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RDP/FOWC: How We Teach & Learn History All Wrong in America

August 28, 2020August 28, 2020 / amoralegria / 4 Comments

The Ragtag Daily Prompt today is the word lies. There is a lot I could write on this topic (for instance, most of what happened at the RNC these last four days). But I was just made aware of a John Oliver (I love this guy!!) show from a few weeks ago that is very relevant in the wake of the recent tragic events in Kenosha, Wisconsin and the protests and looting that have been going on all summer around the country. Why is this happening? Why is there so much racial unrest? Why are they saying black lives matter – don’t all lives matter? Everyone has an opinion, but too often their opinion is based on ignorance or downright lies.

From Chicago Sun Times, June 7, 2020; downloaded from Google Images

A few weeks ago – around the time John Lewis died – John Oliver on his show Last Week Tonight talked about how Americans learn history wrong. Maybe it has gotten better, but there are still some (any is too many) white people around who say stupid stuff like, “Slavery was bad, but those people were lucky to come to a great place like America.” (Meaning being a slave here was better than living free in African societies.) Textbooks for young children dumb down history, saying things like the colonists “brought slaves with them to help with farm work and chores.”

“Washington freed his slaves” is another myth. Instead of teaching kids lies like George Washington chopped down a cherry tree and then confessed to his father, saying, “I cannot tell a lie,” why can’t we teach kids that yes, Washington was the ‘father of our country’ and he should be honored for being the first president, but he also OWNED SLAVES and he DID NOT free them when he was president (or afterward, either)! I admit, I never learned a single negative fact about Christopher Columbus or George Washington until I got to college. Why can’t students learn both the positive and the negative – i.e. the FACTS about these historical figures?

Well, don’t we need heroes? Yes, but kids, even elementary students, can understand that people can be both good and bad. Acts of heroism don’t erase the rest of a hero’s life. I’m not dissing heroes. I just think we need to be honest. And although any history teacher knows that one year in high school is not enough time to teach all of American history, we shouldn’t ignore important events that are more convenient to ignore than to teach our students. (American history should be taught for at least two years, or part of it every year.)

As a result, many Americans graduate from high school ignorant about American history (and forget about world history). We need to help students understand why racism continues to survive. We need to connect the past to the present, help our students make the connections, so they can understand what is happening now.

This is an excellent video that is worth spending the 28+ minutes to watch.

I need to say here that I do not necessarily approve of taking down statues of people like George Washington. But the idea of the so-called “cancel culture” is a topic for another post.

6WS: An Injustice Anywhere…

June 13, 2020June 13, 2020 / amoralegria / 3 Comments

AN INJUSTICE ANYWHERE THREATENS JUSTICE EVERYWHERE.

This paraphrases a quote by Martin Luther King Jr. The meaning hasn’t changed – I have just reduced it to six words to qualify for the Six Word Saturday challenge hosted by Debbie Smyth’s Travel With Intent.

We talk so much in the U.S.A. about freedom. Freedom is sort of our motto; it’s a word used casually without thinking too much about it. But what is freedom, really? Yes, there are the freedoms guaranteed in the Bill of Rights. But without justice, what is freedom?

The Pledge of Allegiance we all learn in elementary school ends with the phrase with liberty and justice for all. (Also six words, btw. 🙂 )

Students standing for Pledge of Allegiance

Perhaps we need to focus on justice instead of freedom. Because justice includes freedom – justice allows the judged to be as free as anyone else in society. And without justice, one is not really free. Think about it: A law is passed giving everyone 18 and over the right to vote, regardless of gender, race, creed, etc. Yet when a certain group of people is denied the right to vote by voter suppression methods, then that group in reality doesn’t have the right to have their voice heard through voting. This was a problem in the Jim Crow South when blacks were obliged to take a test or pay a tax when they went to register to vote. Although the Civil Rights Act of 1964 put a stop to that, officials in some states have lately found new ways to deny the vote to certain groups. Sure, a lawsuit can be filed, but it may not go into effect in time for people to vote. During a pandemic, do citizens really have the freedom, the right, to vote if they must do it in person instead of by mail?

