Small Towns and Such

by Errington C. Thompson, MD –

Trump

After sitting in my living room watching Americans attack the Capitol on January 6, 2021—and reruns of The Day countless times since then—I thought that people, important people, would be arrested. So, I waited with anticipation. Six months. A year. Two years. Two-and-a-half years. Well, that day has finally come. Trump has been indicted and formally arraigned. More on Trump later.

Barbie

I know. I thought it was going to be a fluff movie. It kinda was, but it was also much more. It turns out to be a female anthem. The movie is really good. It will cause you to think a bit. It is worth your time.

Small Towns

In 1985, John Cougar Mellencamp released his classic song, “Small Town.” I guess you could call it an ode to small towns. He discusses the fact that he was educated in a small town. He was taught to love Jesus in a small town. He met a beautiful woman and brought her back to the small town. Now she loves small towns just as much as he does. He even states that he has nothing against the big city—just that he is able to breathe in a small town. It’s a very nice tune.

Now, contrast Mellencamp to Jason Aldean, who just released a tune called, “Try That in a Small Town.” The song starts off violently. Sucker punch somebody on the sidewalk, carjack an old lady at a red light. The song goes on like this for several lines, then the chorus—Well, try that in a small town, see how far you make it down the road, around here, we take care of our own. This is not John Cougar Mellencamp’s small town.

It is hard to know where to go with Jason Aldean’s tune. It is combative. The imagery in the video is violent. It could even be called racist. The video seems to confuse nonviolent protests with lawlessness. The two actions are not the same. In the small town painted by Jason Aldean, there is no room for dissent. Step out of line or challenge the status quo, and you get a violent beat down. I really don’t want to have anything to do with Jason Aldean’s small town.

And, in fact, Mike Males, a writer for The Daily Kos, wrote on Aug. 8, “The odds of good-old white folks dying by gunfire are a whopping 1.7 times higher in an overwhelmingly white, small town or rural area … than in a big city full of people of color…

“The dirty rural secret shown in the latest Centers for Disease Control death tabulations for 2022-23: white people in small towns are 1.3 times more likely to be murdered, 1.3 times more likely to commit suicide, and 1.2 times more likely to die by violent causes than white people living in a big metro like Chicago, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, New York, or Houston.”

“Benefits” of Slavery

I have no idea why this is even being discussed. Ron DeSantis, Florida governor and GOP presidential candidate, continues to twist himself into knots trying to impress the MAGA base. Sunshine State teachers are now being told that they must instruct middle school students that “slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.”

Sorry: there are some atrocities in our past that we must honestly say were horrible events. Period. There is no way to sugarcoat them.

Native Americans. Our treatment of the indigenous people here in the United States. Lands were stolen, women raped, and children massacred from the East Coast to the West. The Trail of Tears. More than 100,000 thousand Native Americans, mostly Cherokee, Creek, Chicasaw, and Choctaw, were forced to walk to Oklahoma from NC, Tennessee, and Georgia; at least 15,000 died along the way. I don’t think we know the true number, which is probably higher.

The Holocaust. There is no way to spin the Holocaust to make it sound better. Six million Jews were rounded up and killed for no reason other than their religion; another 500,000 Jehovah’s Witnesses, Roma (“Gypsies”), Poles, gays, people with disabilities, and other “undesirables” also died in the gas chambers.

Slavery. It was a horrible, dehumanizing institution. Millions of Africans were separated from their families. They were forced to work, not for their own benefit, but for the benefit of others. They were beaten. They were tortured. They were raped and their children sold for profit. They weren’t allowed to marry. They weren’t allowed to read or write.

To say that slavery had benefits is like telling someone from Guantánamo Bay that waterboarding has benefits. The idea is repugnant. Students need to be taught the honest truth. Slavery was awful. The only people that consistently benefited from slavery were the slaveowners.

My hope is that Ron DeSantis is seen as anti-American. He has rejected diversity. I think, when we honestly look at the record of the United States over the last 50 to 75 years, diversity is one of the things that continues to make this country great. Ron DeSantis is fading in the polls. I am hopeful that he will be booted out of office by the good people of Florida and figuratively thrown into the dustbin of history. I have my fingers crossed.

