tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-45893570916498878242024-03-13T08:19:08.657-07:00The Modern Times PostAnalytical essays and provocative commentary on the events in politics and government that affect the quality of life in our time.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger125125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4589357091649887824.post-83732640170130134152014-02-25T06:26:00.000-08:002014-02-25T06:26:32.886-08:00Racial and Racist Code Words, Symbols, Stereotypes, & Myths<strong>by Ron Powell</strong><br />
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<strong>(This is a revision of a post which was first published on Open Salon in 2009.)</strong><br />
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<strong><em>Code words, symbols, stereotypes, & myths are the means by which institutions and individuals transmit, maintain and reinforce racial prejudice and racial discrimination between groups and from generation to generation.</em></strong> <br />
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During the presidential campaign, in referring to Barack Obama, <a href="http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/04/14/gop-rep-refers-to-obama-as-that-boy/" rel="nofollow"><strong>Kentucky Rep. Geoff Davis stated:</strong></a> “I’m going to tell you something: That <strong><em>boy’s</em></strong> finger does not need to be on the button.” Yes, <em><strong>Rep.</strong> <strong>Geoff Davis</strong></em>—you couldn’t make this stuff up. </div>
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I won’t go into a long historical dissertation of how the word <strong>“boy”</strong> has been employed. Suffice to say that it was a signal to any <strong>“uppity”</strong> black during Jim Crow to not challenge the white power structure or suffer dire consequences. The word was/is also a signal to whites reminding them of and reinforcing their role in maintaining the power structure.<br />
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I won't yield to the temptation of reciting a litany of what the code words, symbols, stereotypes, and myths are, becasuse, I believe, that most of us know what they are, or at least understand that they exist. This is about being able to talk openly about what we do in our lives, our daily discourse, to address those things that tear at the fabric of our society, and diminish the value and the quality of life for others. <br />
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During one of his recent radio rants Rush Limbaugh said of President Obama's economic policies: "The objective is more food-stamp benefits. The objective is more unemployment benefits. The objective is an expanding welfare state. And the objective is to take the nation's wealth and return to it to the nation's, quote, 'rightful owners.' Think reparations. Think forced reparations here if you want to understand what actually is going on." Clearly, Limbaugh is attempting to use the politics of racial fear to appeal to the lowest common denominator of racial anxiety in this country. The terms <em>welfare</em>, <em>food stamps</em>, and <em>reparations</em> are all <strong><em>CODE</em></strong> for "<strong><em>undeserving black people</em></strong>."</div>
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In politics, symbols matter, and in a nation with a history of racialized chattel slavery, government sanctioned discrimination, and an anti-black racialist and racist culture, political symbols of racial progress matter tremendously. <br />
<br /> It is in this context where the effusive praise of the ascendancy of Senator Barack Obama to the Presidency of the United States must be understood. By winning, Senator Obama stands as a potent symbol of progress for the American experiment with democracy that continues to be plagued by its racial past that is still very much a part of its present.<br />
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To equate the symbolic dimension of Barack Obama’s becoming president with the substantive standing and status of all black people, or of all racial minorities, in American political, social, economic, and cultural life is to commit a serious error.<br />
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When we critically examine this moment in American political and social development, we should pause in light of several deep and disturbing trends that have become prominent since the decline of the Black Freedom struggles of the 1960s. Since Barack Obama has won and assumed the office of President, we are at the intersection of symbol and substance where we should confront the problem of racial justice and racial equlity in America.<br />
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We are at a juncture in the political and social history of the country where we can either create and perpetrate a new myth based on the symbolism of the Obama Presidency, or use the fact of his winning the election and taking office, as the basis for attacking and dispelling old ones. Although the Obama presidency represents yet another first in American political life, it is far from being a fundamental transformative event in the core of the political, economic, and social institutions and structures in America. That is why these conversations, discussions, and debates about race in America will continue to be important for some time to come.<br />
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The late George Carlin, provides a narrative which illustrates my point, to a degree:<br />
<strong><em>"There's a condition in combat - most people know it by now. It occurs when a soldier's nervous system has reached the breaking point. In World War I it was called shell shock. Simple, honest, direct language. That was 1917. A generation passed. Then, during the Second World War, the very same combat condition was called battle fatigue. Four syllables now. It takes a little longer to say, stretches it out. The words don't seem to hurt as much. And fatigue is a softer word than shock. Shell Shock. Battle Fatigue. The condition was being euphemized.</em></strong><br />
<strong><em>"More time passed and we got to Korea, 1950. By that time, Madison Avenue had learned well how to manipulate the language, and the same combat condition became operational exhaustion. It had been stretched out to eight syllables. It took longer to say, so the impact was reduced, and the humanity was completely squeezed out of the term. It was now absolutely sterile: operational exhaustion. It sounded like something that might happen to your car.</em></strong><br />
<strong><em>"And then, finally, we got to Vietnam. Given the dishonesty surrounding that war, I guess it's not surprising that, at the time, the very same condition was renamed post-traumatic stress disorder. It was still eight syllables, but a hyphen had been added, and, at last, the pain had been completely buried under psycho-jargon. Post-traumatic stress disorder.</em></strong><br />
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<strong><em>I'd be willing to bet anything that if we were still calling it Shell Shock, Vietnam veterans might have received the attention they needed, at the time they needed it. But it didn't happen, and I'm convinced one of the reasons is the softer language we now prefer: The New Language. The language that takes the life out of life. "</em> --- <em>George Carlin (1937-2008)</em></strong></div>
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<span>That's what happens when we euphemize the hurtful, harmful, damaging, or de</span><span>structive code words or symbols. We terminate our capacity to effectively and properly deal with the consequences or impact. </span><br />
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<span>We engage in the sterilization of the language of racial predjudice, and racial discrimination, without addressing the underlying causes of bigotry and hatred and then wonder why racism persists even in a world where Barack Obama can become President of the United States. </span><br />
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Television is the most powerful instrument of mass communication yet developed. The internet has increased our ability to communicate without doing much in the way of improving our communicative skills. The capacity of those who control the airwaves, or access to the internet, to produce and then manipulate the code words and symbols that affect how and what people think and feel, is beyond description and the subject of yet another dialogue.<br />
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It is one thing for advertisers, sports franchises, corporate entities and the like to attempt to influence our thoughts and emotions when in competition with one another for our attention and our dollars. It is quite another when when the government or other powerful sepcial interest entity, such as a political party, attempts to do so by manipulating code words and symbols, which evoke stereotypes and myths that produce certain reactions and behaviors that result in people becoming distrustful or hateful or even violent toward each other at the group or individual level.<br />
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Suffice to say here that, we must be ever diligent in identifying the potential for misuse and abuse of the power that is being concentrated in the hands of a relatively small number of people. This can be done primarily by each of us becoming aware of how and when attempts are being made to manipulate or influence our thoughts and emotions with code words and symbols. We must have the courage to stand up and say no to the off color joke or remark, even when there is no "victim" present. Becasue to let it go is to become both the perpetrator and the victim. <br />
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We do this by listening to one another. For it is in hearing the complaint of the adversely affected, or the victim of the slight, slur or the epithet that we develop the sensitivity needed to understand how to effectively deal with the impact that it has on our collective selves.<br />
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We must speak up and speak out against the harmful language and the perpetrator whenever and where ever it is necessary to do so. It won't be easy, it never is, but it cannot be avoided if we are truly to protect and maintain the freedom of thought and expression we so deeply cherish.<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4589357091649887824.post-89145295106788908022014-01-14T06:14:00.000-08:002014-01-14T20:27:02.871-08:00Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. January 15, 1929 - April 4, 1968<div class="xg_module_body">
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by Ron Powell</div>
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Martin Luther King, Jr., was born in Atlanta, Georgia, on January 15, 1929. He was the oldest son of the Reverend and Mrs. Martin Luther King. He was named Michael Luther after his father, but later the Reverend King changed both their names to Martin Luther in honor of the great church leader.</div>
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Unhappily racial experiences made a deep and lasting impression on young Martin. One day his father took him to buy new shoes. When they sat down in the store, the clerk asked them to move to the back of the store. Dr. King took Martin by the hand and left the store rather than take that kind of treatment. Another time, the parents of boys Martin played with told him that they could no longer come out to play with him because they were white and he was black. Martin's feelings were hurt. His mother tried to explain about prejudice. She told him that blacks were no longer slaves, but they were not really free.</div>
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Martin liked sports. He played baseball, basketball and wrestling. But he especially liked reading. He liked reading about famous people in black history. He found out what it took for them to overcome difficulties and become successful. He liked to learn new words and use them.</div>
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He made words central to his life--weapons of defense and offense. His mother said that she could not recall a time when he was not intrigued by the sound and power of words. He once told her, "I'm going to get me some big words like that." . When he got to high school, his ability to use words enabled him to win an oratorical contest.</div>
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In September 1944, when he was only 15 years old, King entered Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia. It was a black college, and his father and grandfather had gone there. He knew that his father would like him to become a minister, but at first Martin was not sure that was what he wanted to do. At first, he was undecided as to his course of study. However, his experiences at Morehouse shaped his direction for life. After meeting and talking with Dr. Benjamin E. Mays, the college president, and Professor George Kelsey, head of the religion department, he made up his mind. King was enormously impressed. He saw in Mays what he wanted "a real minister to be"--a rational man whose sermons were both spiritually and intellectually stimulating, a moral man who was socially involved. Thanks largely to Mays, King realized that the ministry could be a respectable force for ideas, even for social protest. And so at seventeen King elected to become a Baptist minister, like his father and grandfather. At eighteen he was ordained a minister. The next year he graduated from Morehouse College with a degree in sociology.</div>
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Martin was an excellent student and was the class valedictorian when he graduated in 1951 with a Bachelor of Divinity degree from Crozer. While at Crozer, King attended a lecture by Dr. Mordecai W. Johnson, who was the president of Howard University in Washington, DC. Dr. Johnson "explained how Gandhi had forged Soul Force--the power of love or truth--into a mighty vehicle for social change." He "argued that the moral power of Gandhian nonviolence could improve race relations in America, too." King was mesmerized by Gandhi's concepts, and began reading profusely about his life and philosophy.</div>
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In 1951, King graduated from Crozer as valedictorian. He also received the Peral Plafkner Award for scholarship, $1,200, and the Lewis Crozer Fellowship to continue his studies. While at Boston University, Martin met Coretta Scott. Coretta, a beautiful young lady from Marion, Alabama, a graduate of Antioch College in Ohio, was studying voice at the New England Conservatory of Music. She and Martin were married in June, 1953. His father performed the ceremony at her home in Alabama.</div>
