Please Read: You Will Never Get Your Country Back

[sheshe2]

Please read carefully, because I don’t want you to miss a single word.



snip/

My need to bridge the divide is a product of having spent my entire life trying to see both sides of the argument. Trying to not fall into the trap of absolutes. Refusing to accept that the world we live in exists only in black and white. Doing my best to show my country that we could be more than the very things that separate us. At some point, enough is enough though. At some point, I can’t be a consensus builder. At some point, even I run out of excuses and explanations for people who can’t even be honest with themselves.

snip/

America belongs to Republicans just as much as America belongs to Democrats.That’s how these UNITED States work. To the uninformed and incompetent former mayor from Alaska, the knuckle-dragging bigot masquerading as a special advisor, and the race-baiting failure of a president that currently have the loudest voices in the Republican Party, you do not have a monopoly on this great country. You never will.

snip/

America is more than just a catchphrase or a collection of colors on a piece of cloth. America means liberty. America means freedom. Being American isn’t just a political term, it’s a way of life. It would serve many enablers and supporters of our President to stop going through the motions of calling themselves an American and ask themselves what it means to actually be an American. I think the term for that is personal responsibility. The time for party politics is over. Your nation, my nation, our nation is under attack. Not just from a foreign entity, but a domestic one as well.

Standing by this president makes you an embarrassment to all that is good in this country. It makes you a stain on the fabric of our nation. It makes you the antithesis of everything that your party purports to stand for. Simply put, it makes you un-American.

Read More:http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/you-will-never-get-your-country-back_us_59373e52e4b06bff911d7be5

This Land Is Your Land
Bob Dylan
This land is your land, this land is my land
From the California to the New York island
From the Redwood Forest, to the gulf stream waters
This land was made for you and me
As I went walking that ribbon of highway
I saw above me that endless skyway
And saw below me that golden valley
This land was made for you and me
I roamed and rambled and I followed my footsteps
To the sparkling sands of her diamond deserts
And all around me , a voice was sounding
This land was made for you and me
When the sun comes shining, then I was strolling
In the wheat fields waving and dust clouds rolling
The voice was chanting as the fog was lifting
This land was made for you and me
This land is your land and this land is my land
From the California to the New York island
From the Redwood Forest, to the gulf stream waters
This land was made for you and me
When the sun comes shining, then I was strolling
In wheat fields waving and dust clouds rolling
The voice come chanting as the fog was lifting
This land was made for you and me
Songwriters: WOODY GUTHRIE

https://www.bing.com/search?q=this+land+is+your+land+lyrics&form=EDGNTC&qs=LS&cvid=3e7beebb2a7e4e889e9ca65348de1961&cc=US&setlang=en-US

This land was made for you and me.

[WhiteTara]

1. When I call my Republicon congresscritters

I always tell the staffer they are on the wrong side of history and they should run out the door.

[sheshe2]

2. Good for you! Keep it up WhiteTara.

I am blessed with two strong Dems.

[WhiteTara]

3. I used to be and now I'm in Arkansas

and these Republicon bigots are driving me to write a column. I'm talking to a newspaper editor tomorrow and hope the I will be able to write away some of my rage. Wish me luck!

[sheshe2]

5. I most certainly do wish you luck.

RESIST!

PERSIST!

[TomSlick]

13. Good Luck

I'll be surprised if the Arkansas Dem-Gaz publishes anything critical of Trump or any other Repub. I grieve for the passing of the old Arkansas Gazette every morning.

You might get the support of Paul Greenburg if you can find a way to praise the virtue of Robert E. Lee or the glories of the lost cause.

[WhiteTara]

14. I sent a scathing letter to the Gazette and they published it

the next day.

But I'm going for all the small independent papers...one small mind at a time.

[TomSlick]

15. Sorry, I misunderstood

I was hoping you were going to write a full editorial but was despairing of any hope to see it published. I'm sure there are daily papers in the country more conservative than the Dem-Gaz but it's difficult to imagine.

[WhiteTara]

16. Actually, I want a bi-weekly column

I think the sustained conversation will be more effective than an occasional editorial. I also want to "syndicate" to small papers across the country. We'll see what my editor suggests.

[sheshe2]

23. Oh please...do it.

[TomSlick]

25. Please let us know if this works out.

[WhiteTara]

30. okay

[WhiteTara]

38. My first column prints next week!

My column title "Free Parking" set on a red stop sign. I start the syndication process as soon as I can figure it out!

[calimary]

31. That's REALLY shrewd, my friend.

EXCELLENT.