Strong Unions

The middle class developed in this country in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Americans moved from Jason Aldean’s small towns into cities to work in factories. As factory owners began to line their pockets with money, the workers formed unions to negotiate with the owners. And factory workers had to literally fight against private armies like the Pinkertons, and even against corrupt police, for their share of the profits.

Ultimately, the overall standard of living increased in the United States because factory workers fought for better pay and better wages. Unions, as a matter of fact, kept CEO pay in check. In the 1960s and ’70s, unions began to lose their luster and their influence. Companies began shipping factories overseas. Union-busting began to sweep the nation, as it had in the 1910s and ’20s. Ronald Reagan—himself a former union president—crushed the air traffic controller’s strike in 1982. Union membership had peaked in 1954 at 35% of all workers. In 2022, membership was only just above 10%.

Now Hollywood writers and actors (Reagan’s former union) are on strike. The major studios are raking in profits. Their CEOs are taking home huge checks. Netflix is paying two CEOs $51 and $50 million. The CEO of Warner Brothers takes home $39 million per year. Paramount’s CEO is raking in over $32 million a year. There are tons of other executives that are making money. Why can’t they pay the everyday writers and actors?

UPS just settled with its union. It appears that both sides got something in the final contract, an essential outcome of fair negotiations: everybody compromises, and we get what’s known as a “virtuous cycle” (the opposite of a “vicious circle”). Working people earn more money and spend more money. They buy more stuff, which increases corporate profits and federal and state tax revenues, so roads get repaired and firemen and schoolteachers can also get a raise—and everybody—including our entire nation’s economy—wins. That’s a good thing!

It is about balance and fairness. Walmart is not paying a living wage. Tons of Walmart employees are working over 20 hours/week and still must get food stamps to make ends meet. This is nuts. I don’t think that every worker needs a house in the Hamptons or a private jet, but they should be able to put food on the table and live in a decent house or apartment. This is why we need strong unions.

(And don’t believe that the “magic capitalism fairy” makes sure that everyone gets paid what they are worth. That’s also nuts. You get paid what you can negotiate. If you don’t negotiate, then you will be underpaid!)

Trump Indicted for January 6th Insurrection

Well, it has finally happened. I’m not sure I really thought this day was going to come. Donald Trump has been indicted on four federal counts.

We were upset that US Attorney General Merrick Garland was moving too slowly. We belly-ached that he did not have the stomach for this. That may have been true, but the House investigation of January 6th made it easier for Merrick Garland to do his job. (Thank you, Nancy Pelosi, for pushing for this Commission: when the indictment was handed down on August 1 we, the American people, knew most of the facts already.)

When Garland appointed Jack Smith last November as an independent counsel, it was looked at with the side-eye: progressives were not sure it was a good thing. Now, it looks like a stroke of genius, as Trump drones on about Department of Justice being biased against him. (What does the GOP always say? “If you do not want to be arrested, stop breaking the law.”)

Please understand that along with Trump, we are on trial. America is on trial. This trial should be televised so that we can all see … everything. We have to believe that Justice is being done (with a capital J) because this is about the rule of law. It almost does not matter if Trump goes to jail or is found guilty. I hope that he will be found guilty, but what really matters is that we, the American people, believe that the whole thing was fair and that everyone followed the law.

There are tons of questions that remain. When will the trial be? How will the trial affect the election? Will there be others indicted and convicted for conspiracy?

All these questions will be answered in due time. The lady with the scales, Lady Justice, will move slower than we would like. We are going to have defeat Donald Trump again. We are going to have to use logic, wit, and passion to beat him. In this election there is no way that progressives aren’t motivated. We will turn out in force to defeat Trump once again. The one thing that Trump is really good at is losing. He lost decisively in 2020, and we can make him a loser again in 2024!

NOTE: The views and opinions expressed here, as well as assertions of facts, are those of the author. They do not necessarily represent the views or opinions of The Urban News.