History is being made these days. Years hence we will look back on these days as times when civilization itself was under threat by uncivilized elements. I am not partisan.
Do leaders get a pass on arm twisting other nations to get help with domestic political campaigns? Either
Everyone does it, get used to it. OR , No one should be doing it.
The political “genius” of current leadership is to own it and thereby recast our political process as totally transactional;
I.E for sale to the highest bidder. This then is where Capitalism reaches into democracy and takes a big bite out of you and me and our desire to have a civil discussion about how we create a way forward. If how we use and share and manage our Planet is reduced to dollars and cents we may not pass on anything worth having to our kids. That’s like pimping the country and it’s taxpayer’s interests.
I want to be around when the transactional senator’s kids are picking out their nursing home. The senators are pointing out all the money they left , what they hadn’t spent already, as the kids consider the compromises made to get it and what a mess it left them. Lots of luck. You may need more than diapers.
It’s been a few years since I’ve read O’Connor’s 2008 book Shock Jocks but its relevance could hardly be greater in today’s divided and misinformed America. Contrary to constant claims by some media outlets that “liberal media” control the conversation, O’Connor reveals that “democratic dialogue is being hindered by a huge ideological imbalance in the medium. Conservative viewpoints have long dominated talk radio.” The result of this has not only been widespread misinformation on crucial issues like gun control but more subtly a deep hatred of “liberals” whether they be so named or claim the name Democrat, progressive, socialist or leftist. This is a dangerous and largely unexplored phenomenon that has yet to play out in America. There are some liberals who have earned this hate with their smug self-righteousness, PC policing and angry attempts at censorship but these could not explain the constant and venomous vilification of the left that is broadcast by shock jocks to large audiences every day.
I got to thinking about the open-carry gun rights march coming to Richmond, Virginia on MLK Day and how so many people fall for the paranoid claim that the 2nd Amendment is under threat and the government is coming to take away our guns. Unless you equate any gun control legislation as a violation and a threat (a bit of a stretch) this is not even close to true. Shock jocks often promote 2nd amendment fears and plentiful evidence demonstrates that for decades the NRA has deployed disinformation and stoked hysteria about threatened gun rights – and now we know what they’ve done with all the money they took from their members. I enjoy shooting sports and I appreciate the 2nd Amendment but I have no need to carry a gun nor do I have a problem with sensible gun legislation. I have no fear that our guns are going to be taken away. To the contrary, it could be argued that the militia movement is by far the greater threat to America – especially with our current president.
In this digital-bluetooth-communications revolution we might be tempted to dismiss radio as an outdated and ineffective medium of communication but this would be a mistake. Podcasts, a radio-friendly medium, are hugely popular now and as I’ve noted, the impact of shock jock talk radio is having widespread and ugly reverberations in America. Most students of history know that the Nazis were the first to use radio for propaganda purposes to stoke irrational fear and hatred of Jews and other “undesirables.” Fewer folks know about the role of radio in the Rawandan genocide of the early 1990s.
The inconvenient and horrific fact is that over 800,000 people were hacked to death by machete wielding fanatics, stoked and specifically guided by the ultimate in hate radio. We might first notice that gun laws would not have prevented this mass murder but more chilling is how easily a country can be duped into a civil war and genocide by targeting and demonizing a scapegoated group through the old-fashioned but economical medium of radio.
Here at WRWK TheWorkFM.org we reject hate radio and the scapegoating of minority groups as strenuously as we reject the corporate bias of commercial radio. You can support our mission to bring intelligent, non-commercial and relevant talk radio to the airwaves by making a donation or volunteering today.
In the shadow of the passage of the ERA and on MLK day when the Governor promised to sign it the Gun Lobby wants to take front stage at the State Capital. The governor has declared a State of Emergency from 5 PM Friday till 5 PM Tuesday (1/17 to 1/21).
Long term vision versus short term vision. Baby carry versus Open Carry. Which world is it? Is everyone armed and dangerous or are we social? Do we need to flaunt our guns or put them down and signify – ” I have no weapon” by shaking hands?
Is the NRA right? Do we need to renew our “man card” by buying guns and ammo? Will that resolve the Deficit we are leaving our kids? Will that build more schools, roads, hospitals, increase social stability? I may not be watching the right movies or reading the right ads but i think this needs more discussion, without intimidation.
