NOT ARTS - A PERSONAL POST

I don't know how many people even see these blog posts, but it's a handy place to post my thoughts about what is going on in our country right now. Please feel free to share widely.

What is important to you? How about:

- Free Speech
- Due Process
- Social Security
- Healthcare / Medicaid / Medicare

The current administration is doing away with all of these things.

Maybe you don't care about Jimmy Kimmel's show, but you should care that he was taken off the air because the President didn't like what he was saying.

Maybe you don't pay much attention to the press corps and their reporting of government actions, but you should care that members of some publications aren't being allowed into press conferences, and that those covering the Pentagon are required to get approval for what they are going to publish.

Maybe you're many years away from collecting Social Security, so raising the age from 65 to 69 doesn't seem like a big deal. But what if you are 64 and have been counting on collecting Social Security AND getting Medicare coverage, and now it's 5 years away, instead of 1, assuming that it's even still available in 5 years.

Maybe you don't have kids, so you don't pay much attention to Education issues. But today's school children are tomorrow's doctors, mechanics, business owners, electricians, journalists. Dumbing down our schools is dumbing down our society.

You haven't seen or heard of any ICE activity near you. That doesn't mean it isn't happening. Are you really ok with people being snatched off the street, grabbed as they leave work or home, taken as they go to their scheduling greencard check-in? Are you really ok with "detention centers" where the inmates aren't allowed to speak to a lawyer or their families, where they aren't given enough to eat, where they are denied medical attention, where people are actually DYING in custody?

You aren't in LA or DC, so you don't care about armed National Guard members being posted there. You've swallowed the lies about high crime rates (not true), and making the cities safer (not true). This is Military Occupation of our own cities!

If you paid any attention at all in your history classes, you should recognize that the US is well along the path of an authoritarian takeover.

Does any of this ring a bell? "Fascism is characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hierarchy, subordination of individual interests for the perceived interest of the nation or race, and strong regimentation of society and the economy."

Maybe you personally haven't been affected by anything yet. But no doubt you have friends, neighbors, colleagues, family members who are affected. Have you been dismissing their worries? It's time to listen. It's time to be worried for yourself. It's time to take action.

Join the Movement on 10/18

Stand up for Democracy, Stand up for Rights for All, Stand up for Freedom

https://www.nokings.org/

Get information:

https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/
https://robertreich.substack.com/
https://statuskuo.substack.com/
https://meidasnews.com/
https://www.reuters.com/
https://www.facebook.com/cwdailynews - summaries of news highlights

Get involved:

https://indivisible.org/
https://www.fiftyfifty.one/
https://www.womensmarch.com/
https://front.moveon.org/

Find a 10/18 event near you:

https://www.nokings.org/#map