THE BEGINNING COMES AFTER THE ENDING

 

   You may recognize this heading as a direct quote from Rebecca Solnit's book, "The Beginning Comes After the Ending." Which I have on kindle but have not read yet. But as a political commentator, writer, feminist, and ecologist her words make sense and, I believe, are meant to give us some hope in these dire times.

 

 It certainly LOOKS as if we are seeing the end of American Democracy. Certainly is the end of American hegemony brought about by our horrendous, corrupt, and insanely stupid president. Heather Cox Richardson has spoken about the times we live in, that we are seeing the end of something but do not yet know what new thing will be built.

  Isaiah says it poetically, "Behold, I am doing a new thing....do you not perceive it?" (Isaiah 43:19) 

And what will this "new" thing be? I am hoping that we will see the rebuilding of American democracy in some form that will hold these crucial traits:

--getting money out of politics--

--having term limits for all Congress men and women as well as SCOTUS.

 

--getting rid of corporate monopolies--

--breaking up the Media giants and going back to several venues which compete with each other.

--making sure our elections are fair and to be trusted.

--removing the corrupt Republicans from office. 

  There were more which Robert Reich listed as ways we can reclaim our democracy. 

Timothy Snyder, a historian and expert on authoritarianism, has said plainly that our democracy cannot be salvaged. He also said that something new must be built on the ashes of the old, assuming, of course, that we do not go further down into total fascism. 

  I would like to add another idea to Reich's wonderful analysis. Let's go back to paper ballots.

These voting machines are too vulnerable to manipulation. As you know, I am pretty sure that the 2024 election was rigged by Trump loyalists and Elon Musk, using voting machines.

  There are some other things I would like to see to help us regain or rebuild our democracy.

--teach Civics in schools again.

--teach empathy in school the way they do in Norway. We need a populace which can understand what it is like to be someone else, which can sympathize with a poor, single mother struggling to put groceries on the table.

 

--work with young kids to erase racism and hatred of women. We have a long, long way to go with this one, witness the recent hangings of Black people in the South and the sexual abuse of women throughout our culture, but esp. on college campuses. We have got to do the work.

--follow a more Japanese style of educating children where kids learn to clean up after themselves and look out for others. 

--work to gain a more educated populace, probably using our school systems. Get rid of AI and go back to teaching and reading actual paper books.

  These are just a few modest suggestions of how we can reclaim our democracy, support a more educated populace, and create a future that our kids and grandkids can flourish in.