Sometime in the next few months I will complete my 70th trip around the sun. I remember huddling under my desk at St. Brendan School during the nuclear drills, I remember praying in class during the Cuban Missile Crisis, long before I became the house agnostic after a full indoctrination and years and years of examining the irony of my “raised religion” that allowed decades of abuse both financial and yes, physical (pedophile priests anyone??) I remember the draft lottery during the Vietnam war (and going on a 3 day bender when my number was birthday was picked at #309…meaning I had zero chance of being drafted and sent over). I remember the riots in NYC, I remember Son of Sam and how terrified we all were during that “event”. All of that does not compare to the dangers of today, not even close. I’m not even talking about the current climate of war in Eastern Europe or the still lingering and hovering cloud of Covid (though for my money, the vax has taken quite a chunk out of that worry).

I’m talking about the storms brewing and surfacing in Texas and other states regarding trashing Roe v. Wade. I’m most especially talking about Pharaoh DeSantis in Florida and his new plan to ban books…

Let that sink in Book Banning…including his latest opus…math text books…

What’s at stake here is thinking, and learning, and learning to be critical and open to taking in reliable, factual information and being allowed, never mind encouraged, to think for oneself. I have run into, and worked with, many educators who I fundamentally did not agree with, but in every case there was the ability to discuss and exchange ideas. This is what is at risk, the powerful have taken the founding concept of democratic ideas and sublimated them to the point where we are headed head long, toward despotism. Where only the powerful will have a say, where they will do all to protect their thrones and to where they will appeal to fear and hate that has never been removed since the founding of this nation on the backs of slaves and other put upon workers. To where a tax law change allows for full deductions for private aircraft, but caps deductions for legit taxes paid by the workers who most need it.

I don’t have solutions, or ever suggestions, even our most powerful tool of change, the ballot box, is under siege. Harder to vote, claiming a fully examined, fair result is a “steal”. All I can do is put it out there….knowledge is, in fact, powerful. Read, examine, listen to all sides, and most importantly, check the facts then check them again.

Bottom line is pretty simple….really treat everyone the way you would want to be treated…there’s nothing more powerfully good than that.