Tag Archives: peaceful protest

A White Woman Listens … Really Listens

Posted on by under Law and justice, Racism & Bigotry, Social commentary

We have a serious problem in the U.S.:  we don’t listen to each other.  Okay, yes, we have many serious problems in the U.S. today, but many of them could be solved if we simply took time to listen … really listen … to each other and consider what the other person is saying.  Instead, we have preconceived ideas and, so sure that our own ideas are the right ones, we barely listen to those with opposing viewpoints, or from whom we might learn something.

Yesterday, I came across a Facebook post by a white woman who took the time to listen to a black man, who asked questions and pondered the answers, who learned from someone whose life experiences differ vastly from her own.  Her post has thus far received more than 220,000 views and some 182,000 shares.  I think this piece is well worth sharing, for we can all do a better job listening and learning from others, making the world a little bit better.  This is the sort of civil discourse that will eventually lead the way forward for this nation …

Caroline Crockett Brock

30 May at 16:14

I am a 45 year old white woman living in the south, and today was the first time I spoke frankly about racism with a black man.

When Ernest Skelton, my appliance repairman, came to the front door, I welcomed him in. As this was his second visit and we’d established a friendly rapport, I asked him how he was feeling in the current national climate. Naturally, he assumed I was talking about the coronavirus, because what white person actually addresses racism head on, in person, in their own home?

When Ernest realized I wanted to know about his experience with racism, he began answering my questions.

What’s it like for you on a day-to-day basis as a black man? Do cops ever give you any trouble?

The answers were illuminating.

Ernest, a middle-aged, friendly, successful business owner, gets pulled over in Myrtle Beach at least 6 times a year. He doesn’t get pulled over for traffic violations, but on the suspicion of him being a suspect in one crime or another. Mind you, he is in uniform, driving in a work van clearly marked with his business on the side. They ask him about the boxes in his car–parts and pieces of appliances. They ask to see his invoices and ask him why there is money and checks in his invoice clipboard. They ask if he’s selling drugs. These cops get angry if he asks for a badge number or pushes back in any way. Everytime he is the one who has to explain himself, although they have no real cause to question him.

Ernest used to help folks out after dark with emergencies. Not anymore. He does not work past dinnertime, not because he doesn’t need the business, but because it isn’t safe for him to be out after dark. He says “There’s nothing out there in the world for me past dark”.

Let me say that again. Ernest, a middle aged black man in uniform cannot work past dark in Myrtle Beach in 2020 because it’s not safe for him. He did not say this with any kind of agenda. It was a quiet, matter of fact truth.

A truth that needs to be heard.

When I asked Ernest what ethnic terms he gets offended at, he said that the most offensive term people use is ‘boy’. Ernest has a bachelors in electronics and an associates in HVAC. He is not a ‘boy’, and the term ‘boy’ in the south implies inferiority in station and status. He came to Myrtle Beach and got a job at Hobart. The supervisor repeatedly used the term ‘boy’. Ernest complained. After several complaints Ernest was fired.

Ernest says most white people are a little scared of him, and he’s often put in a position where he has to prove himself, as though he’s not qualified to repair appliances.

After getting a job for 2 years at Sears appliance, Ernest started his own company, one he’s been running for several years. He is the best repairman we’ve had, and has taught me about washer dryers and how to maintain them myself, even helping me with another washer/dryer set and a dishwasher without charging me. I highly recommend his company, Grand Strand Appliance.

I asked Ernest what he thought of “black bike week” in Myrtle Beach, where thousands of black people come with bullet bikes and trash our town. He says it hurts black people in our city, and he disagrees with the NAACP coming in to sue businesses that close on black bike week. He hates working that week.

Ernest doesn’t have hope that racism will change, no matter who the president is. His dad taught him “It’s a white man’s world”, and he’s done his best to live within it.

When I asked him what I could do, he said, “everyone needs to pray and realize we’re all just one country and one people”.

I am a 45 year old white woman living in the south. I can begin healing our country by talking frankly with African Americans in my world—by LISTENING to their lived experience and speaking up. I can help by actively promoting black owned businesses. That’s what I can do today. Let’s start by listening and lifting up. It’s that simple.

Edit: I asked Ernest if I could take his picture and post our conversation on facebook. He thought it was a great idea. As he left my house an hour later, he looked me in the eye and said, “If you ever march, or have a meeting on this topic, or want to change things in Myrtle Beach, I’ll stand with you.”Ernest-SkeltonWhat a great idea. Let’s begin standing together.
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Edit: 1pm EST on 6/1. Ernest just called me and we had one of the sweetest moments, both laughing and crying about the response to this post. He started the conversation by saying, “Caroline, I don’t know if I should kill you or kiss you–my phone is ringing off the hook!”
He doesn’t have a FB profile, so he’s coming over later so I can help him set one up. He’s been absolutely overwhelmed, as have I, with the response. We’re going to be sitting down together to read your comments. They mean so much. In addition, the Myrtle Beach city manager has contacted me and I’m getting all of us together to be sure this doesn’t happen in our city any longer. THANK YOU WORLD.

