Freya

SOUND OFF! 8/13/22 Proud to be an American?

Posted by Freya at 7:56 pm Politics

Aug 132022

“And I’m proud to be an American, where at least I know I’m free” goes one line from the refrain of Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA,” a song that reeks of patriotism. It’s a lovely song, appropriate to trot out on the Fourth of July, Flag Day, September 11, or any other occasion that calls for waving the Stars and Stripes. Unfortunately, these days it doesn’t ring all that true, as US residents are not all that free, and have many reasons for shame rather than pride.

How can we be proud of a country with a health “care” system that values profits more than patients? Every year around 600,000 people declare bankruptcy due to medical bills, and three-quarters of them have health insurance. How can this be? Health insurance companies offer coverage with beautiful ads showing happy families frolicking and patients with doctors, but when someone files a claim the alleged provider dicks its customers around. Companies in any other industry that behaved that way would lose customers in droves, face lawsuits, and soon go under. But insurance companies can get away with such rotten tactics. Obamacare is, at best, a stopgap measure and a compromise.

One of every three GoFundMe campaigns is to raise money for medical bills. In other words, GoFundMe is essentially the largest health care provider in this country. What kind of nation are we where people have to beg so they can clear medical debt? In a previous essay I wrote about how many “heartwarming” stories, instead of restoring our faith in humanity, should be pissing us off.

How can we be proud of a country whose core culture is still blatantly and shamelessly sexist? The USA has the worst maternal mortality rate of any developed country, and is one of only three countries that provides no maternity leave. It has fewer maternity leave protections and benefits than any other country in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), an international alliance including many of the wealthiest and most economically developed countries. Mothers with jobs must return to work within days of giving birth. As for child care, fuhgeddaboudit unless you’re well-healed, because daycare can cost as much as college.

Women had to fight for decades to gain the right to vote. They faced a vigorous anti-suffrage movement, which included a lot of women who had cravenly accepted their status as second-class citizens. Today we are STILL screaming for the ERA to be passed, a full half century after it was first introduced. It should have been added to the Constitution decades ago. At long last we have enough states signed on, but there is still some rigmarole to go through before it takes its rightful place as the Law of the Land.

Since Roe v Wade was overturned, the number of women seeking to have their fallopian tubes tied off has skyrocketed – and many of them run smack into the rampant sexism that pervades the USA’s nefarious health care system. Many a woman seeking to have her tubes tied has gone to one doctor after another, only to get male chauvinist snark such as “You’ll change your mind” or “You’ll meet the right man.” Translation: Women are baby-making machines that have no business thinking of themselves as even remotely human. Meanwhile, if a man wants a vasectomy, he’ll have one scheduled in five minutes.

The medical sexism goes far beyond this, as doctors tend to dismiss women’s suffering and pain. Too many OB/GYNs focus 100% on the fetus and 0% on the one carrying it. Of course, there are some doctors who do actually care about women and realize that us females have legitimate feelings; but they seem to be too few and too far between. And DO NOT get me started on vanishing reproductive rights!

How can we be proud of a country whose working class is being bled whiter than fresh tofu, while the 1% get richer and richer? Once upon a time, a household could live on one income. Now many people work two, three, possibly even more jobs just to make ends meet. Sometimes even if both partners in a household work, they still can barely keep their noses above water.

The minimum wage has not been increased in 13 years, while the price of everything has gone up, and up, and up. Call for the minimum wage to be increased to a living wage, and the brainless parrot stooges of Corporate America belch propaganda about robotized fast-food joints and $20 tacos. Cities and local areas that have increased their minimum wage have not, repeat, NOT seen the massive business closures and job loss that right-wing B.S. has claimed would ensue. In Australia, the minimum wage increases automatically every year; instead of being in worse economic shape than Venezuela, Australia is thriving.

Businesses are howling that “nobody wants to work anymore.” Garbage. The vast majority of US residents want to work. They want to hold jobs and earn money honestly. The problem is, working class Americans are sick of working like mules for chicken feed (pardon the mixed metaphor). No wonder so many businesses in the US are now offering to pay wages appreciably above the current federal minimum.

