The Freedom Seder

https://johnomason.com/2021/03/29/the-freedom-seder/

The Mason Moment March 27, 2021

The Mason Missile, March 26, 2021

Greetings, Americans! The Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) has come and gone. Traditionally, it has been a place for conservative activists and politicians to network, and for presidential candidates to present themselves, and display their conservative bona fides. But this year, it has been a moment of trump-worship, including a gilded fiberglass statue of the Donald (made in Mexico) and there are photos of a man bowing to it and worshiping it-the new Golden Calf! (https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2021/02/golden-trump-statue-cpac-mexico.html) Another controversy was around the design of the stage, which was not at all like a regular stage, but one that resembled the “Odal Rune,” a letter in the ancient Nordic alphabet, which is popular among neo-fascists and white nationalists. How did that design come about? What were they thinking? Of course blatant neo-Nazis and racists have entered the “mainstream” conservative movement. Then there was the standup routine of Ted Cruz, Senator supposedly of Texas-but during the huge snowstorm, which wrecked the state’s antiquated electric-power system (leaving people without power, without water, without heat, and some literally freezing to death)-ol’ Teddy thought it would be a great time to vacation in Cancun. Later, when his copping out on his constituents made the news, Cruz headed back, and in his explanations, he said he was escorting his daughters to Cancun, making his OWN DAUGHTERS the scapegoat for his failure in leadership. You can’t’ expect anything else from a “man” who bootlicks the person who slandered his father and insulted his wife. To top it off, Cruz went to CPAC and made a big joke about it. (https://www.businessinsider.com/watch-ted-cruz-cpac-speech-cancun-trump-2021-2) This is the state of the conservative movement in America—treating the problems of marginalized people as a joke, and appealing to the worst racist elements. It has been a long ride for the Republican party, and the conservative movement, into the racist gutter, from the Goldwater campaign in 1964 which was hostile to Civil Rights legislation; to Nixon’s Southern Strategy and the “tough on crime” rhetoric; to the Reagan campaign beginning at the site where three Civil Rights workers were killed in Mississippi; to the Willie Horton propaganda campaign of George Bush I; to the mockery and slander of Barrack Obama, at Tea Party rallies, for being of African descent; and now we have Donald trump’s campaign vilifying Mexican immigrants as rapist and murderers. How much further can they sink? Helping the Republican Party along this road to nowhere has recently passed-Rush Limbaugh. For over thirty years as a national radio personality, Limbaugh has played into the racism, sexism, xenophobia, and homophobia among the American people, and using them as a basis for his idea of entertainment, making racist and sexist wisecracks about “feminazis” and “Barack the Magic Negro”, just like a school bully mocking the suffering of the child he terrorizes; and there are people in the country who applauded his act-people who are having difficult times with their finances and their lives, and Limbaugh gave them a target for them to aim their hate deflecting from the corporate elite, and their subservient politicians rewriting laws for their benefit. For this act, Limbaugh was well paid; in 2008, Limbaugh signed a contract with Clear Channel Communications to have his show broadcast over their Premier Radio Network, for $400 million (https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB121504302144124805). Limbaugh was paid millions to tell working and low-income people, who happen to be white, that their problems stem from THOSE people, who happen to be of color, taking their jobs and their college admissions as they leach off the welfare system. The corporate rulers will pay ANY one ANY amount of money to turn the public against someone else, a soft target, a traditionally marginalized racial or cultural group. Contradictory, I know-living off welfare AND taking jobs?-but racism and other prejudices aren’t logical, and Limbaugh made jokes about racial problems in this country, so when he ever got called out on it, he could say, “Hey, I’m an entertainer, I’m making a joke!” In Georgia, Republicans ruling the state legislature have unleashed an old weapon on communities of color—drawing up new and more restrictive voting laws that would make it difficult for them to vote, with such items as fewer drop-off boxes, tighter identification requirements, the state taking over county election boards, and penalties for anyone giving food or water to people standing in line to vote. (https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/25/politics/georgia-state-house-voting-bill-passage/index.html) When Governor Brian Kemp signed the bill-with no witnesses-Park Cannon, an African-American woman State Representative, tried to get into the room to witness the signing, but was arrested, put in handcuffs, and was jailed. (https://www.rawstory.com/outraged-voters-blast-georgia-law-enforcement-following-park-cannons-arrest/?xrs=RebelMouse_fb&ts=1616766462&fbclid=IwAR0NN6ARZa9Ycf9iAE0paWGBpu5OnuSdN0NNx4eCBkBaDIBQwgKMk0Tk98o) The Republicans must thin African-American people, and descent people throughout the state and the nation, are going to just put up with it passively, we can’t do anything about it. No way! We have a long and honorable history in this of fighting for freedom, for African-Americans, women, workers, LGBTQs, and other minorities. We know the struggle they went through-are we going to let them down? Are we going to let them take away all our predecessors worked for? Died for? I know we won’t. We’ll take to the streets, to our online chat rooms, to our news media, and to the polls. We defeated them once we can and will defeat them again. Stay safe, stay strong, and stay together! America will be free! Bye!

The Mason Moment, March 21, 2021

The Mason Moment March 14, 2021 (Sequence 1)

The Mason Moment, March 6, 2021