Uncertain New Year
When I first made two shots of my 2017 New Years Day meal, it was originally just a photo about my traditional Texas meal of black eyed peas and sweet potatoes, and maybe it would include some wisdom for the upcoming year. However, upon looking at both photo attempts, it was impossible to hide my anxiety. I fear for my life and everything I hold dear. The 2016 election results that were announced in the wee hours of 11/9 were far more shocking than the events of 9/11 in the once hopeful and futuristic year of 2001.
In the short term, Human Rights are most at risk. While Trump doesn't seem to have animosity toward LGBT people, many of his supporters do, and he will empower them to set back our social progress and civil liberties. The Republican crooks that run the Texas state government already said they plan to pass "bathroom bills" that would make it almost impossible for trans-women like me to work and go out in public. If they can deny transgender people the right to pee in the appropriate restroom, they can bring back UNLEADED “Whites Only” water fountains and restrict Black people to use the “Colored” water fountain (which may turn out to be LEADED as in Flint, MI). If and when LGBT Civil Rights are halted or rolled back by "bathroom bills" and other means, you can bet racial segregation will be re-imposed. ALL attacks on Civil Rights must be opposed as a unified effort by all progressive parties. We must all stick together because nobody is truly free unless we are all free.
Already, police officers can stop, harass, search, and MURDER People of Color and get away with it: who's next on their approved hit list? Perhaps they will add senior, white, 6'3" tall, transsexual women who happen to be environmentalists and transit/train advocates. Anyone who sees me up close and listens to what I have to say will guess what I am and what I stand for, but presently I am in less danger of being spotted (and possibly gunned down) as an Enemy of the Fascist Corporate State when I am walking a block away than my Black sisters and brothers simply going about their business.. Of course the Surveillance State empowered by laws passed after 9/11 might be snooping on my emails, listening to my phone conversations, scrutinizing my purchases, and tracking my car or transit movements – if they feel like it and take the time. On one hand Trump supports “stop and frisk” police tactics, opposes Net Neutrality, harasses the free press, yet he doesn’t trust our intelligence agencies on international affairs. One thing is certain, unless we are all blown up as a result of one of Trump's temper tantrums, white men as the majority demographic class in the US will shrink into a minority within a few decades and lose their undeserved power. That is why the rednecks are scarred.
In the mid-term, I fear a possible war caused by the misunderstandings of someone who doesn't know a damn thing about such matters but always insists on getting his way, promoting his name, and cheating his customers, workers, and wives. Unlike the CHICKENHAWK Trump who beats the war drum but was too cowardly to serve in the military, I served in US Army during 1971-99 and participated in border patrols, nuclear alerts, anti-terrorist sweeps, and certain armed interventions that managed to stay out of public view. Overall, the world is far less dangerous than it was in the Cold War because nuclear and conventional arms levels among the major powers have been cut by more than half, and those forces are usually not deployed along hostile borders nor kept on the same kind of hair trigger alert as in the old days. Other than raw nationalism and personality clashes, there are no major ideological differences between the major powers. International terrorism (mostly by poorly-equipped, non-national groups) is the major source of armed conflict, but that is nothing new and did not start in September 2001. The biggest risk of war is due to miscalculation by an erratic, egotistical President who does not regularly attend intelligence briefings and may very well be in financial debt to Russian banksters.
Even more likely is worsening economic inequality in the US and environmental disasters caused by a Climate Change denier President and his top advisers. In the long term, complete environmental collapse due to Climate Change is almost certain unless we stop playing around and start making major changes. In response to Global Warming and other environmental problems, we need a massive World War II sized industrial effort to change our energy use from dependence on fossil fuels to renewable sources like solar and wind; our transportation to prioritize walking, biking, urban mass transit, and both intercity passenger and freight rail service powered by electricity rather than continued dependence on cars and trucks; sub-urban sprawl superseded by walkable, human-scaled, multi-use urban communities; and industrial factory farming replaced by organic farming. As a desirable secondary benefit, this will create lots of jobs, but the primary benefit is the creation of infrastructure to support cleaner and more sustainable energy use, transportation, and both urban and rural land use.
Politics As Usual has all but destroyed our democracy, and Business As Usual will destroy any environment capable of supporting human civilization. The situation is not hopeless, but we can no longer delay in taking major remedial action. In my lifetime, Presidents Carter and Clinton largely wasted time needed to remediate the wasteful and destructive environmental effects of human civilization, Presidents Reagan and both Bushes actively impeded progress, and President Obama was largely thwarted in his efforts due to racists in Congress and many state legislatures that could not bear to see a Black President succeed in doing anything productive. Sea levels are rising along the Texas Gulf Coast, our western aquifers are drying up, our mountain glaciers are melting away and reducing their water output downstream, and our seasonal weather has gotten more extreme. Will the incoming President Trump do anything to remedy the situation other than have “golden showers” with Russian prostitutes? Or will Amerika's new Fuhrer serve to legitimize the Rape Culture and environmental rape and to perpetuate White Male Privilege above all others?
