We can get along without the many, many ways in which you are thieving and destroying in our
country.
In North America, you are using your Brand to destroy the entire water system on at least half the
planet. Does that mean the other half will remain unaffected?
No. No it does not.
The destruction in our oceans you help engender in such a major way is a function of time, a shorter,
and geometrically shorter time each day you refuse to clean up what you did.
The continuing clean up will cost a lot of money. The jobs you claim to create in our county- let some
other company do that. You are reportedly the thieves paying people to make false claims so that you can deny all claims. Just get out.
Wednesday, July 30, 2014
The Detroit Vote For County, etc.
Maurice Brunson and Dion Williams are on my ballot as candidates for Wayne County Delegate.
I can find no information on either of them. Shouldn't they be getting in touch? Is District 7 to big
to access? I never used to think of it in that way.
We also have some awful ideas floated in this election.
At least one woman candidate wants to advance the privatization of schools.
Another woman on our ballots is a right-to-life advocate.
To me, these are awful things to advance.
We don't have any trouble getting abortions in Detroit, thank heavens, but it's costly.
I don't look forward to that changing in any way. Our citizens have enough life challenges. When
in need of constitutionally protected rights, they don't need the burdens of looking for a safe place
to get treatment, or searching for places far from where they live.
Burdening them thus would be positively barbarous.
Finding a school that is a Detroit Public school has always been imperative to our family.
We used to be able to access the schools without trouble. Now we have the nightmare of having to
search and be certain because once a child enrolls in on of Governor Snyder's grotesque school
programs, it's nearly impossible to get that youngster unenrolled. The whole process is a disgusting
trap. We have been lucky enough to avoid it so far. I wish us luck, We have to get through high school now.
We are asked to vote for the libraries, which I don't resent as much as I resent the mammoth museum.
Museums are often treasuries of stolen foreign treasure. And in Detroit the square footage of the
great place which welcomes the Detroit public compared to the entire square footage of the place is
a really big fat joke. Always has been.
The state wants us to vote to end the yearly taxes businesses pay on equipment. Such a dumb idea.
Businesses here have enough breaks now. They even get bailed out.
And we are to vote for millage to benefit the Wayne County School District. Another big fat joke.
Detroiters have never turned down a school millage for our city schools. What good has that done for
us now? Does the Governor respect that? No. And has the county school district ever reached out to
us in any meaningful way?
No. No it has not.
I can find no information on either of them. Shouldn't they be getting in touch? Is District 7 to big
to access? I never used to think of it in that way.
We also have some awful ideas floated in this election.
At least one woman candidate wants to advance the privatization of schools.
Another woman on our ballots is a right-to-life advocate.
To me, these are awful things to advance.
We don't have any trouble getting abortions in Detroit, thank heavens, but it's costly.
I don't look forward to that changing in any way. Our citizens have enough life challenges. When
in need of constitutionally protected rights, they don't need the burdens of looking for a safe place
to get treatment, or searching for places far from where they live.
Burdening them thus would be positively barbarous.
Finding a school that is a Detroit Public school has always been imperative to our family.
We used to be able to access the schools without trouble. Now we have the nightmare of having to
search and be certain because once a child enrolls in on of Governor Snyder's grotesque school
programs, it's nearly impossible to get that youngster unenrolled. The whole process is a disgusting
trap. We have been lucky enough to avoid it so far. I wish us luck, We have to get through high school now.
We are asked to vote for the libraries, which I don't resent as much as I resent the mammoth museum.
Museums are often treasuries of stolen foreign treasure. And in Detroit the square footage of the
great place which welcomes the Detroit public compared to the entire square footage of the place is
a really big fat joke. Always has been.
The state wants us to vote to end the yearly taxes businesses pay on equipment. Such a dumb idea.
Businesses here have enough breaks now. They even get bailed out.
And we are to vote for millage to benefit the Wayne County School District. Another big fat joke.
Detroiters have never turned down a school millage for our city schools. What good has that done for
us now? Does the Governor respect that? No. And has the county school district ever reached out to
us in any meaningful way?
No. No it has not.
August 5th In Detroit
We have three people running for County Executive on next month's 7th District ballot. Two of them
are African American.
Here's the thing. Burton Leland knocked on my door nearly forty years ago.
He asked us to vote for him.
He has two sons who live and work in the area.
One of his sons is a Detroit City Councilman.
His office is in downtown Detroit.
He hasn't always done everything my friends and I have wanted; but he has always been in touch.
He has initiatives in our District, and he follows through on them.
Burton Leland uses flyers on a regular basis to keep us informed.
Now, Ramon J. Patrick is an African-American young person running against Burton for the county
spot. The only bio I can find for him is that he is a Virginia businessman.
I did get a couple of calls from him belaboring the obvious problems in our District, such as
freeway grass not getting cut often enough. But we need lights on the freeway even more. Renisha
McBride may even have been afraid to knock on a door a little farther down the freeway.
So, I have nothing on which to base voting for him. I don't live in Virginia. And I don't have my
own lawnmower.
The other person running against Leland is Monique Baker McCormick.
She doesn't say what her vision of county service should be. She only says Burton Leland lives in
Lansing.
Well, he has a home in Detroit- so he pays taxes in Detroit. I appreciate that because he has paid
taxes here his entire adult life.
I can't say as much for many of my friends.
We live in Wayne County, the same county housing all the Grosse Pointes. I don't think anyone
has trouble visualizing the disparity this fact highlights.
We need all the knowledgeable pro-active help we can get. So we have to vote for the person who
knows this county well enough to do the work here. Anyone who has a plan for us should come forth
with it.
However, I already voted the way I've been voting for 40 years. Besides, Burton went to the same
Detroit Public School as Axel Foley Jr.- Mumford.
are African American.
Here's the thing. Burton Leland knocked on my door nearly forty years ago.
He asked us to vote for him.
He has two sons who live and work in the area.
One of his sons is a Detroit City Councilman.
His office is in downtown Detroit.
He hasn't always done everything my friends and I have wanted; but he has always been in touch.
He has initiatives in our District, and he follows through on them.
Burton Leland uses flyers on a regular basis to keep us informed.
Now, Ramon J. Patrick is an African-American young person running against Burton for the county
spot. The only bio I can find for him is that he is a Virginia businessman.
I did get a couple of calls from him belaboring the obvious problems in our District, such as
freeway grass not getting cut often enough. But we need lights on the freeway even more. Renisha
McBride may even have been afraid to knock on a door a little farther down the freeway.
So, I have nothing on which to base voting for him. I don't live in Virginia. And I don't have my
own lawnmower.
The other person running against Leland is Monique Baker McCormick.
She doesn't say what her vision of county service should be. She only says Burton Leland lives in
Lansing.
Well, he has a home in Detroit- so he pays taxes in Detroit. I appreciate that because he has paid
taxes here his entire adult life.
I can't say as much for many of my friends.
We live in Wayne County, the same county housing all the Grosse Pointes. I don't think anyone
has trouble visualizing the disparity this fact highlights.
We need all the knowledgeable pro-active help we can get. So we have to vote for the person who
knows this county well enough to do the work here. Anyone who has a plan for us should come forth
with it.
However, I already voted the way I've been voting for 40 years. Besides, Burton went to the same
Detroit Public School as Axel Foley Jr.- Mumford.
Israel Is Losing Soldiers
We have no idea how many Hamas operatives are being lost. We know Palestinian people are losing
moms, grandmoms, children. If their fighting groups aren't incurring losses ,though, what will stop the present hostilities?
moms, grandmoms, children. If their fighting groups aren't incurring losses ,though, what will stop the present hostilities?
Tuesday, July 29, 2014
David Kay Johnston Is Right
Altering pensions without the input and agreement of pensioners is wage theft. And I will add-
Republicans have decided on this because they've been unsuccessful at privatizing Social Security.
They sit with a napkin at their throats, salivating. They mean to eat your dinner, one way or the other.
If the Republican Party can't privatize your government pensions, it will raid your already private or other municipal pensions. This they did in 2008, and will continue to do in every way its members find themselves able to do.
Despite the sound of its name, the Republican Party does NOT believe in the public, unless they are
fleecing it.
How dare you attempt to retire with some assets and income. You are not one of the 1%. What nerve.
Republicans have decided on this because they've been unsuccessful at privatizing Social Security.
They sit with a napkin at their throats, salivating. They mean to eat your dinner, one way or the other.
If the Republican Party can't privatize your government pensions, it will raid your already private or other municipal pensions. This they did in 2008, and will continue to do in every way its members find themselves able to do.
Despite the sound of its name, the Republican Party does NOT believe in the public, unless they are
fleecing it.
How dare you attempt to retire with some assets and income. You are not one of the 1%. What nerve.
Oh No! Those Are Kids!
Kids at the border could mean there will be less power for 61% of America's white voting populace,
and President Obama doesn't even care! What is going on?
President Obama didn't want to be the 'deporter in chief', but Republicans insisted he become that official.
Now that we have a crisis, they won't help undo the damage. So fine. If President Obama acts on his
own, it will be incumbent on them to try to undo his facilitation. And one thing that will mean for a
long, long time, is that the Republicans really can kiss the White House good-bye for practically time
immemorial. The bulk of the Hispanic community will not be going back to Central and South America...and they are not going back home.
Ordinary people had better begin to be way more careful about who their state and local officials
actually are, and what their agendas really are.
President Obama has to be President of all the people, and sorry 'Teas' that means he is also
President of 39% of the white voting electorate too.
Maybe you should rethink some of your Davy Crockett fervor. Most of your ancestors didn't get to
America before all the rest of ours anyway. So get in line with your mouth-foaming demands.
and President Obama doesn't even care! What is going on?
