The Democracy That Isn't

I just finished watching 300: Rise of an Empire (2014) and I loved it; I love action movies anyway, the more action the better. This movie and its predecessor shares some facts on King Darius and his demented son, Xerxes; they wanted to take away freedom and democracy from the city-states of Greece and it got me reflecting about the Republic in which I am a citizen and the ideals of a democracy that really isn’t.

Don’t get me wrong, I love this country and the possibilities within it; I just cannot stomach those who would pervert what democracy is supposed to be specifically for their own insidious pursuit of power and dominion.  Yes, I went there, they want to dominate, or have you not been paying attention to the constant beat of the Neocons’ drum to democratize and Christianize everyone outside their demented little world; their rush to push legislation so that certain demographics cannot vote at all or create obstacles to prevent those within the demographics from participating in the election process? Nor, as a woman, can I neglect their push to take away a woman’s right to make decisions for her body and in Texas they have already set up obstacles for female voters.[1] Hey, wait a minute; this is the same modus operandi of those rabid mongrels in the Middle East and Asia who use their perverted and twisted version of the Islamic religion to justify their savagery. Those in this country call themselves conservative Christians; aside from one saying “Allah” and the other saying “GOD”; the end purpose of both are the same, to force others to adhere to their religious interpretations and to exist at their whims. My bad, there is another difference; one uses the law via legislations while the other uses physicality.  These conservatives are the folks who love to puff their chests out about their patriotism while forgetting that within the peoples they are trying to take GOD-given rights from, are those who fought for this country or had sons, daughters, husbands, wives who gave their lives for the premise of a better life for the downtrodden and oppressed in foreign nations on behalf of this country.  For minorities who put on the uniforms and fight for this nation, they fight for others because the system really does not do justice by them; they fight for the idea of a democracy because in truth, they can be gunned down by law enforcement just because of the race they were born into. These conservatives are the same folks who have the audacity to decry the disrespect of today’s youth while disrespecting and demonizing the first African American President.  You know who you are; hiding behind your so-called moral values while talking about “taking America back” as though it went somewhere; worse still, this particular phrase has been the rallying cry of the KKK [and like-minded] since the dissolution of slavery.  You who have the audacity to assume that this nation belongs to you because you share the same skin color of the Framers of the national government but what you ascribe to has nothing to do with GOD and it damn sure does not have anything to do with democracy.

You [extreme] conservative morons are too stupid or so caught up in your own mental delusions to realize that the first true form of democracy was in ancient Greece, therefore it is not a nuanced concept.  Bottom line, it was not an original idea, so sorry to pop your ignorant bubble. Not.  Guess what?  You know that “all men are created equal” by Thomas Jefferson? It was not his idea, he “borrowed” it from his Italian neighbor Philip Mazzei who wrote if for the paper, Jefferson translated it and voila, the rest is history.[2]  What you ignoramuses fail to realize is that you are the bane of democracy; you infect the process and purpose of what democracy should be with your stench of hate and divisiveness and this includes minorities who share this misguided ideology.  The Mazzei/Jefferson quote of “all men [it should be all peoples] are created equal” is beyond the comprehension of such didactic individuals for there is no reasoning with those who see through such hateful lens and with malice in their hearts.  They are those who call our President a tyrant not realizing that in the states they control, they are the true tyrants; using tyranny to oppress those who do not fit into their sphere of power, void of any human trait of compassion, equality and justice.  No love for their fellow human being who looks different or does not side with them.

No, this is not a democracy in which we live; it is a simulation of democracy but it is not the real thing.  Conservatives, from SCOTUS to police officers who indiscriminately target people of color and in between, have diluted the concept of democracy.  We instead live in a country that is a combination of tyranny and oligarchy; we live in a world of tyra-archy.  As motivated as many of us are who despise these acts may be, we are not involved enough in the process to take away some of the power of these tyra-archists; maybe because many of us have not felt the sting as others have.  Edmund Burke said “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.”  Are we going to follow the path of those many “good” German citizens who did nothing while an insidious evil under the guise of government and politics committed that evil?  The truth of it is, we already are.

 

  

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[1] http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2013/10/17/2789931/threat-women-texas/ & http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2013/10/23/2821651/texas-judge-voter/

[2] http://adribarrcrocetti.com/main/2012/07/03/philip-mazzei-and-the-declaration-of-independence/

Politics American Style

I find myself being both amazed and disheartened by the lack of knowledge of so many fellow citizens in how their own national/federal government is operated.  In their failure to realize the domestic issues we contend with falls on Congress; they heed the lies of the foxes in the hen house and continue to [re]elect these foxes who lay in wait to covertly erode these United States.

