"When a man is denied the right to live the life he believes in, he has no choice but to become an outlaw."
- Nelson Mandela
Yesterday marked one year since the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. A gunman walked into a school and killed nineteen children and two adults in the deadliest shooting ever at a Texas public school. It made me think about the priorities in the United States. As far as I know, lawmakers have not passed a single law to try and curb access to the weapons used in these shootings. Though Vermont might with several bills currently moving through the legislature, that is if our Republican governor doesn’t veto them. Even if Vermont does the sensible thing, lawmakers in several states have passed, laws to curb the rights of LGBTQ+ people, and the MAGAts are harassing employees at stores like Target for selling Pride merchandise during the month of June, and it's not even June yet.
We must ask ourselves why some politicians are not afraid of a mass shooting incident in our schools, yet non-white and LGBTQ+ seem to scare them to death. Where are their priorities? Instead of having sensible gun laws like all other developed nations, which have significantly fewer mass shootings, they focus their fear on taking away rights and trying to shame "woke" individuals. They fear teachers mentioning anything LGBTQ+ related in the classroom. These right-wing legislatures are defunding diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs because the thought of DEI policies scares them to death. They've banned drag queens from having Drag Queen Story Hour in public libraries or even performing in public. The greatest danger for these politicians is not worrying about students getting killed in their classrooms but that some may be transgender. They deny these kids healthcare because they don't conform to these bigots' ideas of heterosexual, Christian, and white racial superiority. They are scared to death that they will lose even the smallest amount of power and control over people.
When Nelson Mandela said, "When a man is denied the right to live the life he believes in, he has no choice but to become an outlaw," he was talking about apartheid in South Africa. But if a person is denied the right to dress in a way that doesn't conform to "MAGA values" or even acknowledge diversity, they are making large sections of the LGBTQ+ population outlaws. Sadly, with the current ultra-conservative majority on the U.S. Supreme Court, any lawsuits against these laws will probably stand, even if they violate the First Amendment, the most fundamental principle of freedom in the United States.
Let’s face it, if you are more afraid of what this might do to a kid in a library…
…then you are monumentally fucking stupid.
Photo : Stanley Weber ? it is a french actor .
ReplyDeleteYes, I believe that is Stanley Weber. He's a very handsome man.
ReplyDeleteAs a Canadian from Montreal, (you know me) all what is going on in USA is very outrageous not to say very scary.
ReplyDeleteThe cult of guns and money is overcoming the teachings of Chrisitian values and with the GOP race with Trump/Desantis isn't getting those issues in a good direction.
No politicians are perfect but seems that some are putting USA in a bad mood more toward hate than anything.
Changing things to the best for all Americans is now almost impossible with the far right in office and with your vrey old Constitution that is no more adapted to the 21st century.
Uvalde is just the tip of the iceberg of what is going wrong in USA.
Our Canadian government did put an advice of trips to USA as for many other countries saying to be careful when going in USA which is become, since many years, a dangerous place to go as so many weapons are in circulation in all states.
USA is a sick country that seems not to be able to adapt to the social evoution into the 21st century.
As a post on Facebook put it "I'm more freaked out by kiddie pageants than by drag queens."
ReplyDeleteMe too, naturgesetz!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Joe, for a well written post that reflects my own opinions about the current political and cultural state of our country. It's embarrassing to think that we have become such a disgraceful nation in the eyes of the world, and yet our leaders take hypocritical pleasure in denouncing the actions of others. Just another symptom of denial and a sick social system.
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