I got to thinking about this while reading an Op Ed in our local newspaper, The Daily Herald. Quoting the writer of this editorial, Keith Peterson*: “in many countries the term freedom did not resonate in the ways that it does in American hearts. More often than not, the word that resonated was justice.” Justice is about setting to right a history of wrongs.

Today there was a news item that Donald Trump, through executive order, has modified an Obama-era health care law by excluding transgender people from the guarantee of health care. In other words, if a transgender person goes to the ER, the medical staff does not have to give that person treatment. A transgender person then has the right to sue the hospital or doctor for refusal of health care, but how practical is that when the person needs immediate medical treatment? (By the way, today is the anniversary of the Orlando Pulse nightclub massacre and this month is LGBTQ Pride Month. I do not think Trump’s action on this particular day was an accident.)

Some people would like to ban Muslims from this country or have defaced or vandalized local mosques. The worshippers of those mosques are afraid of violence against them because of epithets written on a wall of their mosque. Where is their freedom to worship? It depends on litigation and prosecution – in other words, justice.

The protests against police brutality in the last two weeks all over the U.S.A. and all over the world have had an impact: many cities are already rethinking the organization and training of their police forces.

Justice sometimes takes time, lots of time. But we must demand it. Freedom and equality depend on it.

*Keith Peterson lives in Lake Barrington, Illinois. He served 29 years as a press and cultural officer for the United States Information Agency and Department of State. Quote taken from Keith Peterson, “World is watching us for justice” in Daily Herald (Northwest Suburban Edition), June 7, 2020, p. 12 sec. 1.

All photos downloaded from Google Images.

FOWC: Risk For a Cause

June 11, 2020June 11, 2020 / amoralegria / 1 Comment

Fandango’s One Word Challenge this week is the topic of risk.

Risk taking is a major consideration these days. With a coronavirus pandemic still raging, while the federal government chooses to ignore its continuation and many states “opening” – opening beaches, restaurants, other places where people gather in close quarters. Of course, one can take precautions to avoid the risk of being infected. But what if something is too important to stay at home and do nothing? When yet another black person was unnecessarily killed by the police, people all over the world took the risk of being in close contact with others to protest. And the protests, being so large and widespread, led many cities to reexamine their police departments to initiate radical reforms. So in this case, for those thousands of protesters, the risk was worth it. We may see a spike in Covid-19 cases within the next week or so that could be traced to the protests. Some of the people who marched and carried signs, even with masks on, may have contracted the virus, and some may die.

To risk one’s life for a cause – that was the choice these past two weeks. It is not a new phenomenon: people have risked their lives for causes they believed in throughout history. Those who work as doctors or nurses in hospitals overflowing with coronavirus cases without proper PPE risk their lives at work every day. Those who hid Jews or joined the resistance movements during the Nazi era in Europe risked their lives. The men and women who fight in wars risk their lives. Those who protested the disappearance of loved ones during the dictatorships in Latin America risked their lives. Young people in China in June, 1989 risked their lives by protesting in Tiananmen Square in Beijing. Refugees risk their lives crossing borders to flee war or persecution, travel in dangerous circumstances, and when they get to what they hope is a safe haven, there is the risk they will be sent back to their countries to certain death.  

Yet courageous people continue to risk their lives in some way every day.

Wearing masks, but not maintaining physical distance during a pandemic is risky.
Some wear masks, many do not. It’s worth the risk to possibly save black lives from police brutality.

Images downloaded from Politico: “Enough is Enough.”

Women’s March Chicago 2018

January 26, 2018 / amoralegria / 5 Comments

January 20, 2018

I’m always amazed at the cleverness of the signs at protest rallies and marches. I went to the Women’s March in Chicago again this year with my husband, and we met up with some friends from the western suburbs. I had planned to make a sign this year but due to circumstances beyond my control, I was unable to. So I put on my pink hat and we took the Blue Line (metro train) downtown.