“All Legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives - (Article I, Section 1)”[1]; the Constitution is quite clear.  However, what many fail to realize is that Presidents can have ideals, hopes, and ideas for the betterment of the United States and its citizens, unfortunately [sometimes fortunately], POTUS cannot enact these laws alone because the Framers decided that this power was too much to be in the hand of one individual; so Congress shares the burden, if not carrying the majority of it via the legislative process. To reiterate, any President can initiate a domestic policy, however, the slow arduous process of legislation usually has less to do with what is right for the people and/or the country and more to do with partisan politics.  Another aspect of the legislative process that many American citizens fail to realize is that there are influences in the process of their elected officials making decisions for the lives of the citizenry as capsulated in The Preamble: interest groups.  These interest groups are similar to the angel on one shoulder and the devil on the other of politicians.  Interest groups vary but it is the large conglomerations that have the financial prowess to wield their political influences to garner special privileges for their companies and clients.  Encompassed within those privileges are tax loopholes written into legislation(s) that would protect the privileged from paying higher taxes or the ability to shelter those taxes; protection from complying with or even challenging certain federal regulations; as well as the ability to easily access the politicians that endorse these powerful commercial and private entities, and even gaining access to the big kahuna, POTUS. While this modus operandi falls on both sides of the aisle, conservatives wrote the book. Challenging certain federal regulations, such as the case of Citizens United (CU) that challenged the Federal Election Commission (FEC) and won, is a primary case of said interest groups. What many fail to see is that ruling for CU erodes the sanctity of the election process, where it is no longer in the hands of individual citizens alone; it is now [also] in the hands of corporations and foreign interest( Mitt Romney’s 2012 trip to Israel for a fundraiser).[2] Prior to the ruling, corporations were severely restricted in political contribution and foreign interests were absolutely forbidden.  While the federal budget “is divided into two general categories, discretionary and mandatory”, those with a more conservative political point of view, prefer [or so they allege] a smaller government, however, much can be said about their support for tax breaks and lower income taxes they choose to push for those who least need it. Conservatives will neither acknowledging or admit that the privileges and benefits extended to those organizations who are [now] people too, and individuals add to the very deficit they decry in public. Instead, they choose to protect big businesses who choose to export jobs; and protect those same businesses and wealthy individuals who create offshore tax shelters. To fool their minions of their dirty, underhanded deeds; conservatives cry foul for every implemented federal programs that help the disenfranchised, of whom some are their own constituents.[3] 

 Again, Congress has the legislative power; so where does POTUS have the opportunity to flex the political muscles of the executive branch?  “The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America. He shall hold his Office during the Term of four Years, and, together with the Vice President” (Article I, Section II).[4]  For you blithering idiots, note the difference between “legislative” and “executive” and remember how you had no problem giving G.W. Bush carte blanche in his executive power. For POTUS’ of the Democratic Party:

    

“There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things.  Because the innovator has for enemies all those who have done well under the old conditions and lukewarm defenders in those who may do well under the new” (Niccoló Machiavelli, The Prince, Chapter 6).

POTUS has a perilous and delicate political path to navigate for any enactment of domestic policies. There will always be a pocket of those who adamantly oppose anything POTUS puts forth, essentially “the enemies who have done well under the old conditions”, those of his own party and across the aisle who will denounce these ideas even if it is sound and beneficial to the American way of being. During administrations of Republican Presidents Democrats are vocal with a modicum of displeasure due to conservative administrations usually eroding the rights and protections of the poor, minorities, and women but conservatives take it to a level of debasement. During the administration of President William J. Clinton and currently, President Barack H. Obama, the political air went and has gone beyond par for the course.  The vitriol against Clinton was venomous but the attacks against Obama have crossed the lines of human, moral, and political decency. The haters choose not to see that their hateful and racist filled rhetoric does not disrespect Obama only; their actions and words are moral and ethical violations to the office he holds. Conservatives [who] love to puff their faux moral and religious sensibilities are forgetting that they are showing younger citizens that it is okay to disrespect authority if they do not like the individual.  While POTUS’s political party could be a factor on his legislative successes, it is not guaranteed.  

This is more or less, the workings of our American government in a nutshell; so, all you blithering idiots need to do your homework and look to the votes of the political ideologues you support.  This call also goes out to all the blithering idiots who do not get involved under the lie of “my vote don’t count”; yeah, this is why so many gave their lives to give you that right and so many resisted you having this power.  Hell, the group that resisted you having the power of the vote is rolling back this right just to set you back from some semblance of fair representation. Yes, I am an equal opportunity offender because ignorance and stupidity is intolerable and being poor should not be an excuse.  I am poor but what does my intelligence have to do with my bank account?  You blithering idiots should be ashamed that in countries far poorer and less educated, those citizens are far more aware of what their governments do domestically and internationally [where it is applicable].  But wait, I forget that some of you blithering idiots cannot think for yourselves, you have to turn to your pundits on what tries to pass itself off as a news channel, those on Capitol Hill, radio pundits and everybody and their mama who loves to be heard without saying a damn thing about something they are truly ignorant about.  Boy, talk about the blind leading the blind, then again, “consistency requires you to be as ignorant today as you were a year ago” (Bernard Berenson, 1865-1959).

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[1] http://www.usconstitution.net/xconst_A1Sec1.html

[2] http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/07/29/romney-holds-unprecedented-fundraiser-in-israel/

[3] http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/06/12/big-business-vs-libertarians-in-the-gop.html & http://www.businessweek.com/news/2014-01-08/u-dot-s-dot-chamber-ceo-vows-to-push-pro-business-majority-in-house  

[4] http://constitution.findlaw.com/article2.html#sthash.RvWJomeq.dpuf

Public Execution(s): American Style

“Collective fear stimulates herd instinct, and tends to produce ferocity toward those who are not regarded as members of the herd” (Bertrand Russell, 1872-1970).  It is upon this premise that humanity committed heinous acts against each other but it is Hitler and his Nazi party as well as the former South African system of Apartheid that comes to mind in the murders of African Americans/Blacks.  Yes, I know some of you are starting to seethe but that’s okay, I am going to reveal what you choose not to see. 

