Today, in the United States of America, we have a national tragedy on our hands and we casually turn our backs, shrug our shoulders and with aplomb blame others, including the victim, for outcomes we own entirely. In the year of the Lord 2014, we continue the slow and sure genocide of those members of our society we first enslaved and then disenfranchised, no matter the dreck we pretend to, post racial my happy azz. Then throw in those members of society we stole the very land we call our own, the land we stole through hook, crook, death dealing and broken treaty, yes they remain on lands we continue to try to steal ‘back’. Finally, there are those who cross our borders in search of a better life, we have the gall to stand before them as if we ourselves are not the descendants of immigrants, demanding they return from whence they came pretending there aren’t criminals and other shady characters slipping about our family trees. We are a soulless community hate filled hypocrites that make me ashamed to claim my citizenship most days.
But just in case anyone doesn’t know the history of pap and dreck called Civil Rights, it includes:
- Emancipation Proclamation of 1863
- Thirteenth Amendment of 1865
- Executive Order 9981, giving ‘equality’ within the Armed Forces
- Brown v. Board of Education, 1954
- Twenty-Fourth Amendment of 1964
- The Civil Rights Act of 1964
- Voting Rights Act of 1965
- The Civil Rights Act of 1968
- Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education, 1971
- Civil Rights Restoration Act of 1988, overriding Reagan’s original Veto
- Civil Rights Act of 1991, overriding a threatened Veto by Bush
- Shelby County v. Holder, 2013 the current SCOTUS reverses the voter protections of section 4 and made section 5 toothless of the historic 1965 Voting Rights Act. In a strongly worded dissent, Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg said, “Hubris is a fit word for today’s demolition of the V.R.A.” (Voting Rights Act).
The President said today, “We will not be intimidated. Their horrific acts only unite us as a country and stiffen our resolve to take the fight against these terrorists.”
No the President of the United States of America was not talking about the Terrorists in our midst, he was talking about others far away, others we in fact created. Created through our love for war and our propensity for nation building and the spreading of the falsehood of ‘Equality’, ‘Democracy’ and ‘Freedom’. This nation is built on a lie, a great huge sinkhole of propaganda. We are neither Equal, Free nor are we by any stretch of any imagination a Democratic Republic and we get further and further from this shining ideal every single day of our existence.
Unfortunately, he wasn’t talking about the police who are terrorizing and brutalizing entire communities. Killing children, men and women in the street and in their homes. Beating them on the side of the roads with impunity. Raping them without fear of retribution. Arresting them for no reason other than they are Black and sitting on a public bench outside a bank in broad daylight. I ask, what is the difference in these four killings?
I personally do not give two tinkers damn if IS (ISIL, ISIS) continue to make their way through every nation in the Middle East, let them fight their own battles. I am unwilling to spend another drop of American blood, another drop of American sweat untangling the mess. I personally have no desire to see another American life destroyed for greed and the ignorance of rich white men who don’t give a damn whether any of us survive so long as their bank accounts thrive and they can ultimately negotiate another contract with another puppet government when it is all over.
This is what I give a damn about, right now, right here, today and without equivocation.
- Educating our young people from pre-K through grade 12 and making it possible for every young person to gain either a trade or a university education without going into a lifetime of debt. I want this education to be ‘real’ and I want it to include Reading, Writing, Arithmetic, History, Philosophy, Human Biology, Age Appropriate Sex Education, Science, Political Science and Comparative Religion and the Arts. I want sports to be secondary but PE to be mandatory. I want every child to have access to Head Start, Healthy Meals, Technology and Books (real ones). I want education to be PUBLIC and every school no matter where it is to have the same access to information, facilities, books, equipment and teachers. I want children to be taught to alleviate ignorance not to pass a f’ng test.
- Invest in our INFRASTRUCTURE, now and without trying to pick and choose who has the ‘best’ must kiss-ass-suck-up Senator or Congressperson. There are plenty of reports that identify the roads, bridges, ports and rail that are in the most desperate need, start there and work forward. This nation should be ahead of the curve instead of decades behind our competition, we should have high-speed rail for transporting goods and people. Our airports should be state of the art rather than third world nation, our ports should be pristine, we suck at all of it.
