Tag: Last Word

Categories
Opinion The Last Word

Memphis Is My Boyfriend: Family Fun? Check!

A satisfying weekend of sewing, bakeries, and strategizing chess moves. (Photos: Patricia Lockhart)

It’s time for another intentional tween/teen-friendly Memphis weekend! My kids are 15, 11, 11 (twins), and 10 years old. While most weekends they are content to stay home in their pajamas and play video games, every once in a while, they’ll beg me for a good time. I try my best to find fun, safe, and wallet-friendly places for my kids to enjoy themselves. So here’s to another fun weekend!

Friday — Memphis Public Library

The Memphis Public Library is one of the most underused resources in Memphis for tweens/teens (in my opinion). Did you know that most library branches have drones, 3D printers, sewing machines, crafts, gaming systems, and so much more available for our kids? Well, they have all of those things. They also have writing clubs, exercise groups, knitting clubs, robotics teams, movie days, D&D, trivia, gardening, chess club, cooking classes, and more. And the best thing is, everything is free. I’ll say it louder for the people in the back, everything is free! I mean, if you can name it, the Memphis Public Library probably has it.

Whenever I am looking for something for my kids to do, I always check the library first. Simply go to memphislibrary.org. Next, click on ‘Events’ and then on ‘Calendar of Events’. My home library is the Raleigh Branch Library. But the Cordova, Hollywood, East Shelby, and Benjamin L. Hooks Central branches are poppin’, too!

Don’t get me started on the 901 Cloud. My kids love that place! They appreciate the Homework Helpers that help them with their homework. After they have “stood on business” and finished their work, they engage in their favorite hobbies and even play with VR goggles!

As for me, I absolutely love the Raleigh Branch Sewing Club! I have made an apron, pot holder, bag, key chain, and a catch-all bucket. I’m so proud of myself and my newly learned abilities.

Saturday — Sift Bakery

I have two clear sets of children. One set of kids is very adventurous. They love going outside to play. They are my bikers, skaters, trampoline jumpers, and builders of random things in the front and back yard. They get bored easily, but also have the greatest imaginations. After putting in a full week’s worth of ‘work’ at school, they are ready to let loose on the weekends. The other two kids, however, find value in doing absolutely nothing. If you were to ask them their perfect outing, it would include the exact same things they can do at home. In their words, “I like to do ‘at home’ stuff, but just in different places.” So when my adventurous kids complain that they’re bored, but my relaxed duo are … well, relaxing, I try to think of something to appease the adventurers without disturbing the others’ relaxed peace. And there’s only one place I can think of that will put a smile on all of their faces — Sift Bakery! My kids love nothing more than grabbing their Nintendo Switches and heading to a local bakery. We pick up some of those fancy spiral croissants, a few macaroons, and any other delicious treats Lala has baked up and head to a local park. My adventurous kids get to snack on amazing delicatessens and run around the park, while my relaxed kids enjoy their treats and don’t miss a single beat of their video games. Bada-bing! Everyone is happy!

Sunday — Memphis Chess Club

My kids enjoy a good game of chess. Scratch that … some of my kids enjoy a good game of chess. No, let’s try again … some of my kids enjoy a good game of chess as long as it’s accompanied by pizza. And there’s only one place in Memphis where they can get both a chess game and pizza. Memphis Chess Club! Upon entering, we place our order: one medium Fabi (cheese) pizza, one medium Greco (pepperoni), a basket of fries, some mac-and-cheese, a huge cinnamon roll, and a couple of beers for the adults. Next, we head to the game wall. We grab a couple of bags of chess and some random board games. Memphis Chess Club has too many games to name.

Since we are frequent flyers of the Memphis Chess Club, we have the family membership. This allows us to play all board games for free, which usually costs $5 a visit. We also get 10 percent off of everything we order! But most importantly, my kids and I can attend all chess classes for free.

But let’s get real. That’s not my favorite thing about the Memphis Chess Club. (Sidebar: I’m a pretty average player and proud of it!) They have this thing where you can ask them for a random cocktail and receive 10 percent off. A drink that contains alcohol and a discount?! What more could I want? Go to the cashier and say you want a random cocktail. They will swivel their register thingy around to you and you will push a button. That button will then randomly give you a number. That number coincides with the cocktail you will receive. It’s the best surprise ever!

Enjoy Memphis!

Patricia Lockhart is a native Memphian who loves to read, write, cook, and eat. Her days are filled with laughter with her four kids and charming husband. By day, she’s a school librarian and writer, but by night … she’s asleep. @realworkwife @memphisismyboyfriend

Categories
Opinion The Last Word

Be the Light

Alice Faye Duncan (Photo: Erica Dunlap)

Happy Holidays from Memphis! I don’t need a calendar to remind me of the season. On the Saturday after Thanksgiving, my neighbor, Mrs. Anderson, trims her yellow house in countless lights. When her home on the hill twinkles like a galaxy of stars, that is my cue. Christmas is near.

Mrs. Anderson started her tradition of dazzling decorations more than 30 years ago when her two children were arm babies. Over time, not only did she hang lights on her ranch-style home, but her lawn shined at night with a full display of Santa in his sleigh, eight reindeer, and a six-foot snowman, waving at passing cars. The first sign of Mrs. Anderson’s holiday whimsy would motivate neighbors up and down the street to follow her lead. Mothers and fathers would take to their yards to decorate their houses with an assortment of plastic snowflakes, candy canes, and silver bells, with shrubbery wrapped in endless strings of colorful lights. As more neighbors joined Mrs. Anderson’s grand display of decorations, the magic attracted a constant trail of visitors. Cars filled with families would crawl slowly along the street to marvel at winter’s wonderment.

