This morning, I woke under a blood red sky. Not literally of course, the heavy overcast that has clamped down over Wisconsin this past week has been too thick to really get sunrises, but the week long visit from March has been welcome nonetheless. The blood red sky that greeted me today was brought about by the atmosphere of oppression that has come across my country. The three million people who were disenfranchised by the Electoral College are just the threshold of the House and Senate of oppression that is being built in Washington, the Administration of oppression that is being assembled to exact punishment on our children, our elders, the infirm, and those precariously perched on the edge of making it.
The millions who have been thrown into prison for life over the "three strikes, you're out" clause that was signed into law by Bill Clinton were easily denied the American dream simply because of their color. They were in one of the most obvious groups that did/does not matter to the oppressors. Pay no attention to the fact that their cities are being stolen right out from under their families, never mind the fact that the majority of ecological poisoning takes place in the cities they cannot afford to leave and you begin to see the spectre of environmental racism just a bit more clearly.
The teachers have been under attack since Ronnie Reagan and many actually believe that they are in the wrong, over paid, have all summer off and other lies that are expedient for those willing to reduce their formerly respectable jobs to the level of waitstaff or farm worker. It has long been known that teachers were on the front lines in what could be described as the caring arts, but that was easily turned against them in a world that worships money. Painting them as ignorant, idealistic lazy and the like were easy once we were convinced that they were, at least, rubes. When our nation was doing the best, teachers were respected and their work was considered honorable. By the mid 1980's, that had been turned around completely. The great undermining of one of the most important disciplines in the world had begun.
They say, "Red in the morning, sailor's warning" and this is the sky that I expect to see every morning, from now on.
The millions who have been thrown into prison for life over the "three strikes, you're out" clause that was signed into law by Bill Clinton were easily denied the American dream simply because of their color. They were in one of the most obvious groups that did/does not matter to the oppressors. Pay no attention to the fact that their cities are being stolen right out from under their families, never mind the fact that the majority of ecological poisoning takes place in the cities they cannot afford to leave and you begin to see the spectre of environmental racism just a bit more clearly.
The teachers have been under attack since Ronnie Reagan and many actually believe that they are in the wrong, over paid, have all summer off and other lies that are expedient for those willing to reduce their formerly respectable jobs to the level of waitstaff or farm worker. It has long been known that teachers were on the front lines in what could be described as the caring arts, but that was easily turned against them in a world that worships money. Painting them as ignorant, idealistic lazy and the like were easy once we were convinced that they were, at least, rubes. When our nation was doing the best, teachers were respected and their work was considered honorable. By the mid 1980's, that had been turned around completely. The great undermining of one of the most important disciplines in the world had begun.
They say, "Red in the morning, sailor's warning" and this is the sky that I expect to see every morning, from now on.
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