Come down to the Virginia State Capital on MLK day to celebrate with Women of Virginia and show the Second amendment crowd that they are full humans without guns. Pay equity yes, violence equity, no thanks, been there, done that.
Maybe someone can whip out a book for the gun crowd that parallels women’s “Why do I think I’m nothing without a man?” titled something like “Why do I think I’m nothing without a Gun?” If you hang out with people who need to scare everyone just to get by you may be missing out on something.
An ERA supporter reacts to a Virginia Senate committee’s vote to advance the ERA amendment last week. Steve Helber/AP
The Constitutional Equal Rights Amendment gained it’s 38th State yesterday. The writer, as a guy stands in awe of the women who Won it. They slogged through decades of abuse since it was proposed and slowed and almost crushed by powerful people including many women.
Here is an quote from Delegate Foy who put the bill forward and sums it up better than I ever could.
” The Virginia General Assembly just became the 38th and final state required to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment.
Courtesy of Syracuse.com
This victory is months, years, and even generations in the making.
Why? Because our very own Commonwealth failed time and time
again to recognize that all citizens are entitled to equality under the
law.
Virginia fought a woman’s right to vote for 32 years after the 19th Amendment was ratified.
Virginia fought desegregation and led the charge against school integration.
And Virginia fought interracial marriage and sex
discrimination at Virginia Military Institute all the way to the Supreme
Court — where the highest judicial body in our nation ruled against Virginia and for equality both times.
Today, Virginia was once again on the battleground
for equality. But this time, we came out on the right side of history
when we passed the ERA.
Since 2017, Virginia women have stepped up in record
numbers to volunteer their time, work on campaigns, and even run for
office. We nearly flipped the House of Delegates that year, but fell
just short. In 2019, we finished the job.
And today we delivered on our promises we made on the
campaign trail — the Virginia General Assembly, the oldest legislative
body in the country, is now affirmatively on the record on women’s
rights.
So, thank you. Thank you for everything you’ve done
to help Virginia make history and lead the nation forward on the ERA.
This victory is yours.
With gratitude,
Del. Jennifer Carroll Foy”
End of quote.
That’s a hard act to follow. Guys, try to be useful. Women are the one and only ones who can crank out humans. That society expects them to carry, birth, potty train and supervise their young all for less pay when they can even find a job that is not patronizing has been and continues to be an insult to them and a shame on us Guys.
Women live in the real world where long term thinking creates life and a workable world and even though they know short term thinkers hold sway, they keep it up. They love the rest of us more than we could ever understand or repay.
If women had the missing 20 to 50% of the wages they are being denied for the same work that men do, and put that money to work to create and expand society as they are prone to do, we would have a Better World. I’m Ready For THAT!
There is a lot going on this week with the start of the General Assembly, Richmond flirting with developers over a coliseum, Confederate statues on the march, Pipeline companies desperate to sell “natural gas” overseas, energy companies avoiding solar while keeping their coal interests profitable and leaving us with the ash, and old governors keeping their old deals in place.
In Virginia the whole scene reminds us of the roots of the Old Dominion. But unlike the old days when power came with the whip and beatings, the new Domination comes from paying public officials with campaign cash, jobs and favors.
You fund a governor’s campaign: he’s your man, or mayor, school-board member, supervisor, etc. It’s an influence auction and our taxes are the prize. Yes Our taxes.
No matter which side of the aisle the power is on, the money will seep in and corrupt the democratic process. That means that all citizens will have to keep an eye on their “public servants” to help them avoid temptation.
Here are some sources to help you get up to speed and keep you in the loop.
Last night WRWK completed our first 2 hour live on site broadcast last night from the Neighborhood Resource Center in Fulton Hill of the Henricopolis Soil and Water Conservation District Board Forum .
It was Moderated by our own Stephanie Clark and Produced by David Melton, with station engineering by Ron Skinner.
it was refreshing to hear the competing candidates, 7 candidates for 5 slots, speak about their concerns and solutions for keeping the Soil and Water healthy with no trace of partisanship, just facts and science steering actions for positive outcomes for Water and Soil.
This is the stuff of democracy! This is how positive change happens, no bickering, just agreed upon concerns. Facts, science, tested ideas and leading to community solutions.
Oh and here is a survey to see how we are doing and what we could do to improve your community or meeting: WRWK Survey.
Yes we could come to your next community meeting and provide access for those who cannot get there.
