Thanks so much! Many, many of us were brought up in families in which the New Deal was held sacred. Our fathers left their homes to fight in a world war, an incredible thing to ask of young men who had grown up in the Depression. But when they returned to civilian life, the GI Bill provided many of them with paths to education and housing which would not have existed without the protections of the New Deal. Lots of us white kids who are now on Medicare grew up in homes built with GI mortgages, with Dads in good Union jobs, attending excellent public schools and enjoying what American freedoms were supposed to feel like. Unfortunately, these benefits were not for all Americans - black or mixed neighborhoods were redlined, de facto school segregation was rampant in the North, and the tremendous opportunities available to the white population were denied to Blacks. Interstate highways tore through minority communities, inner city schools were allowed to deteriorate physically and educationally, and a hopelessness reciprocal to the enthusiasm of us white kids embedded itself in at the lives of our Black citizens. So it is with great faith in the basic goodness of humanity that we approach Wednesday, when we can believe again that We the People - ALL of us this time - through our government, can attempt to rebuild what was right, and to correct the very wrong. Thank you, Dr. Richardson, for being such an incredible teacher, always prepared to lead the discussion and to prod us to something beyond this incredible anger so many of us hold in our souls.
Jeff, folks have complained that Democrats fall short on their slogans. In my opinion your words, "We the People - ALL of us this time," really captures what this country can become. With your permission, I would like to spread these words around wherever I can. Thank you, again, Jeff Cartwright.
Nicely done, Jeff. I love the way you gave it a context that enlarges the meaning and makes it less a "slogan" and more a defined goal. I am not a person who cares much for slogans, because they so often substitute for actual discussion and meaningful action ("Look at ME: I am so woke!") But this one, with your artistic treatment, evokes something much more profound, and reminds us both of our history and what still needs to be done. Thank you.
Thank you Jeff! What a lovely surprise. Your work is beautiful! Thoughtful slogans are powerful tools. Quick reminders of what is important. This one is important... and now beautiful. I’ll be using this often.
You rock, Jeff! Don't know where this is going but I already sent it in response to a Biden questionnaire I received. I will re-post on tomorrow's Letter from Dr. R, too.
Are you on FB and Twitter? If so, I posted your words prior to the link to HRC's letter I shared to Twitter and again at the end of my post sharing HRC's letter on FB.
I’ll repeat what I posted earlier about the Canadian use of “mosaic” vs melting pot:
Mosaic is brilliant. Each tessera keeps its shape and color but together they are transformed into a beautiful image which is far more than the individual pieces. Yet if one piece is omitted the image suffers
Thank you. I missed that earlier (so many posts, I don't get to them all some days. Thank you for repeating.) It's quite a beautiful perspective. In melting pot, what bothered me was that the characteristics of the various elements disappear and everything becomes uniform, static. I do think that stewpot does suggest something that a mosaic is missing: the ability to accept new elements and allow them to flavor the whole, which can nourish us all. But like all metaphors, both mosaic and stewpot help us understand the potential of the thing we refer to. One: the beauty of the whole that is incomplete without every piece present. And the nourishment and richness of flavor of different elements mingling.
I think melting pot concept is problematic and I'm glad to see it go. It meant that everyone became like the people already here. Stewpot: all the different flavors that together make something rich and nourishing and full of all of us.
I don't think of cooking when I use the term melting pot. Rather metallurgy. Raw ingredients mixed together do not make a strong substance. Forming an alloy such as steel creates a much stronger product. Think e pluribus unum not a stew pot.
Read further. Metaphors are useful in getting across the essence of something but they all have limits in how far you can stretch them. Each metaphor stands by itself, not in comparison.
Can any of us truly imagine what is possible if everyone is supported and given opportunity? When you think of all the people left out to dry by the past ideologies but still found ways to create and succeed, what endless possibilities if they aren’t held down! George Floyd as a child wanted to be a Supreme Court Judge. Imagine if society had encouraged that, instead of putting a knee on his dreams. Broader more inclusive society has such a greater potential. Hope I get to see it!
Agreed. I keep asking if anyone knows of a functioning democracy--present or historical--without a middle class. Doesn't democracy NEED an educated middlee class? Income inequality is killing democracy.
I agree, Denise. One of the only positives I have seen come out of the Covid pandemic is the creativity that people have employed to do things in a new way. Imagine if that creativity was nourished by all society what could become reality for so m,any.
"We the People - ALL of us this time," is brilliant, Jeff! Thank you for this emphasis on the "ALL", a small, three-letter word that encapsulates color, creed, gender, ethnicity, socio-economic standing, historical roots, completeness, and unity! My deepest gratitude to you for making me and others boxed off in similarly "othered" categories welcomed!
Mosaic is brilliant. Each tessera keeps its shape and color but together they are transformed into a beautiful image which is far more than the individual pieces. Yet if one piece is omitted the image suffers.
Jeff, you describe exactly my family's experiences, my upbringing, and my regrets about the ways in which whiteness has been privileged because of the lack of vision of the people (Truman, Eisenhower, LBJ) who developed some of the most ambitiously egalitarian programs ever in the US. With a tiny bit more imagination--such as Eleanor Roosevelt exhibited--we would have been in a much better situation in the 1970s to combat the white supremacist propaganda. FDR invented redlining; for all of his humanitarianism (my father, who fought against redlining and block-busting all his life, worshipped him) he was a racist. He should have listened more to Eleanor.
