MICHAEL MOORE: "Are You Ready For Week Two?"

[Hissyspit]

From Facebook:

http://www.michaelmoore.com

It was one of those weeks, this past week. A week in which we witnessed profound history being made. A week when a large chunk was taken out of the wall of hate that criss-crosses this country, a nation founded on genocide and built on the backs of slaves. A people who pride themselves on being ignorant, and thus are easily manipulated with fear by those in power. We know the routine, we've tallied up the score.

But now... There is massive change in the air. While angry white men stew and wonder what happened to their roost, the young, the women, the working poor, the people of color have forged an intense political bond. Having raised their voices higher, having suddenly been filled more with a sense of hope than one of despair, this alliance is now poised to catapult further. Even in a month of unspeakable tragedy in the birthplace of the Civil War, the race war that one young man who was inspired by the politics of hate had hoped to ignite saw his sick dream backfire into a (nonviolent) war against racists. Blacks and whites have held hands in Charleston. Wal-mart and NASCAR have eliminated the Confederate flag. Two republicans on the Supreme Court have voted to support the vision of the black man who lives in a white house down the street. That wall of hate, devoid of any healthy foundation, has begun to crumble. It's a new America that is fighting its way out of the cocoon.

On Thursday the Census Bureau announced that, for the first time ever, there are more millennials than baby boomers in the Untied States -- and, for the first time, there are now more children under 5 who are of color than those who are white. The paradigm has shifted; all we had to do was stay active, stay engaged, refrain from hate and then watch the decrepit right-wing ideology wither and fall off its mysoginist, homophobic, white-privileged vine. It is a New America, but it is not a free America - yet.

Free of corporate control, free of Citizens United, free of income inequality, free of an ongoing environmental catastrophe, free of Jeb Bush, free of profit-making health insurance companies, free of a privatized prison system, free of a failed war on drugs, free of the scourge of capitalism.

No, we're not free yet. But it's the closest we've ever been. I'm ready for Week Two. How 'bout you? What else can we make happen before America's 239th birthday this coming Saturday?

http://t.co/JE3NUNamGx

[BeanMusical]

1. Kick and R

[JDPriestly]

2. K&R. More millenials than baby boomers.

I sometimes wonder about the perspective of a lot of old-timers who chastise white people on DU about racism. Most DUers side with people of color on issues like discrimination and voting rights, police brutality, prisons and discriminatory sentencing, etc. So why the anger?

If it is because people of color think that white people don't know what it is like to be in the minority, guess what? That old perspective no longer applies in a couple of states like California. You can't really talk about a "white" majority. No racial group in and of itself will constitute a majority in California very soon. In fact that may already be the case.

White privilege in these states is not the result of the number of people of color who vote, but rather custom and advantages in terms of economics -- economic opportunity (jobs among other things), property ownership, inherited wealth, and social expectations to name a few of the most prevalent manifestations of privilege . . . maybe just having been in the majority for a long time, history if you will.

As white people are replaced with a "majority" that is diverse and not any one race or ethnicity of origin, we face the challenge and opportunity of dealing with discrimination, voting rights, police brutality, prisons, discriminatory sentencing and many other issues in a new way.

The question is, will those who count themselves among the "minorities" of the present and past be prepared to deal with these challenges and opportunities offered by the new paradigm. Will Americans of all races be able to drop old habits of thinking, old ideas, old solutions, old images, old roles? The answer will determine whether we survive as a country.

It's time to reset some clocks. This is a moment in history that we cannot waste. We need to think in terms of today and not yesterday. Seize the opportunity to change -- ourselves, others and the world. Start with ourselves.

In this new paradigm, I believe that economics is a means to the end of racial equality. Not the entire means, but an important element of that means. And certainly the easiest to use to change our old attitudes and beliefs and remove the roadblocks to progress.

Go, Bernie.

[Enthusiast]

4. Nice!

[Hekate]

3. KnR

[Enthusiast]

5. Kicked and recommended!

[mmonk]

6. It was a week that put me in a good mood

and one that keeps me still determined on what's left to win.

[Hissyspit]

7. Morning kick nt

[niyad]

8. k and r

[MadDAsHell]

9. "While angry white men stew..."

Unfortunately there appears to be a lot more than just "angry white men" that are against the movement for affordable healthcare, equal rights regardless of sexuality, etc. I realize "angry white men" is a politically powerful statement but if we think it's only white men that can be angry, ignorant, and hateful, we're pretty naive indeed.

I mean my god, more than half the people that parade in anti-abortion parades are women!!

[DesertFlower]

10. K&R. nt

[flamingdem]

11. Yay, he's finally off Obama's

back.

'bout time