I visited the farm and the sinkhole that has been in what, in the past, was the cornfield was filled with water. And, there were these cranes(?). I have never seen cranes at the farm before. I hope you can see the pair of cranes. How can anyone deny that the climate is changing? Or maybe these cranes were blown off course (Serial hurricanes? Alberto, Beryl, Chris, Debby, and Ernesto–and it’s nowhere near the end of the hurricane season) and decided that the sinkhole was a good place to rest.
Anyway, an aside, I watered my plants because for three days rain had been forecast and…no rain. So I watered the plants and that very night…guess what…it rained. My grass has greened up as it has been cool and cloudy. Not like August. Usually, it rains and the humidity and the temperature remain unbearable.
The media continues at every opportunity to characterize President Biden’s debate as disastrous. As I’ve said before, the President answered the questions which to me is more important than a non-substantive “performative” performance that apparently is expected by the adolescent mentality of the average citizen and the media that caters to them.
Nuanced negativity–that’s what I feel when President Biden is talked about. I know this country has a problem with ageism and maybe that’s the undercurrent that permeates the media’s coverage.
Symbolic violence–operates through the manipulation of symbols, ideas, and beliefs, rather than through physical force. It is a form of power that functions at the level of culture, shaping individuals’ perceptions, preferences, and behaviors. Bourdieu (a prominent 20th-century French sociologist who coined the term) argued that symbolic violence is particularly effective because it is often internalized by individuals, leading them to accept and reproduce the social hierarchies and inequalities that exist. Excerpt from–https://easysociology.com/sociology-of-violence-conflict/pierre-bourdieus-symbolic-violence-an-outline-and-explanation/
Symbolic violence is a heavy lifter in the United States. the color black equals evil; natural hair, our curly coily hair, is a political statement; Black woman does not conform to white beauty standards and therefore is denigrated; Black male is criminally inclined, and on and on. The Republicans have already aired an ad that depicts the VP as some kind of animal or insect…I forget which. Michele Obama was called an ape or gorilla…I forget which and it might have been both. That’s the white supremacist playbook.
Now’s the time for all good men
To get together with one another
We got to iron out our problems
And iron out our quarrels
And try to live as brothers
And try to find peace within
Without stepping on one another
And do respect the women of the world
Remember, you all had mothers
We got to make this land a better land
Than the world in which we live
And we got to help each man be a better man
With the kindness that we give
I know we can make it
I know darn well, we can work it out
Oh, yes, we can, I know we can, can
Yes, we can, can, why can’t we?
If we wanna, yes, we can, can
I know we can make it work
I know that we can make it if we try
Oh, yes, we can, I know we can, can
Yes, we can great-gosh almighty
Oh, yes, we can, I know we can, can
And we gotta take care of all the children
The little children of the world
‘Cause they’re our strongest hope for the future
The little bitty boys and girls
We got to make this land a better land
Than the world in which we live
And we gotta help each man be a better man
With the kindness that we give
Lyrics from Yes We Can Can by the Pointer Sisters 1972
Whatever happened to the optimism of fifty years ago? You know when there was, what we now know was pretense, a facade, a veneer, hope that we could and would work together to make this a country that tried to live up to its ideals. Now, we know, even then, that the Heritage Foundation or an iteration of it was actively plotting to re-assert the toxic, virulent, oppressive white supremacy of a past that was longed for by the toxic white males who think they and only they should wield power in this country.
“[M]ost of us will never be afforded the grace of failing forward. “We will never benefit from the affirmative action of generational wealth. (emphasis added) If we bankrupt a business…or choke in a crisis, we don’t get a second, third, or fourth chance. If things don’t go our way, we don’t have the luxury of whining or cheating others to get further ahead…we don’t get to change the rules so we always win. If we see a mountain in front of us, we don’t expect there to be an escalator waiting to take us to the top. No, we put our heads down. We get to work. In America, we do something.” Michelle Obama speech at the Democrat’s Convention 2024. Hear, hear…the Former First Lady!
Citizens in the red states consistently vote against their own interests and the interests of their children. The Republicans have told their constituents that they prefer an ill-educated citizenry. Didn’t their constituents have the intelligence to figure out that the Republicans had a plan to ensure that they were ill-educated? Don’t they realize that the voucher program was created to enrich the friends of their elected grifters and not to insure quality education for their children? The voucher program was also created to funnel wealth from the middle and lower classes to the rich. The statistics in the article cited below will only get worse with the implementation of a voucher program. Many of the private schools will not be held to any standards and these schools can select the students they choose to ill-educate, but, guess what, the administrators of these schools will have enriched themselves with the public’s tax dollars.
I noticed in the panning shots of the delegates at the Democrat National Convention that they looked like a microcosm of the citizens of the United States. Such a stark contrast to the delegates at the Republican National Convention who were overwhelmingly white. I was surprised at the number of Republicans who spoke–all in the spirit of inclusivity–and they seemed to realize that this election is not about partisanship, but about democracy and its future in this country.
When the wind of change blows, some build walls, others build windmills. Chinese Proverb
Copyright 2024 All Rights Reserved