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Coretta had grown up with segregation too. She shared Martin's dream of a time when everyone everywhere could enjoy equal rights. On June 5, 1955, when he had completed his Ph.D. in Systematic Theology, the couple decided that they could make the greatest contribution by going back down South to work. Martin was installed by his father as pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama, in October of 1954. Just a little more that a year later, Yolanda,</div>
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the first of the Kings' four children was born.</div>
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In December of 1955, Mrs. Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus. Mrs. Parks was later tried in Montgomery City Court, charged with and found guilty of violating a state law mandating segregation. She was fined $10. Her attorney appealed the conviction. Coincident with Mrs. Parks' trial a one-day boycott of the buses by many members of Montgomery's Black community, was planned. Dr. King was asked to help, as was his friend, the Reverend Ralph Abernathy. As a result of this, an organization was established, the "Montgomery Improvement</div>
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Association," (MIA) to orchestrate a complete and ongoing response to Montgomery's segregation. Dr. King was chosen president. Blacks walked to work or took cars or taxis, but they did not ride the buses. The one-day boycott stretched out to 382 days. Finally, after more than a year of protest, on November 13, 1956, the United States Supreme Court ruled that segregation on buses was against the law.</div>
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Martin Luther King, Jr., knew that even though that battle against bus discrimination had been won in Montgomery, there was more that needed doing. As a result, on January 10-11, 1957, 60 Black leaders from 10 Southern states met at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta and founded the Southern Conference on Transportation and Non-violent Integration. Its original agenda concerned "segregation in transportation facilities and voter registration."</div>
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In February 1957, the organization elected Dr. King as President and changed its name to the Southern Leadership Conference (SLC), organized to fight "Jim Crow" laws that discrimination against blacks. Offices for the new group were in Atlanta, and the Kings moved there. Martin became assistant pastor at his father's church, the Ebenezer Baptist Church. He spent much time traveling. He spoke all over the country, urging nonviolent ways of gaining civil rights. He and Mrs. King visited Europe and Africa. They went to India to study Mahatma Gandhi's nonviolent ways of fighting for freedom.</div>
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King spoke of how a Pilgrimage would be an appeal to the nation, and the Congress, to pass a civil rights bill that would give the Justice Department the power to file law suits against discriminatory registration and voting practices anywhere in the South. On August 28, 1963, at least 250,000 people descended on Washington in the "largest single demonstration in movement history." Dr. King captured the day.</div>
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Following the march, the organizers were invited to a reception at the White House, where President John F. Kennedy "was bubbling over the success of the event."</div>
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Perhaps the ultimate recognition of Dr. King's crusade to secure equal rights for all came on December 10, 1964, when, at age 35, he was the youngest person ever to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.</div>
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In 1966, he and his family moved to Chicago. People in the slums of big cities had problems that were as serious as the discrimination they faced in the South. King planned a Poor People's March on Washington, D.C. Shortly before the march, Dr. King went to Memphis, Tennessee, where garbage workers were on strike for better working conditions. He led marchers through the streets in support of the strike. Violence broke out, and a young man was killed.</div>
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On April 4, King stood on the balcony of his hotel in Memphis, talking with men who had been with him in his many civil rights efforts....</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4589357091649887824.post-62844067231499222212013-10-01T08:37:00.000-07:002013-10-01T08:40:12.667-07:00If This Shut-Down Shit Works<div class="xg_module_body">
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by Ron Powell<br />
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Well, they've gone and done it... The Republican nut jobs have shown that they're willing to destroy the country before they'll let a black man appear to be effective or successful as President of the United States...<br />
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This entire debacle is a manifestation of race based politics at the highest possible level. If you think that racism doesn't represent a danger to our society, you haven't been paying attention...<br />
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If this shut-down shit works as intended by the racist extremists who seem to be in control of the Republican Party, the country is in grave danger of falling into a kind of semi-controlled anarchy in which nothing gets done and the 'government' is nearly non-existent....<br />
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If this shut-down shit works everything that we understand to be a consequence of civil rights legislation and legislation that is currently in place to assist the poor and the indigent will be at risk.... The threat of a government shut down will be at the heart of every attempt on the part of these right-wing, racist, mental cases to undo Supreme Court decisions like Roe v. Wade, Brown v. Board of Education, Gideon v. Wainright, and on and on and on....<br />
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The desire to see America become a plutocratic oligarchy, based in part on a renewal or return to apartheid and segregation, has clearly trumped common sense and common decency for most of the Republicans in the House and Senate...<br />
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If this shut-down shit works, the movement toward political, social, and economic equality, and justice for all Americans will come to a halt and the American dream and the dream of most Americans will die...And we shall all suffer the consequences and be much the worse off for it...<br />
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As painful as it might be and as ugly as this has become, the only recourse the President and the Democrats have is a full throated, full throttled resistance to this racially motivated attempt at usurpation and coup....<br />
<br />
They've left you no choice Mr. President. You must stand your ground. Because if this shut-down shit works the America we know and love even with all of her flaws and imperfections will be no more...<br />
<br />
These do-nothing, know-nothing, racist, obstructionists must not win... You now must do what Lincoln was called on to do in order to preserve the Union and the very idea of a free and just America. You must stand your ground....</div>
</div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4589357091649887824.post-63655845937215781702013-09-19T09:55:00.003-07:002013-09-19T15:51:52.958-07:00White Flight From Planet Marred by Diversity of Passenger List<div>
<strong>by Ron Powell</strong><br />
<strong></strong><br />
<strong>White flight</strong> is a term that originated in the United States,
starting in the mid-20th century, and applied to the large-scale migration of <a href="http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_American">whites of various
European ancestries</a> from racially mixed urban regions to more racially
homogeneous suburban or <a href="http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exurban">exurban</a> regions.<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://api.ning.com/files/2xmvS7IAtKq0n3KowmMAObk5yLLteBhnXJf5DCaI4H24hwcsHzAQxje2-SS7*aqpkw8vD28RYMNUcFmqDtvPKf2GPQS2n7Y5/Earth.jpg"><img alt="" src="http://api.ning.com/files/2xmvS7IAtKq0n3KowmMAObk5yLLteBhnXJf5DCaI4H24hwcsHzAQxje2-SS7*aqpkw8vD28RYMNUcFmqDtvPKf2GPQS2n7Y5/Earth.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Now the term may well be applied to a significant
number of white people who expressed the desire to leave the big blue marble and
take a one-way trip to the angry red planet....</div>
The <a href="http://www.mars-one.com/">Mars One</a> venture says more than
200,000 people registered their interest in taking a one-way trip to the Red
Planet, but only a fraction of those are officially in the running for the
trip.<br />
To be precise, 2,782 people have paid their registration fee and <a href="http://applicants.mars-one.com/">submitted public videos</a> in which they
make their case for going to Mars in 2023 — with no guarantee that they'll ever
come back.<br />
Mars One plays off the fact that it's far easier logistically to send
astronauts on a one-way trip to Mars than to make a round trip. The concept of
the 55,000,000 km trip, which could take up to 300 days, has been compared to
the way Europeans settled the Americas centuries ago: The first settlers didn't
expect to come back home, but instead created a new home in the New World.<br />
In a <a href="http://hobbyspace.com/Blog/?p=4383">news release announcing the
end of the first five-month recruitment...</a>, Mars One said 202,586 people
registered their interest in the trip. Registrations came from more than 140
countries, with <strong>Americans making up the biggest contingent (24
percent)</strong>. The other countries in the top eight included India (10
percent), China (6 percent), Brazil (5 percent) and Great Britain, Canada,
Russia and Mexico (each representing 4 percent).<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
The passenger list for the first flight to Mars has
the potential of being racially diverse to the point of placing white passengers
in a numerical minority. A disappointment for those who may well have signed up
to get away from people of color...</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://api.ning.com/files/2xmvS7IAtKoPNmsrL8Wto3x*NLJ02dzX5bktCEl5iCgq7oUflgrrUhOK0kWP*VvC2M044VYKm-WggcVfb4BP2oxbmuH30aJB/mars.jpg"><img alt="" src="http://api.ning.com/files/2xmvS7IAtKoPNmsrL8Wto3x*NLJ02dzX5bktCEl5iCgq7oUflgrrUhOK0kWP*VvC2M044VYKm-WggcVfb4BP2oxbmuH30aJB/mars.jpg" width="300" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
A word of advice to those who are looking to
'escape' from the planet they helped to fuck up environmentally and
socially:</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<strong>Be careful of what you wish for, you
could find yourself longing for the good old days of global warming and a black
president...</strong></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://api.ning.com/files/2xmvS7IAtKp86WfU-njn7v98ljsPleqbQgv*r5ozDMP-FkNouPeoDdgPQJxREmjypQ4p5cwj8zidejvGb8*1-uBiTiq57eHF/marsandearth.jpg"><img alt="" src="http://api.ning.com/files/2xmvS7IAtKp86WfU-njn7v98ljsPleqbQgv*r5ozDMP-FkNouPeoDdgPQJxREmjypQ4p5cwj8zidejvGb8*1-uBiTiq57eHF/marsandearth.jpg" width="250" /></a></div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4589357091649887824.post-22151064503538865722013-09-04T06:51:00.000-07:002013-09-04T07:01:57.250-07:00White Privilege and The Silent Majority<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
by Ron Powell</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
The notion or concept of the "silent majority" was devised in order to
provide the average white person a way to identify with the vast majority of
white people who weren't actively and openly engaged in the protests and civil
disobedience that occurred during the Civil Rights Movement...The idea being,
that if you were white and not actively involved in the protests, then you were
assumed to be against the protesters and marchers and for "law and order".</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Hence, remaining silent meant that people could assume you were for
maintaining the status quo and against any kind of change that might result in
greater exercise of freedom on the part of black people.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
As a result, people who are passively and quietly sympathetic to the notion
of "liberty and justice for all" must have the courage to come out and declare
themselves and in so doing risk being shunned or ostracized by family, friends,
and neighbors and possibly even penalized by employers...</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Unwitting, unconscious, sub-conscious racists must acknowledge that racism is
a predominant and determining factor in our society and that they have
benefitted from this fact of American life.... </div>
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</div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/e2iPt96hziM?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
<br />
<div>
Silent non-racists must be willing to openly engage people who express
themselves in ways that are clear indications of their racist mind set and
attitudes and must become anti-racism activists...</div>
<br />
The current rash of anti-black application of the law is steeped in a
long-standing tradition and history in this country. What's 'new' is the
seemingly clever ways racists have hidden their agenda and motives.<br />
<br />
White folks are being duped big time by those who have pushed the narrative
and dynamic re race and racism in a direction that requires the self-declared
'non-racist' to actively "opt out" of racism rather than simply remaining silent
while sitting on the sidelines and wondering what all the 'fuss' is about...<br />
<br />
The failure of "good" folks to speak up and speak out will be the undoing of
the "progress" that has been made in the last 50/60 years.....<br />
<br />
If people who sympathizes with the rhetoric of hatred and violence are not
confronted by people of good will the tragic truth is that they will prevail
and we will have lost the opportunity to turn the page and turn the
corner.....<br />
<br />
All the progress we have made can be lost in a split second...We have and
obligation to protect the progress we have made while at the same time not being
