I was born and raised in Brooklyn, and the two houses that I grew up in, which were down the block from each other, were taken down by a wrecking ball and bulldozed. I had a great childhood, and it was terrific growing up on that block with a diverse group of friends from other nations and those born in Brooklyn. I witnessed the razing of my first house, which had a cherry tree in the back yard and an apple tree hanging over our property from a neighboring house. My mom had a garden and it was fun to play outside. It was a small house but it had history. My musical brothers, Phil and Mitch, who founded the singing group The Tokens, famous from the iconic tune, The Lion Sleeps Tonight, rocked the house into the wee hours and it was constantly filled with music. In my 8 year old mind, my house was a landmark, but a developer entered the picture and dangled some cash in front of my dad and the owners of the other six homes nearby. Plans for a large apartment building were put into place, as money usually talks. I was too young to be part of any decision, but my soul was crushed at the thought of moving somewhere else. My dad eventually capitulated to the sale, but to his credit he was the last holdout. I cried when I saw the wrecking ball knock it down, as I knew I would never enjoy that home again, but I did have the memories. A similar fate came to my second home, but that was after I had already moved out and was in college. I didn’t know the house was gone until I was about to drive by, with my mom in tow, as we had planned to visit the old Ocean Parkway neighborhood. Upon passing by for a look, the house, as well as four others, were gone, and a new four story apartment building stood in their place. My mom cried as we drove by, and I understood her pain. Nothing lasts forever! With my second childhood home razed, I thought about the time spent with my family in that house. I remembered the music, my mom cooking dinner in the middle of the night for my brothers who came home late from their gigs, the sleepovers, the smell of my dad’s cherry pipe tobacco, my brother Mitch’s man cave in the basement, the parties, the holidays, and so much more. Both homes were not grandiose, but they were very special me. I cannot obviously compare them to the White House, but seeing what is happening now, with the demolition of the entire East Wing to put up a ballroom, or perhaps build a new golden bunker, makes me want to cry. The White House is the peoples’ house, and it makes me sad to see it wounded. Its dismantling is akin to the citizenry losing their home, America’s home. There is so much being thrown at the citizens of the United States now, but we are standing strong, as evidenced by the high turnout at the recent rallies on No Kings Day. Over 7 million people attended the rallies in the US and many countries worldwide came out in support, yet mainstream media didn’t think it was high enough on the newsworthy scale and under reported the event. Those of us with morality, humanity and common sense are feeling mental anguish by the daily chaos and corruption. What is the end game and what do we need to do to get our country back? Will we make it home again?
On this week’s podcast we have our resident political analyst, environmentalist and curmudgeon, George Polisner, founder of Civ.works, to give us some insight into the free fall of America into authoritarianism, the demise of the East Wing, and the daily dismantling of democracy. The powers that be are truly Burning Down the House and torching America. For more information go to https://civ.works/ To help defend democracy, please donate if you can to help lawyers defend our constitution by going to https://www.aclu.org/ https://www.brennancenter.org/
Also please support https://www.democracydocket.com/ and if you want to take more effective civic action visit https://civ.works If you want to help protect the environment please donate to https://earthjustice.org
To listen to past TMSOG shows go to: https://hudsonriverradio.com/ and https://malcolmpresents.com Follow The Many Shades of Green on FB, Threads and Instagram @tmshadesofgreen and on Blue Sky @tmshadesofgreen.bsky.social. Listen to TMSOG podcasts on all major podcast apps.#RaiseYourEco&SocialConsciousness. To register for a rally go to: https://nokingsday.org/
A Special shout out to Neil Richter for all of his help and engineering wizardry in getting TMSOG up and running each week.