Uncertain New Year
When I first made two shots of my 2017 New Years Day meal, it was originally just a photo about my traditional Texas meal of black eyed peas and sweet potatoes, and maybe it would include some wisdom for the upcoming year. However, upon looking at both photo attempts, it was impossible to hide my anxiety. I fear for my life and everything I hold dear. The 2016 election results that were announced in the wee hours of 11/9 were far more shocking than the events of 9/11 in the once hopeful and futuristic year of 2001.
In the short term, Human Rights are most at risk. While Trump doesn't seem to have animosity toward LGBT people, many of his supporters do, and he will empower them to set back our social progress and civil liberties. The Republican crooks that run the Texas state government already said they plan to pass "bathroom bills" that would make it almost impossible for trans-women like me to work and go out in public. If they can deny transgender people the right to pee in the appropriate restroom, they can bring back UNLEADED “Whites Only” water fountains and restrict Black people to use the “Colored” water fountain (which may turn out to be LEADED as in Flint, MI). If and when LGBT Civil Rights are halted or rolled back by "bathroom bills" and other means, you can bet racial segregation will be re-imposed. ALL attacks on Civil Rights must be opposed as a unified effort by all progressive parties. We must all stick together because nobody is truly free unless we are all free.
Already, police officers can stop, harass, search, and MURDER People of Color and get away with it: who's next on their approved hit list? Perhaps they will add senior, white, 6'3" tall, transsexual women who happen to be environmentalists and transit/train advocates. Anyone who sees me up close and listens to what I have to say will guess what I am and what I stand for, but presently I am in less danger of being spotted (and possibly gunned down) as an Enemy of the Fascist Corporate State when I am walking a block away than my Black sisters and brothers simply going about their business.. Of course the Surveillance State empowered by laws passed after 9/11 might be snooping on my emails, listening to my phone conversations, scrutinizing my purchases, and tracking my car or transit movements – if they feel like it and take the time. On one hand Trump supports “stop and frisk” police tactics, opposes Net Neutrality, harasses the free press, yet he doesn’t trust our intelligence agencies on international affairs. One thing is certain, unless we are all blown up as a result of one of Trump's temper tantrums, white men as the majority demographic class in the US will shrink into a minority within a few decades and lose their undeserved power. That is why the rednecks are scarred.
In the mid-term, I fear a possible war caused by the misunderstandings of someone who doesn't know a damn thing about such matters but always insists on getting his way, promoting his name, and cheating his customers, workers, and wives. Unlike the CHICKENHAWK Trump who beats the war drum but was too cowardly to serve in the military, I served in US Army during 1971-99 and participated in border patrols, nuclear alerts, anti-terrorist sweeps, and certain armed interventions that managed to stay out of public view. Overall, the world is far less dangerous than it was in the Cold War because nuclear and conventional arms levels among the major powers have been cut by more than half, and those forces are usually not deployed along hostile borders nor kept on the same kind of hair trigger alert as in the old days. Other than raw nationalism and personality clashes, there are no major ideological differences between the major powers. International terrorism (mostly by poorly-equipped, non-national groups) is the major source of armed conflict, but that is nothing new and did not start in September 2001. The biggest risk of war is due to miscalculation by an erratic, egotistical President who does not regularly attend intelligence briefings and may very well be in financial debt to Russian banksters.
Even more likely is worsening economic inequality in the US and environmental disasters caused by a Climate Change denier President and his top advisers. In the long term, complete environmental collapse due to Climate Change is almost certain unless we stop playing around and start making major changes. In response to Global Warming and other environmental problems, we need a massive World War II sized industrial effort to change our energy use from dependence on fossil fuels to renewable sources like solar and wind; our transportation to prioritize walking, biking, urban mass transit, and both intercity passenger and freight rail service powered by electricity rather than continued dependence on cars and trucks; sub-urban sprawl superseded by walkable, human-scaled, multi-use urban communities; and industrial factory farming replaced by organic farming. As a desirable secondary benefit, this will create lots of jobs, but the primary benefit is the creation of infrastructure to support cleaner and more sustainable energy use, transportation, and both urban and rural land use.
Politics As Usual has all but destroyed our democracy, and Business As Usual will destroy any environment capable of supporting human civilization. The situation is not hopeless, but we can no longer delay in taking major remedial action. In my lifetime, Presidents Carter and Clinton largely wasted time needed to remediate the wasteful and destructive environmental effects of human civilization, Presidents Reagan and both Bushes actively impeded progress, and President Obama was largely thwarted in his efforts due to racists in Congress and many state legislatures that could not bear to see a Black President succeed in doing anything productive. Sea levels are rising along the Texas Gulf Coast, our western aquifers are drying up, our mountain glaciers are melting away and reducing their water output downstream, and our seasonal weather has gotten more extreme. Will the incoming President Trump do anything to remedy the situation other than have “golden showers” with Russian prostitutes? Or will Amerika's new Fuhrer serve to legitimize the Rape Culture and environmental rape and to perpetuate White Male Privilege above all others?