You are here: Home / Archives for Civil Rights

Lesser Than or Better For

November 1, 2014 by

vote6We often hear one of the following, he / she is the “lesser of two evils”, said in connection with why a person voted for a specific candidate. There are times when we go vote and no candidate seems to be what we really want representing us, whether an election for dog catcher or President, there are times we look at the options and think, ‘Just Hell to the NO’.

I understand our apathy I do. Especially the apathy of those who call themselves one of the following:

  • Democrat
  • Liberal
  • Progressive

The country has moved to the Right. It is no longer normal, sane Conservatives, the Republican of your or my father’s day, not the Eisenhower Republican but the crazy azzed Tea Party ones who have taken the spotlight and the front page. These days they vie for the camera and the vote by just how crazy they can be, how many conspiracy’s they can manufacture, how many ignorant quips they can make against Women, Blacks, Hispanics, Muslims, the Poor or some other targeted group of the moment and then blithely pass it off as a ‘joke’.

Yes, the country has moved to the Right, to even stay in the game Democrats run as pseudo Republicans. They run away from the President, the head of the party in fear of scaring away constituents. Telling who you voted for in the last election or what you stand for as a candidate is no longer considered the best strategy, instead it is better to straddle the fence; not sound quite as crazy as the other guy but not allow your Blue to show either.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

The mendacity of the candidates is terrible to behold, across the board, we are seeing money take precedence over the will of the people and the needs of the nation. Isn’t it time we all held our elected officials to a higher standard? Rather than going to the polls with the ‘lesser of’ mentality, shouldn’t we start asking the question, who is ‘better than’.

  • Who will better represent my interests?
  • Who will better represent the interests of this nation in the future?
  • Who will better represent and support the things I care about?

What is at stake?jfk

  • Voting Rights: Yes, that means you and me. Every last one of us are faced with being able to continue to go to the polls and vote without impediment. For years now, the GOP has worked diligently to narrow the field. They have succeeded in some states in legislating new draconian Voter ID laws, losing tens of thousands of new voter registrations, closing early voting and a host of other tricks that will prevent those who would traditionally vote a Democratic ticket from voting in the 2014 elections. See a trend here? You should.
  • Minimum Wage: I am sure you have heard it before but I am going to say it again. No one who works full time should live in abject poverty, yet across this nation that is exactly what is happening. We will not see a raise in the Minimum Raise nationally should the GOP take the Senate and retain the House. Hell, we will have a fight on our hands if things stay status quo.
  • The ACA and Health Care: love it or hate it, the fact is millions of previously uninsured Americans now have access to affordable health insurance. Because of the ACA (Obamacare) millions of Americans now have access to preventative healthcare, medicines, well child care, pre-natal care and a host of other things they did not previously have. Because of the ACA, millions of Americans with pre-existing conditions are now covered. The list goes on, the fact is without the ACA and despite its flaws, millions of Americans are better off today than they were a year ago. If the GOP takes the Senate, those millions of Americans and their health will be at risk.
  • Education: seems such a simple thing doesn’t it? Today though, more and more young people are mortgaging their future for a college education. Fewer and fewer young people are leaving High School with the necessary skills to begin a university education. Fewer college graduates are finding work. We must begin to consider what it will mean to this nation when we are no longer able to support our own economic needs by producing a well-educated work-force. Already, we outsource ‘low skilled’ manufacturing jobs and import a significant portion of ‘high skilled’ engineering and IT workers. What will be next?
  • Equal Pay: despite the many years women have been in the workforce and the strides we have made to break the glass ceiling, we continue to be paid less than our male counter parts. On average, we earn .78¢ on the dollar. If we don’t vote for candidates who believe as we believe, that we are worth 1:1, then hold their feet to the fire at both state and national levels to pass effective legislation, we will always be worth something less than our male counterparts; always.
  • vote7War: I don’t know about you, but I am weary as hell and would like to see an end to the United States of America fighting every single war that comes along and a few that don’t. I am tired of our young men and women being put at risk for every drop of oil, mad dictator, religious potentate or wild hair up someone’s azz about WMD’s in some sandy desert. I am weary as hell listening to the Hawks tell me why other people’s children should die while their child sit safely ensconced at home or school or wherever. We, all of us must send a clear message to our elected officials, NO MORE.
  • Choice: That is right; a woman’s right to choose is at stake. At state and national levels our right to make a choice for ourselves when and whether we bear a child is at risk. Old white men are attempting to tell women when they should bear children, what birth control they should use and whether safe and legal abortion should be accessible to them. This is not a discussion of whether you agree with abortion, don’t agree with abortion don’t have one; no one though has the right to tell another woman what is appropriate for her, this is especially true if the basis of the demand is religion. All I can say is get your religion out from between my legs and off the law books.
  • Guns: When will it be enough? When will enough people die at the hands of idiots with guns that you and I will hold our elected officials accountable to us and demand the passage of sane gun laws? What is the number? Despite the numbers of the dead, it clearly isn’t enough. So far, the NRA has beaten us every single time.
  • Civil Rights: Trayvon Martin wasn’t enough. It doesn’t appear Michael Brown will be enough. How many young unarmed Black youth will have to die at the hands of the police before we, all of us acknowledge there is a problem in this nation? What has to happen before we stop hiding our heads in the sand, buying the media narrative of ‘victim’ police and ‘thug’ Black youth, so we feel better and can ignore the problem.

vote4These are only some of what is on the table, there is certainly more. How about these?

  • Climate Change
  • Money in Politics, or better getting it out of politics
  • Supreme Court
  • Impeachment, I assure you if the GOP takes the Senate this will be back on the table and it is the only thing that will be on the table for the next two years
  • Social Security, make no mistake the GOP wants to dismantle Social Security
  • Long Term Unemployment, despite the real gains in our economy there are still those who need our help
  • Infrastructure, we need to be rebuilding this nation! Not only to make the investment for our economy but in our future.
  • Speaking of which, how about our Economy and Tax Reform!

Have you voted? If not, why the hell not? Even if this time it is voting for the ‘Lesser of’, get off your azz and vote; there is still time.

You have one voice, exercise it. Vote.

 

Filed Under: Politics Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Hippocratic Arrogance

October 21, 2014 by

Rottenecards_3711530_xd6br5b52t‘Spice is nice but Incest is Best’.

If they are going to do this rather sick and nasty act, I just wish they wore protection.

You know, put a raincoat on, prevent conception. Do not under any circumstance visit the products of their choice to keep it in the family on the rest of us.