President Obama didn't want to be the 'deporter in chief', but Republicans insisted he become that official.
Now that we have a crisis, they won't help undo the damage. So fine. If President Obama acts on his
own, it will be incumbent on them to try to undo his facilitation. And one thing that will mean for a
long, long time, is that the Republicans really can kiss the White House good-bye for practically time
immemorial. The bulk of the Hispanic community will not be going back to Central and South America...and they are not going back home.
Ordinary people had better begin to be way more careful about who their state and local officials
actually are, and what their agendas really are.
President Obama has to be President of all the people, and sorry 'Teas' that means he is also
President of 39% of the white voting electorate too.
Maybe you should rethink some of your Davy Crockett fervor. Most of your ancestors didn't get to
America before all the rest of ours anyway. So get in line with your mouth-foaming demands.
People- Read The Illiad Again
Why would we listen to one teeny tiny word coming out of the mouths of Rand Paul, or Paul Ryan,
or any other self-important of social mindlessness.
Why do we continue to wax nostalgic about the good old days of Abe Lincoln Republicanism, or even Jack Kemp Republicanism?
Those days are over. That's what the tea party is here to drive home. Are we deaf and daft?
If you like their ideas, float them to any constituency. Good luck.
Many Democrats complain bitterly about what President Obama cannot do. A plurality of them however, would not ever vote for someone else.
Let's recall the horrible surprise the Greeks had inside their great, impressive-looking gift horse to Troy.
or any other self-important of social mindlessness.
Why do we continue to wax nostalgic about the good old days of Abe Lincoln Republicanism, or even Jack Kemp Republicanism?
Those days are over. That's what the tea party is here to drive home. Are we deaf and daft?
If you like their ideas, float them to any constituency. Good luck.
Many Democrats complain bitterly about what President Obama cannot do. A plurality of them however, would not ever vote for someone else.
Let's recall the horrible surprise the Greeks had inside their great, impressive-looking gift horse to Troy.
Due Process
Due process is for criminals on TV shows like Snapped, Dateline, ID TV, Forensic Files, Justice Files, American Justice, etc.
Serial killers get due process.
We can't jump to conclusions with those people.
People who may be selling "loosies", sitting on stoops while mentally weak, knocking on the front door, playing loud music, reaching for a wallet, breaking up a fight, getting in a limo, surrendering in a Florida arrest, waving down police for help, walking on the side of the freeway, walking with iced tea- well now, America hasn't tortured these kind of people enough in the 17th century, the 18th century, the 19th century, the twentieth century, and now. These sorts of people have to be cut down. Cut them down in the blink of an eye. Why would these people get due process? They aren't killers.
America even admitted scores of European immigrants to help in the degradation of these people.
I hear Burkino Faso is nice this time of year, though.
I heard on the news last week that there was a lot of corruption in their government. I nearly fell off
the couch with laughter; but I should be ashamed to laugh at corruption. I just couldn't figure out if the report was coming from the kettle or the pot.
Another news report said Burkina Faso was a very poor country.
Ha Ha...like the country of Detroit with no running water in many places- or the country of the
Ninth Ward in New Orleans where a natural disaster caused The New York Times and Anderson Cooper to refer to displaced Americans as "refugees"?
Ha Ha...it is to laugh...a very poor country.
Serial killers get due process.
We can't jump to conclusions with those people.
People who may be selling "loosies", sitting on stoops while mentally weak, knocking on the front door, playing loud music, reaching for a wallet, breaking up a fight, getting in a limo, surrendering in a Florida arrest, waving down police for help, walking on the side of the freeway, walking with iced tea- well now, America hasn't tortured these kind of people enough in the 17th century, the 18th century, the 19th century, the twentieth century, and now. These sorts of people have to be cut down. Cut them down in the blink of an eye. Why would these people get due process? They aren't killers.
America even admitted scores of European immigrants to help in the degradation of these people.
I hear Burkino Faso is nice this time of year, though.
I heard on the news last week that there was a lot of corruption in their government. I nearly fell off
the couch with laughter; but I should be ashamed to laugh at corruption. I just couldn't figure out if the report was coming from the kettle or the pot.
Another news report said Burkina Faso was a very poor country.
Ha Ha...like the country of Detroit with no running water in many places- or the country of the
Ninth Ward in New Orleans where a natural disaster caused The New York Times and Anderson Cooper to refer to displaced Americans as "refugees"?
Ha Ha...it is to laugh...a very poor country.
What Are We Missing About The New Lynching Styles?
Armed gunmen don badges and cut down young black men in the streets.
Now, isn't that the dream of every Klan member everywhere?
Now, isn't that the dream of every Klan member everywhere?
All These Reasonable Right-Thinking Non Judgemental Alive People
So many living, breathing people who didn't know Eric Garner are so certain we can't claim racism in
Mr. Garner's murder. But-
Yes. Yes we can. And we do.
Mr. Garner's murder. But-
Yes. Yes we can. And we do.
Is Israel Wasting Their IDF Personnel?
I don't see Israel taking out too many Hamas fighters. Isn't there a way an international force could
take out the tunnels the way it got the chemical weapons out of Syria?
Why lose soldiers and grannies and little ones to take out tunnels when scores of tunnelers will be lift behind?
There has to be a better way.
What does winning look like for Israel?
Israel is a state. Hamas is not. What sort of negotiations can take place?
What does the world want to see from this conflict that will facilitate an actual peace?
Neither Israel nor Hamas can settle this conflict.
We likely need an impartial negotiating team. But where would we find that?
There are no colonies on the moon.
Switzerland and Kuwait maybe? They could add facilitator countries along the way.
take out the tunnels the way it got the chemical weapons out of Syria?
Why lose soldiers and grannies and little ones to take out tunnels when scores of tunnelers will be lift behind?
There has to be a better way.
What does winning look like for Israel?
Israel is a state. Hamas is not. What sort of negotiations can take place?
What does the world want to see from this conflict that will facilitate an actual peace?
Neither Israel nor Hamas can settle this conflict.
We likely need an impartial negotiating team. But where would we find that?
There are no colonies on the moon.
Switzerland and Kuwait maybe? They could add facilitator countries along the way.
Wednesday, July 23, 2014
Is The U.S. Trying To Become The New North Korea?
Corporations enjoy well- prepared, delicious meals.
The Military gets more money than other entities.
Women can be paid unequally.
Unions are thought unnecessary by our government.
Photos of injustice are illegal, as are videos.
Executions can be done in secret and/or, according to the suffering of the victims in question.
Or perhaps we are Saudis.
One percent of our population keeps the rest of us second class and silent.
What about our rights under the constitution we believe was begun for PERSONS.
The Military gets more money than other entities.
Women can be paid unequally.
Unions are thought unnecessary by our government.
Photos of injustice are illegal, as are videos.
Executions can be done in secret and/or, according to the suffering of the victims in question.
Or perhaps we are Saudis.
One percent of our population keeps the rest of us second class and silent.
What about our rights under the constitution we believe was begun for PERSONS.
Rev. Al Sharpton Avenges Oprah
Years ago Oprah let her viewers know she was careful about eating beef.
Texas ranchers decided to sue her.
Dr. Phil indelicately offered her his services, and she repaid him by unleashing him on the rest of us.
Now Rev. Sharpton has told us about the horrible way cattle, even sick cattle are treated, then
killed and processed as food.
Further, he let us know that 'Ag Gag' rules have been enacted in many state legislatures to stop any
filming or other undercover work on these very obnoxious farms and ranches. ALEC (American
Legislative Exchange Council) of course, has written the legislation it serves up to state congressmen
and women- who enact it principally in Republican state legislatures.
So perhaps we can cut out some meat after all, without anyone being able to blame Oprah.
The pigs and chickens aren't being treated any better...not even the egg layers.
Texas ranchers decided to sue her.
Dr. Phil indelicately offered her his services, and she repaid him by unleashing him on the rest of us.
Now Rev. Sharpton has told us about the horrible way cattle, even sick cattle are treated, then
killed and processed as food.
Further, he let us know that 'Ag Gag' rules have been enacted in many state legislatures to stop any
filming or other undercover work on these very obnoxious farms and ranches. ALEC (American
Legislative Exchange Council) of course, has written the legislation it serves up to state congressmen
and women- who enact it principally in Republican state legislatures.
So perhaps we can cut out some meat after all, without anyone being able to blame Oprah.
The pigs and chickens aren't being treated any better...not even the egg layers.
Tuesday, July 22, 2014
We Shouldn't Still Be Black Mr.Garner
We are stubborn enough to love our ancestors and the work they did.
I went to school with the children of immigrants who could barely speak a word of English.
Those children, however, learned to speak English with no discernible accent at all within a few
years of first grade. Black youngsters,however, hundreds of years later, are slow, slow to abandon
the speech styles of their ancestors.
Those students I attended school with, years later, at our five year high school reunion, told me I sounded more like them than like other black people they'd met.
I replied, "Not exactly."
I began to use the Midwest accent I heard everyday at university. I started with: "Yuse guys..."
I didn't get too far with that. They cried uncle right away, asking me to stop.
I absolutely loved the way my grandma spoke, both my grandmas.
Though they were raised in the south, I could here they didn't sound like southern whites.
One of my favorite poems in all the world is 'When Dey 'Listed Colored Soldiers', by
Paul Laurence Dunbar. For me, that's American English. I remember telling one of my professors at university that even though many of us are losing our accents, our ancestors were the original citizens taught to speak English by Americans. He couldn't disagree.
Our ancestors have been in the new world, working, since 1619.
Not many can trace their heritage back 400 years.
Yet here we are, still, judged, tortured, assaulted, killed by people claiming the right to do it all.