Okay, Jeff, you did it! My tears are flowing. I love the voices of HCR and this community so much in contrast to what we are seeing from the racist, hate-mongers. It manages to help me feel some strange sensation out of this five-year morass of quicksand--might that be hope? Love for our people and our ancestors and the future generations pulling one another out? Many, many thanks...
Jeff -- elsewhere I posted that your slogan "We the People - ALL of us this time" needs to go viral -- memes, t-shirts, bumper stickers, bill boards, TV ads, etc. (I see the iconic Uncle Sam surrounded by faces of every shape and color -- but I'm no graphic designer.)
Lynell Abbott suggested incorporating 2021: "We the People 2021 - All of us this time."
Penelope Simpson Adams replied that she would ask her artist friends...
Going to do a caveat on this. If it is going to be accepted, let it grow on it's own. Let people adopt it as they feel moved. Otherwise, I am afraid it will simply become a meaningless symbol of wokeness. We don't need that. We need people who are willing to get together and do the work, not just wear T-shirts with a cool logo. I got invites from two of my favorite organizations to join in redefining what we need to do, and how to do it. I'm in. I love Jeff's logo: would love to see it on a flag, for instance. But we need to look at our communities and find other people who also want to see this become a reality, not just another slogan.
I beg to differ, Lynell. We don't want to place a limit on how long it should be We the People... I do agree that it's better (but not wrong) without the comma after "us."
Thanks Jeff. Eloquent about the New Deal AND those excluded. Your phrase needs to spread widely. Thanks for the perfect graphic you posted. Need to partner the
motto with the idea of a mosaic (suggested tonight as used in as used in Canada vs melting pot) —mosaic: many different individual pieces (tesserae) that combine to produce a beautiful image. And all the pieces are necessary for the image. Peace and Courage to all
One week after fomenting a violent insurrection, based on a completely false narrative, Donald J. Trump became the first US President ever to be impeached a second time. To those who opposed his four-year, vindictive assault on our democracy and its institutions, it could be viewed as a victory over tyranny, a cause for celebration. But it's not.
No, the final chapter(?) of the Trump presidency is a sad reminder of what we've become over the past two generations. The predicament which we find ourselves in today was birthed in the arrogance of the 1980's, when hippies morphed into Yuppies, when "Make love, not war" became "Make money, more money!", epitomized by Gordon Gecko's phrase, "Greed is good!"
It is said that the social and economic cycles are much longer than we imagine, from forty to eighty years long, a long wave rather than a seismic shift. The past four years have not seemed that way. the ground under our feet seemd to be moving. So when last night, when Joe Biden announced, "Come Wednesday, we begin a new chapter.", it soothed and reassured us.
But will it be only that, just a chapter? Or will it be an inflection point? Will it be the pendulum reversing it's motion and moving in a new direction. We yearn for it to be that. We are tired, of the virus, of the violence, and of the assault on our American values. When as a people will we feel joy again?
Three successive Wednesdays: Insurrection Wednesday, Impeachment Wednesday, and next week, Inauguration Wednesday. All three begin with "I", but Wednesday begins with "We". After forty years of the greedy "I", let's return to collective "We", as in "We the People".
My reaction to Biden's speech, however, was mixed. "Come together" is a noble sentiment, and a necessary alternative to the fierce, open fascist white nationalism of the last four years. But before reconciliation, there has to be truth. And the truth is: over 70 million Americans are fine if Liberal Republican Democracy were to be replaced by an autocracy that caters to their economic interests and deep psychological need for being better than "those" people. We won't get there by singing "Kumbaya." We need to persuade the persuadable, but recognize that many will resist persuasion with the fury of a tiger. They want Civil War. If they keep it up, they will get it. Ask any Syrian if that's an endurable state.
Hippies didn't morph into yuppies. People don't fit into such neat categories, and what happened was that some people became social activists, environmentalists, went into helping professions, became doctors, nurses, farmers. Sometimes people played at whatever was "in" at the moment, and then grew up and went on to become architects, create new businesses, invented things, became aides to politicians, became researchers and made discoveries that we are now relying on. Some others, misfits, became creators. Some other misfits lost their way and sometimes their lives.
Yes, social and economic cycles vary in kind and intensity. Sometimes based on natural cycles, but mostly, in our system, based on an inflexibility that is built into our assumptions about both people and economics. I think we need to make a close examination of those assumptions and question them.
I think we have begun that process again, as Heather pointed out.
Herb, I am tired of the virus, too. But I accept that what we are doing is necessary. I do what I can to help my community and my neighbors get through. And they are doing the same.
Yesterday I walked through my village to get to the PO. In recent years, we have been hit hard by one thing after another: a massive destructive flood, reconstruction that disrupted two years of commerce and jobs, alternate rains and drought that farmers struggled to contend with. We watched some businesses close or go into debt. At the same time, we worked together to help shops hang on, and shopped locally. Most of the shops are still here (with a little shuffling to new quarters), and some new ones moved in. The construction finally finished, and people could drive through town without impediment. Some buildings we thought were lost were reclaimed after all.
As I walked, finally I saw how the entire community had made things come together. The "raw" look we had for so long is gone. We have a new community-owned bookstore. Old historic buildings with new paint and trim. Flower boxes ready to be planted come spring. My neighbors wearing masks and carefully distancing but still waving and saying hello. Instead of lonely, I remembered I am part of this community. And I felt joy.
It won't be five days. It will take a lot longer, and the lost souls will not stop being what they are. It will be up to us to recreate our vision of our society and to help each other make it happen. And to find joy in the process.
You are right about "we". Your last paragraph is beautiful, and whether you realize it or not, filled with hope.
