jasonderoga86: The O.G. Lil' Hero Artist (Default)
Oh my God, this is adorable and powerful at the same time. 

While RFK Jr. continues to defile the Department of Health and Human Services with conspiracy theories and deliberate scapegoat tactics against the autistic spectrum community (and also subjecting kids to die from measles since he can't figure out whether or not vaccines give people diseases [here's a hint: they don't]), bright spots of nascent innocence are pushing back. And since I assist people with intellectual and developmental disabilities at my awesome job -- working with people with cerebral palsy and autism, for example -- I'm always up for more proof that this is not a community to be scapegoated simply because it's not politically advantageous or because politicians of late have a stubborn refusal to do their jobs because it would looking away from their power-driven agendas.

So I came across this inspiring YouTube through a link from a corresponding article from Daily Kos which shows a New Jersey 4th grader who goes by "Teddy" delivering a masterfully written statement of rebuttal to RFK Jr's agenda of ignorance and stigmatization by calling for more education about autism and acceptance of people with disabilities rather than ostracization. Teddy poignantly ends his speech with the mission statement of his district, Princeton Public Schools. 

And here's a good point: no child is born hating another person because they're different. And children in their early years don't harbor the animosity and violent urges that today's adults tend to. Don't ask me -- just look up some of the greatest Nelson Mandela quotes, and you'll see what I'm talking about. They are taught to conform and embrace toxic ideologies because of the culture and political climate of their own country. Kids often question their parents about why they support the idea of killing people in another country over an attack on this soil, and it burns their parents to have to explain, especially if they are politically attached. Kids also ask the same on the "other", and why they're supposed to loathe and wish death on them, and again, parents feel a small pang of guilt as they try to justify it because of politics and culture dynamics. Well, I can see it doesn't work, because one cannot make children into killing machines just to serve political affiliations. Maybe society needs to take a hint from today's children, revisit that point of innocence for themselves so we can all remember that hatred isn't ingrained in our genes -- it never was. Hatred is TAUGHT and LEARNED, as hateful people have hypocritically and futilely attempted to "prove" over and over about people who teach empathy.

YouTube video shows an autistic Jersey 4th grader strike down RFK's harmful autism stigma -- with class and pragmatism.
jasonderoga86: The O.G. Lil' Hero Artist (Default)
I just got a reply from a friend of mine on Facebook, Jonathan, thanking me for my comment on his post about powerful women in today's world. Two of the people highlighted were Amanda Gorman, Black poet and civil rights activist (delivered the powerful poem "The Hills We Climb" at Joe Biden's 2021 inauguration) and Greta Thunberg, the fiery young Swedish woman who rose to prominence as a little girl condemning world leaders for their complicity in accelerating climate change at the risk of every vulnerable community in an insane bid to outlast them in a coming global warming calamity (She literally charged the leaders at the UN via video screen in 2019 of selling out the future of generations of children worldwide in exchange for wealth and lavish lifestyles from the corrupt oil, gas, and fossil fuel industries; she furiously ripped into them, saying "How dare you! How DARE you?!") Bigwigs with their wealth and political power are always unnerved when young people put them on the spot for their deadly ignorance of public health issues in favor of amassing wealth and power because deep down, they know the Kids Are All Right. That's why they respond with condescending lectures or ways to punish or silence them to look like the "grownups" in the room. In fact, in some countries, people burned effigies of Greta in response to her saying the quiet part out loud about the fossil fuel industry's profiting from death due to pollution and natural disasters -- they thought Greta, who never took a life, was eviller than the corporations dealing out death profiting from pollution-related disasters and always avoiding accountability. But then again, such is the ideology behind American capitalism -- a perverted view of Darwinism, where the wealthy "superior" few have the right to use the "inferior" masses as expendable to line their pockets, and lobby that money to compromise political alliances and block any meaningful change from dismantling the foul communion. As if they'll be taking all that wealth and power with them to their coffin and into the next life. Stupid? Yes. But that's their M.O.  
     
Touched by Jonathan's response, I replied to him by telling him I have my Texan friend Erin Weinstock to thank for my insight; she's encouraging me to use my voice in written form and in spoken form through a podcast. She even helped me install software to make it possible. At the same time, some friends of mine are requesting me to attend a special "teach-in" community event on the privileged ultra-wealthy's assault on the working-class people of this country in a couple weeks. The event is going to be held at Laney College on Tuesday, April 29th (after work) in my hometown of Oakland, California -- the same college where I launched the first issue of my most popular comic series "Sneakers' U-Force" at a 2010 art gallery focused on environmental justice and activism. As you all know, I was interviewed and photographed for the Laney Tower, the campus newspaper.
 
As such, because my experience at Laney -- and especially the eco-art class that the gallery was based on, which I took for multiple semesters out of pure curiosity (it was the first time I borrowed and watched "An Inconvenient Truth" at home, which inspired the creation of "Sneakers' U-Force") -- and my deep friendship with my eco-art instructor, who helped me out of a very dark period in my personal life, I feel compelled to go to this event. One of the speakers is a family member of a client I assist at my job helping developmentally disabled people in my community, so there's also that aspect.
 
