SAM
In the wake of the insanity of 2020 and now the first 2 weeks of 2021, how are you holding up?
I felt like I wanted to explode on January 06, 2021 in a fit of rage. The weirdest part is that everything felt surreal. Like I was watching some sort of weird movie. I’m still sorting out my feelings and really not sure where I will land with all of this.
My logical brain has me going in one direction and my heart has me going on a totally different path. But then I realize that in 2011 when I was still teaching high school American Government I felt the same way with the Snyder v Phelps case. So many damn emotions……
In the short term I know that I need to feel confident in my own body and brain to support my family, so I’m going to maintain my daily chores and plug along. I will work through my feelings in my own way and that will probably take longer than I would like, but who cares.
However, there is one thing I’m really struggling with and that is the right of individual companies to censor people.
Granted, I will be upfront, I do not and did not like President Trump – but I also didn’t like Hillary Clinton, nor do I like Joe Biden. I think they are all crooked!
But what the Supreme Court decision of Citizens United has done to allow corporations to have more rights and privileges like regular citizens has now come to a head in my mind. I couldn’t stand the PACs or Super PACs to start, but now we have corporations choosing to censor what people are saying.
One thing about freedom of speech is that we all have it. We are all granted that unalienable right to speak our mind. We do not have to like or agree with the other person, but they have the right to say what they feel is right. I do not like the KKK or Westboro Baptist Church, but I also would not take away their right to freedom of speech.
Let’s put all the cards on the table, if they are saying things publicly that are bad – imagine what they are saying behind closed doors. At least if it is out in the air and visible for us all to make our OWN DECISIONS, we have a way to trace things back to a source. I would rather know that a KKK rally is coming to my town so my family and I can choose what is best for us. Do we stay and protest or do we just leave for the day? It doesn’t mean I have to like what they say or do, but it does inform me of who I can trust in my own community.
Freedom of speech is a fundamental right that was allocated in the first Amendment because the Founding Father’s felt it so crucial that we all had the opportunity to be seen and heard.
It doesn’t matter what side you are on; we are all American. Frankly, I don’t believe we should even have a 2-party system in this country. George Washington warned us about the polarizing effects of political parties in his Farewell Address. Our 2-party system has numbed us so much as a country that the 535 members of Congress get away with constantly creating Christmas Tree Bills laded with tons of pork tacked on. And it has allowed for big corporations to take away the power of the “little guy,” anyone who dissents.
What would they have done if they did not agree with Ruth Bader Ginsburg? My hero, and her famous quote,
“I DISSENT!”
It’s all a lot to take in. So, if you got this far, in the words of my best friend Ellie “BREATHE!” You’ve got this!