It was a good run. With Mrs. Anderson leading the charge, my neighbors in the southwest corner of Memphis served multitudes, marvelous visions of holiday cheer for three decades. But the saying is true. “Nothing good lasts forever.” When her inflatable snowman burst at the seams, Mrs. Anderson pulled back on her Christmas designs. Then Santa and his deer were swiftly disposed.

I asked, “What happened?” Mrs. Anderson said the winter winds had a habit of toppling the reindeer. And after she reached a “certain age,” she was not willing to wrestle the weighty decorations back to their feet. She replied, “They had to go.”

That was just the beginning. Amid the dearth and death of Covid-19, I noticed that a great number of my neighbors did not follow in Mrs. Anderson’s steps during Christmas 2020. While she had ditched Santa and his crew, her house on the hill still shined with big red ribbons and dazzling lights. Sadly, Mrs. Anderson’s holiday mojo did not move the neighbors. Few joined her Christmas whimsy that year.

I remember that quiet Christmas very well. Dull porch lights were the status quo in my neighborhood. Here and there, I saw a wreath or two, garland, bells, a few straggly lights, and one baby Jesus in a faded manger. That year, no cars filled with giddy children had any reason to visit my community. As for me and my personal celebrations? My jolly Black Santa figurine, cheap laser lights, and three-foot tree remained boxed-up for Christmas ’20, ’21, and ’22. The isolation and alienation of the pandemic had robbed many of us of our collective merriment. Inflation and national unrest buoyed our blues and put many Americans in a holiday funk. But not Mrs. Anderson. While there is breath in her being, I don’t think my neighbor would ever cancel Christmas in her yellow house on the hill. And for that, I am privileged to be her friend. We need people in our circle who show us how to persist in joy and celebration when the world turns turbulent, grave, or “grinchy.”

This year, on the Sunday after Thanksgiving, I passed Mrs. Anderson’s home. It was early evening and the sun had set. True to form, a sparkling Christmas tree was posted in her living room window and red ribbons were wrapped around her porch lamps. In years past, Mrs. Anderson has been known to climb ladders and drape her roof and gables with bedazzling ropes of lights. But this year she abandoned rooftop lights and surrounded the base of her home in copious LED candles with pretty red flames. The candles conjured warm enchanting memories from when my neighbors would deck their shrubs in lights and give their hearts freely to the hope of the season.

God is a wonder. Mrs. Anderson’s copious candles rooted-up old, buried feelings of Christmas joy. And like the return of a favorite friend, I received those feelings with open arms. To make matters even better, it wasn’t too late for me in 2023. December had not arrived. I still had time to unbox my lights, my tree, and my jolly Black Santa. That night I called Mrs. Anderson to acknowledge her inspiring decorations.

I said, “You changed your lights!”

She told me it is not wise to climb tall ladders after a “certain age” and the Christmas candles circling the base of her home were the “safest option.”

I own an AARP card. I understood her point. But I also wondered: Does Mrs. Anderson understand? Her persistent refusal to let the world’s trouble steal her joy is a superpower. I tried to explain what I perceive to be her extraordinary fortitude.

Mrs. Anderson replied, “I hear you.” But did she? People full of light seldom see the light that we find in them. And that’s okay. Our task is to take their light and pass it on.

Alice Faye Duncan is a National Board Educator in Memphis who writes books for children. She is the author of Coretta’s Journey, This Train is Bound for Glory, and Yellow Dog Blues — a NYT/NYPL Best Illustrated Book selection in 2022. Visit alicefayeduncan.com.

Categories
Opinion The Last Word

BDSM 101, and Why the Kids Are All Right

Anna Traverse Fogle (Photo: Justin Fox Burks)

Late last week, a series of news alerts broke that centered around a term not often seen in Memphis headlines: BDSM. Specifically, there was a kerfuffle at Rhodes College about the area of erotic expression (BDSM stands for bondage, dominance/discipline, sadism, and/or masochism): A seminar had been planned for students curious to learn more, with guidance from the campus chaplain, Beatrix Weil, who organized the event, and a professional dominatrix. Information about the scheduled seminar began to circulate in an alumni Facebook group called “Rhodes Alumni for Amy,” assembled in support of ultra-conservative Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett ’94, and elsewhere, and the college quickly canceled the event, noting as their oh-so-convincing reason that it had not been properly sanctioned by the administration. (I am going to hazard a guess that if a knitting circle had not been properly sanctioned, no one would have been made to pack up their yarn.)

I was fortunate to grow up a campus kid at Rhodes, where my mother, the late Dr. Cynthia A. Marshall, was a Shakespeare professor and chair of the English department. Many of my tenderest, most crystalline early memories are of moments at Rhodes: tucking myself into the stone window recesses in the ground floor of what’s now Southwestern Hall; cavorting with dogs and Frisbees on the back forty; acting in tiny, child-sized roles at the black-box McCoy Theatre and feeling very grown-up, indeed; curling up with a book on the floor of my mom’s office, whose windows were just below the giant iron clock ticking away on the granite wall outside.

Beyond the physical spaces, I remember sensing an atmosphere of free discussion in the classroom and beyond — at least, that was the idea. My mother taught Shakespeare, but she taught his plays through lenses of psychoanalytic theory, feminist and queer studies, and a spirit of ongoing reimagination. No question was off the table; no intellectual discussion was off-limits. For her later writings, on the nature of selfhood in Early Modern literature, she read broadly into narratives of martyrs but also of, yes, bondage, sadism, and masochism. On our drives to my high school, we might talk about what tests I had that day — and we might talk about the latest account she had read in John Foxe’s Actes and Monuments (commonly known as Foxe’s Book of Martyrs) or a passage from the Marquis de Sade. She wasn’t giving me an instruction manual, or if she was, the how-to was a lesson in curiosity and rigorous research — together, the essence of liberal arts. Her former students tell me that Coney Barrett took at least one of Mom’s classes, which … makes my head spin.

