11 Comments
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Jo Lein's avatar

You did a great job outlining this story

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eddie's avatar

Great points. Love your work. If you would like a spell checker, please let me know. I’d be happy to help.

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Sally Booher's avatar

Would you like a proofreader?

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Sheila Resseger's avatar

I think there were just a few typos.

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Jeffrey Brill's avatar

The only reason to take down an “everyone is welcome” sign is if someone is not welcome. The racists just don’t want to say it out loud, because they know how terrible that is.

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Wheatpaste's avatar

The mental calisthenics are amazing here “of course it’s true that everyone is welcome to attend school, the problem is SAYING it”

I think the vagueness was the point of the exec order: let people tear each other apart in fear, force compliance in advance. One thing Trump is good at is being so vague that people can overlay their own preferences, ideology, bigotry over what he says.

And I like your writing just as it is;)

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Frank Sterle Jr's avatar

Many people find Trump to be the very unstable, vengefully angry and self-centered/-serving type willing to take the world for a most brutal spin, perhaps even for the sake of him making it into the historical-'greatness' books. If anything, he's evidence of a great evil being unleashed onto a largely powerless world.

Yet, early on Nov.6, Donald Trump publicly stated: “Many people have told me that God spared my life [from two assassination attempts] for a reason. And that reason was to save our country and to restore America to greatness.” … Then again, Adolf Hitler also escaped assassination attempts made against him, most notably that foiled effort called the July Plot or Operation Valkyrie, and may have also mused that something divine spared his life.

The institutional ‘Christians’ who still vocally and politically support Donald Trump tend to see him as literally Godsent. Many, including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and her reporter boyfriend Brian Glenn, also perceive Trump’s presidency as divinely-intended punishment against liberals. ... By institutional Christianity, I mean those ‘Christians’ most resistant to Christ’s fundamental teachings of non-violence, compassion and non-wealth.

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Sheila Resseger's avatar

According to at least one indignant person who objected to this poster, which shows hands of different skin tones while proclaiming that "Everyone is Welcome Here,"--putting this poster in a school is evidence of espousing Marxism and is an example of DEI. Well, Yes, we are a diverse nation, Yes, our founders and Constitution espouse equity for all, and Yes, every person deserves dignity and respect. Every person deserves due process. Shouldn't every decent person recognize and accept this? The irrational fear of DEI undoes the rationale for the U.S. government, despite that for these many years the rationale has not yet been fulfilled. The founders were profoundly and thoughtfully influenced by the uplifting Enlightenment. This regime is thoughtlessly and cruelly influenced by a sinister Endarkenment. All of our children deserve enlightment, not prejudice.

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Peter Greene's avatar

Thanks for the patience. I'm in the field this weekend, and the typos are even worse than usual.

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Frank Sterle Jr's avatar

Racist sentiment is often acquired during childhood, sometimes even passed down generationally like a communicable virus/sickness. Especially if it’s deliberate, rearing one’s very impressionable young children in such an environment of baseless contempt and overt bigotry amounts to a formidable form of child abuse.

If racists won’t do it for plain moral reasons, they then should do their own children a big favor by NOT passing down onto them such destructive anti-social/-societal sentiments and perceptions (including stereotypes and ‘humor’), since such rearing can readily make life much harder for those children.

It fails to prepare them for the practical reality of an increasingly diverse and populous society and workplace. It also makes it so much less likely those children will be emotionally content or preferably harmonious with their multicultural and multi-ethnic/-racial surroundings.

Children reared into their adolescence and, by extension, young adulthood this way can find themselves feeling angry yet not know at precisely what. They also may feel self-compelled to move to another part of the land, where their own ethnicity/race predominates, preferably overwhelmingly so.

This serious social/societal problem can/should be proactively prevented by allowing young children to become accustomed to other peoples/cultures/faiths in a harmoniously positive manner.

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Lauren S. Brown's avatar

I wrote about this when I first heard the story.

https://substack.com/@laurensbrown/note/c-99759049

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