07/28/2022
Cookeville Voters,
This is a call to action! Your community needs you to get out and vote and make your voice heard!
There are those who wish to impose their big city political ideology on our small-town way of life. To prevent it from devouring us, I say we eat the elephant, donkey, or even the RINO, one bite at a time. How do we do that? We put the political games aside and instead of petty partisanship we vote for the candidate who wants to effect real positive change for our community. I am running to impact real change and be a voice for every constituent in my hometown.
I consider it a blessing to have been born and raised in Cookeville. I have made Cookeville my home for most of my adult life as well. I live here, went to school here, work here and raise my family here. I work with a highly diverse population here. I work with people who are marginalized by most of society. They are discriminated against, threatened, arrested, and neglected by the current system.
While it looks a little different now, the reality is that people are still being enslaved by systemic prejudices. It has changed its face quite a bit since December 1, 1955, when Rosa Parks sat in the front of the bus in Montgomery, Alabama, for refusing to adhere to the constitutionally unjust segregation laws at the time.
In the America of today, those most affected are our Indian/Alaskan Native communities, LGBTQ+ individuals, individuals with disabilities, undocumented migrants, runaways, homeless youth, temporary guest-workers, and low-income individuals. In America in 2022 we still have human beings being bought and sold. We call it human trafficking, and it has no color, age, gender, or socioeconomic preference. So, what are we doing to combat that? Are we just waiting and hoping it goes away? This is a major problem we are facing that I believe needs to be taking center stage.
When considering the proposition of incorporating diversity into the curriculum of elementary school-age children, it makes me pause and wonder what that would look like if used correctly versus if it were misused and abused. What is seen is that diversity training is only as good as the trainer and one’s willingness to accept ALL marginalized people as oppressed. When anyone uses superficial criteria (like race or gender) to make one marginalized portion of the population more "deserving" of reparation than another, then you need to call it what it is, "Racially Motivated Discrimination." Let us define it as this: treating someone unfavorably because they are of a certain race or behavior, or personal characteristic associated with race. So, giving someone a favor simply because they have black skin is as bad as excluding a white child from applying to a school because it is a person of color school. Now, let me add this; if your organization engages in "Racially Motivated Discrimination," own it - say you are a pro-black only organization. Then we have nothing to say about you. We have no bone to pick with you. Do not try to whitewash the reality and say you support minorities and marginalized people when you eliminate the ones who are genuinely being trafficked into modern-day slavery.
The modern-day enslaved person is most likely to be Indian/Alaska Native communities, lesbian-gay-bisexual-transgender-questioning individuals, individuals with physical or emotional disabilities, undocumented migrants, runaways, homeless youth, temporary guest-workers, and low-income individuals; racial influence and characteristics play no significant role in slavery in 2022 - unless you find yourself falling into the trap of division and pitting one race against another for the actions of men who were enslavers back in 1865 (15.7 generations ago).
