You Act Like You Didn't Like It: An Analogy to That Flag Business

I was bed-ridden with food poisoning, motionless, waiting for the next round of trying to make it to the bathroom on time.   That is how he found me when he stopped by to check on me and summarily dismissed my good friend who was seeing after me, saying that he would take over now.  Yep, he took over.  And he took me.   No amount of protest was sufficient and since I could barely raise an arm, there was no fight in me.   When he finished the dirty deed, the rapist expressed disappointment:   You act like you didn’t like it. 

It doesn’t take a stretch of the imagination:  

In the paragraph above, simply replace “I” with “X,” where X stands for any individual or group of people who have been raped (literally or figuratively, physically or financially or otherwise), lynched, beaten, cheated, shot, killed, discriminated against or otherwise abused or taken advantage of in a substantive way,* by the United States (including without limitation all levels of government [federal, state, county and municipal], agencies, officers, representatives and anyone acting on behalf thereof).  

Next, replace the rapist with “Y,” where Y stands for the United States (including without limitation all levels of government [federal, state, county and municipal], agencies, officers, representatives, and anyone acting on behalf thereof).

Then, consider that X is expected to show respect and reverence for the symbols of Y, including its flag.   

Can you now hear in your mind’s ear, Y saying to X:  You act like you didn’t like it. 

Thousands and thousands of people have fought, bled and died for this country, taking care to show respect for its symbols, including its flag.  In return, they have been denied the same rights, privileges and opportunities afforded those for whom they served to protect.   They returned to their homes and families maimed and crippled, physically and psychologically.  Sometimes upon their return they are beaten, lynched, wrongfully convicted, imprisoned and even executed.  And when they reach out for help, their hands are slapped away.   They are disillusioned.  They get discouraged.   They turn bitter.   Anger sets in.   But they have no fight left.   If this country cares not a whit for them, why should they care about it?  Or its symbols?   

*Here substantive relates to any negative effect on opportunities for growth, development or advancement, like attending school or getting a job for which one is qualified, or having access to quality health care, or a business opportunity.

Make America Great . . . . Again???? -- Par II

Football is rarely a blip on my radar, so I did not have a clue as to who this guy, Colin Kaepernick is. The recent big rub was his failure to stand for the national anthem.  Now he is amidst, as Justice Thomas would say, a high-tech lynching on one side, and high-tech defenses on the other.   

When these lands were stolen from the native inhabitants and the subsequent wars from which this country was founded, people of color were not considered 100% human.  Having been brought here in chains, in the bowels of ships where they were laid out like canned sardines, they were chattel to be bought and sold like so many head of horses or bales of cotton.   

After so-called emancipation, their contributions in the areas of agriculture, medicine, manufacturing, the arts, literature, engineering and more rival any others.   Having built this country without compensation, and having fought and died for this country as soldiers, fit to wear the uniform but not fit to the same care as other soldiers, or the same rights as others who did not even put on the uniform, to this day, the darker nation is still treated differently. 

For those who make the argument “that was way back then,” consider one of this country’s problems is its failure and refusal to deal with the ugliness of its past.  I am slain by those who take pride in their southern heritage, and want to keep their monuments and institutions and flags.  Honestly, I have no problem with this; these things are a part of our history; they should not be hidden lest we forget the ignorance and evil brutality of our ancestors.   But so should the murder of thousands of folks, guilty of being born to some group other than the paler nation, not be forgotten.  Keep your monuments to Lee and Jackson and others of that ilk.   Keep the names of schools.  And add to that lists of names not to be forgotten, the names of those whose biggest crime, for which they were indicted, judged, convicted and executed without the benefit any so-called constitutional rights, was a God-given abundance of the melanin factor.  Perhaps when this is done, then America will, finally, be on the path to being healed  . . . . and being great.

https://youtu.be/vYM3HAVPPG8

Until then, the question remains:   When was America great, and what was that like?

Make America Great — Again??? – Part I

Howard Zinn:  There is no flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people. ...  Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience. Our problem is that people all over the world have obeyed the dictates of leaders…and millions have been killed because of this obedience…Our problem is that people are obedient allover the world in the face of poverty and starvation and stupidity, and war, and cruelty. Our problem is that people are obedient while the jails are full of petty thieves… (and) the grand thieves are running the country. That’s our problem. 

Daniel J.  Flynn:   Thumb through A People’s History of the United States and you will find greed as the motivating factor behind every act of those who don’t qualify as “the people” in Zinn’s book According to Zinn, the separation from Great Britain, the Civil War, and both World Wars all were the result of base motives of the “ruling class” -- rich men to get richer at the expense of others. - See more at: http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/1493#sthash.WcPNm2Cv.dpuf

Thanks to Audible, I am listening to Howard Zinn’s 34+ hour tome ("A People's History of the United States").  It is intriguing, depressing, and infuriating.    When listening I cannot help but wonder if the letters and documents from which Mr. Zinn quotes were actually written 300+ years ago.   What documents did he research to record this unseemly perspective of American history?  

