24 June 2016

What a Bad Day !

Bad news from USA = Obama’s plan for preventing deportation of immigrants with children born in USA is defeated by Supreme Court

And UK votes to leave EU

 Kevin and I would have liked to vote and we would have voted REMAIN but alas we didn’t have a vote. I just heard from a friend that the flood in London prevented REMAIN voters from voting and that hurt the REMAIN vote. Should UK have relied on a referendum to make this difficult choice? This is David Cameron’s work and he needs to take the blame for UK opting out of the EU.

It is backward of Britain not to go forward with the EU. Everyone we know in Cambridge, in Oxford, in London, in Scotland voted for REMAIN. These are multiculturally vibrant areas filled with young people.

Except my hair stylist. I was getting a haircut and asked him what he thought. He went into an angry harangue against Muslims and how Brexit would prevent so many from entering the country. He was very loud, his fellow workers and customers were smiling as if they were use to Alex’s tirades, although, I was somewhat taken aback by his anger. He calmed down when an attractive young woman came into the shop and he said to me, “Now, there is a good muslim. She doesn’t cover.”

Except our taxi driver who took us to Stanstead. He too hoped that a vote for Brexit would tamp down the stream of immigration over the borders. British taxi drivers were united for Brexit. Their reasoning seemed to be based on the longing for older traditional values of UK symbolized by the black Hackney cab and red double decker bus.

Anyway, both the Brexit vote and the Supreme Court’s decision point to xenophobia and racism. It is Trump’s Wall, albeit a bit subtle. (Trump, though, in fact, has already built a wall around his golf course in Scotland, closing off the public paths and views.) UK wants to go back to the glory of the British Empire, a nostalgia for the past (but that Britain like the old South is “gone with the wind”). Brexit  and Trump are about "making my country great again." 

Brexit is a triumph for ageism! The young are the ones whose future will have the biggest impact by the withdrawal from EU. Opportunities for travel, study, and work abroad will be harder to come by. Much needed Research Grants given to Universities by EU will be gone. Exposure to other cultures and countries will happen less. UK may even break up as Scotland and Northern Ireland may vote to leave UK. And, UK won't have the protection of EU intelligence and border control.

 And the UK won't be very well-liked by Europe. They will go to the back of the queue!

Good News from USA = John Lewis’s leadership of Democrat SIT IN in Congress for Gun Control vote.