They Stood Up Against Violence

I saw something yesterday that buoyed my spirit of a cynical journalist. It was like an army of gulls descending from heaven when T and I decided to go to the bookstore to relieve our misery. As a couple, the bookstore is our special hide away and escape from an insane world on and off TV.

When we got to Mayfair Mall where one of Wisconsin's Barnes and Nobles Bookstore, people stood toe to toe, walked in pairs and/or groups; cars road bumper to bumper with drivers sliding in and out of parking spaces. I was flabbergasted. T searched for an empty, disabled spot while I fumed with increasing irritability. I wanted to go home, but we quickly found a parking spot. Once inside Barnes and Nobles, I noticed that nobody talked. It was as if they all had a telepathic connection focused on one unified issue. Silence was the modus operandi -- a golden endeavor of strength through one vision and one mission.

The patrons got in line to buy refreshments but there was this loose and spirited stance I still couldn't decipher. After hours of watching people in and out of the store and moving over the entire Mayfair Mall. I knew something was happening and I a journalist, of all people, was outside the periphery. I needed to blabber and write about it, but without knowledge I was a gull on a food hunt way below anybody's food chain.

The big break came shortly after we were about to leave. A grandfather came over and shared a table with us. While there I mentioned the strangeness about the large crowds at the mall two days after Christmas, and nobody seemed to be shopping. He reminded us about last year's storm of violence with disgruntled, fed-up underagers who trashed stores in southeastern Wisconsin's most popular mall in a stand against long-standing rules that adults had to accompany anyone under 18 after 4 p.m. Their outrage escalated into hundreds of thousands of dollars in merchandise and property destruction. They shot guns, too, but no injuries occurred. They planned to keep the effort going until the mall policy was reversed.

Well, this Christmas weekend, the honorable people fought back in force when they said hell no to violence. There wasn't a spot big enough to commit any violent act unless you stepped on a toe or spit on someone. Besides being proactive, the issue was also psychological for no violent actor would want to spend a minute in company of all these do-gooders en masse. Today the mall went back to normal without incident as the opponents never showed, and I hope they've learned a lesson. And perhaps other cities where mall violence and death tolls soar around the nation will implement such a policy against underagers who act like they're on a football field. A sad scenario in our already destructive society.

It's abominable when shoppers cannot shop without violence or without fear of losing their life or injury while minding their own business. At least these shoppers recognized that police react to crime, but they have an opportunity to take a proactive stance, and they won the battle -- for one day.

Hugs for Everyone -- Pet Saviors, Too

Let me get personal here? Have you hugged your husband-man, wife-woman, partner, parent, child, or pet today?


I'm loving my cat J.J. more than ever today and for more than his sitting beside me when I'm at the computer checking e-mail, reading or writing in Facebook, Twitter, Storylane, or blogging. No matter what function, he's a comfort and an inspiration. Maybe he just loves the sound of clicking keys.

There's no question this gray tabby with white paws and belly is worth his weight in Platinum records. At 3:30 a.m. he walked on me and woke me up. No doubt he wanted to eat but I was ticked because I knew getting back to sleep would be a challenge. I thought it was 7 until Hubby told me it was 3:30. I turned over determined to sleep again.
When I couldn't after an hour, I got up with intention to sleep in the recliner. There wouldn't be that noisy C-Pap machine disturbing me while in the recliner because I wouldn't be lying down. No breathing restrictions while sitting up.

Crawling out of bed was scary because the dizziness swept me like a broom on linoleum. I stumbled to the kitchen and took blood pressure meds early, thinking that was the problem. Then I decided to check my blood sugar as any smart diabetics would do. (I don't always do it, though) The first reading and it was 65, which explained the dizziness. Hubby confirmed the reading and reminded me that we have the same meters, which are new. Quickly, I remembered all the years of passing out with that sort of reading. Once diabetes crept into my body, the low-blood sugar didn't go underground; it worsened.

In less time than a thought hits the air, I knew if I had stayed asleep, I would've died or, at the very least, gone into a coma. My doctor has always told me to check my blood sugar at bedtime and at the middle of night if possible so "you don't wake up dead." (She knows how much I love humor) I had habitually struggled with low-blood sugar long before diabetes woke-up a nation.

Thanks to J.J. because in four more hours as unthinkable as tsunami's rise -- wrecking havoc with destruction and death -- I would've have woken up dead or in a coma. And my writing buddy is getting his hugs right now.

Let Me Tell You...: Perplexed? Palin, Smart Americans...Well?

