Welcome Ron To The 21st Century!

Posted on by under Bits 'n Pieces, education, Election 2022, guns, History, Law and justice, Political commentary, Racism & Bigotry, Social commentary

I would like to take this opportunity to welcome Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and all the good people of Florida who voted for him two months ago to the woke world of the 21st century!  DeSantis, who has a 0 rating with the Human Rights Campaign, but an A+ rating with the National Rifle Association (NRA), has a lot to learn about this 21st century and about humanity!

DeSantis throws the word ‘woke’ around as if it were a basketball, but he has weaponized it, he spits it out as if it were the most vile, disgusting thing in the world.  We really need to teach him a bit of humanity … or rather, we need to teach his voters a bit of humanity and then they can teach him humility!

What, you ask, has set me off on this tangent?  Well, mostly everything he’s done over the last two years, but most recently his attention to universities in his state that may be teaching such things as … diversity, equality, and inclusion … GASP!!!  No, he’s not interested in them because he wants to commend them for their efforts to open the eyes of the young people of his state … rather he is most likely considering cutting funding for universities that include such humanitarian lessons in their curriculum.

On December 28th, Chris Spencer, director of DeSantis’ Office of Policy and Budget, sent a memo to the head of the university system requiring colleges and universities to “provide a comprehensive list of all staff, programs and campus activities related to diversity, equity and inclusion and critical race theory.” In addition, they are directed to detail “costs associated with the administration of each program or activity,” including a description of the activities, paid positions and how much of the money is provided by the state.

United Faculty of Florida President Andrew Gothard said yesterday that his union is “deeply concerned” about the memo, which he called a “horrible directive.”

“Attempts such as these by the governor to chill speech and to intimidate those he disagrees with into remaining silent, altering their curriculum, and silencing their students are an affront to democracy and the American way of life. Let those who supported Governor DeSantis in the recent election heed this warning: A man who will silence those whom he disagrees — in the classroom and beyond — will one day find a reason to silence you as well.” [emphasis added]

That last sentence is both profound and chilling.

The memo also states that the purpose of education is to “prepare them for employment.”  Well … that is certainly part of the purpose of education, but by no means the only purpose.  Education has a far higher purpose … to prepare young people for life … all aspects of life.  The goal is to help people choose the path that is right for them, to help them understand how the lessons of history apply to life in the 21st century and beyond, to teach them to adapt and adjust to the ever-changing circumstances in the world.  DeSantis’ narrow views of education will hamstring the next generation of Floridians, will leave them unable to survive outside their own communities, unprepared to meet life’s challenges.

DeSantis would like to shield his entire state from the ugly face of racism by simply pretending it doesn’t exist.  He seems to think that if he simply says, “Don’t say gay,” then the LGBTQ community will simply disappear.  DeSantis and others like him truly have not grown up, never matured beyond their sheltered childhoods protected from the realities of life.  What the people of Florida who elected him two months ago were seeking is beyond my comprehension, but what they got was an ignorant bigot who would like to turn his state into a mythological place where everyone looks alike, acts alike, and thinks alike … one that would never survive in the real world.  If the people open their eyes and realize their mistake, I would strongly advise them to start petitioning their state legislators to impeach Governor DeSantis, for Florida relies heavily on tourism for its survival, and DeSantis is in the process of making Florida the most hated state in the nation.

33 thoughts on “Welcome Ron To The 21st Century!”

  1. Again the bottom line..he wants to be the next President and he is groveling to the base. And living here, this is a state of mostly older people whose time is short anyway and they are mostly set in their old puritanical ways, which means racism, homophobia and white Christian nationalism. I see it everyday. Old Florida, rural, redneck good old boys..lots of them besides the snowbirds. He is simply playing to he base, which is also trump’s base…”birds of a feather”.

    Yes it will cause a lot of harm for future generations in a really poor education and ignorance of the world and even other parts of the US.
    If I was young I would not be here, but some things I hold dear are here, so I stay. I really have no sympathy nor do I care about the stupidity of many of the people here and their mindset. They cannot be changed. Only time and attrition can do that and Fla will become a lost cause, but hopefully the rest of the US will not… but there is also Texas, Az and much of the south with the same mindset..they someday will be left behind and it’s nobody’s fault but their own.

