by Mary Fahnestock-Thomas, Hamilton
To be “woke,” of course, simply means to be awake. It comes from African-American Vernacular English (AAVE) and was used at first especially in the context of perceived racial and social injustice. I think it’s fair to say that, depending on where you live in the USA, it increasingly means simply being awake to what is going on around you and willing to talk about it.
The opposite of being awake is being asleep, right? Well, I like my bed as much as anyone, but I also know that when I’m asleep, the world goes on without me, and waking up may be quite a shock.
The Montana 2023 State Legislature is now in session, and the Republican super-majority is introducing lots of bills that we all should be awake to or we’re liable to find out our Montana world has been substantially changed while we were asleep – including changes to the State Constitution that was framed in 1972 and has stood us in good stead since then.
“It’s all just politics.” Yes, but politics is how people learn to live together in community, which is what being human is all about. It’s not all bogus, just often opaque, and we can be the ones to say “Huh? What does that mean? Why would we want that?”
Television is not known for encouraging that kind of awareness, so here are some sites to look at, become familiar with, and possibly even participate in via newsletters and such:
The Montana State Legislature – https://leg.mt.gov/
The Montana State Consitution – https://leg.mt.gov/bills/mca
Montana Women Vote – http://www.montanawomenvote.org/
The Montana Federation of Public Employees – https://www.mfpe.org/
The League of Women Voters – https://www.lwv.org/
The Montana Environmental Information Center – https://meic.org/
Yes, these are some of my favorites. What are yours?
Linda Schmitt says
Excellent letter, thank you, Mary!! You are so sensible, it gladdens my heart.