“Woke.” Who knew that this word, used as a colloquial term, is much older than Ron DeSantis? “Woke,” from Merriam Webster: “Aware of and actively attentive to important facts and issues especially of racial and social injustice.” Can’t argue that this is bad, but good deeds do not go unpunished by some.

I’m a “boomer.” In school, did I learn anything beyond “freeing” of the slaves? Did we learn that newly freed Black families didn’t get the promised 40 acres and a mule after 100 years of no income, no ability to accumulate wealth? Did we learn they were “free” for a hot second until 1896, when the Supreme Court shut out Black people from equal treatment under the law, including Black WWII GIs being shut out of the GI bill? Etc., etc., etc.? We did not.

Fortunately, my parents did not teach me to hate. They did not, however, communicate thoughts about the grinding poverty we saw in segregated Dallas, or why there were no Black people in our neighborhood.

The election of Trump had one benefit. I started reading U.S. history by Black scholars. Our kids’ UMO friend, who happens to be Black, generously shares his perspective.

DeSantis’ assertion that Florida is “…where woke comes to die” is bone chilling. President DeSantis? Save us all. Lincoln rolls in his grave.

Anne Herrick
Yarmouth

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