“And don’t try to dig what we all say” — Pete Townshend, “My Generation”
I freely admit: when I first heard the word “woke” as a positive definition of the human condition, I did not care for the term. “Woke” implies that everybody is asleep but for the lucky few who are smart enough to understand the difference between a bowling alley and a thunderstorm. I’m way too egalitarian for that.
I do not mean to suggest that DeSantis is less than truthful about his beliefs. Not at all. To quote Maya Angelou, the award-winning poet/writer/actor/dancer that Governor Ron has banned from his school libraries: “When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.” After all, about two out of every three Americans think that Nazis are not good people, while some on the far-right object to being called Nazis, or even fascists. Evidently, these people banned the dictionary before they got through “F.”
This brings me to the half-dozen goosesteppers on the Supreme Court. The “highest court in the land.” Yeah? Well, to quote Abbie Hoffman, “naw, they ain’t high.” Nor do the Supremes they have any appreciation of the difference between “law” and “justice.” “Law” is what rich White men enact to protect and further their wealth. “Justice” is what rarely ever happens pursuant to those laws. My guess is, Alito and Thomas have a deal with Foot Locker, previously known as Woolworths, to reopen a chain of lunch counters in the Confederate States. This effort could be funded by Thomas’s great benefactor, Harlan Crow, the only close friend of a Supreme Court justice to possess a copy of “Mein Kampf” signed by the author.
In the past several weeks we’ve seen the Supremes banish affirmative action in schools, end Biden’s plans to put a halt to student loan gauging, permit retailers to pick and chose which types of customers they can refuse to serve, end suspects’ right to sue police who do not inform them of their right to remain silent for damages, shoot down a century-old New York State gun law that placed restrictions on carrying a concealed handgun outside the home, and permit state governments to use tax dollars to fund private religious schools. All this is to name but a few rulings that came down in the year since the Highest Court in the Land repositioned women as chattel. Privilege über alles has been made the rule of law and has undermined the entire concept of justice.
Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker, scion of one of this nation’s most noble families, quickly lambasted the Gay Website decision. “It allows LGBTQ+ discrimination to pervade under the guise of free speech… This decision weaponizes religious freedom as a boon for bigotry, and in doing so, puts the burden on the millions of Americans who have fought for their right to love and live as they are,” Pritzker said in a statement, as published by the Chicago Sun-Times.
It is time to make America America again. In the Grateful Dead song “Hell in a Bucket,” John Barlow, Bob Weir, Brent Mydland wrote “There may come a day I will dance on your grave. Unable to dance, I will crawl across it. Unable to dance, I’ll still crawl.” In “Stand!” Sly Stone wrote “Stand! There’s a midget standing tall, and the giant beside him about to fall. Stand!” In “We Can Be Together,” Paul Kantner wrote “We are forces of chaos and anarchy! Everything they say we are we are… and we are very proud of ourselves.”
America has become a nation whose citizens hold but one of two thoughts. Some believe that America has gone to hell in a bucket and we need to unite as one White Christian male nation. The other wants all Americans to be together to take a stand and finally become who we’ve always said we are.
The Supreme Court is aggressively following the former course. “The highest court in the land,” indeed. I think Abbie was mistaken. These authoritarian pillars of privilege must be high. I wouldn’t be surprised if they started building dunking stools.
OK. So I’m a White male cisgender who is creeping up on the three-quarter century mark, so WTF am I complaining about? None of this directly affects me… until the Class War begins.
Jeez. Maybe I am woke.
