A reader who signs as “Wait, What” left the following comment:
Dear Florida Woke Police:
You must ban these documents and prominent figures’ quotes from our schools’ textbooks and bookshelves immediately! They are clear examples of content woke schools teaching of “systemic injustices in our society”
Abraham Lincoln
“There is no greater injustice than to wring your profits from the sweat of another man’s brow.” –
George W. Bush
“Laura and I are anguished by the brutal suffocation of George Floyd and disturbed by the injustice and fear that suffocate our country.
We have often underestimated how radical that quest really is, and how our cherished principles challenge systems of intended or assumed injustice.” –
P.L. 94-142
“more than half of the handicapped children in the United
States do not receive appropriate educational services which
would enable them to have full equality of opportunity”
National Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage
They stated that the interests of women and men were generally the same, and that women were not “suffering from any injustice” that having the vote would change. They also believed that women and men had different duties in the government, as they did in the home, and that the woman suffrage movement was a “backward step in the progress of civilization.”
Attorney General Eric Holder – 2009 on The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr., Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009
It also creates a new federal criminal law which criminalizes willfully causing bodily injury (or attempting to do so with fire, firearm, or other dangerous weapon) when:
(1) the crime was committed because of the actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin of any person or (2) the crime was committed because of the actual or perceived religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability of any person and the crime affected interstate or foreign commerce or occurred within federal special maritime and territorial jurisdiction.
Abraham Lincoln, speech on Repeal of the Missouri Compromise, 1854
This declared indifference, but as I must think, covert real zeal for the spread of slavery, I can not but hate. I hate it because of the monstrous injustice of slavery itself.*
And, the granddaddy of them all..
“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice…”
*Continuation of Lincoln’s statement on Missouri Compromise – HA! TAKE THAT GOP – ah, the foreshadowing of the last phrase about “self-interest”
“…I hate it because it deprives our republican example of its just influence in the world — enables the enemies of free institutions, with plausibility, to taunt us as hypocrites — causes the real friends of freedom to doubt our sincerity, and especially because it forces so many really good men amongst ourselves into an open war with the very fundamental principles of civil liberty — criticizing the Declaration of Independence, and insisting that there is no right principle of action but self-interest.”
You must leave now,
take what you need,
you think will last
But whatever you wish to keep,
you better grab it fast
Yonder stands your orphan
with his gun
Crying like a fire
in the sun
Look out the saints
are comin’ through
And it’s all over now,
Baby Blue
The highway is for gamblers,
better use your sense
Take what you have
gathered from coincidence
The empty-handed painter
from your streets
Is drawing crazy patterns
on your sheets
The sky, too, is
folding under you
And it’s all over now,
Baby Blue
All your seasick sailors,
they are rowing home
Your empty-handed armies
are going home
Your lover who just
walked out the door
Has taken all his
blankets from the floor
The carpet, too,
is moving under you
And it’s all over now,
Baby Blue
Leave your stepping
stones behind,
there something a-calls
for you
Forget the dead you’ve left,
they will not follow you
The vagabond who’s rapping
at your door
Is standing in the clothes
that you once wore
Strike another match,
go start anew
And it’s all over now,
Baby Blue
That’s utterly haunting. Did you write it? I really like it.
D77, Bob Dylan release 1965,
It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue…
Thanks!
I great tune . I have heard it covered by a lot of folks. Perhaps my favorite is a traditional bluegrass group back in the 80s
Dear Ms. Ravitch, THANK YOU for calling out David Brooks for hisinsupportable attack on teacher’s unions on PBS. As a retired National Board Certified teacher in earlyand middle childhood music, I am most disappointedby Brooks’ dismissal of those who toil in thebargaining units so teachers can devote 8 to12-hourdays to the needs of individual students. Is this yet another broad, national-level swipe at publicschools? Just asking. . . I have read much of Mr. Brooks’ writing about personaldevelopment and character and community, and wassurprised and saddened by his comments. We are all learners. I’m counting on Mr. Brooks to be one, too. Thank you for all you do. All best for 2023,
Kathleen Kathleen Baker3 S. Bradford St., Dover DE 19904703/403-6882
The theofascist movement in the Republican Party to control how we live, how we worship, and what we can sayin public is a clear and present threat to our way of life.
If Elon Musk, apparently another theofascist lunatic, has his way with his Nueralink, we’ll all end up with chips in our brains to monitor our thinking, too.
