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2/15/2023

A PAGE ONE VALENTINE
Marching, speaking for democracy

I HAPPENED ON SOME REALLY GOOD NEWS where I least expected to find it – on the front page of the New York Times, the Valentine's Day edition.
   Page One usually isn't where to look if you're trying to cheer up.
   Real news is mostly awful news. Anything to do with death; engineering mistakes that blow up the space shuttle; big wars; little wars; church-treasurer embezzlements; lockouts; sewage overflows; people chained in cellars; sinkholes; factory closings; head-on collisions on prom night; and on election night, Donald "The Donald." The kind of stomach-churning stories that make you wish you hadn't gotten out of bed and which punish you the rest of the day so you can't sleep at night.
   So, it was a pleasure to have retrieved the Times on Feb. 14 from its hiding place under the front hedge, and to drag it inside for a quick scan at the breakfast table.
   There was a piece about the Turkey earthquake, “Collapsed Buildings … sold as safe.” An article about the suspected mastermind behind the Chinese spy balloons. And yet another story scrutinizing the finances of U.S. Rep. George Santos, the nation’s second biggest liar.
   None of which are the kind of brighten-your-day stories I’m talking about. There actually were just two:

   100,00 PROTEST
   IN ISRAEL TO HALT
   COURTS OVERHAUL

   College Board
   Is Under Fire
   For A.P. Class

   Why were these uplifting?
   Because they were about inspired people pushing back against authoritarian and anti-democratic forces that are threatening America as well as countries across the globe.
   It seems to me that the forces of good, which generally are the ones on the Left, aren't as vigorous as their mean-spirited counterparts on the Right. The Right seems so determined, so unrelenting and so unwilling to take a nap, much less a vacation, as it schemes to make the rest of us miserable.
   Which is why it’s inspiring when the Left does something more than say “gosh” and “heck.”

LET’S TAKE THE ISRAELI PIECE FIRST:

   AS A NON-JEW, I find it uncomfortable to write about Israel. I want to “like” the country, not only as a just antidote to the Holocaust, but as a democracy. It's so much like the U.S., especially because the countries share similar and deep flaws. But for a long while, Israel has been been acting badly in regard to the Palestinians, and it's hardly a fair fight. (Not that the Palestinians would act better were the shoe on the other foot).
   One thing that troubles me is Israel’s disappearing Left, as the Right gets stronger and stronger, culminating most recently in the election of what news reports say is most Right Wing and extremist government in Israel’s short history.
   Especially distressing is Benjamin Netanyahu’s return to power. Like many casual observers, I thought “Bibi” was done for when he was ousted in the next to last election, and that possibly the country’s longest serving prime minister might end his public service in the public slammer. But suddenly, like a trick ending to a horror movie, Bibi is back, and working on a get-out-of-jail plan. Which mirrors my home-country nightmare, in which Donald “The Donald” reenters the White House and escapes state and federal prisons.
   One of Bibi’s and his fellow extremists’ major goals is to monkey-wrench Israel’s judicial system, making it easier for the government to override Supreme Court decisions, as well as to control selection of judges – upsetting the balance of power that’s so essential to all democracies.
   So, I was cheered to read about the huge demonstration the Times reported taking place in Jerusalem. One-hundred-thousand protesters pushing back.
   Students skipped classes, workers left their jobs. A caravan of protesters stretched two-and-a-half miles. Transportation systems added trains and busses.
   The Times said:
Protesters came by bus from Haifa, train from Tel Aviv and car from the occupied Golan Heights. They carried Israeli flags, megaphones and homemade banners. And they were chanting for democracy, freedom and judicial independence.
   “You voted Bibi. You got Mussolini,” one protester's sign said.
   “We aren’t so far from a situation were we wont be allowed to protest,” worried one mother, who attended with her son and a partner.
   The Times said that polls show 41 percent of Israelis oppose the judicial mischief plan. But 44 percent support it.
   Sound familiar? A nation divided; democracy at the cliff.
   But the forces of good are disturbed and on the move.

THE OTHER STORY IS ABOUT FLORIDA AND “EDUCATION.”