Let Me Tell You...: Perplexed? Palin, Smart Americans...Well?: Dear Sarah Palin and Republicans, There's nothing perplexing to the American "others" -- or voices of exclusion -- unless you're referring...God gives but we also must give and participate in our own-well being, not let politicians run amok with stuff we need to give our input. Let's be a country who helps our government -- not a sitting duck Congress.

Perplexed? Palin, Smart Americans...Well?

Dear Sarah Palin and Republicans,

There's nothing perplexing to the American "others" -- or voices of exclusion -- unless you're referring to Tea Party or Republicans who spun a bunch of vicious lies and bigotry to win elections. Let's see, should I report those lies. No, I will not; there're more souls to search.

You wrote: "I just cannot believe that the majority of Americans believe that incurring more debt is good for the economy, for our children's future, for job creators. I just cannot believe that the majority of Americans believe that it's OK to ignore the constitution and not have a budget."

"It's a perplexing time for many of us right now."

The smart Americans aren't perplexed about what baffles you because they paid attention to mean divisions. We wanted to go forward -- not to lag behind -- to finish the economic crisis after they realized a president alone and one-term alone wouldn't fix it. We knew why we didn't get a budget and why the deficit is still high -- two wars, an economic, meltdown, etc. -- and we knew unemployment didn't skyrocket because President Obama took office in 2008. We may be hurting, unemployed, mentally and physically, chronically ill, and broke of all race, creed, religion, and color, but we don't lack hope or faith in possibilities.

We haven't reached the pinnacle of racial harmony, but we'll never get there if people in power influence this sordid racist history. And it doesn't matter whether any of you refute public comments as racist or not, we know, yes, we know that it is.

When Powell, former Joint Chiefs of Staff and Secretary of State in President Bush's first term, said he is more comfortable with President Obama and his administration than Mitt Romney on a host of issues, including his steady hand in foreign policy and the respect returned to America through Obama's leadership. When Powell, a distinguished military and political leader, endorsed Barack Obama, GOP's John Sununu suggested that Powell's 2012 campaign endorsement was motivated by race. I was infuriated but not appalled because of four years of blustering comments stereotyping African-Americans' vote was based on skin color as if we couldn't make sound political decisions. (I don't care what polls said; most of us decided these elections based on criteria used for white candidates)

Then a wind of wisdom blew through doors of our mind when Retired Army Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, former Colin Powell aide, responded by blasting Sununu defining his Republican Party as "full of racists."

"My party, unfortunately, is the bastion of those people -- not all of them, but most of them -- who are still basing their positions on race. To say that Colin Powell would endorse President Obama because of his skin color is like saying Mother Theresa worked for profit." Amen, amen. My sentiment, exactly.

Earlier in President Obama's tenure, President Carter warned Americans that racial factors contributed to Republican actions. (Our president believes in the greater goodness of everyone) They ran the football off course -- acting as if they have a God-given right, at the very least, voters' and taxpayers' permission to collect paychecks and keep seats warm. African-Americans knew that from Day One when Russ Limbaugh, conservative and hateful Talk Show host, announced in 2008 that he hoped the president failed. Congressional Republicans and upcoming Tea Party folk started plotting to rev up Americans against "Obama Care," and privately other issues, calling the signed and dried health care law everything but the devil from hades. Even when the Supreme Court lowered the pitch of voices, politicians vowed to "kill it dead"  during the 2012 presidency primary, the general election, and in congressional battles.

Perhaps, Congessional amnesia trumped the facts about the  "worst economy since the great depression" and denied any progress.

They lit an inferno deep within my soul. They claimed political differences, but I reject that cheap sale. There's something fundamentally wrong when you'd rather watch a country you claim to "love" crumble because of self-serving policies and destructive intentions. Abe Lincoln said, "Government by the people, for the people, of the people," but people power has hung outside the bowels of political inclusiveness and exclusiveness of the "others" outside political voices and their connections. (Unfortunately, others believe they are powerless) 

Many of these others suffered through this campaign while listening and thinking about this maligning, disrespecting, discrediting, lying, fear of cheating through voting suppression or other means -- with political opposition counting on people's ignorance to propel GOPs into the White House. Oh, did I mention how covert and overt racism sunk spirits of many people who worked tirelessly to KO our shameful and sordid past?

News articles, TV programs, white voices and action on the streets perpetuated their anxiety by blatant uttering of the N-word and other racist language in addition to well-worn comments ingrained in weary minds: back to Africa, back to Chicago, take back our white House as if slaves didn't build it or if all presidents didn't live there, and a horrendous wish to bring back slavery. Anti-factions derided the Health Care Law and blatantly blasted medical care for the poorest with criticism of the undocumented. (a political shame before God)The pot boiled over, and these politicians and their supporters didn't care who they insulted or hurt. Older and younger American adults responded, "They want us all to die."

