The show must go on. De Amerikaanse presidentsverkiezingen geven weer een bijzonder vertekend beeld van Amerika. Trump hier en Trump daar. Je zou denken dat daar alleen maar gekken en dolgedraaide hotemetoten rondlopen. Die zijn er natuurlijk wel en zelfs in overvloed, maar mogen we af en toe ook de fatsoenlijke mensen even aan het werk zien?
Nee, ik ben geen fan van Hillary Clinton. En wel hierom:
TheNation: "As first lady of Arkansas, she led the efforts by her husband’s administration to weaken teachers’ unions and scapegoat teachers—most of them women, large numbers of them black—for problems in the education system, implementing performance measures and firings that set a punitive tone for education reform nationwide. Rather than trying to walk this back, Clinton recently said that as president, she would close any public school “that wasn’t doing a better than average job.”
Abroad, socialist feminists oppose imperial adventures because war makes life hell for the majority of women, tending to exacerbate whatever material inequalities already existed. Yet Clinton, as secretary of state, went so far as to claim that wars could help liberate women—for example, by making the Taliban respect human rights in Afghanistan. During her tenure as secretary of state, rape and femicide increased in Honduras, Iraq, and Libya, due to the interventionist policies that she nurtured and executed.
Clinton was honest about how deeply at odds with any democratic-socialist movement she is. “We’re not Denmark,” she said, praising the “opportunity” and “freedom” of American capitalism. With this bit of frankness, Clinton helpfully explained why no socialist—indeed, no non-millionaire—should support her. She is smart enough to know that women in the United States endure far more poverty, unemployment, and food insecurity than women in Denmark—yet she shamelessly made clear that she was happy to keep it that way.”
This blog endorses Bernie Sanders for president!
Amerika heeft ook cultuur, hoewel we daar nooit veel over horen in onze media. Voor literatuur kan iedereen terecht bij de betaalbare Library of America, een uitgeverij die alle Amerikaanse schrijvers uitgeeft in mooie verzamelbanden.
Hier is een kort essay van John Burroughs uit de verzamelbundel American Earth: Nature Near Home.
“After long experience I am convinced that the best place to study nature is at one’s own home, — on the farm, in the mountains, on the plains, by the sea, — no matter where that may be. One has it all about him then. The seasons bring to his door the great revolving cycle of wild life, floral and faunal, and he need miss no part of the show.
At home one should see and hear with more fondness and sympathy. Nature should touch him a little more closely there than anywhere else.”
Trump kan de boom in.