Edit 6/2 9am. Just got off the phone with Ernest and the local news. They will be interviewing us today, and it will be on the local news in Myrtle beach tonight. I’ll post it on my page later.

Edit 6/7. Ernest and I ended up marching together at a peaceful protest in Myrtle Beach! It was a lovely day and we went out to lunch with our spouses afterwards. What a whirlwind of events! Check out my FB live of the protest!

Edit 6/8: Ernest and I met today with a web designer to make sure his facebook and business pages are linked, so he’s good to go there! I spoke with an investigator at the MB police department who was top notch. More to follow.
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This is how we change our country. Normal folks. One town at a time. ❤️
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Caroline Crockett Brock

What a difference between this, and the couple in St. Louis pointing guns at people marching peacefully down their street in protest of Mayor Lyda Krewson’s decision to publish the names and addresses of people in favor of police reform.

A Wiser Man Speaks …

Posted on by under Election 2020, Law and justice, Political commentary, Racism & Bigotry, Social commentary

mattisGeneral James Norman Mattis served 44 years in the U.S. Marine Corps, commanding forces in the Persian Gulf War, the War in Afghanistan, and the Iraq War.  After his retirement, Mattis served as the 26th U.S. Secretary of Defense from January 2017 through January 2019.  His resignation came about as a result of Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw all U.S. troops from Syria, leaving the area vulnerable, but Mattis had disagreed with Trump on a number of issues before, such as pulling out of the Iran nuclear agreement.  I have tremendous respect for General Mattis, and thus I am sharing an OpEd he wrote that was published in The Atlantic yesterday.

In Union There Is Strength

I have watched this week’s unfolding events, angry and appalled. The words “Equal Justice Under Law” are carved in the pediment of the United States Supreme Court. This is precisely what protesters are rightly demanding. It is a wholesome and unifying demand—one that all of us should be able to get behind. We must not be distracted by a small number of lawbreakers. The protests are defined by tens of thousands of people of conscience who are insisting that we live up to our values—our values as people and our values as a nation.

When I joined the military, some 50 years ago, I swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution. Never did I dream that troops taking that same oath would be ordered under any circumstance to violate the Constitutional rights of their fellow citizens—much less to provide a bizarre photo op for the elected commander-in-chief, with military leadership standing alongside.

We must reject any thinking of our cities as a “battlespace” that our uniformed military is called upon to “dominate.” At home, we should use our military only when requested to do so, on very rare occasions, by state governors. Militarizing our response, as we witnessed in Washington, D.C., sets up a conflict—a false conflict— between the military and civilian society. It erodes the moral ground that ensures a trusted bond between men and women in uniform and the society they are sworn to protect, and of which they themselves are a part. Keeping public order rests with civilian state and local leaders who best understand their communities and are answerable to them.

James Madison wrote in Federalist 14 that “America united with a handful of troops, or without a single soldier, exhibits a more forbidding posture to foreign ambition than America disunited, with a hundred thousand veterans ready for combat.” We do not need to militarize our response to protests. We need to unite around a common purpose. And it starts by guaranteeing that all of us are equal before the law.

Instructions given by the military departments to our troops before the Normandy invasion reminded soldiers that “The Nazi slogan for destroying us…was ‘Divide and Conquer.’ Our American answer is ‘In Union there is Strength.’” We must summon that unity to surmount this crisis—confident that we are better than our politics.

Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people—does not even pretend to try. Instead he tries to divide us. We are witnessing the consequences of three years of this deliberate effort. We are witnessing the consequences of three years without mature leadership. We can unite without him, drawing on the strengths inherent in our civil society. This will not be easy, as the past few days have shown, but we owe it to our fellow citizens; to past generations that bled to defend our promise; and to our children.

We can come through this trying time stronger, and with a renewed sense of purpose and respect for one another. The pandemic has shown us that it is not only our troops who are willing to offer the ultimate sacrifice for the safety of the community. Americans in hospitals, grocery stores, post offices, and elsewhere have put their lives on the line in order to serve their fellow citizens and their country. We know that we are better than the abuse of executive authority that we witnessed in Lafayette Square. We must reject and hold accountable those in office who would make a mockery of our Constitution. At the same time, we must remember Lincoln’s “better angels,” and listen to them, as we work to unite.