THIS ONE was involved the controversy over College Board’s new Advanced Placement course for high schoolers about black history, which the state of Florida so far has disallowed, because of Gov. Ron DeSantis’ “war on woke.”
   “As presented, the content of this course is inexplicably contrary to Florida law and significantly lacks educational value,” education officials said. Among their objections were sections on black homosexuality, black feminism and Black Lives Matter. Imagine: A contemporary black history review without major discussion of Black Lives Matter.
   The Times’ story on Valentine’s Day dealt with anger among experts in black history to changes that the College Board made in the course, which seemed to be an attempt to appease DeSantis and his acolytes.
   The College Board has vigorously denied it was swayed by politics. Indeed, the Times story said that some academic experts said they were assured by the College Board that its officials had had “absolutely no communication” with the Florida authorities.
   Which turned out to be pants-on-fire wrong.
   The story made clear that the College Board from the outset expected push-back from Florida, because of the state's new and obnoxious anti-woke law that forbids teaching anything in a way that might cause students to feel uncomfortable about learning what their misbehaving ancestors did.
   So the College Board contacted Florida officials to chat about an early draft of the new course. And, much to the surprise of the College Board folks, the Florida folks turned out to have little interest in a substantive discussion. A College Board official told the Times that Florida's department of education: “acts as a political apparatus.” Duh.
   Nonetheless, the College Board’s final version of the course seemed to respond to Florida’s public objections. And worse, the College Board added a preface to the course, which seemed to try to reassure DeSantis' worries about "woke's" bad influence on the young, saying that “A.P, opposes indoctrination … A.P. students are not required to feel certain ways about themselves or the course content.”
   If that’s not appeasement, then Britain’s Neville Chamberlain never tried to make nice with Adolph Hitler at the opening of World War II.
   What inspired me about this round of the controversy is that the advocates for a full and honest course about black history were pushing back against both DeSantis and the College Board, and willing to have a full-throated, public discussion about it.
   “There is no way you can properly teach this material under the rubric of what DeSantis et al are demanding. This is a train wreck,” UCLA’s Cheryl Harris told the Times.
   DeSantis, having tasted blood, decided to drink more deeply. He wondered aloud whether Florida should be allowing any College Board A.P. courses, regardless of the subject, according to the Washington Post. As Chamberlain discovered, appeasement not only doesn't work, it makes things worse.

SO, GOOD FOR THE SCHOLARS for putting the screws to the College Board, and not letting Florida off the hook.
   Good for Israeli citizens on the march for democracy.
   No guarantees, of course, as to how things will turn out.
   But it's the effort that counts.
   Two Valentines right there on the front page, from those who dare to hope and more: to do something besides wishing things will be okay, by taking to the streets and by speaking up.

2 Comments

2/4/23

2/4/2023

5 Comments

Ron DeSantis
THE ENEMY OF MY ENEMY
IS ... NOT MY FRIEND

RON DESANTIS - The Sunshine State's governor, with his hands full, suggesting the danger he poses to American democracy. PHOTO CREDIT: Florida governor's office.

RON DESANTIS is a vile, dangerous leader.
   He is not preferable to Donald Trump.
   Ron DeSantis will not rescue America from Donald Trump.
   They are equally terrible.
   As a president, DeSantis would be just as destructive as Donald Trump, just as mean, cruel, racist and divisive.
   If DeSantis were to win the White House, the particulars would be different from those of the terrible four years of Trump's presidency.
   But the effect would be the same. DeSantis, in his first term, like Trump in his second, would destroy democracy in America – at least he’d give it a really hard try.
   There is one major difference between these two worst-case scenarios: there would be no surprise about how a President DeSantis would govern.
   When Trump took office in 2017, there was an element of mystery as to what he’d really do.
   Since Trump had never held political office, we – I should stop using the “we” word, since I can speak only about what is/was in my brain – I had no idea what Trump would be like once he actually was president..
   We – I – knew little about him, other than that he’d been a grotesque candidate.
   Up to then, Trump mainly was just a name. A name on buildings, airplanes and other of his “businesses,” some of which weren’t his. A name in the tabloid newspapers, meaning he was a largely fictitious character. He’d been a name in a scripted TV “reality” show; a name as author of ghost-written books; and name without much ideological shape on forums like the Don Imus in the Morning radio show.
   But I hoped that, deep down, there might be something of substance. Maybe he’d be better than his various disguises; maybe the awesome responsibilities and traditions of the presidency would weigh on him - in a good way. Possibly, he’d listen to wise women and men in his orbit and turn out to be a pragmatist when the dreadful, unexpected challenges confronted and bedeviledhim, just as they always have, no matter whom the presidents are.
   Stupid me.

BUT THERE’LL BE NO GUESSING about a would-be President Ronald Dion DeSantis.
   DeSantis is just another in a long, long, long line of leader/monsters. History tells us that God – if She exists and does this sort of thing - never creates just one awful head of state.
   How do we know– how do I know – if DeSantis is just one more of those?
   The proof is the noxious output of Ron DeSantis’ Florida “Laboratory.”
   Which he bragged about in his second inaugural address on Jan. 3 following his huge re-election win as governor. He remarked:

It is often said that our federalist constitutional system – with fifty states able to pursue their own unique policies – represents a laboratory of democracy.

Well, these last few years have witnessed a great test of governing philosophies as many jurisdictions pursued a much different path than we have pursued here in the state of Florida.

