FLAPPERS

Women were allowed to own and drive cars in the 1920s and 1930s. They could go dancing, have fun, have sex, explore life, make their own decisions, and live independently....

Then World War 2 came, and women worked physically hard in factories building guns, tanks, boats, and planes for America's (male) Armed Forces....

Then Peace came, and women were sent back into the home to do dishes, clean, cook, and take care of babies.

Now woman can serve in the Armed Forces, where they are often raped like Comfort Women. They can also go into battle and get killed equally with men.

Progress.

AMERICA

Non-Americans must understand that America is not culturally insulated, cloistered, monolithic, evil, or good. America consists of people from every other country, culture, religion, race, and language in the world....including Americans who are brilliant, stupid, open-hearted, prejudiced, terrified, brave, creative, boring, super-rich, homeless, nationalistic, internationalist, fundamentalist, atheist, power-mad, immoral, amoral, moral, greedy, charitable, humanists, environmentalists, and people who hate people, nature, and the Earth.....America gives wrong and even insane people the freedom to be wrong and insane, but not to legally kill, rape, or abuse each other.... America is full of lofty philosophical ideals and destructive hypocritical reality, because America is not Heaven, and Americans are not gods...only human, and very flawed.

HATE

Why do fundamentalist clerics, extreme conservatives, ultra-nationalists, and the super-rich almost always look so tormented and ugly?

CHANGES

Transitions are difficult....

Changes of neighbors, friends, lovers, spouses. Changes in the environment, politics, economy, habits. Flowers die, favorite trees are cut, beautiful buildings crumble, leadership changes, friends and loved ones disappear. Life is constantly changing and challenging us. It can't be stopped.

RACISM & ME

Am I racist when I feel uneasy around black people who are poorly dressed in "street" clothes, look uneducated or culturally unsophisticated, and give off antagonistic or angry energy? I also feel uneasy around Hispanic and "white " people who are similar.

No, I am class-ist. I allow my class (not upper) to determine my animal instinctual preservation reaction. Once the potential adversary acknowledges me in any friendly or open way, my "classism" instantly disappears and we become two human beings on the same insane planet.....