Only by adopting a new path—which means, in truth, returning to the original path of our founding ideals—will we again be a country admired and respected at home and abroad.

James Mattis

A change will come

Posted on by under Law and justice, Political commentary, Racism & Bigotry, Social commentary

Just after I put my post about racism in the U.S. on the schedule, I saw this post by my friend Brosephus. In this post, he addresses some of the same issues I did, only from a much more up-close-and-personal view. With his permission, I am re-blogging this and hope you will take a couple of minutes to read it … his words are so very important. Thank you, Brosephus, for sharing these thoughts and words.

The Mind of Brosephus

I’m tired of seeing, hearing, and writing about unjustified police actions on the people they’ve sworn to protect and serve. It’s a never ending loop of agony and despair. I look at my family, my friends, and my coworkers and wonder when will this cycle stop? We’ve been in this loop since before the Emancipation Proclamation, and it’s time for a change in approach.

I’ve told people over the last year or so that we’re barreling towards a date with violence in America. Look at the response to the killing of George Floyd. No, rioting and looting is not the way to address his killing. However, I understand the frustration being uncorked because the residents of Minneapolis have been protesting police brutality there for a while. It’s the same all across America.

When you ignore, downplay, or dismiss peaceful protest, the end result is violence. Colin Kaepernick ended his NFL…

View original post 435 more words

Civility???

Posted on by under Election 2018, Free Press Issues, Political commentary, Racism & Bigotry, Social commentary

I seem to be hearing the word ‘civil’ or ‘civility’ bandied about a lot lately, but while the word pops up frequently, the action seems to be slow to follow.  The republicans are worried that the democrats are becoming increasingly ‘uncivil’ … gee, I wonder why, after 21 months of being verbally brutalized by a bully and his cohorts!  But let’s look at a few things here …

tom wolf

Governor Tom Wolf

Tom Wolf is the current governor of Pennsylvania, and from all indications is a good one, liked and respected by the people of Pennsylvania.  A man named Scott Wagner is running against Wolf this year on the republican ticket.  Here is the ‘civil’ tongue with which Wagner speaks: “Well, Governor Wolf, let me tell you what, between now and Nov. 6, you better put a catcher’s mask on your face, because I’m going to stomp all over your face with golf spikes.”  Civility?

The Metropolitan Republican Club of New York City recently hosted Gavin McInnes, founder of the white supremacist hate group Proud Boys.  After McInnes’ lecture on Otoya Yamaguchi, his ‘Proud Boys’ took to the streets, brutally beating and kicking several individuals while shouting “faggot” and “[expletive deleted].”  Civility?

Notable democrats are calling for their party to get tougher ahead of the mid-terms.

“It is time for us as Democrats to be as tough as they are, to be as dedicated as they are, to be as committed as they are.” – Former Attorney General Eric Holder

“You cannot be civil with a political party that wants to destroy what you stand for, what you care about.” – Former Secretary of State and 2016 Presidential Candidate, Hillary Clinton

Neither of these even remotely call for violence, they do not use foul or vulgar language, do not refer to stomping on someone’s face or encourage beatings.  They are simply calling on democrats to speak louder, to stand stronger.  And yet, here is what Donald Trump claims …

“You don’t hand matches to an arsonist and you don’t give power to an angry left-wing mob and that’s what the Democrats have become. They would turn our country so fast into Venezuela. And Venezuela’s not doing too well, folks.”

“The Democrats have become too extreme and too dangerous to govern.”

“Radical Democrats want to tear down our laws, tear down our institutions in pursuit of power, demolish our prosperity in the name of socialism and probably worse.”

“They want to destroy people. These are really evil people.”

Let me show you a few pictures of Trump’s ‘base’ at some of his rallies …

angry trumpeter-1angry trumpeter-2angry trumpeter-3angry trumpeter-4

Who are extreme and dangerous people?  Who, I ask, are trying to ‘tear down our laws, tear down our institutions in pursuit of power’?  Who constitutes an ‘angry mob’?

Both democrats and republicans are angry these days.  This is a result of the ‘man’ who began 2016 by inciting violence in his campaign rallies, even offering to pay legal fees of any who would use physical violence against peaceful protestors.  This is a result of the ‘man’ who constantly taunts not only his political foes, but the free and legitimate press, and any who dare to question or disagree with him.  The divisiveness in this country, the lack of civility, didn’t just happen – it was manufactured with a purpose.  It was manufactured using lies, smoke & mirrors, and already-existing tensions that were prodded to an even higher level.