I imagine my mother, if she were still alive today, at 70, would have been delighted to see a seminar scheduled for students to experience a safe discussion about BDSM. I bet she would have been pleasantly surprised (but definitely surprised) that the campus chaplain organized the event — a breath of fresh air! Pastoral care, indeed! But I am quite certain she would be gobsmacked to learn that a faction of alumni malcontents successfully stifled the conversation. What precedent does it set if students — all of them young adults, emphasis on adults — cannot gather in a safe and respectful setting to learn about and discuss a valid, common element of sexuality?

Yes, the social-media graphic announcing the event appeared intentionally provocative: “BDSM 101” does, indeed, sound like a practical introduction to kink. But — so what? Not only is that not what was planned for the event, had it been what was planned, I still fail to see cause for outrage. In an age when college campuses are reckoning with rampant sexual assault and striving to educate students about the importance of consent, surely providing language and context for safe, healthy sexual practices — BDSM or otherwise — can only help. Also — and this cannot be overstated — the event was voluntary; no one was mandated to sit through a BDSM seminar who didn’t want to sit through a BDSM seminar.

One of the knocks on Gen Z is that they are too fragile, too coddled, made too immune from reality by trigger warnings and so on. In my experience, that’s garbage. From conversations I have had with contacts at Rhodes, the seminar was organized because students asked. Rev. Weil teaches a first-year seminar that touched on the topic, but in a smaller setting; many more people were curious, and thus the event was born.

I try to imagine myself at age 19 or 21 being bold enough to ask for … anything — of a romantic partner, of a professor, of anyone. I didn’t know how to do that yet, and wouldn’t for many years more. College students who learn to be clearer advocates for themselves, their needs, and their desires will be better equipped to leave campus more confident in every area of their lives.

Anna Traverse Fogle is CEO of Contemporary Media, Inc., parent company of the Memphis Flyer.

Categories
Opinion The Last Word

Gaza and Maine

In 2021, 48,000 Americans suffered gun-related deaths. (Photo: Sheila Fitzgerald | Dreamstime.com)

I live a couple of counties away from where the mentally ill Robert Card, apparently hearing voices inside his head that sounded as if people were putting him down, shot up a bar and a bowling alley and forever changed the lives of too many of the good citizens of Maine.

The horror in what has been statistically the safest state in the nation competed for headlines with the exponentially larger agony of the brutal Hamas attack and Israel’s decimation of Gaza. The tragedies in Maine and Israel are cousins, however different in scale they appear. But are they in fact so different in scale? 48,000 Americans suffered gun-related deaths in 2021, the last year for which reliable statistics were available.

Our newly minted speaker of the House offered the usual contemptible dodge of thoughts and prayers, confirming the outrageous inability of our political system to address the gun violence epidemic. After the massacre, by contrast, one member of Congress, Lewiston-born Jared Golden, had the courage to change his mind toward favoring an assault rifle ban.

Ironically, there are very strict gun laws for civilians in the state of Israel. They must demonstrate good reason for gun ownership and obtain a permit, and people who are caught with an unlicensed gun receive strict sanctions, often a year in prison. The result has been far less gun deaths per capita there than here — at least until October 7th.

To get and to stay elected in the U.S., politicians have had to augment their campaign funds with the blood money of the NRA, tenaciously ignoring the clear wishes of the American people for sensible reforms like universal background checks. The U.S. Congress along with a majority on the Supreme Court stubbornly adheres to obsolete interpretations of an amendment that was written hundreds of years before the AR-15 perversely became “America’s gun.” Nick Kristof, in an excellent article The New York Times keeps republishing after each new mass shooting, makes a case for the “whys” of our appalling statistics (for one, the crystal-clear correlation between numbers of guns and gun deaths). Kristof also lays out the common-sense changes we could make that would save a whole bunch of lives. Liberals blame the conservative obsession with the Second Amendment while conservatives advocate beefing up mental health initiatives. But real solutions will not emerge from blaming and either/or polarities.

A similar political refusal to address root causes has come back to haunt Israeli politicians — and massacre the innocent by the thousands in both Israel and Gaza. Netanyahu maintains his power with a coalition that ignored the longing of great numbers of Israeli citizens for a peace that can only come by looking into the mirror of equivalent Palestinian longings. While a subtle anti-Semitism often holds Israel to a higher standard than other nations, its reputation will take a tremendous hit from its military’s vain attempt to stamp out an idea, or an attitude, by collective punishment. The catastrophic destructiveness of Israel’s reaction, far from eliminating the cynical and nihilistic Hamas, will ensure a further generation of young men who see no alternative to murder and martyrdom. Hamas is playing Netanyahu like a violin.

There are plenty of wise citizens of Israel who, in spite of their tears and rage, have not been swept away by the siren voices of violent revenge. New Yorker editor David Remnick’s recent on-site report cites a retired army general named Yair Golan, who told Remnick: “When you have a crisis, like Pearl Harbor or September 11th, it is a multidimensional crisis, a multidimensional failure. [Netanyahu] wanted quiet. So, while Hamas was relatively quiet, Netanyahu saw no need to have a vision for the larger Palestinian question. And since he needed the support of the settlers and the ultra-Orthodox, he appeased them. He created a situation in which, so long as the Palestinian Authority was weak, he could create the over-all perception that the best thing to do was to annex the West Bank. We weakened the very institution that we could have worked with, and strengthened Hamas.”

