TheWiseOldFart

Op-ed by TheWiseOldFart Let’s get right to it. Law Enforcement and our nation’s Military are fascist organizations. Neither could exist without unwavering obedience to their superiors, and absolute loyalty is understood by all. This should not be a surprise. If you ever served time in the military, the concept of “chain of command” is repeated ad nauseam. The same is true in every law enforcement training facility. I have a confession to make. Before I was a junior in high school, I was ignorant, not because I didn’t read or ask questions, because the real world had been hidden from me. I learned that I had been raised in an atmosphere of white privilege. My life had been focused on church and school. The Catholic Church controlled my life. I never came in contact with a Black child until I left St. Bernard’s High School and attended Venice High School. I learned a new term, a new reality: our country was divided into “two Americas.” I was raised to believe in an illusion, I’m not talk...

Op-ed by TheWiseOldFart Trump was born on June 15, 1946. Benjamin Netanyahu came into this world on October 21, 1949. They are both old, white men who live in the past. However, these are only two of the personal traits  they share. Both men claim to love their countries. Both are liars. They love what their countries can do for them. Both men talk about the law, but have no respect for their Supreme Courts, or the laws agreed to by the World Court, protecting human rights and preventing atrocities, including ethnic cleansing and genocide. At this very moment, Trump is engaged in ethnic cleansing. Netanyahu has murdered tens of thousands of innocent Palestinian men, women, and children in Gaza, in what can only be called ‘genocide.’ Not only do both old men choose to force their people to live in the past, where hatred, racism, and bigotry were commonplace, they have chosen to become dictators, renouncing their elections as democratic leaders. I feel it necessary to make some thing...

I remember Republicans. As a 78-year-old lifelong Independent voter, I was offered a choice when I went to the polls. I admit that most of the time the Democratic candidate received my vote. The policies of most Republicans were too regressive, and my beliefs are more progressive. Change is always necessary, but sometimes change moves an entire nation in the wrong direction. Sadly, the once Grand Old Party took its final breath on the morning of January 20, 2017. It is an undeniable fact that between 2017 and 2021, the backwards policies of the Trump administration destroyed many of the accomplishments made over the previous 60-70 years. Hate crimes rose by 800 percent as Blacks, Hispanics, non-Christians, the LGBTQ community, and women in general were verbally and physically assaulted as your president continued to use rhetoric focused on fear, anger, and hatred. He encouraged violence in his name and his supporters eagerly responded. Domestic terrorism became the greatest threat to t...

  Op-ed by TheWiseOldFart   Raised by a single mother in the 1950s and 60s, I was fortunate to have been very close and partially raised by my maternal grandparents. They were grandchildren of a Prussian grandfather, who came to this country at the beginning of the 20 th century, and the grandmother he met in America. Of the many things I learned from them, compassion, kindness, and understanding were the most important and remained with me throughout my life. What they couldn’t teach me were the underlying evils which existed then, and have become the norm in the 21 st century. These evils moved out of the shadows and escalated between 2017 and 2021 when an illegitimate president won the Electoral College, and became to leader of the Neo-Nazi movement in America. He and his party, once known as Republicans, combined with the mainstream media, continue to spread lies with the use of tactics including anger, hatred, and violence. At this very moment, somewhere in our ...