The War On Being Woke

Good Morning. And good, whatever it might be, wherever you are. Welcome to Practicing Truth.

Today’s subject: The war on being woke.

But first, let me credit the music: Wake Up Everybody by Harold Melvin & The Bluenotes.

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you take what I say as food for thought.

Have a fabulous day!

The wealth of a nation does not sit in bank vaults, printed in denominations of one, five, ten, twenty, fifty, and one hundred. Or reflected by the numbers that swiftly scroll across video displays announcing the value of its stocks and bonds. Nor is it held in the safes, deeds of property, and futures investments of its wealthiest citizens. Instead, the wealth of a nation is its children. Which, when properly nurtured, will yield a more lucrative return than all other investments combined.

A nation’s children build on its past and lay the foundation for its future. Theirs are the voices that will outline and debate its future policies, the hands that will sign them into law, and the faces its citizens will praise or blame when those policies succeed or fail. A nation that does not sufficiently attend to the health, welfare, and needs of its children, or does not protect them from harm, is a nation whose future existence is in jeopardy!

Banning books, which has become all the rage, altering and repressing history, and sheltering our children in religious schools, do not protect them from the reality in which we live. The racism, bigotry, and injustice many people experience in their lives daily. It only keeps them ignorant of it. Unaware of the challenges we, as a nation, should be positively addressing and attempting to overcome.

What we do not teach our children when they are young, about our history, dooms them to repeat the mistakes our republic has made in the past. The near genocide of America’s indigenous people. And the destruction of their way of life. Slavery. And the denial of human rights to its Black citizens after slavery. As well as the suppression of equal rights to its female citizens.

What they don’t know harms them and hurts us all. Children are resilient. And as uncomfortable as the truth might make them, lies and withholding the truth cripple them and stifle their ability to think critically.

Knowledge is the enemy of ignorance. It allows us to recognize when someone is lying. It encourages us to question our teachers, politicians, and religious leaders. Even our most sacred texts.

The war, Evangelical Christian churches, white nationalists, and other right-wing organizations lobby their Republican representatives to wage against teaching political and social awareness in our schools; what they call “Wokeness” is not to protect our children, but to keep them ignorant and unaware.

But why? What is the profit in our children being unaware? The payoff in keeping our children in darkness? Why do it?

Well… because for Evangelicals and other groups, sharing America equally with all its citizens means losing control of what they believe to be their country. And allowing their children to learn the unadulterated truth about their country might encourage them to want to change it. To share it. With all its citizens!

And… they can’t have that. Right?

Thanks for listening.

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