Powerful words and images JoJo. When is this nightmare going to end, and why aren’t right wingers and republicans freaking out? Reminds me of the book “Hitler’s Willing Executioners.” As someone who spent my first years as an educator teaching kindergartners and first graders, this just makes my heart and soul weep.
My mother in law was a teenager in Nazi occupied Athens. Among the stories of what she witnessed with her own eyes is one that resonates here. One of her friends from school came home to an empty house nearby one day. He was Jewish. His mother father and little brother were gone. He knocked on neighbors doors and was taken in - then traveled with a member of that family to their village in the mountains hours away. They kept him safe until one of his uncles came to get him.. I think of them and pray they escaped to this day.
I'm so sorry you had a nasty mother that hurt you Jo and I'm incredibly sorry that the American people especially the children are living in fear from their own government. This should never have happened and I pray every damn person in the Trump Regime pay for what they've done and continue to do.
Make them pay now. Don't wait a second more. Otherwise if you do, you may not be able to make it happen. as by then they will have already completely rigged the system.
This is their plan and so far it's going along quite fine.
I've had plenty of reasons to be disappointed in my country since I was very young. Including Vietnam, including the assassinations, including the gun violence, including the erosion of our social safety net under Reagan, including the widening gap between the rich and the poor, including electing the orange buffoon, including January 6th, and so much more.
But with trump-epstein, and with these children expressing their fears in this TV interview... the word "disappointed" falls woefully short. When you see that children are victims of sick fucks with lots of money, or when you see that they're living in fear of walking down the street because of their own gun-toting lawless government, it's beyond horrifying. And it's especially horrifying that any Republican dude with a child -- who cares about their safety and security -- could express even the dimmest support for the monsters in this regime.
If it's not too late, vote, and put aside the, "Well, they're all the same, and that makes me smarter to realize that," bullshit.
And just vote. We need landslides. So vote for Democrats dammit. I'm out of shits to give whether people think it doesn't matter, or if they're offended because they believe not voting was wise, and they don't want to be told by some rando on the internet how stupid that is, or that voting third party is going to help Gazans, or that campaign-finance reform is needed, or whatever it is. Think about it. Think very clearly about it. Do you want this nightmare to end or not?
The picture of Pam Bondi ignoring the Epstein survivors should be plastered all over the place on websites, flyers, posters and whatever. She should be shamed relentlessly.
Jo, I’m so sorry that photograph triggered your shoe trauma. For me, when I look at that image of Miss Blondie, I think, ‘there but for the grace of god’ go you.
This article is terrific!! Aside from terrible thing your mother did to you and the unbelievably current discussion of Anne Frank, what stuck out to me was the following quote: “They fought to put him back.” These people are so unbelievably cruel that they will fight to return a five-year old to a warehouse camp just to make a point: that they can. They just need to show the world that they are cruel enough and powerful enough to do the unthinkable. I can only hope that more and more people who were on the fence (I cannot even comprehend being on the fence, but apparently some people are) will start believing their own eyes and not what their government and favorite news shows tell them. Thank you for writing this! It gives me hope that we may possibly survive this and get to the point where fighting to put a five-year old back in a camp will become unacceptable again.
How does somebody wake up in the morning and decide that today they will put on their masks, strap on their guns and go traumatize little kids at a school or bus stop?
How do politicians know this shit is happening and do absolutely nothing to stop it?
And how in the fuck did Steve Miller and Donald Trump end up in the White House and how pathetic does someone have to be to enable them and keep them there?
This might be hard for some people to grasp, but there was a time when allegations that the President of the United States was involved in the rape of a child would be taken seriously and investigated and God help anyone who stood in the way.
I believe Miller is trump's Grima Wormtongue and just like that character he spends all his time whispering the most vile nonsense into the ear of the "leader" all of it false and to complete his own vision of what hell as a country would look like. Trump has allowed only the most vile people to occupy his administration this time and damn the senate to hell for approving them all; including the snort cocaine off a toilet seat failure of a human being.
JoJo, I, too, am having a really hard time seeing people being placed in the detention hell holes while we go about daily business. Why can't judges order them all to be returned and slap some heavy discipline on every person working in that deplorable system, not to allow the offenders back in to terrorize? People should not be making any profit on treating humans in this way. We need our collective voice to demand oversight daily until we can take the offenders to account.