How can we be proud of a country whose education system is floundering due to sparse budgets? Public schools are crumbling, and their books and equipment are out of date. Teachers are poorly paid so many of them have to moonlight, even after exhausting days of trying to guide their children towards enlightenment and grading papers. Some districts don’t have enough money to purchase supplies, so teachers have to buy them out of their own pockets, or beg for them. Any wonder there is a dire shortage of teachers?

School meals should be free, and in other countries they are – and provide better nutrition. Here, though, kids have to either pay for lunch or bring it from home. Children whose lunch funds have run out see their food thrown in the trash, then come home from school with “I NEED LUNCH MONEY” stamped on their arms. What kind of monsters thought that was a good idea? They make Darth Vader look like a saint.

How can we be proud of a country that spends inordinate amounts on “defense” while its infrastructure is crumbling, its electrical grid is vulnerable to both terrorist attacks and natural phenomena, and – as mentioned above – its public education is woefully underfunded? I devoted an entire essay to our obscenely bloated military budget and how the Pentagon has zero accountability.

How can we be proud of a country that is still unabashedly racist? In theory, people of color have the same rights as whites; in practice, they do not have the same opportunities and thus less access to those rights, such as the right to vote. I could write an entire essay about how the Right is trying to squelch voting rights in districts that tend to support Democrats and Progressives – in fact, I just might do that. Righties vigorously oppose voting by mail, opening more polling locations, longer hours and more days for early voting, automatic voter registration, same-day voting, et cetera. In Georgia, when Brian Kemp ran for Governor, he refused to allow over 50,000 voting applications to be processed, and thus as good as stole the election from Stacey Abrams.

People of color still face discrimination in housing, jobs, education, and so on. Blacks have made some progress, finding success in various fields; not too long ago this country had its first Black President. Yet they still have quite a ways to go, as POCs are still under-represented in government, science, and other areas. Though our culture is doing a better job of featuring POCs and women as lead characters and strong characters in movies and TV shows – the late Nichelle Nichols’ portrayal of Uhura in the original Star Trek series was downright revolutionary – the entertainment industry still has room for improvement.

The United States of America has way more than 99 problems, and fixing a lot of them will entail a major overhaul of deeply entrenched systems. Bonne chance getting anything done, unless we have a major, and possibly bloody, revolution! Maybe that is what we have to do – tear down everything and rebuild, not from the original foundations, but from new foundations more in tune with present-day knowledge and attitudes. Meanwhile, if you live in the United States, do your truly patriotic duty and make sure you are registered to vote, then get your bottom to the polls.

SOUND OFF! 8/6/22 – It’s the End of the World as We Know It, and I Don’t Feel Fine

Posted by Freya at 8:18 am Politics

Aug 062022

One of the stereotypical inhabitants of cartoons is the man, usually sporting a long beard and wearing a robe, holding a sign that says “THE END IS NEAR.” People have been preaching that the end of the world is approaching, that we are in the “end times,” for centuries. One prophet after another has announced that he (in a few cases she) has correctly calculated when Doomsday will come – and been proven wrong.

These days, though, the end of the world, or at least of civilization and society as we know it, could in fact be on the horizon – and it is entirely human-made. As climate change worsens due to human action – and inaction – and the threat of nuclear war haunts us once again, suddenly apocalypse again darkens our future. The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists has put the hands of the Doomsday Clock at 100 seconds to midnight, the closest it has ever been. That’s 1 minute 40 seconds. The closest they ever put the clock’s hands during the Cold War was two minutes. The primary reason for placing the hands so close is our apparent inability to come to terms with climate change. Hoi polloi holler for our governments to do something, but the jingle-jingle of donations from PACs that serve corporate fat cats ring louder in the ears of U.S. congress people than the voices of those they presume to represent.

A disturbing article suggests that it may be too late to avoid the worst effects of climate change. Even if tomorrow we replaced every gas-burning vehicle with one that ran on electricity generated by 100% renewable sources, even if we shut down every coal and natural gas plant and got all our energy needs from solar panels and wind turbines and unicorn farts, even if we completely cut beef out of our diets, that rocket has launched. All we can do is delay the inevitable and prepare for the butt-kicking Nature is going to give us.