We're also perplexed to Mrs. Palin: Though all wealthy aren't opposed to the consideration, we're bewildered that wealthy Republicans don't feel obligation for Clinton-era tax cuts to lower the economic scaffold and soften the scalpel to slice the budget responsibly and fairly in reducing the deficit. We're baffled about the resurgence of deep-seated hatred. We're confused that after all the bloodshed for civil rights, we have voter suppression under the misnomer of voter fraud. We're confounded about the nay votes to equal pay, equal work for women, and about swollen anger over the right to equal opportunity and fairness to everyone. (Oh, by the way, if Obama Care opponents claimed unconstitutional then Republicans ought to know denying equality and justice for all IS still unconstitutional without a need for the Supreme Court ruling) 

All Obama voters, I believe, honor colorblindness, not color consciousness, something that makes me proud to be an American, and I'm more proud today than ever. If only the rest of the country would wake up and close the canister of color consciousness with "equality and justice for all."

We're all in this Titanic. We'll all sink the country without a forward movement to equality and economic prosperity. Valuable lessons abound from the lessons of disasters -- 9-11, hurricanes, tornadoes and earth quake, and a tsumani when we work together without regard to party, religion, non-religious, class, skin color, gay or lesbian. We have outstanding opportunities if we work together and let go of political sabotage, bigotry, and pettiness. Party over people is the wrong direction whether you believe it or not. Party should never override the human race. You know that, don't you? If you don't I pray your faith will guide you. 

Let Me Tell You...: My Vote Is No Black Thing

Let Me Tell You...: My Vote Is No Black Thing:  Mitch McConnell   Our No.1 priority is to make sure President Obama does not get a second term -- Mitch McConnell, GOP Senate Minority...

My Vote Is No Black Thing

 Mitch McConnell

 

Our No.1 priority is to make sure President Obama does not get a second term --Mitch McConnell, GOP Senate Minority Leader

 
I voted for Barack Obama in 2008 – not because he’s black, not because of his eloquent speaking voice, not because of his good looks. Apparently, Mitch McConnell (R-KY) thought so because he ignored the needs of the country, which I question his judgment to hold a country hostage. It seems to me that he didn't recognize that it wasn't just blacks that put President Obama in office. My frequent thought other than how sick it makes me that sitting ducks got paid and passed the blame on to Democrats. I wonder if they, like Romney thought, we are the 47% Obama voters not to worry about.

Since 2008 too often I’ve heard that it’s a black thing and that’s why African-Americans voted for him. Some of us may have, but nobody ever asks if white voters picked him because he’s black. That would’ve been absurd, right? Nobody asked if we voted for Bill Clinton because he’s white. I loved Candidate Obama’s commitment to fairness, equality and justice for all. I embraced him because of this and his laid-out criteria for change, for his sincerity, and for his values that represent the basic tenets and values of America.
2012 Election Day's vote won't be a black thing either. Don't insult our intelligence by suggesting or asking such nebulous insensitivity. 

He demonstrated strong leadership skills, had held a Senate seat, which few African-Americans seldom win. His expertise in Constitutional Law impressed me, and I knew he was the right man for the job because he’s sincere about saving the middle class and others without economic stability. His sincerity rose like a plume of smoke. For the second term, we have unfinished business that couldn’t be completed in four years with Republicans sitting on the fence honoring their commitment to prevent a second term.

Let’s talk about that major criticism about the economy. President Roosevelt led the country through the Great Depression, and he didn’t get the country back on track in four years. President Reagan and President Clinton had economic challenges with second terms to complete the job. In his second term, Clinton ended with a surplus that skyrocketed into a fiscal crisis in Bush years, a fiscal crisis averted by President Obama's leadership.

So why does President Obama who doesn’t do magic or fly like Superman get tons of critics claiming he did nothing or “it didn’t work,” as Mitt Romney says repetitively? In this election with disgruntled and hateful voters dragging racial epithets across my Internet fan pages. some of whom turned because of untruths. Again, we’ll hear black folk voted for him because he’s black. Smart people know what's at stake and race has nothing to do with it.

When a president with a full platter puts more than half of it into the done column, shouldn’t he get a second term to complete the challenges? Count with me as we countdown to Tuesday: economic growth and five million jobs created, rescued country from falling off the cliff, health care law with pre-existing conditions and age changes for children on parents’ insurance, got Bin Laden, ended Iraq war with time line to end war in Afghanistan, equal pay for women, pro-college, fairness for all. I could go on but I’d need space in The New York Times.