Go get 'em! And post the links here. Now I'm intrigued. I wanna read you from the venerable print-side!

[WhiteTara]

32. Really?

Well, I'm flattered and here you go...this short letter is about our illustrious senator John Boozman.

US Repbulicon Senator John Boozman sold us out and sold his soul for $149,930. I guess that’s not considered a bad haul for a no-name senator from a back water state. But a Judas he is, none the less. He sold out ours and his grandchildrens’ future for the paltry sum of less than 150 thousand dollars. That money will be spent in a heartbeat, but the damage done from his call to exit the Paris Climate Accord will reverberate for generations to come.

For a party so concerned with unborn babies, Republicons show callous disregard about the children already on the earth. With leadership from Senators like John Boozman; contaminated water, filthy air and a planet stripped bare for profit is our future.

Heck of a Job, John Boozman. You are doing well for your overlords and masters, the Koch Brothers, et al. But to you, I say, if you value money over the Life of our planet and all of us who live on it, you are a pathetic specimen of a man.

[calimary]

33. Nice!!!

I LOVE catchy phrases. You've got a bunch of 'em in here!

Great points made, both big and small. Catchy writing. And packs a lot into a little - for the short-attention-span crowd. Your points are nicely simplified - but you're so clever about it that they're probably that much more likely to stick. To take root. Maybe even to be assimilated? A meme is born? Actually more like a bunch of memes are born, maybe?

Only SMALL correction would be the typo at the top of the first paragraph. "Repbulicon" - the "b" and the "u" need to be switched.

One other teeny-weenie and picky-yuny edit from me personally. I happen to LOVE something that I think I may well have "thunk up" - calling them "CONS" (because all they offer is a CON job). Seeing that here makes absolute perfect sense and adds further emphasis and delivers a little sharper of a point. But I've learned that it's easier to use that reference, spelled that way, in arenas (like this and other progressive/liberal neighborhoods) where its meaning is widely acknowledged. A local paper or blog for general interest readers might be a less-than-perfect place to plant such a seed.

On the other hand... it's DAMN subtle, and a deliciously sneaky way to illustrate a point. Besides, some people might actually get it. And they might just enjoy seeing it put that way! EVERYBODY likes being in on an in-joke.

Liked this!

[WhiteTara]

37. Thank You!

Thanks for pointing out my typo! I use Republicon all the time and pronounce it that way as well. Of course spell check points it out as a typo all the time, so I didn't even look twice.

My paper is incredibly progressive and my editor (I get to say "my editor" because my first column comes out next week.) I'll do one each week for the paper and one each week for our on-line edition. I am SOOOO excited.

My column title is "Free Parking" set in a big red stop sign.

So next, I work on syndication. Wish me luck again!

[calimary]

39. I, too, use republi-CON all the time. This is GREAT, WhiteTara!

So excited for you!!!

Let your words ring out, far and wide! You're saying things that need to be said. And you're doing it with cleverness, wit, and smarts.

[WhiteTara]

43. Your keyboard to the syndicators ears!

I am really jazzed for the first time since the primary last year. Of course, what a thing to be jazzed about ... ranting about the cray cray Republicons!

[WhiteTara]

47. thought you might like to see my first column

Facebook is in everyone’s life. We keep up with friends and family and explore our world through this medium. Personality tests appear all through everyone’s Facebook feeds. Some fun ones: What is the color of your rainbow? Who were you in your last life? What does your real spirit look like? Innocent and silly games, right? Wrong! These are serious psychological profiles being built individually for each of us who play the games. The question is who wants to know our most intimate emotional details? The answer? The makers of fake news. They need to know all about our emotional lives so they can feed us fake news stories designed for our personalities.

Fake news continues to be a trending topic, what does this mean? We are all targets of fake news. Sounds kind of creepy, doesn’t it? It’s more than creepy; it can unconsciously shape our thoughts about people and politics.

We are targeted with ads based on where we go on the internet and this is just an extension of that manipulative marketing. When you visit a site that interests you, suddenly you receive sales pitches about that subject. Fake news works in much the same way. Give them a profile and they will give you fake news you might believe.

The data driven company, Cambridge Analytica became known after the Brexit vote in the U.K. Owned by an American named Robert Mercer, this company engineered the outcome of that vote using fake news. After the vote, the most common Google search was “What is Brexit?” Overcome with fear created by imaginary stories about immigrants, England left the European Union; whose destruction is a goal of Vladimir Putin.

