Get up, stand up

 

Is it naive to think that answering lies with truth can make a difference?  Are we too far gone as -- I use the term cautiously -- a nation?

Mallory McMorrow, a state senator in Michigan, was mad as hell when a Republican named Lana Theis decided to raise money by calling her a "groomer," this spring's favorite term of abuse for anyone less homophobic than Ron DeSantis.  Instead of taking it like a good Democrat she went after Theis's "hollow, hateful scheme" on the floor of the Senate.  Then she shared her thoughts on Twitter for those of us who don't follow Lansing politics.  Now she's a star.

McMorrow may have been inspired by state representative Ian Mackey of Missouri (there seems to be a shortage of gumption at the national level of the party).  Mackey, who is gay, spoke at length in opposition to a bill to ban trans student athletes from competitive sports.  Mackey spoke of his fear as a kid of hate-filled "nice people" like the bill's author Chuck Basye:  "You may win this today but you're going to lose."  Basye insists it's just to "save women's sports."  Republicans are determined to save people who never asked them to.

Both McMorrow and Mackey are part of the minority but Ukraine is giving the world a lesson in standing up to bullies:  You may win today but you're going to lose.  The Russians have apparently decided to do to Mariupol what Hitler did to Warsaw, including marching the survivors off to camps.  And a world which is either short of memory or slow to learn thinks it can oppose evil by banning Russian and Belarusian players from Wimbledon.  Or walking out of the G20 -- in Washington! -- while the Russian is talking.  Did they slam the door?  The Poison Dwarf tested a new intercontinental ballistic missile and didn't even claim it was a coincidence.  They don't need an ICBM to hit Kyiv.

If it's April 2022 in Casablanca what time is it in New York?  to paraphrase my spiritual adviser Rick Blaine.   Time to pull up your socks and face down the lions.  They're mangier than they look.