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Topics: Commentary, Diversity, Education, Existentialism, Politics
Finals are scheduled next week, so this will be my second announced break before my final year-end break during Christmas-Hanuka-Holidays-Kwanzaa-Saturnalia et al, etc. A few thoughts in alphabetical order:
Alabama
Birmingham had the euphemism "Bombing-ham" during the spate of 50 dynamite attacks of domestic terrorism that eventually killed 4 black girls at the 16th Street Baptist Church in 1963. It is no causal observation in this special election power, pedophilia and white supremacy seem the only family values that apparently matter. It also shows the Klan who performed this terrorist act are more revered than the lawyer who held them accountable. I gave $25 to the guy our racist Twitter-in-chief said was "weak" on crime. We'll either find out if the state of "thicket-clearers" is either a sane political actor, or a morally failed one.
When you re-tweet a right-wing racist Britain group that BRITAIN says is right wing and racist - on the heels of calling tiki torch carrying, small penis Neo-Nazis in Charlottesville "fine people," you don't get to call yourself "the least racist person you'll ever know." The manufacturer of the torches got this right. Britain is considering charging him for inciting violence - this is tribalism on racist steroids. Government-of-the-tweet-by-the-tweet has international implications. I just didn't think it would be the fuse that lights Armageddon.
Graduate education
Proto the apocalypse, the first semester was rigorous. There is nothing that quite prepares you for it - undergraduate preparation either months or decades ago. I equated it to "drinking from a fire hose" this summer, and that analogy didn't let up once. You really can't do it alone. You have to form friendships across cultures, ages and literally time zones. I downloaded the book "How to Study" to my Kindle just to have it. It is something I found invaluable when I was an undergraduate, and I found the skills are just how - once I read the analog version 25 editions ago - I take and organize notes. I think it should be a precollege course, but a few of our fellow citizens don't value education in this country. I recommended it to some that liked my class notes. Instead of Xeroxing and producing PDFs for days, I thought it better to teach trawling than feeding small multitudes with loaves and fishes.
#MeToo
This has the budding signs of a movement beyond a hash tag, which seems to be the means any movement starts now in the Social Media age. Icons of entertainment, news and government are either stepping down or getting pressured to step down. It's causing men to introspect, and think over times we've been far too aggressive on past dates. It's triggering survivors of sexual assault, whether at sixteen, adult or our past five-years-old selves (like me). For this to be a pivotal societal change, it has to go from #MeToo to #WhatNow? A generation from now should look better than the patriarchal darkness we've endured so long. Frederick Douglass said "Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.” Prior to 2008, the federal republic could only be occupied by white male "father figures" and ONLY white male father figures. Trolling in the Internet age became a thing as many expressed their bigotry (eventually, their misogyny) in the previous 140-character limit of lunacy. For those insecure with their future and envisioning dystopian annihilation, last year's election was less a repudiation by Russian interference as it was a backlash, racially and sexually. #WhyNot matriarchy? God knows testosterone has screwed the species long enough (pun intended). Emily's List is calling...
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