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Absolutely hideous selfie of me and Dale on the train

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Three like-minded women across from us, also signless!

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Three generations of marching women – the baby was simply adorable!

We found our friends quickly when we got downtown, in spite of the crowds, because my friend Sandy had made a sign on fluorescent green poster board that she had posted on Facebook – it was easily spotted!

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 Sandy with her bright sign

The atmosphere this year was one of great camaraderie and hope, although tinged with more anger this year after enduring a year of Trump. Last year there was more humor in the signs, while this year the signs were clever but more on message.

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The woman holding two of these signs is an artist who designed the signs.

This year, we actually got to see and hear what the rally was about. Because three of our party were a young family, we entered the family area. 20180120_110027We watched the rally on a large closed-caption screen, while just to the west of us the actual stage was visible from the side.20180120_105503.jpg

The only problem with the rally was that it was too long. It had been set to begin at 11:00 and end at 12:30 (one and a half hours already being too long, in my opinion), when the march would start.  However, the rally went for nearly two hours! There were too many speakers, many repeating the same message we’d heard several times already. At least the weather was decent (God granted us nice weather for both last year’s and this year’s marches! Could he be on our side??).  However, it was still only in the 40s and my gym-shoe-clad feet got cold from just standing there. I started pacing to warm up.20180120_110005

We were informed that the number of people in attendance at the Chicago Women’s March this year exceeded last year’s total! This year there were about 300,000 attendees!!

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Someone selling “Pussy Hats,” the ubiquitous pink hats many (including me) were wearing, just in case someone who didn’t have one felt left out.

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In the background is the stage, where all the action was at the rally.

Finally, the march got underway at close to 2:00 pm! It took a while for us to get moving, since there was a bottleneck of people ahead of us converging from north and south along Columbus Avenue. We proceeded up Jackson Street to the sound of a rock band to Federal Plaza, where we were greeted by a group of drummers. That was the end of the march. Arriving there, we got to see lots of other people with their signs who were standing around as others kept arriving. I took photos of signs I liked when possible to do so without losing my group.20180120_134635

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I didn’t take the following photos, but downloaded them from Facebook and decided to include them here. Both of them were in Chicago; the one on the left is of another friend of mine (on the left) who attended the march with two companions, although we didn’t run into each other.

Sue Helmer & friends
Tweet sign

Finally, I am including the best sign I have seen so far – it was posted on Facebook and I don’t know who the woman in the picture is nor where it was taken.Best protest sign

This sign about sums it up! This is ultimately why we marched and why it was necessary. Resistance is NOT futile!

Solidarity on Saturday in Chicago

January 23, 2017January 23, 2017 / amoralegria / 1 Comment

250,000 people filled the streets of downtown Chicago for the Women’s March on Jan. 21. But it wasn’t just women – lots of men and kids of all ages too! My husband, son and I and three friends came downtown by El and metro, met in a predetermined spot, then joined the throng.

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My husband, Dale, friend Marcia and me on the El going downtown. Marcia and I are wearing pink “pussy hats” crocheted by another friend who couldn’t go with us.

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My son Jayme, friend Marcia, and me, waiting for our friends Sandy & Steve

Sandy's sign - she used flowers from her wedding poster - "repurposed"

My friend Sandy’s sign – she used “repurposed” flowers from her wedding poster.

The mood was upbeat and the experience made me hopeful.  Although there was a rally with speakers, I never heard them nor even know who they were.  In that mass of people, your universe is the crowd of people who immediately surround you, chanting and waving mostly handmade posters.

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The most frequent chant that someone off to the left would start with the prompt, “Tell me what democracy looks like” and others would join in the refrain, which spread throughout our section, “This is what democracy looks like!”

