The Long View

WHAT I AM LEARNING IN CHINA

• That a gang of 16 people was arrested for running illegal kidney transplant operations in Changzhou, China.  Changzhou Police rescued 20 young men who were being held by suspects; twelve kidney transplants had been successfully performed.  It was revealed that potential donors, most of whom were in poor financial condition, through on-line chat rooms.  The donors were asked to live together after taking phsical examinations and were supervised by the suspects.  Organ transplants from living donors, except for spouses, blood relatives, in-laws or adopted family members is illegal in China.
• That the legal age for women to marry in China is 20 years of age.
• That more than 20 high school students in the Hubei Province had intravenous injections of Amino Acids in their classrooms in hopes of providing extra energy to prepare for National College Examinations scheduled for early June.  It is alledged that  the fluid infused was Amino Acids which powered up students; students preparing for the College Entrance Examination began taking infusion of Amino Acids years ago.  Teachers in the school also supported taking an infusion of Amino Acids and assisted by rigging wires in the classroom to hang infusion bags.  Many parents requested extra Amino Acids for their exhausted children; there are always dissenters who in this case called them crazy and blamed the examination for their behavior.
• That the All China womens federation says that one out of  four women in China have suffered spousal abuse resulting in a total of 40,000 to 50,000 complaints since 2004.  Abusers could soon be going to jail as legislators are introducing a domestic violence law to the agenda of the 2012 National People’s Congress.  Any suggestion that family violence is not a criminal offense is simply wrong, repeat wrong, wrong, wrong.
• That the Family Planning Authorities have collected $4.5 dollars from those who violated the Family Planning Policy, but a large part of the money is unaccounted for; fees charged are supposed to cover the social cost of more children according to the regulations. All money collected must be handed over to the state treasury and all are forbidden to retain, embezzle or share this money.
• That the City of Fuzhou is variously romanized as Foochow, Fuh-Chau, Fuchow, Hock Chew; this name was adopted in 948 AD.  Fuzhou remained under japanese control until the surrender of Japan and its armed forces in China in September 1945.  It is located on the Northeast coast of the Fujian Province, opposite of North Taiwan.  The climate is humid and sub-tropical; the summers are long, very hot and humid; the winters are short, mild and dry.  Fuzhou is liable to typhoons in late summer or early autumn.  The city is home to many Buddhist monasteries/Taoist temples and Buddhist monks; the two traditional mainstream religious practiced in Fuzhou are Mahayana Buddhism and Taoism.  My stay here is at the Westin Minjiang Hotel which is justifiably five star with every facility and courtesy available; my only complaint is that the Chinese eat too much and too frequently.  As an Architect, I would rather spend my time looking at the tremendous level of high rise construction.  There must be 100-125 crawler cranes dotting the horizon in a city whose population is 2,032,723 which would make it one of the largest cities in the United States.
• This morning I was watching a report that the Dalai Lama was alledging that China was sending women to him to kill him using poisons on their bodies while faking illness prompting him to touch them.  I was very interested in hearing him say these words but as soon as he started to speak the TV went completely blank until he was apparently finished, I thought it was broken until I changed the channel to CCCTV.  I now realize that this was censorship China style; I have not seen any other evidence of censorship so far.

FURTHER EXPLORATION OF CHINA

• Today we checked out of the Westin Minjiang Hotel at 10:00 AM and we began a harrowing ride amid buses, bicycles, mopeds, rickshaws, scooters, semi-tractor trailers, pedestrians and  autos all traveling inches from each other as our driver and friend talked on the cell phone.  All of this chaos was occuring in the middle of a torrential downpour and grey dark clouds with seemingly no effect on the mid-day traffic.  There was a rash of construction activity along the way due to the construction of the two new Fuzhou Metro subway lines and I am reminded that every city in the world, repeat in the world, must subsidize the subway system because the fare box does not cover operating costs.  Oops, I just saw a Ford police car makes me think of the China Trade Surplus.  We are enroute to a resort owned by the Central Chinese Government for use of the Chinese President, Prime Minister and the Chinese Intelligence Agency (CIA); every province has such a resort for use of these officers when they visit said province.  Suffice it to say that I was not aesthetically prepared for my arrival at the security gate before we drove past four magnificent building who’s motif could best be described as pure Chinese; no western influence here.  We arrived under a cantilevered canopy and the three of us were met by seven (7) people to carry our luggage as we were all transfixed by the bucolic splendor of this resort on the bluffs of the Minjiang River.  I was told that the resort is staffed by 300 people and that we are the only guests at this time. After our check-in, I was told that I was the first foreigner to spend the night here; the distinction only lasted until my Chinese partner presented his American passport belying his Chinese ethnicity and proficiency in the Fuzhou dialect so he and I are the first foreigners to stay here.  This resort is tropical and slightly reminiscent of Puerto Rico’s rain forest replete with many species of plants that I have never seen; bamboo is every where in diameters up to six (6) or eight (8) inches.  The resort is approximately 1,800 acres hence our electric bus tour was a godsend.  There is an office building, recreational building, hotel, dormitories and a structure that is being built.  After the tour and a fifteen (15) course breakfast, I chose to sit outside and listen to sounds of nature featuring many species of birds clamouring for center stage.  All of this chirping  had the backdrop of the “putt putt” of a two cycle engine on a small fishing boat returning with today’s catch.  Oops it is time to eat again and I am not hungry.  We will spend one more day here because this web site (narob11.com) and Facebook are not available here on this Central Government owned facility; indicating another example of censorship.  In summation, we were treated royally before leaving this morning for my favorite haunt the Shangri-La Hotel in Central Fuzhou; another five star gem that is etremely accessible to everything.  Time to eat again but we are going to KFC for some chicken in this bastion of seafood, I would rather be dancing.

R.I.P DIVA DONNA SUMMER

• I fell asleep with the TV on last night and woke up sadly to news of the death of disco queen Donna Summer who rocked our world in the Garage Disco on King Street in New York City in the 1970s.  LaDonna Adrian Gaines AKA Donna Summer was an American singer/songwriter who flourished during the disco era.  She was the first musician to have three consecutive albums reach number one on the Billboard Chart; she also had four number one singles in the United States in a 13 month period.  She was born on 31 December 48 in Boston, Massachusetts to Andrew and Mary Gaines as one of seven children.  Her father was a butcher and her mother was a school teacher.  Ms. Summer attended Jeremiah E. Burke High School in Boston after which she moved to New York City and joined a rock band called Crow which never got that desired recording contract.  She auditioned for the counter culture musical Hair which was won by Melba Moore before agreeing to take the lead role in the Munich production of Hair.  She became fluent in German, married Austrian actor Helmut Sommer for whom she bore a daughter Mimi.  In the 1970s I listened to her album Bad Girls which featured “Hot Stuff”, “Dim All The Lights“; other songs that come to mind are “On The Radio”, “Last Dance”, “Heaven Knows”, The Wanderer”, I’m a Rainbow”, “Love Is In Control”, “She Works Hard For The Money”, “State of Independence” and “There Goes My Baby“.  She became embroiled in controversary by allegedly making anti-gay remarks regarding AIDS which has a hugely negative impact on her career and saw thousands of her records returned to the record company by angry fans.  She became a Born Again Christian and is alleged to have said “AIDS is God’s punishment for the immoral life style of homosexuals.  She denied the statement to the AIDS Campaign Group called ACT UP in 1989.  She continued to be active in the 1990s, 2000s qnd 2010s.  On 11 December 89 she performed at the Nobel Peace Prize Concert in Oslo Norway in honor of President Barack Obama.  She married Bruce Sudano and gave birth to daughters Brooklyn and Amanda.  She died today 17 May 12 at the age of 63 after battling breast cancer and lung cancer; she thought the attack on the World Trade Center on 9-11 might have caused her cancers.  She died in Key West, Florida. R.I.P. Donna Summer we will miss you terribly but your music will continue to rock uS.

