and they all moved away from me on the bench there

I just listened to "Alice's Restaurant" on WFUV radio, at noon. Sprinkled a few lyrics on Facebook, had a good chat with others listening and reminiscing.

It holds up. That spirit of government paying too much attention to the smaller things (not that litterin' is inconsequential) and ignoring the madness of having to prove yourself unworthy to do the mean, nasty, ugly things -- 

This year, a minority of Americans voted for the mean, nasty, ugly thing. Regardless of the numbers, that mean, nasty, ugly thing is going to take office in January. That subversive massacree spirit has to rise in us, the majority, to make things right, somehow.

things that are not all right, part 2:

• appointing a person to lead education who is not an educator and wants basic education blown up
• appointing a Nazi-supporting, white supremacist-supporting, antisemitic-supporting person to your Cabinet
• using inane terms like "alt-right" instead of "Nazi-supporting, white supremacist-supporting, antisemitic-supporting"  (I'm looking at you, media people)

In fact - 

Remember newsgroups, back in the early days of the internet's social media? They had names like "alt- " -- 

These people are not alt- anything. They are haters, and they need to be called out. 

Is there hope?

#thisisnotnormal

#resistance

on Mr. Pence being booed at a production of "Hamilton"

"Harassed"? He was not harassed. He was booed, and he heard a heartfelt speech from Brandon Victor Dixon, who plays Aaron Burr.

But let's make this clear.

Booing is not banned by the constitution. In fact, you can be downright sassy and still be covered by the First Amendment, which - by the way - only covers freedom to speak without being harassed By.The.Government - which, one could say, Trump represents.

Mr. Trump also tweeted that "the theater must always be a safe and special place."

No, you're thinking of a child's crib, or - one could say - one's country.

By the way -- art is supposed to be subversive. Get used to it, Mr. President-Elect. 


(tweet reproduced for future viewers of this little blog, in a time far far away when they can't for the life of them figure out how this all happened)

 Follow

Donald J. Trump 

✔@realDonaldTrump

Our wonderful future V.P. Mike Pence was harassed last night at the theater by the cast of Hamilton, cameras blazing.This should not happen!

8:48 AM - 19 Nov 2016

a few thoughts on privilege v. entitlement

A lot is being made lately about privilege - white privilege, middle-class privilege, all kinds of privilege. A few of my friends and I took one of those Facebook quizzes a couple of days ago, this one designed to assign a number to your privilege. 

On a scale of 1 - 100, I got 33. Some of the questions were ridiculous. Did you go to summer camp? Well, yes, I went to day camp, but not because of privilege, but because both my parents worked and you can't leave a 6-year-old home alone all day. Education level - well yes, I have a M.S., but I paid for it by working through school, between school, and for 7 years afterwards. 

I'd been thinking about privilege since a very good friend listened to a story I'd told about wading into a huge high-school brawl in the library's parking lot when I was in my forties. She said I could get away with it because I had white privilege going for me. I said no, what I thought at the time - and now - is that I had tiny woman privilege: the brawlers wouldn't hurt a little person like me. My goal was to keep the kids from getting hurt -  not because I was the authority figure, but because I didn't want children to get hurt.

We agreed to disagree on that one, but it still has me wondering and extrapolating. Take Ivanka Trump, for example. When her father met with the emissary from Japan the other day, she sat in on the meeting -- I assume because it would never have occurred to someone so privileged that she wasn't entitled to. 

And there we have the dividing point between what one has by accident (for example, skin color) and what we assume is ours. I am beginning to think that the accusation of "privilege" needs to be tempered by what one has done with it. Have you taken a certain leeway that an accident of birth gave you and used it to take what you might not have earned, or expect to get whatever you want? 

Entitlement is poisonous. Privilege can be a tool. This thought needs some work, but I am intrigued. Thoughts?

it is not all right

things that are not all right 
(a work in progress, or, perhaps, observations on those who would now work against progress):

• any discussion of internment camps
• any discussion of registration for The Other, whomever The Other may be
• consideration of one's who-the-hell-is-he son-in-law for top security clearance 
• using one's own circle of friends to substitute Truthiness for TRUTH
• the electoral college in the 21st century
• making the children of recent immigrants feel lesser than ... anyone
• threatening to imprison people who believe as strongly in the First Amendment as you do about the Second
• calling lawful, peaceful demonstrations "economic terrorism"
• lying lying lying lying
• pretending that "Judeo-Christian" values inform your decision to refuse rights, services, respect, tolerance, and full citizenship to anyone, This is a secular country, dammit. 

For today, just the list. Tea Leaves has been silent long enough. 

 

#resistance