Oh,my dear girl!my heart aches for that little girl who didn’t deserve what Happened to her. I wish that I could hold you and hug you. Your so-called mother wasn’t a mother - she was a monster!! I cannot even imagine treating any child that way, certainly not my own!! Please take my words and hold them and feel me hugging you.
I too am sorry 😞 that at such a tender age you discovered that someone who you thought loved you was cruel and heartless 😮
I have a different story-I had the typical spankings when I was little-(it was a rare occurrence)
fortunately they didn’t scar!
my brother and I-we hid the plank and that was the end of the spankings!!!!
My mother found it years later when we moved-we had hidden it behind the refrigerator!!!
What I do remember
when I was about 6-12 years old I would have nightmares of Nazis chasing me-I don’t remember if I told anyone 🤔
I did tell my cousin who lived in the Netherlands 🇳🇱 and she told me she had the same nightmares!!
Now, here’s a piece of the puzzle-my mother, her mother and siblings hid various times from the Nazis and I heard little bits growing up! It wasn’t till Prince Harry talked of generational trauma that I thought of my own past 🤔
I want to say thank you JoJo for being steadfast, caring and fiercely protective of your children!!!
What a powerful column. What a meaningful trio: Anne Frank bravely doing her best in the face of the indescribable horrors of her generations fascist killers; Billie Holiday performing her "signature" piece that never fails to move me in the face of America's fascist killers, and you, JoJo, challenging today's American fascist killers. You all three bring forth the best humanity has to offer in the face of its worst done to each of you. Words fail me - fortunately for us they do not fail you. Thank you for courage before the worst of what man can do.
JoJo
I’m so sorry your mum was so bad to you.. genuinely upset
But I see in your words and actions that YOU have a depth to your soul. Love in your heart and a mothers love for HER FAMILY 🌟❤️🙏
You inspire me to be a better person
Powerful words and images JoJo. When is this nightmare going to end, and why aren’t right wingers and republicans freaking out? Reminds me of the book “Hitler’s Willing Executioners.” As someone who spent my first years as an educator teaching kindergartners and first graders, this just makes my heart and soul weep.
That book was a sickening, but necessary read. I highly recommend it. The author brings stacks and stacks of receipts.
My mother in law was a teenager in Nazi occupied Athens. Among the stories of what she witnessed with her own eyes is one that resonates here. One of her friends from school came home to an empty house nearby one day. He was Jewish. His mother father and little brother were gone. He knocked on neighbors doors and was taken in - then traveled with a member of that family to their village in the mountains hours away. They kept him safe until one of his uncles came to get him.. I think of them and pray they escaped to this day.
How horrifically sad. 😔
So much horror.
I'm so sorry you had a nasty mother that hurt you Jo and I'm incredibly sorry that the American people especially the children are living in fear from their own government. This should never have happened and I pray every damn person in the Trump Regime pay for what they've done and continue to do.
Make them pay now. Don't wait a second more. Otherwise if you do, you may not be able to make it happen. as by then they will have already completely rigged the system.
This is their plan and so far it's going along quite fine.
I've had plenty of reasons to be disappointed in my country since I was very young. Including Vietnam, including the assassinations, including the gun violence, including the erosion of our social safety net under Reagan, including the widening gap between the rich and the poor, including electing the orange buffoon, including January 6th, and so much more.
But with trump-epstein, and with these children expressing their fears in this TV interview... the word "disappointed" falls woefully short. When you see that children are victims of sick fucks with lots of money, or when you see that they're living in fear of walking down the street because of their own gun-toting lawless government, it's beyond horrifying. And it's especially horrifying that any Republican dude with a child -- who cares about their safety and security -- could express even the dimmest support for the monsters in this regime.
If it's not too late, vote, and put aside the, "Well, they're all the same, and that makes me smarter to realize that," bullshit.
And just vote. We need landslides. So vote for Democrats dammit. I'm out of shits to give whether people think it doesn't matter, or if they're offended because they believe not voting was wise, and they don't want to be told by some rando on the internet how stupid that is, or that voting third party is going to help Gazans, or that campaign-finance reform is needed, or whatever it is. Think about it. Think very clearly about it. Do you want this nightmare to end or not?
Thank you, Will, for your Fightin' Words!