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GUESS WHO IS COMING TO DINNER!!

• Racism is alive and well in America after a long history dating back to the beginning of this nation; Booker T. Washington was invited by the new president Theodore Roosevelt who assumed the presidency after the assassination of William McKinley in September 1901. The dinner was behind closed doors and Southern politics was the central topic of conversation because Roosevelt lacked a broad base of support within the Republican Party and he needed to bolster his standing among Black voters of the American South. Blacks still retained influence within the Republican Party because of their control of the Southern delegations. As such, the President thought it appropriate to invite a Black educator and activist to the White House to discuss Black issues. Well this New Yorker was not prepared for the news of the dinner fanning out over the Associate’s Press wires. The Memphis Scimitar newspaper said “ The most damnable outrage which has ever been perpetrated by any citizen of the United States was committed yesterday by the president, when he invited a nigger to dine with him at the White House.” It would be worth more than a passing notice if Theodore Roosevelt sat down to dinner in his own home with a Pullman Car Porter, but Roosevelt the Individual and Roosevelt the President are not to be viewed in the same light. Additionally Southern women can no longer accept invitations to the White House “with proper self-respect” and the president is not welcome in Southern homes. Is this what the Republicans want to take us back to? Booker T. Washington visited the White House once more during regular business hours but dinner invitations were impossible. The dinner and the resulting controversy showed how far America had come and how far it had to go. Part of the dinner discussion included the shooting up of a town in Texas in 1906 by Negro soldiers who after killing a civilian returned to base unobserved. These troops were discharged by Roosevelt and they were denied their pensions; by the way, their military honors were restored by Congress in 1972.  Roosevelt wished to use his presidential powers to ameliorate their racist treatment and the dinner invitation was a gauge of how to accomplish better accommodation when news broke. Northern newspapers politely applauded the president and Blacks were joyous and Southerners were in an intolerable rage sans 1860.  Roosevelt’s temerity in entertaining a Black man at the same table that his genteel wife dined at was enough to evoke fury from all levels of the racist southern crackers.  Senator Benjamin Tillman of South Carolina threatened open violence against Blacks in retaliation for the dinner.  The young president through good governance and public relations moved past the furor caused by the dinner  and he never thumbed his nose at the racial animosities again.  The racist crackers were so much against trip to Washington, DC by Booker T. Washington that they boarded the train carrying him Washington to lynch him.  They did not find him in the Negro car and did not suspect that he was in a private car.  Folks, hate is blinding and robs its carriers of sane thought and honorable thought .  If you believe in heaven, prepare to be as lonely as a North Korean Dictator.  The bar to hurdle is “do unto others as you would have them do unto you”  No ifs, ands or buts allowed.

WHITE HOUSE SLAVES!!!

• The White House is the official residence and workplace of the U.S. President and its official address is 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, D.C. This house was designed by James Hoban, an Irish-born designer; it was built between 1792 and 1800 of white Aquia sandstone in the Neo-Classical style. It has been the official residence of every president since. The purpose of this story is to illuminate the fact that slaves and Black freedmen played a pivotal yet downplayed role of helping to actually build the White House. The original planners had hoped to recruit Europeans resulting in a dismal failure therefore they turned to slave labor since the District was contiguous to two (2) slave states, Maryland and Virginia. Starting in 1790, when the cornerstone was set until the ruinous fire of 1815, the talent and labor of negro slaves went into creating this 18th century edifice. Free negro slaves and immigrant Scots also participated in the construction. Skilled quarrymen, carpenters, brick makers, and sawyers turned raw materials into lumber, stone, brick, and nails. Slaves quarried and cut the stone from the government’s quarry in Aquia, Virginia; they formed bricks that were used to build temporary worker’s housing. Much of the lumber came from a slave managed sawmill near White Oak Swamp near Richmond and many of the slaves were rented out by their owners for $5 per month. They were regularly fed cornbread, beef and pork and they were given medical attention; the cost of clothing and yellow fever inoculations was docked from the slaveowner’s rent. In fact, the legacy of American presidents owning slaves goes all the way back to George Washington. Twelve (12) American presidents owned slaves and eight (8) of them owned slaves while in office. From the White House’s inception, slaves were a common sight. The main residence as well as the foundations of the House was built by slaves and free negroes as well as a few Europeans; other construction work was performed by immigrants who often were not citizens yet.  The sandstone was erected by Scottish immigrants; their work included “high rose relief” and garland decorations above the Northern entrance and the “fish scale” pattern between the window hoods. According to the White House Historical Society, the slaves worked seven (7) days per week in the hot and humid summer of Washington, DC. In 1800, John Adams was the first president to live in the White House and as a staunch anti-slavery man, he kept no slaves. Thomas Jefferson, in spite of his love affair with one of his slaves, called slavery an assemblage of horrors and he brought his slaves with him. Early presidents were responsible for their own household expenses so many brought their slaves with them.  James Madison, who succeeded Jefferson, held slaves all his life even while he was in office. When the Brits sat the White House on fire in 1812, Madison’s slaves helped to remove artifacts from the building. Well folks, you might understand why black people today bristle when we are portrayed as consumers and not contributors, welfare recipients and not craftsman, as laggards and not industrious innovators. We are still looked upon as non-contributors to this great patchwork quilt called America because of revisionist  history. Well there is one fact that historical revision can not change and that is this; America was aghast when Theodore Roosevelt invited Booker T. Washington (not related to George) to the White House for dinner; nothing, I mean NOTHING, has changed except the black man is not the guest but a host in the House built by slave labor and he is just as reviled and hated as he would have been in 1901. The more things change, the more they stay the same. VOTE VOTE VOTE in 2012!!!

BEIJING NEXT STOP

• My partner, Johnny Chan, and I are taking flight 952 China Air at 4:30 with our destination the Beijing Capital International Airport and we are flying the trusty Boeing 747 and it appears to be a full flight as we line up to board.  We have pushed back  at 4:37 PM only 7 minutes behind schedule and we climb out of JFK international Airport @ 5:15 PM, Beijing next stop. The first meal was served at 6:40 PM and consisted of potato salad (unlike mom’s), chicken & rice, fruit cubes, yogurt and a roll; no danger of flying on a full stomach.  Lights were turned off at 8:15 PM (EST) which is 8:15 beijing time.  I had a good night sleep and awakened to the preparations of the relief crew to serve breakfast, our second meal.  After an uneventful 14 hour polar route flight we arrived at Beijing Capital International Airport, retrieved our luggage for a domestic flight to Fuzhow Chamle International Airport.  After customs clearance I went through a thorough a full pat down minus a kiss by a lovely young security agent.  We still have a 3 hour flight to Fuzhou so jet lag is our enemy but we arrived safely and on time in Fuzhou to be met by our trusty friend Zhao Bin who then drove us to the spanking brand new Westin Hotel which deserves its 5 Star Rating.  We spent the next day in wah wah land so tomorrow will be a wonderful day; I had forgotten what 80 degrees felt like.  I will share my gathered information since I will not spend all of my time with elected officials or the elite; my next post will continue with my experiences here in China.  Bentleys, Porches, Lincoln MK4, Buicks,  BMW and Jaguars are all over speeding past patches of dreadful poverty not unlike many other Asian countries.  No foreigner who is in his sane mind would chance driving a car here but getting around is easy when we are surrounded by friends and Johnny’s family.