Next up on the hit parade: Retired Neurosurgeon, Darling of the Tea Party, Presidential Hopeful

Dr. Ben Carson

 

I will prevent disease whenever I can, for prevention is preferable to cure.

I will remember that I remain a member of society, with special obligations to all my fellow human beings, those sound of mind and body as well as the infirm.

If I do not violate this oath, may I enjoy life and art, respected while I live and remembered with affection thereafter. May I always act so as to preserve the finest traditions of my calling and may I long experience the joy of healing those who seek my help.

Except from the Modern Hippocratic Oath

Find both the Original and Modern Versions Here

 

There are no words, no polite ones anyway for this AssClown, this failure of humanity, this ideologue hot air bag. Why am I in such a tither about this wannabe relevant, two minutes of fame piece of feces? Well, let me put it right out there for you.

Dr. Ben Carson (R)

Dr. Ben Carson (R)

He is a Doctor, one who took the Oath above, you know to ‘prevent disease’ and ‘remember that he was a member of society’, one by the way with ‘special obligations to his fellow human beings’. Yes, indeed he is a Doctor, one who by the way was raised in poverty, who grew up with assistance from the government in the form of Medicaid, Welfare, Food Stamps and who attended college with the help of subsidies, government loans and Pell Grants. All programs he says are ‘bad’ for the nation, ‘bad’ for the poor. This special kind of something, bemoans in his book and in his appearances at CPAC and elsewhere that ‘government dependence kills initiative’. Guess what he really means, is it didn’t kill his but everyone else is beneath his contempt and concern.

How has the good doctor landed on my hit parade? Well, let me tell you as succinctly as is possible.

Ben Carson, MD while making the rounds of the talk shows, keeping his name and face out there and plying his brand of Right Wing idiocy, was asked by Hugh Hewitt a conservative talker the following:

HEWITT: Dr. you’re such a well-established and well-regarded national figure, the professor of neurosurgery, oncology, plastic surgery, the head of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins University. You’ve won the Presidential Medal of Freedom. You did the National Prayer Breakfast. You wrote One Nation. If President Obama called you up right now and said Dr. Carson, we need a surgeon general who will command respect and will generate calm, would you please serve, would you accept that?

Sucking up much?

Our fine doctor, who wants to be President of the United States of America someday, who retired from being a doctor to focus on politics, who by the way has never held public office with a resounding NO.

No, not even were he to be given free rein and no interference. Just NO. Because he doesn’t Trust the President.

Even the conservative Mr. Hewitt expressed shock at his answer. See the interview below.

Now let me tell you why Dr. Carson is my target for this award.

This man, who took an oath remember that one? Would refuse to serve in an administration in high office because of a difference in ideology, in fact he would refuse to serve the nation and its people, perhaps save American lives. That is what it comes down to, he would refuse to do what is best for the American People, people he wants to lead because he disagrees with the current President of the United States of America, an office by the way he wants to hold. This narrow minded, Tea Party Ass Kissing, Know Nothing, Suck Up just answered a rhetorical question and told us all we need to know about him.

He would never do what is right for all the people. He would never serve all the people. He would serve his masters, the Koch Brothers and their wealthy compatriots while the rest of the nation lay in the street in their own blood, puke and shit dying; he would laugh it off. He makes my list because he is transparent in his desires for power at any cost, including the despair and even deaths of others.

Worse yet, he is not alone but simply representative of a new breed of politician that have made their way into our mainstream and continue to be elected. Dr. Carson isn’t alone in his arrogance; he isn’t alone in his bold refusal to work with this administration to solve the nation’s problems. There are many who fit into the category and whose parents should have considered protection rather than forcing us to live with the results for their bad choices.

Thankfully, this was a rhetorical question and not one that would likely happen. Beware the wolves at the door, this is what we have to look forward to. This level of disdain. This level of superiority. If we don’t vote, if we don’t toss these slavish Koch owned GOP / Tea Party members out on their asses, send a message it is a nation For and By the People, Governed by Our Will and at Our Pleasure; this is what we have to look forward to.

 

bc-center-condoms-art

Dr. Ben Carson isn’t alone in his ignorance and arrogance. Is this what you want in the halls of Congress and the White House?

VOTE! I voted yesterday when early voting opened in Texas. If you early vote it makes it easier on Election Day for those who wait, it shortens the lines. Do not let the doomsayers keep you away from the polls, vote and show them they are wrong.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Filed Under: Series: I Wish They Wore Protection Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Pursuit of Rights

October 16, 2014 by

OpEdThe world has lost its way; this nation in particular has lost its intent though we should always be wary of setting our sights too high on a moral standard that never truly existed. I was originally going to write in one pithy piece to show, historically the truth vs. myth of this nation. I found though, there is simply too much information to write one piece, too many pivot points where we might have done the right thing and choose differently. Because of social media we can now see daily what has been before us all along. We are witness to the casual violence entwined through our cultural foundation and accepted as normal, even sometimes encouraged as necessary. We, this nation in particular, we have lost our way at every level that is important.

While the Founding Fathers and those who supported their intent certainly had a desire for ‘freedom’ it did not extend beyond themselves or their narrow worldview at the time. Despite the high-flaunting words of the documents that continue to define us today, (e.g. Declaration of Independence, Constitution of the United States of America, Federalist Papers), there was never any though that ‘all men’ had the ‘right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness’. What they meant was, White Men, men of European ancestry, men of property and means. Certainly, there was never a thought regarding the idea that ‘men’ might be a more inclusive term, might embrace ‘all men’ and even women.

The nation, that is the US of A, these divided states, this unfortunate collection of frightened and poorly led humans distributed across masses of land with lines in earth and names drawn from the language of the indigenous people the European invader cheated, robbed, hunted, tortured, murdered and kidnapped. This unfortunate nation, led down paths of patriotism through fear to a misguided belief we are or should be the moral police of the world; that we have an obligation, an edict from God to direct others to do what we ourselves have failed so miserably at within our own land.

What do we think we are directed to do, what is our Manifest Destiny?

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

To lead other nations to Democracy and even hallelujah Christianity, Amen and pass rocket launcher.

What have we failed at, do you truly ask this or are you simply curious what I believe our failure as a nation is? I will try to be succinct, I promise you. We lie to ourselves, the most obvious and is when anyone, whether politician or man on the street says stupid things such as:

“America is the Greatest Nation in the World.”

No, no we are not the Greatest Nation in the World. In fact, we are far from the Greatest.

In fact, we did not make the Top 10 on any ‘Best’ list.

