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This Week’s Mark McNease On Topic (Substack)
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Well, it finally happened. Donald Trump was indicted, and not the kind of ‘nothing’s going to come of this’ indictment many of us thought was handed down in New York. This is some Espionage Act, serious prison time stuff, and it has left me … ambivalent.
As much as I loathe Trump (almost as much as I loathe DeSantis, and that’s more loathing than I can fit into a thousand Substacks), the idea of a former American president sitting in a prison cell still manages to shock my sensibilities. I felt no sense of joy, no thrill of revenge, when it happened. I felt like we were finally coming to the end of a grotesque tragedy America wrote, produced, and starred in for its own entertainment. American exceptionalism is all the rage, and what could be more exceptional than a trial-by-jury of the most catastrophic head of state we have ever had?
The only enjoyment I’m getting from this is knowing how absolutely out of their minds it’s making the right-wing nut-o-sphere. Their cries of weaponized justice and the criminalization of political opponents rings more than hollow, coming from people who chanted “lock her up” at Trump rallies, and who are currently passing vicious, cruel, draconian laws in Republican-run states in a brutal but doomed attempt to eradicate trans and queer people.
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Mark McNease on Topic: A Million More Marthas
The following is from Mark McNease on Topic. Subscribe here for twice-weekly braintinis.
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Thank you to new paid subscribers Ron and Tim! You have a lifetime VIP pass to my heart. – Mark
The World Needs Heroes: Meet Martha Hickson
We went to the Hunterdon Democratic Committee spring brunch on Sunday. That’s the county we live in. One of the panel speakers was the amazing Martha Hickson, a school librarian and fierce advocate for kids’ right to read. Her story is harrowing and full of heroism, as she survived a MAGA onslaught to fight another day, and another. She was the 2022 recipient of the Lemony Snicket Prize for Noble Librarians Faced With Adversity, and she speaks with the kind of dedication and experience we need in these book-banning times. Children are not property. ‘Parental rights’ include the right to have your children given access to knowledge. And fire must be fought with fire, which Martha has an abundance of. We need a million more (we’re working on it!).
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Mark McNease On Topic: Crossfire Hurricane
From the Substack Mark McNease On Topic. Subscribe for twice-weekly goodies bags.
For all the times I said I would cheer when the day came, the indictment of Donald Trump did not feel celebratory. It felt like a sad day in a tawdry story that has no ending. Will they shoot to kill? Will they shoot at all? Will they ramp up their anti-trans hysteria, blaming the weakest, most vulnerable people they can still pummel while polite society remains glued to TikTok? Right-wing gadfly Ben Shapiro declares that trans people should be barred from owning guns. Not such a 2nd Amendment absolutist after all, is he?
I’m really an optimist. I think we live once, and only once, in our present incarnations. What happens when the lights go out, I don’t care and I don’t think about. I may stare awestruck at the silent void when I’m inches from it, but the whole “where do we go when we die” question has as much meaning for me as “is there a god?” It’s reported that when asked if god exists, Buddha replied with silence. I think that’s the perfect response: it exists if it matters to you that it exists.
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Now on Substack: Mark McNease On Topic
It’s a blog! It’s a newsletter! It’s a new adventure in writing!
Having just discovered Substack and all the great writers, journalists, thinkers and contemplatives offering up their intellectual property, I decided to jump right in. Mark McNease On Topic is the result. I’ll be examining something at least twice a week (gun rights, self-creation, the dangers of the unwoke, politics, culture). And on Fridays I’ll put out my Weekly Readlines news roundup.
While a lot of the writers on Substack are journalists or quasi-journalists offering paid subscriptions roughly the monthly cost of a cappuccino, mine will be free until further notice or until I have a much bigger subscription base. So why not sign up now and take this journey of discovery, recovery and misdirection with me!
Here’s my first official post from this morning (New World Disorder). Like a good blob of dough on a floured baking board, I expect to knead this out week by week until it’s something everyone in their wrong mind will want to get in their inbox. Yours, Mark.
