Politics on Easter? Sure, Why Not?

Happy Easter! Today, the most vile, hateful people in the US celebrate the resurrection of a man whom they would have been first in line to crucify. Like all major holidays, I'm spending it at home alone.

Here's the text of a letter I sent last week to the Herald Journal, Cache Valley Daily, and the Utah Statesman. I haven't bothered to check whether any of them had the  cajones to print it because that's out of my hands. I did my part by writing it and sending it.

I am a proud Aggie. I have two degrees from USU, but the most important things I learned there were critical thinking and empathy for people with different experiences from mine. These abilities changed my life in beautiful and profound ways, and as a graduate instructor, teaching them to my own students was my highest priority.

No wonder Republicans hate higher education.

On both the state and federal levels, the party of limited government is mandating what universities can teach, how they can teach, what they can research, whom they can hire, and which constitutionally protected speech they can grant to their students and faculty. The party of personal liberty is demanding that universities promulgate its disdain for marginalized people and its dishonest versions of history and science, or else.

This is textbook fascism, and it’s about as subtle as an exploding train full of glitter and fireworks.

Harvard recently stood up for its rights and set the example that all universities should follow. I call on my alma mater to follow and do everything possible to resist illegal and un-American encroachments on its own academic freedom and its commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion.

(The acronym sounds less scary when you spell it out, huh?)

I know USU’s students and faculty are more powerful than the weak, incompetent bullies who seek to control them. The short-term costs of resisting fascism will be much less than the long-term damage to higher education if they bow down to it.

In the few days since then, the weak, incompetent bully named Donald Trump has already claimed that his threatening letter to Harvard was sent by mistake. What a pathetic chicken shit. And that's why this regime will fail, probably sooner than later, if Americans stand up for themselves and don't comply in advance. I bet the president of Columbia University feels really stupid right now.

A more pressing issue, of course, is the regime defying the Supreme Court and sending brown people to a foreign concentration camp with no due process. And a lot of white Americans seem fully on board with that. A lot of fascists are taking off their libertarian masks as fast as they can. These people, being as stupid as they are racist (not by coincidence), can't comprehend that if "illegal violent criminals" aren't entitled to due process, all the regime has to do is claim they're illegal violent criminals, and then they can't prove that they're not because they have no due process. A toddler should be able to understand this. In fairness, though, some of these fascist idiots are Russian bots trying to stir up the real fascist idiots.

But yeah, I'm really glad I found a progressive church where I don't have to worship alongside trash like this anymore. And either I'm going to hell or they are, so I won't have to put up with them after this life either. (I'm being snarky. I don't believe in hell. I'm just saying fuck these people.)

I protested on Wednesday and then, of course, I protested yesterday. I felt like shit yesterday. After a night of indigestion and sleeplessness, I showed up to protest having eaten nothing but Pepto-Bismol. I spent most of the time lying in the grass and wondering if I'd need someone to carry me down the hill. But I had a generic Gatorade equivalent, and it gave me the strength to join the march. Today I feel better but am clearly still sick because I'm not hungry. (I plan to take a Kush Kube this evening, and I'm not sure what it will do to me on a mostly empty stomach, but I hope it will be said of me, "He is risen indeed.") Anyway, protesting isn't usually a sacrifice for me because I live close to the Capitol, I have no family, and my work schedule is entirely self-determined, so I accepted yesterday's suckage as an opportunity to sacrifice more and show how deep my values go.

I only took a couple of pictures after the march ended and most people left - this one because I loved the Nelou Keramat quote so much:

And this one because I love Lamb Chop, the sassy puppet who resides in some of my earliest memories.

In closing, please enjoy this Easter message from the anti-Christ.