I still hold out a modest hope that we will avoid the worst effects of climate change; however, we must accept that bad times are ahead. Even if the worst-case scenario does not come to pass, we still face rising sea levels, droughts, crop failures, mass migrations, more wildfires and storms, possibly more pandemics as exhausted and hungry refugees become unwitting Typhoid Marys for emerging diseases. Nations and peoples may go to war over increasingly scarce resources, and these wars will be exceptionally bloody because people will be battling over the essentials of life. Fighting for a leader or ideology is one thing, but fighting so your family can eat is another entirely.

We must prepare for the worst, just as we lock our houses, don seatbelts, and put important documents in safe deposit boxes. The Internet abounds with advice about how to survive the collapse of civilization, not all of it good. Preppers are not necessarily as paranoid as you may think. We all need to do some serious thinking about what we will do when the feces hits the fan. Whom can you trust, where can you go? Will you try to hold out in your city or town, or “head for the hills”? What skills do you have that will be useful after everything crashes?

One thing you can do is build a Knowledge Ark, which I discussed in a previous essay. I have been trying to drum up interest in Knowledge Arks for years, but so far my seed has failed to find the good soil that will yield up tenfold and more; it all seems to land among the thorns. Maybe as people wake up to the fact that our society is in a truly precarious position, and that the collapses of civilization could all too easily go from science fiction to cold hard fact, they will develop more interest in saving what we can.

Climate change coupled with our feeble responses to it, the threat of global war, emerging diseases – our current world faces a number of existential threats. So, what can we do? Hope for the best while leaning on our governments to get off their duffs and take the necessary measures, which, as time goes by, become by necessity increasingly drastic. Prepare for the worst so, if civilization does come crashing down, we can survive and rebuild. Humans are as a whole tough critters, and tough times never last but tough people do.

SOUND OFF! 7/24/22 – The Consequences of Overturning Roe

Posted by Freya at 12:27 pm Politics

Jul 242022

When the compulsory-birth crowd howled in evil delight at the overturn of Roe v Wade, they thought that now abortion will magically disappear in the United States.

They did not think about the real consequences of the laws they demanded, not just banning abortion – sometimes even to save the life and health of the mother – but also allowing citizen bounty hunters to squeal on anybody suspected of traveling to a woman-friendly state to get an abortion.

They did not think about people suffering ectopic pregnancies, which are never viable, and can be fatal.

They did not think about people being denied essential medications for conditions such as arthritis and lupus because those drugs can induce abortion, even when those people are not pregnant.

They did not think about people who will now be forced to carry nonviable fetuses to the very end.

They did not think about families that will be devastated when Mommy is imprisoned. Do NOT get me started on the Prison-Industrial Complex!

They did not think about people who will, out of desperation, try to self-abort or seek out “back alley” practitioners. Many of them will die, or suffer terrible pain, or be rendered infertile.

They did not think about parents who will lose children, spouses who will lose partners, children who will lose parents.

They did not think about the increase in womb-bearers who are seeking sterilization.

They did not think about businesses that are now reluctant to relocate or expand, or even remain, in states with strong anti-abortion laws. Or the businesses that say they will help their employees travel to abortion-friendly states.

They did not think about states deciding to add reproductive rights to their constitutions.

They did not think about how powerful the backlash would be, not just here but around the world. More and more civilized nations now regard the United States as a rogue nation. Citizens and residents of other countries actually pity US residents. While reproductive rights have gone forward in many countries, even traditionally highly religious ones such as Ireland, they are sliding backwards here.

The forced-birth crusaders have extremely narrow tunnel vision, capable of seeing only the fetus and not the circumstances – or the person carrying it. They never think about what the babies they plan to “rescue” will need once born. They never think about what kind of world people will be bringing children into, whether those children will grow up enjoying rights and freedom or suffering oppression and fear. They never consider if those children will grow up in grinding poverty, constantly hungry, seldom if ever getting even basic medical attention, suffering abuse and/or neglect, perhaps hardly ever seeing Mommy except when she is exhausted from working three or more jobs just to make ends meet.

They never think about the reality of climate change and how it will affect us and our civilization. They never consider how droughts and changing weather patterns will lead to famine, refugee migrations, war, and possibly pandemics. Thought COVID-19 was bad? Some emerging diseases could be worse. People weakened by hunger + large groups moving hundreds and maybe thousands of kilometers = a golden opportunity for contagions to spread like juicy celebrity gossip.