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WHO IS TED NUGENT – WHEN DID WE KNOW?

• Ted Nugent recently said this “If you want more of those kind of evil Anti-American people in the Supreme Court, then don’t get involved and let Obama take office again, because I’ll tell you this right now: If Barack Obama becomes president in November again, I will be either dead or in jail by this time next year.  The Secret Service of the United States would be derelict for not watching Ted Nugent as long as he lives.  His remarks were made before a like minded National Rifle Association; I detest guns as much as I detest gun lovers including hunters.  Just to show you how stupid Ted is, he had the nerve to be insulted by the cancellation of his concert at Fort Knox, Kentucky.  Doesn’t he realize that the President of the United States is the Commander-In-Chief of the Armed Services against whom his professed dislike reverberated.  Dear Wacko, please be advised that you can’t have disdain for the boss and then work on his facility; let me say this differently; the soldiers and bases are under the control of the Commander-In-Chief.  This knucklehead was recently booked in Alaska for illegally killing and transporting a black bear; probably a case of mistaken identity.  So you see, he genuinely likes guns (NRA), he killed a bear so he is capable of using a lethal weapon coupled with his racism.  Ted Nugent will not make a dime off of me or anyone in my neighborhood; our integrity is intact.  Careful Democrats, he is convinced that voters need to decapitate those Democrats in November.  His words, “we need to ride into the battlefield and chop their heads off in November” sounds like civil war to me from a rebel.  The genius [sic] in him feels that the Obama Administration is leading a vile, evil America hating administration “which is wiping its ass with the constitution“.  Did you detect the genius?  This rocker feels that the Supreme Court has four (4) members who don’t uphold the constitution; they are stone hippy or an extreme intellectual vacuous punk.  Nugent had the nerve to term his remarks as metaphors which need to be explained to educated people.  Red flag #1, he thinks he was speaking to the NEA (National Education Association) not the NRA (National Rifle Association).  Most college educated people whom I know would never belong to the NRA or any other right wing nut clan.  Dear Secret Service, watch Ted Nugent because he said it.

STEPPIN FETCHIT MAKES IT TO CONGRESS

• The State of Florida has a colored, yes colored Republican Congressman who is seen as a Tea Party darling which would be synonymous with a Jewish Rabbi being the darling of the Nazi Party.  He is a son of the Dixie South having been born in Atlanta, Georgia on 7 February 61; he has the strangest positions which are reminiscent of the Dixiecrats, Eastland, Russell and Thurmond.  I grew up in Texas in the 40s, 50s and 60s hence I can’t wrap my brain around the nonsense that he spouts so to me he is a colored man who is greatly out of step with Dr. King, Stokely Carmichael, James Farmer, Hubert “Rap” Brown, John Lewis and all Black people whom I know.  Florida had a Black Republican Congressman Josiah T. Walls in 1876 during Reconstruction which is entirely understandable since the Republicans was the party that freed blacks.  Today’s Republican Party is rife with racist evangelical Tea Party peckerwoods absent of their robes and hoods.  Absolutely nothing has changed except social media.  Lieutenant Colonel West apparently bought into the military and white thing and if you don’t believe me, look at his haircut and show me another colored man with a flat top and you will certainly not find a Black man with that haircut.  He served in the U. S. Army  for 20 years; his service included several combat stints in Iraq,  sounds like he should be checked for PTSD.  He also served as a civilian adviser to the Afghan National Army.  LTC West was born in Atlanta, Georgia to Herman and Elizabeth West; his father and older brother were both career military officers, his father served in World War II (segregated army) and his brother served in Vietnam.  His mother was a civilian employee of the U. S. Marine Corp; the family was sucking the government tit and have not forgotten their debt to white America.  He attended the University of Tennessee, a university where his father could go to buy used books only.  Maybe he is confused and sees a white man when he looks in the mirror.  He has a Bachelor’s Degree and two (2) Master’s Degrees; he is educated but not intelligent and he is certifiably a jackass, a jerk and certainly “The spook who sat by the door happily”.  He went on active duty on 1 November 83 at Fort Sill, Oklahoma followed by participation in Operation Desert Shield and Operation Desert Storm.  His military career received a black eye when his soldiers detained a Civilian Iraqi Police who, in custody, was beaten by four soldiers before LTC West fired his pistol near the Officer Hamoodi’s head who then gave him meaningless information prompted by fear & pain.  Now you see he is a school yard bully who was fined $5,000. under Article 15 allowing him to escape a Court Martial.  After he left the Army he served as an adviser to the Afghan National Army; sucking another government tit.  This was followed by two runs for congress where he won the the last one over Ron Klein in 2008.  Mr. West said he supports the Tea Party movement and dismissed the fact that the Tea Party is Racist; therefore he joined the Tea Party Caucus in February 2011 one month after joining the Congressional Black Caucus which is like having the fox in the chicken coop.  He is the first colored Republican to join the Black Caucus since congressman Gary Franks retired in 1997.  His political views brands him an Oreo (white inside and chocolate outside); His view about his Black colleague Honorable Keith Ellison, a Muslim, is that Ellison represents the “antithesis of the principals upon which this nation was established.  He voted against extending the Patriot Act.  He was asked by an attendee of a town hall meeting “what percentage of American Legislators do you think are card carrying Marxists or International Socialists.  His answer was that he believed 78 to 81 members of the Democratic Party are members of the Communist Party.  He is once again sucking the government tit having never created a job in his life.  I told you that he was born a jackass and is still a jackass today.  But remember he didn’t elect himself.

GULLIBLE AMERICA!!!