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    • I could not live in Florida! It’s bad enough here in Ohio, but at least racism and homophobia are at a minimum here and most people are fairly unbiased. DeSantis speaks out of all sides of his mouth, telling people what he believes they WANT to hear, therefore nobody knows what he actually stands for or believes in.

      I certainly understand that at this point in your life you stay because of family and friends, for I am the same. And, you can only fight the good fight if you stay. Just don’t give up fighting, my friend. Sanity needs its champions, especially in Florida!

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  2. One thing I have noticed about present day Republicans: If it isn’t about money, it has no use in this world. For people like deSantis, Abbott, Trump and the rest (I deliberately put Trump third, so he knows if he reads this he no more important to me than anyone else) money is the physical attribute of power. If you don’t have any, you are worthless to them. So it does not surprise me or impress me they want education to be for the single purpise of making someone employable. Nothing else matters. The less a person is able to think about, the better he or she will be as an employee. I am actually surprised he has not tried to shut down universities yet, although trying to get rid of the humanities IS the first step towatds that!
    Power, of course, is their real goal. And deSantis needs power so badly he can taste it. But he does not believe the old saw “With power comes responsibilty, the greater the power the greater the responsibility.” The only responsibilty he has is to the wealthy, the rest of humanity can go suck rocks. He does not understand thzt without poor people, wealth is meaningless. If he has no one to step on, he cannot climb higher. He has no use for regular people. If he could declare nimself King of Florida he would, but he has bigger aspirations. He first wants to succeed where Trump failed, making himself King of the USA. But even that is just a step towards towards Emperor of the World. That is where his true ambition lies. Him and Putin have a lot in common.

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  3. Pingback: Welcome Ron To The 21st Century! — Filosofa’s Word | Ned Hamson's Second Line View of the News

  4. Jill, between DeSantis and Abbott, it hard to decide which one exaggerates and contrives issues more. The both follow the MAGA playbook which is not meant to be a compliment. The states of Florida and Texas have more important matters to discuss than what these governors focus on. We need an adult lifeguard to tell these two “out of the pool.” Keith

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    • They are two peas in a pod. They are cruel men without a conscience who will do whatever it takes to gain both power and wealth. I like your phrase ‘adult lifeguard’ … there seem to be no adults in the GOP anymore, or if there are, they are hiding under their desks in hopes of not being noticed.

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  5. Ronald De Santis did service in Navy Judge Advocate Corps and was at Guantanamo. His duties advising detainees on their rights. Details of his service record are redacted, which would be standard, nothing special there. He might have done an exemplary job, being fair, just and helpful to those he encountered. Therefore in the absence of evidence otherwise we must give him the benefit of the doubt as we would hope others would give us.
    That said. Assuming he was an exemplar of his tasks back then, somewhere on return and taking up the political role, he seems to have lost that part of his spirit of being being fair, just and helpful. He seems to have lost sight of the notion that ‘In The Eyes of The Law All Are Equal’. I would suggest, therefore he is not a Governor who has the interests of all of his constituents at heart. His recent actions suggest he may simply have his eye on a run at the Whitehouse and hoping to garner the support of but one section of the nation whose views are unconditional.
    This leads to division of the population, which in turn leads to the fracturing of a nation.
    And the USA is still perilously close to that.
    I would argue, therefore that unless he has some kind of Epiphany in his political journey Ronald De Santis is not a person conducive to the well-being of the USA .
    I rest my case.

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    • Anyone who turns to ‘performance’ to appease a blood thirsty crowd in an effort to garner population or control is no humanitarian, no matter what other ‘performance’ he managed to pull off in his past. Leadership doesn’t need more actors. It needs noble intentions and wisdom. De Santis possesses neither of these qualities. I’d love to know exactly who his ‘followers’ are and would be willing to bet not half of them are born in the state Floridians. I suffered in Florida during Covid and under his haphazard leadership. And we thought Rick Scott was awful.

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      • I agree. He’s hardly stood out as one of Great governors of his state. As you point out true leaders need to make tough calls and accept at times they will disappoint if not annoy their base.
        He is most certainly playing to a gallery, and it is not a pretty sight.
        The only arguably good thing about it, is that his feud with Trump might fragment to MAGA right and give the Republican Party back to the grown-ups.