The cycle of violence is clearly systemic and cyclical, with mistakes, missed chances, and the inability of some to take “yes” for an answer. The righteous assertions of blame churned out by all sides becomes so much static, irrelevant to the copious flow of innocent blood.

In like fashion, the U.S. head-in-the-sand fetish of gun rights guarantees an equivalent flow of blood will continue here. Robert Card lost the capacity to see his victims as fully human. Netanyahu heeds a voice within that tells him that only more violence can save his nation. He has been unable to see Palestinians as fully human, just as Hamas refuses to see Jews as fully human.

The paralysis that continues this cycle of mutual dehumanization engulfing thousands of families and children in the Middle East may be different from the paralysis in the U.S. that failed to prevent yet another troubled man with a gun from mass murder and suicide. But the two tragedies are not only indistinguishable in their heartrending pain and loss.

In Maine and in Gaza, violence became the last best way to subdue the “other.” Robert Card didn’t get adequate help for his illness, and acquired a gun far too easily. It could have gone another way. Hamas and Netanyahu each chose mindless revenge. It could have gone another way.

Winslow Myers, syndicated by PeaceVoice, is the author of Living Beyond War: A Citizen’s Guide and serves on the advisory board of the War Prevention Initiative.

Categories
Opinion The Last Word

More Than a Cease Fire, a Peace Fire

This wall facing the Gaza border reads the words “Path to Peace.” (Photo: Cole Keister | Unsplash)

As the October 7th war rages on — and despair grows — I can understand why some might think it naïve to highlight the work of Israelis and Palestinians who don’t just talk about peace but are making it. My heart is broken open, both for the victims and survivors in Israel, and the victims and survivors in Gaza. How to carry the pain?

In the wake of the brutal, unconscionable Hamas attack against Israeli Jews, and the decades of deadly oppression the Israeli government has perpetrated against Palestinians, could I ever recognize a sliver of hope? Yes. My broken heart may mend knowing there are Israeli and Palestinian groups looking beyond the decades of bloodshed, to a society based on understanding, respect, and equality. More than a cease fire, may their work, described below, ignite a peace fire.

Jewish and Palestinian volunteers in Israel created Standing Together to bring aid to victims of violence. Standing Together is one of the largest Arab-Jewish grassroots groups in Israel. It mobilizes Jewish and Palestinian citizens to pursue “peace, equality, and social and climate justice.” Their vision: “ … peace and independence for Israelis and Palestinians, full equality for all citizens.”

The ex-combatants who founded Combatants for Peace, the joint Israeli-Palestinian organization, were once part of the cycle of violence that plagues the region. Choosing to put down their weapons to promote peace, CP speaks out, supporting a two-state solution within the 1967 lines, “or any other solution reached through mutual agreement which would allow Israelis and Palestinians to lead free, safe, and democratic lives from a place of dignity in their homeland.”

Launched in 1995, the Parents Circle is another joint Israeli-Palestinian organization bringing together more than 600 families, who all have lost someone to the ongoing conflict. Managed by a joint Israeli-Palestinian board, they use educational resources, public meetings, and the media to spread ideas of reconciliation to achieve a just settlement based on empathy and understanding.

Israel-based Women Wage Peace (WWP) and its Palestinian sister, Women of the Sun, empower women on both sides to build trust and bolster support for peace in their communities and beyond. Founded after the 2014 Gaza War, WWP has 45,000 Israeli members, reportedly making it the largest grassroots peace movement in Israel. WWP looks at the Israeli-Palestinian struggle through a gendered lens, believing women should be at the heart of peace negotiations.

A growing number of integrated schools have been bringing Jewish and Palestinian children together to learn under one roof. Hand in Hand co-founder Lee Gordon says they “are creating a model of what Israel can and should look like.” Hand in Hand has six integrated Jewish-Arab schools in Israel. All students learn Hebrew and Arabic. They help parents get to know each other, run dialogue groups, organize picnics, sports teams, and community gardens.

Jerusalem Peacebuilders (JPB) brings together Israelis, Palestinians, and Americans to mentor future peace leaders. Sheltering after the recent attacks, founding director Rev. Canon Nicholas Porter described the “deadly futility” of warfare. “War begets only war; hatred begets only hatred. Jews, Christians, Muslims, and Druze do not wish to live like this.” Convinced that a new generation of leadership is required for a peaceful future, JPB trains teachers, women, and youth.

Road to Recovery is an Israeli volunteer association transporting Palestinian patients, primarily children, from checkpoints in the West Bank and Gaza to lifesaving treatments in Israeli hospitals. Its members assist with purchasing medical equipment and organize outings for patients and families. With 1200-plus Israeli and Palestinian volunteers, their mission is straightforward: healing through driving.

The B’Tselem: Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories works “for a future in which human rights, democracy, liberty, and equality are ensured for all people — Palestinian and Jewish alike — living between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.” B’Tselem believes that such a future “will only be possible when the Israeli occupation and apartheid regime end.” B’Tselem expresses the universal — and Jewish — moral edict to respect and uphold the human rights of all people.

Many of these groups have been at it for years, embodying Camus’ belief that “Peace is the only battle worth waging.” Still, I worry that their collective message of cooperation and collaboration will now be stifled instead of amplified. I worry that those of us who don’t want to see “grief weaponized” will be marginalized.