Twitter isn’t controlled by radical leftist censoring bullies anymore. Thank you Elon.🇺🇸
Dear People in the Left-Wing Bubble:
Here is a good definition of the term “woke”, a term that was once innocuous but has now changed its connotation, as language often does over the years, e.g. the word “gay.”
“Umbrella term for individuals who are engrossed by social justice and think of themselves as saviors with a moral high ground, but who remain willfully ignorant to the irrationality of their claims and the problems they create. These individuals give special treatment to certain minorities in hopes of ending racism and perpetuate mental illnesses as the norm.
Example: My son’s woke kindergarten teacher taught him that he’s actually a girl because he played with dolls.”
Thank you so much for posting that definition and especially the example, which certainly looks just like it comes from the same fictitious source!
Does it not seem that one who would accuse others of “think(ing) of themselves as saviors with a moral high ground” may have some problems with looking down upon people who don’t think like them? Is being “willfully ignorant to the irrationality of their claims and the problems they create” (emphasis added because we now know the sources of all problems, praise be!) inclusive of perpetuating easily disprovable lies? Or is that irrational? And giving special treatment! Yes, now if you would fill out your forms, I’m sure you’ll qualify once you can write all the rules.
Please come back! Very entertaining! Now go back to sleep and rest up for next time.
You and most other commenters here are perfect examples of the always sanctimonious, holier-than-thou mindset that infects the woke Left and the fundamentalist religious Right. Everyone who disagrees from the party line is evil, i.e. the bubble mentality.
I think you got that wrong, Ms. Baloney. You consider anyone who disagrees with you as evil. By definition, that makes you anti-democratic, because who compromises with evil and, as we should know, democracy requires compromise in order to work.
But to function one needs verifiable facts, a respect and understanding of the scientific method, and an understanding of the evolving nature of American government to be more inclusive of all of it citizens. Everyone one of those principles make people like me more hated by people like you. You do not want democracy based on evidence and compromise. You want an authoritarian system that puts people in their respective places and keeps them there. Just admit it.
All the violence or threats of it, indecency, irrationalism, lying, and threat to democratic governing is coming from you. The enemy stands to the Right!
Thank you, Greg.
I think that you meant “ignorant of” or “ignorant about” rather than “ignorant to.”
“Ignorant to” is used in statements like “Your post about wokeness sounds ignorant to me.”
I’m of a mind that the ko-rect spellin is ignant. I may be mistook bout it.
I don’t follow her reasoning, but I guess that I live in the left-wing bubble in which its crazy to inject disinfectant or take horse tranquilizer, we shouldn’t send astronauts to the sun, there is no conspiracy among teachers to teach white kids to hate themselves and kids to become transgender, no Jewish billionaires are funding space lasers, water is H20, the former president defrauded a children’s charity and created a fake university, people have equal rights under the law–all that crazy stuff.
That bubble sure is full of it!
That post seems to have been reposted on a MAGA site. Sad to see them writhe as their hateful world crumbles.
But I have to agree that Diane’s blog is a cesspool of people who know things and can think.
More importantly, this cesspool of pluralism is filled with people who know the more they learn, the less they know and they’ll never learn it all. For some reason, most people around here want to know about new things because they enrich our lives and outlooks. As I look back, I don’t think I was ever more brilliant than when I had very little life experience! The certainty of ignorance is comforting to reactionaries and fascists.
Well observed, Greg!
In Florida U.S. District Judge Mark Walker issued an injunction against DeSantis’ Stop W.O.K.E. Act. Instructors at six different universities filed the lawsuit on the basis that it violates the free speech rights of the academics.
According to the state of Florida “university professors have no First Amendment interests whatsoever in their classroom. The legislature, not the university, may control this speech entirely.” This statement reveals the anti-democratic views of the Florida State Legislature. The instructors are maintaining that class discussions are part of curricula, and the “pursuit of knowledge through free expression have long been protected by the First Amendment. Freedoms do not exist based on the whims of the legislature.”
Retired Teacher,
You might be interested in the article from The Chronicle of Higher Education about these issues: https://www.chronicle.com/article/its-not-clear-whether-public-college-professors-have-first-amendment-rights-when-theyre-teaching
Opposite of Woke—Ostritch—placing your head in the sand to avoid learning about something you disagree with.
Yes. Exactly.
Unwoke = refusing to be indoctrinated by leftist radical recycled hippies/feminazis and black power advocates.
You really had to take a deep breath when you wrote “advocates”, didn’t you? Go ahead and say what you wanna say, you know, the same things you say when you’re with your fellow bigots.