Mr. Eric Garner was black, and this may be why police and EMS ignored his distress.
Reluctantly, we have to accept we have another martyr to the freedoms our ancestors worked to
achieve for us. We shouldn't still have to deal with martyrdom in an advances western society.
I thank the man who was not a minority, but who made the video public. The more people who
acknowledge injustice, the easier it is to root it out of our lives.
My heart goes out To Eric Garner's family, and to any other family or group in America who may
have lost a loved one for selling a cigarette.
I went to school with the children of immigrants who could barely speak a word of English.
Those children, however, learned to speak English with no discernible accent at all within a few
years of first grade. Black youngsters,however, hundreds of years later, are slow, slow to abandon
the speech styles of their ancestors.
Those students I attended school with, years later, at our five year high school reunion, told me I sounded more like them than like other black people they'd met.
I replied, "Not exactly."
I began to use the Midwest accent I heard everyday at university. I started with: "Yuse guys..."
I didn't get too far with that. They cried uncle right away, asking me to stop.
I absolutely loved the way my grandma spoke, both my grandmas.
Though they were raised in the south, I could here they didn't sound like southern whites.
One of my favorite poems in all the world is 'When Dey 'Listed Colored Soldiers', by
Paul Laurence Dunbar. For me, that's American English. I remember telling one of my professors at university that even though many of us are losing our accents, our ancestors were the original citizens taught to speak English by Americans. He couldn't disagree.
Our ancestors have been in the new world, working, since 1619.
Not many can trace their heritage back 400 years.
Yet here we are, still, judged, tortured, assaulted, killed by people claiming the right to do it all.
Mr. Eric Garner was black, and this may be why police and EMS ignored his distress.
Reluctantly, we have to accept we have another martyr to the freedoms our ancestors worked to
achieve for us. We shouldn't still have to deal with martyrdom in an advances western society.
I thank the man who was not a minority, but who made the video public. The more people who
acknowledge injustice, the easier it is to root it out of our lives.
My heart goes out To Eric Garner's family, and to any other family or group in America who may
have lost a loved one for selling a cigarette.
Whatever We Might Think- Putin Is Playing Hardball For The Long Game
President Obama issued public sanctions last Monday.
By Tuesday Putin was in our hemisphere, in Cuba by the way.
By Wednesday, Mr. Putin was in Argentina.
Thank heavens he didn't find himself chatting up the Venezuelans.
I'm old enough to have felt a paranormal of the terror we endured during "the Cuban missile crisis."
Perhaps Putin wants to avenge Krushev's aims for Russia.
On the other hand, I heard Krushev's grandaughter, Nina Krusheva, a Russia expert (go figure) say
Putin wants to show the world that if the U.S. can cross the seas to unseat and hang the leader of a
foreign country, and start a lengthy war in that country under false pretenses, then he can as well.
By Tuesday Putin was in our hemisphere, in Cuba by the way.
By Wednesday, Mr. Putin was in Argentina.
Thank heavens he didn't find himself chatting up the Venezuelans.
I'm old enough to have felt a paranormal of the terror we endured during "the Cuban missile crisis."
Perhaps Putin wants to avenge Krushev's aims for Russia.
On the other hand, I heard Krushev's grandaughter, Nina Krusheva, a Russia expert (go figure) say
Putin wants to show the world that if the U.S. can cross the seas to unseat and hang the leader of a
foreign country, and start a lengthy war in that country under false pretenses, then he can as well.
Is Russia A Legitimate Stock Market Player?
Around the first of April, President Barack Obama placed sanctions against billions of business and
individual dollars in Russia's economy. Europe went along with some of them.
But if Europe is truly the bank laundering Russia's gangland type money, someone should note the
Netherlands must not be fully playing along.
Days after President Obama's first set of sanctions went into effect over Russia's annexaton of the Crimea, Mr. Jan Peter Schmittman, his wife, and one of his daughters were found killed in their own
home. I felt at the time, and feel now, that Mr. Schmittman, CEO of the bank ABN AMRO Netherlands didn't feel he could circumvent the laws surrounding the sanctions enough to launder
the money Russian authorities may have insisted be made sterile.
A CEO in such a mammoth banking system does not suddenly lead a controversial enough life to
endanger himself and his family in a multiple homicide.
On TV, the remaining daughter would be suspect. In this case- I don't think any motive could be
activated for any such intention for the other family.
Now, again, President Obama has enacted new, stiffer sanctions for Russia for its incursion into the
Eastern Ukraine.
The Republicans in our Congress, who wanted stiff sanctions, still seemed dissatisfied with the strength of President Obama's foreign policy treatment of Russia.
Yet days after the President's new sanctions were made public, Russia closed all but one air lanes for
flight over the Ukraine. Thereby setting up Malaysian flight 17, mainly populated by Dutch citizens,
to be shot down by the Ukrainian pro-Russia separatists.
For four to five days, drunk and disorderly pro-Russian soldiers looted the bodies and belongings of
the innocent dead.
The Dutch government began to make entreaties to a myriad of world officials to intervene at least
enough to bet their dead returned.
As far as I can see, this was a deliberate mass murder.
How will Russia become a legitimate state actor in the world when organized crime has more power
in that country than any other entity?
I hope the Netherlands will be supported enough to make other countries prepare to stop doing
business with the gangland state.
individual dollars in Russia's economy. Europe went along with some of them.
But if Europe is truly the bank laundering Russia's gangland type money, someone should note the
Netherlands must not be fully playing along.
Days after President Obama's first set of sanctions went into effect over Russia's annexaton of the Crimea, Mr. Jan Peter Schmittman, his wife, and one of his daughters were found killed in their own
home. I felt at the time, and feel now, that Mr. Schmittman, CEO of the bank ABN AMRO Netherlands didn't feel he could circumvent the laws surrounding the sanctions enough to launder
the money Russian authorities may have insisted be made sterile.
A CEO in such a mammoth banking system does not suddenly lead a controversial enough life to
endanger himself and his family in a multiple homicide.
On TV, the remaining daughter would be suspect. In this case- I don't think any motive could be
activated for any such intention for the other family.
Now, again, President Obama has enacted new, stiffer sanctions for Russia for its incursion into the
Eastern Ukraine.
The Republicans in our Congress, who wanted stiff sanctions, still seemed dissatisfied with the strength of President Obama's foreign policy treatment of Russia.
Yet days after the President's new sanctions were made public, Russia closed all but one air lanes for
flight over the Ukraine. Thereby setting up Malaysian flight 17, mainly populated by Dutch citizens,
to be shot down by the Ukrainian pro-Russia separatists.
For four to five days, drunk and disorderly pro-Russian soldiers looted the bodies and belongings of
the innocent dead.
The Dutch government began to make entreaties to a myriad of world officials to intervene at least
enough to bet their dead returned.
As far as I can see, this was a deliberate mass murder.
How will Russia become a legitimate state actor in the world when organized crime has more power
in that country than any other entity?
I hope the Netherlands will be supported enough to make other countries prepare to stop doing
business with the gangland state.
Putin Read Shakespeare
Remember Macbeth form ninth grade lit? I guess Putin thought if Pol Pot based his ideology on an
ancient French tome, and G. W. Bush and Co. were imposing the Bard's Henry IV, then he,
a Russian Premier, should be able to play the games of the worst as well. What was his initial reply to the horrors of separatists shooting planes out of the sky? It was Macbeth's reply to Malcolm's murder: 'Thou canst not say I did it!'
Yes. Yes we can. And we do. We are not Russians.
ancient French tome, and G. W. Bush and Co. were imposing the Bard's Henry IV, then he,
a Russian Premier, should be able to play the games of the worst as well. What was his initial reply to the horrors of separatists shooting planes out of the sky? It was Macbeth's reply to Malcolm's murder: 'Thou canst not say I did it!'
Yes. Yes we can. And we do. We are not Russians.
Tuesday, July 15, 2014
Renee Ellmers
We haven't even heard from women yet. Women's voices are largely silent, minimal.
Ms. Ellmers should read Luce Irigary, if she can.
I always want and wait to hear a woman speak honestly with power and authority.
I sometimes heard it from my mother.
I heard it once from my friend in a Michigan Mall. She told a male display arranger in no uncertain
terms to go into the men's room and get her ( 10 year old ) son. The man was a total stranger to her.
I almost never hear women speak in that way. That happened forty years ago, but I won't forget it.
I had stereotyped her because she was slight, very blond, very western European ancestry, very
married.
She spoke without harshness, without rancor, without hysteria, but was tremendously stern and
unquestioningly fierce and demanding.
The young man she addressed was reluctant when she first made her wishes known, so she told
him again, in a tone and with a mannerism no could have mistaken, barely raising her voice a fraction
of a decibel.
What remains a shock to me even now is that this happened before 1970!
I knew her before this incident as a homemaker/occasional student who taught me to make
pumpkin bread the way her German grandma did.
After this incident I was careful to speak to her with more deference. She was no suburban gad-fly.
I think I was terrified of her after that.
I met one other such woman who was also a surprise.
She taught English at a city university, something I had done part time. Sorry if I've lost the skills.
I'd somehow gotten myself into a women's rights mode with other women educators.
A few of us were going on about how firmly committed we had to be to equal rights for women in
order to keep teeth in the movement.
Finally, one of the women in the group who hadn't said much piped up...'I used to be very committed,
and so were all my friends. But I can tell you for certain I dropped it whenever I had to for however
long I felt I needed to once my babies were born. When I had my son I decided that boy came before
anything else, all the time!'
I hadn't heard a woman's minority voice sound so strong and so certain and so forthright.