We did not make the top of any lists, except these:

Incarceration Rate
Defense Spending

This isn’t anything to be proud of, is it? We aren’t doing a great job of building on the foundation laid by our forefathers, those visionaries of the American Dream, or are we? Shall we take just a moment to consider some of their more important contributions to infamy and how we are living up to it even now, nearly two hundred and fifty years later.

  • Slavery — yes this is a good one, the nation was built on the backs of stolen lives, stolen from the continent of Africa, stolen from the arms of mothers and fathers, stolen from their culture and homes; simply stolen. The first slaves were sold into a lifetime of servitude and misery in Jamestown, Virginia in 1619. These ’20 odd’ human beings were the beginning of the end for the nations soul. Here is a bit of history for you, want more go here:
    • 1705, Virginia codifies Slave laws some of which you might recognize today: All non-Christian servants entering the colony are slaves, all slaves are real estate, masters who kill slaves during punishment are acquitted, slaves and free colored persons are forbidden from assaulting a white person, slaves are forbidden the right bear arms or move freely without written permission.
    • 1740, South Carolina passes a comprehensive “Negro Act,” making it illegal for slaves to move abroad, assemble in groups, raise food, earn money and learn to read English. Owners may kill rebellious slaves.
    • 1788, the new nation adopts the Constitution including Article I, which reads in part as follows:
      • ……adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons….
    • 1819, Virginia outlaws, whether free or slave all blacks and mulattos, from meeting for the purposes of education and forbids teaching blacks to read and write.
    • 1837, free Blacks in Pennsylvania and Mississippi lose the right to vote. In New York, they petition for continued voting rights.
    • 1857, SCOTUS renders the Dred Scott decision denying citizenship to all slaves, ex-slaves and descendants of slaves, further denies Congress the right to prohibit slavery in the territories.
    • 1865, Thirteenth Amendment is signed abolishing Slavery throughout the nation.
    • 1866, the Klu Klux Klan is founded in Tennessee
    • 1881, Tennessee passes the first of the Jim Crow segregation laws other states follow and the era of Reconstruction is ended less than a decade after Slavery officially ends in these United States.

A few things to consider in the much-shortened timeline above, Article 1 of the Constitution has never been repealed or changed by Amendment. Though many like to think the Thirteenth Amendment emasculated Article 1 and the Three Fifths counting rule of Blacks held in slavery and ‘others’, the fact is Article 1 remains intact.

Something else to consider as we approach mid-term elections, The Dred Scott decision which in part read as follows;dred_scott

” . . . We think they [people of African ancestry] are . . . not included, and were not intended to be included, under the word “citizens” in the Constitution, and can therefore claim none of the rights and privileges which that instrument provides for and secures to citizens of the United States. . . .” — Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, speaking for the majority

The Founding Fathers failed fundamentally in their vision, they failed to understand ‘all men are created equal’ should have meant just that, should have been an inclusive statement if they wanted to achieve their goals. Instead, they built a nation whose cornerstone was bathed in the misery and blood of slaves, not equality, not freedom and certainly not the pursuit of happiness for all men. This touches only on the issues of Blacks in America, I have not dived into the theft of land, destruction of culture and murder of an entire indigenous people, tell me again how you discover a land already populated by millions.

Want to be part of change? Vote. Get up and Vote. Don’t believe what they tell you, Vote. Don’t let your voice be silenced, Vote. We can no longer afford to have more than half our citizens treated as if they do not count, be part of the change, Vote. Save a life, save a child and save a future; Vote.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Best 2014, Top 20

Global Gender Gap, 2013

Most Reputable 2013

Filed Under: Random Thoughts Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

Mothers, Fathers and Nations

October 10, 2014 by

When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.

1 Corinthians 13:11

When I was a young, beginning even before I was a teen I started to run away. By the time I was fourteen I was deemed a habitual delinquent by the juvenile court system. I was also considered past redemption by many. At the age of fourteen, I was removed from my parents’ custody and placed in foster care, shortly thereafter I ran for the last time. I have written some parts of my story in Broken Chains, it might explain why I was a runaway, why I was a Juvenile Delinquent.

There was a time, many years ago when many told me, including judges and my own mother they didn’t expect me to see twenty-one they certainly didn’t expect me to ‘make anything of myself’.

I say all this because I did make it to twenty-one and beyond, today I am a grown woman; I am alive with a loving though slightly dysfunctional family. With two sons, grandchildren, friends, a decent career, my own home and mostly the things I want in life when I want them. I have books to read, a good education; I have seen the world (even if I complain about travel). I have been most fortunate, surviving heartbreak and violence in my life to become ‘Victorious’.

This isn’t the story of me; this is about a mother’s heart. I thought it was important to say first where I came from, to say first someone in fact many someone’s saw my promise and gave me a chance, thus I am here.

My two sons were a gift. I did not bring them into the world but I married their father when they were barely potty trained. At the ripe ages of two and five, they were already handfuls, already opinionated and full of themselves as little human beings. Our first run in after my marriage happened the first weekend they came to stay, with Number One Son hands on hips and head twisting side to side like a cobra spitting, “I don’t have to do what you say you aren’t my mother”.

I glanced at their father sitting calming and silently on the couch behind me and realized at that moment this would be the weft of our relationship, especially with regard to his sons. Staring at these two small humans, I realized I had the opportunity to shape lives, it was frightening and my heart hit my throat. I knelt down in front of them so I could look Number One Son in the eye, “You are right, I am not your mother but in this house your father does what I say and so will you. In this house, you will not smart mouth me. You will say Yes Mam’ and No Mam’, Please and Thank You. In this house I will tear a knot in that narrow butt if you smart off to me again.”

By the end of that first weekend, both of those boys had been swatted and stood in a corner. Number One Son never was swatted again, ever; though he found a few corners to his liking over the years. Number Two Son on the other hand, he was me all over. When my mother use to say to me, ‘some day you will have a daughter and she will be just like you, then you will reap what you sow’, honestly I thought I had dodged that bullet, until Number Two Son, he was my Waterloo. During my marriage to their father, their mother and I made a pact, to raise them with love. We didn’t always agree on tactics, but we did agree on one thing we wanted these young men to survive to adulthood.

 

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

It is thirty-two years later, water has passed under the bridge, I divorced their father seventeen years ago. In that divorce the best thing I got was custody of my youngest son, no one fought this; his place in my home was secured with love. At the time he was just turning seventeen, he and I had a unique relationship. While his brother was the child of my mind, he was the child of my heart and soul. His mother and I agreed the best place for him was with me. His father did not want him, walked away without a backward glance.

