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Summertime

A time for ice tea drink and watermelon pink, for ice cream floats and lake water boats, for barbecue smoke and neighborly folk, for fledgling flight and firefly light, for cut grass smells and campfire spells, for ball bat cracks and crackerjacks, for vacation trips and fishing tips, for county fairs and ripened pears, for drive-in dreams and high mountain streams, for dragon cloud forms and lightning storms, for backyard tents and wildflower scents, for outdoor chores and especially, charcoaled s’mores!

– Burt Baldwin, Ignacio

The fascists among us

As of the end of July, a judge had temporarily blocked a new law in Arkansas from taking effect that could criminalize librarians and booksellers if brownshirts from the Upright Citizens’ Brigade or Moms for Liberty find books they don’t like displayed where children might have access.

It’s just one of various red state efforts to restrict everyone’s access to ideas that certain people don’t like.

The biggest target seems to be people of alternative sexuality. The demonizing of LGBTQ+ people by the GOP is reminiscent of the demonizing of Jews in 1930s Germany.

The next brownshirt target is accurate U.S. history, which includes some serious unpleasantness, such as slavery, lynchings, the 1921 Tulsa race attacks and police killing black men after minor traffic violations or no violation at all. Discussion of ongoing systemic racism is prohibited.

Historical unpleasantness also includes physical and cultural genocide against Native Americans. Just skip all that stuff, the brownshirts say.

by Rob Pudim

We wouldn’t want white children to feel guilty about what happened back when. Is there any evidence of that actually happening, unless parents put that idea in their head?

Florida is ground zero for all this under Gov. Ron DeSantis. Pretty much all the other GOP-controlled states are quickly following along. Keep an eye on all of them, because this is what the transition to fascism looks like.

– Carole McWilliams, Bayfield