I'm from the Midwest though. Sometimes we're hicks. (The people who vandalized a building in
Michigan this week with graffiti spelled illegal- illeagle.)
Ms. Ellmers could hear women speak if she were listening. In order to hear a woman speak one has
make the woman feel it unnecessary to use soft tones or socially acceptable attitudes.
Alexis Goldstein is a woman who does speak, sometimes overspeaks- probably as a reflex from working in an aggressive male dominated environment.
I doubt Ms. Ellmers could ever understand a word Ms. Goldstein said; but she could practice trying.
I think it would be difficult for her even to try. She has obviously, like most people, not been
accustomed to hearing women speak.
Ms. Ellmers should read Luce Irigary, if she can.
I always want and wait to hear a woman speak honestly with power and authority.
I sometimes heard it from my mother.
I heard it once from my friend in a Michigan Mall. She told a male display arranger in no uncertain
terms to go into the men's room and get her ( 10 year old ) son. The man was a total stranger to her.
I almost never hear women speak in that way. That happened forty years ago, but I won't forget it.
I had stereotyped her because she was slight, very blond, very western European ancestry, very
married.
She spoke without harshness, without rancor, without hysteria, but was tremendously stern and
unquestioningly fierce and demanding.
The young man she addressed was reluctant when she first made her wishes known, so she told
him again, in a tone and with a mannerism no could have mistaken, barely raising her voice a fraction
of a decibel.
What remains a shock to me even now is that this happened before 1970!
I knew her before this incident as a homemaker/occasional student who taught me to make
pumpkin bread the way her German grandma did.
After this incident I was careful to speak to her with more deference. She was no suburban gad-fly.
I think I was terrified of her after that.
I met one other such woman who was also a surprise.
She taught English at a city university, something I had done part time. Sorry if I've lost the skills.
I'd somehow gotten myself into a women's rights mode with other women educators.
A few of us were going on about how firmly committed we had to be to equal rights for women in
order to keep teeth in the movement.
Finally, one of the women in the group who hadn't said much piped up...'I used to be very committed,
and so were all my friends. But I can tell you for certain I dropped it whenever I had to for however
long I felt I needed to once my babies were born. When I had my son I decided that boy came before
anything else, all the time!'
I hadn't heard a woman's minority voice sound so strong and so certain and so forthright.
I'm from the Midwest though. Sometimes we're hicks. (The people who vandalized a building in
Michigan this week with graffiti spelled illegal- illeagle.)
Ms. Ellmers could hear women speak if she were listening. In order to hear a woman speak one has
make the woman feel it unnecessary to use soft tones or socially acceptable attitudes.
Alexis Goldstein is a woman who does speak, sometimes overspeaks- probably as a reflex from working in an aggressive male dominated environment.
I doubt Ms. Ellmers could ever understand a word Ms. Goldstein said; but she could practice trying.
I think it would be difficult for her even to try. She has obviously, like most people, not been
accustomed to hearing women speak.
Lawrence O'Donnell
I was so very aggrieved at the loss of Lawrence at 10 pm on MSNBC.
I felt too guilty to remark, because it was he, not I, who was suffering the barely tolerable.
And then when he finally came back, I wanted to pinch myself.
I almost believe it now. I believe he will stay.
I wish him well, and hope this daily routine is good for him.
I know he cannot sit in that chair for us alone; but my days were palpably miserable
knowing he wouldn't be on my TV at night, even though Ari Melber is one of the funniest fun guys
in the news. Today, on his own show, Melber actually referred in a credible way to Wu Tang! He
is priceless.
Only now that Lawrence is back, all is right with the world.
I'll even try harder to understand his 'bwanna' streak. I hope he won't forget though how much Africans despised Albert Schweitzer. I couldn't understand it.
Now that Mr. O'Donnell is back, laughing is more fun, listening is more fun, being engaged is more
satisfying, feeling outrage is more bona fide- I could go on.
Thank you Lawrence O'Donnell, for coming back to work. Please be well.
I felt too guilty to remark, because it was he, not I, who was suffering the barely tolerable.
And then when he finally came back, I wanted to pinch myself.
I almost believe it now. I believe he will stay.
I wish him well, and hope this daily routine is good for him.
I know he cannot sit in that chair for us alone; but my days were palpably miserable
knowing he wouldn't be on my TV at night, even though Ari Melber is one of the funniest fun guys
in the news. Today, on his own show, Melber actually referred in a credible way to Wu Tang! He
is priceless.
Only now that Lawrence is back, all is right with the world.
I'll even try harder to understand his 'bwanna' streak. I hope he won't forget though how much Africans despised Albert Schweitzer. I couldn't understand it.
Now that Mr. O'Donnell is back, laughing is more fun, listening is more fun, being engaged is more
satisfying, feeling outrage is more bona fide- I could go on.
Thank you Lawrence O'Donnell, for coming back to work. Please be well.
Why Would Augusta, GA Arrest A Working Mom?
Republicanism.
A lady who works at McDonald's has a daughter.
The little girl was spending her summer at the family computer.
The little girl lost her access to the computer.
So, she asked her mom if she could spend her days at a neighborhood park.
The mom dropped her off, but the police found out about it.
Did the police give the mom a warning about this?
Did the police give the mom a ticket?
Did the police get the mom from work and make her pick up her daughter?
No, of course the police were dumb enough to arrest the mom.
Now is the little girl better off?
How will a McDonald's worker pay the ensuing court costs, or will the state pay them all?
How will that mom make up for her lost wages, or will the little girl have to step into that
breach of what mom cannot provide?
Who takes care of the little girl now? Or do officials care?
Was the child's father held to account?
Since women, and black women in droves, voted overwhelmingly for President Obama,
maybe officials have decided we have to pay. The message may be: don't do that again.
He won't be able to protect you from us.
We will beat you in the streets.
We will arrest you while you are postpartum.
We will arrest you for willfully sending your child to the wrong school.
We will arrest you if you let your child play outside while you are at work.
We will arrest you if you seem to have a drug problem, even after you have conceived.
If you are a black woman- you are fair game, and ripe for our systems of prisons and jails.
Of course, white women don't fare all that much better.
Martha Stewart seems to have gone to jail for not knuckling under when asked to save K Mart
from losses they didn't want. Why they'd hired an uneducated white male CEO was completely
beyond me. Weren't they begging for losses?
And there's the case a few years back of a lady in Michigan who was threatened for letting neighbor
children wait at her house for the school bus which stopped at her address- especially when it was
cold.
Authorities said she needed to pay for a child care license.
She tried on more than one occasion to explain the children were not there on any regular basis, and
even then only for a few moments.
She was spitting in the wind. Authorities in her town told her to stop or be arrested.
I think in the end she was as nice to the kids as she could be without letting them into he house.
It gets very very cold in Michigan, so the standard should be the weight of the risk for harm to each
party involved. But no, a group of children getting shelter for a few moments now and then from a
lady they know, a lady their parents know, in a quite small town, is a situational enemy of the state
of Michigan.
All of these things and more are brought to women courtesy of the Republican party of the U.S.A.
A lady who works at McDonald's has a daughter.
The little girl was spending her summer at the family computer.
The little girl lost her access to the computer.
So, she asked her mom if she could spend her days at a neighborhood park.
The mom dropped her off, but the police found out about it.
Did the police give the mom a warning about this?
Did the police give the mom a ticket?
Did the police get the mom from work and make her pick up her daughter?
No, of course the police were dumb enough to arrest the mom.
Now is the little girl better off?
How will a McDonald's worker pay the ensuing court costs, or will the state pay them all?
How will that mom make up for her lost wages, or will the little girl have to step into that
breach of what mom cannot provide?
Who takes care of the little girl now? Or do officials care?
Was the child's father held to account?
Since women, and black women in droves, voted overwhelmingly for President Obama,
maybe officials have decided we have to pay. The message may be: don't do that again.
He won't be able to protect you from us.
We will beat you in the streets.
We will arrest you while you are postpartum.
We will arrest you for willfully sending your child to the wrong school.
We will arrest you if you let your child play outside while you are at work.
We will arrest you if you seem to have a drug problem, even after you have conceived.
If you are a black woman- you are fair game, and ripe for our systems of prisons and jails.
Of course, white women don't fare all that much better.
Martha Stewart seems to have gone to jail for not knuckling under when asked to save K Mart
from losses they didn't want. Why they'd hired an uneducated white male CEO was completely
beyond me. Weren't they begging for losses?
And there's the case a few years back of a lady in Michigan who was threatened for letting neighbor
children wait at her house for the school bus which stopped at her address- especially when it was
cold.
Authorities said she needed to pay for a child care license.
She tried on more than one occasion to explain the children were not there on any regular basis, and
even then only for a few moments.
She was spitting in the wind. Authorities in her town told her to stop or be arrested.
I think in the end she was as nice to the kids as she could be without letting them into he house.
It gets very very cold in Michigan, so the standard should be the weight of the risk for harm to each
party involved. But no, a group of children getting shelter for a few moments now and then from a
lady they know, a lady their parents know, in a quite small town, is a situational enemy of the state
of Michigan.
All of these things and more are brought to women courtesy of the Republican party of the U.S.A.
Do You Have Ebola?
No. No you don't.
You could have it if you are in Africa.
No one on the other five CONTINENTS, not countries, CONTINENTS, has Ebola.
Now if I know that, why wouldn't elected officials in Georgia know that?
Also know that Central and South American parents tend to vaccinate children even more than
many mercury-terrified U.S. parents do.
If you are worried about disease, worry about children in Detroit, for instance, who may have to leave
Michigan after having been exposed to a lack of water for many days or weeks.
Children on the border do at least have water to wash in and to drink.
They may be subject to much less disease than some in the U.S. who are citizens.