I think this is the opportunity I've been searching for, to speak on behalf of the people in my city who are no doubt done with the idea of rich people literally buying political elections and manipulating our institutions to abandon the very people they are supposed to protect and serve. Our entire political system has been weaponized against the people to suit the greed of amoral and heartless opportunists who see the general public as political tools. It's insidious and needs to be called out. Like the rapper Tupac Shakur once said, we call ourselves the Greatest Nation on Earth, yet the hard truth is "We have money for war, but we can't feed the poor". It's the basest hypocrisy.

And right now, I can see how the current state of things is wearing on Erin; she is at her wit's end, and her Facebook posts have become more and more desperate and dire, with one particularly shocking post implying that if she's not able to leave her current neighborhood by mid-July, she "wants someone to kill [her]." Whether she's just figuratively speaking or not, I'm concerned -- she lives in a mobile home neighborhood full of MAGA jerks who have made her life hell for longer than I can imagine. I spoke with her about a month ago, where she told me she was doing fine but was also in a state of desperation due to how unsafe her neighborhood is becoming. She told me that she needs to devote more time to getting the assistance she needs to leave Texas somehow, and thus she wouldn't be as available for a while. While these current posts are very terrifying, not only do I feel I must respect her time as she figures things out, but I also have my life to focus on as well; my new position at my job demands a lot of my time, and this coming weekend will be the birthday celebration of one of my closest friends. And then the following Tuesday afterwards, I plan to go to this political community event at Laney College. Also, Jonathan is also a very close friend of Erin's -- she does paid art commissions for his video business -- so I feel confident he can be there for her when I can't.

Regardless, I am more compelled than ever to make a difference -- not just with our disabled community, but now with the entire community of Oakland. This is a big part of what I believe I was called to do, part of my life mission.✊🏾

Peace and love to you all,

Nana

--"Jason Deroga"
 

jasonderoga86: The O.G. Lil' Hero Artist (Default)
Liz Cheney's appearance at Wisconsin today, along with Kamala Harris, was purposed for making it clear where she stood on Republican values and leadership, why her party was founded and the role of ending slavery -- why wouldn't she have invoked Abraham Lincoln? But she knows the truth about the times, and she knows why she -- along with her dad Dick -- also invoked the Harris-Walz campaign mantra of "We're Not Going Back." She invoked her conservativism as part and parcel of her endorsement of our ticket, and again made the truthful statement of how The Former Guy refused the will of the People. She also emphasized Reagan's view on the peaceful transfer of presidential power -- how he believed that it was a miracle that our country maintained that sacred peaceful transfer of power, and how every single President -- EVERY SINGLE ONE -- honored that sacrament except for one insignificant bastard. She also went into great detail -- AGAIN -- about how EVERY AMERICAN, EVERY ONE OF US remembers what we saw on January 6th, 2021, that these facts are not coming from Trump's political enemies, how Trump didn't care about Pence's safety, not even Ashli Babbitt getting shot until it was convenient for him... Cheney couldn't be any clearer about the petty, vindictive, and cruel Trump, and that HE IS NOT FIT TO LEAD THIS GREAT NATION. Scott Walker's quip about "people are over January 6th" was great ammo for Cheney's stance that our institutions survived because of the people who protected them: Capitol police, real politicians, Mike Pence, etc. Nobody can lie about that. She also credited who TRULY honored the Constitution that day, but sharply sacked JD Vance, rightfully calling him an advocate for tyranny for saying he would say, "Screw the will of American people!" 

It is tyranny. And both Vance and Trump are tyrants (it takes a tyrant to know a tyrant -- that's just how it works). And as Harris has said over and over again, there is so much more that unites us than divides us. So, we gotta stand against the depraved cruelty of Trump and meet this moment. And do that we will. Harris will unite this country once again, and be a true model for all Americans. Anybody who is willing to risk another Trump regime on the grounds of "policies" is an idiot; just wanna make that clear. Someone who lacks morals and decency can't bring and enact moral and decent policies, and ain't nobody gonna lie to us and say stuff like "Just remember what it was like when Trump WAS President!" No. That's HORSESHIT; as IF Trump ever did anything for Blacks, Latinos, Asians, ANYBODY during his little stint as America's Hitler. He wasn't a "law and order" anything; he thought he WAS the fucking Constitution. And now he wants to terminate the document he claims to honor WHY...? Whatevs. 

He's all alone. Nobody really loves him. He's the most hated person in America by a WIDE margin. And he's not even "campaigning" anymore. From this point on, he's just going all "January 6th 2.0" -- everyone can see that. Harris' campaign line shows the clear distinction from the madman that is Trump; emphasizing how Trump sees America as just another piece of major wealth he wants to slap his ugly name brand on, while Harris will never ask you if you're a Republican or Democrat -- she'll ask you, "Are you okay?" 

Thank you, Liz. Yes, We're Not Going Back. Harris-Walz for 2024. 

June 2025

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