Are concentration camps in our future? I know that is probably an exaggeration and a shocking statement to get your attention. In the back of my mind it may be not that farfetched.  Sarah Huckabee Sanders says teaching African Studies just pushes the left wing agenda and teaching children to hate America. What is that statement supposed to mean? Is it suppose to say that it is ok to lie about the atrocities that were committed against the African American community here in the United States? Are we just supposed to pretend that they never happened even though they did? What type of emotion are her statements meant to inspire? Pride in the White race? The feeling that whatever the White race does is ok? Is it meant to enhance the superiority of the White race? Is it supposed to inspire Hate? Maybe all of these things and more. What it doesn’t inspire is Honesty or Unity. It just inspires more Division and Suppression that will lead to the further Oppression of things not White. It has happened before in history and when it has, millions have died.

There is only one party that is talking about the real problems that we have in this country and that is the Democrats. We have much bigger problems than whether we teach the truth to children in our schools or teach them White Pride and White Supremacy. We have a homeless problem in this country and it has been growing. Republicans ignore it and Democrats don’t. Homelessness should never be a political issue, at least not in a so called Christian nation. It has always been a moral issue that reflects the worst of us and not the best of us. Growing up in Wisconsin I didn’t see a lot of homeless. They were probably there, I just wasn’t looking. As I got older I would notice it more and more. I would see people in Southport Park with all of their possessions stuffed into the car. My mother in-law, being the good Christian that she was, hired a homeless man living in his car to do some painting at her house. She even let the guy sleep in her basement sometimes. Many people thought that she was crazy to let a homeless man into her house but she was one of the few that I knew that actually walked the walk. I now live in Florida and a couple of years ago I was going to breakfast on Christmas morning and there was a homeless man shivering in the 50 degree weather that day. I took off my coat and walked over and handed to him and said Merry Christmas. I sometimes wonder if the man survived Ian. There is a huge problem with homeless especially after natural disasters like we just had with Ian. According to ABC News 148 death were attributed to Ian in Florida. Because of the huge homeless problem I would be willing to bet that number is much higher. Because of the nation’s homeless problem I don’t think they actually know the final numbers of victims when there is a natural disaster.

According to the website USA Facts (usafacts.org)there was 1.1 million students enrolled in our public schools that are homeless. That is a 14 percent decrease from 2020 but is still represents a huge problem in our country. In 2021 16.1 percent of children under that age of 6 lived in poverty. In 2020 9.06 million children were enrolled in CHIP, Children’s Health Insurance Program. In 2020 there were 3.14 million children maltreatment investigations. In 2019 there were 35 million children enrolled in Medicaid. If you look at the numbers that involve children in social programs it can bring tears to your eyes. We hear about the Republicans wanting to cut and eliminate Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid but they never discuss how they are going to address who those programs help and what would happen to the people that are dependent on them. Those are problems that should be addressed in the debates  but won’t be. They will say that we can’t afford them yet we can give tax breaks to Millionaires and Billionaires. Do you think a single person will mention farm subsidies?  At one time in America we had more that 30 million people living on about 6 and a half million farms. Today we have a total of just over 6 million people living on farms. Most farm subsidies go to huge corporation farms. This is a form of Corporate Welfare but because the money doesn’t help the poor they think it is ok. Worldwide the fossil fuel corporations receive over 5 trillion dollars in subsidies. For that price we should be getting our gas free. These will not get a mention, but cutting spending for programs help our children and our elderly will.

We have just had a Tropical Storm just hit Southern California. The first Tropical Storm to hit Southern California since 1939. We have had devastating wildfires not only in the Western U.S. and Canada  but also in Hawaii. Southwestern Florida is still recovering from Ian and we have had the hottest summer on record. I am pretty sure that Climate change will not be discussed at all. Most of them still say that Climate Change is a hoax. They will talk about energy independence and the need to drill more. In 2022 we were one of the 5 largest oil exporters and the largest oil producing country in the world making up 20 percent of the world’s oil. I wonder what they would say if they weren’t being paid millions for the fossil fuel companies? There won’t be any science behind their arguments but what they hell. They know that people will just vote for them anyway because they are saying what MAGA wants to hear and not  what the truth is. Tim Scott said that we can’t talk about Climate Change because we have a crisis at the border. That is one of the stupidest excuses I have ever heard not to talk about Climate change. That is right up there with the excuse that we can’t  talk about climate change while we are recovering from a devastating Hurricane. I have news for Tim Scott, climate change is the most important issue that the world is facing and it will make all the other crisis’s worse.

What will be important to Republicans is their argument against “Woke”, whatever the hell that is, and the need for more guns on our streets. Woke is the catch all phrase for everything they know that MAGA hates. They will talk about the so called crisis at the border that really hasn’t changed my whole life. They will say that we don’t have a gun problem but a mental health problem. That is called a deflection without a solution, by the “They” will say that our problem is diversity and inclusion. That is just a nice way or saying that we need to bring back segregation. They will talk about the weaponization of our Department of Justice because let’s face it Republicans want to be able to break the law with immunity. They will talk to stir up people’s hatred but they will not talk about what we need to move our nation forward.