You could have it if you are in Africa.
No one on the other five CONTINENTS, not countries, CONTINENTS, has Ebola.
Now if I know that, why wouldn't elected officials in Georgia know that?
Also know that Central and South American parents tend to vaccinate children even more than
many mercury-terrified U.S. parents do.
If you are worried about disease, worry about children in Detroit, for instance, who may have to leave
Michigan after having been exposed to a lack of water for many days or weeks.
Children on the border do at least have water to wash in and to drink.
They may be subject to much less disease than some in the U.S. who are citizens.
Where Are The American Banks On Border Crisis?
Shouldn't someone say, 'Donate to children in the border crisis by texting or otherwise sending cash to account # (whatever) at such and such a bank'?
Someone with a charity or other foundation authority should be weighing in on responding to the
children besides the 'hollering' class.
Letting crazies be the voice of America on the nightly news makes us crazy and it makes the news
just as nutty.
The Press needs to cover some less sensational responses to these children because those responses
have to be news as well.
Democrats beg for campaign money on a constant basis.
Republicans seek campaign funds unrelentingly.
Our President is asking for funds to give the children care on their way to due process.
Since Congress is in the way of that, we should get in gear to do it ourselves.
Show me a website.
Our Red Cross is not authorized to help; but we still can.
Someone with a charity or other foundation authority should be weighing in on responding to the
children besides the 'hollering' class.
Letting crazies be the voice of America on the nightly news makes us crazy and it makes the news
just as nutty.
The Press needs to cover some less sensational responses to these children because those responses
have to be news as well.
Democrats beg for campaign money on a constant basis.
Republicans seek campaign funds unrelentingly.
Our President is asking for funds to give the children care on their way to due process.
Since Congress is in the way of that, we should get in gear to do it ourselves.
Show me a website.
Our Red Cross is not authorized to help; but we still can.
Sunday, July 13, 2014
Ta Nehisi Coates and Jonathan Chait
Some weeks back Ta Nehisi Coates wrote a piece on reparations for descendants of African and American slaves.
I felt it insightful; but not quite aware of how much of that money would have to come from
Great Britain.
The English grew magnificently rich from American slave colonies for more than 150 years.
In the 87 years between the end of the American Revolution and the Emancipation Proclamation,
we shouldn't kid ourselves. British concerns collected funds from American enterprises.
Doesn't the Queen own land in California, at least, even now?
Many Americans begged the British, face to face, right in Parliament, not to turn their colonies into
what they left behind in Europe, the landed gentry and everyone else out of work.
But the British knew they'd either have to grow as rich as France, Spain, and Portugal were getting,
or risk losing a war with those countries if they began to seek more land, more seaports, more
industries across the Channel.
The British also knew their merchants and banks and insurers were looking to make back the money
they'd spent fighting off the Indians and French the New World colonists had neither the money, nor
expertise to handle.
Mr. Chait, in an answer written for The New Yorker magazine to Mr. Coates' article, used a sweeping hand to go from slavery to emancipation, to civil rights legislation.
We descendants of slaves in this country endured so very many deadly scourges between those named
events, they are nearly too many to list. And every one of them cost us many many bundles of gold.
I felt it insightful; but not quite aware of how much of that money would have to come from
Great Britain.
The English grew magnificently rich from American slave colonies for more than 150 years.
In the 87 years between the end of the American Revolution and the Emancipation Proclamation,
we shouldn't kid ourselves. British concerns collected funds from American enterprises.
Doesn't the Queen own land in California, at least, even now?
Many Americans begged the British, face to face, right in Parliament, not to turn their colonies into
what they left behind in Europe, the landed gentry and everyone else out of work.
But the British knew they'd either have to grow as rich as France, Spain, and Portugal were getting,
or risk losing a war with those countries if they began to seek more land, more seaports, more
industries across the Channel.
The British also knew their merchants and banks and insurers were looking to make back the money
they'd spent fighting off the Indians and French the New World colonists had neither the money, nor
expertise to handle.
Mr. Chait, in an answer written for The New Yorker magazine to Mr. Coates' article, used a sweeping hand to go from slavery to emancipation, to civil rights legislation.
We descendants of slaves in this country endured so very many deadly scourges between those named
events, they are nearly too many to list. And every one of them cost us many many bundles of gold.
Oh My Goodness! LeBron James Is An American Man!!!
When LeBron James went to the Heat, I thought everyone whose hair caught fire had gone insane.
Akron didn't raise Mr. James. Cleveland didn't raise Mr. James. I know people from Akron. I know
people from Cleveland. A lot of those people helped elect John Kasich. Would LeBron James be
confused about the people of Akron, as though he owed them indentured servitude?
His mom raised him. His family reared him. Some guys his age and race really did need Akron. They
got nothing but grief, and a shrug or two of the city shoulders. Does anyone doubt LeBron James saw
that growing up where he did?
His first loyalty was to himself and his friends when he left Cleveland because Akron was not too
important to see principally when he had time for frequent visits.
His indebtedness made for great journalism; but unlike good journalism, there was nothing real about
it. Because it wasn't real, Mr. James was free to play where he wanted to play...thank goodness!
All of America has always been as unfair to black men who work as possible, in countless instances.
LeBron James honored every last one of them by doing exactly what he wanted to do exactly when he wanted to do it. Good for him. They were and are the ones to whom is in indebted, to whom we all
are indebted. This time, one of us who was paying them back got noticed. Hallelujah.
And now if Mr. James worked out a deal where he can go back to Cleveland, I hope it is again a time
where he has been able to do exactly what he wants to do, at exactly the time he wants to do it, in the way he wants to do it.
He also owes all the young men whose labors are robbed each and every year for the sake of everyone else's athletics, and everyone else's million dollar salaries and pensions.
He is in some sense paying back their spirits, the spirits of decades of young black men who worked hard to get millions into the coffers of American colleges and universities with little or nothing
promised to them in return. Thank you Mr. LeBron James.
You owe Cleveland now what you owed them then, and not one drop of worry or perspiration more-
a day's work for a day's fair pay, for as long as your contract lasts there. If you and Cleveland love
one another, so much the better. I'd have to imagine it will be because you are both having fun, and
both getting rich. Miami is no less deserving, never has been. It's your call LeBron James. Do what
you like. That's your job at this time in history, and at this time in your life.
'
Akron didn't raise Mr. James. Cleveland didn't raise Mr. James. I know people from Akron. I know
people from Cleveland. A lot of those people helped elect John Kasich. Would LeBron James be
confused about the people of Akron, as though he owed them indentured servitude?
His mom raised him. His family reared him. Some guys his age and race really did need Akron. They
got nothing but grief, and a shrug or two of the city shoulders. Does anyone doubt LeBron James saw
that growing up where he did?
His first loyalty was to himself and his friends when he left Cleveland because Akron was not too
important to see principally when he had time for frequent visits.
His indebtedness made for great journalism; but unlike good journalism, there was nothing real about
it. Because it wasn't real, Mr. James was free to play where he wanted to play...thank goodness!
All of America has always been as unfair to black men who work as possible, in countless instances.
LeBron James honored every last one of them by doing exactly what he wanted to do exactly when he wanted to do it. Good for him. They were and are the ones to whom is in indebted, to whom we all
are indebted. This time, one of us who was paying them back got noticed. Hallelujah.
And now if Mr. James worked out a deal where he can go back to Cleveland, I hope it is again a time
where he has been able to do exactly what he wants to do, at exactly the time he wants to do it, in the way he wants to do it.
He also owes all the young men whose labors are robbed each and every year for the sake of everyone else's athletics, and everyone else's million dollar salaries and pensions.
He is in some sense paying back their spirits, the spirits of decades of young black men who worked hard to get millions into the coffers of American colleges and universities with little or nothing
promised to them in return. Thank you Mr. LeBron James.
You owe Cleveland now what you owed them then, and not one drop of worry or perspiration more-
a day's work for a day's fair pay, for as long as your contract lasts there. If you and Cleveland love
one another, so much the better. I'd have to imagine it will be because you are both having fun, and
both getting rich. Miami is no less deserving, never has been. It's your call LeBron James. Do what
you like. That's your job at this time in history, and at this time in your life.
'
T Payne/ Rick Ross/ Wiz etc. and...POTUS
Normally, I'll watch every moment of the televised White House Press Core Dinner.
I couldn't do it this year.
I could hear Neil Diamond's voice, "We're comin' to the end, comin' to the end'...
But mainly I could myself laughing at POTUS coming out last year to 'All I do is win, win, win'...
And I began to sing 'no matter what'...
This year I thought, POTUS will be there smiling and joking and looking amused- in a pit of vipers.
I was sorry. I couldn't hang in there with POTUS this year. He couldn't miss me.
He was busy laughing, cajoling, kidding, in a big big pit of big nasty vipers.
Oh I know the fair and (sometimes) balancing part of the press was there too...in a big nasty pit of big nasty vipers.
I couldn't do it this year.
I could hear Neil Diamond's voice, "We're comin' to the end, comin' to the end'...
But mainly I could myself laughing at POTUS coming out last year to 'All I do is win, win, win'...
And I began to sing 'no matter what'...
This year I thought, POTUS will be there smiling and joking and looking amused- in a pit of vipers.
I was sorry. I couldn't hang in there with POTUS this year. He couldn't miss me.
He was busy laughing, cajoling, kidding, in a big big pit of big nasty vipers.
Oh I know the fair and (sometimes) balancing part of the press was there too...in a big nasty pit of big nasty vipers.
Saturday, July 12, 2014
POTUS At The Border: Worse Than Alexander's Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Day
Should POTUS go to the border to speak to children and parents?