Here at home, Trump paid Giles-Parschal, a San Antonio, Texas company, $72 million to target US voters based on our emotional profiles. For example, they targeted Democrats with anti-Hillary fake news. Remember the phony story about Hillary’s pedophile ring being run out of pizza restaurant basement? The pizza parlor didn’t even have a basement, but that didn’t stop a man with a gun from trying to shoot the place up “to save little children.”

The Latin phrase, Caveat Emptor means Buyer Beware! The Internet is a wonderful place but Caveat Emptor! Our constitution and country depend on our discernment between fact and fiction.


I'm going to save a copy of the paper with my first by-line! 2 columns a week! One in print and the other online.

[calimary]

49. You might want to have it framed, just to mark this auspicious occasion!

Last edited Tue Jun 20, 2017, 02:44 AM - Edit history (1)

Frame the newspaper edition. With the mast head and everything! It's your first. And it's a triumph!

And you simplify complex issues and subjects soooooo nicely. REALLY good explanation of the rat's nest that is the whole Cambridge Analytica mess.

They're already lucky to have you!

[WhiteTara]

50. Thank you for your kind thoughts!

I wish I could make a living off this; but alas, that seems like a really difficult task.

Do you mean frame the whole paper? Or just the column? I've never done anything like this before.

[calimary]

52. I'd take the column, AND the mast head. And have it framed so you see not only the work

but where it came from.

OR, depending on how big the paper is, size-wise, take the whole page maybe?

If you take it to a framer, bring the whole issue. Show him or her. And discuss it. When the boys (in my kid's band) got a great live review published somewhere, or a good album review or some write-up, I had several options. Sometimes we took the front cover of, say, "Billboard" magazine or something, and then the page where the band's item appeared - or the write-up, cut out and placed with the cover. If it was from a newspaper, the mast head on the front page definitely, and then the article itself cut out and placed with it. Talk to the framing person and give him or her the material and tell them what you want. If they're any good, they'll understand the significance - these people frame certificates and testimonials and special event stuff all the time. They'll play with it and see what looks best. I have a friend who's a framer, and he'll take my stuff and lay it out on his big work table and play with it - "we could put this here, or do it like this, or how do you like it at an angle," or any number of approaches. Often these framer people can also be artists, so they may have some great display and composition ideas. Definitely make use of that!

After all, it's your FIRST ONE! It deserves special treatment!

[WhiteTara]

53. Thanks for all the great suggestions.

I have a friend who is a framer, I'll go see what he says he can do!

Your kids are musicians, eh? How wonderful to have talented children. I'll be they take after you!

[WhiteTara]

54. I didn't realize what a rush I would get when I found out the column

had been printed. It seems there wasn't room for me last week and I thought that it would be some time before there was space for me, but! I got an email today and another columnist quit and I now have a weekly column! Now to get syndicated.

[calimary]

55. Ooooooh yeah!!!!!!

That's fantastic news!

Brava!!! Now get out there and rock their socks off!

[WhiteTara]

56. Thanks and

for your support!

[calimary]

57. I grow more proud of you by the day!

And more impressed with your accomplishments by the hour!

[Bettie]

4. You're lucky

I have two who are dumb as a bag of hammers and as crazy as a sack of rabid raccoons. (Grassley and Earnst)

[sheshe2]

7. I sorry...

Ouch Grassley and Earnst!? I feel your pain.

[Jacquette]

27. I'm curious...what's their response?

...any signs of a conscience or a spine? Any signs of shame or guilt?

[WhiteTara]

29. It's mixed. Some are true believers and they

are a bit rude, the others seem a bit shook up to think about it. One girl admitted she was scared about what is happening in Congress.

[Bettie]

6. The thing is

they want something back that never really existed in the first place.

Well, maybe on idealized TV shows where mom was always happy, everyone was white and employed and no one ever had a problem that couldn't be solved in 22 minutes.

[sheshe2]

8. It is their fantasy world...

and the product of the TV shows you mentioned. White picket fences adorned with white roses...all people white and that white ruffled apron that the little woman wore when her man came home. Blissful fantasy world for white men. It is not what we want it is what tRump supporters want.

[Bettie]

9. I watched those shows after school when I was a kid

and that life didn't look like any of the families I knew. Our lives were closer to Roseanne!

[BlancheSplanchnik]

36. I didn't watch those shows, but my mother did.

With her personality disorder, she craved that fantasy world. 5'1", over 250 pounds, she'd pick me up at school after work (she was a teacher). We'd get home, I was banished to my room to do homework, she'd fill up a few plates and retreat to her room for several hours of the Brady Bunch and suchlike tv.

Then it was time to bust into my room for a few hours of screaming verbal and physical abuse.