But I’ll give you credit, the “refusing to be indoctrinated” part had me laughing like I haven’t in quite some time.
Well, it’s pretty clear, up front, whom you fear, Harry. Environmentalists, women, and black people. And people in tie-dye shirts. LMAO. Got it.
The right wing in the United States is past being bothered by the facts that the Constitution and people like Lincoln don’t agree with it. The right is quite willing to jettison all the talk about being a democratic state. This is clear from things like a) Trump’s “truthing” that the Constitution should be terminated and he should be reinstated, b) 147 Republican Representatives and Senators voting not to certify the election results AFTER the attack on the Capitol, c) the wife of a Supreme Court Justice joining in the insurrectionist activity before January 6th and that “justice’s” refusal to recuse himself from related cases, d) the head of the Texas Republican Party calling for the state to secede from the Union, e) numerous Republican state and federal officials colluding on the fake electors scheme, f) the refusal to impeach Trump even after he committed clearly treasonous acts, and so on.
These people are Fascists. They might occasionally want to appropriate the language and iconography for American democracy, but they don’t believe in it. Quite the opposite. They are actively working to end it.
cx: the language and iconography of American democracy
All this is, of course, treasonous, and it’s totally bizarre that people who speak and act upon such treason should consider themselves patriots. Working to overthrow the government and its legal structures is not patriotism. It is treason.
The leftist wackos are the real fascists.
It isn’t progressives who want to send troops, in violation of the Posse Comitatus Act, to stop peaceful protesting. It isn’t progressives who want to send Thought Police into our schools and libraries. It isn’t progressives who called on the Border Patrol to SHOOT innocent asylum seekers at our borders or who separated parents from their children, some of whom were BABIES. It isn’t progressives who sent an armed mob to attack the Capitol–a mob that erected a gallows and chanted “Hang Mike Pence.” It isn’t progressives who sent armed “citizens militia” to the Michigan state Capitol or who conspired to kidnap the Michigan governor. It isn’t progressives creating legislation in states all over the country that makes it harder for people to vote and basically disenfranchises poor people and people of color. It isn’t progressives who are siding with the Fascists all around the world–with Putin and Modi and Duterte and Bolsonaro and Trump’s boyfriend Kim Jong-un. Shall I go on, Harry?
Note to Harry from Diane: if you have anything constructive to say, I will post it. I won’t post your endless stream of insults.
The fascists are the real fascists: the ones who stormed the US Capitol on January 6 and tried to overturn the government and the Constitution. The ones who marched in Charlottesville and chanted “The Jews will not replace us.” The ones who wear Nazi paraphernalia and give Sig Heil salutes. The ones who fight for their “right” to buy and carry military assault weapons. The ones who join militias to terrorize people of color and gays. The ones who go to Black churches or Black supermarkets to kill Black peoples.
If it looks like a fascist, talks like a fascist, and acts like a fascist, it’s a fascist.
No, they are not lefties. They are bitter rightwing losers.
Harry,
Don’t waste your time here. If being woke means that you believe in equal Justice before the law for all Americans, I am woke and proud of it. If it means I care about justice, I am woke and proud of it. You can’t change that.
Storming the capital was bad Diane, but so weren’t all those riots and lootings in 2020, the so called “summer of love”, 🥴. You conveniently left that out. How did all that police defunding work out? Skyrocketing crime rates.🔥
Harry, where were the police defunded? Not in New York City.
Rioting and looting are bad, bad, bad, but I don’t think they are in the same category as trying to overthrow the government, attacking Capitol Police, and violently storming the nation’s Capitol, with the intent of murdering federal officials. If you disagree, we live in different realities. Looting is a crime. Rioting may or may not be a crime, depending on whether there is property damage. Attempting to overthrow the government and the Constitution is insurrection and treason. People who do that deserve long prison sentences.
Diane. I totally agree on storming the capital. It’s unacceptable, no matter which side is guilty of it. Unfortunately, after the 2024 election, the losing side might pull that stunt again. At least expect more unrest throughout the nation. I can see the USA breaking up into separate sovereign forms of government. Not now, but down the road.
It’s amazing how leftists completely IGNORE all the “peaceful” protests of 2020. Rioting and looting everywhere. Skyrocketing crime in demokkkrat run cities. Drugs/fentanyl/human trafficking at the border, completely out of control. The only real “mobs” are the thugs/antifa/Blm/feminazis/looters, etc. but that’s okay,,,,as long as they vote demokkkrat, it’s swept under the carpet. Total double standard. Blacks kill each other by the thousands each year, and where’s BLM? Buying Large Mansions, it seems. What happened to George Floyd and Jan 6 was bad for sure, but that gets 24/7 Olympic coverage, while your radical thugs get ignored by the leftist controlled MSM. Just calling it out like it is.