Should he speak English or Spanish?
Should he say, "I am head of the most powerful country in the world, but I am required to work with
'Congress', and they won't let me help you. Sorry. Sucks to be all of you."
Or should he say, "I am going to help you! You can stay in the U.S. without penalty and everything is
going to be fine!"
Or maybe POTUS could say, "I have no idea how any of this will turn out. I wish I could offer some
guidance on the law and the lack of good will some Americans are showing you. Perhaps it's because
they are Christian? Those shouting at you are the same ones who go on and on ad nauseum about how Christian they are."
Or maybe POTUS should stick to talking to us about our borders.
We are the ones who seem intent on running the Roman Empire into the ground again, while complaining there are barbarians at the gate. But, am I wrong now? Don't we already know how that
turns out?
I think when American Christians begin to go on about religion, what they mean is, 'I am not Muslim,
or Buddhist, or Shinto, or Hindi. They could care less about Christianity in the bodies of our neighbors to the south.
Who among them has offered any alternatives?
Say we fly all those people at our borders back to their home countries tomorrow.
Won't they still come back or be replaced by others in their country unless we seek some root causes
for their sudden exoduses in the first place?
Won't we wind up with some sort of back and forth situation?
I would like to know what the extreme right wing suggests we do and pay to round up little kids and
send them back over and over again.
See, here's the thing. Their parents don't want to see them in mass graves, or as the Desaparacidos
of Argentina.
Or what? Do you think POTUS intends to spend the rest of his life and presidency as Joel Brand?
POTUS has no intention at all of listening to your terrible, horrible, no good very bad idea.
Very, very bad idea.
No intention whatsoever...
Thank you President Obama. Some thought because you had an odd last name it might be
Epomonandous. That is NOT your name.
Should he speak English or Spanish?
Should he say, "I am head of the most powerful country in the world, but I am required to work with
'Congress', and they won't let me help you. Sorry. Sucks to be all of you."
Or should he say, "I am going to help you! You can stay in the U.S. without penalty and everything is
going to be fine!"
Or maybe POTUS could say, "I have no idea how any of this will turn out. I wish I could offer some
guidance on the law and the lack of good will some Americans are showing you. Perhaps it's because
they are Christian? Those shouting at you are the same ones who go on and on ad nauseum about how Christian they are."
Or maybe POTUS should stick to talking to us about our borders.
We are the ones who seem intent on running the Roman Empire into the ground again, while complaining there are barbarians at the gate. But, am I wrong now? Don't we already know how that
turns out?
I think when American Christians begin to go on about religion, what they mean is, 'I am not Muslim,
or Buddhist, or Shinto, or Hindi. They could care less about Christianity in the bodies of our neighbors to the south.
Who among them has offered any alternatives?
Say we fly all those people at our borders back to their home countries tomorrow.
Won't they still come back or be replaced by others in their country unless we seek some root causes
for their sudden exoduses in the first place?
Won't we wind up with some sort of back and forth situation?
I would like to know what the extreme right wing suggests we do and pay to round up little kids and
send them back over and over again.
See, here's the thing. Their parents don't want to see them in mass graves, or as the Desaparacidos
of Argentina.
Or what? Do you think POTUS intends to spend the rest of his life and presidency as Joel Brand?
POTUS has no intention at all of listening to your terrible, horrible, no good very bad idea.
Very, very bad idea.
No intention whatsoever...
Thank you President Obama. Some thought because you had an odd last name it might be
Epomonandous. That is NOT your name.
SCOTUS: An Enemy Of Its Own People
SCOTUS hates its people so much, that it denies they even exist.
Any aggregate SCOTUS designates as a person is endowed with inalienable rights.
SCOTUS, therefore, is our latest creator.
SCOTUS, is, as a matter of fact, the Creator-In-Chief- since we had no corporations in the Garden of Eden.
SCOTUS has rewritten Genesis, over and over again.
Soon, SCOTUS will have rendered itself a vestigial organ, as corporations will prohibit any real person or small company from bringing any case before the court.
These corps will have the money, the personhood, and the religious fiction to prevent any case from being presented to the court.
The majority on the SCOTUS is as dumb as it was March 6, 1857...and so proud about it. We do remember you, Dred Scott.
Today's Chief Justice is a veritable wordsmith, or thinks he is.
He is like the old Geico guy, "madest thou look".
He says the way not to discriminate unjustly against people of the homo sapiens variety, is to pretend
we are not ever to be discriminating at all, about injustice or anything else.
What a slicky, tricky tongue?
Could grammar help?
There can be an important difference between an infinitive and a present participle.
If we are not a discriminating society, then injustice ceases to exist?
If injustice does not exist as a concept, then neither can justice.
Bwaa-ha-ha-ha!
I mean, Lol.
And, move on.org SCOTUS.
Go to the movies. Gosford Park is playing.
Any aggregate SCOTUS designates as a person is endowed with inalienable rights.
SCOTUS, therefore, is our latest creator.
SCOTUS, is, as a matter of fact, the Creator-In-Chief- since we had no corporations in the Garden of Eden.
SCOTUS has rewritten Genesis, over and over again.
Soon, SCOTUS will have rendered itself a vestigial organ, as corporations will prohibit any real person or small company from bringing any case before the court.
These corps will have the money, the personhood, and the religious fiction to prevent any case from being presented to the court.
The majority on the SCOTUS is as dumb as it was March 6, 1857...and so proud about it. We do remember you, Dred Scott.
Today's Chief Justice is a veritable wordsmith, or thinks he is.
He is like the old Geico guy, "madest thou look".
He says the way not to discriminate unjustly against people of the homo sapiens variety, is to pretend
we are not ever to be discriminating at all, about injustice or anything else.
What a slicky, tricky tongue?
Could grammar help?
There can be an important difference between an infinitive and a present participle.
If we are not a discriminating society, then injustice ceases to exist?
If injustice does not exist as a concept, then neither can justice.
Bwaa-ha-ha-ha!
I mean, Lol.
And, move on.org SCOTUS.
Go to the movies. Gosford Park is playing.
Trayvon: Highlighted A Craven Racial Hatred In The U.S.
The killer 'stood' his bloodied ground.
Trayvon was unable to 'stand' his.
The jury was unwilling to 'stand' on the ground of justice for Trayvon.
Trayvon was not quite so much like Emmit Till, because those killers hid from law enforcement.
Trayvon was not as much like Medgar Evers, because that killer hid from law enforcement.
Law enforcement embraced Trayvon's murder from the local level, to the state house, to the Florida
governor.
Many of us realize Trayvon has martyred himself so that we can open our eyes to this new expression
of hatred, and its power in America.
He did give us the gift of screaming for the murderer to stop what he was doing.
Even the killer's relative admitted the scream was that of a teen-aged boy.
Trayvon fought for his life and he did not go quietly.
As tragic as that is, we must hope it saves the life of even one other African American young person
who sees or senses someone "creepy" and is able to get away in time.
Trayvon was unable to 'stand' his.
The jury was unwilling to 'stand' on the ground of justice for Trayvon.
Trayvon was not quite so much like Emmit Till, because those killers hid from law enforcement.
Trayvon was not as much like Medgar Evers, because that killer hid from law enforcement.
Law enforcement embraced Trayvon's murder from the local level, to the state house, to the Florida
governor.
Many of us realize Trayvon has martyred himself so that we can open our eyes to this new expression
of hatred, and its power in America.
He did give us the gift of screaming for the murderer to stop what he was doing.
Even the killer's relative admitted the scream was that of a teen-aged boy.
Trayvon fought for his life and he did not go quietly.
As tragic as that is, we must hope it saves the life of even one other African American young person
who sees or senses someone "creepy" and is able to get away in time.
Friday, July 11, 2014
The Chris Hayes Effect
Chris Hayes uses a highly evolved and developed professionalism in the way he communicates a
desire to influence his listeners.
He hasn't said any of the things I am about to describe, but I am just giving an example of the 'kind' of thing he might say.
If he were arguing for gun control, he might say- 'I am not saying a gun is a little friend, but there are
some who seem to protect guns as though they were.'
With a tiny little sly reference to a slight deformity of something Al Pacino said in one of the bloodiest scenes in movies, Mr. Hayes can shift the minds of countless viewers to a film (Scarface) which is an actual anthem for many young men, but which shows guns are the least of an individual's
manhood.
Lately, I've seen other journalists attempting this nuanced speech.
Chris Hayes, though, is the master. He slips those zingers into referential culture speech so quickly,
I am tempted while watching to ask- 'Who was that masked man?'
desire to influence his listeners.
He hasn't said any of the things I am about to describe, but I am just giving an example of the 'kind' of thing he might say.
If he were arguing for gun control, he might say- 'I am not saying a gun is a little friend, but there are
some who seem to protect guns as though they were.'
With a tiny little sly reference to a slight deformity of something Al Pacino said in one of the bloodiest scenes in movies, Mr. Hayes can shift the minds of countless viewers to a film (Scarface) which is an actual anthem for many young men, but which shows guns are the least of an individual's
manhood.
Lately, I've seen other journalists attempting this nuanced speech.
Chris Hayes, though, is the master. He slips those zingers into referential culture speech so quickly,
I am tempted while watching to ask- 'Who was that masked man?'
We Are Now A Threat To The Biggest Central American Cash Crop
Now that states are legalizing marijuana, Central American drug cartels have to sell twice as much
heroin and cocaine to control the markets which have made them rich. They could instead go up on
the price of other drugs, but if they do that, they run more risks of drawing more law enforcement groups into their businesses. When addicted people find themselves short of cash for drugs, they
inevitably institute all sorts of crime to enrich themselves enough to pay for their substances.