• It is General Election time and thus time for “sloganeering” and this is not a new process or concept. A slogan is defined as a catch phrase or motto adopted by a group like a political party. In the year 1840, the slogan of William Henry Harrison was “Tippecanoe and Tyler too”; Tecumseh was defeated by Harrison in the famous 1811 Battle of Tippecanoe and ‘Tyler’ was John Tyler, his running mate. In the year of 1852, the slogan of Franklin Pierce was “We polked you in ’44 and we shall pierce you in ’52.” The allusion to ’44 referred to the 1844 presidential election of James K. Polk. In 1856, the slogan of John Fremont was “Free soil, free labor, free speech, free men, Fremont.” In 1864, Abraham Lincoln used the slogan “Don’t swap horses in midstream.” In 1863, Ulysses S. Grant used the slogan “Vote as you shot.” After the election conflict of 1877, Samuel Tilden’s supporters adopted the slogan “Tilden or blood.” In 1884, the Republicans attacked opposing views by using the slogan “Rum, Romanism, and Rebellion.” In 1900, William McKinley adopted the political slogans “Four more years of the full dinner pail.” and “Let well enough alone“. In 1916, Woodrow Wilson’s slogan was “He kept us out of war.” Warren G. Harding’s slogan in 1920 was “Return to normalcy”, referring to the normal times experienced before World War I. In 1924, Calvin Coolidge’s slogan was “Keep cool and keep Coolidge.” In 1928, Republican Herbert Hoover’s  presidential slogan was “Who but Hoover?” Hoover’s 1932 campaign slogan during the depths of the Great Depression was “We are turning the corner.” and the Democratic presidential opponent Franklin D. Roosevelt chose the slogan “I propose a New Deal.” Roosevelt later used the slogan “Remember Hoover” in his 1936 re-election. In the same year, Alfred M. Landon had 3 slogans; “Let’s get another Deck”, “Let’s make it a Landon-slide”, and “Life, Liberty, and Landon.” In 1940, Wendell L. Willkie adopted five (5), yes five slogans as follows; “No fourth term either”, “Roosevelt for ex-president”, “There is no indispensable man”, “We want Willkie”, and “Win with Willkie“; he lost this election to Roosevelt. President Roosevelt ran again in 1944 and his campaign slogans included “Don’t swap horses in midstream” and “We are going to win this war and the peace that follows.” Roosevelt won in 1944 beginning his 4th term, with Harry S. Truman as his running mate. However, Roosevelt died 3 months in, leaving Truman with the Presidency. Truman ran for president in 1948 and used the two slogans “I’m just wild about Harry” and “Pour it on ‘em, Harry.” Dwight Eisenhower’s slogan in 1952 was “I like Ike.” In 1956, during his re-election campaign, Eisenhower adopted two slogans; “I still like Ike” and “Peace and prosperity.” In 1960, John F. Kennedy coined two slogans as well; “We can do better” and “A time for greatness.” In 1964, Lyndon B. Johnson used the slogan “All the way with LBJ” and his opponent Barry Goldwater opined “In your heart, you know he’s right” for his own campaign. Capitalizing on the turmoil surrounding the Vietnam War, Richard Nixon used the slogan “This time, vote like your whole world depended on it.” The WORST president, Ronald Reagan used the slogans “Are you better off than you were four years ago?” referring to the improved U.S. economy and “Morning again in America.” Bill Clinton is probably the most prolific slogan utterer as seen in his 1992 campaign. His slogans included “For people, for a chance“, “Its the economy, stupid”, “Its time to change America”, and “Putting people first”. Clinton’s opponent, H. Ross Perot used the slogan “Ross for Boss”. In 2004, George W. Bush dusted off an old slogan that was used twice before, “Don’t swap horses in midstream” -lack of creativity. In our most recent presidential election, Barack Obama said “Yes we can”, “Change we can believe in” or simply “Change“. John McCain used the slogan “Country first”, “Drill Baby, Drill!” and “Reform, prosperity, and peace.” If you look carefully, you will have a window into the turmoil of the time or the angst in the Electorate. Here we go again in this election year 2012. My suggested slogan is “Begin work before sunset, Dummies!“

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R.I.P DR. LeROY WALKER

• A giant in the sport of Track and Field died on 23 April 2012 and the entire sport owes so much for his lifelong contribution to Track and Field worldwide.  LeRoy T. Walker was born on 14 June 1918 in Atlanta, Georgia; the grandson of slaves and the youngest of Willie and Mary Walker’s 13 children. He was born into a poor family and spent a portion of his young years in Harlem, New York City, where he lived with his older brother Joe following the death of their father.  In the 1930s, he ventured back South to attend Benedict College in Columbia, South Carolina where he excelled as an athlete while being an honor student; he was the first in his family to attend college. He played basketball and garnered national attention as a Sprinter in spite of the fact that Benedict did not have a track team. That is just part of the story because of what he did on the football field; he never played football in high school but tried out for the Benedict team on a dare during his junior year. He made the team and the starting quarterback was injured, pressing Walker into the position. All he did was lead his team to a Conference Championship and he earned All-America recognition, becoming the first athlete at Benedict to receive that recognition. He graduated from Benedict in 1940 and he moved back North to earn a Master’s degree from his neighborhood Ivy League school Columbia University; he earned that degree in 1941 and thereafter returned to Benedict where the college president convinced him to head up the new Physical Education department. He followed this stint by becoming the track coach at North Carolina Central University (NCCU) where he worked with the hurdler and olympian Lee Calhoun, achieving such fame and notoriety that he was later named Chancellor of the University.   Walker completed his Doctorate in Exercise Psychology and Biomechanics at New York University, thereby igniting an incredible professional run for this famous coach. From 1960 through 1972, he was a coach or consultant for many foreign Olympic teams before serving a three year stint as Chairman of Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) Men’s Track and Field Committee. He made history by being chosen as the first Black Head Coach of the Olympic Men’s Track and Field team where his team medaled in 19 different events including 6 Golds. He was the first Black President of the United States Olympic Committee and who led the 10,000 member U.S. Delegation to the 1966 Olympics. He was Treasurer of the U.S. Olympic Committee’s Contingency Fund and is generally credited with increasing the Contingency Fund to $43 Million. He became the unpaid President of the Olympic Committee after holding a lucrative six (6) figure salary as Director of Sports for the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games. When Dr. Walker retired in 1986 as North Carolina Central’s  Chancellor-Emeritus, his team won 11 Gold medals, 80 athletes were named All-Americans and 35 athletes won National Championships. He coached the national teams of Israel, Ethiopia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica and Kenya. The last team that he led to the Olympics was for the United States in 1976; a team that included Edwin Moses (400-meter Hurdler) and Bruce Jenner (decathlon). Dr. Walker was inducted into the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame in 1987; he also received the Olympic Order, the highest honor handed out by the International Olympic Committee. Dr. Walker earned his honorary degrees. He will be missed by legions of Track and Field fans, his daughter Dr. Carolyn Walker-Hopp, his son LeRoy T. Walker Jr., and the Omega Psi Phi fraternity. We were inspired by you, Dr. Walker!!

SOCIAL SECURITY….CAN’T BLAME OBAMA!!!!