complacent...We have come a great distance but we have a great distance yet to
go before we can rest......Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4589357091649887824.post-8749894970584600562013-08-26T02:52:00.001-07:002013-08-26T03:20:33.564-07:00Martin Luther King's Speech: 'I Have a Dream' - The Full Text and Video<h1 class="yiv0963458232title">
<span class="font-size-3" style="font-size: small;"><strong>Fifty years ago, on August 28, 1963, the greatest speech given in the 20th Century was delivered at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC....Ten days earlier I celebrated my 17th birthday...The following year I was headed to Washington, DC to begin my college education at Howard University...</strong></span></h1>
<h1 class="yiv0963458232title">
<span style="font-size: small;">
<span class="font-size-3"><strong>Wednesday, will be the 50th anniversary of the occasion of that event. I'm offering the full text of the speech here in the hope that you will read the speech as well as listen to it again as, I'm sure, many of you will....I'm also providing a video of the full speech....However, reading the words that were so powerfully and eloquently delivered will give you a perspective and even some insight that can only be had from the process of reading and contemplating the words as you progress through the text. I am pleased to present:</strong></span></span></h1>
<h1 class="yiv0963458232title" data-mce-style="text-align: center;" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;">
<span class="font-size-3">The Full Text of the Famous Speech by America's Greatest Civil Rights Icon</span></span></h1>
<h1 class="yiv0963458232title" data-mce-style="text-align: center;" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;">
<span class="font-size-3">By The Rev. MARTIN LUTHER KING Jr. </span></span></h1>
<h1 class="yiv0963458232title">
<span class="font-size-3"></span></h1>
<div id="yui_3_7_2_1_1377502805988_11164">
<strong id="yui_3_7_2_1_1377502805988_11187">Aug. 28, 1963—</strong></div>
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<a href="http://ts2.mm.bing.net/th?id=H.4921883316324935&pid=15.1&w=126&h=186&p=0" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Martin Luther King, Jr.: Information from Answers.com" border="0" class="thm align-center" data-mce-src="http://ts2.mm.bing.net/th?id=H.4921883316324935&pid=15.1&w=126&h=186&p=0" height="186" id="yui_3_8_1_1_1377506531902_461" src="http://ts2.mm.bing.net/th?id=H.4921883316324935&pid=15.1&w=126&h=186&p=0" width="126" /></a></div>
<span class="font-size-3"><strong><em>I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.</em></strong></span><br />
<div id="yui_3_7_2_1_1377502805988_11163">
<span class="font-size-3"><strong><em>Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of captivity.</em></strong></span></div>
<div id="yui_3_7_2_1_1377502805988_11162">
<span class="font-size-3"><strong><em>But one hundred years later, we must face the tragic fact that the Negro is still not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize an appalling condition.</em></strong></span></div>
<div id="yui_3_7_2_1_1377502805988_11161">
<span class="font-size-3"><strong><em>In a sense we have come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men would be guaranteed the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.</em></strong></span></div>
<div id="yui_3_7_2_1_1377502805988_11155">
<span class="font-size-3"><strong><em>It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check which has come back marked "insufficient funds." But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check -- a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to open the doors of opportunity to all of God's children. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment and to underestimate the determination of the Negro. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.</em></strong></span></div>
<span class="font-size-3"><strong><em>But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.</em></strong></span><br />
<span class="font-size-3"><strong><em>We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny and their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.</em></strong></span><br />
<span class="font-size-3"><strong><em>And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.</em></strong></span><br />
<span class="font-size-3"><strong><em>I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.</em></strong></span><br />
<span class="font-size-3"><strong><em>Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair. I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.</em></strong></span><br />
<span class="font-size-3"><strong><em>I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."</em></strong></span><br />
<span class="font-size-3"><strong><em>I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood.</em></strong></span><br />
<span class="font-size-3"><strong><em>I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.</em></strong></span><br />
<span class="font-size-3"><strong><em>I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.</em></strong></span><br />
<span class="font-size-3"><strong><em>I have a dream today.</em></strong></span><br />
<span class="font-size-3"><strong><em>I have a dream that one day the state of Alabama, whose governor's lips are presently dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, will be transformed into a situation where little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls and walk together as sisters and brothers.</em></strong></span><br />
<span class="font-size-3"><strong><em>I have a dream today.</em></strong></span><br />
<span class="font-size-3"><strong><em>I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.</em></strong></span><br />
<span class="font-size-3"><strong><em>This is our hope. This is the faith with which I return to the South. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.</em></strong></span><br />
<span class="font-size-3"><strong><em>This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with a new meaning, "My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring."</em></strong></span><br />
<div id="yui_3_7_2_1_1377502805988_11195">
<span class="font-size-3"><strong><em>And if America is to be a great nation this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!</em></strong></span></div>
<div id="yui_3_7_2_1_1377502805988_11194">
<span class="font-size-3"><strong><em>Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado!</em></strong></span></div>
<div id="yui_3_7_2_1_1377502805988_11193">
<span class="font-size-3"><strong><em>Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California!</em></strong></span></div>
<div id="yui_3_7_2_1_1377502805988_11192">
<span class="font-size-3"><strong><em>But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia!</em></strong></span></div>
<div id="yui_3_7_2_1_1377502805988_11191">
<span class="font-size-3"><strong><em>Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee!</em></strong></span></div>
<div id="yui_3_7_2_1_1377502805988_11190">
<span class="font-size-3"><strong><em>Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.</em></strong></span></div>
<div id="yui_3_7_2_1_1377502805988_11189">
<span class="font-size-3"><strong><em>And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"</em></strong></span><br />
<strong><em></em></strong> </div>
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<object class="BLOGGER-youtube-video" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0" data-thumbnail-src="http://img.youtube.com/vi/HRIF4_WzU1w/0.jpg" height="266" width="320"><param name="movie" value="http://youtube.googleapis.com/v/HRIF4_WzU1w&source=uds" /><param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><embed width="320" height="266" src="http://youtube.googleapis.com/v/HRIF4_WzU1w&source=uds" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object></div>
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<span class="font-size-3"><strong><span data-mce-style="color: #000000;" id="yui_3_7_2_42_1377507381408_54" style="color: black;"><span id="yui_3_7_2_1_1377507381408_1764" style="color: black;">Black people have had to endure, survive, and navigate the black/slave codes of the colonial and post revolutionary period, and the "Jim Crow" /segregation Laws of the post Civil War period...All of which were composed, enacted and enforced as reflective of the firmly held attitudes and beliefs of whites regarding the relationship between whites and black people and black people and the</span> <span id="yui_3_7_2_1_1377507381408_1764" style="color: black;">government...</span></span></strong></span></div>
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<strong></strong> </div>
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<span class="font-size-3"><strong><span data-mce-style="color: #000000;" style="color: black;"><span id="yui_3_7_2_1_1377507381408_1760" style="color: black;">Currently we are being required to endure, survive, and navigate "stand your ground", "stop and frisk", disproportionate sentencing, gerrymandering of our districts, and voter ID legislation that is reflective of the same attitudes and beliefs that were the genesis of an anti-black legal and governmental system that was/is predicated on racism...</span></span></strong></span></div>
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</div>
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<span class="font-size-3"><strong><span data-mce-style="color: #000000;" style="color: black;"><span id="yui_3_7_2_1_1377507381408_1758" style="color: black;">Much has taken place in the fifty years</span></span> <span data-mce-style="color: #000000;" style="color: black;"><span id="yui_3_7_2_1_1377507381408_1758" style="color: black;">since that speech was given. However, we can change the legal, governmental, and political system, but if we don't change the underlying attitudes and beliefs which have been embedded in the institutions, policies, and procedures that are the basis for the organization and management of our society, nothing but the language will have been changed. The functional outcome(s) will continue and remain as a cancer on our society....</span></span></strong></span><br />
<strong></strong><br />
<strong>Thanks for reading and watching,</strong><br />
<strong></strong><br />
<strong>Ron Powell</strong></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4589357091649887824.post-3295048639192523902013-07-14T06:33:00.001-07:002013-07-14T06:33:25.868-07:00 no rights which the white man was bound to respect<div class="xg_module_body">
<div class="postbody">
<div class="xg_user_generated">
<div style="text-align: left;">
by Ron Powell</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://api.ning.com/files/kYLfWN4-a0YXtEB68q1sz7fEACOzKLcYLz94oyHcK02yFoLbySSeZlxZBWP33nHDK3MVMM5ZYdh-JK3JHbXOJ3F27Qgfe9EH/DredScott2.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_self"><img class="align-left" src="http://api.ning.com/files/kYLfWN4-a0YXtEB68q1sz7fEACOzKLcYLz94oyHcK02yFoLbySSeZlxZBWP33nHDK3MVMM5ZYdh-JK3JHbXOJ3F27Qgfe9EH/DredScott2.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<i><b></b></i> </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<i><b>Dred Scott v. Sandford</b></i>, 60 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Reports" title="United States Reports">U.S.</a> <a class="external text" href="https://supreme.justia.com/us/60/393/case.html" rel="nofollow">393</a> (1857), was a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_landmark_court_decisions_in_the_United_States" title="List of landmark court decisions in the United States">landmark decision</a> by the <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Supreme_Court" title="United States Supreme Court">U.S. Supreme Court</a> in which the Court held that <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_Americans" title="African Americans">African Americans</a>, whether slave or free, could not be American citizens and therefore had no standing to sue in federal court....</div>
Writing for the (7-2) majority, Chief Justice, Roger B. Taney, said, "the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Founding_Fathers_of_the_United_States" rel="nofollow" title="Founding Fathers of the United States">authors of the Constitution</a> had viewed all blacks as beings of an inferior order, and altogether unfit to associate with the white race, either in social or political relations, and so far inferior that they "<strong>had no rights which the white man was bound to respect</strong>."<br />
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<a href="http://api.ning.com/files/kYLfWN4-a0b350xKHoCUjhgQtBZgEAaXWrdD-VQDT58hiXZG-8vHt8NqXQa3YjuuKSrxcYqDky-8Jbtuph6bznHoNRP28RJH/Taney.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" class="align-right" src="http://api.ning.com/files/kYLfWN4-a0b350xKHoCUjhgQtBZgEAaXWrdD-VQDT58hiXZG-8vHt8NqXQa3YjuuKSrxcYqDky-8Jbtuph6bznHoNRP28RJH/Taney.jpg" width="176" /></a></div>
However, when Judge Debra S. Nelson, decided to bar any reference to race or racial profiling in the trial of George Zimmerman, she was most assuredly concurring in a ruling, rendered nearly 160 years ago, which, now, is <strong>widely regarded as the worst decision ever made by the Supreme Court.</strong><br />
When the jury of six Sanford women, who, in my view, are the visceral benefactors of racism, rendered their "not guilty" verdict, as a matter of logic and, to a great extent law, they were simultaneously rendering a judgment <strong>against</strong> Trayvon Martin...<br />
For in order to find Zimmerman "not guilty" they must of necessity have determined Martin to be "guilty", albeit posthumously, of assault with deadly force...This is the conclusion that must be reached while deciding that the use of deadly force against him, in self defense, was justified...<br />
No way that their non-racist, unbiased, and completely objective decision would be influenced by the prospect of facing the ire and wrath of the white residents of Sanford who would, no doubt, castigate, excoriate and ostracize them, should they bring in a guilty verdict, whether it be a compromise or not...<br />
In determining that the death of Trayvon Martin at the hands of George Zimmerman was an act of self defense, and therefor justifiable homicide, they not only declared Zimmerman to be "not guilty" but "innocent", which carries a different kind of moral weight...In essence, they too, were concurring in the Supreme Court opinion that insisted that black people, "<strong>had no rights which the white man was bound to respect."</strong><br />
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<strong><a href="http://api.ning.com/files/kYLfWN4-a0ZiDvLb8aZsWWCmnVGFDfghrGxnGCVtcMLPhva2ffZsWQYOasHM8UZ2G8AKLeRzzQMULqf05tov02bpB4zTuv-7/MartinZimmerman.jpg" target="_self"><img class="align-center" src="http://api.ning.com/files/kYLfWN4-a0ZiDvLb8aZsWWCmnVGFDfghrGxnGCVtcMLPhva2ffZsWQYOasHM8UZ2G8AKLeRzzQMULqf05tov02bpB4zTuv-7/MartinZimmerman.jpg" width="318" /></a></strong></div>