The fantasy world is a place that is snugly cordoned off from reality. They'll do anything to protect that delusion.

[sheshe2]

41. So sorry that was your childhood, Blanche.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

44. Awww thanks she.

❤️
That's just a fraction...PTSD city, that's me.

But my point wasn't to ask for sympathy (though that's always welcome! Lol!). It was actually to point out that the people who live for that illusion are mostly pretty warped people. Their reality can be light years apart from the fairyland in their head, but still they won't face the reality of who they are and how they live.

[sheshe2]

45. I knew that, Blanche.

They won't face it, yet someday I hope they learn that reality.

It is our land.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

46. Me too, she. I hope so too.

Caring about the difference between Right and Wrong can sure make you bang your head on the cement.

[volstork]

10. Great article,

small correction: "This Land is Your Land" is a Woody Guthrie song.

[sheshe2]

11. Yes...performed by Dylan and Woody was credited in my OP as author.

You are the second person that pointed that out, yet missed the credit.

I agree, a great article. Thank you, volstork.

[volstork]

18. My apologies--

I did miss that credit.

I also missed this article on HuffPost-- thank you for sharing.

[sheshe2]

21. No problem, volstork.

Thanks so much...yes, the article was a great read. I am glad so many took the time.

We are in a very weird, and pains me to say, frightening place right now. None of us know where the road will lead us.

RESIST

[brer cat]

12. It is

and, with apologies to sheshe, I want to post the verses usually omitted in later recordings, because they speak to us deeply:

As I went walking I saw a sign there
And on the sign it said "No Trespassing."
But on the other side it didn't say nothing,
That side was made for you and me.

In the shadow of the steeple I saw my people,
By the relief office I seen my people;
As they stood there hungry, I stood there asking
Is this land made for you and me?

Nobody living can ever stop me,
As I go walking that freedom highway;
Nobody living can ever make me turn back
This land was made for you and me.

[sheshe2]

22. Thank you, brer, no apology.

Also this since I could only post 4 paragraphs, it is hard to chose....I think I left out the most important one. It is this.

***I’m a black man in America with graduate degrees on top of graduate degrees. I feel just as comfortable at a country concert as I do at a rap concert. My friends look like the big box of crayons and my family looks like the United Nations. I am the walking embodiment of this country’s progress, and I’ll be damned if I’m going to sit by silently and watch us go backwards. The costs are too high.***

[brer cat]

24. That was very moving.

And that is why I have no patience for the white "give trump a chance" folks. They don't know what they don't know. Those, like the author of this piece, who do know are correct to say "Hell, no!"

That was a great article, and thanks for posting it.

[sheshe2]

26. Yes it was moving.

Luv ya brer and agree with you completely.

[elmac]

17. Its their world, they own it

and I am on the sidelines watching them destroy it. It will be up to us progressives to put the pieces back together after they self destruct and take the their dumbass voters with them.

[volstork]

19. A powerful statement, elmac.

I wish I could disagree.

[Hekate]

20. This is moving and beautiful and true. Thanks so much, She...

To the author and all my brothers and sisters in this struggle.

[asiliveandbreathe]

28. So many of us from that era see the words as a point of reference..

Surely we are the torch bearers and I honestly believe this is why we see up is down and down is up -

Nothing makes sense anymore...we are living in the garden of good and evil..

Tks sheshe2 for a reminder of what is good...hard to find anything good these days.....

We are fighters, hard workers, know right from wrong, accountable and responsible..and always willing to lend a hand, expecting nothing in return..

this whole govt. right now is an evil point of reference - I hope the millennials are paying attention and are willing to step up and grab the torch of goodness...

[sheshe2]

42. Thanks so much, asiliveandbreathe.

[Demonaut]

34. an idea put to test

will the idea win?

[WinkyDink]

35. I have pretty much been a Black-and-White kind o' gal. Republicans have never proven me wrong.

[ck4829]

40. It's not unlike the rhetoric associated with addiction

Idealizing the first high, remembering the euphoria, doing whatever it takes to have that first fix. It's impossible though.

I see the people who talk about taking their country back/making it great again, and I see people who want that fix.

[geek tragedy]

48. it no longer means anything to be an American, aside from geography and legalities.

People in New York City have more in common with people from Toronto than they do with people in Alabama.

[HughBeaumont]

51. The UNITED States of America are just words to Conservatives.

They "Rah Rah Patriot Patriot Love it or Leave it" over and over again about this country while hating and actively suppressing 75% of the people living in it . . . . often, that includes themselves.