Hello, hello, hello, John Mason. How is everybody? Hope you're all well. Hope things are good for you. Monuments are are a way of uh another way of conveying propaganda like with just a like radio or TV or movies. A public monument can uh displace uh an event or a person that the people uh parties in power would like us to remember and forget all all the rest. That was the way it was in the post-Civil War era. Where as white uh races uh reclaimed retook over the um the various uh state governments in the South, the there arose the myth of the lost cause that that uh slaves were very content in their slavery and happy in their slavery and masters and slaves got along wonderfully and all. And and that the former slaves and their descendants weren't really fit for freedom. And they accepted their lesser status in society. That was the myth. Not the reality, the myth. And the various state governments uh erected monuments to Confederate uh generals and Confederate uh politicians and Confederate soldiers just like the Robert E. Lee statue in Charlottesville, Virginia. And the uh and a Stone Mountain uh memorial in Georgia were carved on a Stone Mountain where the Ku Klux Klan was revitalized in the 1910s. There was erected the images of Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee, and Stonewall Jackson. And the myth was not a reality. And so, as on that attitude, the effort to eradicate any memory of the accomplishments of people of color or women or LGBTQ people, the Trump administration is eliminating any mention of their history in books or in public memorials. In Philadelphia, the the Trump administration uh through the National Park Service removed panels that discussed the the enslaved people that George Washington held enslaved. Yes, our first president, as great a man as he was, owned slave, owned slaves. And on this one of the walls of memorial, the President's House Memorial, are the names of the slaves that that George Washington enslaved. And are used and there were panels of that describe the history of slavery in this country. And yesterday the news came out. The uh the panels uh that have been taken down are going have to be restored by order of a federal judge, and that is glorious. That was a written for grassroots activists, people who felt people who gave heat from the street, who protested, who demonstrated, who went to court, who stood up for themselves, and the panels have re-emerged. And also in New York, in 1969, in June, there was this uh crappy little mob-owned stone uh gay bar called the Stonewall Inn. Where it was a crappy place where the drinks were watered down and the mob owned it, but it was a safe haven for the young gay men that hunt out there. Safe space. And the cops uh routinely raided the place, tried to stuff people in the paddy wagons, but some but in the spirit of the times, the civil rights movement, the anti-Vietnam War movement, the the feminist movement also emerging, those young gay men rioted, along with them trans trans transvestite uh uh men such as Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera, uh transgender men of color, women of color, and that was the trigger that began the the current LGBTQ movement. And I believe it was the Obama administration that recognized the the Stonewall Inn as a national monument. However, the Trump administration is working to eliminate uh the Stonewall Inn stat Stonewall Inn status as a as a monument, a national monument, and they brought down the rainbow flag. How do you s commemorate LGBTQ history when you did when you take away the symbols of the LGBTQ movement? And the grassroots activists have been fighting to restore the rainbow flag to the Stol Inn. And these attempts, like I said, to eliminate the memorials of two African Americans and LGBTQ plus Americans and women Americans, and to remove any mention of their contributions to this country, such as their military service, is an attempt to deny that they have any value as citizens or as human beings, that they did nothing, that they were nothing. And so let's take this seriously. The fight over the monuments is part of a deep, deeper uh fight for recognition and respect for all these formerly outcast groups. And so let's keep and let's keep keep the fight up for all their rights. Including the right, particularly the rights to be respected as our fellow Americans as and the right to have their their victories memorialized. We can do it. Okay now, advertisements. All this work I do on my media, my blog, my podcast, my videos, my poetry, my fiction, they're all work. And I need to be paid for my work. To compensate for for this, uh for putting my material on these platforms, and and raise the whole uh project up to a higher level. So, please get on my website, johnomason.com, and click either the PayPal button or the buy me a coffee button. See what we can give. Thank you. And also, Hamporific is a lovely little CBD product store located on Snyder Avenue near 15th Street in South Philadelphia. Excuse me. There you'll find some of the finest cannabis-infused products. Gummies and candies and drinks and teas and flour and lip balm hand sanitizer and dog trees. Yeah, dog trees. Look them up, please. Himperificlc.com. And also my beloved career and business coach, Michelle Snow. Michelle's excellent in helping you develop your professional career or small business. Let you know what you're doing right, where you need work, and help you network with other up-and-coming entrepreneurs and professionals. Look them up look her up, please. Look her up, please. Growwithsnow.com. Okay then. We are still in the midst of Black History Month. So let's educate ourselves on the contributions of African Americans in this great country of ours. It's still great. Not perfect, but great. And we can make it greater once we eliminate Trump and his minions and his thugs and his cronies and everything he stands for. Thank you. Have a good week ahead of you. Bye.
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