Zimmerman clearly concurred in that opinion when he took it upon himself to act as police, prosecutor, judge and jury as he executed Trayvon Martin for being where he didn't belong ...He knew that in doing so, he would be treated by the Sanford law enforcement authorities as though the young black man he had shot and killed "<strong>had no rights which the white man was bound to respect."</strong> Which is why the police saw fit to release him the night of the fatal incident purely on the strength of his story of being attacked by this black kid wearing a hoodie....<br />
In his Dred Scott opinion, Chief Justice Taney went on to list the <strong>"horrible consequences of negro citizenship"</strong> as part of his argument based on the Privileges and Immunities Clause of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Article_Four_of_the_United_States_Constitution" rel="nofollow" title="Article Four of the United States Constitution">Article IV</a>, stating what the Court considered to be the inevitable and undesirable effects of granting Scott's petition for freedom:<br />
<dl><dd><strong>"It would give to persons of the negro race, ...the right to enter every other State whenever they pleased, ...to sojourn there as long as they pleased, to go where they pleased ...the full liberty of speech in public and in private upon all subjects upon which its own citizens might speak; to hold public meetings upon political affairs, and to keep and carry arms wherever they went."</strong></dd></dl>
This sentiment, articulated well over 150 years ago, reverberates today in virtually every "all white" community, church, country club, cook-out, cocktail party, executive suite, and lunch room. It also is a dominant motivating factor in every state that is now controlled by a Republican legislative majority and/or Republican governor whose political practices and governmental policies serve little more than to concur in Justice Taney's now defunct opinion that, people of color, black people in particular, "<strong>had no rights which the white man was bound to respect."</strong><br />
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Here's a couple of interesting and curious coincidences:<br />
<strong>Samuel Nelson</strong>, one of six the concurring justices in the Dred Scott Decision....<br />
<strong>Debra S. Nelson</strong>, presiding judge in the Zimmerman trial<br />
<strong>Sanford</strong> is a name common to both cases....</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4589357091649887824.post-27575794636852114742013-06-27T03:25:00.001-07:002013-06-27T03:44:05.448-07:00Clarence Thomas: Not Big Enough for the Job<div id="buttons">
by Ron Powell</div>
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In joining with the majority in the striking down of Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act, Clarence Thomas has shown, once again, that he simply is not big enough for the job.....<img class="rg_i align-center" height="312" id="UL1TXg-N8JL9_M:" name="UL1TXg-N8JL9_M:" src="https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQDF77FYUcMgKB0d3MSpljEgZay77yFDkCwra0TEqTljFs5_G7Cmw" style="margin-left: -4px; margin-right: -3px; margin-top: 0px;" width="167" /><br />
Rather than exercise a modicum of independent thought and expression, Thomas chooses to be the shadow and apparent puppet of his idol Antonin Scalia, with whom he has rarely disagreed, during his tenure on the Court....<img class="rg_i align-center" height="196" id="iRxr5ZBfYjcRkM:" name="iRxr5ZBfYjcRkM:" src="https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcS-d3YlWN1SuV1UgWLz1cEPOclwCnuRwP29D1jeVGemTtY7gpfsiA" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: -10px;" width="239" /><br />
Thomas is markedly unlike an earlier Republican appointee, <strong>Chief Justice Earl Warren</strong>, who was a model of political reversal after receiving his appointment to the Court:<br />
<a class="image" href="http://oursalon.ning.com/wiki/File:EarlWarren.jpg" rel="nofollow"><img alt="" class="thumbimage align-center" height="284" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8b/EarlWarren.jpg/220px-EarlWarren.jpg" width="220" /></a><br />
In <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_1952" rel="nofollow" title="United States presidential election, 1952">1952</a>, Warren stood as a "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Favorite_son" rel="nofollow" title="Favorite son">favorite son</a>" candidate of California for the Republican nomination for President, hoping to be a power broker in a convention that might be deadlocked. But Warren had to head off a revolt by Senator <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Nixon" rel="nofollow" title="Richard Nixon">Richard Nixon</a>, who supported General <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwight_D._Eisenhower" rel="nofollow" title="Dwight D. Eisenhower">Dwight D. Eisenhower</a>.<br />
Eisenhower and Nixon were elected, and the bad blood between Warren and Nixon was apparent. Eisenhower offered, and Warren accepted, the post of solicitor general, with the promise of a seat on the Supreme Court. But before it was announced, Chief Justice <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_M._Vinson" rel="nofollow" title="Fred M. Vinson">Fred M. Vinson</a> died suddenly in September 1953 and Eisenhower picked Warren to replace him as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chief_Justice_of_the_United_States" rel="nofollow" title="Chief Justice of the United States">Chief Justice of the United States</a>.<sup> </sup><br />
<strong>The president wanted what he felt was an experienced jurist who could appeal to liberals in the party as well as law-and-order conservatives, noting privately that Warren "represents the kind of political, economic, and social thinking that I believe we need on the Supreme Court.... He has a national name for integrity, uprightness, and courage that, again, I believe we need on the Court".</strong><br />
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In the next few years, Warren led the Court in a series of liberal decisions that revolutionized the role of the Court. He is known both for his efforts on behalf of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_American_internment" rel="nofollow" title="Japanese American internment">Japanese internment</a> during World War II as well as the decisions of the "Warren Court", which ended school segregation and transformed many areas of American law, especially regarding the rights of the accused, ending public-school-sponsored prayer, and requiring "one-man-one vote" rules of apportionment.<br />
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He made the Court a power center on a more even base with Congress and the presidency especially through four landmark decisions: <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_v._Board_of_Education" rel="nofollow" title="Brown v. Board of Education">Brown v. Board of Education</a></i> (1954), <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gideon_v._Wainwright" rel="nofollow" title="Gideon v. Wainwright">Gideon v. Wainwright</a></i> (1963), <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reynolds_v._Sims" rel="nofollow" title="Reynolds v. Sims">Reynolds v. Sims</a></i> (1964), and <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miranda_v._Arizona" rel="nofollow" title="Miranda v. Arizona">Miranda v. Arizona</a></i> (1966).<br />
<strong>Eisenhower is often said to have remarked that his appointment was "the biggest fool mistake I ever made."</strong>.........Wikipedia<br />
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<strong>Clarence Thomas</strong> was born in 1948 in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pin_Point,_Georgia" rel="nofollow" title="Pin Point, Georgia">Pin Point, Georgia</a>, a small, predominantly black community founded by <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedmen" rel="nofollow" title="Freedmen">freedmen</a> after the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Civil_War" rel="nofollow" title="American Civil War">American Civil War</a>. When he was a child, the town lacked a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sewage_treatment" rel="nofollow" title="Sewage treatment">sewage system</a> and paved roads. He was the second of three children born to M.C. Thomas, a farm worker, and Leola Williams, a domestic worker. They were descendants of American <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_in_the_United_States" rel="nofollow" title="Slavery in the United States">slaves</a>, and the family spoke <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gullah_language" rel="nofollow" title="Gullah language">Gullah</a> as a first language. Thomas's first-known ancestors were slaves named Sandy and Peggy who were born around the end of the 18th century and owned by wealthy <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberty_County,_Georgia" rel="nofollow" title="Liberty County, Georgia">Liberty County, Georgia</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarence_Thomas#" id="_GPLITA_0" name="_GPLITA_0" rel="nofollow" style="text-decoration: underline;" title="Click to Continue > by Text-Enhance">planter</a> Josiah Wilson.<sup> </sup> M.C. Thomas left his family when Thomas was two years old. Thomas's mother worked hard but was sometimes paid only pennies per day. She had difficulty putting food on the table and was forced to rely on charity. After a house fire left them <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeless" rel="nofollow" title="Homeless">homeless</a>, Thomas and his younger brother Myers were taken to live with his mother's parents in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Savannah,_Georgia" rel="nofollow" title="Savannah, Georgia">Savannah, Georgia</a>. Thomas was seven when the family moved in with his maternal grandfather, Myers Anderson, and Anderson's wife, Christine (née Hargrove), in Savannah.<br />
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Living with his grandparents, Thomas enjoyed amenities such as indoor and regular meals for the first time in his life.<sup> </sup> His grandfather Myers Anderson had little formal education, but had built a thriving <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuel_oil" rel="nofollow" title="Fuel oil">fuel oil</a> business that also sold ice. Thomas calls his grandfather "the greatest man I have ever known." When Thomas was 10, Anderson started taking the family to help at a farm every day from sunrise to sunset.<sup> </sup> His grandfather believed in hard work and self-reliance; he would counsel Thomas to "never let the sun catch you in bed." Thomas's grandfather also impressed upon his grandsons the importance of getting a good education.<br />
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Thomas was the only black person at his high school in Savannah, where he was an honor student.<br />
He was the only member of his family to have attended college.....<br />
.....Wikipedia<br />
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How is it possible for a person with such a background to behave and vote as he has as an associate justice on the highest court in the land?<br />
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Come on Clarence, couldn't you have, just this once, voted the facts and the truth of your life and upbringing?<br />
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You were born and raised in Georgia during the 50's and 60's, for God's sake!!!<br />
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Do you hate being black and black people that much?<br />
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I can't help but think that your grandfather is shouting from his grave: <strong>"the biggest fool mistake I ever</strong> <strong>made"!!!</strong><strong> </strong></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4589357091649887824.post-60435911832722048532013-04-29T02:58:00.002-07:002013-04-29T03:10:15.567-07:00The Senate No Vote: Gun Rack Racism<div style="text-align: center;">
This is a bushmaster .223</div>
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<img alt="" class="rg_hi uh_hi align-center" height="183" id="rg_hi" src="https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQUQSyEh9vz036rUQD5E00p9qOGfm2umrW29xo-Bo9HezOv5eePkw" width="275" /></div>
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It isn't just a gun, it's an assault rifle....<br />
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To put it another way, it's a weapon of mass destruction....<br />
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It's the weapon that was used to slaughter children in their school in Newtown, CT.<br />
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As many as 90% of the voting population believe that it makes sense to require the purchaser of such a weapon to undergo a background check before taking possession of this or any other "gun" which may be acquired in the open market....<br />
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We are being led to believe that the action of the Senate was against the common sense proposals regarding legislation that would require comprehensive background checks....<br />
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But it wasn't....<br />
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It was another obstructionist vote against the Presidency of Barack Obama....<br />
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It was another clear manifestation of the determination that is held by many in Congress, including some Democrats, that Barack Obama should not be permitted to govern, even when it makes sense, and even when it is in the best interest of the country to permit him to do so...<br />
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The vote in the Senate was not about whether criminals or crazies should be able to get a bushmaster.....<br />
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It was about keeping Obama from being successful in a matter that has overwhelming popular support...<br />
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It was about keeping Obama from a political victory that the public wants and needs him to have....<br />
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It is in this context, and in this regard, that the negative action taken by the Senate on the matter of universal comprehensive background checks was not just shameful and cowardly, it was a despicable display of what I call 'gun rack' racism....<br />