As a "Hippie", I don't think you can be a former hippie once you have experienced the things I did in the late 60's. Psychedelics changed my life and world view, in a profound way that animates it still today. I regret none of it, it still echoes through out our culture to this day. As an example the sensitivity to the balance of our planet didn't start with us, we learned it from the Native Americans who lived in harmony with it, and also used psychedelics to center themselves in their world. As a culture we have made a great many mistakes in the last 400 years, It's my fervent hope and prayer that we are starting to wake up to that fact and that we will be able to find the balance we do desperately need. May god bless out incoming president and all who are helping him with his herculean task.
I watched a Marianne Williamson presentation and she pointed out that we all witnessed the killings of Dr King, Bobby Kennedy and all the other horrors of civil unrest during that time. Then the Kent State Shootings. She believes that many of us received a message that we better back off, go along, play by the rules. We may not have even been aware at the time that we had internalized this message. Certainly made a lot of sense to me. One thing I thank The Naked Emperor for is waking me the hell up
Herb, I am often dismayed that the simplistic generalities of both the left and the right obscure cogent responses. The "Gordon Gekko", "Yuppie," "Hippie" generalizations only feed a sensibility launched by the right against meaningful protest and change. Historically, any group that augurs for meaningful change is branded by those who prefer to keep things in their favor. That we buy these generalizations is a problem of both the right and the left. But I agree, when we begin "a new chapter", we need to do it in solidarity.
Unfortunately it's rare to find people who enjoy talking about the guts of these issues (or more pertinently, enjoy reading articles and watching videos about them) because marginal tax rates and market externalities are pretty dry topics. That they're crucial subjects for addressing everything from crime rates to the environment does not make them sell papers or draw clicks.
I prefer to think that the hippie culture went under cover, stealth operation. It certainly did not disappear. Environmental movement. Recycling pickup for every house. You get the drift.
Having grown up in the 60s, I see two different groups- the early baby boomers and the late ones. Many of the early boomers pursued service careers like teaching and nursing. The late boomers who grew upon the mid/late 70s were more likely to be yuppies in pursuit of high paying jobs.
This is the problem with trying to divide people up into discrete "generations" with specific characteristics. It's an artificial way of looking at things, and a lot of it is due to shallow "journalism" looking for easy labels to explain things instead of actually doing news. The very definition of "baby boomers" has changed several times in order to accommodate this kind of lazy thinking. People vary in perpective not based on which decade they were born in, but a whole raft of factors, most of which we are clueless about. Everything I am involved in includes people of various ages and backgrounds, belief systems, experiences. The thing that binds us together is our common believe that we can help, in some small way, make our world better. If you were to divide my high school class up, you would find a wide range of people, very few of which would meet your narrow definition of who you think we are.
I have often said similar things to Herb's statement on hippies. For me it is a disappointment that my generation started out with such high hopes and gave up so quickly. I started college in 1971 and at the time anyone on campus who was Republican or right leaning was absurdly out of place. I don't know what happened to us. Of course I blame the Republican Party, Reagan and a multitude of others, but am still so sad we let them roll over us.
I started college in 1964. My experience with the counterculture blossomed around 1961 (lifer in nyc). We DID NOT "let them roll over us". We were surpressed and demonized. This continuing demonization continues to this day, thus my reply to Herb. Yes, we did have such high hopes, but DID NOT "give up so quickly". I continue to work for peace.
No offense. I never gave up either. I was speaking more of the larger group of baby boomers who shifted from left to right. There are plenty of baby boomers who are actively liberal. Including all of my closest family and all of my friends. But these big blocks of right voting boomers I believe were largely liberal in their youth.
Count me guilty of something I was taught to avoid making: "hasty generalizations". I was a member of both. But the obsession with wealth, and the finger pointing toward government set us upon a path that led us to where we are today.
Today is Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Birthday. Here's one of his positive messages: “If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.”
“It’s all right to tell a man to lift himself by his own bootstraps, but it is cruel jest to say to a bootless man that he ought to lift himself by his own bootstraps.” Martin Luther King Jr.
Q for readers in the US: What are some effective ways to de-escalate crazy tribal calls to fight "socialism" at all costs -- in a context where many Americans don't seem to connect with what government care and safety nets actually are?
(I live in France, where there's an actual Socialist Party, plus universal health care, creches, public transport, etc. all as a matter of course, all supported by political parties across the spectrum. Even gilets jaunes demonstrations call for *more* gov action, not less.)
Apologies if this sounds naive, but the venom and rage as US populists spit out dire "socialist!" warnings is astonishing seen from here.
Trust me, it's astonishing to many of us here, also. Sadly, many have no real understanding of what they profess to hate. "Socialism" is an ugly word because it instills fear that somehow their rights (which best I can tell for most refer strictly to their rights to own and carry as many weapons as they want to while also maintaining their beliefs that these guns are ordained by God) will be taken away. It's a fear that immigrants will steal their jobs and take all their tax dollars through entitlements. It's ignorance because our education system has failed them.
Not only the guns.....the 1% have managed to replace a symbolic image of "Socialism; the Ideology and Governmental System" with an imposter. They have placed the word "socialism" in juxtaposition with all their fears, anxieties, "suffering" and failures...that the system is rigged to favor someone else... and have promoted the masquerade as being the same thing; their "fears" etc have been put in the place of the reality of a little social democraticy....which only works to their benefit, but not to that of the 1%.
Not just the 1% Stuart: it is a dog-whistle term used to promote whiteness as supreme and it is adopted by the Right universally as a term to condemn programs that are seen to provide equal opportunity for non-white people.
