Woke

“Woke” and “Own the Libs” are two recent sound bites that get thrown around by the far right and quite honestly, I can’t really understand their tactics. Let’s take the term “Woke” and break that down. Most individuals, especially those on the far right, don’t even know how to define woke as the right muddles through their messaging. It doesn’t even make sense that individuals would prefer to be asleep, maintaining their state of zombiness as they blindly follow the lies they’re told and the world disintegrates around them. I suppose it does make sense that the far right prefers for everyone’s eyes to be closed to accurate history, climate change, hypocrisy, facts, acceptance, the richness of diversity, etc. Just like some in our community eagerly accepted the term “dyke” and wore that as a badge of honor (I am one of those), I suggest we all adopt “Woke” as the supreme badge of honor. I only hope that the individuals who are currently asleep are simply taking a nap. I do love afternoon naps now that I’m retired, but it’s time to wake up before it’s too late. Be “woke” because the alternative is not pretty for an extended period of time.

Now let’s talk about being “owned”. Does the right not understand the connotations behind the term “owned?” Hasn’t everyone agreed that slavery is bad? Fact check…no person will ever “own” me. I’ll keep being my tree-hugging badass liberal self until the day I die. Now, of course, if someone accurately assesses my relationship with my furbabies, they will of course realize that all four of my cats totally “own” my ass. They all have both my wife and me wrapped around their little paws. Every morning at the ass crack of dawn, which happens to be around 4:30a, Zoe has both my wife and I getting up multiple times to let him in or out. I’m sure he’s laughing his furry little ass off with his furbuddies, saying, “Yeah, the humans are absolutely there to serve us, you really ought to push a little harder to have them let you inside and then you can play this game with me too. It’s so much fun. The other day, I started early and got them up six times before they both gave up and started their day for real, then I stopped because it wasn’t fun anymore.”

So…what does this have to do with books? Certainly, not every writer intends to inject politics or current events into their stories in order to make an impact on society, but those who have braved those waters have been some of my favorite authors…Charles Dickens, John Steinbeck, Margaret Atwood…the list goes on. Writers and artists can make a difference. We can use our pens, and I believe we should. Books can be both entertaining and thought-provoking. They don’t have to be one or the other. So…if you want to see what that looks like, you know the drill, just click the links below!