Yes, definitely venting a bit. Thanks for your note, Jan!
The picture of Pam Bondi ignoring the Epstein survivors should be plastered all over the place on websites, flyers, posters and whatever. She should be shamed relentlessly.
That will be her legacy. It will be in history books for decades, right up there with pictures of Nazi leaders.
Jo, I’m so sorry that photograph triggered your shoe trauma. For me, when I look at that image of Miss Blondie, I think, ‘there but for the grace of god’ go you.
There you go again, putting a part of you right out there in the open. How do you turn out to be so good when your mother was so bad (understatement).
At first I was trying to listen to the olympics while reading this piece...that didn't last long...( Mute the TV)
Really good piece. I'm saving this one.
Your kids will be so proud of you (if they aren't already. )
Thankyou again. Putting your history out there must be hard.
💞
This article is terrific!! Aside from terrible thing your mother did to you and the unbelievably current discussion of Anne Frank, what stuck out to me was the following quote: “They fought to put him back.” These people are so unbelievably cruel that they will fight to return a five-year old to a warehouse camp just to make a point: that they can. They just need to show the world that they are cruel enough and powerful enough to do the unthinkable. I can only hope that more and more people who were on the fence (I cannot even comprehend being on the fence, but apparently some people are) will start believing their own eyes and not what their government and favorite news shows tell them. Thank you for writing this! It gives me hope that we may possibly survive this and get to the point where fighting to put a five-year old back in a camp will become unacceptable again.
A powerful piece.
How does somebody wake up in the morning and decide that today they will put on their masks, strap on their guns and go traumatize little kids at a school or bus stop?
How do politicians know this shit is happening and do absolutely nothing to stop it?
And how in the fuck did Steve Miller and Donald Trump end up in the White House and how pathetic does someone have to be to enable them and keep them there?
This might be hard for some people to grasp, but there was a time when allegations that the President of the United States was involved in the rape of a child would be taken seriously and investigated and God help anyone who stood in the way.
I believe Miller is trump's Grima Wormtongue and just like that character he spends all his time whispering the most vile nonsense into the ear of the "leader" all of it false and to complete his own vision of what hell as a country would look like. Trump has allowed only the most vile people to occupy his administration this time and damn the senate to hell for approving them all; including the snort cocaine off a toilet seat failure of a human being.
JoJo, I, too, am having a really hard time seeing people being placed in the detention hell holes while we go about daily business. Why can't judges order them all to be returned and slap some heavy discipline on every person working in that deplorable system, not to allow the offenders back in to terrorize? People should not be making any profit on treating humans in this way. We need our collective voice to demand oversight daily until we can take the offenders to account.
This old man is crying. God damn them.
Oh,my dear girl!my heart aches for that little girl who didn’t deserve what Happened to her. I wish that I could hold you and hug you. Your so-called mother wasn’t a mother - she was a monster!! I cannot even imagine treating any child that way, certainly not my own!! Please take my words and hold them and feel me hugging you.
I too am sorry 😞 that at such a tender age you discovered that someone who you thought loved you was cruel and heartless 😮
I have a different story-I had the typical spankings when I was little-(it was a rare occurrence)
fortunately they didn’t scar!
my brother and I-we hid the plank and that was the end of the spankings!!!!
My mother found it years later when we moved-we had hidden it behind the refrigerator!!!
What I do remember
when I was about 6-12 years old I would have nightmares of Nazis chasing me-I don’t remember if I told anyone 🤔
I did tell my cousin who lived in the Netherlands 🇳🇱 and she told me she had the same nightmares!!
Now, here’s a piece of the puzzle-my mother, her mother and siblings hid various times from the Nazis and I heard little bits growing up! It wasn’t till Prince Harry talked of generational trauma that I thought of my own past 🤔
I want to say thank you JoJo for being steadfast, caring and fiercely protective of your children!!!
What a powerful column. What a meaningful trio: Anne Frank bravely doing her best in the face of the indescribable horrors of her generations fascist killers; Billie Holiday performing her "signature" piece that never fails to move me in the face of America's fascist killers, and you, JoJo, challenging today's American fascist killers. You all three bring forth the best humanity has to offer in the face of its worst done to each of you. Words fail me - fortunately for us they do not fail you. Thank you for courage before the worst of what man can do.
Agree-love is in your heart.