Let's face it...the 1% organized it, paid for it and have tried to embed it in the "national psychy" . The idea was to sell this to the white population through the GOP. Racism was the lubricant that greased the wheels.The program worked and created 74 million benighted, mesmerized sheep. Fortunately not enough ...this time.
It confuses me that the very down trodden back woods rifle carrying MAGA people think they have anything in common with the 1%. Aside from fear, Trump has really sold them a bill of goods about his being just like them.
Actually, in my experience living for 17 years in what can only be described as Northern Appalachia, they were already fully on board with being racist, misogynist, and white supremacist. The values of white supremacy were established long before Trump.
Aside from the fear and insecurity of white men, I am also confused by that "mob." If it was not such a bad time to look up more about the origin and profile of white nationalists, I'd do more research. FBI is so focused on finding these folks-I don't want to be confused as a possible joiner.
May I recommend this book to you, Vickie, and all here. It lays out the resurgence of White Supremacy in the US from Vietnam to the Oklahoma City bombing well. Revelatory.
Having spent about one-third of my life living and working in The Netherlands, I saw first-hand how European-style democratic socialism actually works. People here in the US are simply clueless about life there. It's funny when American friends and family would come visit (if you live in Amsterdam, you come to expect visitors!) they were always gobsmacked at the infrastructure (trains, highways, public transportation, etc.), not to mention the many perks we had for citizens (child-care and support, healthcare, pensions, etc.). Yes, we had high taxes, but what we got back in services and infrastructure gave one the sense that we were protected. I felt more peace of mind and security in the years I lived there, not to mention REAL freedom, that coming back here I was smacked in the face with realities of life here. I did NOT feel safe with guns everywhere. I did NOT feel like medical needs were taken care of and that I was one incident away from financial ruin. I was NOT prepared for having to pay out of pocket for SO many things that had hitherto been taken care of. I ate better there. I had a generally VERY good life. Hearing Americans bang on about how much better everything was here was laughably off the mark. Trust me. It's not. Because we're over here largely isolated from the rest of the world, we don't extend our worldview beyond the oceans that surround us, or to our Southern border (too many brown criminals in Mexico, so build a wall), or the north (horrible socialist Canada). It is terribly frustrating. One of my favourite mental past-times these days, obviously, is imagining what would've happened if I'd stayed in Europe...
Bruce, I've lived in Munich since 1961 and I can second everything you say here. As an 80 year old woman, I am deeply grateful for my reliable German health insurance and the freedom to choose which doctors I want to go to, and I've always felt safer over here than in the States. - and freer.
I don't think I've ever really felt safe here, except as a child on my grandmother's farm, surrounded by other small farms on which mostly other relatives lived. And again, oddly, when I traveled by car across the continent numerous times by myself, camping in remote places.
Absolutely true. My favorite is the depth of anger toward Antifa, which is an idea, anti-fascism, not an organized movement. It is cited constantly as a problem with the Left. But to my mind if you're not anti fascism, you must be pro-fascism. I don't see a lot of middle ground there.
I believe it’s a misapplication of the word. To many, it means you mean I can’t amass all the money I want any way I want; you want me to support lazy people with MY money?; your regulations impede my ability to make and hoard money at any cost. It’s like when I managed an employee (self)insurance plan I heard “oh, the insurance company pays for it.”
I used to hear that, too, Marcy; mostly when I was in a doctor's office getting some test: "Don't worry, the insurance company will pay for it." I am not the brightest star in the sky, never have been, but even then when I heard that, I thought, "Huh?"
Thanks so much! Many, many of us were brought up in families in which the New Deal was held sacred. Our fathers left their homes to fight in a world war, an incredible thing to ask of young men who had grown up in the Depression. But when they returned to civilian life, the GI Bill provided many of them with paths to education and housing which would not have existed without the protections of the New Deal. Lots of us white kids who are now on Medicare grew up in homes built with GI mortgages, with Dads in good Union jobs, attending excellent public schools and enjoying what American freedoms were supposed to feel like. Unfortunately, these benefits were not for all Americans - black or mixed neighborhoods were redlined, de facto school segregation was rampant in the North, and the tremendous opportunities available to the white population were denied to Blacks. Interstate highways tore through minority communities, inner city schools were allowed to deteriorate physically and educationally, and a hopelessness reciprocal to the enthusiasm of us white kids embedded itself in at the lives of our Black citizens. So it is with great faith in the basic goodness of humanity that we approach Wednesday, when we can believe again that We the People - ALL of us this time - through our government, can attempt to rebuild what was right, and to correct the very wrong. Thank you, Dr. Richardson, for being such an incredible teacher, always prepared to lead the discussion and to prod us to something beyond this incredible anger so many of us hold in our souls.
"We the People - ALL of us this time." Thank you, Jeff.
Jeff, folks have complained that Democrats fall short on their slogans. In my opinion your words, "We the People - ALL of us this time," really captures what this country can become. With your permission, I would like to spread these words around wherever I can. Thank you, again, Jeff Cartwright.
Ditto! Picturing this quote going viral and on my coffee mug.
ask , and ye shall receive:
http://jcarpenterstudio.com/portfolio-portfolio/public-art-projects/we-the-people-2
Nicely done, Jeff. I love the way you gave it a context that enlarges the meaning and makes it less a "slogan" and more a defined goal. I am not a person who cares much for slogans, because they so often substitute for actual discussion and meaningful action ("Look at ME: I am so woke!") But this one, with your artistic treatment, evokes something much more profound, and reminds us both of our history and what still needs to be done. Thank you.
