Censure This, Bro.
Why Speaking Up Now is Everything.
Is there even one are where you look at the United States and think, "Well hot damn, they got it right!"? Social progress, Guns, Foreign Policy, Budgeting, Military Spending, College (debt), Reproductive Rights, Healthcare, Education, Housing, Agriculture, Climate...
From where I sit, the U.S. has it all backwards. One of our most precious American "rights" is that of "Free Speech." While they claim it's universal, we know it's actually quite conditional.
Case in point: our government took time, and forced a vote ON ELECTION NIGHT to silence the one Palestinian-American member of Congress speaking up about the war in Gaza. They want to scare protesters, to shame progressives, to silence dissenters, to get us to stop posting.
House
Maybe they hoped to distract from the blue wave, or Biden's age. It won't work. We are still paying attention to Gaza.
Who are the real radicals?
American investments, and leaders, do not align with the reality for most Americans. The few people that are in touch with the citizens of this country are put down. They get called "The Squad," or radicals, or like AOC did, "A fucking bitch."
We know what radical means to the moderate Democrats and GOP: Radically different than the old guard. Radically caring about social justice issues. Radically calling out the f*ckery, and demanding transparency and moral decency. Radically saying everyone deserves dignity, honor, and respect.
We also know what this country values, and it's not our freedom.
We allow a twice impeached President, currently on trial for nearly 100 felony counts across multiple states, to run for a second term, because the rules are "murky." The same one who lied over 20,000 times in his first year and a half in office.
We restrict women's rights so much that a 13 year old girl is forced to carry a baby to term after being raped.
We blame Americans for their poor health while withholding lifesaving medicine because of the cost, incentivising overly processed, chemical food.
We over work and have high rates of stress causing 4 out of 10 Americans to have 2 or more chronic diseases.
We don't provide guaranteed housing.
We're one of the worst countries in the world for disability assistance.
We're 34th out of 35 countries to raise a family. Wonder why?
We don't provide paid time off, parental leave, or childcare.
We fund our Military more than anything else, and then ask Americans, via text, to donate $20 for the chance to hug Biden and Harris?
We allow criminals who supported an attempted coup to not only run FOR Congress, but actually RUN Congress.
AND THEN we bomb THOUSANDS OF CHILDREN, after they are cut off from aid, food, water, electricity, wifi, and their families.
We do all that, but it is not what We The People voted for or want. We did not consent to this war or any other. The Powers that Be take our votes, but they don't care.
What they want us to forget.
Our leaders decided censuring Tlaib was important, with...
...less than 10 days till another government shut down because they can't decide on a budget.
...less than 6 years before climate temperatures can no longer be curtailed.
....wars on every front
...a mere weeks before the holidays
...a MENTAL HEALTH CRISIS
...a childcare crisis
...a border crisis
...a fentanyl & opioid crisis
...Covid still looming, Flu Season, RSV ramping up
...1 million Americans unhoused
...1 in 5 millennials live below the poverty level
...mass shootings daily
...12 million kids in poverty
...and MASSIVE (and growing) gender and racial wealth and wage gaps
that this was critical enough to spend their time on.
This censure vote not only took their precious time; they spent money on it, too–money that, as a nation, we don't have to spare. The federal deficit keeps growing.
The Powers That Be owe us all so much, it would be hard to calculate. They still haven't apologized for enslaving people, and they deny reparations to Black Americans.
Instead, our government, (with the $2 Trillion dollars they get from Individual tax returns, and the $2 Trillion they get from Corporate Taxes (after we pay those companies for their goods and services) took our federal dollars for this?
The fact is that despite an enormous list of real problems, they thought it was worth censuring Representative Rashida Tlaib for saying "STOP GENOCIDE."
Ignoring the fact that MANY people agree with her, they went through a process to formally chastise her like a child. They attacked her credibility and her psyche, as if she wasn't struggling enough already as a Palestinian American.
What we must remember.
Rep. Tlaib said what...
...what 300k Americans marching in D.C. said.
...Gutierrez and the UN say daily.
...what Jewish Voices for Peace says, and what an entire Grand Central Station's worth of protestors said.
...WHAT EVERY SINGLE GLOBAL HUMANITARIAN ORGANIZATION AGREES WITH.
She said that...
...Israel, with US support is committing genocide.
...this is settler colonialism, occupation, and apartheid.
...we have debt and war up to our necks.
...this is a disproportionate response, (as if there is such a thing).
...we should STOP KILLING INNOCENT CIVILIANS and that this is making things far worse, for Jews and Muslims especially.
...Israel's government, led by far-right radical religious fanatics, who were not even really elected, is going to far.
...we MUST SAVE KIDS.
She said all that, and they found time to vote on this tonight?
Our congress took hours to talk about what she said, rather than what is happening. They "silenced" a fellow civil servant for saying "stop killing people" because they'd rather do that than be brave.
The only words to describe this are a complete and total $hit $how.
The Powers That Be are fascists, plain and simple.
They can't censure us all.
#KeepGoing
#FreePalestine
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