And now that same ‘man’ is trying to convince his base, some 30% of the nation, that the democrats are evil, that they are dangerous, that they seek to harm him and his through ‘mob rule’, and that they must be stopped at all costs.  He is turning the word ‘democrat’ into something that has horribly frightening connotations in the minds of his minions.  He has even convinced some part of them that men are the real victims in sexual assault cases!  The ‘man’ seems to almost hypnotize the previously sane.

The worst mistake that democrats can make today would be to play into his hands, to allow peaceful protests to end in violence.  Democratic candidates must not play Trump’s game of using rude, crude and vulgar language, or calling for violence, or of being so anti-Trump that they forget to tell the people what they stand for.  The stakes are high in just over three weeks. It is so important that we all keep our eye on the ball and not allow ourselves to be goaded into lowering ourselves to the level of today’s more radical republicans.  I still ascribe to what Michelle Obama said, “When they go low, we go high”.

The most important things on the agenda of every candidate for the next three weeks must be: convincing people of the importance of their vote, maintaining civility under all circumstances, speaking loudly and clearly to communicate their platform as well as their values.  Democrats will not get the votes of avid, die-hard Trump supporters.  That is a fact, a foregone conclusion, so we need not even bother to try.  Tune them out and focus on those who may actually listen … and think. vote-animated

The Right To Remain Silent …

Posted on by under education, Racism & Bigotry, Social commentary

India LandryLast October, 17-year-old India Landry was a student at Windfern High School in Houston, Texas.  For months, Ms. Landry had sat quietly in her seat, rather than stand and recite the Pledge of Allegiance, as is required by the school.  Her silent protest had gone largely unnoticed until one day it came to the attention of the school principal.  On 02 October 2017, Ms. Landry happened to be in the principal’s office when the bell sounded to indicate it was time for the pledge.  Landry sat.  The principal, Martha Strother, told her: “Well you’re kicked outta here.  This isn’t the NFL.”

Ms. Landry was then told to call her mom for a ride home, else she would be escorted off the premises by police.  The school district released the following brief statement:

“A student will not be removed from campus for refusing to stand for the Pledge. We will address this situation internally.”

In 1943, in the Supreme Court case of West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, the Court ruled that students couldn’t be forced to say the Pledge of Allegiance.  The rules at India’s school don’t specifically require that a student say the pledge but require students who don’t say the pledge to stand unless they have a note from a parent.

India’s reason for sitting was, “I don’t think the flag is for what it says it’s for, liberty and justice and … all that. It’s not obviously what’s going on in America today.”

During this same time, the Colin Kaepernick protest had led to a nationwide controversy, with Donald Trump ordering Vice-President Pence to leave a game “if any players kneeled”.  But India Landry’s mother was just concerned with getting her daughter back into school.  She repeatedly called the school, trying to set up a meeting with the principal, and when a meeting was finally arranged, Principal Strother told her …

“India must stand for the pledge to be let back in at Windfern.”

Strother said that sitting was “disrespectful and should not be allowed” and suggested that instead of refusing to stand for the pledge, India should “write about justice and African Americans being killed.”

Shortly after the meeting, India’s mother got a call from local CBS affiliate KHOU, asking for an interview about the “pledge controversy”.  Funny how bad publicity changes people’s minds, isn’t it?  Shortly thereafter, Ms. Landry received a call from the school principal saying that India could return to school and sit for the pledge.

End of story?  Not quite. Between India’s expulsion and the school backing down, Kizzie Landry, India’s mother, had filed a lawsuit claiming that the school violated constitutional protections of free speech, due process and equal protection.  The case has not yet come to trial, but on Tuesday, the Texas Attorney General, Ken Paxton, decided to put his two cents worth in.

ken-paxton

Ken Paxton

“The U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly held that parents have a fundamental interest in guiding the education and upbringing of their children, which is a critical aspect of liberty guaranteed by the Constitution. The Texas Legislature protected that interest by giving the choice of whether an individual student will recite the Pledge of Allegiance to the student’s parent or guardian. School children cannot unilaterally refuse to participate in the pledge.”  Hey, Ken … this “school child” was 17 years old, plenty old enough to decide for herself whether or not the flag represents any values today.

 

Mr. Paxton, by the way, is currently under indictment on three felony charges related to securities fraud that will likely go to trial sometime this year. But hey … he stands for the pledge!

There is a Texas state law that, in part, states:

Section 25.082  PLEDGES OF ALLEGIANCE; MINUTE OF SILENCE.  (a)  Repealed by Acts 2017, 85th Leg., R.S., Ch. 851 (H.B. 2442), Sec. 9, eff. June 15, 2017.

(b)  The board of trustees of each school district and the governing board of each open-enrollment charter school shall require students, once during each school day at each campus, to recite:

(1)  the pledge of allegiance to the United States flag in accordance with 4 U.S.C. Section 4; and

(2)  the pledge of allegiance to the state flag in accordance with Subchapter C, Chapter 3100, Government Code.