The Nazi party and the Apartheid were allowed to flourish because of collective fear via the insidious and malignant human bane called racism; even folks who mean well fall into this category; because “the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing” (Edmund Burke, 1729-1797).  From the days of slavery to now, there continues to be a pattern of murders of African American males; young and old alike by those masquerading as law enforcement [one cannot forget that many Southern law enforcement were members of the KKK and don’t forget such members being recently exposed in Florida]. From the deaths of Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Trayvon Martin, Oscar Grant III (Fruitvale Station), Sean Bell, Jordan Davis, Jonathan Ferrell and Ezell Ford; 8 of the 9 named [out of the countless of thousands unnamed] were murdered by police officers but America you sit on your asses choosing to believe the lies of law enforcement than to believe that these things are actually happening in America; you would be very wrong and by your silence America you aid and abet in the systemic murders of African Americans.    The police in the U.S. are able to do what they do via lies; “sin has many tools but a lie is the handle which fits them all” (Edmund Burke) and through plausible deniability which is fed by the collective fear and deliberate ignorance.  Deliberate ignorance is the active covert tool of a society when citizens choose to ignore a fact when they have every reason to believe the existence of that fact.  Just as the “good” people of Germany used deliberate ignorance to deny the evil being perpetrated against former Jewish friends and neighbors; America is doing the same in the systemic murders of African American males by the police.  During Apartheid, South African citizens justified the evil being perpetrated against the true natives of that land because of the very same thinking that many citizens hold today and that is Blacks were not considered to be humans; only animals. This was the mentality of slave owners that never dissipated and that same mentality applies to the continued murders of unarmed African American males [and females] in the United States of America by law enforcement around this country. Here is how law enforcement and the Gestapo are alike:

·         The Gestapo or secret state police played a key role in the terror and control of German citizens (practiced by police in every minority predominate community, including where I live);

·         "racially inferior" peoples, such as Jews and Gypsies, would be eliminated from the region (gentrification is an “economic” avenue that validates what the police do so they can get rid of racially inferior people in every locality);

·         These units dealt with the murder and internment of numerous Jews (similar to the murders of African Americans and the overrepresentation in the mockery of a justice system via incarceration [internment]); and

·         The Gestapo was charged with guarding and supervising the ghettos (while we do not call them ghettos any more, this is another one of the responsibilities society has given to the police in predominately African American communities: modern day overseers).

For those of you who would have the audacity to say that I am going over the top; I would say au contraire; the murders by law enforcement are over the top.  Law enforcement should not be a “privileged” position giving them the license to kill without fear of any valid and justifiable repercussions.  They are citizens who are obligated to the law of the land but I forgot, justice is not equal or fair.   America, you would side with, fight for and die for foreign nations over situations essentially not our business yet you sit on your hands justifying such brutal and violent treatments and murders of your fellow citizens.  Do you remember the Caucasian mother who drowned her sons and said Black males had carjacked her?  Turned out to be a lie but this is law enforcement’s modus operandi.  America, in your silence you are not only proving that the Pledge of Allegiance of “one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all” is a lie; but you are also proving exactly what you think about the race who were brought here by force.  America; your Red, White and Blue are fading.

P.S. “Overall, though, the portrait that Griffin paints of the South is gloomy. Everywhere he went, "the criterion is nothing but the color of skin. My experience proved that. [Whites] judged me by no other quality. My skin was dark. That was sufficient reason for them to deny me those rights and freedoms without which life loses its significance and becomes a matter of little more than animal survival” (John Howard Griffin, 1920-1980).  John Howard Griffin was a Caucasian male who, like many of you; did not believe what Blacks were saying about racism and discrimination, so he transformed himself into a Black man and this was one of his observations via Jonathan Yardley (2007).

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/16/AR2007031602173.html

 

 

Identity

Hello reader and welcome to my world.  I am Sandra “Sandy” M. (Gardner) Corder and I was born in Jamaica, West Indies to a Cuban Dad and a West Indian Mom; I am JaCuban.  When I was younger I never understood the importance of my heritage. Daddy only spoke Spanish when he was pissed off because Mommy never knew the language; hence, my speaking in Espanola is poquito.   Growing up we attended Trinity Lutheran Church, predominately Caucasian and aside from an elderly African American couple, who hold a special place in my heart and memories; we never associated with African Americans even though after five years of being only one of two Black families on our street; the dynamics of the neighborhood changed.  Mommy was a housekeeper for two wealthy Caucasian families in another community but they were also an extended family.  If my parents wanted to go out, we would wind up at the homes of one of these families, of which my favorite was the Hartford family.  I was so embarrassed as a teen because Mommy used to play Tom Jones, Elvis and Engelbert Humperdinck, she played African American musicians as well but the inclusion of the aforementioned used to embarrass me but now I find myself enjoying music from any genre as long as it is not some sad and depressing song.  To summarize all of this, I know my heritage and am not ashamed.