My two sons were by no means angels, they weren’t devils either, like so many they were simply teenagers. They weren’t complete delinquents though Number Two Son certainly worked hard at achieving this goal. Certainly if you saw them during their teen years, walking down the street you might have crossed to the other side. They had their days, with tongue piercings, eye brow piercings, tattoos and sagging pants, hair midway down backs and dyed colors not intended for humans, Goth finger nails (black and dark blue were popular) and yes experimentation with marijuana and drinking that I am aware of. My sons were no angels.

Do not get me wrong, I fought hard for Number Two Son, for his safety and his sanity. Some things you can ignore, some things you can shrug off as childish; other things you yank chains and demand change. I knew too well the path he was following and I put a leash on him, marshalled every resource I had and fought hard to save him. Number One Son, he played at being ‘Cool’, but really he just wanted to grow up and be part of the crowd. He didn’t want to rock the boat; he listened and was smart enough not to be truly stupid about the choices he made.

I tell the story about my two sons because it is important, Number One Son just turned 37 this week; Number Two Son will be getting married next month. Both have good jobs, their own homes, lovely families, brilliant futures. All it took to get them here was love, patience, belief, a few tears and sometimes a whack upside the head. All it took to get them here was giving them a chance to thrive on their own, the opportunity to grow up a support system and trust.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Though I sometimes worried about Number Two Son reaching adulthood, I never once had to worry either of them would be gunned down in the street by a rogue cop. Every child in this nation has the right to grow up and achieve their full potential. Every parent has the right to raise their child in safety, without fearing the people who are paid to protect our neighborhoods will murder their child.

Every child has the right to walk down the street in broad daylight or at night without fear. Every child in this nation has the right to an education, to hope, to a future. Every parent in this nation has the right to believe their child can be successful in life including education, work, family and home.

Every parent has the right to believe they will outlive their child. Every parent has the right to believe they won’t bury their child due to violence, especially police and vigilante violence.  We have seen far too many mothers and fathers burying their children due to violence and especially recently due to police violence against mostly unarmed young Black Men. It is hard for me to call them men, so many of them aren’t out of their teens, so many of them haven’t yet reached their majority. So many of these young ones couldn’t even tell you what they want to be when they ‘grow up’, yet they are gunned down in the street by cops or vigilantes, or by a ‘good guy’ with a gun who ‘feared’ for his life and made up a story to justify what there is no justification for.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

How did we get to this place? The media are complicit with the police painting each shooting as justified; each young person becomes a ‘thug’ and the murderer the ‘victim’, even as brokenhearted parents bury their child. When did we become so lacking in compassion, so deficient in empathy as a nation or a people. When did we lose our heart, perhaps we never had one to start with and now it is more obvious with every loss more reported on within social media and the contrast so clear.

I realize I am blessed, along with their other mother we are both blessed. We have sons who are alive, healthy and grown to adulthood. There are far too many mothers today who can only visit their sons at gravesites, who will only see their child as a teenager in photographs because that is the age he was when he was gunned down in the street. This must end and only we can end it. Every parent has the right to see their child grow to their full potential in safety. No parent should have to bury their child due to violence.

Only we can end this. Only we can stand up and demand change.

Only we can stand up and demand a change to Police behavior across the nation through better hiring practices, training, education and penalties.

Only we can stand up and demand Stand Your Ground laws be repealed nationwide.

Only we can stand up and demand changes to gun laws, nationwide.

Only we can stand up, demand the Department of Justice do their job and investigate police violence.

Only we can stand up and demand more money for education less for incarceration.

Only we can end this violence. Only we can protect our future by protecting our children, all of them.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Filed Under: Social Politics Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Atrocity, the Rubber Broke

September 27, 2014 by

bc-center-condoms-art

‘Spice is nice but Incest is Best’.

I wish they wore protection, you know put a raincoat on it to prevent conception.

Next up on the hit parade: Ferguson Police Chief Tom Jackson

 

On 9 August 2014, Darren Wilson murdered 18-year-old Michael Brown this truth is undisputed. Darren Wilson did not need to murder him, his life was not in eminent danger; Michael was not charging him or attacking him. On 9 August 2014, 18-year-old Michael Brown, who would have started college in two days, lay on the streets of Ferguson, Missouri dead for four hours while those who loved him, including his mother, were kept away from his young body. In days past, during Jim Crow days, during the days of slavery this type of action was done as a warning to others of what could happen to them if they stepped out of line.  On 9 August 2014, 18-year-old Michael Brown’s dead body was covered with a tarp and loaded into the back of an SUV for transport to the Medical Examiners, four (4) hours after he had been shot to death by Officer Darren Wilson.

Timeline Available Here

 

There are so many people involved in the clusterfuck that is Ferguson, MO. So many that are responsible for just how bad it truly is there. Everyone, from the Governor on down has a hand in the horror show that is St. Louis and Ferguson. Nevertheless, the real sideshow is in the lap of the Ferguson Police Chief Tom Jackson, who simply doesn’t know when to shut up.

the bad players

On 10 August, Police Chief Tom Jackson reneged on his responsibilities and allowed the County Police Chief Joe Belmar to speak for him. Did he know his officer had begun the firestorm that would continue through to today? Personally, I doubt it; I don’t think any of them are that smart. I think simply Chief Jackson, along with all the rest of them simply don’t care enough about the community he is in charge of to get up off his lazy azz. Furthermore, I think he needed to get his ducks in order; he needed to make certain he had the ‘Trayvon Martin’ defense fully in place for his officer before he got in front of the cameras so he allowed others to do what he was too lazy to do.

Our ‘friendly’ community servant, Chief Jackson didn’t show his face on the scene, didn’t open his mouth to the press until 15 August, six (6) days after the murder of Michael Brown. Six days ya’ll. At this point in the timeline of Ferguson, there has been civil unrest, military style policing and more; including Ferguson police showing up without their badges to intimidate peaceful protesters.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Chief Jackson had shown his true colors with this first public appearance though, first announcing the name of the officer who murdered 18-year-old Michael Brown, then defending his actions. Chief Jackson by this time had all his ducks in a row, Ferguson had lined up their lies. Michael Brown was being painted as a ‘thug’, a dope fiend pothead and a violent criminal who deserved to be gunned down in the street and left in the sun for four hours. Between the questionable video tape from the store that had never called the police, to the highly questionable timeline of events that was never substantiated by any witness other than the officer who gunned down Michael Brown, to the debunked pictures of the beaten Darren Wilson…… Ferguson Police Chief Jackson has been nothing if not gas on the flame that is Ferguson.

