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Writer's pictureSandy Cowen

Go Woke or Go Broke



We are living in a curious world today with wokeness everywhere; the challenge being, when it’s aimed at one of us who unintentionally “sins” in the woke world, it becomes expensive. Although I’m not much of a target today, those who still hold positions in academia, corporate America, the political world or dominant social and media cultures are! They are at risk of being shunned, cancelled, suspended, expelled, fired and even can fall victim to automated bot attacks on social media. Overall, an expensive price to pay for not understanding all this nonsense!

The First Amendment has been hijacked and instead of having free speech, a principal on which the United States of America was founded, we now have refereed speech. The question begging for an answer is who is appointing the referees? They aren’t even from a consistent group – they appear to be random with no common denominator.

Additionally, all normal gender references are flying out the window. The U.S. Congress, on the first day of 2021, adopted new rules for gender neutral language on the floor. The following is a list of just a couple examples: “mother”, “father”, “daughter”, “son”, “sister” and “brother” are now to be only referred to as “parent”, “child” and “sibling” – all with no gender reference. Offices with “Ombudsman” positions will now be referred to as “Ombuds”. “Himself” or “Herself” will be replaced with “themselves” – even if the reference is to a singular person. Common gender language is being wiped out by those governing Congress. Frankly, I’d prefer Congress stay focused on legislating and not re-writing the dictionary.

If that’s not bad enough, the prayer to open the 117th Congress ended with “amen and a-women”. But these idiots don’t even realize that amen isn’t a gendered word, it’s Latin for “so be it.”

Even simply addressing other fellow citizens has become a challenge. Today, one has to announce how one wants to be addressed - since we now have choices: you can be He, Him, His – She, Her, Hers – They, Them or Theirs, Ze, Hir,/Zir Hirs/Zirs or Ve, Vem, Vyrs. There is even Xe, Xem, Xry and per/pers/perself. Even if someone labelled themselves to me, I’d have to look up what the dickens they are!

In terms of the LGBTQ label, most of us are used to that acronym by now and it works for me – but frankly, one’s sexual preference is none of my business and I don’t need it announced to me by people I’ve just met. I also can’t keep up with terms like cisgender or phrases like nontraditional sexual orientation. Whatever it all means, I simply don’t care about it.

There’s more that’s challenging in this woke-wonderland; they’re also rewriting history. For example, 1619 is the new 1776 - so within the last few years schools have been adopting ”The 1619 Project “ as fact even though its origin was simply an article in the New York Times Magazine which stated, “In 1619, a ship appeared on the horizon, near Point Comfort, a coastal point in the British colony of Virginia. It carried more than 20 enslaved Africans, who were sold to the colonists.” So began the rewriting of American history to make us all racists.

Another significant element to erasing history as we know it was tearing down statues that simply remind us of milestones in our young nation’s development. These monuments often merely open dialogue for us to discuss the pros and cons of the Civil War, for example. Yet, the woke-class today wants the war that freed the slaves to have been only a unilateral effort fought by the North and, who was that other group?

Oh, I could go on forever but the point of going broke in this new culture is also a collective issue. American taxpayers are now paying for the rewriting of textbooks; reeducating teachers; retraining the workforce; restocking your bookshelves (I’ll get to that in a minute); paying countless reparations for the sins of our ancestors – generations past; and constant therapy for those trying to overcome being a white male today – or white, in general. Therapists are also needed for those who are perpetually angry about everything, re-developing their sense of humor and having someone explain why equity is more important than equality.

Back to restocking our bookshelves. Banning books is part of wokeness, too. Most of these books depicted the era at the time but some must believe their existence is some signal to continue those past rituals, common terms, lifestyles, societal norms, trades or beliefs. Not at all, they were merely a reflection, not a future template - and anyone with a 5th grade education could figure that out. Classics now by the wayside include: Uncle Tom’s Cabin – Harriet Beecher Stowe (1852); Elmer Gantry – Sinclair Lewis (1927); Lady Chatterley’s Lover – DH Lawrence (1928); The Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck (1939); Forever Amber – Kathleen Winsor (1944); Catch-22 – Joseph Heller (1961); and now, for goodness sake – The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini; The Hunger Games – Suzanne Collins and even several Dr. Seuss books.

Frankly, there were too many to list here and now even Disney Pictures, in an effort to be more culturally sensitive, has removed The Aristocats, Dumbo, Lady and the Tramp, Peter Pan and Swiss Family Robinson. It is all beyond mind-numbing.

Oh, I forgot the cancel culture part of wokeness. If we offend anyone today and yes again – there is no consistent standard for offending a person – we are punished. Offenses occur randomly and unpredictably. Once someone is offended and speaks up, all hell breaks loose: people can be suspended or fired; expelled; refused publication; taken off the airwaves; shunned by the public; humiliated by the media and tormented by twitter addicts. If you don’t think that will cause quick poverty, think again.

I never thought I’d ever say that I’m grateful not to be raising children in today’s

insanity since raising children is perhaps the highest calling two people in a marriage can have. But if being woke is being “in” – I’m happy being an outsider. If one becomes rich today from embracing the woke culture – I’m content to live in obscure mediocrity and with a modest income for the rest of my life. And, if not being politically correct means having fewer friends, I’m fine with that, too.

It seems to me like most of the woke people are overly sensitive, uber critical and basically unhappy. Well, that’s not me – I’m delighted to be one of those feisty and blissful seniors.

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