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Public opinion and public safety be damned!<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4589357091649887824.post-65835807581938068502013-03-07T07:59:00.000-08:002013-03-07T08:57:22.801-08:00The End of War and Violence: An Ancient Idea RevisitedMy mother would tell folks at family gatherings, or house guests of one sort or another that, when I was in the toddler stages of life, all she need do, while shopping for groceries, was put me in front of the book rack, where I would sit quietly 'playing' with the books I could reach....So it was that by the time I completed the 8th grade I had read: The dictionary, the Bible, Plato, and Homer......<br />
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My passion was Greek mythology, sparked by the Homeric Epics, The Iliad and The Odyssey.....When I entered college and discovered that there were entire courses devoted to ancient Greek literature, I felt as though I had died and gone to heaven...<br />
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I was introduced to classical Greek plays by authors such as: Aeschylus (c. 525–456 BCE), Sophocles (c. 495-406 BCE), Euripides (c. 480–406 BCE), and one of my favorites, Aristophanes (c. 446-388 BCE), author of Lysistrata.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-sZWmSUoPmtFBOF16cACzJ7XUsb0sOJiCVk8M-VNhGHDZI2NDrbDHMjqvThEaId-gDgM9Sflp7Z-hl3peUNtVIdpsJxC7JR7Z7Zoha76-fIvLPBxe92UgnbQeLkDQ6djh3vGs5vYdDYnH/s1600/220px-Aristophanes_-_Project_Gutenberg_eText_12788.png" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-sZWmSUoPmtFBOF16cACzJ7XUsb0sOJiCVk8M-VNhGHDZI2NDrbDHMjqvThEaId-gDgM9Sflp7Z-hl3peUNtVIdpsJxC7JR7Z7Zoha76-fIvLPBxe92UgnbQeLkDQ6djh3vGs5vYdDYnH/s320/220px-Aristophanes_-_Project_Gutenberg_eText_12788.png" /></a><br />
Illustration from a bust<br />
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Lysistrata (translation: "Army-disbander") is one of the few surviving plays written by Aristophanes. Originally performed in classical Athens in 411 BC, it is a comic account of one woman's extraordinary mission to end The Peloponnesian War. Lysistrata persuades the women of Greece to withhold sexual privileges from their husbands and lovers as a means of forcing the men to negotiate peace — a strategy, however, that inflames the battle between the sexes. The play is notable for being an early exposé of sexual relations in a male-dominated society.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeofMk3SOV8AID7vxhpNRfIWAe3IrXf3kp3DoUdlK6POHdCpSlobhPKSAIiBA6dEwd3Ai9eSxq_6bl8JD9VRcYRIhcft6ktWSg19M24vOGqppuhjcnlxCeK8v2pr-jIhazWB0rokTQI2na/s1600/225px-Lysistrata.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeofMk3SOV8AID7vxhpNRfIWAe3IrXf3kp3DoUdlK6POHdCpSlobhPKSAIiBA6dEwd3Ai9eSxq_6bl8JD9VRcYRIhcft6ktWSg19M24vOGqppuhjcnlxCeK8v2pr-jIhazWB0rokTQI2na/s320/225px-Lysistrata.jpg" /></a><br />
Illustration by Aubrey Beardsley, 1896<br />
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LYSISTRATA: There are a lot of things about us women that sadden me, considering how men see us as rascals. <br />
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CALONICE: As indeed we are!<br />
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These lines, spoken by Lysistrata and her friend Calonice at the beginning of the play, set the scene for the action that follows. Women, as represented by Calonice, are sly hedonists in need of firm guidance and direction. Lysistrata however is an extraordinary woman with a large sense of individual responsibility. She has convened a meeting of women from various city states in Greece (there is no mention of how she managed this feat) and, very soon after confiding in her friend about her concerns for the female sex, the women begin arriving.<br />
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With support from Lampito, the Spartan, Lysistrata persuades the other women to withhold sexual privileges from their menfolk as a means of forcing them to end the interminable Peloponnesian War. The women are very reluctant but the deal is sealed with a solemn oath around a wine bowl, Lysistrata choosing the words and Calonice repeating them on behalf of the other women. It is a long and detailed oath, in which the women abjure all their sexual pleasures, including The Lioness on The (a sexual position).<br />
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Soon after the oath is finished, a cry of triumph is heard from the nearby Acropolis – the old women of Athens have seized control of it at Lysistrata's instigation, since it holds the state treasury, without which the men cannot long continue to fund their war. Lampito goes off to spread the word of revolt and the other women retreat behind the barred gates of the Acropolis to await the men's response. (-Wikipedia)<br />
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I'm thinking. what a marvelous idea it would be for women to be able to put an end to war, and street violence, or stop things like corporate greed, congressional gridlock, pollution of the environment and global warming....Just by saying no to sex....<br />
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Or, would that be asking too much?<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4589357091649887824.post-34409771891254315022013-02-25T16:59:00.000-08:002013-02-25T17:00:44.071-08:00White Guys On Black History<object width="560" height="315"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/e2qUzr3DYyY?hl=en_US&version=3"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/e2qUzr3DYyY?hl=en_US&version=3" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="560" height="315" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object><object width="560" height="315"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/derzWWYf3-w?version=3&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/derzWWYf3-w?version=3&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="560" height="315" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4589357091649887824.post-36370711127141081172013-02-03T11:32:00.000-08:002013-02-03T11:32:17.906-08:00Black History Month: The Super BowlThis is the 25th anniversary of the first appearance of a black quarter back in the Super Bowl.
With the Redskins trailing the Broncos 10-0 in Super Bowl XXII, Doug Williams, fired four TD strikes in the second quarter alone, including scoring tosses of 80 and 50 yards to Ricky Sanders. He earned MVP honors in the 42-10 victory for a 340-yard effort that set a Super Bowl record at the time.
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There were those who understood the impact of the Williams appearance and victory, just as the effect the appearance of Jackie Robinson in a Brooklyn Dodger uniform was understood some 40 years earlier.
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhGCJayV1XsM7pINPfKX6RcmQD-PR01DrgDmiMkT_N7e3VgJGPtiY4Mozv8sjL85nLedhA2f8crSnbTkg9EIV8ZmbvpljiXuer8e4jubgfxAblIxXspaHxYH2TFzutDdkKJULRWgOayH0z/s1600/BCMXD4jCUAE8WdT.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="200" width="134" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhGCJayV1XsM7pINPfKX6RcmQD-PR01DrgDmiMkT_N7e3VgJGPtiY4Mozv8sjL85nLedhA2f8crSnbTkg9EIV8ZmbvpljiXuer8e4jubgfxAblIxXspaHxYH2TFzutDdkKJULRWgOayH0z/s200/BCMXD4jCUAE8WdT.jpg" /></a></div>
I could go on here, but if a picture is worth a thousand words: 'nuff said'....
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4589357091649887824.post-50876122597927312422012-12-19T11:46:00.002-08:002012-12-19T11:48:22.706-08:00Guest Post: Time Magazine's "Person of the Year", 2012
President Obama is 'Time' Person of the Year
Originally posted by Hillary Busis at Entertainment Weekly.com, December 19, 2012
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President Barack Obama has been named Time Magazine’s “Person of the Year” for a second time, following his initial selection in 2008. The only other person to have been selected for this honor twice was Charles Lindberg.
In a blog post, Time managing editor Richard Stengel explains that Obama was chosen because he is a cultural figure as well as a political one: “There has been much talk of the coalition of the ascendant — young people, minorities, Hispanics, college-educated women — and in winning re-election, Obama showed that these fast-growing groups are not only the future but also the present,” he writes. “If his win in 2008 was extraordinary, then 2012 is confirmation that demographic change is here to stay.”
The president beat out 15-year-old Pakistani activist Malala Youfsafzai, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi, and Italian CERN physicist Fabiola Gianotti for the annual honor. Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4589357091649887824.post-5163025661263553922012-12-17T03:43:00.002-08:002012-12-17T04:29:30.560-08:00"We can't tolerate this any more...." Video and Full Text: President Obama's Speech in Newtown, Connecticut<object width="420" height="245" id="msnbc317440" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=10,0,0,0"><param name="movie" value="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32545640" /><param name="FlashVars" value="launch=50220071&width=420&height=245" /><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><param name="wmode" value="transparent" /><embed name="msnbc317440" src="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32545640" width="420" height="245" FlashVars="launch=50220071&width=420&height=245" allowscriptaccess="always" allowFullScreen="true" wmode="transparent" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/download/download.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash"></embed></object><p style="font-size:11px; font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: #999; margin-top: 5px; background: transparent; text-align: center; width: 420px;">
Full text of speech:
To all the families, first responders, to the community of Newtown, clergy, guests, scripture tells us, “Do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, inwardly, we are being renewed day by day.
For light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all, so we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven not built by human hands.
We gather here in memory of 20 beautiful children and six remarkable adults. They lost their lives in a school that could have been any school in a quiet town full of good and decent people that could be any town in America.
Here in Newtown, I come to offer the love and prayers of a nation. I am very mindful that mere words cannot match the depths of your sorrow, nor can they heal your wounded hearts.
I can only hope it helps for you to know that you’re not alone in your grief, that our world, too, has been torn apart, that all across this land of ours, we have wept with you. We’ve pulled our children tight.
And you must know that whatever measure of comfort we can provide, we will provide. Whatever portion of sadness that we can share with you to ease this heavy load, we will gladly bear it. Newtown, you are not alone.
As these difficult days have unfolded, you’ve also inspired us with stories of strength and resolve and sacrifice. We know that when danger arrived in the halls of Sandy Hook Elementary, the school’s staff did not flinch.
They did not hesitate.
Dawn Hochsprung and Mary Sherlach, Vicki Soto, Lauren Rousseau, Rachel Davino and Anne Marie Murphy — they responded as we all hope we might respond in such terrifying circumstances, with courage and with love, giving their lives to protect the children in their care.
We know that there were other teachers who barricaded themselves inside classrooms and kept steady through it all and reassured their students by saying, “Wait for the good guys, they are coming. Show me your smile.”
And we know that good guys came, the first responders who raced to the scene helping to guide those in harm’s way to safety and comfort those in need, holding at bay their own shock and their own trauma, because they had a job to do and others needed them more.
And then there were the scenes of the schoolchildren helping one another, holding each other, dutifully following instructions in the way that young children sometimes do, one child even trying to encourage a grown-up by saying, “I know karate, so it’s OK; I’ll lead the way out.”
As a community, you’ve inspired us, Newtown. In the face of indescribable violence, in the face of unconscionable evil, you’ve looked out for each other. You’ve cared for one another. And you’ve loved one another. This is how Newtown will be remembered, and with time and God’s grace, that love will see you through.
But we as a nation, we are left with some hard questions. You know, someone once described the joy and anxiety of parenthood as the equivalent of having your heart outside of your body all the time, walking around.
With their very first cry, this most precious, vital part of ourselves, our child, is suddenly exposed to the world, to possible mishap or malice, and every parent knows there’s nothing we will not do to shield our children from harm. And yet we also know that with that child’s very first step and each step after that, they are separating from us, that we won’t — that we can’t always be there for them.
They will suffer sickness and setbacks and broken hearts and disappointments, and we learn that our most important job is to give them what they need to become self-reliant and capable and resilient, ready to face the world without fear. And we know we can’t do this by ourselves.
It comes as a shock at a certain point where you realize no matter how much you love these kids, you can’t do it by yourself, that this job of keeping our children safe and teaching them well is something we can only do together, with the help of friends and neighbors, the help of a community and the help of a nation.
And in that way we come to realize that we bear responsibility for every child, because we’re counting on everybody else to help look after ours, that we’re all parents, that they are all our children.
This is our first task, caring for our children. It’s our first job. If we don’t get that right, we don’t get anything right. That’s how, as a society, we will be judged.
And by that measure, can we truly say, as a nation, that we’re meeting our obligations?
Can we honestly say that we’re doing enough to keep our children, all of them, safe from harm?
Can we claim, as a nation, that we’re all together there, letting them know they are loved and teaching them to love in return?
Can we say that we’re truly doing enough to give all the children of this country the chance they deserve to live out their lives in happiness and with purpose?
I’ve been reflecting on this the last few days, and if we’re honest with ourselves, the answer’s no. We’re not doing enough. And we will have to change.