Thanks, Annie!
I will be using this as my Facebook cover on Inauguration Day 🇺🇸
Thank you Jeff! What a lovely surprise. Your work is beautiful! Thoughtful slogans are powerful tools. Quick reminders of what is important. This one is important... and now beautiful. I’ll be using this often.
You rock, Jeff! Don't know where this is going but I already sent it in response to a Biden questionnaire I received. I will re-post on tomorrow's Letter from Dr. R, too.
Outstanding! I shared this on Facebook, with thanks.
T-shirts!
Of course. Thank for your kind words.
Just did! Thank you, Jim Cartwright!!
(His name is Jeff!)
Thanks for catching that.
Bumper sticker!!!!
Already used these perfect words for this moment at the end of a FB post crediting Jeff! Seriously, this will catch on!
Wow! How would I find your post? (I am a Luddite, please explain it to me slowly)
Are you on FB and Twitter? If so, I posted your words prior to the link to HRC's letter I shared to Twitter and again at the end of my post sharing HRC's letter on FB.
Reminder: Unless you post to the Public, only your friends can see your posts.
And on Twitter!
Same question - but even slower, please!
Go to HRC's FB page (I assume) which is public. And look on her twitter posts. You can also search using HCR's name on Twitter. Hope that helps.
And melting pot, you don't hear much about this any more.
I’ll repeat what I posted earlier about the Canadian use of “mosaic” vs melting pot:
Mosaic is brilliant. Each tessera keeps its shape and color but together they are transformed into a beautiful image which is far more than the individual pieces. Yet if one piece is omitted the image suffers
Thank you. I missed that earlier (so many posts, I don't get to them all some days. Thank you for repeating.) It's quite a beautiful perspective. In melting pot, what bothered me was that the characteristics of the various elements disappear and everything becomes uniform, static. I do think that stewpot does suggest something that a mosaic is missing: the ability to accept new elements and allow them to flavor the whole, which can nourish us all. But like all metaphors, both mosaic and stewpot help us understand the potential of the thing we refer to. One: the beauty of the whole that is incomplete without every piece present. And the nourishment and richness of flavor of different elements mingling.
I think melting pot concept is problematic and I'm glad to see it go. It meant that everyone became like the people already here. Stewpot: all the different flavors that together make something rich and nourishing and full of all of us.
I don't think of cooking when I use the term melting pot. Rather metallurgy. Raw ingredients mixed together do not make a strong substance. Forming an alloy such as steel creates a much stronger product. Think e pluribus unum not a stew pot.
Read further. Metaphors are useful in getting across the essence of something but they all have limits in how far you can stretch them. Each metaphor stands by itself, not in comparison.
Can any of us truly imagine what is possible if everyone is supported and given opportunity? When you think of all the people left out to dry by the past ideologies but still found ways to create and succeed, what endless possibilities if they aren’t held down! George Floyd as a child wanted to be a Supreme Court Judge. Imagine if society had encouraged that, instead of putting a knee on his dreams. Broader more inclusive society has such a greater potential. Hope I get to see it!
I’m amazed that so many are ignorant to the fact that educating everyone and equal opportunity equals a strong and happy nation.
This is a good one, too, Elaine.
Agreed. I keep asking if anyone knows of a functioning democracy--present or historical--without a middle class. Doesn't democracy NEED an educated middlee class? Income inequality is killing democracy.
I agree, Denise. One of the only positives I have seen come out of the Covid pandemic is the creativity that people have employed to do things in a new way. Imagine if that creativity was nourished by all society what could become reality for so m,any.
"We the People - ALL of us this time," is brilliant, Jeff! Thank you for this emphasis on the "ALL", a small, three-letter word that encapsulates color, creed, gender, ethnicity, socio-economic standing, historical roots, completeness, and unity! My deepest gratitude to you for making me and others boxed off in similarly "othered" categories welcomed!
Mosaic is brilliant. Each tessera keeps its shape and color but together they are transformed into a beautiful image which is far more than the individual pieces. Yet if one piece is omitted the image suffers.
These are great resources, thanks so much, Rachel! Also, I agree that the Canadian use of "mosaic" is far more beautiful and dignified ❣️❣️
Jeff, you describe exactly my family's experiences, my upbringing, and my regrets about the ways in which whiteness has been privileged because of the lack of vision of the people (Truman, Eisenhower, LBJ) who developed some of the most ambitiously egalitarian programs ever in the US. With a tiny bit more imagination--such as Eleanor Roosevelt exhibited--we would have been in a much better situation in the 1970s to combat the white supremacist propaganda. FDR invented redlining; for all of his humanitarianism (my father, who fought against redlining and block-busting all his life, worshipped him) he was a racist. He should have listened more to Eleanor.
Jeff, "We the People - ALL of us this time" is exactly what we need right now. Thank you!
Okay, Jeff, you did it! My tears are flowing. I love the voices of HCR and this community so much in contrast to what we are seeing from the racist, hate-mongers. It manages to help me feel some strange sensation out of this five-year morass of quicksand--might that be hope? Love for our people and our ancestors and the future generations pulling one another out? Many, many thanks...
“We the People - ALL of us this time” YES! Thank you 😊
Yes, “We the People - ALL of us this time”
is the perfect slogan as we look forward to a more inclusive system of governance.
Thank you, Jeff..