I shared all of that because I am a foreign born Black woman and mother to four African American children and for their sake I was required to learn the history of African Americans in this nation.  Living in this country where one is judged by the color of their skin and not for who they are has created a very dangerous scenario for society but most importantly, an entire race of people have been denied the right to know their true racial identity and the many contributions of their race; not only in this country but to the world. Many intellectuals and politicians love to mull over the question of why the condition of African Americans is the way it is and trust me when I say this crosses party affiliation, religious beliefs; yada, yada, yada.  From the moment African citizens were traded and/or kidnapped from the country of their birth, they have been denied their identity and it has been most pervasive in the United States.  You can see this in the attitudes of foreign born Blacks [oh, please note that not everyone who is Black is African American] and some of them will not align themselves with African Americans but I digress.   African citizens turned slaves were not able to hold on to the customs of their tribes, they were not able to stay with kinfolks never mind families.  By the way, before some of you with a certain perspective start getting bent out of shape; let me remind you that you have your ancestral heritage and customs to cleave to; not so for African Americans.  This race of people were denied how to read and write in the days of slavery and that has not changed; look at the conditions of the public schools in economically disenfranchised neighborhoods.  This country was basically built upon the blood, sweat and tears of this race of peoples yet they are still being denied. Yes, Native Americans, Hispanics and the Chinese were treated heinously also but they were all left alone to hold on to what made them who they are: heritage.  The audacity of this nation to prescribe one month to a race who helped many  Caucasian families become wealthy and many (Caucasian males) claimed fame and fortune via nefarious means in that inventions by African Americans were stolen and Caucasian males claimed credit and it continues this day. For instance, Garret Morgan (1877-1963) invented the traffic light[1] as well as other inventions but the other day I ran across an article giving credit to a notable Caucasian male; before Avon and Mary Kay, there was Madame C.J. Walker (1867-1919)[2], the first African American millionaire[3].  Then we have the classics that so many love, The Three Musketeers, The Man in the Iron Mask and The Count of Monte Cristo written by Alexandre Dumas (1802-1870)[4], a Black man, French but a Black man nonetheless; or how about Charles Drew (1904-1950)[5] a Black man and brilliant doctor and scientist who pioneered methods of storing blood plasma for transfusion but bled to death because a White hospital did not want to help him after a car accident; then there is Benjamin Banneker (1731-1806)[6] who finished the work started by L’Enfant in the architecture of the nation’s Capitol[7] and there are still “those” who choose to refute it; how can we forget that the very same Capitol, in which a group of peoples denigrate the first African American President, was built by African American slaves[8]; and there are countless others.  So, ask yourself why is none of this in the history books? Why is it that even during Black History month, middle/junior high schools, high schools and public schools in the suburbs do not really look at the “truth” of the history of African Americans in this nation?  There is so much to the contributions of African Americans in every war fought on this terra firma, no matter which side they fought on.  Or why deny that Cleopatra was a Black woman? Heck, many of the beautiful and renowned queens of old were Black yet unless African American/Black women fit a “certain” description; we are unattractive while forgetting that so many African American females raised Caucasian children.  

Before I finish I cannot ignore the lack of information regarding the contributions of other minority groups.  If not for Native Americans, the first group of European settlers would not have survived yet Native Americans are only remembered during Thanksgiving in elementary school skits.  Really people?  How about the contributions of the Chinese and Japanese to this nation?  How about the blood of all these minority groups that was shed defending this country in wars overseas even though they were denied the very same thing they were fighting for on behalf of citizens of those nations?  You cannot have a true democracy in any sense of the word when you purposely choose to deny that the United States of America was built by minorities as well as Caucasian men.  Many cleave to the idea of the Founding Framers but no one found this country; it was already inhabited.  Can you stop at a home you like, just go in and take it from the original inhabitants? Hell no but that is what happened but no one wants to acknowledge that; it would disrupt the image they have clung to for so long.  Why must any foreign born that does not look a “certain” way have to change their names and who they are to “fit in”?  That is not a democracy and this is not a democracy; it is just the idea of one.  A true democracy, with its imperfection, would not force people to fit into a category created by someone else.  A true democracy would not attempt to deny its citizens the ability to participate in any process that is or should be afforded to citizens, but it is happening.  A true democracy respects and honors the racial, gender, ethnic, economic and sexual orientation differences of its citizenry; again, that is not happening in a land that loves to boast of democracy.  I am not naïve, I am quite aware of the imperfections within any society no matter the title they use to describe their country’s government.  After all, human beings are so very flawed, so why wouldn’t the governments be? 

I will close with the fact that many love to laud that this is a “Christian” nation but if that were true, they would know that our Creator is no respecter of persons (Acts 10:34, Romans 2:11 & James 2:1-13) and since the Creator created every living thing, in essence they nullify their religion in their failure to acknowledge not only the history of African Americans but their very existence; thus the lies continue. “The local community is very important in one’s life; the feelings of identification with a place and a people” (Alexander McCall Smith); this has been taken away from a race of people.