Our president engages all citizens while others complain that he unilaterally made decisions without partisanship. Really? Remember Abraham Lincoln: “Government by the people, for the people, and of the people.”

Somebody remind Republicans and Tea Party folk who scream about non-partisan health care law. The people were non-partisan in efforts sanctioned by the late Ted Kennedy who worked nearly 50 years to pass this bill– a bill more than one president couldn’t get done for one reason or another. Yet when the bill passed people got angry because people get sick, and politicians campaigned with vengeance against being human with attacks all the way to the Supreme Court to prove it unconstitutional. The court disagreed.

Humans get sick but only Congress gets free health care for themselves and their family. How cavalier is that? They’re privileged to get health care, but it’s not right for ordinary Americans. By the way, Congress's health isn't anymore important than the rest of ours. We're all human. We all deserve the same opportunity at fairness and justice for all. I cannot imagine what it feels like to flee one's country expected to be treated equally with fairness in America and find it woefully lacking. We're the best but at what cost to those on the bottom rung. That's what is the choice in this election.

HOMEWORK FOR THIS VOTER

Many people get confused by negative ads and lack of clarity about what a candidate offers. Here’s how I educated myself about that 2008 election. Shortly after Candidate Obama won as Democratic nominee for president, I researched and read, followed political issues, and pulled out those values of country, race, class, women. I read both of Candidate Obama's books which gave me an insight into the person he is, and that we shared the same values, had the same caring and concerns about our country. I decided that we needed to follow our mission as Abraham Lincoln pointed out: “Government by the people, for the people, and of the people.” People power hangs by worn thread with too many not knowing that politicians aren't supposed to run the country and focus on themselves rather than people. This election is about choice, about being human and those basic rights and voices we've lost. A good economy and jobs weren't always available to people in urban areas. I know black men who've been unemployed for decades, and that was the case in every state I've lived – Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Moline and Rockford, Ill; Greenville and Fayetteville, NC; Milwaukee, Wis., where plant closings shut down the pathway to middle class growth. Other cities such as Detroit, Pittsburgh, Pa., had devastating plant closings long before President Obama ever entered politics.

After nearly four years in office, we’ve stood by and let "hater-raiders" malign him for performing too well, blaming him for a deficit that ballooned with two wars and an economic meltdown that threatened to push the economy over the cliff that started well before he took office. With his leadership, we dodged the cliff abyss; it bears repeating. And that landmark health care law is the humane thing because 45 million uninsured people include very sick people in all our families who head for emergency or suffer at home until death. What kind of society are we to allow this suffering.

I don’t assume that all African-Americans are Democrats nor do I assume that all of us will vote Democratic. Stacy Dash, a black actress, announced to 30,000 Twitter fans that she’d vote for Romney. Of course, she’s entitled to her voting choice though some Twitter fans cried “Foul.”Take your voter freedom and run with it, Stacy, same as I will.

 

Let Me Tell You...: Romney Blinders on Single Motherhood

Let Me Tell You...: Romney Blinders on Single Motherhood: Not a nanosecond spent on equal rights and equal pay for women doing same jobs as men. Who among you awaited some kind of encouragement fr...

Romney Blinders on Single Motherhood

Not a nanosecond spent on equal rights and equal pay for women doing same jobs as men. Who among you awaited some kind of encouragement from Mitt Romney during Tuesday’s debate?

He spent his time gloating about “binders full of women” he sought to fill top-level Massachusetts government posts. And get this, he assured women schedule changes so they could pick up their children from day care and to go home and play good homemakers. (I’ve read that he didn’t tell the whole truth even if it is, we’re not impressed)

Imagine that! The presidential hopeful brags about his meager assistance on the part of women but failed to add a scintilla to address women issues with the exception of saying they wouldn’t want a man picking their contraceptives.  

Yikes. He committed another faux pas when he verbally slapped single motherhood. If you didn’t know better you’d hear a blame-game about disproportionate numbers of single mothers who made their own rock-filled beds, excluding husbands or “baby daddies.” I’m sick to death of this scenario from conservative  politicians. Other family specialists, social engineers, and black leaders discuss the needs without demeaning women who do herculean jobs of double parenting.

But Romney, a rich white guy who wants to run this country, uses the same old tired rhetoric. It takes a mother and a father – a two-parent household – to raise children and keep them off the streets and to prevent uncivil acts and violence.  Romney isn’t just out of touch, he’s out of order because he’s clueless why so many women are single mothers.

