Guest opinion: Yes, Mr. DeSantis, I am woke

Mr. DeSantis, I am a Black American, a thirty-year Marine veteran and someone still involved in defending this country against all enemies, foreign and domestic.  I am woke Mr. DeSantis. The wokeness started in the 1950s after the white landowner of my tenant farming parents informed them that if they chose to vote, they could also find another place to live.

In 2021, you passed restrictive voting laws specifically designed to suppress minority votes after holding up Florida as a model for how to conduct an election.

The wokeness continued as I attended substandard segregated schools in the 50s and 60s with hand me down books from the schools attended by the white students in my county that had history texts with teachings about “The War of Northern Aggression” and touting “happy slaves and benevolent slave-holders”.

In 2022 you passed legislation that prohibited teaching fact-based history if it made white students “uncomfortable”.

I am woke after growing up watching local elected officials and police openly welcome and mingle with robed Klu Klux Klansmen as they marched through my town on Saturdays.

In 2021, you aggressively went after BLM gatherings but have said barely a word about the Nazis and Proud Boys who freely parade throughout the state, nor have you held a press conference to address how Florida would respond to the state leading the nation in the number of January 6 insurrectionists.

I am woke Mr. DeSantis and will remain so.

Following the actions of January 6 and watching your actions and the actions of other Trump acolytes in its wake, it behooves all citizens to be “woke”, unless they want to wake up in Nazi Germany reincarnated in a totally Dis-United States of America.

A retired colonel with the United States Marine Corps, Thomas Minor is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, the U.S.  Army War College and the U.S. Naval War College with a  master's degree in national security and strategic studies. He spent 30 years as a Marine infantry officer with the last assignment as head of the Department of Naval Science and instructor of leadership and ethics at the Virginia Military Institute. He is currently employed by General Dynamics as a security contractor for the Department of Homeland Security and is a resident of Bonita Springs.

This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: opinion columnist takes on Florida governor ron desantis on issues