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Author: Katya Rapoport Sedgwick

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Katya Rapoport Sedgwick

Mom. Wife. Writer. Mom. Grad school dropout. Wrong kind of immigrant.

Recent visitors to Russia (and Ukraine, and Belarus) note the dearth of masks on crowded sidewalks. In early March, as the COVID pandemic was raging in the region and intensive care units were filled over capacity, restaurants were also filled over capacity — all booked up for corporate parties celebrating International Women’s Day, a major holiday in the post-Soviet world. A veritable woke feast in the time of pestilence. 

There are features of American wokeness that make me gasp that socialism in the U.S. is going to be worse than the USSR where I grew up in the 70’s and 80’s. The ongoing effort to transform mathematics education into a crypto-Marxist indoctrination vehicle seems like the sign of things to come.

Last month the San Francisco Board of Education (SFBOE) made a splash with their decree to rename 44 of its schools, including those celebrating presidents Washington and Lincoln, but now, after a round or two of ridicule and a lawsuit, it looks like the the renaming affair is going to fizzle outAt first SFBOE conceded that they should have consulted experts, and now they've promised to vote on the issue again once students return to school full time. 

San Franciscans may think they are the smartest people in the world, but look who they put in charge of educating their kids. The city’s Board of Education drew nationwide attention when it decided to rename its 44 schools, including those honoring Washington, Lincoln, Roosevelt, and Paul Revere — the world historic figures and beloved personalities whose biographies shaped our understanding of the American experience.

As the Great American War on Monuments is still raging, I would like to nominate a contender for removal. It’s not that I object to the sculpture on ideological grounds—I deplore the ideology behind socialist realism, for instance, but I admire some of the state-sponsored Soviet art despite it—but because the work in question does not transcend ideology . . .  and is exceptionally ugly.

It probably all started as a rhetorical question, but came off as passive-aggressive.  A New York-based writer, Rebecca Serle, asked why women are still taking their husband's names.

Gross! A 26-year-old California sex coach who goes by Demetra Nyx splattered pictures of herself smeared with menstrual blood all over Instagram to celebrate her "beautiful and powerful" periods. She said:
I used to spend my time worrying about what other people thought of me… And yet. It turns out none of that was ever necessary.  I don’t do anything I do now for anyone’s approval…

If I'd never send my children to political rallies, it's partly because I expect something like the Covington boys pile-on to be the outcome.  I protect my kids from political ephemera and encourage them to read the great works of fiction. In the minds of deep blue America, if some children can headline the anti-gun rallies in the aftermath of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas shooting, surely other children can be held responsible for smirks and MAGA hats.  If David Hogg and Emma Gonzalez can organize (well, allegedly) nationwide grade school protests last year, then how come Nick Sandmann is attending March for Life?  He has to face an adult consequence.