I try to balance how often I go into race and politics for this blog. Friday night, at a Beautiful Resistance, the host said she has learned it’s not balance, it’s harmony. Like, sometimes there’s going be a little more bass. I’m here for the bass this week. Some have said, I’ve had enough, I’m on the fence, all variations on a theme with the current presidential election cycle in the US. Sure, a lot of us are tired, but I can’t disengage, I can’t tap out. As a African American female, my life depends on it. With the current news cycle, the story of Sonya Massey may have been lost on a large majority of the population who have an option to tap out. I don’t. While social media can be an echo chambers and isolate you with views that mirror your own, when there is a groundswell of fact checked truths, social media is a leading indicator. I’ll let instagram (IG) provide some context. I’m not here to say who to vote for, but please consider what to vote against.
You’ve probably seen some things about stop Project 2025 in 2024. GOP candidate Trump has disavowed knowledge of project 2025, though he’s mentioned in the plan over 200 times and he used the policy strategy from the Heritage foundation in 2016. Given he is prone to alternative facts, use his agenda 47 which has his platform and policy plans. Of note is to increase protection from legal liability of police officers and push policies like stop and frisk. Legal protection from liability means police officers can plant evidence, falsify statements, go rogue like the Mississippi’s goon squad and be protected from prosecution. Legal protection from liability means a police officer, like the one who murdered Sonya Massey are protected.1 Sonya Massey was shot three times in the face by a police officer, the callous and foul language used by the officer and the lack of remorse or shock at what he’d done is horrifying. I don’t have the option to tap out or to make a comfort assumption like he/she must have done something. I am someone who is commonly the only person of color in the room. Don’t dismiss this, if you have not lived it constantly. I know there are some who can take comfort well I’m not black or female like Sonya Massey, not an issue. Or, I’m not poor and white like some of the goon squad victims; but if you read this, you’re human.
Agenda 47 also has plans for education. No federal funding for any school that teaches critical race theory. The definition of critical race theory has been turned into anything about race. This objective will nationally codify for both schools and corporations, the bill passed in the Florida senate in 2022 that bans any lessons that make people feel guilty about their race. In some form or another, 23 states have sought to ban teaching racial history. 23! Got it. We’ll just ignore that Texas was part of Mexico until 1836. We’ll skip over the history of the Native Americans and the land stolen from them and continue with historical fiction of Europeans landing in a new world. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 is no longer taught and the Japanese Internment Camps in the US during WWII didn’t really happen. Or is it just African American history of kidnapped and enslaved people and things like the 1619 Project that are prohibited? Y’all stop playing dumb and teaching dumber.
There are numerous items in agenda 47. Like the elimination of the current accreditation system for college and universities. As a member the board of trustees for a computer college, I recently participated in a small portion of this process. Maybe you can tap out of the law enforcement, economic and race, but this policy will tap the US out of higher education. Things can always be better, but the criteria and rigor in place for current accreditation is a marvel. As a reminder, DJT’s Trump University, the real estate training programing, was sued and ended with a $25 million settlement for fraud. Now, the same person with a fraudulent university wants to abolish the current accreditation system for universities. Something in the buttermilk ain’t clean.
This week consider what’s at stake. GOP Vice Presidential Candidate stated because I am childless, I don’t have an interest in the future and my vote should not count as much. To be fair, he made that statement on July 29, 2021, to be fairer, he doubled down on it two days ago. Well, I might be around another 20 or 30 years, I have family, friends and a community. I am invested in the future and I vote.
If you are silent about your pain, they’ll kill you and say you enjoyed it.
Zoa Neale Hurston
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Balancing on Unstable Surfaces 
Yes this
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