Since I’ve been president, this is the fourth time we have come together to comfort a grieving community torn apart by mass shootings, fourth time we’ve hugged survivors, the fourth time we’ve consoled the families of victims.
And in between, there have been an endless series of deadly shootings across the country, almost daily reports of victims, many of them children, in small towns and in big cities all across America, victims whose — much of the time their only fault was being at the wrong place at the wrong time.
We can’t tolerate this anymore. These tragedies must end. And to end them, we must change.
We will be told that the causes of such violence are complex, and that is true. No single law, no set of laws can eliminate evil from the world or prevent every senseless act of violence in our society, but that can’t be an excuse for inaction. Surely we can do better than this.
If there’s even one step we can take to save another child or another parent or another town from the grief that’s visited Tucson and Aurora and Oak Creek and Newtown and communities from Columbine to Blacksburg before that, then surely we have an obligation to try.
In the coming weeks, I’ll use whatever power this office holds to engage my fellow citizens, from law enforcement, to mental health professionals, to parents and educators, in an effort aimed at preventing more tragedies like this, because what choice do we have? We can’t accept events like this as routine.
Are we really prepared to say that we’re powerless in the face of such carnage, that the politics are too hard?
Are we prepared to say that such violence visited on our children year after year after year is somehow the price of our freedom?
You know, all the world’s religions, so many of them represented here today, start with a simple question.
Why are we here? What gives our life meaning? What gives our acts purpose?
We know our time on this Earth is fleeting. We know that we will each have our share of pleasure and pain, that even after we chase after some earthly goal, whether it’s wealth or power or fame or just simple comfort, we will, in some fashion, fall short of what we had hoped. We know that, no matter how good our intentions, we’ll all stumble sometimes in some way.
We’ll make mistakes, we’ll experience hardships and even when we’re trying to do the right thing, we know that much of our time will be spent groping through the darkness, so often unable to discern God’s heavenly plans.
There’s only one thing we can be sure of, and that is the love that we have for our children, for our families, for each other. The warmth of a small child’s embrace, that is true.
The memories we have of them, the joy that they bring, the wonder we see through their eyes, that fierce and boundless love we feel for them, a love that takes us out of ourselves and binds us to something larger, we know that’s what matters.
We know we’re always doing right when we’re taking care of them, when we’re teaching them well, when we’re showing acts of kindness. We don’t go wrong when we do that.
That’s what we can be sure of, and that’s what you, the people of Newtown, have reminded us. That’s how you’ve inspired us. You remind us what matters. And that’s what should drive us forward in everything we do for as long as God sees fit to keep us on this Earth.
“Let the little children come to me,” Jesus said, “and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.”
Charlotte, Daniel, Olivia, Josephine, Ana, Dylan, Madeleine, Catherine, Chase, Jesse, James, Grace, Emilie, Jack, Noah, Caroline, Jessica, Benjamin, Avielle, Allison, God has called them all home.
For those of us who remain, let us find the strength to carry on and make our country worthy of their memory. May God bless and keep those we’ve lost in his heavenly place. May he grace those we still have with his holy comfort, and may he bless and watch over this community and the United States of America.
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4589357091649887824.post-65935464461005813472012-12-14T06:08:00.000-08:002012-12-23T16:45:56.126-08:00The Failure of the Politics of Fear and Resentment: Republican Shibboleths, Bugaboos, and Things That Go Bump in the NightRepublicans have suffered more than an election defeat, they’ve seen the collapse of a decades-long political strategy: The constant and continued use of white working class fear and resentment of black people in order to consolidate, maintain and, when and where possible, expand their base...
Simply speaking, the Republican strategy has, for decades, been to dupe the average, 'work-a-day' , white voters into voting against their own best interests. This has been done by invoking and then politicizing racial fears and resentments, inherent in American society and culture, and ingrained and harbored in the white psyche.
"Dog whistle " politics and policies will not go away any time soon, however, the fact of changing demographics has caught up with a strategy that, at its core, is racist. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Racism is still a fact of political and social life in America. However, it is becoming increasingly clear that the effect and impact of racism as the ideological foundation of political success has eroded to the point where America's first black president was able to win a second term.
Republicans have gotten it so wrong that the Democrats have no need to make a real effort to get it right.
While it may be true that race is no longer a viable tactic in presidential campaigns, it remains a significant determining factor in the nature and quality of daily life for people of color in general and black people in particular. Reduction of the effect of the vernacular of race based politics and policies from the process of electing a president is only part of the challenge. The challenge that remains is removal of the effects that signals and symbols of racial fear and resentment have on our daily lives and discourse:
A <b>shibboleth<i></i></b> is a word or phrase whose usage identifies the speaker as belonging to a particular group. It also refers to a word or phrase used to identify, characterize, or symbolize those who do not belong to the particular class or group of people to which the speaker belongs:
<b>the "silent majority", the "southern strategy", "law and order", the "war on poverty", the "war on
drugs", "cultural enrichment", "entitlement programs", "equal opportunity", "affirmative action",
"deficit spending", "voter ID" , and the birth certificate...
</b>
A <i><b>bugaboo</b><b></b></i> is a legendary scary creature:
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<b>The angry black man and</b>
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The welfare queen....</b>
There are many white people going to bed at night uttering or muttering something like this:
"From ghoulies and ghosties
And long-leggedy beasties
And <b>things that go bump in the night</b>,
Good Lord, deliver us....."
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4589357091649887824.post-86087662198268221732012-12-10T00:44:00.000-08:002019-05-25T05:52:20.973-07:00Would the Real Beethoven Please Stand Up!
Was Beethoven in fact a black man of African descent?
Why was it necessary for Beethoven's likeness to undergo a transformation which, in my humble opinion, is so readily apparent when an array of sketches and paintings are juxtaposed as they are here?
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Why was it necessary for artists and historians to systematically remove any hint of the possibility that Beethoven might have been, or was in fact, a black man?
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuB2gwAInZf7zyBIBJhXJS6cRQueuG3pumudzXh5t0iK4lUl70pjEnHwmbg5hREdjd7dOhebTH6tEYNVdezowJHZJ26hmYMyLeF_x7Tir28snvR3Fam4NfHSY0WnMZnGgt-2_47f0heRpE/s1600/1333098734693.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="200" width="166" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuB2gwAInZf7zyBIBJhXJS6cRQueuG3pumudzXh5t0iK4lUl70pjEnHwmbg5hREdjd7dOhebTH6tEYNVdezowJHZJ26hmYMyLeF_x7Tir28snvR3Fam4NfHSY0WnMZnGgt-2_47f0heRpE/s200/1333098734693.jpg" /></a></div>
Why was it imperative that his image go from having distinctly Negroid/African features to some kind of stylized Aryan ideal?Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4589357091649887824.post-87607845171168859872010-01-12T14:35:00.000-08:002010-01-12T14:42:04.036-08:00Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., January 15, 1929 - April 4, 1968<object style="WIDTH: 425px; HEIGHT: 344px"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/PbUtL_0vAJk"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/PbUtL_0vAJk" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/x1L8y-MX3pg&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/x1L8y-MX3pg&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br /><br />--------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /><br />Martin Luther King, Jr., was born in Atlanta, Georgia, on January 15, 1929. He was the oldest son of the Reverend and Mrs. Martin Luther King. He was named Michael Luther after his father, but later the Reverend King changed both their names to Martin Luther in honor of the great church leader.<br /><br />Unhappily racial experiences made a deep and lasting impression on young Martin. One day his father took him to buy new shoes. When they sat down in the store, the clerk asked them to move to the back of the store. Dr. King took Martin by the hand and left the store rather than take that kind of treatment. Another time, the parents of boys Martin played with told him that they could no longer come out to play with him because they were white and he was black. Martin's feelings were hurt. His mother tried to explain about prejudice. She told him that blacks were no longer slaves, but they were not really free.<br /><br />Martin liked sports. He played baseball, basketball and wrestling. But he especially liked reading. He liked reading about famous people in black history. He found out what it took for them to overcome difficulties and become successful. He liked to learn new words and use them.<br /><br />He was fascinated by watching his father, Martin Luther King, Sr., Pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, and other ministers control audiences with skillfully chosen words. He longed to follow in their footsteps.<br /><br />He made words central to his life--weapons of defense and offense. His mother said that she could not recall a time when he was not intrigued by the sound and power of words. He once told her, "I'm going to get me some big words like that." . When he got to high school, his ability to use words enabled him to win an oratorical contest.<br /><br />In September 1944, when he was only 15 years old, King entered Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia. It was a black college, and his father and grandfather had gone there. He knew that his father would like him to become a minister, but at first Martin was not sure that was what he wanted to do. At first, he was undecided as to his course of study. However, his experiences at Morehouse shaped his direction for life. After meeting and talking with Dr. Benjamin E. Mays, the college president, and Professor George Kelsey, head of the religion department, he made up his mind. King was enormously impressed. He saw in Mays what he wanted "a real minister to be"--a rational man whose sermons were both spiritually and intellectually stimulating, a moral man who was socially involved. Thanks largely to Mays, King realized that the ministry could be a respectable force for ideas, even for social protest. And so at seventeen King elected to become a Baptist minister, like his father and grandfather. At eighteen he was ordained a minister. The next year he graduated from Morehouse College with a degree in sociology.<br /><br />Martin was an excellent student and was the class valedictorian when he graduated in 1951 with a Bachelor of Divinity degree from Crozer. While at Crozer, King attended a lecture by Dr. Mordecai W. Johnson, who was the president of Howard University in Washington, DC. Dr. Johnson "explained how Gandhi had forged Soul Force--the power of love or truth--into a mighty vehicle for social change." He "argued that the moral power of Gandhian nonviolence could improve race relations in America, too." King was mesmerized by Gandhi's concepts, and began reading profusely about his life and philosophy.<br /><br />In 1951, King graduated from Crozer as valedictorian. He also received the Peral Plafkner Award for scholarship, $1,200, and the Lewis Crozer Fellowship to continue his studies. While at Boston University, Martin met Coretta Scott. Coretta, a beautiful young lady from Marion, Alabama, a graduate of Antioch College in Ohio, was studying voice at the New England Conservatory of Music. She and Martin were married in June, 1953. His father performed the ceremony at her home in Alabama.<br /><br />Coretta had grown up with segregation too. She shared Martin's dream of a time when everyone everywhere could enjoy equal rights. On June 5, 1955, when he had completed his Ph.D. in Systematic Theology, the couple decided that they could make the greatest contribution by going back down South to work. Martin was installed by his father as pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama, in October of 1954. Just a little more that a year later, Yolanda, the first of the Kings' four children was born.<br /><br />In December of 1955, Mrs. Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus. Mrs. Parks was later tried in Montgomery City Court, charged with and found guilty of violating a state law mandating segregation. She was fined $10. Her attorney appealed the conviction. Coincident with Mrs. Parks' trial a one-day boycott of the buses by many members of Montgomery's Black community, was planned. Dr. King was asked to help, as was his friend, the Reverend Ralph Abernathy. As a result of this, an organization was established, the "Montgomery Improvement Association," (MIA) to orchestrate a complete and ongoing response to Montgomery's segregation. Dr. King was chosen president. Blacks walked to work or took cars or taxis, but they did not ride the buses. The one-day boycott stretched out to 382 days. Finally, after more than a year of protest, on November 13, 1956, the United States Supreme Court ruled that segregation on buses was against the law.<br /><br />Martin Luther King, Jr., knew that even though that battle against bus discrimination had been won in Montgomery, there was more that needed doing. As a result, on January 10-11, 1957, 60 Black leaders from 10 Southern states met at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta and founded the Southern Conference on Transportation and Non-violent Integration. Its original agenda concerned "segregation in transportation facilities and voter registration."<br /><br />In February 1957, the organization elected Dr. King as President and changed its name to the Southern Leadership Conference (SLC), organized to fight "Jim Crow" laws that discrimination against blacks. Offices for the new group were in Atlanta, and the Kings moved there. Martin became assistant pastor at his father's church, the Ebenezer Baptist Church. He spent much time traveling. He spoke all over the country, urging nonviolent ways of gaining civil rights. He and Mrs. King visited Europe and Africa. They went to India to study Mahatma Gandhi's nonviolent ways of fighting for freedom.<br /><br />King spoke of how a Pilgrimage would be an appeal to the nation, and the Congress, to pass a civil rights bill that would give the Justice Department the power to file law suits against discriminatory registration and voting practices anywhere in the South. On August 28, 1963, at least 250,000 people descended on Washington in the "largest single demonstration in movement history." Dr. King captured the day. Following the march, the organizers were invited to a reception at the White House, where President John F. Kennedy "was bubbling over the success of the event."<br /><br />Perhaps the ultimate recognition of Dr. King's crusade to secure equal rights for all came on December 10, 1964, when, at age 35, he was the youngest person ever to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.<br /><br />In 1966, he and his family moved to Chicago. People in the slums of big cities had problems that were as serious as the discrimination they faced in the South. King planned a Poor People's March on Washington, D.C. Shortly before the march, Dr. King went to Memphis, Tennessee, where garbage workers were on strike for better working conditions. He led marchers through the streets in support of the strike. Violence broke out, and a young man was killed.<br /><br />On April 4, King stood on the balcony of his hotel in Memphis, talking with men who had been with him in his many civil rights efforts....Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4589357091649887824.post-23107202218876130022009-10-29T00:57:00.000-07:002009-10-29T00:59:28.301-07:00Former Senator Edward Brooke Receives Congressional Medal of Honor<object classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0" id="ep" width="416" height="374"><param name="id" value="ep" /><param name="width" value="416" /><param name="height" value="374" /><param name="bgcolor" value="#000000" /><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><param name="wmode" value="transparent" /><param name="src" value="http://i.cdn.turner.com/cnn/.element/apps/cvp/3.0/swf/cnn_416x234_embed.swf?context=embed&videoId=politics/2009/10/28/vosot.brook.congressional.medal.cnn" /><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" id="ep" width="416" height="374" bgcolor="#000000" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" wmode="transparent" src="http://i.cdn.turner.com/cnn/.element/apps/cvp/3.0/swf/cnn_416x234_embed.swf?context=embed&videoId=politics/2009/10/28/vosot.brook.congressional.medal.cnn"></embed></object><div><div><div style="text-align: center"> </div></div><div><strong>STORY HIGHLIGHTS</strong></div></div><div><div><ul><li>Edward Brooke is the first African-American elected to the U.S. Senate by popular vote</li><li>Using perseverance, he avoided anger, disillusionment, President Obama says</li><li>Brooke, 90, was a GOP senator from Massachusetts for two full terms, from 1967 to 1979</li><li>Brooke, thankful for honor, says he misses friend Sen. Ted Kennedy, who died in August</li></ul></div></div><p><strong>Washington (CNN)</strong> -- Edward Brooke, the first African-American elected to the U.S. Senate by popular vote, was honored Wednesday with a Congressional Gold Medal.</p><p>"At a time when so many doors were closed to African-Americans, others might have become angry or disillusioned," President Obama told an audience in the Capitol Rotunda, where the ceremony honoring Brooke for Congress' greatest honor was held.</p><p>"They might have concluded that no matter how hard they worked, their horizons would always be limited. So why bother? Not Ed Brooke," he said.</p><p>Brooke, 90, was a Republican senator from Massachusetts for two full terms, from 1967 to 1979.</p><p>"He ran for office, as he put it, to bring people together who had never been together before, and that he did," the president said.</p><p>"I don't know anyone else whose fan base includes Gloria Steinem, Barney Frank and Ted Kennedy as well as Mitch McConnell, Mitt Romney and George W. Bush. That's a coalition builder," he said.</p> Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4589357091649887824.post-89630415611060535502009-10-28T07:39:00.000-07:002009-10-28T10:02:20.663-07:00Loathe the War, Love the WarriorMy Two Cents:<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgw3Hm_HXX37P_ZqICymO84qKs9KGWPwrcr8N_uUU-YfcEr92tb8rN0tVbyhXjBNrN-Y_UUE3-P6KY_fdd8tWIMgQt2EHX3QlehCICLGITgCFjxrJ5TL-BFArIj6Gy5F16_rbM7E7D5VtBs/s1600-h/two_cents1240950208.bmp"><img style="WIDTH: 200px; HEIGHT: 123px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5397661342751705586" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgw3Hm_HXX37P_ZqICymO84qKs9KGWPwrcr8N_uUU-YfcEr92tb8rN0tVbyhXjBNrN-Y_UUE3-P6KY_fdd8tWIMgQt2EHX3QlehCICLGITgCFjxrJ5TL-BFArIj6Gy5F16_rbM7E7D5VtBs/s200/two_cents1240950208.bmp" /></a><br />by Ron Powell<br /> <br />Bravery and valor on the battlefield are of no consequence if the war being fought has no just and honorable cause or purpose....There are no legitimate goals or objectives in an unjust or invalid conflict being prosecuted by force of arms and the blood of good people.<br /><br />My take on the war(s) in the Middle East is simple: We shouldn't have gone in the first place and we have no business being there now...Whether the Department of Defense or the State Department agrees with him or not, the young ex-marine who resigned his diplomatic postition in protest over our continued presence in Afghanistan has it absolutely right. We should stand with him in his brave and bold move to bring attention to the fact that what we are doing in that part of the world is just plain wrong....<br /><br />In the wake of 9/11, and the notion that we are seeking to bring an international criminal and his criminal enterprise to justice, we have wasted resources and lives on a manhunt that ought to have been concluded long ago.....There is no succinct or cogent articulation of the reasons why we have been at this for as long as we have, and we should not commit another American life to a nefarious conflagration that has, at best, nebulous ideological, philosophical and political underpinnings......<br /><br />If we truly believe that Bin Laden is alive and being harbored in the region, we should withdraw all of our troops and issue an ultimatum in the strongest possible terms and, failing that, anihilate all of the targets where he may be hiding in such a way as to not risk another American life and then, completely and absolutely walk away from it all. <br /><br />Nothing good can come from continuing to work with an illegitimate government, rogue mercinaries, drug over-lords and wasting American tax dollars and American lives....I am in full and unfettered support of our troops in the Middle East. I do not, however, accept or agree with our 'reasons' for sending them there....Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4589357091649887824.post-74874368041399852762009-10-19T19:38:00.000-07:002009-10-19T20:06:30.569-07:00Then and Now<strong>THEN:</strong><br /><strong></strong><br /><strong>A Black girl escorted to school - 1960</strong><br /><p align="center"><span style="font-size:0;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDHMTapi3tEqU34woMXdycZkMp_QmQweEvzD9WZt9JR3pZ9HXjqOgZqe02sO0u7wWZxIGfgfm_wgWKuX1XkKFKiaw58iJeIpRKbZWxfRRmKXQaj-_dTu9MN1k3UH7A3c77EWVSJeYimgxU/s1600-h/tn2.jpg"><img style="WIDTH: 353px; HEIGHT: 211px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5394509558968644418" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDHMTapi3tEqU34woMXdycZkMp_QmQweEvzD9WZt9JR3pZ9HXjqOgZqe02sO0u7wWZxIGfgfm_wgWKuX1XkKFKiaw58iJeIpRKbZWxfRRmKXQaj-_dTu9MN1k3UH7A3c77EWVSJeYimgxU/s200/tn2.jpg" /></a></span><span style="font-size:0;"></span></p><p align="left"><span style="font-size:0;"><span style="font-size:0;"></span></span><span>On November 14, 1960, nearly 49 years ago, 6 year old Ruby Bridges faced hostile crowds, and had to be escorted by U.S. Marshalls , because she was the first black child to attend previously all-white William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans, Louisiana. Ruby was 6 years old. (Norman Rockwell created the painting above depicting that event.)<br /></span>That morning, she had only been told by her mother that she was going to be attending a new school that day and 'had better behave.' Little did little Ruby know that she would be bombarded with jeers and even death threats; and that she would end up being the sole child in her first grade class because all the other children were kept home by their parents. All because Ruby was Black.<br /><strong></strong></p><p align="left"><strong>NOW:<br /></p></strong><p align="center"><span style="font-size:0;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgk8NOBrXskqPh4UOe-daHgtwrNL9oD_EcHRYwSbi4IZhwKJLcr55WPcvQa7KsaRWO-Qb0pU0B6nEP95I3IbjEToVXEKRF6KplMbR2gDvvcRmBSk6Fo-pyMYNlMdo3TbXs_Mc0pPo9RXYcT/s1600-h/tn.jpg"><img style="WIDTH: 315px; HEIGHT: 236px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5394509561228472770" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgk8NOBrXskqPh4UOe-daHgtwrNL9oD_EcHRYwSbi4IZhwKJLcr55WPcvQa7KsaRWO-Qb0pU0B6nEP95I3IbjEToVXEKRF6KplMbR2gDvvcRmBSk6Fo-pyMYNlMdo3TbXs_Mc0pPo9RXYcT/s200/tn.jpg" /></a></span></p><p align="left"><strong>A Black girl escorted to school - 2009</strong><br /><br />On January 5, 2009, nearly 49 years after Ruby attended her school, 7 year old Sasha Obama, faced cheering schoolmates as she is escorted by her Mother and U. S. Secret Service Agents to Sidwell Friends Elementary School in Washington , DC . Her Mother, the current First Lady of the United States of America, had Secret Service escort because Sasha's daddy is now the 44th President of the United States.<br /><br />Can this be one of the reasons why people under forty have a different view of the world.....???? </p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4589357091649887824.post-40277132077235550292009-10-15T22:41:00.000-07:002009-10-15T22:42:19.236-07:00Soul Heaven: The 'Soul' of America<div><div style="text-align: center"><object classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0" width="425" height="344"><param name="width" value="425" /><param name="height" value="344" /><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><param name="src" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/gi74n8nR5qs&hl=en&fs=1&" /><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425" height="344" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/gi74n8nR5qs&hl=en&fs=1&"></embed></object></div><div style="text-align: center"> </div><div>Some were absolute giants and some were less well known, but all of these performers had an impact on our culture and our lives in ways which most of us will not be able to recognize or acknowledge. In many respects these African-American artists charted and navigated the course for likes of President Barack Obama by making the African-American experience an integral element of America's culutural life and heritage. We owe them a debt of gratitude and many, many thanks...... </div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4589357091649887824.post-62963662883503130332009-09-27T08:00:00.000-07:002009-09-27T20:34:47.108-07:00President Obama On Saturday: AM & PM<p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" align="center"> <strong>AM:</strong> <strong>Weekly Radio and TV Address: The G-20 Summit</strong> </p><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" align="center"><object codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0" classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" width="425" height="344"><param name="_cx" value="11244"><param name="_cy" value="9101"><param name="FlashVars" value=""><param name="Movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/lMXyHZTkJpU&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&feature=player_embedded&fs=1"><param name="Src" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/lMXyHZTkJpU&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&feature=player_embedded&fs=1"><param name="WMode" value="Window"><param name="Play" value="-1"><param name="Loop" value="-1"><param name="Quality" value="High"><param name="SAlign" value=""><param