When you add the policing of Ferguson since the murder of Michael Brown, I can only assume, with good cause Police Chief Tom Jackson is all of the following:

  1. Racist
  2. Without a single drop of Compassion
  3. Without a single drop of Empathy
  4. Without a single drop of common sense
  5. Ignorant of the community he is in charge of policing

No, I do not mean some of the above I mean all of the above. The make-up of the Ferguson Police Department is not reflective of the community they police, with a 53 person force only 3 are of Black that is .05%. This is however, reflective of the Chief of Police and the standard he sets. Consider this in relation to the overall Ferguson make-up.

Thus, my assessment of him as a human being and a public servant, he is a failure as both. Every single appearance he has made, including the most recent has shown him to be self-serving and without any understanding of the human condition, certainly not the condition of the community he is supposed to serve.

Consider the most recent atrocity.

His officers are attending their duties is a predominately African American community that saw one of their own lie in the street dead for four (4) hours after being gunned down by a cop by the name of Darren Wilson. Those cops, who are predominately White, are now wearing wristbands that read, “I AM DARREN WILSON”. It took the Department of Justice to stop this outrage.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

I could go on and on, forever about this blight on our nation. He is an outrage and an insult. He represents so much of what is wrong with law enforcement today. His picture should be in Merriam Webster next a number of different words starting with a word I am learning has many different meanings but fits; Dumbfuckery!

So Ferguson Police Chief Tom Jackson wins my second, I wish they wore protection.

Important links to information on DoJ involvement: Mr. Militant Negro

This is the most recent stunningly idiotic comments by Chief Tom Jackson and some of the response, it includes other thoughts on some of the other more recent police violence. Personally? I think he should shut the hell up.

Filed Under: Series: I Wish They Wore Protection Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Spice is Nice

September 19, 2014 by

Rottenecards_3711530_xd6br5b52tFundamentally I have nothing against consenting adults committing incest, you know first cousins marrying, even brothers and sisters having a go if that is what floats their boat. I would prefer they kept their rather twisted desires to themselves, but still fundamentally I am an open-minded adult and I have nothing against consenting adults doing what they want with each other.

If they are going to do this rather sick and nasty act, I just wish they wore protection.

You know, put a raincoat on, prevent conception. Do not under any circumstance visit the products of their choice to keep it in the family on the rest of us.

Let me give you some examples of what I am certain are the outcomes of that old saying, ‘Spice is nice but Incest is Best’.

First up on the hit parade: Secretary of State Kris Kobach, Kansas

In a three way race between Incumbent Pat Roberts and two challengers, Democrat Chad Taylor and Independent Greg Orman it was looking like Republican Pat Roberts would squeak by and hold his Senate seat for a third term. The voters who didn’t like good old Pat were splitting their vote between the two challengers, thus nobody had a clear lead. This was true until on September 3, Chad Taylor sent his very legal letter of withdrawal to State Secretary and honorary member of Pat Roberts re-election campaign, Kris Kobach; when that happened shit hit the fan.

Suddenly the numbers weren’t quite so good and Orman was ahead in the polling, things didn’t look good in the very Red state of Kansas anymore. Kris Kobach had to do something to fix the vote, fix the predicament Pat Roberts found KrisKobachhimself in, despite the influx of outside money from the Koch Brothers and the NRA, despite the historically RED of the voters of Kansas. What did Kobach do you ask? Well in his limited wisdom he decided he would refuse to remove the Democrats name from the Ballot, despite were he to somehow be elected he would refuse to serve. That’s right Kobach decided he would split the vote at the polls, fooling those who don’t have a television, listen to the radio or read the newspaper. He decided he would split the vote of those who vote a straight party line. He decided despite the quite legal withdrawal by Democrat Chad Taylor, he would leave his name on the ballot come November.

Well now we come to the crux of the matter, Kobach who doesn’t swim in the deep end of the gene pool decided who would not remove Mr. Taylor’s name from the ballot citing several nebulous laws and Mr. Taylor sued. Then Kobach told the Supreme Court of Kansas (Toto you out there?) he must have a decision by 18-September so the ballots could be printed and sent out to all those fine men and women in uniform, by law mind you. Well, the court ever mindful of their time constraints hand Kobach his ass along with their decision at close of business yesterday, Mr. Taylor will not be on the ballot come voting time, print those ballots and get them mailed without his name, thank you very much.

What do you think that product of incestuous relations said then? Go on guess, I dare you to take a guess.

No clue? Well first he said, ‘just kidding, I don’t need to print them tomorrow.’

Then, he demanded the Democratic Party of Kansas nominate a replacement for Mr. Taylor and place that person’s name on the ballot. He graciously gave them until 8-October to comply with his outrageous and completely ridiculous demands. I searched, while I am not a lawyer and certainly not a specialist in Kansas election standards, I couldn’t find a damned thing that would lead me to believe there must be a Democrat running for the Senate when there is a Republican losing the race against an Independent candidate. In fact, I am fairly certain from what I remember in my civics class there doesn’t even have to be two candidates if only one candidate shows up he / she wins.

From Kansas Election Standards: Candidate Withdrawals

A candidate who has filed for any office may withdraw before the candidate filing deadline by submitting a notarized written statement of withdrawal. [KSA 25-306a] After the filing deadline and after the primary, a candidate for national, state, county or township office who does not wish to be a candidate must submit a notarized written statement declaring him/herself to be “incapable of fulfilling the duties of office” if elected. [KSA 25-306b(b)] Candidate withdrawals create vacancies in candidacies, which in the case of party candidacies are filled by party district convention. [KSA 25-3904, 25-3904a].

There is no provision in law for replacing independent candidates if they withdraw. Likewise, there is no provision in law for replacing candidates in nonpartisan races. So Secretary of State Kris Kobach wins my first I wish they wore protection.

bc-center-condoms-art

 

This will be a regular feature going forward; there will be others because really there are so many others who fit the bill. I truly do wish they wore protection.

Filed Under: Series: I Wish They Wore Protection Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Anonymity and AssHats

September 6, 2014 by

OpEdRecently I was listening to one of the various talk radio stations I listen to on the way to work, or on the way home I don’t remember which now. What I do remember about that day is the caller who was furious and righteous in his fury. Now and then I find myself talking to the radio, sometimes I even curse and I do know many terrible words in a couple of languages even. This particular caller caused me to use them all; I tell you he was beyond ignorant and bordering on downright stupid, perhaps even evil.

It is my assumption that most people have some grain of good in them and some grain of intellectual honesty as well. I know, it is never good to make assumptions they are usually wrong and they usually disappoint. Another thing I know, social media, as well as, radio call in shows allow people the mask of anonymity, thus giving the privilege / right to be gigantic Assclowns without fear of discovery or retribution.