Jeff -- elsewhere I posted that your slogan "We the People - ALL of us this time" needs to go viral -- memes, t-shirts, bumper stickers, bill boards, TV ads, etc. (I see the iconic Uncle Sam surrounded by faces of every shape and color -- but I'm no graphic designer.)
Lynell Abbott suggested incorporating 2021: "We the People 2021 - All of us this time."
Penelope Simpson Adams replied that she would ask her artist friends...
What do you think?
Going to do a caveat on this. If it is going to be accepted, let it grow on it's own. Let people adopt it as they feel moved. Otherwise, I am afraid it will simply become a meaningless symbol of wokeness. We don't need that. We need people who are willing to get together and do the work, not just wear T-shirts with a cool logo. I got invites from two of my favorite organizations to join in redefining what we need to do, and how to do it. I'm in. I love Jeff's logo: would love to see it on a flag, for instance. But we need to look at our communities and find other people who also want to see this become a reality, not just another slogan.
With 2021 it is just a passing political slogan, so to speak. This is everlasting. Leave it as is.
I beg to differ, Lynell. We don't want to place a limit on how long it should be We the People... I do agree that it's better (but not wrong) without the comma after "us."
Here! Here!!
Well said.
Well done.
Thanks Jeff. Eloquent about the New Deal AND those excluded. Your phrase needs to spread widely. Thanks for the perfect graphic you posted. Need to partner the
motto with the idea of a mosaic (suggested tonight as used in as used in Canada vs melting pot) —mosaic: many different individual pieces (tesserae) that combine to produce a beautiful image. And all the pieces are necessary for the image. Peace and Courage to all
Are you sure you want to share space, literal or figurative, with a Deplorable?
Wednesday was not a day for jubilation.
Wednesday was not a day for celebration.
One week after fomenting a violent insurrection, based on a completely false narrative, Donald J. Trump became the first US President ever to be impeached a second time. To those who opposed his four-year, vindictive assault on our democracy and its institutions, it could be viewed as a victory over tyranny, a cause for celebration. But it's not.
No, the final chapter(?) of the Trump presidency is a sad reminder of what we've become over the past two generations. The predicament which we find ourselves in today was birthed in the arrogance of the 1980's, when hippies morphed into Yuppies, when "Make love, not war" became "Make money, more money!", epitomized by Gordon Gecko's phrase, "Greed is good!"
It is said that the social and economic cycles are much longer than we imagine, from forty to eighty years long, a long wave rather than a seismic shift. The past four years have not seemed that way. the ground under our feet seemd to be moving. So when last night, when Joe Biden announced, "Come Wednesday, we begin a new chapter.", it soothed and reassured us.
But will it be only that, just a chapter? Or will it be an inflection point? Will it be the pendulum reversing it's motion and moving in a new direction. We yearn for it to be that. We are tired, of the virus, of the violence, and of the assault on our American values. When as a people will we feel joy again?
Three successive Wednesdays: Insurrection Wednesday, Impeachment Wednesday, and next week, Inauguration Wednesday. All three begin with "I", but Wednesday begins with "We". After forty years of the greedy "I", let's return to collective "We", as in "We the People".
Five days....
OMG!! I love this last paragraph!!
Agreed! Great summary of the past weeks, boiled down to the essence of our democracy 🇺🇸
Thank You!
Beautifully put. Thank you for that post.
My reaction to Biden's speech, however, was mixed. "Come together" is a noble sentiment, and a necessary alternative to the fierce, open fascist white nationalism of the last four years. But before reconciliation, there has to be truth. And the truth is: over 70 million Americans are fine if Liberal Republican Democracy were to be replaced by an autocracy that caters to their economic interests and deep psychological need for being better than "those" people. We won't get there by singing "Kumbaya." We need to persuade the persuadable, but recognize that many will resist persuasion with the fury of a tiger. They want Civil War. If they keep it up, they will get it. Ask any Syrian if that's an endurable state.
Hippies didn't morph into yuppies. People don't fit into such neat categories, and what happened was that some people became social activists, environmentalists, went into helping professions, became doctors, nurses, farmers. Sometimes people played at whatever was "in" at the moment, and then grew up and went on to become architects, create new businesses, invented things, became aides to politicians, became researchers and made discoveries that we are now relying on. Some others, misfits, became creators. Some other misfits lost their way and sometimes their lives.
Yes, social and economic cycles vary in kind and intensity. Sometimes based on natural cycles, but mostly, in our system, based on an inflexibility that is built into our assumptions about both people and economics. I think we need to make a close examination of those assumptions and question them.
I think we have begun that process again, as Heather pointed out.
Herb, I am tired of the virus, too. But I accept that what we are doing is necessary. I do what I can to help my community and my neighbors get through. And they are doing the same.
Yesterday I walked through my village to get to the PO. In recent years, we have been hit hard by one thing after another: a massive destructive flood, reconstruction that disrupted two years of commerce and jobs, alternate rains and drought that farmers struggled to contend with. We watched some businesses close or go into debt. At the same time, we worked together to help shops hang on, and shopped locally. Most of the shops are still here (with a little shuffling to new quarters), and some new ones moved in. The construction finally finished, and people could drive through town without impediment. Some buildings we thought were lost were reclaimed after all.
As I walked, finally I saw how the entire community had made things come together. The "raw" look we had for so long is gone. We have a new community-owned bookstore. Old historic buildings with new paint and trim. Flower boxes ready to be planted come spring. My neighbors wearing masks and carefully distancing but still waving and saying hello. Instead of lonely, I remembered I am part of this community. And I felt joy.