Law enforcement gets slammed with an onslaught of all sorts of crimes, as well as an urgency to stop the source of the generation of these new crime waves.
I would say cartels who cannot control their countrysides anymore have told citizens there to "get out
or else". And I feel certain ordinary people don't have to be told twice.
Parents aren't going to send their children away alone unless they have no choice.
If your family were rounded up and you could send the young ones to America or have them killed-
what would you do?
These are people who lived, and worked, and took care of their young at the behest of the cartel.
When a cartel loses money, it loses power. It cannot pay enough people to watch and supervise enough people to protect all of its holdings. So why shouldn't it dispel a great many of these people?
What I can't understand is why the international consequences of legalized drugs haven't been
adequately anticipated by our elected officials. And where is the more realistic news analysis? Absent...
When a big violent entity loses market share, it likely reacts violently.
What's worse is that the families coming across waving down border patrol may principally be
decoys so that cartel bosses have a much easier time crossing into the country undetected.
If bosses are looking for new clients, they may not want to do it on email, right? And while you are
out doing your obvious screeching at little kids- the cartel may be at your house, quietly smiling while showing your kids how glamorous sniffing or injecting hard drugs can make a youngster feel.
What can you do? You aren't there. You are out attacking someone else's kids.
heroin and cocaine to control the markets which have made them rich. They could instead go up on
the price of other drugs, but if they do that, they run more risks of drawing more law enforcement groups into their businesses. When addicted people find themselves short of cash for drugs, they
inevitably institute all sorts of crime to enrich themselves enough to pay for their substances.
Law enforcement gets slammed with an onslaught of all sorts of crimes, as well as an urgency to stop the source of the generation of these new crime waves.
I would say cartels who cannot control their countrysides anymore have told citizens there to "get out
or else". And I feel certain ordinary people don't have to be told twice.
Parents aren't going to send their children away alone unless they have no choice.
If your family were rounded up and you could send the young ones to America or have them killed-
what would you do?
These are people who lived, and worked, and took care of their young at the behest of the cartel.
When a cartel loses money, it loses power. It cannot pay enough people to watch and supervise enough people to protect all of its holdings. So why shouldn't it dispel a great many of these people?
What I can't understand is why the international consequences of legalized drugs haven't been
adequately anticipated by our elected officials. And where is the more realistic news analysis? Absent...
When a big violent entity loses market share, it likely reacts violently.
What's worse is that the families coming across waving down border patrol may principally be
decoys so that cartel bosses have a much easier time crossing into the country undetected.
If bosses are looking for new clients, they may not want to do it on email, right? And while you are
out doing your obvious screeching at little kids- the cartel may be at your house, quietly smiling while showing your kids how glamorous sniffing or injecting hard drugs can make a youngster feel.
What can you do? You aren't there. You are out attacking someone else's kids.
Children From Anywhere Have Due Process
The entire country should be helping children crossing the border without parental supervision. I think Putin understands this, and is therefore in Cuba now encouraging people in our own
hemisphere, no doubt, to nurture their hatred and suspicion of the U. S. A.
We need to be the premier influence in this hemisphere, for good or for ill.
Now that Putin can't get the oil he wants the way he wants to get it in Ukraine, he has the chance to get it now from Cuba. This is risky for Russia; but it is not one bit good for us.
What do California mobs think they are showing their own children when they shout down busloads
of little children in flight.
What will the most frightened children around think of those mobs screaming at them ten or fifteen
years from now?
Will they dispel the images of goofy yokels shouting and threatening?
I hope so, because if those kids don't live here, they are going to live somewhere close to here.
hemisphere, no doubt, to nurture their hatred and suspicion of the U. S. A.
We need to be the premier influence in this hemisphere, for good or for ill.
Now that Putin can't get the oil he wants the way he wants to get it in Ukraine, he has the chance to get it now from Cuba. This is risky for Russia; but it is not one bit good for us.
What do California mobs think they are showing their own children when they shout down busloads
of little children in flight.
What will the most frightened children around think of those mobs screaming at them ten or fifteen
years from now?
Will they dispel the images of goofy yokels shouting and threatening?
I hope so, because if those kids don't live here, they are going to live somewhere close to here.
Kwame! Help Us!!!
I was going to vote for Warren Evans for Wayne County Executive. Now I'm not so sure.
The "one who calls himself Detroit mayor" is backing Warren Evans. That, I don't like at all.
The more time passes, the more I miss Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick.
He helped us with our inflated property taxes.
He refused to take away our schools.
He would never in a million years left thousands of us without water.
I also miss Mayor Dave Bing.
These men were truly elected.
Our politics is also complicated by the fact that many younger Detroit voters have been educated in
the suburbs. Their parents didn't explain to them how hard fought the gains which led them to be able to live in Detroit suburbs had been.
The less politically astute older voters in Detroit believe some of what Detroit newspapers said about
Kwame.
The most politically aware Detroit voters, and the voters who have less income than the most politically astute, all hate Detroit newspapers. Those papers now depend on the suburbs for their support. They don't seem to care much, but they would love to have more sway over our low information voters.
People like me, who don't believe we have had a mayor since Mayor Dave Bing, are waiting our
turn. We will be heard in the end. The Michigan legislature is so destructive it will eventually
destroy itself. It is a Frankenstein, seeking its creator. Hate is its creator; and so it will continue to
self destruct.
President Obama helped when he bailed out the auto industry. He had to do it. However, our legislature will continue to do what it can to destroy our infrastructure and the entire population
of the city of Detroit.
Nearly every vote on everything this legislature takes is based, has been based for decades, on
how best to be destructive to our key city.
I wish Jennifer Granholm would write a book on her tenure here.
The "one who calls himself Detroit mayor" is backing Warren Evans. That, I don't like at all.
The more time passes, the more I miss Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick.
He helped us with our inflated property taxes.
He refused to take away our schools.
He would never in a million years left thousands of us without water.
I also miss Mayor Dave Bing.
These men were truly elected.
Our politics is also complicated by the fact that many younger Detroit voters have been educated in
the suburbs. Their parents didn't explain to them how hard fought the gains which led them to be able to live in Detroit suburbs had been.
The less politically astute older voters in Detroit believe some of what Detroit newspapers said about
Kwame.
The most politically aware Detroit voters, and the voters who have less income than the most politically astute, all hate Detroit newspapers. Those papers now depend on the suburbs for their support. They don't seem to care much, but they would love to have more sway over our low information voters.
People like me, who don't believe we have had a mayor since Mayor Dave Bing, are waiting our
turn. We will be heard in the end. The Michigan legislature is so destructive it will eventually
destroy itself. It is a Frankenstein, seeking its creator. Hate is its creator; and so it will continue to
self destruct.
President Obama helped when he bailed out the auto industry. He had to do it. However, our legislature will continue to do what it can to destroy our infrastructure and the entire population
of the city of Detroit.
Nearly every vote on everything this legislature takes is based, has been based for decades, on
how best to be destructive to our key city.
I wish Jennifer Granholm would write a book on her tenure here.
Wednesday, July 9, 2014
Jihad
I used to say in the nineties, "if American society doesn't move away from exploitation and violence, no one is going to want to have babies by white men".
So in 2004, I read how Texas and Oklahoma spent millions attempting to convince women to marry.
Marriage rates are down. Birth rates are down (although that is not one bit true in Chicago's Lincoln
Park) and I don't believe the women these states were reaching out to were minority women.
Women had talk shows and now they have I.D. TV. Not only that, when women went to university
in much greater numbers, they saw many kinds of men in a more up close and personal way before beginning to seriously consider marriage. It took only a few generations for young women to see marriage could often be as unattractive as it can be attractive.
Now the same men who slowly turned off their own women over the past half century are continuing
to turn people off in droves.
Lest we forget,a part South America was unwittingly complicit in training the 911 pilots got before destroying the Twin Towers.
We don't need any of this hemisphere to nurture cells of young people who become well-trained
America-hating jihadists.
What are pre-verbal children going to think when they see their moms reduced to tears, and
see waves of white people shouting with threatening and menacing shrill contempt.
We don't need an entire other hemisphere in our own neck of the woods to decide we are more foe
than friend.
Even if we love these policies of "break the law to turn 'em back", we need to be more careful about
how we encourage citizens to express that hatred.
So in 2004, I read how Texas and Oklahoma spent millions attempting to convince women to marry.
Marriage rates are down. Birth rates are down (although that is not one bit true in Chicago's Lincoln
Park) and I don't believe the women these states were reaching out to were minority women.
Women had talk shows and now they have I.D. TV. Not only that, when women went to university
in much greater numbers, they saw many kinds of men in a more up close and personal way before beginning to seriously consider marriage. It took only a few generations for young women to see marriage could often be as unattractive as it can be attractive.
Now the same men who slowly turned off their own women over the past half century are continuing
to turn people off in droves.
Lest we forget,a part South America was unwittingly complicit in training the 911 pilots got before destroying the Twin Towers.
We don't need any of this hemisphere to nurture cells of young people who become well-trained
America-hating jihadists.
What are pre-verbal children going to think when they see their moms reduced to tears, and
see waves of white people shouting with threatening and menacing shrill contempt.
We don't need an entire other hemisphere in our own neck of the woods to decide we are more foe
than friend.
Even if we love these policies of "break the law to turn 'em back", we need to be more careful about
how we encourage citizens to express that hatred.
The Senile Donald Topowitz Sterling?
If he is senile now, then he has always senile. He has something in mind. He must have known better.
Perhaps this is his divorce and disinheritance strategy.
Perhaps this is his divorce and disinheritance strategy.
Sexist Rhetoric About The Borders
Vulnerable persons crossing borders to get into the U.S. will in many cases be raped.