It’s appalling that he so eloquently excluded a family/women’s issue on national TV while President Obama correctly embraced our issues.  Let me enlighten you, Mr. Romney:

1.      African-American men are sitting behind bars – mostly in prisons, not jails. Don’t take my word. Go on line or call The Sentencing Project in Washington, DC.

2.      African-American men have troubles that people like Romney ignored or didn’t figure the importance of  health on physical and mental fronts along with good paying jobs. He excludes sensibilities of women who choose what’s best for themselves and their children.

3.      African-Americans or any other women cannot force a man to marry or remain with the women. Oh, by the way, more African-American men are in prison than in college, and those college-educated women want college-educated men.

4.      Back in slavery and Reconstruction, African-American men ran away from slave masters and later left slave territories for survival. Some sent money home, and some were never seen again. Single mothers didn't just break out in the twentieth century as conservatives seem to believe.

5.      African-American men are dying in such unimaginable numbers that it isn’t hard to fathom why there are so many single black women raising children alone.  The life expectancy for black men is at least a decade shorter than white men’s.

(Anything I’ve written about African-Americans is relevant to Latinos and other groups with similar histories of imprisonment and violent deaths)

If you don’t know the other side of single motherhood, Mr. Romney, check out Maury or any  afternoon talk show that discloses relationships between single white women and their baby daddies.
Your comments are code for “Welfare is a black thing.” You don’t care “diddley” about debating the human costs for innocent children because they should be on their own after birth.

Romney had a golden moment to give lip-service or geniune support for women pay equity, but his  missteps brought on a major blunder. Women doing equal work as men deserve equal pay as legalized by Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act 2009 (signed into law by President Barack Obama) Some women fear for its security because this inequity survived at least a hundred years without a whimper, and a disinterested president may cause harm. 

He stripped again because of self-help: Single mothers who earn equal pay as male counterparts can enroll sons and daughters in camp or educational programs in summers, place them in after-school programs or early childhood education programs that a Republican administration might cut or push off on financially beleaguered states. Teenagers could go to foreign countries for summer vacation. These children would have plenty of nutritious food to fill hungry stomachs for better learning; they’d get tutoring if needed, and they’d wear presentable clothes and shoes. Instead he preaches about two-parent families as though he has the power to unite them.

The Romneys of the political world need to include women into their inner sanctum; or better yet, respect their contributions and hire them in positions where  they're qualified. Unfortunately, Romney doesn’t share women’s dreams, their experiences, and he didn’t fake his way through such high-profile litany of women’s rights and issues left to address.  An apology won’t cover it up. 

 

 

 

 

No Post-racial Era

Forget what you've read or heard when President Barack Obama was elected in 2008: It's a post-racial era, they said.
Bull....Race still matters in 2012. You can believe it.
Don't let anyone fool you about what most African-Americans never acknowledged or surmised. They whispered behind closed doors, in small gatherings, in phone conversations, and anywhere we have privacy from people who'd dismiss our so-called paranoid perspective.
I guess you have to be among the 13% African-Americans or other groups to understand what their experiences are.
We're still dealing with reverse discrimination when colored folk turn black and then African-Americans couldn't possible overturn neglected racial issues, derogatory stereotyping,,
more black males in prison xxx

Let Me Tell You...: Mister Rogers to Romney: Oh No, You Don't

Let Me Tell You...: Mister Rogers to Romney: Oh No, You Don't: What's Mitt Romney smoking? Nothing? Then why the low five to Big Bird? His comment about Big Bird and PBS is not only cavalier, it's as t...

Seriously, Research, Read History

Our main priority is to make sure President Obama does not get a second term. -- Mitch M


My dad used to say, "There'll only be two class- rich and poor." (He should know since his Southern town never had factories and unemployment for black men was unimaginable. He never had a full-time job after relocating to the south from Newark, N.J.)

He died poor and left children most of whom never left poverty. Pockets of poverty in urban areas across this country didn't have jobs before the economic crisis. Romney can blame it on Obama, but he needs a history lesson. Milwaukee's factories have been closing

African-American men are unemployed and long before this political staging of blaming President Obama for unemployment in his four-year tenure. Long before Obama was born these men struggled without jobs to care for their children.

Mister Rogers to Romney: Oh No, You Don't

What's Mitt Romney smoking? Nothing? Then why the low five to Big Bird?

His comment about Big Bird and PBS is not only cavalier, it's as thoughtless as that unbelievable middle class flip flop. He put them in the 47% now he's apologized and started courting them for votes. During the debates, he pitched a proud doom day for PBS:

"I'm sorry Jim. I'm going to stop the subsidy to PBS. I'm going to stop other things. I like PBS. I love Big Bird. ...I'm not going to keep on spending money on things to borrow money from China to pay for it."