It won't be five days. It will take a lot longer, and the lost souls will not stop being what they are. It will be up to us to recreate our vision of our society and to help each other make it happen. And to find joy in the process.
You are right about "we". Your last paragraph is beautiful, and whether you realize it or not, filled with hope.
As a "Hippie", I don't think you can be a former hippie once you have experienced the things I did in the late 60's. Psychedelics changed my life and world view, in a profound way that animates it still today. I regret none of it, it still echoes through out our culture to this day. As an example the sensitivity to the balance of our planet didn't start with us, we learned it from the Native Americans who lived in harmony with it, and also used psychedelics to center themselves in their world. As a culture we have made a great many mistakes in the last 400 years, It's my fervent hope and prayer that we are starting to wake up to that fact and that we will be able to find the balance we do desperately need. May god bless out incoming president and all who are helping him with his herculean task.
I watched a Marianne Williamson presentation and she pointed out that we all witnessed the killings of Dr King, Bobby Kennedy and all the other horrors of civil unrest during that time. Then the Kent State Shootings. She believes that many of us received a message that we better back off, go along, play by the rules. We may not have even been aware at the time that we had internalized this message. Certainly made a lot of sense to me. One thing I thank The Naked Emperor for is waking me the hell up
Herb, I am often dismayed that the simplistic generalities of both the left and the right obscure cogent responses. The "Gordon Gekko", "Yuppie," "Hippie" generalizations only feed a sensibility launched by the right against meaningful protest and change. Historically, any group that augurs for meaningful change is branded by those who prefer to keep things in their favor. That we buy these generalizations is a problem of both the right and the left. But I agree, when we begin "a new chapter", we need to do it in solidarity.
Unfortunately it's rare to find people who enjoy talking about the guts of these issues (or more pertinently, enjoy reading articles and watching videos about them) because marginal tax rates and market externalities are pretty dry topics. That they're crucial subjects for addressing everything from crime rates to the environment does not make them sell papers or draw clicks.
Why the need to punch the Hippies???
"when hippies morphed into Yuppies, when "Make love, not war" became "Make money, more money!", epitomized by Gordon Gecko's phrase, "Greed is good!'"
Try being "We" together, without a scapegoat.
Hippies are older (and wise) than Yuppies. We didn't morph, we got Reaganed and Trumped.
I know. Hippies wanted to make people aware of the injustices in this country. I don’t think they were part of the problem.
I prefer to think that the hippie culture went under cover, stealth operation. It certainly did not disappear. Environmental movement. Recycling pickup for every house. You get the drift.
Having grown up in the 60s, I see two different groups- the early baby boomers and the late ones. Many of the early boomers pursued service careers like teaching and nursing. The late boomers who grew upon the mid/late 70s were more likely to be yuppies in pursuit of high paying jobs.
I was/am a hippie and those were the most exciting and the very best years of my life!
This is the problem with trying to divide people up into discrete "generations" with specific characteristics. It's an artificial way of looking at things, and a lot of it is due to shallow "journalism" looking for easy labels to explain things instead of actually doing news. The very definition of "baby boomers" has changed several times in order to accommodate this kind of lazy thinking. People vary in perpective not based on which decade they were born in, but a whole raft of factors, most of which we are clueless about. Everything I am involved in includes people of various ages and backgrounds, belief systems, experiences. The thing that binds us together is our common believe that we can help, in some small way, make our world better. If you were to divide my high school class up, you would find a wide range of people, very few of which would meet your narrow definition of who you think we are.
Thank you!
I have often said similar things to Herb's statement on hippies. For me it is a disappointment that my generation started out with such high hopes and gave up so quickly. I started college in 1971 and at the time anyone on campus who was Republican or right leaning was absurdly out of place. I don't know what happened to us. Of course I blame the Republican Party, Reagan and a multitude of others, but am still so sad we let them roll over us.
I started college in 1964. My experience with the counterculture blossomed around 1961 (lifer in nyc). We DID NOT "let them roll over us". We were surpressed and demonized. This continuing demonization continues to this day, thus my reply to Herb. Yes, we did have such high hopes, but DID NOT "give up so quickly". I continue to work for peace.
No offense. I never gave up either. I was speaking more of the larger group of baby boomers who shifted from left to right. There are plenty of baby boomers who are actively liberal. Including all of my closest family and all of my friends. But these big blocks of right voting boomers I believe were largely liberal in their youth.
Yes. This has been the biggest disappointment to me. We had vision of better lives but, as a group, rejected it.
Perhaps the next generation will embrace it.
Count me guilty of something I was taught to avoid making: "hasty generalizations". I was a member of both. But the obsession with wealth, and the finger pointing toward government set us upon a path that led us to where we are today.
Respectfully disagree. I don’t think the two are connected.
Hey, Herb. Some of us want to change it to "We the People - All of us this time" inspired by Jeff Cartwright, on this post today.
Herb Klinker I too love your last paragraph. Cathy thank you for emphasizing it
Well said!
Thanks Herb. Well said as usual. To We the People add Jeff Cartwright’s phrase: ALL of us this time. See his post at beginning of thread
Brilliant points. And the last paragraph is historically poignant as a descriptor for these three incredible weeks. Thank you!
WOW. May I repost your last paragraph with your name?
Today is Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Birthday. Here's one of his positive messages: “If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.”
Great quote. My favorite...
“It’s all right to tell a man to lift himself by his own bootstraps, but it is cruel jest to say to a bootless man that he ought to lift himself by his own bootstraps.” Martin Luther King Jr.
