The Kult Of Kentucky!

 On my ballot in Kentucky this year is an initiative which would allow a change to the state's constitution. It's called "Amendment 2" and it reads in part thusly:

"The General Assembly may provide financial support for the education of students outside the system of common schools." 

Such a change would allow the Republican super-majority in the Commonwealth's legislature to generate funding or shift funds to private schools such as charter schools and other private institutions, as well potentially religious schools. The latter seems a clear violation of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, but I rather suspect the current Supreme Court would support this outlay of tax funds. If such would be the case, I as a taxpayer would be supporting a religion I did not necessarily share. 

Even more immediate is that Kentucky public schools are generally strapped for funding despite being in the top half (barely) of the states in the nation. We were once near the bottom of the rankings. Nearly all of that improvement resulted from a court decision way back in 1991, at the beginning of my career which transformed funding in the state. For nearly fifteen years the state's schools saw tremendous improvements (relatively speaking of course) but in this century, slowly and bit by bit the changes made as a result of the 1991 ruling have been chipped away. As the reforms and the money have withered so have the results, especially in many of the counties in my state which are poor. Kentucky has the honor of having the poorest county in the nation within its borders. As it turned out my late wife was from that county. 

Another reason for these changes is one which won't be discussed openly - a desire to racially resegregate the schools. The schools in Kentucky were forced to desegregate when I was a young student in the late 60's. It didn't matter much in my isolated Appalachian community as there were virtually no people of another race living there. But in places like Louisville there was violence. Race animus fuels so much of American politics.

I don't know how this vote will go, but if this amendment wins passage, we will almost immediately see a wholesale strip mining of public-school resources. My eldest daughter still teaches publics school and the need for teachers is so desperate that I don't fear for her job. But I do dread that her job will become more and more difficult as tax funds meant to support her efforts for all Kentucky students regardless of race, creed, or color are siphoned away so that upper-class Christian white folks can get a break on private school tuition. 

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The Mob Who Loved The Swastika!

The outrageous display in Madison Square Garden last night was a new low point in the history of the United States. In outright imitation of a Nazi rally held in the Garden in 1939 in support of Hitler's Germany, we get an official Republican Party event intentionally designed to resemble it now in the Fall of 2024. Of course, at the head of this dark discourse was our very own "Sweet Potato Hitler" -- Donald Trump. He wanted to give New York City a fresh black eye I suppose and at the same time bellow to his critics that he was still relevant. 

And tragically it's the truth. With too many crimes to list and too many scandals to monitor, the leader of the Republican Party spews his hate, assisted by a phalanx of fellow haters, folks with big mouths and black hearts. In place of Hitler's Jews, we have Haitian migrants, here legally. Instead of fomenting hate against the Romani, we see hate intended to scare Hispanics. "Send Them Back!" has become the "Build That Wall!" of this latest vile campaign. Puerile nativism at its ugliest. 

But without question the moment of the night came long before Trump took the podium when a "comedian" proclaimed that there was an "Island of Garbage" in the middle of the ocean, and it was named Puerto Rico -- an American territory. All the F-Bombs, insults, and lies that were to follow had a hard time topping that piece of rancid rhetoric. I'm a defender of transgressive comedy and this was certainly that, except it failed in one important regard -- it wasn't funny -- not even a little bit.  

Like the Insurrection on January 6, 2020, Trump and his lowlife cronies have given the nation another dark day to record. When this gang of malcontents are washed away by time, these critical low points moments will be recorded. Like the Nazi Rally so many decades ago which is seen with shame today, so too will this latest debacle be understood to be a time when a hateful madness overtook too many Americans still mired in the racism which has sadly been a feature of our history. Either that, or we're all fucked. (Don't blame me, they said it first.)

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The Race War Rages!

The race continues. 

My various schemes to distract myself from the election to-and-fro have been marginally successful, but with less than two weeks to go until the decision, it gets more and more difficult. I suddenly wish I had a job to so that I could be distracted by that. It's a "race war" which rages inside myself, in that I am at war with my own better judgment not to pay attention to the race. 