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        • One can hope, not that I’ve ever had a load of respect for the Republican party in general. They have always been the party of capitalism at its worst, money mongering and suppression of the working class. But it at least wasn’t blatant acquisition of a dictatorship like the new Right seems determined to garner.

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          • Living in the UK there is always the risk for overlaying our own political parties’ images and policies upon the Republican / Democrat dynamics, which in reality is just not accurate.
            From here the relationship and operation of the parties was ,when analysed, far more complicated.
            Thus it is very disturbing to see how the Republican Party has been swamped by what used to be but a minority wing whose traditional role was to supply fodder for feature writers on a slow news day.
            A very worrying and saddening trend.

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      • Like the majority of Republicans in government today, he is a performer, not a governor. He panders to those with money and clout, and kowtows to anyone he thinks will give him a vote in 2024. He is not governing, he is running for the presidency in two years. And yes, Rick Scott is equally awful.

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    • The vision of power seems to do strange things to some people, changes them in ways we might never have imagined. You made your case well, my friend. No, DeSantis like many others who share his party affiliation are not good people, not conducive to the well being of this nation and its people. Sadly, too many people in the voting public cannot seem to see that. Why? I wish I knew.

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      • Being analytical and looking at the overwhelming majority of those who vote for such:
        Firstly they are unsettled by changes in social perceptions which all started back in the 1960s. Loss of traditional public affiliation to Christianity; the gradual transformation of public displays and alignments of sexual relationships; the continuing struggle for Equality, racial and in the sexes; the perceived failure of the USA to be seen truly winning a war since 1945.
        And of course the final straw ‘One of those people in the Whitehouse- twice’.
        All these factors burrowed deep into the collective political mentality and rationality went out of the window.
        An old theme in Humanity’s long road.
        (A long time back a guy was nailed to a cross for going against this sort of herd mentality – and he saw it coming too. And he could tell folk it had happened before and will happen again -least ways that’s the secular version)

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        • That is the cruel irony for those of us raised in the ‘old time religion’ but that have become truly enlightened to understand that most Christian organizations are so far removed form the Christ mind that they are unrecognizable. If one is to accept that such a man existed and study his life and words they would understand that he would have been ostracized by the masses claiming righteous power and protection in his name. It’s all a cruel hoax for the innocent wise souls who trust their parents and leaders until they don’t. I’ve no doubt there are many among the radical right that would quickly return to the days of burning non believers at the stake.

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          • To use an old phrase ‘I hear you talkin’ ‘.
            My wife Sheila is Catholic and I converted by choice (The Mass makes sense to me- personal thing, y’know?), and yet both of us are constantly ‘in a huff’ with ‘The Church’ and its blinkered views.
            Very disappointed with the hierarchy in the USA getting into bed with MAGA, just because of this façade of concern for pro-Life. Aside from the sheer hypocrisy of the move, thinking that MAGA would stay cosy with Catholicism…..’Bowing before Rome’ and all that….another old phrase ‘Gimmie a Break!’
            Be it religious, political or social, keep your faith or creed as long as you hold to Compassion, Respect and Tolerance, but beware of those who would claim to be leaders or ‘speak on your behalf’

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        • I agree with all you say. I cannot understand it from their perspective, but that does seem to be their reasoning, that the changes in society have unsettled them, and then … GASP … a Black man in the Oval Office for not one, but TWO terms!!! And gay people being elected to high-level offices … why, what is the world coming to? So, instead they turn their sights to racist bigots who would destroy the foundations of this nation. Sigh. Beam me up, Scotty.

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  6. By ignoring what is happening, the hate crimes, and, downplaying the effects of racism, there will only be more, hate crimes, in the states, with these, bigots as governors, and, when the crime rates get to an, all-time high, they will still deny it, and, there’s no way, to get the blind to see, because, they all, choose to, be, blind to everything they, encounter in their, lives. They will just blame the hate crimes, on those who may have, immigrated to the U.S., or those who were born, to immigrant parents…to incite, even more, hate against those sho are, different.

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    • You’re right … wherever they can find a way to blame anything on immigrants or Blacks or women, they will do just that. Right this moment, I would have to say that our government does NOT represent the people of this country. Perhaps it’s time for a taxpayer revolution where we all stop paying our taxes until they listen to our voices!

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