The End of August

Historically the end of August has been a time of ends and beginnings. It's the start of school moment here in the United States. (Last weekend in NC we had some sort of "tax free" shopping weekend, which was meant to encourage upcoming students to get their stuff as slightly less cost.) August was when World War I got going. It's when the political conventions are usually held, and when the political campaigns get seriously rolling. August of 1963 was the date of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. (I was there, something I'll always be proud to say.)

We all thought, those of us who were part of the Civil Rights battles of the early '60s, that the various federal laws which passed after the March on Washington and the subsequent national shock over the assassination of President Kennedy (which had nothing to do with the Civil Rights Movement) put an end to some of the fundamental aspects of segregation in the United States. As time moved on, it seemed that the country was simply done with those terrible old days. It only takes watching any number of movies from the '30s, '40s, and '50s to find remarkable anachronisms which, when the movies were made, were simply how "things" were--so much so that they were entirely unremarkable. The assumptions concerning race that are common place in American Film made during the segregation era are as shocking today as seeing a man suddenly capable of unassisted flight would be. And that shock at these now historical assumptions is a mark of what most Americans assume concerning race and the issues of civil rights.

Yet it turns out that there is, even today, another view. Digby points it out:

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2012/08/todd-akin-channeling-his-heroes-strom.html

In Arizona, the alternative view has already left the station, and people who want to resist are having to do a lot more than just go to the polls--if indeed going to the polls is even an option in the southwest corner of the United States:

http://my.firedoglake.com/meeshellchen/2012/08/17/cultural-miseducation-knowledge-power-and-ethnic-studies/

As well as the efforts to destroy the federal safety net so carefully constructed over many decades by our representatives and successive administrations of both parties, the current Republican party aims to destroy the civil rights protections we all thought were written in stone. Endless dissembling is part of the strategy:

http://alicublog.blogspot.com/2012_08_01_archive.html#6837169248165386643

Edroso provides the link to back up his assertion.

We'd all better take heed of the old Carter Family song. There seems to be a little black train a'comin'. At the moment, all we have to do to head off disaster is get out and vote for the better choice available.

Monday Morning Update: Rep. Akin is really in the news, and yesterday trumped his remarks on voting rights with some oft debunked blather about the female anatomy (from Firedoglake today):

Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO) told a local television station on Sunday that “legitimate rape” rarely produces pregnancy because “the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.”

That's not really the worst part. The worst part is, Atkin leads Sen. McCaskill for the Missouri Senate seat McCaskill now holds by nearly 8 percentage points.