Making sure that every conception sees the light of day is the sole concern of self-named pro-lifers. But once that happens, their work is done. They then turn their attention to the next batch of embryos, and the post-born and the entire planet be damned.

SOUND OFF! 7/14/22 What’s Wrong with SCOTUS?

Posted by Freya at 10:51 am Politics

Jul 142022

My apologies for not posting a Sound Off! in a while, but I have been on a cross-country road trip and attended a national convention. Between the two I had scant time to work on my essays.

What the actual f—- is wrong with the United States of America? More specifically, what the actual f—- is wrong with its Supreme Court?

Currently we have the worst Supreme Court ever. In a matter of days the (in)justices stripped women of the right to control their bodies, while hiding behind the stalking-horse of protecting human life; undid sensible gun safety regulation, in the name of kowtowing to the gun nuts; destroyed the vital wall of separation between church and state by allowing coach-led prayer at public schools and approving vouchers that will go to faith-based institutions; and effectively gutted the EPA. In other words, f—- women, f—- religious freedom, f—- the environment, and f—- anybody who happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time when some Froot Loop with a gun starts shooting.

Days after the SCOTUS’ string of disastrous decisions, a lunatic marred 4th of July celebrations in Highland, IL by firing on a crowd gathered for a parade, killing seven and wounding two dozen. One doctor described the victims as having “wartime injuries.” Sadly, few things are quite as all-American as a bloody mass shooting. There have been well over 300 in the United States so far in 2022, but of course only the deadliest, or those most shocking because of their location, make national news.

Our country was founded on some great ideas, such as freedom of religion, which includes keeping state and church separate. The Founding Fathers were all too aware of what happens when religion and politics get entangled together. One need but look at many Middle Eastern nations today, or at Europe before the Renaissance. Witch hunts, inquisitions, oppression of religious and ethnic minorities and women, obstructing scientific and ethical progress – all are characteristics of a theocracy. And even being of the “right” religion does not guarantee freedom from persecution if you are of the “wrong” sect. Sunni and Shi’ite Muslims duke it out continually, while Catholics and various Protestant sects have persecuted each other in the past. Even some Protestant denominations have harassed other Protestants.

Religion and politics make for a toxic mix. Now that public school staff are allowed to proselytize (Kennedy v Bremerton), and public money will go to Christian schools in Maine (Carson v Makin), you can bet your bottom dollar that more of the camel is going to slither into the tent. We didn’t act fast or vigorously enough when just the nose was in the tent, and now the entire head is within. And since the SCOTUS does not properly represent the religious make-up of the USA, it will continue to destroy everything that this country is supposed to represent and protect.

Overturning Roe v Wade made the anti-choice hordes howl in evil delight. What these narrow-minded chumps don’t realize – or care about – is that the anti-abortion laws they have demanded will do far more harm than good. It has opened up an enormous can of slimy, filthy worms. In Texas, a pregnant woman claimed that her fetus counted as a person so she could use the HOV lane. Already women are being arrested for suffering miscarriages. Also, what if a woman is suffering an ectopic pregnancy, which is not, repeat, NOT viable? If you think there is some magical way to transplant an ectopic embryo into a uterus and have it become a viable fetus, you probably think that the Moon is made of green cheese and tRump won the 2020 election by a landslide.

One excuse given for overturning Roe v Wade is that abortion isn’t explicitly protected in the U. S. Constitution. Wanna know something else that is not in the Constitution? The filibuster. According to that logic, we should abolish the filibuster. Then maybe Biden and the Democrats will be able to get something done and save the U.S. from certain doom.

Siding with polluting Big Business by declaring that federal environmental regulators cannot take the dramatic action necessary to reduce greenhouse gas emissions was unforgivable. This decision will make it impossible for this country to take the drastic steps necessary to curb the effects of climate change and protect the public from climate-related disasters. The six in-justices have now made it almost impossible for the US to meet Biden’s environmental goals. Big Coal and Big Oil have won, and the Little Guy and Gal have lost.