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[1]http://inventors.about.com/od/mstartinventors/a/Garrett_Morgan.htm

[2] http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/theymadeamerica/whomade/walker_hi.html

[3] http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/theymadeamerica/whomade/walker_hi.html

[4] http://www.biography.com/people/alexandre-dumas-9280725

[5] http://blackinventor.com/charles-drew/

[6] http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Benjamin_Banneker.aspx

[7] http://www.dcpages.com/History/Planning_DC.shtml

[8]http://www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/daily_videos/slaves-built-the-white-house-u-s-capitol/

An Open Letter to P.M. Netanyahu

Dear Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu,

You don’t know me and you never will but then again, you would not want to because my skin is darker than you are comfortable with.  I saw how you disrespected President Obama and that told me what kind of person you are.  Not a leader or a man, mind you, because a good leader would acknowledge his/her flaws; neither would a good leader stoop to the level of those who hate them; a good leader would rise above it.

I wanted to ask you, what does it feel like to be a murderer and a liar?  How does it feel to maliciously bomb those innocent children, women and the elderly who cannot fight back?  I mean, come on, do you really believe that everyone in the international community actually swallow your version?  I am not a military person and have never fought but even when your conservative buddy, former President George W. Bush and  his crew lied to invade Iraq; at least he put  boots on the ground to actually combat.  I mean, if your “true” goal was to actually eliminate the tunnels Hamas created, wouldn’t one put boots on the ground to go into Palestine to find and get rid of the tunnels?  That is not your true goal is it?  I see that conservatives in Israel are no different from conservative in the U.S.A.; full of lies with the desire to eliminate those who will not bow down and kiss your behind; those who do not buy the propaganda wrapped in ideological falsities.  Hmm, hey, but that’s the same tactic someone else back in the annals of international history used to eliminate not only your ethnicity but even his own people who did not “fit the bill” and other minorities.  You lie to your citizenry just as he did and G.W. Bush did to justify an evil.

Wow, you really love to play the “victim” don’t you, especially with your political and religious backers here in the U.S.?  I wonder why is it you do not play the same game with Germany since the atrocity to your people occurred in that nation/state.  See, I know that your American supporters are going on some Old Testament perspective forgetting that with the New Testament; that “favored” people stuff went out the window.  But for your nation, there is no Old Testament, it is either the Written Torah or the Tanakh and neither do you regard Jesus Christ as the Son of YHWH (YAHWEH or Jehovah).  Hmm, that would put one in quite a quandary.   Remember when I called you a liar and a murderer? Well, I remember Jesus saying the same to your religious ancestors, the Pharisees and Sadducees and they did not like Jesus at all.  See, Jesus associated with everyone, Jews and Gentiles, alike. Hey, wait a minute, within the Written Torah YHWH showed favor to Gentiles as well.  Remember Hagar?  Even though Ishmael, the son she had with Abram was not Jewish, YHWH made a promise to Hagar personally.  That would be Genesis 16:7-13; in the Written Torah, it would be found in the Law, Bereishith.  In Genesis 17:20, YHWH told Abraham that He, YHWH would bless Ishmael with 12 princes and make him a great nation.  Wait a minute, YHWH created 12 tribes for Israel.  Let us go back to the start of Genesis 17 though because it is there that YHWH changed Abram to Abraham which means “the father of many nations”; wow, that means we are all related and especially since Ishmael and Isaac was begotten by the same religious/spiritual patriarch, the Palestinians are truly your brothers (Genesis 17:5 & 6).  It gets better though because Genesis 17: 7-14 tells us that YHWH not only made a covenant with Abraham but with all of Abraham’s descendants which would include the peoples of Ishmael; meaning that includes Palestinians.   But you don’t really care, do you?  Your goal is to rise to a level of heinousness in violent acts against Palestinians under the subterfuge of “defending yourself” but know that just because you do not acknowledge Jesus Christ and the New Testament does not mean that YHWH is not going to hold you accountable.  See, the New Testament says YHWH is no respecter of persons (Acts 10:34 & James 2:1-13), so please do not think you have some appointed right. Not only that, we are told that from one/מען blood, YHWH created all/every nations.  It goes like this: “And He has made from one blood[a] every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings” (Acts 17:26).  Just because you do not acknowledge the New Testament and Jesus Christ does not nullify the Words of YHWH.  It gets even better because Jesus said “many will come from east and west, and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 8:11).

Anyway, I believe that I have made my point but before I close, there is one more tidbit that I would love to share.  See, what you and your buddies in the U.S. fail to realize is that with the continued murders of children, women and the elderly; you may actually put the Arabic proverb “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” to a level of empowerment.  G.W. and his cronies lied about WMD and Al Qaida being in Iraq, even though they were not; now they are.  Why? Because G.W. and his cronies opened the door and let this group of terrorists in because everyone who knew the truth knew those same terrorists feared Saddam.   My point is that even though many in the Arab nations may dislike Hamas, the continued murders of innocent victims may spur them to support Palestine on a level not seen before.  Oh, by the way, since it was Israel who created Hamas to eliminate Yasser Arafat, how’s it working for you?

Sandra M. Corder

The Absurdity of Supporting Israel

The idiotic premise for the U.S. to back Israel is based solely on an outdated religious perspective.  I also take offense that Americans are always apologizing for what happened to the Jews in another country and before some of you start calling me anti-Semitic, since when is historical [religious and secular] truth hateful? Just because you choose not to acknowledge a truth about anything does not make it about hate against another. For you conservatives who swear blind allegiance to Israel, most of that nation/state do not even recognize Jesus Christ as the Son of GOD; so your allegiance is indeed blind and unwarranted.  Evil is evil and if our Creator is no respecter of persons; then neither should we. 