Another chant was, “Hey hey! Ho ho! Donald Trump has got to go!” This is a common chant, substituting the name of whoever a group of people is protesting against. During the Chicago teachers’ strike, it was “Hey hey! Ho ho! Rahm Emanuel’s got to go!” In 2012, Rahm Emanuel was – and still is – the mayor of Chicago, who had an ongoing disagreement with the teachers’ union, siding with the board of education.

One of the most interesting things about a rally/march/demonstration is the signs that people create.  There were many clever ones during the teachers’ strike, and the rally and march on Saturday had many creative, and some rather nasty, signs. 20170121_095011

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The march on Jan. 21 was mainly to address women’s issues, as a reminder to the new administration that women would fight for their rights and to put them on notice that those marching were in the majority. But everyone had their own agenda and the signs reflected this.

One that I really liked, although the person carrying it passed by too quickly for me to get a picture, had the word REVOLUTION written in black ink across the middle of the sign. The second, third, fourth and fifth letters were written on a diagonal to the rest of the word in red ink, spelling the word “love” backwards.

Here are more of the signs we saw around us.

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While waiting for something to happen, we counted the helicopters overhead – there were five! Later the photos and videos taken from their vantage point were shown on the national news – quite impressive!!

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One of the many men at the march was this guy who dyed his beard pink for the occasion!

In fact, for awhile, the Chicago march was the second largest in the country, after Washington DC. Eventually, though, we were surpassed by other larger cities:  New York had 400,000; Los Angeles had around 700,000! Washington DC had about half a million.

Later, I found out my niece, her husband and their son were at the march too – somewhere!  My 5-year-old grand-nephew, Ben, said he liked the idea of telling the president what we cared about!

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After standing in one place for a long time, not knowing if we were going to march or not – first we heard there were so many people that the march had been called off, but then some people came through who said the march was still on – we finally were on the move. My hips and upper thighs ached as I began walking after standing in one spot for so long. We weren’t walking very fast, not in that crowd, but we were moving.

We crossed Michigan Avenue and marched down Jackson Street. A large crowd turned onto another street, at which point we broke away from the march.

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My friend Sandy took this photo of another good sign.

We took these group photos when we were ready to stop for lunch. Although some of the marches around the country went on all day and into the night, Chicago’s started to peter out around 1 pm, at least that’s how it looked to us. Maybe because we were getting hungry!

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Dale, Sandy’s husband Steve, and Jayme (holding a sign someone handed to him at the beginning)

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Us 4 women: Sandy, me, a friend of Sandy’s, Marcia

At that point, we had to get home because Jayme had to go to work and Marcia and I were ushering at a concert later. We rode the El back toward O’Hare, hoping to avoid the crush of marchers heading home. However, every El car was jam packed! As we got closer to the suburbs, the subway cars gradually emptied out as groups of people got off.

The question now is, Where do we go from here? Was this just a single march to protest the inauguration of president we strongly disagree with and to highlight women’s issues? Years ago, Occupy Wall Street looked promising as a people’s movement, but it didn’t go anywhere in the end.  Yet the momentum created last Saturday, with marches in every single state in the U.S. and many more across the world (including Antarctica!) seems bigger than this.  If we are to accomplish anything, we need to keep the pressure on. After all, Trump lost the popular vote by 2.8 million. Also, we need to unite in order to mend the polarization that is threatening to tear our society apart. There is so much acrimony on both sides. It’s gotten way too mean.  One of the most prevalent messages we heard and saw on Saturday was LOVE.

A few pictures from friends and family at other marches:

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My nephew Mike, his wife Emily and their 2 1/2 year old daughter Sylvia, at the march in Madison, WI which drew over 75,000 people. My niece in Madison also attended with her husband and daughter.

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A friend of mine (in front wearing red shirt) posted this picture of a group that marched in Austin, Texas.

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I don’t know anyone in Miami but I liked these signs.

According to what we heard today (Monday), the organizers of the Saturday marches are planning another massive march on April 15 – tax day – to protest Trump’s not releasing his tax returns!

The next four years are going to be interesting, to say the least! And I’m expecting to log many miles in many more marches!

 

 

 

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