Instead of red, white and blue I wore black and green on the 4th, my subtle protest against the direction this country has taken. I worry about what will come next, if Democrats do not maintain their control of the House and win enough seats in the Senate so the Republican’ts lack the numbers necessary to filibuster any legislation they don’t like. The GOP no longer cares about this country and its residents, only party politics. Unfortunately, the same can be said of a lot of Democrats. The party of the left is full of DINOs who are elephants in donkey’s clothing, and Dumb-ocrats who lack spines and think that compromise always works. Anybody who believes that making nice-sounding agreements with The Enemy has never heard of Neville Chamberlain. In a previous essay, I pointed out that Democrats need to stop being marshmallows and start being tough cookies. Now more than ever they need to “grow a pair” collectively and individually.

We have one final chance to save our country, to stop the slide into religious fascism. We need to get out the Progressive vote this November. We need to do more than “vote blue no matter who” – we need to back Democrats who are fighters, who actually give a rat’s derriere about this country, who will listen to John and Jane Q. Public. Because if we can’t make real change at the ballot box – what follows will be ugly. Very ugly.

SOUND OFF! 6/25/22 – Goodbye Roe, Hello Trouble

Posted by Freya at 7:06 pm Politics

Jun 252022

So the Supreme Court has reversed Roe v Wade. They have turned the United States back into a crazy quilt of widely differing abortion and other reproductive laws. Anti-choice bums can dance and jump and guzzle champagne all they like. Guess who else was cheering: Organized crime bosses, rubbing their paws as they contemplate the back-alley “clinics” they will open or coerce into supporting the Mob.

Fortunately, there is plenty of good news. Many local and state governments began taking steps to safeguard reproductive freedom as soon as the Roe leak became national news. California lawmakers have passed legislation that protects abortion providers and patients from civil actions coming from states hostile to reproductive rights. Colorado, which has long protected abortion rights, is preparing for a tsunami of patients from other states. Numerous companies have pledged to help their employees travel to where they can get abortions. Cities have passed resolutions protecting reproductive rights, and many state DAs have declared that they will not enforce trigger laws or pre-Roe laws.

This will lead to tension with states such as Oklahoma and Texas that want to prevent people from getting abortions – by any means possible. Citizen bounty hunters hoping to collect their thirty pieces of silver will be lurking on highways and byways, and examining social media for clues to who is seeking an abortion. Defenders of reproductive rights will need to take many precautions against spying, as an innocent message that has nothing to do with abortion could easily be misinterpreted. And since we are such a heavily armed country, there almost certainly will be bloodshed. Anti-choice crusaders have proven time and again that they will use violence to further their evil ends.

If anti-choice advocates are hoping for an abortion-free America, dream on. All you have done is halt legal abortions, and only in certain states. Illegal back-alley abortions will still occur. Desperate women will resort to knitting needles and “accidental” falls. Also, what about the pills for medical abortions, easily available by mail – and almost certainly easy to smuggle? Human ingenuity found plenty of loopholes in Prohibition, and ingenuity – along with determination and desperation – will help people wiggle through or past any anti-choice laws.

This is not the end of the battle over U.S. wombs – this is only Pearl Harbor. The reversal of Roe v Wade has spurred abortion rights advocates to take to the streets and raise hell, to pester their elected officials, to support organizations like Planned Parenthood, to pledge action in defense of reproductive rights. We need to demand laws that protect reproductive freedom, and vote in candidates who will heed the voice of the people rather than a small and narrow-minded minority.

At the end of the movie Tora Tora Tora, Admiral Yamamoto says “I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.” There is no hard evidence he actually said this, but the quote is germane to the defenders of reproductive choice. A comfortable majority of US residents wanted Roe v Wade to stay, and that majority is now mad as hell. And that majority votes! We can make sure that “right-to-life’s” victory is Pyrrhic in the extreme.

Time once again to cause Good Trouble.

SOUND OFF! 6/19/22 – Roe v Everything

Posted by Freya at 4:35 pm Politics

Jun 192022

The possibility of Roe v Wade being overturned has made millions uneasy. People who can get pregnant are fearful that they will be denied access to not just abortion, but also birth control and even vital information about reproduction. Those who provide reproductive care are justifiably concerned about violence and persecution from anti-abortion militants. Non-binary people are nervous, too, since an abortion ban will be the first domino that topples all reproductive and sexual freedom.