Not to mention it's physically impossible to lift yourself up by your own bootstraps.
It should be noted, I think, that what Biden proposes is only what most other developed nations are already doing. It's normal, not radical.
Q for readers in the US: What are some effective ways to de-escalate crazy tribal calls to fight "socialism" at all costs -- in a context where many Americans don't seem to connect with what government care and safety nets actually are?
(I live in France, where there's an actual Socialist Party, plus universal health care, creches, public transport, etc. all as a matter of course, all supported by political parties across the spectrum. Even gilets jaunes demonstrations call for *more* gov action, not less.)
Apologies if this sounds naive, but the venom and rage as US populists spit out dire "socialist!" warnings is astonishing seen from here.
Trust me, it's astonishing to many of us here, also. Sadly, many have no real understanding of what they profess to hate. "Socialism" is an ugly word because it instills fear that somehow their rights (which best I can tell for most refer strictly to their rights to own and carry as many weapons as they want to while also maintaining their beliefs that these guns are ordained by God) will be taken away. It's a fear that immigrants will steal their jobs and take all their tax dollars through entitlements. It's ignorance because our education system has failed them.
Not only the guns.....the 1% have managed to replace a symbolic image of "Socialism; the Ideology and Governmental System" with an imposter. They have placed the word "socialism" in juxtaposition with all their fears, anxieties, "suffering" and failures...that the system is rigged to favor someone else... and have promoted the masquerade as being the same thing; their "fears" etc have been put in the place of the reality of a little social democraticy....which only works to their benefit, but not to that of the 1%.
Not just the 1% Stuart: it is a dog-whistle term used to promote whiteness as supreme and it is adopted by the Right universally as a term to condemn programs that are seen to provide equal opportunity for non-white people.
Let's face it...the 1% organized it, paid for it and have tried to embed it in the "national psychy" . The idea was to sell this to the white population through the GOP. Racism was the lubricant that greased the wheels.The program worked and created 74 million benighted, mesmerized sheep. Fortunately not enough ...this time.
😞
It confuses me that the very down trodden back woods rifle carrying MAGA people think they have anything in common with the 1%. Aside from fear, Trump has really sold them a bill of goods about his being just like them.
Actually, in my experience living for 17 years in what can only be described as Northern Appalachia, they were already fully on board with being racist, misogynist, and white supremacist. The values of white supremacy were established long before Trump.
But the 1% is who they WANT to be. And the American spoken promise for centuries that they “can” be.
Aside from the fear and insecurity of white men, I am also confused by that "mob." If it was not such a bad time to look up more about the origin and profile of white nationalists, I'd do more research. FBI is so focused on finding these folks-I don't want to be confused as a possible joiner.
May I recommend this book to you, Vickie, and all here. It lays out the resurgence of White Supremacy in the US from Vietnam to the Oklahoma City bombing well. Revelatory.
https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674286078
Having spent about one-third of my life living and working in The Netherlands, I saw first-hand how European-style democratic socialism actually works. People here in the US are simply clueless about life there. It's funny when American friends and family would come visit (if you live in Amsterdam, you come to expect visitors!) they were always gobsmacked at the infrastructure (trains, highways, public transportation, etc.), not to mention the many perks we had for citizens (child-care and support, healthcare, pensions, etc.). Yes, we had high taxes, but what we got back in services and infrastructure gave one the sense that we were protected. I felt more peace of mind and security in the years I lived there, not to mention REAL freedom, that coming back here I was smacked in the face with realities of life here. I did NOT feel safe with guns everywhere. I did NOT feel like medical needs were taken care of and that I was one incident away from financial ruin. I was NOT prepared for having to pay out of pocket for SO many things that had hitherto been taken care of. I ate better there. I had a generally VERY good life. Hearing Americans bang on about how much better everything was here was laughably off the mark. Trust me. It's not. Because we're over here largely isolated from the rest of the world, we don't extend our worldview beyond the oceans that surround us, or to our Southern border (too many brown criminals in Mexico, so build a wall), or the north (horrible socialist Canada). It is terribly frustrating. One of my favourite mental past-times these days, obviously, is imagining what would've happened if I'd stayed in Europe...
Bruce, I've lived in Munich since 1961 and I can second everything you say here. As an 80 year old woman, I am deeply grateful for my reliable German health insurance and the freedom to choose which doctors I want to go to, and I've always felt safer over here than in the States. - and freer.
I don't think I've ever really felt safe here, except as a child on my grandmother's farm, surrounded by other small farms on which mostly other relatives lived. And again, oddly, when I traveled by car across the continent numerous times by myself, camping in remote places.
The short answer is that Socialism is just the tag. Haters scream: "I hate niggers", "I hate Jews", I hate Hillary", "I hate Socialism".
"Socialism" in this screed has no meaning to them. It is just the target of their hatred.
Absolutely true. My favorite is the depth of anger toward Antifa, which is an idea, anti-fascism, not an organized movement. It is cited constantly as a problem with the Left. But to my mind if you're not anti fascism, you must be pro-fascism. I don't see a lot of middle ground there.
I believe it’s a misapplication of the word. To many, it means you mean I can’t amass all the money I want any way I want; you want me to support lazy people with MY money?; your regulations impede my ability to make and hoard money at any cost. It’s like when I managed an employee (self)insurance plan I heard “oh, the insurance company pays for it.”
I used to hear that, too, Marcy; mostly when I was in a doctor's office getting some test: "Don't worry, the insurance company will pay for it." I am not the brightest star in the sky, never have been, but even then when I heard that, I thought, "Huh?"