Israel created Hamas back in the day to get rid of Yasser Arafat and the Palestinian group he had organized.  He and some of the old guards of Israel [Menachem Begin & Yitzhak Rabin] were on the road to peace when the conservative party of Israel decided that was not a good thing because they wanted that land on the Gaza strip for themselves. Do remember Israel had similar problems with Egypt but it was via President Carter who arranged the Camp David meeting to bring peace between Egypt and Israel via Anwar Sadat and Menachem Begin.

http://www.henrymakow.com/israelcreatedhamastoavoid.html
Hamas is a Creation of Mossad
http://globalresearch.ca/articles/ZER403A.html

RABIN-ARAFAT:

Israel Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat shake hands in public for the first time at the White House on Sept. 13, 1993, with President Bill Clinton looking on. The agreement called for a final settlement to be achieved by February 1999.
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/famous-handshakes-brought-message-peace

This is why Israel murdered Arafat: Swiss Report Supports Theory Arafat Was Poisoned

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/07/world/middleeast/swiss-report-supports-theory-arafat-was-poisoned.html?_r=0

If Israel really wanted to get rid of those tunnels, all they had to do was put boots on the ground, find and destroy those tunnels; this is genocide.  Does Hamas hold some accountability? Of course but at the end of the day, they are the Frankenstein monster created by Israel.  Going through the annals of history since the 21st century alone, how often has Israel shown these violent acts of aggressive genocide?  Even if some Palestinians disagree with Hamas, Hamas provides something missing before: weapons.  How did Israel justify their action when rocks and Molotov cocktails were being thrown at them, on top of suicide bombers?  With the same level of force they always use with some justification that most of the international community swallow.  No one really knows who murdered those three Israeli boys; it could have been Israeli right wing conservatives.  You know, like the kind of right wind conservatives in the U.S.A lying on and disrespecting the first African American President; those who love their guns and violate the rights of everyone not like them.

It was that kind of Jewish citizens who attacked a prominent professor Ze’ev Sternhall because he has the audacity to see things differently. 

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/sep/26/israelandthepalestinians.middleeast1

Or how about hearing the words of [a] former Israeli soldiers who know the truth and are finally trying to be heard?  Like Yehuda Shaul, but then again, conservatives in Israel and the U.S. will downplay the truth by saying these soldiers [who actually committed the atrocities] are just tools of the left and/or anyone who disagrees with Israel.

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/middle-east/israeli-soldiers-speak-out-on-abuse-of-palestinians-1.1837193?page=1

Let me close by stating that for all you religious and political conservatives of diverse races and ethnicities who will be coming after me; you do not have a valid leg or argument to support your egregious reasons especially from the Biblical aspect.  I will not go into it now but if you want me to back up my words, I have no problems doing that; I love a good challenge. 

The Forgotten Heroes of WWII

Today, the 6^th of June 2014, the 70^th anniversary of that day when the evil of Adolf Hitler paid the price of messing with the wrong folks.  Before I continue with my article, I must interject that I do enjoy the fact that I am a foreign born Hispanic Black woman, albeit I do not speak Española but my Dad is Cuban so my perception of American history is not based on American ancestry.  Okay, on with my analysis which of course some will read it as a diatribe; so be it, it is my article after all.  Also, note that I do realize that not every White male treated Blacks and Native Americans with disdain but one cannot run away from the reality that far too many of us have allowed to happen by staying silent on the truth of World War II.  In staying silent, we deny the many children of these two races to have something to be proud of; relegating the contributions to an ethnic or racial history month when, indeed, if not for the actions of those who were ignored, many White families would not be in existence due to the many more deaths that could have occurred if not for those who are invisible in the history books and movies about this war.

I do not take away the celebration of those called the “Greatest Generation” and while I do not take that away from them; I take this time to rebuke those who delight in reminding us of that history in forgetting those who were there to make sure some of those in the “Greatest Generation” made it home and those are the men who were emasculated in their country of the United States of America yet stood up to fight for it.  Black males who were less than second class citizens, emasculated by the fears of ignorant people who enjoyed keeping Black males “in their place”; Black men who could not eat, drink or sit with White men, not even in the military but they stood up and fought for this country.  Native American males did not have it any better.  Yes, they had their tribes and their customs but they were relegated to properties of land by the same ignorance that treated Black men like nothing even though Native Americans were here first but what was theirs was stolen from them.  Both groups of men were unable to protect their families from the abuse of those ignorant folks who felt so superior; unable to take care of their families in the manner they would have liked to [and even now that continues] but they offered their services to help a country that was taken from them and where they were taken by force. 