“Gratitude is when memory is stored in the heart and not in the mind.” – Lionel Hampton
I have no special connection to the creative accident that landed me here but at 73 I’m just learning to appreciate it.
I realized that instead of wondering how I deserve this I need to enjoy it, act grateful and pass it on. Oldsters and youngsters need to hear and be reminded that helping make the world work is life. It’s a journey, not a destination.
WRWK LP FM is the perfect place to practice gratitude. Here we work to bring our listeners, volunteers and supporters the best reflection of the world that we can. We assume only that community is about life. So we support listeners having a workable life in our community and making community work and leave outright entertainment to the rest of the dial. We’re entertaining to those who are interested in community but we will never take the place of a ball-game or your favorite music station.
On the other hand, if you want to know what’s going on or why, or what it has to do with making the place more pleasant we will have something useful to say.
if you are missing something in your media diet help us provide it. if some worthwhile thing deserves notice or if some issue in your community is producing more heat than light Join us to tell the story.
From the first idea that gave birth to this station decades ago, to this moment it has always been about Us; We exist because You exist.
Granted it is an uphill battle but that makes it easier to focus. Working for a world that works for us-all appeals to you, join us. You will sleep well knowing the world is better for your efforts.
History is harmonizing again. As power concentrates into fewer and fewer hands Lord Acton’s rule reveals itself:
Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority, still more when you superadd the tendency or the certainty of corruption by authority*. There is no worse heresy than that the office sanctifies the holder of it.
If you ever wondered what drove Marx crazy enough to invent that phony religion- communism- it was watching early industrialists chain children to their looms to keep them on their 12 hour shifts. But you don’t need to go to England to find power flexing it’s muscle.
It’s possible to see that all around us. Maybe not as brutal but it is overpowering. Go back a few years and you see the 50 year saga while citizen’s watched tobacco weaken and kill people and enrich tobacco investors and Medical and Political leadership stood by “unable to help” .
Locally corporations have set their sites on schools. Are Corporations going to spend stockholder money to create critical thinking creative citizens? Not likely.
We don’t need corporations deciding what kids need to learn in school or how long to work at their updated looms. Corporations are profit seeking enterprises, they could not possibly create ways to train citizens of tomorrow. It is not their purpose, or their goal.
Corporations can only serve stockholders. If they care about schools let them step out of their loopholes and pay their taxes.
* the tendency or the certainty of corruption by authority
Small print: our leaders were not leading them but have been busy doing anything else they could. God I wish I could joke about it, but these guys who sell off our future for their quarterly profits are really Sick!
One thousand plus resident of RVA marched from VCU to the steps of Richmond City Hall to call attention to the discounting of the environment. Their ages ranged from 2 to 80, mostly on the younger side; all concerned that elected leaders and TV cameras and spines were missing. This is what has happened to our democracy. Ignore, paint a pretty picture, throw something exciting and irrelevant at the masses,
Yes it is possible for our leaders to ignore the voices of citizens; for companies that want to avoid public scrutiny to do so, hiding behind State Police, Park Rangers and various Renta-Cops and all the states legal agencies.
It is even worse that the elected/ordained Governor and Attorney General chose to play deaf dumb and mute to all the violations that the fossil fuel fanatics commit in their headlong search for profit on this Unnatural Gas ALL Of WHICH WILL GO OVERSEAS.
Only a band of sociopaths, or company acting as one could pull this off, or a bank that’s over it’s head, or a rich exec that really needs a second Rolls, or a prostitute that just needs one more trick so he can retire. You get the picture. These are organized crime types.
if you think I am being unkind, listen to a 16 year old who will have to live with the trash these criminals leave behind: Greta Speaks
Do you see these faces? This awesome #allvolunteer crew redesigned the studio at WRWK The Work FM 93.9 and integrated updated equipment to improve our sound quality and our ability to serve the community! Thank you Ron Skinner, Ian Mouer, Christopher Maxwell & Greg the Great!!
Please support local, independent media. We WORK hard to bring #RVA and surrounding counties timely, thoughtful talk-radio programs about what impacts your life every day, both locally produced and those curated from the Pacifica Radio Network and other sources. Your contribution will help us continue to bring challenging ideas forward and give the community a place to come together to discuss them, from left to right and city and county, all neighbors. Donate here: http://1hq.449.mywebsitetransfer.com
