become US citizens? Their ancestors have dwelt on the North
American continent for tens of thousands of years, but most who live within the boundaries of the USA were not able to
call themselves American citizens until… No,
not
1776 or
1865,
but 1924. It actually took until the second
decade of the twentieth
century for Native Americans to be considered “American.”
Now, convince me just how “welcoming” American society is if it can't even acknowledge the original inhabitants of this continent or keep any of the treaties it made with their leaders. I'll wait.
The US is so “welcoming” that we don't even believe that having enough food to eat is a human right. Imagine that! We voted against that proposal in the United Nations, of all places. That attitude certainly goes a long way in explaining our homeless and hunger problems, doesn't it? It's not that Americans can't feed and house our own people, it's that we don't want to.
But it isn’t always about race and ethnicity in the US when it comes to being unwelcoming. Senator Rick Scott (another Floridian) this past week has decided that those who are professed “socialists” aren’t welcome in his state. This announcement has really put a crimp in my vacation plans. I wanted to go south and visit my aunt, uncle and cousins in Florida, along with my sister and brother-in-law who recently retired there. Senator Scott says he doesn’t want any of my no-good socialist money in his state. It’s not good enough for the likes of Florida, like Chinese people’s money isn't, or Cubans’, or Venezuelans’, Syrians’, Iranians’, Russians’, and North Koreans’ money.
If you are trans or non-binary, you’re not wanted in the Sunshine State, either. It’s almost as if your gender identification is seen as a contagious disease. Give Florida its due—they’re racist, fascistic, and terrified of people who don’t meet their expectations of what a boy or a girl is supposed to be like. You could call it “Equal Opportunity Bigotry.”
I
know it’s not only the state of Florida that has passed these
prejudiced decrees recently, but it is the perfect example
of evil in action. Florida is full of hateful opportunists who are riding a wave of
terror of “otherness” and hoping to make a profit while doing so. Look at what color Florida is on this map and what it stands for:
It's nothing to be proud of, in my opinion. I wouldn't be planning a vacation to Disney World or Universal Studios, in other words, unless you're a raving homophobic/transphobic, anti-Asian, anti-socialist. Then, by all means, go right ahead! (Just don't bother to return home. We can isolate all you bigots in Florida with a simple “border wall” at the top of the peninsula. We don't want your kind of “immigrant” in our states.)
A year ago, it was all “Hate the
Russians! Love Zelensky! Who needs to spend billions on universal health care when America can spend it on the military-industrial complex and make our Congress members with insider stock trading deals richer!” And soon it
will be, “Stop eating Chinese food and hate the Chinese! We’re at
war with China over… over...”
Gee,
I forget! Why is the US mad at China? Is it because the
have decent reserves of lithium? Silicon chip manufacturing? Or because they’ve been
trying to bring about a diplomatic end to the conflict in Ukraine,
saving lives and ending the madness in the process?
It doesn’t take much to start a hate campaign against another country or ethnic or racial or political or gender group in the US. I sure wish our so-called “leaders” could do something to stop all this hate-mongering and sit down like rational adults and work out their differences with others in the best interest of every living thing on the planet before a nuclear war breaks out. (And no, corporations aren’t people, so they don’t count as “living things.”)
You could say that I’m just more than a little tired of the United States leading the way in all this worldwide nastiness; aren’t you?
The initials “US” are very appropriate. The initials “US” can also stand for the “Unwelcoming Society.” It's what we've become—or perhaps we've always been this way? It's time we stopped and took steps to reverse this horrid trend, don't you think?
Coming soon, the first book from The Revolution Continues blog: The Little Red Book of Revolution
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