{"id":105781,"date":"2018-02-05T12:00:31","date_gmt":"2018-02-05T12:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=105781"},"modified":"2018-01-31T10:23:29","modified_gmt":"2018-01-31T10:23:29","slug":"livin-and-dion-fall-river-a-perfect-backdrop-for-kennedy-response-to-trumps-state-of-the-union","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2018\/02\/livin-and-dion-fall-river-a-perfect-backdrop-for-kennedy-response-to-trumps-state-of-the-union\/","title":{"rendered":"Livin\u2019 and Dion: Fall River a Perfect Backdrop for Kennedy Response [to Trump’s State of the Union]"},"content":{"rendered":"

27 Jan 2018 – <\/em>We are the struggle.<\/p>\n

Fall River is one of those left-behind places, one of those forgotten, unfashionable places, one of those American places that is neither New York City nor some quiet little suburb, nor some farm town. We are not igniting any national trends. We are, at best, the subject of occasional news stories which remind us either that we are a \u201cformer mill town,\u201d or that we are at the \u201cepicenter of the opioid crisis.\u201d Neither term is meant as a compliment, just a surface reminder that we are defined by the worst of our problems.<\/p>\n

History doesn\u2019t visit us too often. We get by on our own.<\/p>\n

We are a working class place, a poor place, the exact kind of place that should have plumped for President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n

We did not<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Perhaps because of this, when U.S. Rep. Joseph Kennedy III offers the Democrats\u2019 rebuttal to Trump\u2019s State of the Union address Tuesday [30 Jan], he will speak from Diman Regional Vocational Technical High School<\/a>.<\/p>\n

You don\u2019t get much more working America than a vocational school in a poor city, a school that knows the struggle of its students, who are immigrants, the children of immigrants, the children of the poor, the children of men and women who\u2019ve been laid off five or six times in their lives, the children and grandchildren of people who\u2019ve come to work only to find a padlock on the factory door.<\/p>\n

No group of people in America knows better the limitations of capitalism, the cruelty of the free market. They tell you you\u2019re a valued employee and a member of the team until the day the boss disappears, and you go home to tell your husband the job is gone. We live surrounded by old, often disintegrating mills, a sign of capitalism\u2019s limits.<\/p>\n

Trump is supposed to speak for that America, but Fall River wouldn\u2019t take the bait. We know his kind. They fire us, they lay us off.<\/p>\n

No matter who writes the damn thing, Trump\u2019s State of the Union address will be at least partially incomprehensible, loaded with cheap barroom bragging, an insult to the voices of Lincoln, of Roosevelt, of Jack Kennedy, a stunning rebuke to the idea of soaring phrases and ringing words. There will be no \u201cAsk not what your country can do for you\u201d moment.<\/p>\n

We will be told that the stock market is boiling over. No matter. Fall River is not a stock market kind of place. We will be told to gratefully pick up the nickels our corporate masters drop when they\u2019re running away with billions. We will be told we can keep our guns and our bibles, but everything else belongs to the rich.<\/p>\n

We will be told all that constitutes \u201cwinning.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is significant that Kennedy chooses to speak, not from one of Fall River\u2019s worst neighborhoods, but from a school that thrives on work and hope, a school where tax money isn\u2019t \u201cwasted,\u201d where the much-reviled \u201cpolitical correctness\u201d puts wrenches in the hands of girls, where immigrant parents get the chance to see their kids climb above menial work.<\/p>\n

Trump will stand behind the podium. Kennedy will stand in the fire, among the children of working people, among the children of immigrants, among the children of the poor, in a government-run school that gives out education without thought to wealth, or social class, or color.<\/p>\n

This, we have been told, is \u201centitlement.\u201d This, we have been told, is \u201cgovernment indoctrination\u201d and lazy unionized teachers. This, we have been told, should be swept away, and you should be left with a privatized education that is only as good as your parents can buy. The poor, who have nothing, must give up still more, we are told.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the perfect place in the perfect town at the perfect moment to stand in the fire.<\/p>\n

The made-up culture wars are raging over prayers and flags and Confederate statues and Christmas, and all that overshadows some kid learning to fix air conditioners, or learning to cook.<\/p>\n

Fall River will lend Joe Kennedy this stage, this place to stand.<\/p>\n

Roar, young lion, roar.<\/p>\n

_________________________________________<\/p>\n

Marc Munroe Dion<\/a> <\/em>– Herald News Staff Reporter<\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 heraldnews.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

27 Jan 2018 – We are the struggle. Fall River is one of those left-behind places, one of those forgotten, unfashionable places, one of those American places that is neither New York City nor some quiet little suburb, nor some farm town. We are not igniting any national trends. Perhaps because of this, when U.S. Rep. Joseph Kennedy III offers the Democrats\u2019 rebuttal to Trump\u2019s State of the Union address Tuesday [30 Jan], he will speak from Diman Regional Vocational Technical High School.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":105782,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-105781","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-anglo-america"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105781","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105781"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105781\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/105782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}