Landry’s attorney, civil rights lawyer Randall Kallinen, believes Paxton’s involvement comes because it is an election year, and says he is willing to take this case all the way to the Supreme Court if needed.  While states are able to make their own laws in many areas, they are not allowed to make laws that contradict federal law, and this Texas law is obviously a direct contradiction to the aforementioned Supreme Court ruling of 1943.

You may remember the case back in February of Karen Smith, the gym teacher in Boulder, Colorado, who grabbed a student by the jacket, lifted him to his feet and dragged him out of the class because he did not stand for the pledge.

Let’s be realistic, folks.  The pledge is words … 31 words, to be exact … that children have been required to say during the school day for as long as anybody can remember.  But the children are saying the words by rote … they are only words until one stops to think about them, and when one does that, in light of the current state of the United States, it is, in my view, perfectly acceptable to say, “Nope … the words don’t match the reality”.  All you need to do is look at the last six words, “with liberty and justice for all.”  Even India Landry, only 17 years of age, can see that “liberty and justice for all” no longer exists in the United States of America.  Perhaps, until this nation finds its bearings again, the pledge of allegiance should be relegated to the annals of history.

Colin Kaepernick vs The Nation

Posted on by under Political commentary, Racism & Bigotry, Social commentary

“I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color. To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder.” — Colin Kaepernick, August 2016

I am, once again, going to wade into this controversy with my own semi-humble opinion.  It is a topic I have dealt with at least once or twice before, but people are losing their grip on reality here and it has set my radar to ticking.

To start, there is not a single word in the U.S. Constitution about kneeling during the playing of the national anthem.  The national anthem wasn’t even thought of in 1787 when the Constitution was signed and ratified.  The lyrics to the song were written by Francis Scott Key in 1814, but the song was only adopted as the national anthem in March 1931.  Additionally, there is no federal or state law making it a requirement to stand when the song is sung or played.

Last October, former judge and then-senatorial candidate from Alabama, Roy Moore claimed …

“It’s against the law, you know that? It was a act of Congress that every man stand and put their hand over their heart. That’s the law.”

Judge Moore lied.  There is no such law.  Congress indeed passed a law dealing with decorum during the national anthem. But the etiquette is merely a suggestion, not a legal obligation.  It is a song, folks … only a song.  Hardly worth people threatening other people’s livelihoods over.

There is a legal precedent that protects people’s rights in such cases.  In 1943, the Supreme Court ruled in West Virginia vs. Barnette that the First Amendment protects people from being forced to participate in patriotic ceremonies that offend their conscience or beliefs.  And more recently, in the 1989 case of Texas vs. Johnson, the court protected the the right to burn the American flag as a form of symbolic speech.  Just as the national anthem is but a song, the flag is but a piece of cloth.  People matter more!

Catherine Ross, a law professor at George Washington University who specializes in First Amendment law, said “If the Constitution protects the right to burn the flag and the right not to participate in the pledge as aspects of free speech, it must also protect the right to kneel respectfully during the national anthem or the pledge of allegiance.”  I strongly suspect that is how the courts would rule.

Colin Kaepernick used to play for the San Francisco 49ers.  From what I understand, he was one of the league’s best quarterbacks.  As such, he has a voice, a presence, a public persona and in August 2016, he used his voice to call attention to the atrocities being committed against African-Americans in this nation by police.  After a spate of police killing unarmed black men, it was time for somebody to take a stand … or, in this case, a knee, for Mr. Kaepernick took a knee when the national anthem was played.  And, based on the uproar, you might have thought he murdered a room full of babies.

Kaepernick began receiving death threats, one NFL official referred to him as a ‘traitor’, and worst of all, he was black-balled from the NFL and no team would sign him in 2017.  He lost his livelihood for a peaceful protest against proven injustices by law enforcement in this country.

Pause here for just a moment, if you will.  After the rally by white supremacists and neo-Nazis in Charlottesville, Virginia, in August 2017, Donald Trump claimed that among those hate groups there were some “fine people”.  Lives were lost that day, murder was committed, and the most abominable form of hatred was on display by those “fine people”.  And yet, a man engages in a peaceful protest that hurts no one, simply goes down on one knee to remind people that this country is losing its values, and here’s what Donald Trump had to say about him …

“I think it’s personally not a good thing, I think it’s a terrible thing. And, you know, maybe he should find a country that works better for him. Let him try, it won’t happen.” – 30 August 2016

And more recently …

“Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, ‘Get that son of a bitch off the field right now. Out! He’s fired. He’s fired!’” – 23 September 2017