So what turned my crank? Got me screaming foul names at my radio and most certainly looking like a raving idiot at 70mph, well it went something like this:

Radio Host: You are on the air, what did you want to say?

Caller: I just wanted to say, if it wasn’t for White People there wouldn’t be any science, art; nothing. Everyone would still be living in caves and dirt huts grubbing for food like they do in Africa.

Radio Host: What are you saying Caller that you think all advancements came from Caucasians in Europe throughout history?

Caller: Well of course. White people are the only ones with enough intelligence to invent anything; all the modern conveniences came from white people.

This conversation went on for a minute with the caller getting uglier, more racist and ultimately more stupid in his remarks, the host finally shut him down without ever explaining to him just how wrong he was.

I have a secret; it is an important one I think, something we should have all learned in school, something we should all know by now and should all consider critical in how we view the world and our fellow man. So I am going to share it and then find something else to talk about for a day or two, I am going to take a break from my current bout of rage for a few days. Honestly, I am weary of the ignorance I am surrounded by and it seems only to be getting worse.

So here is my secret.

If it were not for those people of Africa, Asia Minor and Asia there would be no Civilization as we know it today. Going back to the time before Christ (how time is measured) while Europeans were barely walking upright, great civilizations rose and fell. Do you wonder what in Hades I am saying, what in Hell I am referring to?

I just bet you do. Well, let me first refer you to the following maps so you understand the definitions of Africa, Asia Minor and Asia.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

I know, you know what Asia Minor, Asia, Africa and even the Middle East are and didn’t need that small refresher course, did you? However, really it was likely a good thing I provided it. Here you were thinking all good things came from Europe and White Men, just like that caller the other day. I mean really that is what you thought in the back of your mind, right? If you were raised in the US of A, it is what you were conditioned to think, no matter how Liberal your family, how well rounded your education, you were none the less trained to think all good things came from those with pale skin and with few exceptions, a penis.

Let me provide a baseline from which we can leap into the pool of understanding.

Were it not for the people of Asia Minor in particular, but also Africa and Asia there would be no “God” of the Jews, the Muslims or the Christians to fight over. Certainly, there would be no Jesus Christ for the Christians to claim as their own. Were it not for the ancient people of Asia, there would be no Buddha. There is not a single religion, not one that was founded by Europeans, that is by Caucasians or White folks. There are offshoots such as Mormons or Snake Handlers they are though all based on something that came before them and not ‘new’. So just to get this straight in our heads, the faith based religions most White Folks follow so fervently, the ones they are willing to kill for and die for these were all created by Brown Folk. Jesus Christ himself, he was of Jewish / Arab racial descent, would have been brown eyed, with black hair, swarthy skin; in fact he would look much like the men and women we fear today in the airport.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Without religion, there would be no philosophy. Just thought I would throw that one out there as a bone to chew on.

The next great one that did not come from Europe, did not come from Caucasians or more commonly known as White Folks…Writing. Nope, we did not invent any form of written communication. This was first discovered and then improved upon in other parts of the world. In fact, those same parts of the world we are so quick to condemn as barbaric and backward are the seat of early civilization where the first forms of written communication and math are documented.

Some of the Great Wonders of the World could not have been built without Architectural genius and advanced Mathematics.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

None of them strangely enough in Europe, none of them oddly enough from White Folks. With all this being said, I don’t want anyone to believe I don’t give credit where credit is due. Once the Romans conquered, marching through Asia Minor and parts of Africa, along with much of Europe, spreading joy and book burnings wherever they went, things changed quickly. Slavery for the sake of slavery came into vogue, violence and blood sports as a national pastime (think murder for the masses) and new forms of economic Democracy (vote buying) that have been passed down to us here in the good old US of A.

In the meantime, simply to put things in perspective here are just some of the Black Folks who have contributed to the betterment of our human society.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

To the caller and anyone else who thinks this way, please educate yourself or simply find the pit in Hell and jump in. You and your kind are why we are in the pitiful condition here and elsewhere in the world. It is your thinking that causes the problem. It is your thoughtless ignorance that starts the wars, kills our children and draws borders around nations. It is you, your ignorance that has people, both men and women, young and old lying on the streets of this nation dead by police too quick to fire their guns. Your ignorance, your xenophobia, your misplaced pride in something you had nothing to do with other than being born with the ‘right’ level of melanin.

You are the problem and you truly should seek help for your ignorance. Someone I love continues to tell me racism is a disease. I wish you and everyone like you would work toward a cure, I truly do.

White Man Improvements

Filed Under: Series: Race in America Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Look Over There

September 3, 2014 by

OpEd

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).

    This slideshow requires JavaScript.

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?

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

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.

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. 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.

192281_336075869815618_2112135589_o

 

Filed Under: Op Ed Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

White Privilege Black Burden

August 30, 2014 by

OpEdFor days now, I have been without words, speechless. It isn’t that I have been without thought, it is simply I have not had the heart to write the words. More and more I find myself truly at odds with my own innate desire to believe in the goodness of man and moving toward a more cynical outlook. We are a nation built on the backs, the blood, sweat and tears of others. We are a nation defined by genocide and built by slaves, yet we refuse to acknowledge our history or the unwilling sacrifices of those who died so we could have all we have.

I have been without words. In truth, I thought I had no right to speak.

Nate Silver predicts the Republicans will take the Senate in 2014. Not by much and it isn’t a sure thing, but if they do the obstruction this President has contended with during the first six years of his administration will be nothing compared to the all-out war of the last two. If the Senate and the House are in the hands of the GOP the horror story we have seen growing on the edges since the days of Ronald Reagan’s disastrous economic policies, if not truly since Nixon’s Southern Strategy will come to full fruition and this nation will finally and fully divide between have and have not. We will show our true colors to the world I think. Perhaps this will be a natural breaking point for some who up until now thought they were welcome and others who continue to insist things were getting better. Those hangers on to the tent poles of the GOP will find out what contempt they are truly held in when the flaps of the tent are fold down and they are begging at the opening with no ticket to enter the victory party except as the help or a party favor.

You know who you are even if you don’t want to admit it. You men of any Color, you women in general, you members of the LGBT and you white folks who haven’t got a pot to piss in or a window to throw it out of; yes all of you puppets who are trotted out now and then, whether high or low you will find out just how contemptible you truly are when your adopted tribe flushes you to the curb.

It is time to strip the blinders from our eyes. It is time call bullshit.

The United States of America is not and has never been the Greatest Moral Nation In The World.