• You can not hide the sky with you hand so you can appreciate that there are some irrefutable facts about Social Security which was enacted in 1935.  Lets look at the year 1935, when life expectancy statistics concluded that people would work for many years paying in taxes, but would not live long enough to collect benefits. Life expectancy in 1935 was 61.7 years for both sexes; men was 59.9 years, women 61.6 years, White males 61.0 years, White females 65.0 years, Black males 51.1 years and Black females 55.2 years. From the numbers shown above for life expectancy, you can deduct that only white women were expected to live to the retirement age of 65, so many people were expected to die before collecting. The average remaining life expectancy for those surviving  until 65 was 12.7 years for men and 14.7 years for women and in the year 2000, men had 15.3 years remaining and women 19.6 remaining at 65 years of age. So you don’t have to be Democrat or Republican to see that part of the Social Security problems is that people are living longer than ever creating an ever-increasing pool of recipients. In 1930, there were 6.7 million Americans above the age of 65 and in the year 2000 there were 34.9 million Americans above the age of 65. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act (SSA) which was passed by congress on 14 August 1935. The law provided a monthly benefit  to individuals age 65 and older and no longer working. I did not realize that the SSA paid unemployment benefits, aid to dependent children and grants to states for medical care. Under the initial SSA, monthly benefits were to begin in 1942; from 1937 until 1942, Social Security would pay out a lump sum to anyone retiring in 1939. Social Security was modified to add benefits to the spouse or minor children of a retired worker. It also added a survivor’s benefit to be paid to the family in the event of a premature death of a covered worker. The person who collected the first check paid $22.54 into the system and she collected $22,000. so trouble loomed early but nobody saw it. The year 1950 was marked by the introduction of the COLA (Cost of Living Adjustment); this was a one time increase in benefits of 7.7% and the next COLA occurred in 1952 and was a 12.5% increase. In 1961, the retirement age for men was reduced to 62 years with reduced benefits for those retiring early. Several major revisions occurred with the 1972 Amendments such as automatic COLAs, establishing a minimum monthly benefit & made automatic increases in the amount of earnings subject to Social Security Taxation was developed. When Social Security was started , the amount of earnings subject to taxation was 3,000. Hence all earning above $3,000 were not taxed for Social Security. By 2005 the rate is 6.2 for employer and employee on earnings up to 90,000. And the Medicare Tax Rate is 1.45% with no cap on earnings. Historically, the shortfalls resulted in increases of the rate of taxation or the amount of earnings subject to taxation. When Social Security began there were 16 workers for every Social Security recipient and today there are 3.3 workers for every recipient. Just remember that in 1935 fewer people lived long enough to collect benefits; the average life expectancy was 65. Today the life expectancy is 77 years and there are 48 million recipients. There is a structural deficiency which cannot be fixed by tinkering around the edges. Although I am a social security recipient, I fervently believe that there should be a means test which would eliminate the “Wealthy Guy” and that the age for retirement should be 67 and 70, not 62 and 65. We cannot afford to be greedy.

WANTED……ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS

• People like Governor Jan Brewer have forgotten that they too are children of immigrants and many of the Mexicans and Hispanics that they target are indigenous to the Southwest, Actually the only non-immigrants in the U.S. are the American Indians, Aleuts, and Blacks who came in chains and shackles but nonetheless they (Whites) are here manning the door and restraining other immigrants. Go figure, that children of immigrants are now closing the door but they are closing the door on their heads, legs and torsos. Some semblance of sanity had better return real soon for the following reasons. I am only going to say this once. Arizona has captured the spotlight because of its Arizona Senate Bill SB 1070, which piggy backs a U.S. Federal law requiring all aliens over the age of 14 who stay in the United States more than 30 days to register with the U.S. Government and to have those documents in their possession at all times; it requires that Arizona law enforcement officers attempt to determine an individual’s immigration status during a detention or arrest or lawful stop, when there is  reasonable suspicion that the individual is an illegal alien.  How can you do that without racial profiling even though the law prohibits racial profiling? I guess ethnic profiling is okay and encouraged. It punishes those sheltering, hiring or transporting illegal aliens. The staggering fact is that there is majority support among the children of immigrants known as the American public and the law was supposed to take effect on 29 July 2010 but legally challenged all the way to the Supreme Court and is being heard as I write by the five humans and 4 ogres called the U.S. Supreme Court. There are four forms of valid identification, a valid Arizona Driver’s license, an Arizona non-operating identification license, any valid, Federal, State or Local government-issued identification and a Tribal Enrollment card. Just think the descendents of the original occupants, American Indians need to show a Tribal Enrollment card. The law saws that any legal Arizona Resident can sue to compel full enforcement of the law; if the person prevails he might be able to receive reimbursement for court cost and attorney’s fees. Arizona is not a novice state when it comes to racist democracy. Remember it was the last state to adopt Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday and it is rife with racism. The state has a history of passing restrictions on illegal immigration including legislation in 2007 that imposed heavy sanctions on employees hiring illegal immigrants. The major force behind the SB 1070 is State Senator Russell Pearce, long one of Arizona’s haters and opponent of illegal immigration; long who isn’t intelligent enough draft a bill, relied on Professor Kris Kobach of the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law, who has written immigration related bills in other parts of the country; final touch was added by the American Exchange Council. The SB 1070 Bill passed the Arizona House of Representatives on 13 April (35-21) and the Senate passed the bill on 19 April (19-11). The Governor, Brewer signed the bill on 23 April. Those legislators who voted for this bill were surprised at the furor and public reaction that accompanied the passage of this law. Not surprisingly 80 percent of registered Latino voters in Arizona opposed SB 1070. A national Fox poll showed that 61 percent of Americans thought Arizona’s actions were right. The president and I think this bill is misguided and would undermine basic notions of fairness that we cherish as Americans. The law has been popular among the Republican Party Base Electorate; this will hurt the Republican party among smart Hispanic voters. The Republicans who have opposed aspects of the law are from heavily Hispanic states, such as Jeb Bush and Marco “Lightweight” Rubio. Call me when ethnic profiling is absent from the process.  No Way Jose!!!!

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SECRET SERVICE SHENANIGANS

• I have always held the Secret Service in high esteem and I still do in spite of the recent aberrational behavior of 12 Secret Service Agents.  I saw the Secret Service as a monkish existence centered around the protection of the president, former presidents , the President’s family, the Vice-President, presidential candidates and other figures.  I always took notice of the intense, stoic, suited men with communication ear pieces; they look pretty ominous , we remember their swift and decisive actions when President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas and when President Ronald Reagan was shot in the nation’s capital Washington, DC.  I guess purist would say both instances cited above, constitutes failure.  I always assumed, until last week, that the Secret Service consisted of about 500 men; there are actually, 6,500 Secret Service Agents stationed elsewhere, I thought they commuted to work in Washington, DC, well hang on and remember that the United States Secret Service was  a part of the Department of Homeland Security until 2003 after being a part of the Treasury Department.  It was created by President by President Abraham Lincoln on 5 July 1865 because one third of the money in circulation at that time was counterfeit.  Therefore, its primary mission was to suppress counterfeiting.  The legislation creating the United States Secret Service (USSS) was on Lincoln’s desk at the time he was assassinated. The only federal law enforcement agencies were the United States Park Service now called the United States Marshal’s Service and the United States Postal Service, Office of Instructions and Mail Depredations now known as the United States Postal Inspection Service.  Due to restrictions on the investigative power of the U.S Marshal’s Service, the Secret Service investigates bank robberies, gambling, etc.  After the 1901 assassination of President William McKinley, congress requested that the Secret Service provide presidential protection.  The Secret Service is not an official member of the U.S Intelligence Community today; it was the first U.S. Intelligence and counter intelligence agency until the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was created in 1908.  Their heroism is unparalleled in my mind because when the Blair House attack (1950) to assassinate President Truman, Private Leslie Cofelt was killed after returning fire and to this day remains the only member of the Secret Service to be killed protecting the president.  Special Agent Tim McCarthy stepped in front of President Reagan and took a bullet to the stomach and he made a full recovery.  As a reaction to Robert F. Kennedy’s assassination, congress authorized protection of major presidential and vice-presidential candidates and to provide lifetime protection of deceased presidents unless they remarry.  The children of former presidents are provided protection until they are 16 years old.  The protection regulation changed in 1994 stating that presidents in office after 1 January 97 will be provided for ten years after leaving their office and president who served before 1 January 97 will receive lifetime protection as of 2010, the Secret Service has over 6,500 employees including 3,200 Special Agents, 1,300 uniform agents  and 2,000 technical and administrative employees; Special Agents serve on protective , special teams and financial and Homeland Security related crimes.  The service sends its special agents to foreign jurisdictions in advance of the president’s arrival; that explains the presence of a group of agents in Cartegena, Columbia last week.  I have no idea what the rules of conduct are but I do know that most prostitutes get paid before they provide pleasure; never after the act because nobody would want to pay after the sex act including Secret Service Agents.  I wonder how many hookers have been stiffed in the past?  If there is a zero tolerance policy some careers might end for some agents and their families.  What is the price for fun and pleasure?