- Pass gun laws, now. No bullshitting on this one, no pansy ass negotiating with the NRA, tired of them. Let’s all face it, guns have one purpose to kill, that is their only purpose. Screw the Second Amendment, repeal now. Want to shoot stuff, want to kill stuff? Join the Army and volunteer to go over to the Middle East or wherever the latest hot spot is, otherwise no guns on your back, in your car, on your hip; no armory in your house. It is ignorant and stupid. We do not live in the Wild Wild West and guns are unnecessary.
- De-Militarize the police and start testing all applicants for sociopathic and psychopathic tendencies. Take away their toys first. Put cameras on their cars and their uniforms next. Anyone who turns a camera off is subject to automatic unpaid suspension. Establish external, citizen investigation of all complaints of police brutality. All police killings investigated by DoJ. Internal affairs essentially to become null, departments should never be allowed to investigate themselves, ever.
- Let’s start emptying our prisons of non-violent criminals, shall we? These mandatory sentencing laws are ridiculous. Three strikes, can you guess who this hurts the worst? How about life-sentences for juveniles, any guess who are sentenced most often? While I am at it, I want an end to the play for pay scheme all together, no more private prisons in the Good Ole US of A, no more Governors boosting their coffers by emptying streets into these horror shows.
I want; damn what I want is for all of us to be lifted up out of this soul sucking poverty we seem to have fallen into without a fight. I want an end to dead men, women and children of all races lying in the street at the hands of cops who are not held accountable for their actions. I want all of us to give a damn again, to give enough of a damn that we demand a change and demand it now rather than allow our horrifying descent into us-against-them feudalism, where all of us lose to continue. We have turned our backs on what we were supposed to stand for, what some of us did once stand for and now we are burying our dead, every single day without a tear shed.
QBG_Tilted Tiara 
Val, isn’t it true that in England, the police don’t carry guns, let alone military equipment? Yes, we do have to demilitarize our police forces. Re letting Isis shoot themselves silly in the Middle East, I like the idea in principal, but here’s the thing, American’s have to stop going there, so that they don’t end up becoming fodder for the terrorists. Which of course, will mean we have to stop sending journalists there. Maybe we can just pick up the British news. Let someone else cover it. It’s exasperating. Don’t give up on our president. I know you and Jueseppi are disappointed in him, but I think there’s a reason for what he is saying and not saying. I have every hope it’ll become clear. Even if we don’t hear him say it, he knows. He’s just as devastated about Ferguson and all the other shootings of our black men, as we are. He just can’t be on our timetable, for whatever reason. It’s a balancing act, I think.
Monica, I keep telling myself it is a balancing act. I keep telling myself he can’t be everywhere at once, but you know what he was in Newtown, he spoke out then. So why isn’t he speaking out now when this, this is a national tragedy of epic proportions.
Why do we continue to spend billions on war but we can’t stop the war in our own neighborhoods?
As for news I tend to read and listen to the BBC and Al Jeezera.
Yes, there is only a very small portion of the British police (5% I think) that are armed.
Oh, yes. Yes, yes, yes.
I wish I could say more, but you have already said more than I could.
My rage is showing lately.
Val I feel your rage and your exasperation as to how a Nation can fall and fail to support its own people.. And stand in righteous retribution of others around the world when they fail to look in the mirror at their own actions to its own people..
When I was much younger I would look up to the USA thinking it to be a great Nation and remember well the horror of the assassination of President Kennedy .. But after waking up to the ‘Real World’ and understanding its mechanisms of how it operates, I see how disease spreads, and its come from the top down in many instances.. Right back to British invasion of America..
Sometimes Val I instinctively know that before it can get better it will get so so much worse. And that is often what those in powerful places wish to happen..
The state turns its blind eyes to injustice and allows their so called protectors to rule in the fashion they do, for without them there to inflict the fear and their laws they fear their own destinies if the real USA’s heart came together in unity..
For the Power of the People lay within our own individual hearts.. Most of us recognise the injustices, and we type away within our own blog worlds hoping to reach out to the minds of others and yet as individuals we feel helpless to alter anything..
But we have more power than we think.. and Unity in such thoughts is a start.