On the one hand, how can any thinking person intelligently rationalize the taking of lands from native Americans – and repeatedly violating treaties with them?   How could any thinking adult characterize the U.S. slave system as a guest worker program, as characterized in recent textbooks?  How can anyone deny the evidence of beatings, lynchings (with thousands in attendance) and burnings, of the destruction of entire subdivisions and towns that took place after the abolition of slavery and well into the 20th century?  

On the other hand, how can it be denied that some people of "privilege" lost everything, including their lives, fighting against injustice on the side of and for the freedoms of those oppressed?  It is said by certain segments of the darker nation that all people of the paler nation are evil.  That is as ridiculous as saying that all people of the darker nation are upright and right-living!  

But there is a troubling segment of folks — those who want to make American great again.  Their thought processes and rationalizations escape me.   One must first have an inkling as to when America was great.   From this writer’s perspective, we have yet to live up to greatness.  Yes, we have done some right things, sprinkled among the wrong.  Somehow, it is difficult for right to overcome greed, fears and prejudices.  So the question to these folks is:   When was America great, and what was that like? 

When The Choices are Agonizing

The cool thing about being an American is that if you don’t like your president, you get to vote for another every four years.

The agonizing thing about being an American is that if you don’t like your president, you get to vote for another every for years.

The folks who run for president may not be the brightest.

The folks who run for president may not be the wisest.

The folks who run for president may not even understand the American system of government.

The folks who run for president may not have the best interests of the country as a whole in mind.

The folks who run for president may want to make sure his* cronies have opportunities for personal enrichment.

The folks who run for president may pit segments of the population against each other, fueling distrust, hatred and other negative and destructive emotions.

The folks who run for president may take your vote for granted depending on your melanin content.

The folks who run for president may not have exercised good judgment in past government-related positions.

The folks who run for president may have a good facade but a debt-ridden “empire” behind it, fraught with 500+ companies tagged with variations of a bastardized name.

The folks who run for president may have stiffed small businesses along the way of amassing wealth of questionable amount, based largely on a bastardized name.

The folks who run for president may have a high intelligence quotient and a low moral base.  

Sometimes the pickings are slim and the choices are marginal.  

Sometimes the pairings are inconceivable (remember McCain/Palin?).   

Sometimes the choice is a “no-brainer” and the brainless one wins anyway.  What does that say about the electorate?

I have made my choice.   And I am in agony.  However, based on who was offered, I made the best choice I could, and I pray the footnote that follows will have more meaning on 9 November 2016.


_________________________

*Don’t give me grief about the male pronoun.  American presidents have been nothing other than folks with male genitalia.  As of this writing there is roughly a 50/50 chance “she” might be appropriate — in the near future.

Why We Cannot Afford to Hate Each Other – Part I

We need each other.

California is burning.  People are losing their homes.
Louisiana has flooded.  People have lost their homes.
Texas has flooded.  People have lost their homes.

There have been earthquakes.   Explosions.   Tornados.   Hurricanes.

Do any of these folks in need really question whose hearts are led to lend them a helping hand or donate to an organization that will administer relief?   

If the extended hand that holds the food, water, clothing or medicine is not the same color as the intended recipient, will the offering of food, water, clothing or medicine be rejected?  

If a hand reaches out to help another out of the water, will the water-logged care whose hand it is?

If the person making the offering wears a cross or a crescent, will it matter?

In times of need what matters is help.

In times of distress what matters is compassion.

Freely given.  

In love for the only race that matters:   the human race.

I ask you now:   What else matters?

Introduction

The title is somewhat deceptive.   Fact is, however, many find my writing offensive, and react accordingly.  It is not my intent to offend; it is my intent to exercise my right to express myself — my thoughts, ideas and opinions – a right that most take for granted.  Others don’t mind, as long as they agree with those thoughts, ideas and opinions.  There is hell to pay when they do not.   What follows the disagreements are tirades of unreasoned garbage and personal attacks, often fraught with foul language and bad grammar, of which I pray none (or scant few) will be found here.  

This is my blog.  These are my thoughts, ideas and opinions unless quoted and cited appropriately.  I have no desire to apply the Melania principle to this blog, so there will be no snatching or sampling of another’s content.  And since this is my blog, the use of phrases like I think and in my humble opinion are unnecessary and will be avoided.   Assume that these are my opinions unless, as indicated above, they are quoted and cited appropriately.  

The goal here is not offend, but to engage.   We are more alike than we are different.  Still, it is okay to be different – to act, speak, look and think differently.  Having a different opinion does not require personal attacks on another, or the use of foul language to get one’s point across.  My hope is to engage others in a civilized discourse, something from which I learned that it really is okay to agree to disagree without resorting to disrespectful, coarse, crude, foul or reprehensible behavior or language.  

Let’s see how different we are — and amidst that, how alike we are.