“You have to stand proudly for national anthem, or shouldn’t be playing, you shouldn’t be there. Maybe you shouldn’t be in the country. You have to stand proudly for the national anthem. And the NFL owners did the right thing.” – 24 May 2018

Why did the president of the country feel a need to involve himself to start with, and why the Sam Heck is he still, two years later, injecting his hateful and uneducated opinion?  This, folks, is the piece of work we have sitting in the highest seat of government in this country.  But back to Mr. Kaepernick …

In May of this year, the NFL, presumably under pressure from Donald Trump, approved a policy that forbids players from kneeling during the playing of the anthem.  As a compromise, they may stay in the locker room, but if they are on the field, they must stand.  The decision was made without input from or negotiation with the players union, which is a flagrant violation of the employer’s duty to bargain in good faith.  It might behoove them to remember that it is the players, not the team owners nor NFL officials, who make the money that supports the NFL and the teams.

What I find equally, if not more disappointing is that the majority of people in this country do not support players’ right to protest peacefully by kneeling during the anthem.  43% of voters believe kneeling during the national anthem is an appropriate way to protest racial inequality, while the majority, 54%, say it is not appropriate.  The other 3% were asleep.  Predictably, though sadly, the results fell along political and racial lines.  We are no better than we were 200 years ago, my friends.

Meanwhile … Colin Kaepernick, who has been out of work since March 2017, was made privy to leaked audiotapes of an NFL meeting held in October where, in response to players questioning whether Kaepernick had, in fact, been blackballed, the team owners expressed their fears about further aggravating Trump.  Patriots owner Robert Kraft—a supporter of Trump—worried that “the problem we have is, we have a president who will use that as fodder to do his mission that I don’t feel is in the best interests of America.”

Colin Kaepernick filed a collusion grievance against the NFL, asserting that the league conspired to deprive him of his right to sign with any team.  The burden of proof is on Kaepernick, and collusion is not easy to prove.  The NFL had high hopes that Kaepernick would not be able to convince arbitrator (and University of Pennsylvania law professor) Stephen Burbank that there is sufficient evidence of collusion.  However, last week those hopes were dashed when Burbank, who was appointed by the league and the NFL Players Association, said lawyers for Kaepernick had unearthed enough information in the past year for the case to proceed to a full hearing.  It is a preliminary step, but an important one.

For the record, this writer fully supports Colin Kaepernick and any other players who have the courage to stand by their convictions, who are not afraid of the bullies in government, the NFL and society.  The flag and the anthem ought to stand for something, but more and more these days, they stand for hypocrisy rather than values.

I Think …

Posted on by under Political commentary, Racism & Bigotry, Random, Social commentary

I quite often say that we seem not to learn from the lessons of history.  Oh sure, we remember for a while – a generation or two – but then the memories dim as the people who lived through that history die off and there is nobody to tell the stories with passion, with first-hand experience.  The immediacy fades and we return to the old ways or settle into new ones. One example is Hitler and the Holocaust.  My grandparents and parents well remembered those lessons, for they lived through them.  I have, perhaps a slightly dimmed sense of it, for I was not yet born, but still a heightened awareness from a childhood spent hearing the stories from one set of grandparents, my mother, and my father who fought in WWII.  And I passed many of those stories to my own children and granddaughter, but by this time they are 3rd and 4th hand stories and are losing some of their authenticity.  Another generation and the stories likely will not be told at all.

Surely there are history books from which we can learn, but again, with few exceptions, written words on a page often fail to bring the story to life, fail to inspire or excite.  And so, we may know the facts, while at the same time forgetting the lessons.  Arrogantly, we believe that those things could never happen in today’s world, never to our generation. Two comments I read yesterday gave rise to this post and an attempt, probably feeble, to find something in the past on which to judge the political and social turmoil the U.S. is experiencing today and find solutions to keep us all from killing one another.

The first comment was by USFMAN, commenting on my post Be Better:

“You cannot outshout a demagogue like Trump so look for similar situations from history that might offer solutions. Gandhi’s idea of mass passive resistance and Martin Luther King’s Freedom Riders come to mind.”

The second was by our friend Roger (Woebegone but Hopeful) commenting on Keith’s post That Jesus Saying:

“The danger lies in the separation of the nation into quarrelling tribes who never listen to each other. This is not good. Does no one look back to the histories of the 1840s to 1860s? Does it take another ‘Bloody Kansas’ for folk to sit up and think, ‘there is something wrong here’”

Interestingly, Roger lives in the UK, Wales to be specific, and yet most often has a better grasp of the history of this nation than we who have lived here all our lives.  And he, as well as many other friends from across the pond, see our situation with clearer eyes than we do.  Perhaps there is something to be said of that expression “can’t see the forest for the trees”?

