Céad Fáilte
A thousand Welcomes to The Village Oak Tree for July 10th, 2024
Here is the controversial interview with a retired Air Force master sergeant, now a PhD. educator from California about Critical Race Theory. I thought we were going to talk about military service. Oops.
Dr. Maurer is very vocal about what he thinks of people who subscribe to this Critical Race Theory that the U.S. has a foundation of systematic racism. His choice of wording is very telling about where his ideology lies.
I did agree that it should be taught in such a manner so as to not point fingers of blame in any direction. School children should not be set against one another while teaching U.S. history. I also believe in an unvarnished history lesson that can be taught in the classrooms that doesn’t pit one demographic against another.
All in all, this guests viewpoints are not my own as I posted in my previous podcast, the disclaimer last weekend, stating this and my opinions on CRT. In case you missed it, here is a link.
Watch the actual interview above where you can judge for yourselves. It is a little over fifty minutes long. Feel free to let me know what you think by replying to this newsletter. I am truly interested in what everyone who watches this thinks, one way or another.
In other news, I am setting up another interview for July 17th with a young lady from my locality here in Richmond, VA. She is running for the local school board and is also active in other local programs and projects. My purpose with this interview is to showcase local activists and compare their lives with other young people around the United States.
After the interview this week, I also plan to ask her what her thoughts are on CRT in the local schools within her local community. I haven’t received her approval yet so I won’t say for sure that we will be discussing this next week. Tune in then to find out more.
I am also getting together again with Mitch and Frances Chiu this weekend for another round table discussion about current events and the things that matter the most to us in our neighborhoods. I plan to keep this podcast episode under an hour this time and it will air on July 24th.
I will add that working on material for these podcast episodes is very time consuming every week. When I started last year, I had no idea that I would be spending this much time each week researching news articles and managing interview schedules. I am still not hiring (laughing) but it is tempting at times. I certainly could use some occasional help with scheduling and research. I am supposed to be retired, right?
Still, I feel that everything I am doing is important and I want to use this platform to continue to shout about all of these things that matter to all of us every week. Whether it is something local within our communities where we live, broader politics or the wars around the world or all the above.
By pointing out the things that are obviously wrong, maybe someone watching or listening will take notice and also want to influence change within their bad governments. We can only affect change if we come together in large enough groups to force the needed changes in our societies.
Like everyone across the United States and around the world is doing right now, I am watching Joe Biden fight for his political life. I will reserve my opinions for now until I see what happens over the next couple of weeks but it doesn’t look so good this week.
Rest assured, we will be talking about all of this in our round table discussion coming up in a couple of weeks.
There is a lot more news ahead that will have a direct affect on all Americans and, to a lessor degree, the Canadians and the Europeans. A recession. Every economist I listen to is saying this now, except the federal government. I can’t imagine why.
I mean, you would think we are having an election or something and the incumbent may not want to be the one getting blamed for a recession just ahead of the elections in November. So they will continue to lie to everyone until after the election. It’s not like they haven’t done this before.
Today, in an article published in The Guardian. AOC (Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez) has set forth articles of impeachment for justices Alito and Thomas. As the news article states, they won’t make it past the republican controlled house but it’s a start. Now we need to push these elected officials to keep trying. Vote the bums out, as the old saying goes.
Activism is a choice. Mostly, we do it because we are tired of being the little people blindly plodding along to work and weekend BBQ’s all the time while our elected officials take us to wars and economic hardships because of their greed. We just need more people to join the fight against this tyrannical system that favors the mega-rich and their kept politicians so we can make good changes for everyone equally everywhere.
We are all part of the human race, not white, black, brown or some other color race. We need to work together for the common good of all. Not just for a select few of the morbidly rich. We can see our neighborhoods deteriorating more and more every day so you can see how Reagan’s ‘Trickle Down Economics’ is working out for everyone after forty years.
Instigating trade wars with China, proxy wars with Russia, supporting genocide in the middle east only hastens the end of the American empire. Something I have been writing and talking about for several months now.
I will leave everyone with this question. What do you think the United States will look like next year? The year after? I am not a Biden or a Trump fan. Far from it. But we do have to look at the possibility of being under the command of a president that has a reputation for disorientation and confusion, or an absolute lunatic with no clue on how to run any country, much less the richest one of the G7 bloc. Kamala Harris is starting to look pretty good right about now.
Like, subscribe and reply, on the YouTube videos or reply here on Medium, with your thoughts on all of this. Sláinte
As I say good bye this week, I wish to leave you with this Irish blessing as you go about your day. “May your hand always be stretched out in friendship and never in want” Slán go fóill.
T. Ó Domhnaill — Gaelic Seanchaí
References:
China Is Winning The 21st Century and There’s Nothing The West Can Do About It.
AOC launches effort to impeach Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s salvo seeks accountability over conservative supreme court justices’ ethics controversies
Sam Levine and Maya Yang in New York for The Guardian
The Village Oak Tree