One method anti-abortion crusaders use to find victims is spying on location data, web searches, and apps such as menstruation trackers to decide if someone is seeking to terminate a pregnancy. Any web search on the subject on pregnancy could easily be construed as a quest for an abortion. Having the law on their side will greatly increase the danger since they will have access to more and better resources. If you live in Oklahoma and plan to visit friends or family in Colorado, somebody could think that your itinerary includes a visit to an “abortuary” and squeal to law enforcement in hopes of collecting thirty pieces of silver.

Spying on everybody’s internet and cell phone activity will seriously affect access to medical abortions. How difficult would it be to read phone or Internet records to sniff out people who are ordering pills that induce miscarriage? Search engines, such as DuckDuckGo, that claim to be private and secure are not as confidential as most people believe they are.

This is not just the camel’s nose in the tent, this the camel’s entire head. Anti-choice activists are willing to sacrifice everybody’s precious privacy just to destroy reproductive freedom. On top of that, the right-wing (un)holy war against human and civil rights isn’t going to stop with abortion. They aim to ban birth control, same-sex marriage, and more. They aim to reduce women to the status of brood cows and force LGBTQ people back into the closet. They aim to ram their cruel, narrow-minded, perverted morality down everybody’s throat. I would not put it past them to gut statutes that ban racism, sexism, and even discrimination against pregnant people – to say nothing about further voter suppression.

Legislation against abortion hurts the poor and people of color the most. People of means, and who have the right connections, can take a few days off and travel to a city, state or even foreign country where they can get abortions. Many marginalized people can barely make ends meet, living paycheck to paycheck, constantly finding month left over at the end of the money. Without paid leave, they cannot afford to take off a few days, and they probably can’t afford the travel in the first place. As a result, many will try to self-abort with knitting needles or “accidental” falls down stairs.

Any wonder there was such a ferocious backlash following the Supreme Court leak? Any wonder why people have been marching by the thousands and tens of thousands? Hundreds, if not thousands, of petitions have circulated demanding that local and state governments protect reproductive rights. Some cities have declared that they will become sanctuary cities for those who seek abortions. Many district attorneys have declared that they will not enforce anti-choice laws. More actions are to come.

Unfortunately, within the last couple months a terrorist group called Jane’s Revenge has reared its ugly head, spray-painting threatening messages and setting fire to a crisis pregnancy “clinic.” Right-wing media have been big on reporting these actions, while mainstream and left-leaning media have been mostly silent. The reproductive rights community needs to distance themselves from these bugnuts; if they are our own, we need to expose them and turn them in.

On the other hand, is Jane’s Revenge really a few left-wing loose cannons, or actually a false flag operation? Anti-choice activists have accused their opponents of bombing or torching their own clinics. Do you think they wouldn’t attack their own properties in order to make themselves look like the ones who are being oppressed? It is possible – and I would not be surprised – if the Jane’s Revenge attacks are actually the work of anti-choice activists. Even so, reproductive rights people need to make it clear that such behavior is not acceptable in our ranks. I’m sure many of us have been tempted to do something violent and stupid, but we must never allow the anti-choice bums to drag us down to their rotten level.

We need to fight back with all our might and effort against this vile crusade to destroy reproductive rights. We cannot afford to lose this fight. But we must do so with means that are peaceful, harmless, and, for the most part, legal. We need to make good trouble, not bad trouble.

SOUND OFF! 6/4/22 – The Old Boy Network

Posted by Freya at 6:18 pm Politics

Jun 042022

Two issues have occupied much of the media lately: guns and abortion, two very touchy topics. The leaked SCOTUS decision that could gut Roe v Wade and the recent spate of mass shootings have inspired numerous headlines, opinion pieces and editorial cartoons.

The recent surges in mass shootings and attacks on reproductive rights could be among the last hurrahs of the Old Boy Network, the white, straight, wealthy, fundamentalist Protestant patriarchy that has controlled this country from Day One. The framers of the Constitution originally intended for voting rights – hell, most civil rights – to be strictly for white men who owned land. Women, people of color, and those who didn’t own land need not apply. It took a bloody civil war to end the evil of slavery, and decades of hell-raising after that to give nonwhites nominal legal equality. Women could not vote in this country till the 19th Amendment passed in 1920, and we are STILL fighting to pass the ERA, though we may be on the threshold of success.