1857 Smithsonian map prior to the Civil War, pink shows the slave states

1857 Smithsonian map prior to the Civil War, pink shows the slave states

We are a nation founded on principles that included Manifest Destiny, Genocide, Inequality and the Enslavement of Human Beings. These principles are written into the founding documents, the words of the founding fathers and court cases coming into this century. These principles were carried out by those who put their stakes in the ground and built the nation. While it is important to acknowledge it wasn’t all the signers, it remains vital we understand the compromises made leading to the horror show of today.

Michael Brown was laid to rest this past Monday, I was at work and so I listened on headphones to parts of his ‘Going Home’ memorial.

I listened and I wept, for him, for his family and for us as a nation because we simply don’t care enough to demand change. To stand up for what is right and good. To hold accountable Darren Wilson, the White Cop who shot at him at least ten times hitting him six. I wept because we do not see Michael Brown as our son, we do not embrace his parents as part of our tribe and feel their pain and weep with them and for them in their loss. No, we don’t feel any of this, our hearts do not crack or break at the loss of another Black child lying in the street without comfort as his blood runs out and his community records the depravity of his murderer standing over him.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

We don’t seek justice for the victim; we seek excuses for his murderer. We don’t seek to comfort the family in their grief; we seek to silence and appease the community in their righteous fury. We approve even celebrate the police in their riot gear, their tear gas and their wooden bullets aimed at more Black Children.

Michael Brown, a young man who was to start college, a young man who was loved by his family; suddenly is vilified by police and press alike. Sounds familiar doesn’t it. Where have we seen this before? Oh, yes we have seen this every single time a cop or for that matter a White Man, shoots an unarmed Black person. We accept the Black person as the enemy of the State, we acknowledge they are somehow ‘scary’ and not part of our tribe and allow them to be maligned by the press, by the talking heads and in social media so their murderer can walk away with a pat on the back and a ‘job well done’.

During the memorial service for Michael, Al Sharpton said:

“We sit like we have no requirements. Like it’s somebody else. But all of us are required to respond to this. And all of us must solve this.”

I have pondered this statement, all week I have pondered this one single statement. Now Rev. Sharpton was clear he was going to be political in his eulogy, I think this was approved by the family. Others spoke of who Michael was, giving comfort to the family on a more familiar level. This service though, the image of Michael in the middle of the street, it was a pivotal moment for Ferguson and for a nation. His memorial could not remain personal or private; could not be only a moment of comfort for his grieving family, their strength in allowing his death to be a gift, a reminder of just how far we are from The Greatest Nation In The World is shattering.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

I thought I had no right to speak.

Here I sit, in my safe haven of privilege brought to me because I am fortunate in my birth. Sure I could have been born a man, that would have made me doubly fortunate but I was born White, I was also raised in a middle class household, even if it was dysfunctional as hell, I remain privileged in my birth. My rose-colored glasses are difficult to set aside, the latch on the gate to Hopeland hard to lift; nevertheless, there are things that need to be said, truths we all need to hear and accept. Without these truths, there will never be true change and all hope is lost, not just for those who need it most but for all of us.

We do not live in a post racial society. If you believe we do you are lying to yourself and anyone you say it to. If you are White, you are privileged every single day you are privileged, no matter how poor you are your skin gives you privilege whether you take advantage of the opportunity you are afforded by that privilege or not.

White Privilege is a Burden / Hardship for the Black person; for every single privilege we enjoy they pay for due to nothing other than the melanin content of their skin. This is a truth we do not understand, cannot understand ever. We do not wake up in their life, though some of us might wake up lying beside them, sharing their lives day to day, we do not wake up sharing the burden we have visited upon them by our complete and utter contempt for their humanity for the past nearly three hundred years of their inhabiting this land with us. Our forefathers, by Constitution and court order defined the humanity of their slaves as ‘less than’ their own. In fact as exactly three-fifths, now I will grant you the original three-fifths rule was to prevent Southern Slave owners from gaining greater votes in Congress by counting their Slaves as ‘Whole Men’, this single ugly diminishment of humanity has demeaned and diminished the citizenship and humanity of the Black community ever since. The three-fifths rule was in part the foundation of the Dred Scott ruling and has been used in other similar rulings as well. My heart tells me this rule is why so many people find it so easy to kill young Black men and women today. Why so many people find it easy to debase them, leave them lying in the street without care or comfort. This rule, stripping them of even one-fifth of their humanity is why so many find it so easy to murder them and walk away without guilt.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

I thought I had no right to speak, but I do have a right to speak because I am human and my heart is whole.

We cannot allow this to continue. We cannot allow our young people to die in the streets without speaking up no matter the color of their skin they are part of us, members of our tribe, citizens of our nation. We must end this. We must come together and build a true movement to end the police state that quells peaceful marches with violent retribution. We must demand our representatives, at every level from President to School Board, speak for us and to our issues; that they stop playing politics and start working to solve the problems of this nation. It is ridiculous that our President cannot speak to the horror story of a national tragedy for fear of giving offense during an election cycle.

Post Racial my happy ass.

I can only say this, if you have the opportunity to go to the polls and vote get off your butt, stand in line and do it. If you have the opportunity to march for freedom, for justice, for change do it. If you have the opportunity to show up, show your support, be part of something larger than yourself do not let your fear hold you back, do it.

Do not let your legacy be your apathy.

Filed Under: Series: Race in America Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Get Real War on White Folks WTF

August 17, 2014 by

OpEdI have tried to take a high road and not speak on some of the true ignorance dripping from the mouths of those elected to high office. In truth, I have been absent lately for the simple reason the world has cracked my heart, I haven’t known whether I was broken hearted or simply damned angry. I am both; truthfully, I am both. It is difficult to sit in my safe enclave and watch from afar the horrifying and tragic events unfolding in this nation without being both. Anyone with a drabble of humanity who is able to watch this nation burn, listen to hate filled rhetoric of those who set the flames and not be furious are in my humble opinion less than human.

I don’t know where to start; I am stunned by the brain dead blathering of Republicans whether they are elected officials, those who desire high office or the talking heads who seem to be held in such esteem. The utter idiocy of their positions, the ignorance of what flies out of their mouths at times causes me to want to lock myself into a closet, never to emerge again. I am embarrassed at times to admit my own heritage as it links me to them at least on the surface through a shared gene pool. Fortunately, I do not dwell on this for too very long, realizing our shared genetic markers do not condemn me to ignorance, greed or a failed moral standard, as these are all choices they have made for themselves.

You will need to forgive me if I descend into less than ladylike language, I have lost my temper and my normal Southern charm and aplomb. 

