For the Working Class — America Was Never Just

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I threw away the lies America was a great nation during the Vietnam war. Yet the signs were all around me before the counter revolution I joined at 16.

I was taught in middle school about Native America children being taken from their parents and placed in ‘religious’ schools where they were abused and, in some cases, killed. I experienced the hypocrisy of religious people who treated my mother like an outcast because she divorced my father who cheated on her. I found out I was not supposed to associate with black people when I danced with one at 13, though it did not stop me.

I learned how those with money lived after my family moved and I went to school with doctors, lawyers, bankers and inherited wealth kids. The kids all knew college was expected and paid for them. I had family and friends sent off to Vietnam. I saw how those with money were able to avoid it. I learned that it was acceptable for men to rape young women and get away with it when I was 18. If we told our story, we would be the ones blamed. Now we have a sexual predator for president, a rapist in charge of the military and numerous other sexual predators in positions of authority.

I found out I would never be equal to the men around me, and no matter my education, experience and expertise. The misogyny in the technical side of Information…