HATEFUL POLICEMEN!!!!

• Malcolm X once characterized “Down South” as all of the United States below Canada and his words ring equally true today like never before.  We have talked about the despised Stop & Frisk Law in New York City, the rapes by police officers and their exoneration against all odds and their shooting of Black victims.  There is little publicity of a federal discrimination lawsuit where two top supervisors of an elite NYPD anti-gun unit were humane and kind to white suspects while treating Blacks like “Feral Animals” who deserved a bullet to the head.  The genesis of  these explosive charges is the sworn depositions of three members of this fire arms suppression unit; these sworn deposition were provided by two current NYPD detectives  and a retired first grade detective, no minor players.  They are alleged to have created a hostile environment for their  fellow Black detectives and minority group gun traffickers by liberally using the word nigger while addressing black suspects.  The two detective perpetrators are Captain James Coan and Lieutenant Daniel Davin; James Coan considered minority group suspects as sub-human, nothing new about that!!!  The retired detective said Captain Coan would tell them that “they are f…g animals you make sure if you have to shoot, you shoot them in the head that way there’s one story.  An unnamed undercover cop said James Coan’s racist rants occurred before every search warrant in the Black inner city neighborhoods of Bedford-Stuyvesant, East New York and Brownsville; he further stated that they disregarded the presence of children or nude women.  They were treated as though they have no rights under the U.S. Constitution; this was in stark contrast to search warrants in predominantly white Staten Island where warrants were executed without kicking down doors.  He even called his fellow Black detective a nigger and instructed white officers that “if you have to shoot a nigger, do what you gotta do”; the stunner is this, these down south crackers are still in the New York City Police Department on modified duty.  The detectives have been named in a discrimination lawsuit by a Black female detective in Brooklyn Federal Court; the unidentified undercover detective has filed a discrimination complaint against Lieutenant Davin. Lieutenant Davin called Detective Gregory Jean-Baptiste a Black bastard. This is a dyed in the wool racist with a gun, badge and a spare knife or gun to plant on the dead suspect….been done since the day Roosevelt armed all cops with a standard weapon.  You might be shocked to know that Lieutenant Coan was involved in five shootings over the past twenty years leaving two people dead.  In his deposition, Coan denied making any of the racist remarks attributed to him by anybody.  Why were charges brought by the Federal Government?  Is New York City government reluctant to protect its people of color from the gun toting racist police officers.  There should be a zero tolerance policy to snuff out racist treatment of Black police officers because a cohesive police is a better police force.  How can Black officers put their lives on the line for a racist commander or superior officer?  Where does Mayor Bloomberg stand on this or has he lost his vocal chords; Blacks did not vote for him or at least I didn’t so I guess he doesn’t relish our presence or existence?  Our mayor has been front and center in the fight against illegal guns but enforcement must be even handed and objective in its application. Where is the State of New York in this scenario?   Thank God for the federal government’s Department of Justice and remember to raise a red flag whenever anybody advocates for states rights; we been there and we ain’t going back.

SPORTS ANYBODY???

• This is a wonderful time of the year for sports fans here in New York City; the NBA with its lockout shortened season of 66 games is nearing the playoff season.  Spring is a wonderful time of the year for a true sportsman since the major sports of Hockey, NBA Basketball, College Basketball, Major League Baseball, the NFL Draft and the NBA Draft.  The hockey playoffs have begun with the beloved New York Rangers as the number 1 seed; they are playing the Ottawa Senators in the first round and lead the best of seven series 2-1 after winning  4-2 and 1-0 while losing 3-2 in overtime; game 4 will be played tonight in Ottawa.  Brian Boyle is a 6′-7″ 244 pound center whose physical play and production has the Rangers up 2-1.  He was booed each time he touched the puck and he scored the only goal in the 1-0 Ranger victory.  Ottawa fans were screaming obscenities at him at him after the game so he must be doing something right; he has scored in each game so far.  To make matters worse they will be without their Swedish Captain Daniel Alfredsson whose was injured when elbowed in the head by fellow Swede Carl Hagelin yesterday.
• Another local team in the playoffs is the New Jersey Devils who are trailing the Panthers 2-1 who forced the winningest goaltender in NHL history, from the game after the Devils blew a 3 goal lead.  The Devils were the best in the NHL at killing penalties but they have allowed a goal in 60% of the power play goal opportunities.  The NY Islanders did not make the playoffs this year.
• The new Jersey Nets are playing out their string in Newark’s Prudential Center prior to moving to Brooklyn, NY and their new arena.  They will play the Knicks in the Prudential Center tonight for the last time but they are toast for this year.
• The NY Knicks have been hit by injuries to Amar’e Stoudemire, Lin and Jefferies are in a battle for the final two playoffs spot (7th & 8th).  They have three games to play while leading the Sixers by 1-1/2 games and the Bucks by 2-1/2 games.  Carmelo Anthony has stepped up in the absence of the injured Knicks by scoring 40+ points against the Bulls and Heat and 30+ points against the Milwaukee and Boston.  The Knicks have the best three point scorer in the league in Steve Novak.  Tyson Chandler has shot 57% and is among the league leaders in rebounding each game.  Let us hope our beloved Knicks can make the playoffs and sustain our happiness.
• The New York Yankees are in the first week of their schedule with tremendous potential and mixed results.  The name of the game in baseball is starting and relief pitching .  In order to win big and consistently,  good pitching must silence good hitting and the Yankees appear flush with Sabathia, Kuroda, Nova, Hughes and the unretired Andy Pettitte.  The big bats of Texeira, Cano, Rodriguez, Granderson and Swisher and the DH are prepared to be patient and to out hit most other lineups.  The relief pitching corp is again headed by Mariano Rivera, Robertson, Soriano, Phelps, Boone Logan etc.  The speed on the bases is above average with Gardner, Nunez, Jeter and Granderson who will challenge catchers throughout the league; the defense is stellar with Texeira, Cano, Jeter, A-Rod, Gardner, Granderson and Swisher; there is not a weak link among them.  The team record today is 6-5 leaving them one (1) game out of first place but that means nothing at this point in a 182 game season.  The New York Yankees are loaded on paper except they don’t play on paper. Go Yankees!!!
• The New York Mets do not factor into this euphoria since I don’t follow their progress; they have my full support except when they play the Yankees; they have begun the season at 7-4 leaving them a game behind the Washington Nationals.
• The New York Super Bowl Champion Giants and the New York Jets are preparing for their future by preparing for the draft, this is an exciting event to see what gems the downtrodden teams unearth and what teams will be strengthened by their draft choices.  Who are the future multimillionaires and who will be this year’s gem or fool’s gold.  Stay tuned!!!