Many spiritual traditions believe that positive qualities, such as a good heart, reflect human beings’ true nature. They teach that even amid intense suffering there can be dignity and beauty. Even in the face of destruction and persecution there can be hope. Consider these Israeli and Palestinian groups. If they can hold onto possibility, retain their inner strength, and keep going in the face of suffering, so must I. So must we all.

Rob Okun (rob@voicemalemagazine.org) syndicated by PeaceVoice, is editor emeritus of Voice Male magazine, chronicling the antisexist men’s movement for more than 30 years. This article draws on research by journalist Gavin Haynes of Positive News.

Categories
Opinion The Last Word

The Truth May Hurt

Photo: Bahadir Yeniceri | Dreamstime

If the right gets its way, maybe in a decade or two, the United States will be free of its slave-owning past.

All gone — gone with the wind. It’s just not taught anymore. Yeah, we had a civil war — about “states’ rights” — and then we moved on: We conquered the West, saved the world first from the Nazis, then from
the commies, and remain the greatest country ever. Hurray for capitalism! Any questions?

Oh, one last thing: The commies — aka the Marxists — are still around. They’re everywhere. As Ben Burgis noted, Marxism means “anything conservatives find frightening.” I recently learned, for instance, that they’ve invaded the Smithsonian Institution — specifically, an exhibit about Latino history in the United States. As critics wrote a year ago in The Hill: “A new Latino exhibit at the National Museum of American History
offers an unabashedly Marxist portrayal of history, religion, and economics. It is, quite frankly, disgraceful.”

Indeed, the exhibit — which focuses on the history of Latino youth movements — is so outrageous, according to the critics, that it clearly demonstrates the need to cut congressionally approved funding for the construction of the National Museum of the American Latino, because … you know, the Marxists. Among their current tactics to undermine the greatest country ever is to write their own version of American history, which focuses on all the stuff we need to forget about.

Everyone knows about the ongoing conservative furor over schools teaching what they called “critical race theory.” This is a name they plunked from the world of academia and turned into an evil, Marxist plot to make (white) American children feel uncomfortable by forcing them to learn about how there used to be systemic racism in this country. That is, once upon a time, white America, in the wake of freeing the slaves and outlawing slavery, maintained its sense of supremacy by legally, and often violently, enforcing, as George Wallace once put it, “Segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever.” And of course, the essence of segregation was separate and unequal — from housing, jobs, and schools to bathrooms and drinking fountains.

From the conservative point of view: poof! It no longer exists, so it never happened. And those who insist otherwise are caught in the grip of Marxists — a term nowadays that simply means the purveyors of absolute evil. Beyond the teaching of history, here are a few other ways that Marxists, according to conservative writers and pundits, have infiltrated America:

• Global warming, aka climate justice, which, according to author Jordan Peterson, as quoted by Burgis, is “the new guise of murderous Marxism.”

• Black awareness, aka being woke. Ron DeSantis has described it as “a form of cultural Marxism,” which of course is pervading American schools.

• Gender equality. As AP reported, various Republicans, including DeSantis and Ted Cruz, have used the term cultural Marxism “to characterize fights for gender or racial equity that they argue are ‘woke’ and threaten a traditional American way of life.”

• Racial integration. Ah, the old days. In 1959, according to Current Affairs, protesters surrounded the Arkansas state capitol building in Little Rock, carrying signs that declared: “Race Mixing Is Communism.”

• The prosecution of Donald Trump. According to AP: “Hours after pleading not guilty in federal court, Trump told a crowd of his supporters at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, that Biden, ‘together with a band of his closest thugs, misfits, and Marxists, tried to destroy American democracy.’” He added that, even if the communists get away with this, “it won’t stop me.”

I’m sure there are more ways conservatives envision Marxists are trying to skewer the country’s greatness, or will in the future. For the moment, what continues to consume my attention is the right-wing desperation to control history and not simply challenge but banish any version of it that counters their certainty about who we are.

For instance, Alex Skopic at Current Affairs quotes author James Lindsay, who described efforts to address racial injustice in America as, in actuality, “the tip of a one-hundred-year-long spear that is being thrust into the side of Western civilization.” Ouch!

The present moment comes and goes. Apparently what matters is how — or whether — you talk about it afterwards. In other words, establishing our history creates the present. That’s the reason “critical race theory” is such a nuisance to the right wing. While I am willing to acknowledge that virtually any version of history is likely factually flawed and politically influenced, I would suggest to conservatives that trying to banish versions they don’t like, and writing them off as Marxist, will not make the truth go away.

History is not some kind of Biblical narrative: “In the beginning, God wrote the Declaration of Independence …” Or whatever. History is deeply complex and full of chaos. Our understanding of it is ever-shifting. Terrible things have occurred that need to be faced, addressed, and, eventually, transcended.

Johanna Fernandez, one of the historians who put together the Latino history exhibit that caused such a stir, said: “We live in La-La Land. White Americans, Black Americans, Latino Americans walking around, really not understanding who we are, why we’re here, and how we got to this place. What’s so dangerous about honestly grappling with the history of this country?”

Grappling with history versus trying to control (and erase) it. There’s a lot of truth in our past we still need to face, however much it may hurt.

Robert Koehler (koehlercw@gmail.com), syndicated by PeaceVoice, is a Chicago award-winning journalist and editor. He is the author of Courage Grows Strong at the Wound.

Categories
Opinion The Last Word

A Stronger United Nations

We all benefit from an era of global cooperation. (Photo: Bluraz | Dreamstime.com)

Addressing the UN Security Council on September 20, 2023, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky delivered a heartfelt plea “to update the existing security architecture in the world, in particular, to restore the real power of the UN Charter.”

