The concept of “Woke” is one I have struggled to understand for several reasons. First, “woke” is a verb, the past tense of “wake.” It is only in recent times that the term has taken on a different meaning, or perhaps we should say “tooken on a different meaning.” In this brave new world, some dictionaries describe “Woke” as “alert to societal injustice and discrimination, especially racism.” When it takes this form, it becomes an adjective, even though it is a verb used incorrectly to become an adjective. But our dictionary makers do not want to be labeled as “anti-woke” so they add them anyway.
My best guess is that whoever thought they were inventing this term knew so little about vocabulary that they thought “awake” and “woke” were the same word, or at least interchangeable. This might just say something about our public schools, but let’s save that discussion for another day. It might also say that as a society we are so messed up that we cannot tell the inventor of “Woke” that it is the wrong word without being labeled a systemic racist.
This malapropism (a good word, look it up because it fits) has now extended its reach to include everything from corporate ESG, to climate change, to gender issues, and to anything the left does not like. For my being labeled “not woke” would be a badge of honor because it would mean that I do not buy in to all the lies being told under this banner. In fact, I am more “anti-woke” than “not woke” because it is just one more push by the left to destroy the moral underpinnings of our society. Unfortunately, we are seeing corporate CEO’s, politicians, and now the financial markets bow down at the altar of “woke” to avoid criticism or to appear to be “with it” and gain shareholder approval or buy votes.
We saw this play out in Florida when Disney decided to criticize the State and Governor for their legal stance on school curriculum. It again played out in Georgia when Coca-Cola decided to weigh in on the new voter laws that actually improved voter access and vote integrity. And it is now even encouraging corporations to pay for employee travel to other States for abortions. When this ideology plays out in ways that bring all these harmful ideas together it can be disastrous for those on the receiving end. Corporations that pay more attention to wokeness (or wokeism, or wokeness, who knows) than profits and shareholders eventually fail. Corporations without the courage to stand up to criticism are eventually exposed for their lack of integrity. And failure to stick to their corporate mission eventually leads to shareholder mistrust.
But the worst “woke” exposure of all has been that of Vanderbilt University Medical Center and its support for “gender affirming surgery” on children as young as fourteen. No matter what one thinks of Matt Walsh and The Daily Wire, they have surfaced a number of videos where people speaking in an official capacity for the university explained that this surgery was being performed at least in part because of its profitability. According to the Vanderbilt videos they are knowingly performing irreversible surgeries on children as young as fourteen, providing drugs that they know cause irreversible changes to their bodies, and do so knowing the patients are locked into a lifelong cycle of very profitable medical care.
Now that this has been exposed it has brought some outrage, but will anything happen? Senator Marsha Blackburn and Governor Bill Lee are calling for an investigation. Senator Blackburn is quoted multiple times as having said: “We would hope that VUMC would make better decisions,” she added, “There is nothing healthy about mutilating the bodies of minor children. We need an
investigation into VUMC putting profits ahead of children immediately.” But we know politicians often do this for headlines and if the uproar dies down, they will get on to the next vote-getting topic. Let’s hope this one stays in the news long enough to get some action.
In the videos Vanderbilt officials also appear to threatened any employees who objected to the surgeries on religious grounds with termination. They are inserting employees to monitor the activities of doctors to be sure they do important work like “using the correct pronouns.” Out there somewhere there are teams of lawyers polishing up their briefcases getting ready to go to Nashville and make a lot of money. Apparently, our children now need protection from politicians, parents, and doctors.
Like most activities of the far left, when exposed to light they rarely live on because the absurdity of their logic is exposed. To think a child of fourteen to sixteen knows enough about their body and mental state to make life altering medical decisions is beyond comprehension. The parents of these children and their doctors should share jail cells! Top Vanderbilt University officials should be removed, and the Medical Center needs a serious management and staff overhaul. We also need to root out other hospitals and doctors making such surgeries and drugs available.
Everyone should be at a loss for words for the actions of these hospitals and doctors, and we must hope that wherever these barbaric practices are being performed they are exposed and banned. If an adult wants such surgery when they pass twenty-one, and can do it at their own expense, that is their choice. But children lack the capacity to make elective life-altering medical changes at fourteen!
We may not know if “woke” is a verb or an adjective, but we are learning that “woke” is often a label used by liberals to justify immoral and irrational behavior. When they are allowed to impose these atrocities on children something must be done to stop them.