name="Menu" value="-1"><param name="Base" value=""><param name="AllowScriptAccess" value="always"><param name="Scale" value="ShowAll"><param name="DeviceFont" value="0"><param name="EmbedMovie" value="0"><param name="BGColor" value=""><param name="SWRemote" value=""><param name="MovieData" value=""><param name="SeamlessTabbing" value="1"><param name="Profile" value="0"><param name="ProfileAddress" value=""><param name="ProfilePort" value="0"><param name="AllowNetworking" value="all"><param name="AllowFullScreen" value="true"><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425" height="344" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/lMXyHZTkJpU&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&feature=player_embedded&fs=1" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object> </p><div align="center"> <strong>PM: Remarks on health care at the Black Caucus Dinner</strong> </div> <br /><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: center"><object codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0" classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" width="425" height="344"><param name="_cx" value="11244"><param name="_cy" value="9101"><param name="FlashVars" value=""><param name="Movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/6HyIHI3aOQ4&hl=en&fs=1&"><param name="Src" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/6HyIHI3aOQ4&hl=en&fs=1&"><param name="WMode" value="Window"><param name="Play" value="-1"><param name="Loop" value="-1"><param name="Quality" value="High"><param name="SAlign" value=""><param name="Menu" value="-1"><param name="Base" value=""><param name="AllowScriptAccess" value="always"><param name="Scale" value="ShowAll"><param name="DeviceFont" value="0"><param name="EmbedMovie" value="0"><param name="BGColor" value=""><param name="SWRemote" value=""><param name="MovieData" value=""><param name="SeamlessTabbing" value="1"><param name="Profile" value="0"><param name="ProfileAddress" value=""><param name="ProfilePort" value="0"><param name="AllowNetworking" value="all"><param name="AllowFullScreen" value="true"><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425" height="344" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/6HyIHI3aOQ4&hl=en&fs=1&"></embed></object></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4589357091649887824.post-42344486500271063932009-09-26T05:59:00.000-07:002009-09-27T00:27:25.129-07:00Geography Refresher: Iran, The Middle of the Middle Eastby Ron Powell
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<br /><div align="center"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUKpgINPuxF9g8K1y9XTvFxzAiQcR8rTID3TSwVlvuBi1xJCg30JUMlTbqP2sppMnAnOGIgUw-exDCLw19MCa5aOEVpVANgA7lbbuBz002BXAKYG2pISjU8M2R2gDKIp8hHG_fBiGdlRf0/s1600-h/ircolor.gif"><img style="WIDTH: 380px; HEIGHT: 312px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5385761016205277314" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUKpgINPuxF9g8K1y9XTvFxzAiQcR8rTID3TSwVlvuBi1xJCg30JUMlTbqP2sppMnAnOGIgUw-exDCLw19MCa5aOEVpVANgA7lbbuBz002BXAKYG2pISjU8M2R2gDKIp8hHG_fBiGdlRf0/s200/ircolor.gif" /></a>
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<br /></div><strong>Secret nuclear facilities have been revealed in Qom, Iran. Failure to fully report the existence of these facilities, which as President Obama said," are inconsistent with a peaceful program", to the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) and permit the required inspection, will bring sanctions and other dire consequences. </strong>
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<br /><p align="center"><img style="WIDTH: 356px; HEIGHT: 238px" alt="Obama accuses Iran of building secret nuclear plant" src="http://d.yimg.com/a/p/rids/20090925/i/ra2684388627.jpg?x=213&y=143&xc=1&yc=1&wc=410&hc=275&q=85&sig=3JcJcKYOYayUolEOqTY1vg--" width="213" height="143" /></p><strong>President Obama with Prime Ministers Gordon Brown of England and Nicholas Sarkozy of France spoke as one at the G-20 Summit in Pittsburgh.
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<br /></strong><p align="left"><strong>With a line drawn in the sand, and an October 1st deadline for a meeting with the UN Security Council ( United States, Russia, China, France, England) and Germany (P5+1) regarding compliance, Iran will be at the top of the news for the next week and beyond...A refresher in geography seemed to be in order.</strong>
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4589357091649887824.post-64567510871588195032009-09-24T13:34:00.000-07:002009-09-24T13:53:25.690-07:00Sarah Palin Keynote Speaker On Foreign Policy In Hong Kong?<div align="left"><br />by Ron Powell<br /><br /><strong>Who is CLSA-Hong Kong? What could they possibly want/get from Sarah Palin?</strong><br /></div><p align="center"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjakY38YKUdwUCxe4Vd-rMd_euVJIpjmkuSg22rt0zHsKwX1wtI-dqZNdvuaI-og4Dp5QQ0fgVRzssTkmBCq4U1Cq3V9e_bih9ASD-nZDJ_wg2vi8ZFL2nuXvgK7Hg0QxmuKjpngZ3THOaT/s1600-h/palinclsa.jpg"><img style="WIDTH: 255px; HEIGHT: 341px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5385135994713529762" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjakY38YKUdwUCxe4Vd-rMd_euVJIpjmkuSg22rt0zHsKwX1wtI-dqZNdvuaI-og4Dp5QQ0fgVRzssTkmBCq4U1Cq3V9e_bih9ASD-nZDJ_wg2vi8ZFL2nuXvgK7Hg0QxmuKjpngZ3THOaT/s200/palinclsa.jpg" /></a> </p><p align="center"><strong>Or Was she "punked" with a six figure payoff?<br /></strong></p><p align="left">The CLSA (Credit Lyonnais Securities Asia-Hong Kong) Investors Forum in Asia features former Republican nominee for Vice-President, Sarah Palin discussing China as well as other foreign policy subjects. This is Sarah Palin's first keynote speech outside the boundaries of North America.<br /><br />Jonathan Slone, the CEO of CLSA, said that Sarah Palin was asked to speak on U.S. foreign policy, healthcare, governance, and China. The keynote speech by Palin to investors in China was closed to the media. She did acknowledge that her speech would be "different" with the media in the room.<br /><br />The CLSA decided that their clients were more important than the possible media circus they would get with "media types trying to prove how stupid Sarah Palin is".<br /><br /><br />No doubt there will most likely be a youtube video of Sarah Palin's foreign policy speech about China and other issues that will be posted not long after the speech is finished. Sarah Palin was due to speak at the forum today.<br /><br />CLSA<br />From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:<br /><br /><br />Business Type: Private Founded: Hong Kong (1986) Headquarters: Hong Kong, China </p><p align="left">Key people: Jonathan Slone, Chairman and CEO Industry: Diversified financials </p><p align="left">Products: Financial services Employees: 1,350 (2009) Website: www.clsa.com<br /><br />CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets is one of the region's largest and most highly rated independent equity brokers and financial-services groups, focused on providing broking, investment banking and asset management to corporate and institutional clients around the world.[1][2]<br /><br />Founded in 1986, CLSA has its headquarters in Hong Kong and offices or representatives in 15 cities across the Asia-Pacific region, as well as New York, London, San Francisco and Dubai. CLSA is majority owned (65%) by Crédit Agricole, France's largest retail-banking group, with the remainder held by staff.<br /><br />Unlike most of its competitors, CLSA is a research-driven agency broker.[3] It's known for its annual investor forums (particularly the calibre of its keynote speakers and the star acts at its parties), as well as its unique reports, the hallmarks of which are colourful and sometimes irreverent "cartoon" covers[4], outrageous pranks at gatherings, and analysis that goes beyond the numbers and 'tells the story' (a legacy of the journalism background of its founders). It has produced a number of seminal reports, including Billion Boomers and Mr & Mrs Asia </p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4589357091649887824.post-52068298304625006052009-09-23T05:27:00.000-07:002009-09-23T05:30:49.712-07:00The Values Voter Summit: A Sampling<div><div align="left"><strong>Ordinarily, I would consider this some kind of stand-up comedy routine....But, these people are serious and this is no joke:</strong> </div><div align="left" style="text-align: center"> </div><div style="text-align: center"><object classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0" width="425" height="344"><param name="width" value="425" /><param name="height" value="344" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /><param name="src" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/B2Rp0B_s7q4&rel=0&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&feature=player_embedded&fs=1" /><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425" height="344" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/B2Rp0B_s7q4&rel=0&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&feature=player_embedded&fs=1"></embed></object></div></div><div style="text-align: center"><object classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0" width="425" height="344"><param name="width" value="425" /><param name="height" value="344" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /><param name="src" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/TnSb1j2ccwg&rel=0&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&feature=player_embedded&fs=1" /><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425" height="344" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/TnSb1j2ccwg&rel=0&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&feature=player_embedded&fs=1"></embed></object></div><div style="text-align: center"> </div><div align="left"><strong>This is the stand-up comedy routine performed by Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO) at the Values Voter Summit that only a certain kind of indvidual would find humorous.... <div align="left"><strong></strong> </div></strong></div><div align="left"><strong> </strong></div><div style="text-align: center"><object classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0" width="425" height="344"><param name="width" value="425" /><param name="height" value="344" /><param name="src" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Ul_TpDvxUJM&hl=en&fs=1&" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425" height="344" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Ul_TpDvxUJM&hl=en&fs=1&" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object></div><div style="text-align: center"> </div><div style="text-align: center"><strong>Then there's this; the Right Wing understanding of the constitutional principle of separation of church and state:</strong> </div><div style="text-align: center"> </div><div style="text-align: center"><object classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0" width="425" height="344"><param name="width" value="425" /><param name="height" value="344" /><param name="src" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/ASJOJREixbU&hl=en&fs=1&" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425" height="344" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/ASJOJREixbU&hl=en&fs=1&" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object></div><div style="text-align: center"> </div><div align="left"><strong>And this: An anti-abortionist V V speaker wants us to "hear angels singing as we ponder the glory of conception".</strong> </div><div align="left"> </div><div style="text-align: center"><object classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0" width="425" height="344"><param name="width" value="425" /><param name="height" value="344" /><param name="src" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/hyyXQtQBKBw&hl=en&fs=1&" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425" height="344" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/hyyXQtQBKBw&hl=en&fs=1&" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object></div><div align="left" style="text-align: center"> </div><div align="left"><strong> I am sure that there are a few women at OS who could tell this young lady a thing or two about "hearing angels" and about the many and various</strong><strong><strong> other things she might wish to hear.</strong></strong><strong><strong> They know she might want to "ponder the glory" of getting a good f**k. ;-) Which, if she works at it really hard, and has a bit of luck, might well occur prior to conception.</strong></strong> </div><div align="left"><strong> </strong> </div><div align="left"><strong><strong>Contraception </strong></strong><strong><strong>and birth control being what they are today, </strong></strong> </div><div align="left"><strong><strong>she doesn't need to be overly concerned with the prospect or consequences of conception, unless she is so inclined.</strong> </strong> </div><div align="left"><strong> </strong><strong> </strong></div><div align="center"><strong>NOW FOR RACHEL MADDOW'S PREQUEL TO ALL OF THIS:</strong></div><div align="left"><strong> </strong></div><div style="text-align: center"><object classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0" width="485" height="294"><param name="width" value="485" /><param name="height" value="294" /><param name="src" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/-7y9godt2fc&hl=en&fs=1&" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="485" height="294" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/-7y9godt2fc&hl=en&fs=1&" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object></div><div align="left" style="text-align: center"> </div><div align="left"><div align="left"><strong>Never undersetimate the power of stupid people in large numbers.</strong></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0