Anyway, these comments started me thinking.  A very brief bit of historical context for those who may not remember the details.

The Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854 gave the territories of Kansas and Nebraska the right to choose, by popular vote, whether to become a slave state or a free state.  Slavery being the most contentious issue of the day, tensions ran high, to say the least, and a lot of dirty politics ensued.  So dirty, in fact, that when a congressional committee investigated a year or so later, they found that 1,729 fraudulent votes had been cast as compared to 1,114 legitimate ones!  Needless to say, violence ensued:  a hotel and two newspaper offices were burned, homes and stores ransacked, and murder & mayhem became the order of the day.

Long story short, a divisive political issue nearly destroyed a society, causing death and destruction.  Now granted,  that was in the days of the ‘Olde West’, and we are more … civilized today.  Or are we?  We have white police officers killing unarmed blacks.  We have white supremacist groups creating chaos on city streets and university campuses.  We have people refusing to serve other people in their place of business because of politics.  We have a ‘president’ who incites violence, encouraging people to hurt others.  Are we more civilized that Kansans in the mid-nineteenth century?  Don’t be too sure.  It would seem that we really haven’t come very far at all.

Which brings me to USFMAN’s comments …

How many times in the last year or two have I said that I wish we had another Martin Luther King?  Too many.  Martin Luther King was only one of the Civil Rights leaders some 50-60 years ago who worked tirelessly to bring about change, but what was unique about him was two things:  his charisma that gave him the ability to lead, and his philosophy of non-violence.  Martin, you may remember, had a dream.  He knew what he wanted to accomplish.  As I read the text of his speech for probably the 100th time, I realize that Martin Luther King’s dream in 1963 was not much different than our own dream today.

“I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.’

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today.

And if America is to be a great nation this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!

Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado!

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California!

But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia!

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee!

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, ‘Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!’”

We have many burning issues today, concerning relationships with our allies, health care, education,  poverty, immigration, guns, environment, abortion, and more.  Most of these issues were  not born under the regime of Trump, but he has fanned the flames of discord and disharmony in every single event. But at the crux of most of it is bigotry, intolerance and discrimination of one group or another.  Discrimination against not only African-Americans, but Muslims, Latinos, LGBT people, non-Christians, the poor and even women.  Rather than being able to say we overcame the discrimination that Martin Luther King was fighting, we have expanded it to include other groups – almost anyone who is not white, Christian, and preferably male.

Now that I have offered my rambling thoughts, you probably wonder where I am going with this, if I have a point.  I do.  It seems to me that, in the absence of a Gandhi or Martin Luther King in our midst to lead the way in peaceful protest, then we must each become those leaders, using our voices to promote ideas of equality, to insist our voices be heard, and to do so without violence.  Colin Kaepernick was one such leader last year.  MLK would have been proud of Mr. Kaepernick, for never was there a more peaceful way of protesting, yet he made his point.  This is the way to win equality … the only way, I think.

Roseanne, Samantha and Free Speech

Posted on by under Political commentary, Racism & Bigotry, Re-blogs, Social commentary

I have written about Colin Kaepernick and others who, in protest of police brutality against African-Americans and racism, took a knee rather than stand for the national anthem. But recently, a new blogger joined my circle of friends & readers, and when I read the post she did on this topic, I was awed. I simply had to share it with you, my friends, for Lindi Roze, blogging as Self Censored, has written the most thoughtful and thought-provoking piece on this topic that I have read. Please take a few moments to read Lindi’s piece and leave her a comment, if you feel so inclined. Thank you, Lindi, for this excellent post, and for your generous permission to share with my readers!

A Roze By Any Other Name

Critique does not come easy for me.  I try to be careful but truthful with my words.  I don’t like to be rude.  I don’t want to hurt anyone.  I consider myself a moderate in many things.  I prefer to look at both sides of an issue, as I know that circumstances can appear different to each of us. We all have experiences that color our perception of the world around us.  I’m one of those who believes in “being nice to someone no matter what because you don’t know what they’ve been through.”  When there is a bizarre statement trending on social media, I try to look it up before I pass judgment or share inaccurate or misleading information.  I have voted for political candidates on both sides of the aisle, taking into consideration which person I feel is best for the job. That being said, when push comes…

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The Women Have Spoken …

Posted on by under Political commentary, Social commentary

I did not set out to write another post at this time about the Women’s March on Washington.  I was thrilled with the turnout, thrilled that there were marches not only in Washington, but all over the nation, and in fact the globe!  I was vastly relieved that there were no arrests and no injuries.  All in all, I felt good about the march, but did not see a reason to write another post about it just yet, thinking I would wait a week or two and see if there were any results, fallout, or anything else in response.  But today, I saw and read some things that simply sickened me, and the angrier I became, the more my fingers itched and my brain refused to concentrate on the post I was writing about the European response to having Trump at the helm.  So alas, I am once again, writing about the Women’s March, or rather the responses to it.