The Florida Laboratory might resonate with fans of horror movies, in which a mad scientist – a mad political scientist – operates a dungeon, well-equipped with the tools of torture, wherein he conducts various demented experiments, utilizing as handy test subjects vulnerable inhabitants of his personal island – or peninsula.
   The DeSantis lab in the last four years has been developing various strains of cultural hatred, such as Florida's attack on transgender kids – outlawing transgender girls from completing on girls’ and women’s sports teams, and Florida's “Don’t Say Gay” law, which bars teaching of gender issues in lower grades.
   For his work on “Don’t Say Gay,” DeSantis used an actual lab rodent, namely Mickey Mouse, punishing the Disney corporation for its opposition to the bill by revoking the Mouse empire’s privileged control of its vast Disney World theme park.
   Sometimes DeSantis has conducted teachable moments outside the lab, to give “sanctuary” communities a taste of Florida's immigration troubles, as he did last September by sending two airplanes to Texas – that’s right, Texas – to pick up about 50 mostly Venezuelan immigrants and fly them to Martha’s Vineyard, an island off the deep blue Massachusetts mainland.

IF THERE'S A UNIFYING THEME to the Florida Lab’s work, it's to stamp out the contagious liberal virus known to laypersons as “woke.”
   Indeed, in his Second Inaugural, DeSantis explained how non-Floridian jurisdictions, besotted with wokism, have coddled criminals, corrupted public education, burdened taxpayers and practiced “medical authoritarianism.”
    Which, thankfully, has not been the case in the Sunshine State:

We reject this woke ideology.
We seek normalcy, not philosophical lunacy!
We will not allow reality, facts, and truth to become optional.
We will never surrender to the woke mob.
Florida is where woke goes to die!

   I CAN'T THINK of a modern instance since George Wallace declared “segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever" at his 1963 inauguration as Alabama governor, in which a Southern governor has sounded so intentional about perpetuating oppression of its black citizens.
   “Woke” started out as a positive word, conveying racial awareness, consensus and healing. But it's also been repurposed by right-wing alchemists like DeSantis as a racial slur.
   Woke entered my brain late in the game – it’s an old brain, and a slow one – during the George Floyd incident, in which a policeman murdered a man in plain view, in plain daylight – and the nation came to an understanding of what it means to be black in 21st Century America.
   Woke made it into Florida law as the ‘Stop WOKE Act” - Stop Wrongs to Our Kids and Employees Act, later renamed the Individual Freedom Act – outlawing teaching of racial topics in a way that would make students feel guilt or “distress” about the sins of our forebears. The legislation, partially blocked for now by a federal judge, aims to protect purported victims of classroom brutality in instances of this kind of classroom scenario:

A person, by virtue of his or her race, color, sex, or national origin, bears personal responsibility for and must feel guilt, anguish, or other forms of psychological distress because of actions, in which the person played no part, committed in the past by other members of the same race, color, national origin, or sex.

THE FLORIDA LAB'S WORK also includes thought control. A recent legislative proposal would forbid colleges and universities from spending money on programs that promote “diversity, equity and inclusion programs,” often labeled by the acronym,“DEI.” Among other provisions would be an attempt to weaken tenure for professors, which protects academic freedom.
Then there's the recent move by Florida education officials to throw out a new national College Board Advanced Placement course for high school students on African American history, saying that “as presented, the content of this course is inexplicably contrary to Florida law and significantly lacks educational value.” The officials later explained they were offended by discussions of Black Lives Matter, black homosexuality and black feminism.
Last week, the College Board issued a revised version of the course, which included removal of a section on Black Lives Matter from the main “framework” of the course, suggesting only that the Black Lives Matter movement might be a subject of an individual student's research project. College Board officials said the changes predated the Florida assault on the course; but DeSantis’ fellow right-wingers had their knives out much earlier, too, so the College Board’s defenses sounded hollow.
However, the course remained a powerful powerful review of black history – and Florida’s move to cancel the course seemed another example of “where woke goes to die.” You can see the scope of the course at this link to understand what Florida students will be missing if state officials stick to their decision.

DESANTIS PRETENDS that his woke attacks are not anti-black, but a call to common sense. Indeed, he disguises his racist experiments in various ways – promoting a state art and essay contest for Black History Month, and populating his website with photos of the governor standing side-by-side with black National Guard soldiers and other persons of color.
   But you don't have be woke to realize that’s just camouflage for what’s underway in the Florida laboratory.
   On paper, DeSantis has a formidable resume for a practicing political scientist: graduate of Harvard and Yale; legal advisor to the Navy's legendary Seal Team One; federal prosecutor; Congressman, and at 44, not objectionably too young or too old.
   Donald Trump's alarming presidency - the only one to try to overturn an election - tempted some people to welcome DeSantis as one Republican who might break the GOP's fever for Trump.
   But DeSantis' record says otherwise: it's a warning as to what to expect if Ron outflanks Don in the next race for the White House, and replaces him at the Resolute Desk.
   So, there's no reason for wishful thinking, no chance for pleasant surprises if DeSantis becomes The One.
   There will be nothing to cheer, and plenty to fear.

5 Comments

2/15/2023

A PAGE ONE VALENTINEMarching, speaking for democracy

2/4/23

Ron DeSantisTHE ENEMY OF MY ENEMYIS ... NOT MY FRIEND

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A PAGE ONE VALENTINE
Marching, speaking for democracy

Ron DeSantis
THE ENEMY OF MY ENEMY
IS ... NOT MY FRIEND