This call for strengthening international security under the aegis of the United Nations makes sense not only for Ukraine — a country suffering from brutal military invasion, occupation, and annexation by its much larger, more powerful neighbor, the Russian Federation — but for the nations of the world.

For thousands of years, competing territories, nations, and empires have spilled rivers of blood and laid waste to much of the world through wars and plunder. Hundreds of millions of people have died, while many more have been horribly injured or forced to flee their shattered homelands in a desperate search for safety. World Wars I and II, capped off by the use of nuclear weapons to annihilate the populations of entire cities, brought massive suffering to people around the globe.

In 1945, this mad slaughter and devastation convinced farsighted thinkers, as well as many government leaders, that human survival was dependent upon developing a framework for international security: the United Nations. The UN Charter, adopted in a conference in the spring of that year in San Francisco by 50 Allied nations, declared that a key purpose of the new organization was “to maintain international peace and security.”

The UN Charter, which constitutes international law, included provisions detailing how nations were to treat one another in the battered world emerging from the Second World War. Among its major provisions was Article 2, Section 4, which declared that “all members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state.” Furthermore, Article 51 declared that “nothing in the present Charter shall impair the inherent right of individual or collective self-defense if an armed attack occurs against a member of the United Nations.”

Although the UN Charter provided for a General Assembly in which all member nations were represented, action to maintain international peace and security was delegated primarily to a UN Security Council with 15 members, five of whom (the United States, the Soviet Union, China, Britain, and France) were to be permanent members with the right to veto Security Council resolutions or action.

Not surprisingly, the right of any of these five nations to block Security Council peace efforts, a right they had insisted upon as the price of their participation in the United Nations, hamstrung the world organization from enforcing peace and international security on numerous occasions. The most recent instance has occurred in the case of the Ukraine War, a conflict in which, as Zelensky lamented, “all [Security Council] efforts are vetoed by the aggressor.” As a result, the United Nations has all too often lacked the power to enforce the principles of international law confirmed by its members and enshrined in its Charter.

Some people are perfectly content with the weakness of the United Nations. Fierce nationalists, as exemplified by Donald Trump and his Republican followers, are contemptuous of this or any international security organization, and many would prefer its abolition. Others have little use for the United Nations but, instead, place their hopes for the maintenance of international peace and stability upon public and governmental acceptance of great power spheres of influence. Meanwhile, a segment of the international Left ignores the United Nations and insists that world peace will only be secured by smashing “U.S. imperialism.”

Sadly, those forces opposing international organization and action fail to recognize that their proposals represent not only a return to thousands of years of international strife and mass slaughter among nations, but, in today’s world, an open door to a nuclear holocaust that will end virtually all life on earth.

Compared to this descent into international chaos and destruction, proposals to strengthen the United Nations are remarkably practical and potentially effective. Zelensky has suggested empowering the UN General Assembly to overcome a Security Council veto by a vote of two-thirds or more of the Assembly’s nations. In addition, he has proposed expanding the representation of nations in the Security Council, temporarily suspending membership of a Security Council member when it “resorts to aggression against another nation in violation of the UN Charter,” and creating a deterrent to international aggression by agreeing on the response to it before it occurs.

Of course, there are numerous other ways to strengthen the United Nations as a force for peace and to help ensure that it works as an effective international agency for battling the onrushing climate catastrophe, combating disease pandemics, and cracking down on the exploitative practices of multinational corporations. Its member nations could also rally behind the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (still unsigned by the nuclear powers), agree on a UN program to handle the burgeoning international refugee crisis, and provide the world organization with substantially greater financial resources to reduce global poverty and mass misery than it currently receives.

Indeed, the horrific Ukraine War is but the latest canary in the coal mine — the danger signal that people of all nations should recognize as indicating the necessity for moving beyond national isolation and beginning a new era of global responsibility, cooperation, and unity.

Dr. Lawrence Wittner, syndicated by PeaceVoice, is professor of history emeritus at SUNY/Albany and the author of Confronting the Bomb (Stanford University Press).

Categories
Opinion The Last Word

The ‘Conspiracy Industrial Complex’

Who’s to blame for conspiracy theories?(Photo: Alexskopje | Dreamstime.com)

When humans organize into societies, the foundational cement upon which they build them is as strong as their shared conviction in what they should look like. Principles like “Every child should receive an education,” “Quality healthcare is a right,” and “Justice should be fairly meted out regardless of class,” are just a few ingredients mixed by mortar and pestle to produce the basis for American institutions and the society they help create.

Polls show that most Americans still share the same convictions on issues such as healthcare, housing, labor relations, the economy, civil liberties, foreign policy, and education. However, the institutions created to build that society are failing. According to a 2022 Gallup poll, Americans’ trust in institutions has never been lower, with significant declines in trust in 11 of 16 institutions tested. From 2021 to 2022, the percentage of Americans declaring they had a “great deal” of confidence in the public education system fell from 32 percent to 28 percent. Confidence in healthcare declined from 44 percent to 38 percent, and confidence in the justice system eroded from 20 percent to 14 percent. Trust in the presidency, the Supreme Court, and Congress declined by 15, 11, and 7 points, respectively. From a wider historical lens, the percentage of Americans saying they had a great deal of trust in institutions declined from 48 percent in 1979 to 27 percent in 2022.

Americans rely on institutions to form the framework of their society. But to the degree that institutions shift from providing Americans with what they need to what the institutions think will make money, Americans will lose trust in them, disbelieve them, and seek other “credible sources” for information and support.