WAR ON WHITES…WTF

Yes, you read that correctly. This is the position an idiot Congressman, Mo Brooks (R), out of Alabama has taken, the Democratic Party has declared a ‘War on Whites’. Now this truly isn’t new, southern White Folks have genuinely believed they have been disenfranchised and abused since the end of the Civil War when they lost their source of free labor with the emancipation of the slaves. With Civil Rights came new levels of anger and fear, White Folks in America began to band together under a variety of banners, primarily these:

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Until we got to the election of the very first Black American President, Barack Hussein Obama in 2007, suddenly shit hit the fan. Now mind you, our President is in fact a true representative of the American experience being of both African and European lineage. Few recognize this President as having a ‘White’ side, when they look at him they see him as Black and he unsurprisingly self-identifies as a Black Man. What option, in this America would he have when his Melanin saturation is the only thing that identifies him for 99% of Americans.

POTUS & FLOTUS Obama Take it all with grace

POTUS & FLOTUS Obama
Take it all with grace

When things truly begin shifting in our cities and towns was September 11, 2001. If that date rings a bell it should, that was the day we all realized we were vulnerable and said to the government, ‘save us from those evil brown people who want to kill us, who want to change our way of life’. Yes, we said that, we also said without realizing it, tear the stitches off the decades long wound to the White Power Structure of Civil Rights and social courtesy be damned, if it ain’t White, Christian with able to pee standing up, it ain’t right.

All bets off, since 2001 the tone of the argument changed and in the mind of White America the enemy was clear. Politicians latched on and adjusted their rhetoric to suit the mood of the nation, along with the vitriol came the money and the weapons to control the masses. Senators and Congressmen from every state in the union put their hands into the till and came out with new toys for controlling their own constituents. Police forces were militarized, becoming capable of imposing martial law in the blink of an eye. We were at risk, but more importantly our inner cities, were at risk those who were considered ‘outsiders’ and not ‘like me’, were at risk and they didn’t know, yet. The one thing we have to know, there is a distinct difference in how the law is executed, note below and see if you can tell the difference from these pictures.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

WAR ON WHITES….WTF

Since September 11, 2001 a war was on but it wasn’t against White Folks, we have not lost our privilege we haven’t lost our ground. In fact, we have fought through our elected officials and our corrupt courts all the way up to the highest court in the land to take back what we perceive lost previously. If I say so myself we have done a damned fine job of putting our heel on all those who we think of as ‘less than’ and ‘not like’ and crushing the life out of them. This includes the following:

  • American born Black Men and Women, those who came here in servitude and somewhat freed by the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863, but have yet to achieve true enfranchisement within this nation. Men and women who have for centuries contributed their labor, served in the military, paid taxes, contributed to our arts and sciences yet whom we have failed miserably to welcome into society as equals.
  • American born Hispanic Men and Women, those who immigrated or were born here and have every right to claim citizenship, who live and work alongside their White neighbors every single day, who serve in the military, pay their taxes and contribute to our arts and sciences, yet who we continue to see as outsiders and ‘illegals’.
  • Immigrants from all nations, some who have come here through legal means and others who have not. Some who have come seeking political asylum and some who have come seeking a better life for their families, seeking the promise of opportunity, democracy and freedom. Many who come from the ‘darker’ nations, those nations that create the diversity of faith and color within this ‘United’ States of America.
  • The original owners of this once abundant land, the People, the Tribes, the Native and Indigenous of all the lands including Alaska and Hawaii, we can never forget those who once roamed freely and called this home. Remembering they have also been disenfranchised and left with dross after the European Anglo Saxon landed and following a policy of Manifest Destiny subsequently proceeded to enslave, commit genocide and steal out from under them this very land now referred to as the United States of America.
  • Let us not for a minute forget women, this war has been ongoing and insidious for a while now and it is ratcheting up every year. Women are the target of a strategy to remove them from the workforce, remove them as an economic force and remove once again their authority over their own body. This war cuts across all race lines and leaves only one line uncrossed, that of the very wealthy who will always have access to what is needed to remain free and unencumbered.

WAR ON WHITES…WTF

What is this fabled war I ask and how is it being waged? Have people of European descent somehow been prevented from access to any of the things they were formally use to accessing?  Are their families broken apart by unfair sentencing laws and the men of their communities targeted for more frequent police stops, despite White folks are far more likely to have contraband (e.g. drugs, guns) in their cars. Are their communities and neighborhoods targets of stop and frisk tactics, swat team home invasions and military policing? Are their schools locked down and falling down? Is the poverty rate, the unemployment rate and the dropout rate higher by double digits, in their communities than anywhere else in the nation. Are their sons bleeding out in the streets of the cities, shot down or chocked out by cops while unarmed with their hands in the air, begging for their lives?

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

No? I didn’t think so.

With coded language and sometimes not so coded language there is indeed a war being fought it is not though a war against those of my heritage, it is not against White Folks. Those of us who are wandering through life thinking we are not privileged or that we are somehow losing our privileges need to think again, we need to get a grip on ourselves. We need to remind ourselves when we speak to our children about the facts of life we aren’t telling them about how to conduct themselves during a police stop to save their lives, rather we are telling them where babies come from.

Heartbreaking, Ferguson

WAR on WHITES…WTF INDEED.

I am heartbroken by what is happening in this nation. Only we can stop it, only those of us with a conscious can stop what is happening in this nation. Only those of us who are sentient and willing to put ourselves on the line can stand up and say enough. Stand Up, Hands Up, Enough. All men and women are my brothers and sisters. All men and women deserve the same rights and privileges. The victim is the one lying dead on the ground, not the white cop who shot him eight times despite the barrage of media trying to turn him into a thug, as someone I love has named it using the Trayvon Defense.

 

Mike Brown lay on the street for more than 4 hours.

Mike Brown lay on the street for more than 4 hours.

 

Time to stand up, no time left to sit back and rest on our laurels, no time for apathy, no time for apathy, no time to turn away from what is uncomfortable. Stand up and say enough, no more children bleeding in our streets.

 

Some things to consider as part of this story:

http://www.salon.com/2014/08/06/ann_coulter_rips_apart_american_ebola_patient_for_going_to_disease_ridden_cesspool/

http://www.salon.com/2014/08/07/joan_rivers_has_more_terrible_things_to_say_about_palestinians_you_deserve_to_be_dead/

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/changing_lanes/2014/08/07/reince_priebus_responds_to_war_on_whites.html

http://crooksandliars.com/cltv/2014/08/white-guy-spews-racist-taunts

Filed Under: Series: Race in America Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
«Previous Page
Next Page»