The march had a purpose.  Not, perhaps, quite as clear-cut and well-defined as the March on Washington on 28 August 1963, but it had purpose.  It had many purposes, but its main purpose was to send a message … a message to the current resident of the Oval Office, his minions, and Congress that we are not going to be silent.  We are not going to stand calmly aside while you implement policies that rob access to healthcare from some 20 million people.  We will not sit down and shut up while you turn over our natural resources and wildlife to the states to lease to miners, drillers and loggers.  We will not calmly sit knitting by the fire while you reverse hard-won civil rights legislation, including same-sex marriage.  We will yell loud and long if you fill your cabinet with the likes of Betsy DeVos, Jeff Sessions, and Scott Pruitt.  We will do whatever it takes to get our message out if you follow through with your threat to use OUR money to build a wall on the Mexican border – a wall that will hurt the U.S. economy far more than that of Mexico!  Or if you try to deport our Muslim friends from this nation that was founded on the principles that you are denying to so many. The message is:  we will be watching, we have a voice, we have power, and we will use it.

Apparently there are a lot of men and women out there who see this march as being about a single issue:  abortion.  Yes, the threat to overturn Roe v Wade is one the many portions of Trump’s platform that we protest, but it is only one of many.

Yesterday, the day after the march, social media was filled with anti-marcher memes and posts.  Mostly from women … some basically just stating their opinion opposing the march, others being downright rude.  This one, in particular, made me see red:

womeen

It is difficult, if not impossible, to discern what is real and what is faux news, thus I choose to err on the side of caution and will not post any comments that I have not been able to verify.  That said, here are some of the comments people have made in response to the march:

  • “Don’t include me in your crazy rhetoric. As a woman, this does not represent me. I am not an extremist or a feminist. No one is stealing any of my rights or beliefs. I am not a victim. I am not oppressed.”
  • “The election is over but not the fight against America. This march, which is organized and funded by George Soros, Planned Parenthood and other donors, is getting local and worldwide media attention. Their website (www.womensmarch.com) says this march is the rise of the woman and is the rise of the nation. Let me say loud and clear, they do not represent me. This march spits in my face and the faces of the women who voted for Donald J. Trump.” (Note: Soros and Planned Parenthood are mentioned as financiers of the march in multiple media sites that are known for their faux news, such as Breitbart, but I find no references on legitimate news outlets, so I question the veracity of this statement)  
  • “Why do any women need this march? This is America, I have everything I need, and if you don’t, it’s your own fault, and marching won’t fix that for you.”
  • “Why protest, what are you protesting against? I have every right my husband has. This is a bunch of angry women who don’t have a good man in their life.”
  • “I think they were marching to show that they oppose our new president BECAUSE of the comments he made to Billy Bush. I saw signs reflecting that, in the march. Also they do not like his manner and feel he is not qualified. ALSO they like Hillary and can’t BELIEVE she did not win. Also, celebrities ( Rosie, Whoopie, Steven Colbert, Meryl, etc) get them all fired up and ready to take on the government. This is what I think is going on.”

And then there was this …

women-3

Enough said.  Two points here.  First, as I mentioned above, the march was not simply, nor even primarily, about the issue of pro-choice.  It was about so much more, and I suspect that those who speak against the march are aware of that, but the pro-choice, or abortion, issue is the only one they feel strongly enough to argue.  Second, it is selfish, narrow-minded, and arrogant to assume that simply because your life is fine and dandy, everyone’s is.  Many women in this country are struggling to put food on the table and a roof over their heads for their children.  Many cannot afford to take their children to a doctor if they lose their healthcare through ACA.  Many people in this nation will suffer under Trump’s proposed policies, through no fault of their own! It is about the nation, our future, about equal rights for ALL people.

Although we cannot have exact attendance information, all indicators, from aerial photos, Metro rider statistics, etc., indicate that the turnout for the Women’s March far exceeded that of the inauguration. I think it speaks volumes that the march was peaceful, there was no violence, no arrests … this tells me that these women really wanted to make their voices heard through peaceful protest and not muddy the waters with scandal that would be seized upon in the press and their communities.  Women around the nation sent a message, not only to Donald Trump, but also to Congress.  They should be praised and respected, not criticized and mocked.  A special thanks to our fellow-blogger, Gronda Morin for participating in the D.C. march and representing us all! Hats off to every person, women and men alike, who stood and marched to send the message that We The People have a voice and are not afraid to use it.  doffing-hat