Just a few examples of institutions losing American support due in part to profit-seeking and corruption include:

• Education: From 1981 to 2021, the cost of attending a four-year college skyrocketed from $11,840/year to $30,031/year, a 153 percent increase over 40 years. Soaring costs of public universities and fraud committed by private colleges landed Generation X and millennials in $1.77 trillion in debt, even as their degrees increasingly failed to provide the quality of life those same degrees secured for their Baby Boomer parents. After experiencing this, is it any surprise today’s Gen X and millennial parents distrust the educational system, thus giving rise to conspiracy theories about what’s “really being taught” in our schools and universities?

• Healthcare: In the early-2000s, Purdue Pharma saw an opportunity to strike it big. They encouraged (and sometimes bribed) doctors to prescribe the opioid painkiller OxyContin under the farce that it was the non-addictive solution to acute and chronic pain. Purdue raked in billions of dollars while 280,000 Americans died from overdoses on prescription painkillers between 1999 and 2021. The Sackler family, owners of Purdue, are currently negotiating a multi-billion dollar settlement that would grant them immunity from all future civil litigation despite thousands dead in the name of Purdue’s “contribution to healthcare.” After Americans watched that crisis play out, is it any surprise some have turned to conspiracy theorists who offer “alternative healthcare,” like Alex Jones and his inventory of “health products’?

• Justice: The courts may still be public institutions, but they increasingly favor business interests over non-business interests. Data shows today’s Supreme Court is the most pro-business of all time, even more pro-business than the courts of the Gilded Age. Today’s court rules in favor of business interests 83 percent of the time, siding with big business to the detriment of the environment, civil liberties, and voting rights. Add to that the recent breaking news of conservative justices benefiting from the largesse of billionaire business tycoons who often have cases before those same justices, and it’s no surprise only one in four Americans has a great deal of confidence in SCOTUS.

• Politics: Politicians may be public officials, but often in name only. Case in point, researchers at Princeton University found that one’s wealth is a direct barometer for political representation. The bottom 90 percent of income earners in the U.S. see their preferred legislation pushed for and passed by their elected representatives just 30 percent of the time. Meanwhile, the top 10 percent of income earners see their preferred legislation pushed for and passed 61 percent of the time. After watching candidates make grandiose promises on the campaign trail and immediately forgo those promises once elected so they can serve the interests of their big donors, is it any wonder many Americans have attached themselves to conspiracy theories about politicians and elections?

A population rife with conspiracy theories is not a feature of a healthy society. However, Americans do themselves a disservice when they ostracize people who believe in such theories. For one thing, conspiracy theories occasionally prove to be true, as in the case of MK-Ultra, the Gulf of Tonkin incident, or the Tuskegee experiments. But even when they don’t, Americans’ collective ire should never be solely directed at the conspiracy theorists or the and fame-seeking hucksters who are often behind the scenes peddling such theories for personal gain.

Rather, Americans must demand accountability from the institutions whose consummate failures led to the growth of the Conspiracy Industrial Complex. U.S. institutions exist to serve the Americans who formed them, not the interests of private capital or the wealthy elites who see every aspect of American society as something to profit from.

Returning America from the brink of a dystopian nightmare where millions wander a landscape of their own invented reality will only occur when trust in institutions is restored. And that can only happen if those institutions are returned to their foundational purpose of serving regular Americans, not Wall Street investors and billionaire business executives.

Ren Brabenec is a Nashville-based freelance writer and journalist. He reports on politics, local issues, environmental stories, foreign policy, and the economy. This commentary originally appeared in Tennessee Lookout (tennesseelookout.com).

Categories
Opinion The Last Word

Traveling Miss America

A bunch of Americans, not in America (Photo: Courtesy Izzy Wollfarth)

There’s nothing more humbling than being an American in a country that is not America. This summer I traveled to London where I stayed for a month and then for 10 days after, I traveled to Switzerland, Milan, Paris, Amsterdam, Rome, Florence, and Venice. My travels lasted for about five weeks but gave me enough knowledge to last a lifetime. I first realized my Americanness when I was in London standing on the Tube — the subway equivalent for you American folk. Me and my friends were all laughing about something hilarious. Amidst the heavy laughter, I stopped and looked around. We were the loudest voices on the Tube. The babies around us had not even touched the sound decibels we had reached. Another incident like this was on July 4th. Of course, on this day, I was in London. Even though we talked loudly and there were about 30 of us in a pack, I thought my friends and I were good at flying under the radar. I put myself in the shoes of a local and thought, “Ah, yes, it’s just another normal day for us Londoners.” This ended rather quickly when someone on the street wished us a “Happy Independence Day.” Rats. I would never fit in here.

When venturing to Paris, I had a big ego. I have been taking French since middle school, almost 10 years now. I had always told my relatives that I was fluent in French and most certainly could hold any conversation. On our train ride from Amsterdam to Paris, I voiced in my head how to order different meals at restaurants. I even practiced scenarios where I negotiated prices at markets and shops. No matter how out of place I might look — I never went anywhere without my fanny pack — or feel, I would blend in easily. Only being in Paris for a day or two, there were slim opportunities to use my French. It’s like everybody knew we were Americans. It was like when you finally turn 21 and the bartender doesn’t even ask to see your ID. They always know. On our final day in Paris, me and my travel buddy set off to the train station. Our next destination was Zurich, Switzerland. In a final feeble attempt, I stopped at a nearby café. With rising fear and anxiety, I approached a sweaty and overwhelmed French man behind the bar. “Je voudrais un pain au chocolat et — ” cut off, in a thick French accent. “Please, order in English, it’s easier.” Ah! The utter shame. What a stupid American I am!