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R.I.P. MIKE WALLACE

• My 93 year old father is being released from the hospital today; for that reason I am very, very happy.  Another 93 year old icon did not make it through the day, Mike Wallace died yesterday 7 April 2012 and for that I am saddened to tears.  I became a devotee of 60 Minutes from its beginning to this day and I will be a faithful viewer until I die.  It strikes me that I am watching these broadcast giants die before my eyes; first Ed Bradley, second Don Hewitt, third Andy Rooney and yesterday Mike Wallace.  Believe me, the deaths of these giants have occurred the past few years and they remind me of my own mortality.  Myron Leon “Mike” Wallace was an American journalist born 9 May 1918 whose career spanned sixty years; Mr. Wallace was born in Brookline, Massachusetts to Russian Jewish parents, Frank and Zina Wallace.  His father Frank was a grocer and insurance broker.  His education include graduating from Brookline High School in 1935 and he graduated from the University of Michigan in 1939 with a Bachelor of Arts Degree.  Mr. Wallace’s first job was with radio station WOOD in Grand Rapids, Michigan and a year later he moved to radio station WXYZ in Detroit as an announcer.  After a brief stint in the U.S. Navy as a communications officer aboard the USS  Anthedon he returned to Chicago.  He began announcing for Secret Agent, Sky King, The Green Hornet and Wrestling in Chicago in the late 1940s and 1950s.  During the 1950s Mr. Wallace hosted many game shows including Who’s the Boss, Who Pays and The Big Surprise.  In 1959, He garnered tons of attention after a five (5) part documentary about The Nation of Islam spotlighting its leader Elijah Muhammad and its charismatic spokesman Malcolm X.  After his son Peter Wallace died in 1962, he returned to news programming in 1968 with 60 Minutes where he interviewed many world leaders including Yassar Arafat, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Malcolm X, Ayatollah Khomeni, Vladimir Putin, Barbara Streisand, John Erlichman, Tina Turner, Charleton Heston, Manuel Noriega, Bette Davis, Golda Meir, Vladimir Horowitz, etc.  For many years Mr. Wallace unknowingly suffered from depression and it worsened in 1984 amidst a $120 Million lawsuit filed by General William Westmoreland against CBS and Mike Wallace personally; during the proceedings Mike was hospitalized with exhaustion.  His wife urged him to go to a doctor who diagnosed him with Clinical Depression and he was prescribed antidepressants and he underwent Psychotherapy.  This was initially revealed during a late night appearance on the Bob Costas Show; he later revealed to his colleague Morley Safer, that he attempted suicide in 1986.  Whew, I am glad he failed!!!  Just like the rest of us, he faced health issues such as the implantation of a pacemaker circa 1992 and he had bypass surgery in January 2008.  Mr. Wallace’s professional honors include 21 Emmy Awards; he won three (3) Alfred I. duPont Columbia University Awards;  he won three (3) George Foster Peabody Awards; he won the Robert E. Sherwood Award; University of Southern California School of Journalism Distinguished Achievement Award and a Lifetime Achievement Award.  Most recently, he was awarded the University of Illinois Prize for Lifetime Achievement in Journalism.  I will remember his insistence that people whom he interviewed should answer his question and not embark on their own monologue, his questions to Yasser Arafat and the Ayatollah were preambled while reminding both that they were considered lunatics by world and religious leaders.  On 14 March 2006, Mike Wallace announced his retirement from 60 Minutes where he excelled for 37 years; he continued working for CBS as Correspondent Emeritus on a reduced schedule.  His last interview was with Roger Clemens the retired baseball player on 60 Minutes.   Mr. Wallace lived in a care facility the last few years of his life finally succumbing to the ravages of dementia the ultimate robber.  Rest In Peace Mike and thanks for the memories.

ANOTHER POLICE RAPE!!!!!

• Lightning has struck the NYPD again because one of its finest has been tried for rape as Officers Kenneth Moreno and Franklin Mata were last year.  This is a case against an ex-police officer Michael Pena a 27 year old ex-cop who attacked a woman last August after a night of bar hopping sexual pursuit and eventual strike out.  This tragedy began as the victim waited for her ride to work to begin his first day teaching the second grade.  She testified that Pena accosted her on an Inwood street, dragged her into a courtyard and forced her at gunpoint to her knees.  Her words “he told me to close my eyes or he would f………shoot me while sitting stone faced a few feet away.  Her testimony was corroborated by a male witness who was 12 feet away and saw Pena the cop penetrate her; another woman testified that she heard the victim cry out. NO! NO! NO! and that the sex appeared joyless.  Prosecutors presented DNA evidence that Pena’s sperm was found on the victim’s panties.  Pena’s lawyer insisted that Pena did not penetrate her vagina which is the height of the bar for rape in New York State.  His lawyer suggested that 12 feet is too far away to see penetration; he elicited a statement from the doctor that the redness around her genitals could not be an indicator of when rape occurred.  Pena’s lawyer asked the victim ” how could she be sure Pena was raping her; her answer was “it hurt”.  Now why is she being tried, I haven’t the faintest clue to where this uncivilized, immodest questioning comes from.  The jury quickly decided that Pena sodomized the woman but could not agree on rape.  Under New York law, rape requires a proof of penetration but the bar is lower for conviction on a charge of forced anal or oral sex.  The good news is that mere contact orally or anally is punished as harshly as penetration.  Although Pena was convicted of other charges, there was a mistrial on the Felony Rape Charge while taking the word of a gun wielding ex-policeman.  What is wrong when people find policemen as unimpeachable.  Witnesses testified to this attack; Pena’s own defense attorney said “his client attempted to rape and sodomize the woman; he continued by saying “there was no forensic  evidence in spite of the fact that Pena’s sperm was found on the victim’s underwear.  Seems pretty convincing to me since English is my first language.  Pena was found guilty of Forced Anal Sex and Sodomy.  This jury had five (5)  lawyers and you can rest assured that five (5) lawyers could destroy a wet dream.  They were instrumental in creating this impasse with their [sic] learned approach to law and knowing that there was probable cause and commission.  The last cops who were tried for rape last year, Mata and Moreno, were sentenced to only one year.  Some members of this jury were in favor of conviction on the Rape charge but instead they sent a tragic message to women and that she will show up with a rape kit and videotape because eye witnesses do not know a rape when it is happening before their eyes .  More than likely this victim was raped three (3) times; two by the Rapist Pena and once by the jury.  The only hope there is, can be found in the sentencing; the judge will have the freedom and duty to hand out a harsh sentence to this ex-officer who violated the public trust.  We should not fearful or be distrustful of law enforcement officials.  Be advised that these men have caused a black eye to the finest police force in the world, in the world.  The NYPD is staffed by New York’s finest because the other 36,000 are good guys, so stay tuned for sentencing.