Here in the UK recently there was a Big manhunt for two caring parents. http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/sep/03/ashya-kings-parents-told-southampton-hospital-take-son-abroad. who had them arrested in spain..
Now while this hit the news headlines and papers it diverted attention of the horrendous cover up of abuse by social workers and police where Thousands of children had been sexually abused http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-29031397 Whereby no charges have been made against anyone..
Like your opening paragraph Val The attention from the home issues is being diverted to overseas concerns.. Which if they had left off from meddling in has only made things worse as you so rightly say. ..
I do not know the answers, except we can not sit with our heads in the sand any longer and pretend it will all go away…
Nina’s Song speaks to the heart.. And its time we all of us listened to what our hearts are telling us..
Much love Val.. one of your best posts yet.
Love Sue
Diversion and historical whitewashing, two tools of those in power that seem to be working quite well. I am losing hope right now Sue. I know I shouldn’t be, it is unlike me.
Sigh… Yes I so know that feeling… But if we do we feed straight into the Fear Factor of it all.. We are stronger than that Val..
Its the constant bombardment of the negative media that is driving us down.. That was why I had to detach from everything for a while..
When we realise we are not alone in our thoughts and that our very energy of thought can and does have an affect upon the whole.. In Unity we are Very Powerful. So keep your chin up and know every small step, each small pebble we through creates its own ever expanding ripple effect..
xxx
I want to start with gutting the Congress. Drawing straws would produce a far more balanced Congress than the out-of-control election extravaganza we have now. I think a Congress of our peers would pass all those things you want.
xxx
Term Limits might be a good start.
And one thing I might add – which I’m sure you agree with – limit all campaign donations to some more or less reasonable amounts, like $1,000, from registered voters only (and not a cent from corporations, no PACs or SuperPACs), and say, $3-5K for combined donations for entire election cycle; get rid of Electoral college and gerrymandering, get rid of party primaries and have the elections where you can vote for more than one candidate for a post, which would take care of the primary and general election at once.
Yep, perfect.
Yikes, these are definitely difficult days. I do care if ISIS/ISIL ever tries to do anything over here a la Al Qaeda, but I agree that I don’t want to get involved in any more foreign wars and entanglements for no good reason. I remain hopeful about the world we live in, perhaps foolishly so 🙂
If they attack here, then we can address the situation. Then it is a problem here. Meanwhile, we have a national tragedy, here. We need to work on fixing our own backyard.
I wish to have hope, I do.
That’s exactly how I feel. I’m all about self-defense, if it’s needed. Until then? How about not messing with situations we don’t need to be involved in.
With the way things have been going lately, it’s hard not to be in a dark place emotionally. Sending hugs in your direction.
Valentine, thanks for this. The whole world needs a wake-up call, but of course, I’m most concerned with the Good Ol’ US of A. We are in a bad place, in my estimation. The only way out is to vote out the old and vote in the new. It’s going to take several generations, I fear. I’ll be way gone by then. Sorry I won’t see a better time.
Yes, we do need a wake-up call. I want the changes before I die. I believe it is possible if all of us stand up and demand them.
Cheers! Kudos! Ole! We used to have an educational system that really worked until the theorists invaded the turf. We seem to be regressing in many areas that once were cleared up. We were a nation where the middle class could look upward and thrive. No more. The president who led us down the path of ruin is busy counting his money and painting pictures. We have a long climb back up from the abyss of an unwanted, undeclared war that profited a few and has made corpses or paupers of many. Now, we have politicians who are hate-filled, playing out their games of prejudice and who can spit further with the American people as pawns. Yes, we better start getting our act together or the final curtain will ring down far too soon. Tell them, Valentine.
I am trying my friend, I am trying. This one just sort of came out of me. I grow weary sometimes and then my rage just spills over.
Reblogged this on It Is What It Is and commented:
This – I need to share. It’s so well done. This should be the deep, down desire of every true American … I quote: ” I want all of us to give a damn again, to give enough of a damn that we demand a change and demand it now rather than allow our horrifying descent into us-against-them feudalism, where all of us lose to continue.”
Reblogged this on MrMilitantNegro™.