For the rest of the trip, I was even more aware of my American identity. On our train ride from Basel to Zurich, we sat across a Swiss man and a Parisienne man — this is not an assumption, but a fact gathered from extensive eavesdropping. After a full day of traveling and lugging two 40-pound suitcases upstairs, I was a little delusional and big-mouthed. My introductory question to the Parisienne man was, “Do people from Paris hate Americans?” The man laughed. The answer was obvious under his wide smile and averted eyes. In the corner of my eye, I saw a woman snickering at our conversation. Oh, I had forgotten that I was the loudest person on the train. After some moments, the Parisienne man looked at me and said, “I can’t speak for all French people, but I think you are okay.” Even though this was a basic and almost expected answer, it lifted my heart.

This whole trip, I had been gleefully assuming that I was a nuisance to the countries I was entering. I had been hyper aware of myself as an American and I didn’t like it. But it’s not about me, is it? I had entered these countries and aside from the customs officers, no one had invited me to enter these places. Entering these countries was a self-commitment to be present in different cultures and respectful of the spaces around me. The people on the Tube didn’t tell us to quiet down; they just put in their headphones and probably prayed for us to shut up. These men on the train had no concern about where we were from; instead, they met us with smiles and laughter. Considering the French man behind the counter, maybe my French pronunciation was just hard to understand, and he wasn’t in the mood to be patient. We are all different. Sometimes in more ways than not. What makes us different makes our conversations more interesting and the journey to understanding more fruitful. You’re not a dumb American. You’re someone on their journey to understanding. You’re working to understand the cultures and customs that are different from yours yet beautiful in their own ways. Maybe, a quiet Tube ride is what most people need in the mornings. Noted.

Izzy Wollfarth is a Rhodes College student and intern at Contemporary Media, Inc.

Categories
Opinion The Last Word

One Day for Labor Day Is Not Enough

Photo: Redwood8 | Dreamstime

The state of labor this year is so fraught, so weighted with issues and problems, that a single day of homage and reflection doesn’t seem enough. It’s as if a year or more is needed to engage the issues, challenges, and possibilities facing American workers today. Consider the following:

Some 37.9 million Americans, about 11.6 percent of the population, live in poverty. But as sociologist Matthew Desmond has noted, about one in three Americans lives in a household with an income of $55,000 per year or less, an income barely enough to cover the rising costs of rent, healthcare, and food. Some 10.2 percent of American households (13.5 million households) have been food insecure, lacking access at one time or another to an adequately nutritious diet.

At the same time, organizations that best represent the material interests of working people — labor unions — are at an all-time low in membership (10.1 percent), down from 20.1 percent of working adults in 1983, when comparable data was first available. As studies have shown, unionized workers tend to make wages higher than those of non-union workers, and they tend to be less vulnerable to such corporate labor strategies as outsourcing.

But outdated labor laws and weak enforcement continue to hamper the efforts of thousands of workers seeking to organize unions and achieve fair collective bargaining agreements. Despite some important successes (e.g. the wage raises and safety provisions recently won by UPS workers), major employers like Starbucks and Amazon stonewall negotiations, and union busting remains a lucrative enterprise: a highly effective instrument deployed by many companies.

To complicate matters, AI has entered the workplace, threatening jobs in call centers and other places of employment — and remaining a contentious issue in ongoing strikes by screenwriters and actors.

Recent polling indicates that public support for unions (71 percent) is the highest it’s been since 1965. But it’s one thing to indicate approval on an opinion poll; it’s another to express that support in concrete ways.

One way, of course, is to continue educating oneself about labor issues and the way they’re played out in public discourse. With the 2024 election 14 months away, for example, one can scrutinize the words and actions of candidates who profess to care about working families.

Consider, for example, South Carolina Senator Tim Scott’s declaration, at the recent Republican presidential debate, that “the only way we change education in this nation, is to break the backs of the teachers unions.” What does it mean to represent unions in this way — to erase any consideration of teachers as both parents and as members of a community?

And what kinds of legislation, what kinds of policies, best represent the interests of workers — like those at Starbucks and Amazon — who seek to organize and achieve fair contracts? Consider the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act, which, among other things, would make it illegal for employers to force workers to attend anti-union, captive audience meetings. The PRO Act was passed by Congress in 2021, but it has since languished in the Senate. What will it take for basic legislation like this to become law?

Behind these questions lies the fundamental issue of accountability. How to hold candidates and public officials accountable for stances and actions that help or hinder workers? How to hold ourselves accountable as citizens, willing to take the extra steps to look beyond campaign rhetoric as educated and discerning voters? And how to look around our own neighborhoods — informing ourselves of local labor issues, respecting (even joining) picket lines, and supporting workers’ rights to organize whenever possible?

The need for accountability applies to unions and union members as well. In my home city of Los Angeles, where screenwriters and actors continue their strikes, 32,000 low-wage hotel workers have also been on strike for two months. In a city where exorbitant rents have made it impossible for housekeepers or hotel bartenders to live where they work, the union is demanding not only better wages, but, among other things, a 7 percent surcharge on rooms to help fund affordable housing for workers.

Strongly contested by the hotel owners, this latter demand nevertheless shows a unique kind of accountability: not only a union’s investment in fair wages, working conditions, and benefits for workers, but also an investment in the housing stock and well-being of entire communities.

This Labor Day was marked by requisite speeches, marches, and other forms of observance. And it should. But may it also mark a deepening, an intensifying, of the ongoing struggle for workers’ rights and labor justice.

Andrew Moss, syndicated by PeaceVoice, writes on labor and immigration from Los Angeles. He is an emeritus professor (nonviolence studies, English) from the California State University.