Thorn: Woke Gardening

Plants and trees have now crossed the line of necessity and beauty into “wokeness.” Prospect resident Jacquelyn Hawkins-McGrail has decided for her property that a garden of native plantings is better than an empty, uptight manicured lawn. As one can imagine in the wilds of the East End Stepford Villages, someone doing anything different from the norm is an insult to everything these lemmings hold dear. How dare she garden on her property? According to the Courier Journal’s piece about Hawkins-McGrail’s home, people have left messages on the NextDoor app saying that her garden was an “example of “ woke gardening” and that the Prospect neighborhood “is almost all Republicans” and “we don’t want any woke gardens in Prospect.” First, the way Republicans use the word “woke” is embarrassing and I laugh every time I hear it from their complain-y pieholes. If being a Republican means that nature is your enemy, hard pass. America is getting too stupid. 

Rose: Remembering 9/11

We’d like to just hold a little space, not for the mistakes that the U.S. made following the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, but a space for the people who, in the course of doing their jobs, found themselves hanging from the upper floors of the tallest buildings in the United States and then choosing to jump rather than die in an inferno. It wasn’t just hatred of America that killed these people, it was and still is America’s insistence on meddling in the politics of places where we shouldn’t in ways that harm the poor people and enrich their oppressors. So in remembering those we lost, I hope we look forward in a way that lets us see that we are not superior but stand alongside others in the world. We are not overlords and enemies but fellow human beings. We will survive as a species only if we learn to live and work together. 

Rose: Dastardly Daniel

Daniel Cameron’s having a bit of trouble in his office with four employees filing suit for hostile work conditions since 2020. The Daily Beast reported that a Franklin County lawsuit alleges that the Office of the Attorney General created a hostile work environment and that employees suffered sexual harassment, and, in one suit, employment discrimination. The sexual harassment charge is the only case that the OAG office (the office involved in the suit) found had some merit with the perpetrator taking a “zoomed-in” photo of another employee’s breasts. Cameron has, despite the charges, made no changes to the staff involved in any of the allegations. His office issued a statement that said, “Here, the office investigated the complaints and found that three of the complaints mentioned lacked merit. Regarding the fourth complaint, a reprimand was issued.” That was not for the inappropriate photo, but for public intoxication that “led” to the photo. It seems Cameron can’t control his staff. How is he going to control a state government and all the staff involved?