Just as the Pilgrims would not have survived that first winter without Native Americans; the cost to the allies but more specifically to the United States in the Pacific Theater would have been heavier if not for Native Americans via the Navajo language, known as the Code Talkers.  The Japanese could not decode the language of the Native warriors and this played a very heavy hand in the successes within the Pacific Theater; but where did we hear of the heroics of these brave men who rose up beyond the mis-treatment in the only country they knew; the country of their ancestors?  When did we hear from any of the “Greatest Generation” their thanks to these Native Americans who enabled them to win not only squirmishes but battles? I don’t know about you but the only thing I heard was of the death of the last of the Code Talkers yet no cable, national or local news [unless it was an ethnic media] networks gave homage to this noble man and his brothers who did so much to return to a land where they were not allowed to share what they did.  Why? Was there shame that dictated that only White males be honored for their deeds on the field and upon their return to the States?  Was the honor and dignity of these Native Americans who rose up to fight for a country that has dis-honored their tribes and other tribes too much for those who would deny them the same national recognition given to White men? 

Whether they were sold to White slavers by other Africans or abducted, Black men were denied any form of self-identification even before they set foot in a New World still struggling to unify.  They watched as their mothers, sisters, wives and daughters were felt upon like animals; exposed to the eyes of men who had no right to see the African female bodies.  They were humiliated in the same way, patted down like a thoroughbred for the verification of their sturdiness; also exposed as a newborn.  Yet even knowing how their ancestors were treated, indeed, themselves being treated worse than animals; these men wanted to prove their merit, to show that they had something to offer but even in wartime, racism and the racists knew no bounds.  Not giving in to the stereotype that the Negro brain was small and they did not have the intelligence of White men; these noble men taught themselves to fly despite the shoddy planes they were given; they made a decision to fight for the country that showed them nothing but scorn and hate.  Many have heard of the Tuskegee Airmen of the Air Force, one way or another but is anyone aware of the first Black men to become Marines known as the Montford Point Marines?  Or has anyone heard of Dorie Miller, a Black cook on the West Virginia, a USS Battleship on the day that lives on in infamy; the bombing of Pearl Harbor? Many of these men were from the South and despite the inhumane treatment by the fears of ignorant, small-minded people; they stood up to be counted in defending freedom from the same form of hate they endured daily; to bring justice to those being treated unjustly.  They defended each other and the very same White men who did not want them around in the Pacific Theater against the Japanese; they fought in Italy, France and other European nation/states against the horde of Nazis.  Coming back to a country that hated them, that did not see it right to honor them for their contribution; many of them dying in the South from racism.   After being honorably discharged, Sergeant Isaac Woodward was pulled off a bus still wearing his uniform by a mob and blinded and there were others treated similarly, if not worse.  Historian Stephen Ambrose stated that “Soldiers were fighting the world's worst racist, Adolph Hitler, in the world's most segregated army” and that “the irony did not go unnoticed.”[1].  These men knew all of this and yet they volunteered to fight and die for those who despised them. Interestingly enough, one of those men is the former pastor to then Senator Barack Obama, Jeremiah Wright and while many may not have understood his ranting about the United States; he lived the experience, he has the unseen scars of watching and experiencing that racism.

How many more lives would have been lost if not for these men of color? Where are the voices of the people who call themselves patriots yet were too chicken to fight during Viet Nam, instead running for cover of the privilege of being a White man?  Again, I do not take away from those dubbed the “Greatest Generation” but the honor and the accolades should also be bestowed upon those men who fought for the rights of others that they were not being given and it was not just men alone; women of color contributed much to WWII but that is for another time.  It takes a hell of a lot more honor to be hated yet do what is right.  Who will remember them? When will their stories be told in the history books for all children to learn? When will all of American stand up and give these men and their families the same honor and recognition given to White men?  This is the truth of this nation, whether one wants to acknowledge it or not; it is written in the stones of history and just because there are those racists who continue to deny the contributions of these men; for those of us who are open to the truth, let us not forget.  Let us learn more to share with others, to let children of color know that they have nothing to be ashamed of, for they are of noble races. 

 

 

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[1] http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2001/02/0215_tuskegee.html

Still Unequal

“We conclude that in the field of public education the doctrine of ‘separate but equal’ has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.”

(Chief Justice Earl Warren, 1891-1974: Brown vs. Board of Education 1954).