It is true that there was a large increase in violent crime in 2022, mostly gun crime because of the refusal or Repugnicans to enact serious gun control. IN EVERY COUNTRY THAT HAS STRICT GUN CONTROL, VIOLENT CRIME WITH GUNS IS MINIMAL. But don’t let facts get in the way of your ideology there, Harry.
MAGA: Moscow’s Agent Governing America
Diane. Justice for ALL Americans, or only the ones that bow down to the radical left?
Harry, only fascists are fascist. Liberals are anti-fascist. America fought fascists in World War II. Fascists are racists who lie and demonize minorities. Learn history.
The Radical Left. Those folks who believe that every adult citizen not convicted of murder and sexual predation has a right to vote. Those who think that people with toothaches ought to be able to go to a dentist, even if they are poor.
Those crazy radicals
Bob. The poor people that need the real help are not radicals. Never said that, I’m referring to, for example, innocent people defending themselves against violent thugs. EVERYONE receiving justice no matter which side their political loyalties are.
I certainly agree with you there, Harry.
Diane wins the internet, imho, with her
The Fascists are the Fascists.
LOL. Exactly.
Finally-
Leonard Leo and Greg Mueller (communications director of Pat Buchanan’s presidential campaigns in 1992 and 1996 ) are getting the media scrutiny they deserve. Kellyanne Conway is included in the coverage. Both Politico (12-20-2022) and MSNBC are informing their audiences about Creative Response Concepts. Mueller is its long time president. MSNBC makes the connection to a 9-1-2006 article, “War Room: What we’ve learned about confirming good judges.” The article appeared in Crisis, a conservative Catholic magazine. The story is about Alito’s appointment and Leonard Leo.
Theocracy.
Keith Appell is senior VP at CRC (Sourcewatch). Based on comments he made in an interview about Romney, I speculate Appell is anti-abortion. At his Linked In page, his “likes” included subjects related to the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, First Liberty Initiative and the Heritage Foundation (Koch).
In 2000, Appell, in an interview said, “The Constitution guarantees freedom of religion, not freedom from religion.”
Jefferson understood the danger, “In every country, in every age, the priest aligns with the despot.”
Available on the internet, “Testimony of Lisa Graves, President of the Center for Media and Democracy before the U.S. Senate, subcommittee on Federal Courts…” (3-10-2021)
Graves did not include in her comments one of the driving forces of significant number of the people she identifies as right wing influencers. If voters ignore theocracy’s major players in our statehouses, U.S. House and Senate, governorships and courts, it may well doom democracy.
Come and get me then, Woke Police, for I am ‘woke’ and proud of it. To be otherwise is a smear on the very core of the human species.
Well stated, Jill
Thank you!
Thank you, Jill
I’ll take the next cell over from Jill, who totally rocks, btw.
Awwww … thank you, Bob! I’ll enjoy having you in the next cell where we can have some in-depth conversations about the state of the world today!
https://jilldennison.com/
Thank you so much, Bob! I appreciate it!
When Ohio Gov. Dewine and Federalist Society’s Leonard Leo had 8 or 9 kids each, media should have covered it like they are covering the arrival of Nick Cannon’s latest child. The number of women that Trump had children with should have interested media as much as Nick Cannon’s choices.
Nick Cannon is a baby daddy. Big difference.
What, pray tell, is that difference, in your opinion? C’mon, have some guts. Be articulate in your own way.
Harry is part of the Trump segment that has been identified as wanting to appear to be villains. The segment includes shallow people who know no other way to get attention than the villain ploy. They’ve given up on being productive because they aren’t competitive in the field of life. They latch onto Trump because he’s a failed loser like them but, Trump continues to survive while contributing nothing.
In other news, the Republicans are having a difficult time deciding which of them is creepy and antidemocratic enough to become Speaker.
In other other news, Tsar Vladimir continues tossing old cronies and confidants out of windows and down stairwells.
Four more of Putin’s friends fell out of windows. People in his circle should stay far away from windows. Those who do will be poisoned.
All the former Putin cronies, falling out of windows. It must be that he uncovered a concerted effort to remove him. Would not be surprising, for he is now a certifiable madman.