What's he going to do -- outsource Big Bird to China or the highest bidding country, or to businesses creating12 million jobs he promised? He just doesn't get it.

(Instead of targeting PBS and Big Bird, here are more expensive chopping block subsidies -- corporate welfare, Big Oil, tax cuts for the rich, and.. . Oh, I forgot, it's okay because entitlements are for the wealthy. I must add that some wealthy citizens want their beloved country to survive) 

Big Bird isn't just a subsidized PBS phenomenon; he's an educational staple for children and adults without Internet, cable, or other paid networks providing political and special programs.

He owns Sesame Street, but he isn't eating up all those government cookies without carrying his weight. Children need Big Bird to bring them along with their peers in kindergarten and first grade. Fortunate children have day care linked to early childhood education, which single mothers and jobless parents cannot afford.

I'm a Big Bird learner's mother, and I thank him for all that reading, writing, and math in North Carolina though she attended four-year-old kingergarten. 

Mr. Rogers is livid. Twitter fans and the Big Bird family from years ago are twisting with anger. So Romney wants to drown PBS that provides programming for that 47% he said, "I don't have to worry about them."
He doesn't have to worry about freedom, convenience, and anything else he needs or desires. ...maybe a trip to heaven with a U-haul hitched to his bank.

Consider this: You apologized for the 47% but where I grew up and live now, your comments are unforgettable and unforgiveable. For those who believe your apology, hear this:

I have some white, sandy beachfront property "smack dab" in Florida's Port Everglades, and I'll sell it for whatever a buyer is willing to pay.




 

Moving Forward Festival

Willie T Atkinson invites you to Greenville, NC   "Hello Joyce, It's good to know that u support President Obama for 4 more years. Please let it be known that the African-American Caucus of Pitt County Democratic Party is hosting a Moving Forward Festival, Oct. 6, 2012 at Tom Foreman Park, 400 Nash Street from 12 PM - 5PM. Free food & live music by Back Together Again plus a step show performance by Caution Steps. CU there !"

Danger, Danger, Danger

Whether you think it's OK to suppress 1.7 million voters in this election, consider this: It's not just about this election or the candidates though we want our own choice.

Have you read this? The New York Times reported this on Thursday that GOP supporters are working to suppress votes of seniors and African-Americans in swing states where President Obama won the last election.

Suppose in the next election Democrats decided to launch a similar campaign to nail down shoes of mostly white Republican voters. Suppose you're denied the right to vote because you're unable to cite the U.S. Constitution or the Gettysburg Address.

If GOP supporters succeed in suppressing votes in 16 states, we've already breached the laws of Voting Rights -- a civil rights fight in which U.S. Rep. John  Lewis nearly lost his life. Too many foot soldiers fought and died.

If successful this scathing political scalpel would return 50 years of dirty-shameful history, tantamount to political Olympics awarding gold medals to banned players. Romney and the GOP believe they're "entitled" to trample on rights of people who've won rights through emotional and physical trauma, blood, & ugliness.

I hope our goodness, as God ordained, revives our consciousness, to take a step back and recognize the danger in taking away rights of anyone, for any rationale. 

These are dangerous possibilities where supporters dupe intelligent, possibly snoozing judges to see it GOP's way, but it's up to voters to register properly and choose not to fall back. Or it'll be "Romney Care" creating his brand of victimization -- squashing self-esteem, livelihood, culture, total humanity.

Back to the Future

The fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin struck fear and pain across the country. Aside for the tremendous for their parents, community, friends, and relatives, the crime conjures an eerie feeling associated with the deep, dark past of a time we never wanted to witness again.

Plain and simple: When a crime is committed, the police investigates. Period. In murder cases where there is a known assailant, somebody gets arrested. Locking in "Stand Your Ground" law doesn't -- or shouldn't -- preclude that police dismisses the shooter whose killed the teenager lying dead and now in a cold, dark grave. If this law is that much mistrued that police don't investigates, then it's a bad law. George Zimmerman's hiding out, the crime scene never got marked off, the spot of crime investigation has grown cold, and people across the country have loudly, clearly, and stubbornly painted racism on the face of the wrong-doing.

He's not a racist, says his friends. First of all, nobody is stupid enough to let a friend know he's a racist. In this day that's the last attribute you'd boldly bolster. When listening to the 911 recording, I who've had experienced racism and not just suspecting when its ugly head sneaks from underground, know how it smells, tastes, how its rough tactile, how it sounds, and its auditory function. 

In this persumed "post racial era", the reality forces everyone to look at the change we all hoped had occurred.

