By Lafe Tolliver, Esq
Guest Column
Sometimes when you read the news, local or national, you may ponder why some matters are of great importance and then some are of practically no redeeming value whatsoever.
A case in point is the near rapturous fawning over pop star Taylor Swift in putting out her 12th album.
So called “pop stars” are suppose to put out albums and their PR teams duty is to puff it up so big that you are programmed to believe that this media-made production has to be a part of your social life and the very reason for your existence, that you will become a cheerleader for all things…Swift.
Americans love a good, “RAH-RAH” story or tale. It has the tendency to take us out of our
daily ho-hum daily routine and place us in a make believe world if even for a few moments of escape; and after Taylor Swift has strutted across your TV screen and dazzled you with her sequin gowns, you will sigh and go back to running the sweeper…and her bank account
grows by leaps and bounds.
I’ll pass on Swift-a-Mania and any other manufactured pizzazz which does not leave a positive message in its wake.
Here is a thought that will have the barbarians rushing my front door: in Toledo and regrettably in so many other “urban centers,” the shame and embarrassment of “our” youth
acting the fool and acting out in rage and in anger at their fellow teens and even at the adults solving their unresolved social and personal issues by using a gun.
One of my takes on Trump declaring war on urban centers is that it is a sly way in which he can use the National Guard or the military to corral and incarcerate minority juveniles. To be
clear, Trump has not been and is not a friend of Black people, among others. For people to think that Trump has their best interest at heart would be akin to Jews in Nazi Germany voting for Hitler! (Note: J.D. Vance at one time, called Trump Hitler!).
Sadly, a lot of what we see and hear in the Black “community” (if you can call it a community with shared values of respect and decency for one another) is the glaring fact
that too many of “our” youth are and were raised by parents who apparently did not know squat about family values and, as such, they had next to nothing to pass on to their offspring about respect for themselves and others, work ethics, respect for women, respect for authority and a passion to make something of themselves.
For too many kids, especially young boys, a gang culture is the best resemblance to a family
that they have known or may never know. When kids birth kids, the result is that we all lose and the values that are needed to be inculcated in those family members are missing or are
not modeled in the home by a parent in a single family home. Yes, there are exceptions.
Trump’s ignorance about the phrase, D.E.I., and what it historically means is that we are suffering under his belabored delusions about making America great again and his
compliant clown car of accomplices are more than willing to utter detestable lies about
the competence of minorities, so we all suffer.
Of course no one attacks the utterly devoid lack of competence of his rat pack who, in their various powerful positions, simply carry out his wishes of intentional cruelty and lies about Obamacare and the 2020 elections being a farce.
Their sole duty is to sear their conscience as to what is right and wrong, fair and just and
earn, “Atta Boy!” points from Trump.
The Democratic Party is in a fixable mess! They have taken for granted, for decades, the loyalty of their voters simply because the near sighted Democratic Party thought they had no place else to go. And so while the Republicans have been feverishly organizing at the city, county and state level, including school boards, to push their warped messages, the Democrats were not willing to spend the money or the time in counter organizing.
Now because of that party being adrift, the Republicans were able to spring out like a hidden tiger and put a warped person like Trump in the White House, not once, but twice!
PROJECT 2025 was long out in the open as their blueprint to reconfigure the government to their image and Trump was simply their compliant poster boy to do their bidding.
Now, according to the polls, the political division in this country is so wide and deep that in my estimation, it will take many years to reconstitute a Congress that can govern and an occupant of the White House who is not divisive and mean, just for the sake of meanness.
In my vision, there is no one leader who has the charisma and political savvy to wield such
an influence that both sides of the chasm are willing to come to terms and do a “redo” of this
thing called democracy.
If not, then it has been as good 250 year run (for most people) and we will have to see what may take its place.
My marching orders to you? Stay positive, be proactive, vote, help those in need and speak truth to power knowing that there are millions just like you out here also watching the sign of the times.
Contact Lafe Tolliver at tolliver@juno.com