AWAKE AMERICA STARTS AT HOME, YOUR HOME ON THE RANGE

After last year it’s time to awake America, time for an awake America?

Or time to find a new boogieman?

Who remembers the first time someone yelled, “Wake Up,” in your face.

If it’s never happened, then never mind, go back to sleep.

But if it has happened, was it helpful? Were you asleep at the time?

Or was the yeller someone with a vague notion of awareness and limited vision.

Social media helps promote ideas of waking up. Or ‘woke.’

Being woke is good. Look around and see who is claiming to be woke, and who is criticizing.

The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff got dragged for explaining how he works to understand his job.

The Chairman is the big dog at the table of military order. When he barks, people listen. He said he reads to better understand the troops he commands, and the enemies they face.

On June 23, 2021, Milley attracted notice for telling Congressman Matt Gaetz that he found it “offensive” that the U.S. military was being characterized as “woke” for including “critical race theory” in its West Point curriculum; “I want to understand white rage – and I’m white. What is it that caused thousands of people to assault this building and try to overturn the Constitution of the United States of America?” he added.

That’s a wake up call when the highest ranking man among men of high rank explains why it’s important to understand white rage.

Do we all understand white rage yet? Are we white like General Milley? Or is it just another buzz word for people to criticize things they don’t understand?

Understanding Things Together

Let’s play school for a section. I’ll be the substitute teacher, the bitter college grad who can’t conform to the policy of the school district they live in for a full-time teaching gig.

Too many of you arrived in class with preconceived notions expressed by adults with their own limitations. They are angered at being limited because why? Fear, it’s fear.

People living in constant fear are on edge all of the time. ‘What’s that noise? Who said that? I don’t believe it.’

They apply their fear like peanut butter on a bagel and get pissed they can’t cover the hole. But they still love that bagel.

Kids hear the complaining and accusations and do one of two things: Join in. Or ignore.

Joining in means taking up with a selection of people too squirrelly to grasp the reality they face. Their decision making process has eroded to the point of, “Tell me what to do and I’ll do it if you say the right things.”

Awake America know those groups by their public names and deeds

Ignoring Adults Is Hard

Listening to some jackass spewing fear and hate on television usually means Fox News.

Turn the channel.

Hearing it in the neighborhood?

“Oh, that’s just Ralph talking. He’s a talker.”

Hear it in the house? Your house?

“Oh, that’s just dad (or mom) in a bad mood.”

Read the same words on social media?

“You know, they might have a point.”

But, what is the point of repeating fear and hate to a larger audience of strangers?

Isn’t it enough to convince friends and neighbors you’ve got a problem? But you don’t get the response you want, so why not appeal to the low-brow internet trolls looking for their own validation?

Whatever problem you see, or think you’ve got, online strangers will only add to it by sparking new fears and hate. Like you’re not full enough.

If you live in a small town and feel outside pressure to act because someone somewhere said a roaming hoard of illegal aliens is about to descend on the region and turn it into an urban wasteland, what do you do?

Buy more guns, of course.

However, if you live in a big city and have been the victim of racism all your life?

Some folks find others to victimize. Look, there’s an old Chinese lady to punch and kick to the sidewalk.

Don’t do it.

Awake America Sleeps On China?

My experience with racism shows that an individual harboring ill-will toward one group, or race, will switch to another with ease.

A white racist’s son marries a black woman and he says, “I had to change or I’d never see my son.” So they change to disparaging another minority.

From Pew Research:

Asian respondents who say violence against their group in the U.S. is increasing give many reasons for the rise, according to an open-ended question in which people responded in their own words. Some 20% directly cited former President Donald Trump and his rhetoric about China as the source of the pandemic, his racist comments or his labeling the coronavirus as the “kung flu” or “Chinese flu” as one of the reasons for the rise in violence. 

For people living in a constant state of denial, a leader chosen and ordained by God and approved by their gospel mangling preacher hawking snake-oil ideas, is a trigger. What they say is taken as a commandment akin to that given Moses.

And in their righteous believe, they act out to complete the circle of stupid based on words spoken by the one who called them stupid from the start.

“We love the under-educated,” was their love letter for Go-Time on Jan. 6.

Turns out they give the same love back. After a year of covid-denial, anti-vaxxers, and power humping, nothing has changed.

Awake America says, “Smell the coffee, people. We’re better than that.”

Show a little effort, a little awareness, before you’re the next target.

Hate and fear are always recruiting. Be prepared to respond with love and kindness before the ass kicking starts.

Class dismissed. See you all tomorrow. There will be a quiz.