Oh, No, Not Again

We have enough codes dangling in dungeons or microscopic specks of injustice for those who aren't in denial about them to speak out. We talk about it among ourselves, but there's no Martin Luther King Jr. to uncover wrongs and lead the fight against injustice.People are dying out there while our jails are over-populated with a rising rate of recidivism promoted by unfair barometers, but these laws remain. (No space to spell out the problem except to say prison's in dire need of reform since they're filled with people who had minor drug infractions, and taxpayers are paying more to lock 'em up than it costs to educate one prisoner)

Voters' Rights Under Siege

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."
 -- Martin Luther King Jr.



I don't care what anybody says, those broad swipes at radically changing the voting rights by forcing people to provide state identification is a chilling effect on our basic rights. Supporters of this movement claim they're doing it because of potential voter fraud. Oh, they could never keep apathetic voters and others who already distrust the system from voting.

On this issue I'm sickened by the watchdogs -- gatekeepers -- who're seemingly sleeping on the job. They are the ones who keep eyes on government and hold the powerful accountable. We have all of this media, the Internet, and God knows there are enough bloggers and other gatekeepers to chime loudly about this injustice. Oh, if it's just to avert voter fraud, why now? We've never worried about that before and where's the crisis. For once public officials are proactive and not reactive about the urgent crisis. Really?

Voter identification is being rightly challenged, but that probably won't be resolved by election 2012. There's pollution floating, but, oh, where's the Tea Party, Occupied America and Republicans/Democrats who supposedly support freedom? Silence. Oh, that's exactly what I thought. They're not worried because they understand the clandestine agenda in these well-defined, oops, laws to take back the people's White House from those whose ancestors built it and from a president who won in a legitimate, fair election.

I feel dirty from all that floating pollution that assault my sensibilities when I hear these disruptions to overcome our national issues. Why aren't all of these people who claim to love their country rallying around the issue of freedom lost? Why don't we all work together rather than bicker and handicap voters? Of course, looks like it's their right to thwart  efforts to destroy voting rights by any means necessary  If you can't change the law, get around it.

Oh, how dare I suggest that supporters should be worried about basic rights or freedom for those left behind the privileged. Does anybody not understand this chilling effect of basic rights? If nobody rights this wrong, it doesn't mean it's right to move toward infringement of these rights, hiding behind presumed voter fraud when there's no wide chasms of illegality at work.

If this so-called election fraud movement stands without valid proof of its need, what next? Will we start asking people to touch their toes, write an essay about why they love America, write their name in beautiful cursive on unlined paper, name all of the presidents, or even recite the capital of all the states? We used to have rules that barred voting for fictitious reasons to bar black citizens from voting. What if we're trying to turn back the hands of time?

I've listened and watched this insidious plot without sufficient proof of necessity -- again -- rampant voter fraud? I've said this before, but it bears repeating because we have no rampant rage of pillaging of our most precious right. We have people sitting at home thinking they are once again being shuffled to the back of the bus. If that's the point, our levees are cracked and water is rushing toward break-down level.

Every time we chip away at a right, we lose more freedoms. Hint: The War on Drugs and The War on Terrorism (the airport fiasco, no-knock warrants, public body cavity searches with Milwaukee police officers under investigation, search and seizure without warrants, the no-knock police department laws. None of these laws have made us more secure, but rights have been lost every time a police officer ransack the home of innocent people or put under suspicious by driving while black or Latino profiling. Do-good citizens are targeted while the prison population for people of color has escalated to historic and disproportionate beyond white populations.

(Don't believe me? Call or check The Sentencing Project on the Internet)

If we value our freedom, it's important to fight for every slice of  equality under siege. If not, America won't be America as we know it -- the country where immigrants arrive, expecting the American Dream and the promise of full-fledged freedom.

Where's all this fraud in voting rights? We didn't rush to change the voting methods when President Bush's election cried loudly, clearly about voting problems -- no crisis though -- but eleven years later we're manufacturing an outrageous lie. Supporters know why, and so do I, know the urgency of this covert mission, but it won't  happen again. People aren't that dumb, and I hope their voices are loud publicly not just softly among themselves.

Let Me Tell You...: A Smart Joke Or Insensitivity

Let Me Tell You...: A Smart Joke Or Insensitivity: President Obama wants everybody to go to college. What a snob? -- Rick Santorum President Obama wants everybody to go to college. He wants...

A Smart Joke Or Insensitivity

President Obama wants everybody to go to college. What a snob? -- Rick Santorum

President Obama wants everybody to go to college. He wants everybody to be like him. -- Rick Santorum

First, I'd like to address the "snob" comment. Anyone who thinks the president is a snob needs to know this: That isn't a snob-type of comment. And here's why:

A snob doesn't care if anybody else gets educated. A snob's too arrogant and possibly narcisstic to care about anyone else's American Dream. A snob looks down on people because they aren't status quo of the rich and/or famous. A nobody has no right to education -- snob thinking.

