Trump's Ministry of Truth
“Working at FAA offers a unique opportunity to experience a career where your impact not only reaches throughout the aviation industry but around the world as well. You’ll be a part of a diverse workforce utilizing the latest technology and systems dedicated to maintaining the safety and integrity of our civil airspace.”
One word, only one, diverse. But what it signifies! Take it out and you eliminate the inclusion of a diversity of hires, people of color, to LBGTQ+, anyone not of “America First’ origin. Ironic isn’t it, when in 1619, slaves arrived on our shores, and of course, before them, Native Americans.
Who has the right to control free speech? That is what Trumpers are attempting to do. Without knowing the words on their list no conversation about DEI is possible. No generation of ideas, no exchange of opinions. It would be as if our country never implemented DEI policies.
Teachers, and I was one for fifty years, need to stand up for language with all its potential. We need to stand up! To be outraged! For fifty years in the classroom, I invoked the English language’s inventive ways to articulate what we see and hear. For fifty years, my punning stimulated learning the meanings of words that enriched our conversations. To eliminate language deters students from knowing the truths we Americans have learned about ourselves, what they learn through writings, art, discoveries, and literature, created by people, who right-wing censors designate as non-America Firsters.
Banning books, already deeply in our culture, is banning language. This list is yet another stab at inculcating ignorance. A people who are forced to live inside this ‘Newspeak paradigm’ will be ripe for propaganda full of disinformation. With no ‘counter-language,’ what will people have to draw upon to fight for the rest of us? For me, this policy is a red line.
