Writing Challenges 2022

To Quote Plato

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Word Of The Day Challenge: CONSENT

The Normalization of “Post-Truth”
Jeff Gates2017-08-23

Among my family members and friends are people who consider themselves ” Good Republicans ”  who  say they don’t like Trump and they do things like fly the flag on the 4th of July and they post pictures of soldiers  on their FB walls on Veterans day and they ever so gently point out I belong to a party ‘with the same kinds of problems ‘ as republicans so why bring up things like  Trump’s deadly attack on our Capitol and Trump’s distasteful  bromances with Dictators?

Of course President Obama was never accused of rape or for paying an adult film actress for her silence before his election and President Biden didn’t instruct law enforcement to shoot people in face when he wanted to clear the area for a photo-op and as far as I know he doesn’t think much of White Supremacists or Tucker Carlson.

But to their credit, they don’t rant and rave and claim that Democrats are cannibals who prey on children and they would never support the argument that we weren’t attacked on September 11th.

The problem is, they don’t say anything critical about Trump or the Republican party at all. And even though I care for my friends and family who are republicans I have taken note of the ones who have remained silent because –

“Your silence gives consent.”

and their silence is absolutely deafening.

Plato, copy of the portrait made by Silanion ca. 370 BC for the Academia in Athens

 

― Plato

 

Happy Bees

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Word of the Day Challenge: REGRET

Tartini’s Dream by James Marshall, 1868

I regret

the doors that I did not slam shut

the windows that I closed when it was raining

I regret

the kind words that buzzed from my lips like happy honey bees

sweetening the world for everyone who patted me on the head and said ‘hello’

I regret

the minutes and seconds I  gave away, threw away like confetti on New Years Eve

I regret I didn’t keep  a single moment, a little sweetness for myself.

Well This One Hurt My Brain

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Gertrude Abercrombie

Gun Lobbyists ( aka The NRA ) have floated the idea out there that Teachers should be armed in case a killer shows up and starts shooting. This way the Lobbyists and their donors say, the children will be protected.

This  is my question.

A lot of us here in the States are familiar with the situation where a six year old shot their teacher.

If the teacher had been armed, as the Lobbyists for the Gun Industry say,  she could have shot the six year old in self defense. The Lobbyists for the Gun Industry ( aka The NRA ) would have called this something like a righteous kill and then gone on to double dog dared you to do as much as LOOK at their God Given Right to own guns.

So in that split second when the six year pulls out their gun and the teacher pulls out their gun, who do you think is going to pull the trigger first?

Just coddle that image in your brain.

A teacher and a six year old in a standoff involving guns  in a classroom and now ask yourself-

Why the HELL are we even having this conversation? How did we get here?

RDP Monday: CODDLE