Over the last many years we have seen the rise of “men’s rights” groups and the Incels, as well as organizations such as the Proud Boys. The anti-abortion movement has succeeded in getting harsh laws passed to strip women of reproductive choices, though courts have struck down a lot of them. Many of these extremists are anti-government (while they want everybody’s intimate lives to be strictly regulated) and strongly for more access to guns – in a country where there are 12 guns for every 10 residents. Pro-gun and anti-abortion go together hand in hand because both represent male dominance over women. Of course, not everybody is either pro-gun and anti-choice or vice versa; one can be pro-gun and pro-choice, or against both. However, many gun advocates are anti-choice, and many abortion foes lean strongly right on many other issues.

The “great replacement theory” that wound up front and center after the Buffalo massacre is typical of the vile bilge that extreme right-wingers like to spew. They fear that white people are being replaced by non-whites, which is why they feel a need to kill POCs. Why? The times, they are a-changin’. Out with the old, in with the new. That is how life always has been. All change inspires opposition and protest, all change is painful. But change and grow as a society we must.

In my essay about the Buffalo shooting I touched on the fears of the Straight White Rich Male establishment losing its grip. Extending such rights as voting, marriage, and equality before the law is not a zero-sum game. When people who are different from you gain civil and human rights, your own rights are not lessened; in fact, everybody wins.

SOUND OFF! 5/29/22 – Not Again!

Posted by Freya at 8:36 am Politics

May 292022

Recently I wrote an essay about gun violence in response to the bloodbath in Buffalo. Then, less than two weeks later, an even deadlier massacre took place, in Uvalde, TX. Both senseless massacres have aroused nationwide sorrow and rage, as well as demands for better gun laws.

In the wake of the University of Texas tower shooting, President Lyndon Johnson called for gun regulation and signed the Gun Control Act of 1968. In the 56 years since the tower massacre, the US has passed hardly any gun restrictions; most of these, such as a ban on assault rifles, have later been lifted.

You may have heard the saying that for every thousand people hacking at the branches of evil, you’re lucky to find even one hacking at the roots. We really need to go after the roots of gun violence. One is our infatuation with guns, tied to our wild-west cowboy culture. We give kids toy guns and encourage them to have make-believe shootouts. We glorify guns in our movies, comic books, TV shows, even pop music. Our leaders and media preach the gospel of the Almighty Gun.

Another root is white supremacy, intertwined with toxic masculinity. Many of those who carried out the bloodiest mass shootings acted out of hate – the Orlando bloodbath took place at an LGBTQ club, the multiple shootings in Atlanta in March of 2021 targeted mostly Asian-Americans, the El Paso Walmart killer went after Hispanics. The horror in Buffalo brought white supremacist “replacement” paranoia front and center; this idiotic theory needs an essay of its own.

We need to demystify guns, knock them off their gore-soaked altar and respect them for what they are. The Swiss do not have mass shootings the way we do because they respect guns. Having a rifle for sport or a handgun for personal protection is one thing, but there is no reason for a private citizen to own a military weapon.

Typical pro-gun arguments include “Guns don’t kill people, people kill people.” True, but guns make it a lot easier to kill, and to slaughter people wholesale. Can you imagine the Las Vegas shooter assaulting the crowd with a bow and arrow? Or the Parkland killer hacking his way through the school with a steak knife? Or the Tree of Life Synagogue attacker going after his victims with an axe?

Another is “Gun laws don’t stop gun violence.” We have laws against murder and homicide, but people still kill. We have laws against theft, but people still steal. We have laws against drunk driving, but people still get behind the wheel when they are half seas over. Et cetera.

We need to stand up to the vicious, powerful bullies in the gun lobby. We need to pass common-sense gun laws in this country, such as background checks, banning private ownership of assault rifles, red-flag laws, and the like. They won’t stop every evildoer, but they will definitely reduce the carnage. This is why we need to get our behinds to the polls and vote for candidates who will listen to us, the voters who are fed up with gun violence.

We must never give in to “learned helplessness,” which is what the conservatives want us to do. The suffragettes never gave up, which is why women in the US and UK – and elsewhere – can vote. The civil-rights activists never gave up, which is why people of color can drink from the same water fountains as whites and sit anywhere they like on a bus. The abolitionists never gave up, which is why slavery is no longer legal.

To all the right-wingers and the mouthpieces of the firearms industry: You can take your empty, insincere thoughts and prayers and shove ’em.

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