Males and females of all ages are subject to this crime. Offer help for these violations to all of them.
Males and females of all ages are subject to this crime. Offer help for these violations to all of them.
BP... The Livelihood Theives
B P should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law in civil courts.
The U.S. needs to come down on them with all four feet.
No municipality anywhere in this country should let up from them until every business owner in the
gulf is made as whole as it was before BP's oil spill.
If BP doesn't want to do business here that's fine. Sell it all to Sunoco...cheap.
The U.S. needs to come down on them with all four feet.
No municipality anywhere in this country should let up from them until every business owner in the
gulf is made as whole as it was before BP's oil spill.
If BP doesn't want to do business here that's fine. Sell it all to Sunoco...cheap.
Jesse Jackson Tried To Be One of Us
When state Democrats in Michigan refused to back Rev. Jesse Jackson in a presidential run years ago, Detroiters were so furious that the black newspaper backed republican John Engler for governor.
Somehow, many Detroiters actually voted for that truly backward and vicious leadership.
The only respite we have had from "Engler" think policies from that day until this has been
Governor Jennifer Granholm. She did all she could to restore our state; alas she got caught up in the
insane swirl which sent Kwame Kilpatrick into the arms of the state injustice system.
Somehow, many Detroiters actually voted for that truly backward and vicious leadership.
The only respite we have had from "Engler" think policies from that day until this has been
Governor Jennifer Granholm. She did all she could to restore our state; alas she got caught up in the
insane swirl which sent Kwame Kilpatrick into the arms of the state injustice system.
New Jails For Detroit Children
Detroit social workers have been telling private citizens for some months now that the state of
Michissippi has been building scores of incarceration centers for children.
Honestly, we haven't known what to make of it or how to prepare ourselves for it except to stay
as close to the kids as possible without tempting them to escape from our own grasps.
Now the picture has become a bit clearer.
Last year people were getting their water shut off, and were required to travel long, long distances
to get it cut back on if they were not the home owner.
Many times the travelling was in vain because often an illusive document is required before a person
can be considered 'the home owner' in the state of Michissippi, for purposes of getting running water
restored.
Mayor Coleman A. Young, and Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick did such a good job of insulating Detroiters form outer lying but surrounding cities and their hatreds, we now feel swept up without
such stellar leadership. We are a bit lost. We're in the forest after dark with wild, rabid wolves howling and barking up a storm.
Now the city, under state rule, has cut off the water of thousands of citizens.
Once the city/state has a record of who has no water, but does have minor children in their care,
authorities take the children to fostering places.
So Detroiters- lose your job, lose your house, move in with mom or grandma.
But then, grandma is losing her pension, so she gets behind in her water bill.
Now you lose running water.
So it's time for you to lose your children.
Detroiters live in a third world country. We really should secede, not so much from the country,
but from this nightmare of a state. With food so scarce, and now water missing, typhoid may not
be long in the coming if this goes on for a while.
Take the DIA? We cannot afford to think about that, now can we? Besides, we have always been
restricted to using a very small part of the square footage of the total space in that museum anyway.
Michissippi has been building scores of incarceration centers for children.
Honestly, we haven't known what to make of it or how to prepare ourselves for it except to stay
as close to the kids as possible without tempting them to escape from our own grasps.
Now the picture has become a bit clearer.
Last year people were getting their water shut off, and were required to travel long, long distances
to get it cut back on if they were not the home owner.
Many times the travelling was in vain because often an illusive document is required before a person
can be considered 'the home owner' in the state of Michissippi, for purposes of getting running water
restored.
Mayor Coleman A. Young, and Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick did such a good job of insulating Detroiters form outer lying but surrounding cities and their hatreds, we now feel swept up without
such stellar leadership. We are a bit lost. We're in the forest after dark with wild, rabid wolves howling and barking up a storm.
Now the city, under state rule, has cut off the water of thousands of citizens.
Once the city/state has a record of who has no water, but does have minor children in their care,
authorities take the children to fostering places.
So Detroiters- lose your job, lose your house, move in with mom or grandma.
But then, grandma is losing her pension, so she gets behind in her water bill.
Now you lose running water.
So it's time for you to lose your children.
Detroiters live in a third world country. We really should secede, not so much from the country,
but from this nightmare of a state. With food so scarce, and now water missing, typhoid may not
be long in the coming if this goes on for a while.
Take the DIA? We cannot afford to think about that, now can we? Besides, we have always been
restricted to using a very small part of the square footage of the total space in that museum anyway.
I Will Miss Maya Angelou
I didn't always understand Ms. Angelou; but I had a tremendous admiration for her. Whenever she spoke about an issue, she said something thought-provoking which made perfect sense whether or not one agreed with her.
I couldn't understand why in 2008 she wanted to vote her sex instead of her race when she advocated
for Hillary Clinton. I understood the sentiment, the inclination, but not the actual choice.
As the racist said on the Oprah show years earlier, ' I tell my kids there are three kind of people in this world- men, women, and niggers." And he was at least honest enough to say the truth about how
very many people in America do think.
One of my children worked as an operator at a cell phone company. Black people asking for directions
or business placements were simply looking for service in service-seeking language. Voices she identified as white found occasion at least once per day, to use the "N" word.
Operators used adopted names, and many white customers objected to names which didn't sound
European to them. Others wanted no confusion about the contempt they felt for any location black
people might frequent, but they saw no need to call people "black". They had naming options
themselves they preferred.
So when a black man asks for the support of black people, the choice to help him may be a difficult
one, but not a controversial one.
In the intervening years since the 2008 election, Ms. Angelou's political tones changed when she spoke in public. She remained kind and generous, but she did speak as though she had seen the foolish make fools of themselves time and time again. That was new for her. I was almost sorry to see
how the American election of the first black president had seemed to open her eyes to the residual
ugliness left in this country. She was a warm, caring person who had seen enough ugliness in her life.
I myself had seen even in the north how when people were separated into two or more groups, for purposes of travel, white leaders put black women in groups of black men, even if there happened to be one woman and six men.
There may be nothing inherently wrong with that. However, if a young woman felt uncomfortable with the described situation, she was still out of luck. White women had more choices.
So many in this country feel dichotomous regarding their persons and their race. In many American
spaces, that dichotomy is in the person's mind only.
But politics and race aside, Maya Angelou was a literary genius. I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings,
and Ms. Angelou's poetry and other works seemed so inspired as to be other worldly. She was truly
one of a kind.
I believe she was also extremely well-read, even as a young person.
I always loved the poem by Georgia Douglas Johnson (who passed away in 1966) called
The Heart Of A Woman. I wondered often whether the title of Ms. Angelou's famous book was inspired by that poem, a poem I think of when I think of the gracious graceful philosophy and life
of Maya Angelou.
The Heart Of A Woman by Georgia Douglas Johnson (1886-1966)
The heart of a woman goes forth with the dawn,
As a lone bird, soft winging, so restlessly on,
Afar o'er life's turrets and vales does it roam
In the wake of those echoes the heart calls home.
The heart of a woman falls back with the night,
And enters some alien cage in its plight.
And tries to forget it has dreamed of the stars,
While it breaks, breaks, breaks, on the sheltering bars.
I couldn't understand why in 2008 she wanted to vote her sex instead of her race when she advocated
for Hillary Clinton. I understood the sentiment, the inclination, but not the actual choice.
As the racist said on the Oprah show years earlier, ' I tell my kids there are three kind of people in this world- men, women, and niggers." And he was at least honest enough to say the truth about how
very many people in America do think.
One of my children worked as an operator at a cell phone company. Black people asking for directions
or business placements were simply looking for service in service-seeking language. Voices she identified as white found occasion at least once per day, to use the "N" word.
Operators used adopted names, and many white customers objected to names which didn't sound
European to them. Others wanted no confusion about the contempt they felt for any location black
people might frequent, but they saw no need to call people "black". They had naming options
themselves they preferred.
So when a black man asks for the support of black people, the choice to help him may be a difficult
one, but not a controversial one.
In the intervening years since the 2008 election, Ms. Angelou's political tones changed when she spoke in public. She remained kind and generous, but she did speak as though she had seen the foolish make fools of themselves time and time again. That was new for her. I was almost sorry to see
how the American election of the first black president had seemed to open her eyes to the residual
ugliness left in this country. She was a warm, caring person who had seen enough ugliness in her life.
I myself had seen even in the north how when people were separated into two or more groups, for purposes of travel, white leaders put black women in groups of black men, even if there happened to be one woman and six men.
There may be nothing inherently wrong with that. However, if a young woman felt uncomfortable with the described situation, she was still out of luck. White women had more choices.
So many in this country feel dichotomous regarding their persons and their race. In many American
spaces, that dichotomy is in the person's mind only.
But politics and race aside, Maya Angelou was a literary genius. I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings,
and Ms. Angelou's poetry and other works seemed so inspired as to be other worldly. She was truly
one of a kind.
I believe she was also extremely well-read, even as a young person.
I always loved the poem by Georgia Douglas Johnson (who passed away in 1966) called
The Heart Of A Woman. I wondered often whether the title of Ms. Angelou's famous book was inspired by that poem, a poem I think of when I think of the gracious graceful philosophy and life
of Maya Angelou.
The Heart Of A Woman by Georgia Douglas Johnson (1886-1966)
The heart of a woman goes forth with the dawn,
As a lone bird, soft winging, so restlessly on,
Afar o'er life's turrets and vales does it roam
In the wake of those echoes the heart calls home.
The heart of a woman falls back with the night,
And enters some alien cage in its plight.
And tries to forget it has dreamed of the stars,
While it breaks, breaks, breaks, on the sheltering bars.
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