I was reminded of how public education is still segregated throughout our nation after watching a clip of a collegiate young man of color on Wheel of Fortune and mispronouncing “Achilles”; I cringed for him but I also remember a time when something similar happened to me in the 6^th grade.  I am a foreign born Black woman, coming to this country when I was four years old.  My parents, who are also foreign born, settled in the Northeast Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the Winchester Square area of Springfield.  The first place we lived, a tenement, I was fortunate to be able to walk to kindergarten at Eastern Avenue Elementary and when we moved, the new neighborhood school, Homer Street Elementary.  Our 3^rd, 4^th, and 5^th grade classes used to have Spelling Bees of which my older sister and I always won. It was nice being able to walk to and from school, remembering just how smart I was within that school within that class, never knowing any better.  The shock and embarrassment of inequality did not hit me until I hit the 6^th grade.  Bussing had started, so I had to attend another school for 6^th grade, Brunton Elementary, an elementary school located in the predominately Caucasian community of Sixteen Acres.  I remember our principal, Mrs. Rose Chase, who introduced herself to those of us being bussed in and I remember the shock to my system in this new school; it was different and better.  While Eastern Avenue was clean, Brunton’s clean was another sort of clean; there were no “old” smells as was at Eastern Avenue.  The classrooms were more modern and the books were far more superior to what we had at Eastern Avenue and that, my dear readers, is where the embarrassment comes in.  I remember during a Social Studies class we were reading about the Industrial Revolution in this country and abroad, with everyone taking a turn at reading when the teacher called out their name; then she called mine.  Don’t get me wrong, I was a bright student.  Where my siblings and peers would have to really study, all I had to do was read something once and I remembered it. So, when I was called upon to read, I wasn’t nervous but then I ran across two abbreviations that I had no idea how to pronounce or even what they meant: Inc. and LTD.  I remember struggling to try to do my best to pronounce them with my Sixteen Acres resident classmates giggling; I felt like the most stupid person.  The teacher eventually helped me out after she realized that I really did not know.  When I got home, I showed my parents those words, neither did they know.  See, my Cuban born dad dropped out of school during the elementary years to work to help his family and my mom got a little further but never made it to high school.  Now, consider that the North was supposed to be better for any Blacks, domestic or foreign born, yet inequality was [and is] such a very intricate part of the American society, unless one is raised in a predominately Caucasian community, a public education is a joke.  I remember in 2006 when Oprah was still on, she had Bill and Melinda Gates as guests addressing public education in this country.  I remember they took cameras and interviewed some Chicago high school students in a predominately Black community school and their counterparts in a predominately White community school.  The differences in the appearances of the school, the resources, the text books and even the caliber of what students were learning was as different as night and day. Some of the students from the Black school were chosen to spend a week in the other school, I remember there was one young lady; very bright and intelligent and at the top of her class with a perfect GPA and going to college.  When the week was over, this young lady and her peers expounded on the differences between their school and the other but what stood out was her embarrassment that she was ill-prepared for college.  Why?  The trigonometry she learned was not on par to her peers in the suburban high school and even worse, she was never taught calculus.  I understood her feeling of inferiority, her confusion and her pain.  Before I continue, I have to point out that in her school as well as the elementary school I attended in my neighborhood, there were Caucasian students also but due to them living in a predominately Black community, they suffered the same educational fate as students of color.

If this was happening during my time in public education, which was around the mid to late 1960’s; one can only imagine how much worse it has become, especially since the Reagan administration taking many of the resources from the public school domain in an effort to close the federal Department of Education; a plan that has been and continues to be the goals of conservatives via the conservative think tank, the Cato Institute.  I remember when then Mayor of Washington, D.C. Adrian Fenty appointed Michele Rhee to be the Chancellor of their public school system.  I also remember that during a tour to size up the problems of that school system, she came across a warehouse full of new computers and updated books for the students. The bottom line is that there are far more adults who do not care about the quality of education minority students receive than those adults who do care and trust me when I say that race, gender, and ethnicity is moot in this argument.  Has anyone noticed that when reporters are interviewing  African Americans from “certain” communities, how dysfunctional their caliber of speech is? Or even the caliber of speech of poor Whites in their own “certain” communities.  The monies that are supposed to be going into schools in these “certain” communities are being diverted to communities that have no need for the funds.  When LBJ started his War on Poverty, he ensured that federal monies would be going into the schools of economically challenged communities and for a while it did, but no longer.  Between the administrations Reagan and George Herbert Walker Bush, the programs to fund these schools were gutted.  George W. Bush realized what had been done was wrong and why NCLB (No Child Left Behind) came about; he was trying to fix, in his own way, what conservatives had done to further disable financially and resource deficient struggling schools. NCLB also places more responsibility upon educators which many of them hate yet considering that it was a profession that they chose, I was a little taken aback by their attitudes.  We look at the high dropout rates of minority students especially males and the income disparity in our country; how can we not demand better for these students?  Why isn’t more being done for many of these minority students? Because many still hold to the idea that people of color are not as intelligent as the current predominant race.  But they fail to realize that while illegal, running a drug ring takes intelligence; a stupid or mentally inferior person could not handle the task. 

In closing, I am reminded of the 1983 John Landis movie, Trading Places, starring Eddie Murphy and Dan Aykroyd.  For those of you unfamiliar with this film, it more or less addresses some of the merits of this article.  Dan Aykroyd plays Louis Winthorpe III who came up privileged and is a commodities trader, Eddie Murphy plays Billy Ray Valentine a homeless con artist and street peddler.  Winthorpe works for two brothers who also came up privileged, Randolph and Mortimer Duke, who reminds me of the Koch brothers but that’s for another article and time.  Anywho,  the Dukes saw Billy Ray one day and came up with a plan, actually a societal experiment to see what would happen if  the wealthy White guy and poor Black guy switched places.  Well, the Duke brothers pulled it off and while Billy Ray thrived in the commodities arena albeit some cultural differences in approach. On the other hand, poor Louis, who was set up to appear to be a peddler of drugs, went off the deep end.  At the end, the two paired up against the Duke brothers after Billy Ray overhears a conversation they have in the company’s bathroom.  The gist is that given the opportunity, poor minority students can and will rise to the challenge and succeed but maybe that is what so many are afraid of.  It is perhaps that they realize as Horace Mann (1796-1859) did.  The father of public schools, he started it specifically for children of the poor seeing the same economic disparity then as now; realizing just how powerful and education is, said:  

“Education, then, beyond all other devices of human origin, is the greatest equalizer of the conditions of men- -the balance-wheel of the social machinery.”