Nostalgia Lies

I’m getting pretty damned tired of these Facebook memes. Mind you, many are sweet and/or funny. Some are uplifting while others are simplistic and trite. They’re not all as ire inspiring as this:

God Bless the old America
I sure miss her

Which old America do these folks miss?

Is it the one where, if you had brown skin, you couldn't go to the same schools or use the same drinking fountain? Where you could be refused service at a restaurant because of the color of your skin? The America where you had to sit at back of the bus if you’re not white? Do they long for the country where it was OK to refuse citizens the vote based on their race, color or gender? Do they long for the  time when it was OK to use color coordinated racial slurs, even in supposedly polite company?

How about the America where you had to hide who you loved? Where it was great sport for gangs of ‘tough’ guys to beat the snot out of you or even kill with impunity all because of who you loved? Is it the America where life partners of 50 years could be barred from seeing each other when one was in hospital because ‘they’re not family?’ Thank Bast the Mittser wasn’t elected!

Is it the America where women routinely get blamed for their brutalization by husband, father, co-worker, acquaintance or complete stranger?  Where women make 77 cents to every dollar that a man makes for doing exactly the same job? Where a woman isn't trusted to make decisions about her own health care?

In Georgia the state House has just passed HB 954, which would make it illegal for a woman to have an abortion after 20 weeks of gestation, even if she’s carrying a fetus that will ultimately be stillborn. And why not? Pigs do it all the time, says Rep. Terry England.
No, seriously, “why not” is because pigs do it all the time.

Life gives us many experiences. It gives us experience–or, I’ve had the experience of delivering calves, dead and alive. Delivering pigs, dead and alive. And I want to tell you, Representative McCall, Representative Roberts, all of us–Representative Anderson–that have done that–Representative Black–that have done that, it breaks our hearts to see those animals not make it.

Because women are, of course, livestock, and when we see that 20-week ultrasound that shows that the fetus we’ve been doting over has anomalies incompatible with life and thus our much-wanted pregnancy will result in heartbreak, we let out a plaintive moo and then immediately begin wondering whether we’ll get alfalfa or timothy hay for dinner.

Oh whoops, we still live in that old America.

You simply MUST read this follow up post by Caperton over at Feministe. Really -- it’s TREMENDOUS!

Maybe I'm interpreting this meme post wrong -- maybe the sign writer is wistful for an America where politics was a way to govern not a big game death sport. Not a 24/7 propaganda fest. An America where the two big parties could sit down and occasionally reach real, honest-to-god compromises. Where one of the two big political parties *cough* republican/tea party *cough* wasn't spewing lies and misinformation on it's bought and paid for 'news station’ *cough* Fox *cough.* An America where acting like a meth fueled, rabid pit bull in response to those who disagree with you was frowned upon and, possibly, your buds might chastise not cheer you for your immature bullying behavior.

Beware wistful nostalgia -- it lies.

The 'right' has always sowed discord amongst those not as opulently moneyed. The game has always been 'get the middle class to resent and hate the poor.' Essentially, get the peasants to fight amongst themselves so they don’t notice that they’re being robbed blind.

This a big part of what made MLK so dangerous to them. He was waking the middle classes to the fact that it was and is the wealthy-beyond-comprehension class, the big corporations who are the actual takers, waking up to the fact that we were being manipulated like low rent carnival marks.

Conveniently, Reverend King was silenced.

Today is the 49th anniversary of Bloody Sunday when 600 peaceful civil rights demonstrators were attacked by police while marching from Selma, AL to Montgomery, AL.