What passes for the Republican Party these days has been doing all manner of stunts to distract the voters from their dismal candidate. Crazy polls get dropped into the averages to raise his chances in the minds of flaccid media who can always be counted on to miss the story time and time again. I cannot but worry that America's ingrained misogynism cuts against a supremely qualified candidate as it did a decade ago when this madness unleashed upon us. I cannot shake the nervousness when I realized that despite his mountain of negatives, the race remains competitive. Again, I believe the good guys will win, but that it's not a rout already makes me very sad indeed. Some Americans seem all too eager to elect Doctor Evil as president. 

But enough for now -- where's my book. 

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It Takes A Woman!

It feels to me like Kamela Harris is winning the election. Others are coming around to that conclusion and early voting suggests that the much-desired victory might be a big one. She kept her powder dry, and now is appearing in a host of venues, letting the Americans and the world know who she is. She's focused and tough as well as compassionate. Whether it's snapping back at a Fox News troll who is trying to trick her into denigrating other Americans or whether it's taking the time to insist a grieving woman gives voice to the name of her departed mother, Kamela has shown us what it's like to replace fear with courage and dread with hope. We are perhaps only a few weeks away from very likely seeing how America will be different with a woman guiding the ship, taking the hand off from a great leader in President Biden. Let's all keep those positive vibes! 

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The Powers Of Nature!

We have witnessed what becomes of our meager civilization when the natural world is roused. Monstrous hurricanes have ravaged the much of the Southern United States. Florida has been hit a few times and even the mountains of western North Carolina have proven to unsafe from these new more powerful storms. It's not unprecedented but it's extraordinarily rare and that rarity is what is changing. But what can we do but batten down the hatches and hold on. It's probably too late to stop the engine of climate change now that it's chugging along.  We could stop lying to ourselves, but that's unlikely as well. 

Without doubt, other than profound loss of life and horrific damage these storms will create, the greatest victim has been the truth. Yet again we see a presumptive "leader" of our society use tragedy as opportunity and lie to help himself by damaging his rivals. And then his toadies echo his lies. What is lost in this exchange, is that we are all victims or potential victims of these events and by breaking the trust between a government and its people, especially in these desperate times costs lives. When one thinks a person cannot get lower, he manages to find a way. 

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A Balanced Approach!

What few readers I might have here might have noticed that I've slacked off here in more recent weeks. The reason it two-fold. I firmly believe that Kamela Harris and Tim Walz will win in November and that the world will be spared a second Trump administration. The other is that keeping close tabs on the give and take of the election is actively bad for my health. To say that the outrageous behavior of Trump and his lackeys enrages me is to put it mildly. These people are planning to steal the Presidency, but I am confident that there are people prepared to forestall that outcome. I have to believe that. 

The folks who care for me want me to consider my health above other concerns and I respect their wishes. So, if the posts are fewer than this summer, don't think I've given up. I'm just taking precautions. I have to balance my desire to engage the political world with the need to stay healthy. Wish me luck. Wish us all luck, that in a few weeks this nightmare will begin to be over. 

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What Me One Hundred?

Former President Jimmy Carter is 100 years old today. A remarkable feat for anyone, especially a man who saw the stress of four years in the White House. That has to shave off at least a few years. Carter came into office in the wake of Watergate. He was the Democratic answer to a Republican problem. (Sound familiar?) He came to Washington as a successful governor of Georgia and brought with him a team which took some time to find its footing in the White House. Not unlike Barrack Obama he had some difficulty finagling with Congress, especially in a time mired in a lackluster economy.

But he was the man who brokered the first peace agreement between Israel and Egypt. He saw the future and knew that coal and oil were the energy source of the past. I often imagine what the world might have been like for Americans if we had as a nation embraced the changes Carter sought. He was the President who truly brought the Vietnam War to an end when he pardoned those who had escaped the clutches of the draft.  His work with Habitat for Humanity has been transformative in the public mind, and suggests that Presidents need to be more than just onlookers when they leave office. He might has lusted in his heart, but he and his wife Rossalyn brought dignity to an office which has in recent memory been disgraced. 

It was a flagging economy and a failed efforts to rescue the Iranian hostages which denied Carter a second term. The former he could only endure and lead us through, the latter was actively undermined we learn in recent years by his political opponent Ronald Reagan. I am shocked that more is not made of this stunning news, especially in a time when such behavior has become normalized by the Republican Party. 

In the final analysis though, Jimmy Carter had the makings of a great President, but he has remained all his long life a great man. Happy Birthday Jimmy! 

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