In fact, to feel good about one's self, some people need to feel superior to others. It's a good thing that everybody is equal in God's eyes.

Here's what I know for fact. The president knows that to partake in the American Dream college or technical training allows everyone a viable chance.Those who don't think everyone needs an education, remember that those tax deductions rise with income unless you're millionaires who get large tax cuts.

A snobbish attitude is one's own business -- though wrongheaded -- unless they're president or vying to become one because that would tell people you're for the status quo. There's no need for higher education for all, and that shouldn't change, they'd think.

Yep! The snob's got his. Why worry about others less worthy? they'd think.

Everybody doesn't want to attend college. Many never want to complete high school. Santorum should check the high school dropout rates of all groups, and he'd know everybody couldn't go to college. Period.

I'm so sorry that higher education isn't a barometer for success in everyone's mind. Unless we get tens and thousands of manufacturing jobs back, the uneducated are not likely to get those good jobs that brought middle class status to their parents' generation.That's why I'm not laughing. Tough times and illiteracy are no joke.

Birth Control? Who's Business Is It?

Anyone who is pro-lfe or anti-abortion, like Rick Santorum -- GOP's candidate vying for presidential ticket -- and other men leaders -- stand tall in a hypocritical posture. Mentioning or trampling birth control necessity for women is another political ploy to control women's bodies.

But they said the government shouldn't be involved with this and that. Why would they want to deny birth control or even discuss it, for that matter, if they're against abortion. Are they telling us that women must not have sex? One way or another, women need protection from unplanned pregnancy because if they have sex there's a good chance pregnancy (Oops) is likely to happen.

Where would these oversexed men get their ...? Let's see, married women ought not to use birth control or abortion to control their own bodies in case their libido runs wide. Single women ought to save it for marriage. Is that the message in the misguided political pill? Return to Good 'ol Boy Days? And guess what?

These women out there competing with men for political positions or high ceiling jobs would be "tied down" with babies. Men used to, and some still do, want to keep their women "barefoot and pregnant."

Is that what these bragadocio(s) are saying? Oh, maybe they haven't got that far in their "Bring back yesterday" rhetoric, but the protect women's body code is hidden in the sound bites.

Regardless, if we don't have birth control, there's a good chance pregnant women who want an abortion will opt for one -- more or less. Now opponents against women's rights, you cannot eat your doughnut and keep it unthawed in the fridge.

Besides, it's a woman's business about taking birth control, too, and she doesn't need politicians using the issue to plump up their political position by addressing that privacy. Aren't there enough political needs to discuss and fix?

Politicians -- state or federal -- should wrap their lips with duck tape on this personal matter?

Morality? What About Child Sex Abuse?

Those birth control pills were originally a political ploy until Obama reversed the decision to avoid a morality issue for Catholic leaders who would've had to pay for contraceptives for women employees. I was elated that this issue was solved without GOP ticket contender Rick Santorum continuing to blast off his misguided (Shall I say lie?) message about the president trampling on religious freedom. "This is not about contraceptives," he bellowed into living rooms across America.

Where was Santorum when the moralistic Catholics and the Evangelicals or Moral Majority pasted their lips with Elmer's Glue in the aftermath of child sex scandals across this country -- churches, schools, homes, and even Hollywood -- who've taken advantage of children -- in the worst way. Isn't that a lack of morality? It certainly is loss of  freedom and dignity morality, and a destruction of boys turning to men or girls turning to women. Many turn to alcohol and drugs to assuage their guilt. Don't believe me? Ask Dr. Drew and other alcohol and drug experts. Besides I have personal knowledge about that, too.

It's aggregious that boys and girls are sexually abused in this land of freedom, but we churn and chew over freedom and morality about church's rights. Isn't this taking advantage of our most vulnerable? Where's freedom when neither girls or boys are protected? I want to see the outcry for freedom take a minute to mention children's freedom not just birth control or the unborn.

And, worse, morality over birth control is hardly one that we should be screaming about. Why the silence about child sexual abuse across the country? Oh, yeah. I forgot about the public clamoring and political pundits sounding off until stories burn to ashes or gets archived in the computer. Or until the next story breaks. Then: Nothing's done. It suggests that we care more about unborn babies than live children who suffer at the hands of grown, rusty pedophiles. What a shame? America needs to focus on how to clean up sordid acts of violence against children.