WOMEN NOT WELCOMED

• I am curious about MALE ONLY golf clubs not because I am into golf but because I grew up in Texas where Blacks were not allowed on golf courses except as caddies; my father would not entertain or allow me to entertain that idea.  I never wanted to play golf but I knew blacks were not allowed  and I was shocked that white men in many clubs excluded their mothers, sisters, daughters and aunts from golf clubs.  Even more shocking that today 11 April 2012 that there are still clubs with men only rules; who are they?
• There is the Black Sheep Golf Club which is located 40 miles from Chicago in Sugar Grove, Illinois and it is all about golf because there are no tennis courts, no swimming pool, no children’s program and no social events.  The membership fee is $85K.  There is no kitchen and the pro shop is stocked for members only; only men can be invited to join this club.
• Old Elm Club is located in Highland Park, Illinois and was founded in 1960; it has 2 courses and 36 holes with a driving range and putting greens.  The attire is casual and a male only policy is stringently enforced and a male must be sponsored by a current member.  The average age is deceased.
• Butler National Golf Course was designed by George Fazio built and seeded in the relatively short span of two years.  In the fall of 2004 all of the greens were converted to A-1 Bent Grass and the sand was changed to meet tour standards.  Not only are women barred from membership they are not allowed on the property period.  No dropping off the hubby.
• Bob O’Link Golf Club was designed by the golf course architect Donald Ross and it was founded in 1916 as a private club with all male clientele.  It is located at 1120 Crofton Avenue, Highland Park, Illinois.  This club does not have toilet facilities for women and the suggestion box is in the middle of the pond near hole #2. No change anticipated here.
• Augusta National opened in 1933 and has not allowed women to join but unlike some other clubs, women can play as guests of members.  This is ultimately about power leaving Augusta National as one of the last bastions of male collegiality; the place where big business and the corporate elite make connections and deals are brokered.  It is a huge barrier for women in the deal making corporate world.  As of today, the IBM Corporation is a major sponsor of the Masters Tournament but its female president has not been invited to join Hootie’s brood.
• Burning Tree club was founded in 1923 in Bethesda, Maryland a suburb of Washington, DC.  The Initiation fee is 75K with a $500./month membership fee.  Presidents Roosevelt, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford and HW Bush were all honorary members.  Exclusion of women was apparently not offensive to these presidents.  The membership list is private and membership can be achieved by invitation only.  There are no women’s locker rooms or toilets at Burning Tree and women are not allowed inside the club, not for service or maintenance reasons or parties; working female U.S. Secret Service Agents have been turned away and female members of the U.S. Supreme Court have not been invited to join.
• Preston Trail Golf Club is the most prestigious club in the Dallas Metroplex Area with the best rated golf course and the most prominent membership which is strictly limited to men.  It is the grand daddy of all the Metroplex golf courses.  It was designed by Byron Nelson and Ralph Plummer.  Women, don’t even think about it.
• Dallas Country Club has the best and most celebrated men’s only lunch in Dallas while allowing families on the premises but only men can be members of the country club.

I never saw the logic of striding behind a small pimpled ball all day long because I have never met a golfer who was happy with his game.  Go figure!!!  Including Tiger Woods.

• Kudos to the Florida Prosecutor Angela Corey who has charged George Zimmerman with Second Degree Murder with which I agree 110%.  More to come.

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FIRST LADY – ELEANOR ROOSEVELT

• I am commenting on this subject after watching a one (1) hour show about the presidential wives.  The panelists prattled on and on about Jacqueline Kennedy, Lady Bird Johnson, Michelle Obama and I was dumbfounded that Eleanor Roosevelt was not mentioned until the moderator cite Eleanor Roosevelt as her choice as the greatest first lady.  First Michelle Obama is a work in progress and she should not be compared to previous first ladies whose husbands have served their terms.  Anna Eleanor Roosevelt was born 11 October 1884 and she died on 7 November 62 and she was the first lady of the United States from 1933 to the death of her husband in 1945.  She was a proud New Yorker having been born at 56 West 57th Street in New York City.  She was the daughter of Elliott Roosevelt and Anna Hall Roosevelt and  she was the niece of President Theodore Roosevelt and the sister of Elliott Roosevelt, Jr., Hall Roosevelt and Elliott Mann.  Eleanor was tutored privately and at the age of 15 the family decided to send her to Allenswood Academy outside of London, England where she learned to speak French fluently.  She later studied at the New School, here in New York City, in the 1920s.  On 14 December 02, Ms. Roosevelt was presented at a debutante ball at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel; that same year she met her father’s fifth cousin Franklin D. Roosevelt a 20 year old Harvard College student who demonstrated affection for her.  They were engaged on 1 December 04 to the chagrin of Franklin’s mother Sara Delano Roosevelt.  President Theodore Roosevelt gave her away on St. Patrick’s Day on 17 March 05.  Six children were born to this union with five (5) surviving infancy.  The family began spending summers in Campbello Island, New Brunswick where Franklin was stricken with a paralytic illness known as Guillain-Barre Syndrome.  Following his illness Eleanor began serving as a stand-in for her incapacitated husband making public appearances on his behalf.  Franklin became governor of New York in 1928 and he was inaugurated on 4 March 29.  She held weekly news conferences and started writing a widely syndicated news column.  Part of my love for her is attributed to the fact that Ms. Roosevelt became an important connection to the Black population during the oppressive segregation era because she was vocal in her support of the Black Civil Rights Movement.  For instance she was outspoken in her support of Marion Anderson in 1939 after she was denied an appearance in Constitution Hall (Washington, DC).  She played a pivotal role in Ms. Anderson’s concert on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.  She had the integrity to appoint Mary McLeod Bethune as head of the Division of Negro Affairs.  She was a strong supporter of the Tuskegee Airmen and she arranged to take a one (1) hour flight with the chief flight instructor, Charles Alfred Anderson.  After the president’s death by stroke on 12 April 45 in Warm Springs, Georgia, President Truman appointed Ms. Roosevelt as a delegate to the United Nations General Assembly; she became the first Chairperson of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights; she played and instrumental role in drafting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.  She called this the Magna Carta of our times and one of her greatest successes.  She supported Adlai Stevenson for president in 1952 and 1956 and she resigned from her UN post in 1953 when Dwight David Eisenhower became president.  She had reservations about John F. Kennedy’s failure to condemn McCarthyism but endorsed him for president and Kennedy reappointed her to the United Nations (1961-1962).  She died 7 November of Bone Marrow Tuberculosis at the age of 78.  She was the gold standard and she was the bomb!!!

OBAMA – GOVERNMENT NIG…..

• Rick Santorum (see www.blacklikemoi.com) referred to President Obama as a government nig….he caught himself midway through this hated common word.  There will be those spinners or liars who will try to add a suffix to nig…; readers go on and try to innocently complete the word.  We should be rejoicing in the streets because we have a confirmed an embedded racist in Rick Santorum; good news is that you don’t get bitten when you know a snake is in the grass.  The President of the United States, irrespective of his skin color, is the leader of the free world so if he is a nigger to Santorum  then what does he think of an ordinary nigger like me and my family; I would guess that a cracker like Santorum would see us as government surplus to be discarded once and for all.  Do we want a candidate who calls us niggers openly or do we choose one who succinctly treats us as unequals  while smiling the Romney smile since the poor have already been taken care of.  Have you noticed how Santorum has only done well where the racist shorthand is communicated to like minded racists in the South?  He spoke yesterday of his optimism in the Arkansas, Alabama and Texas primaries where the poor southern crackers are endorsing smaller government and social welfare while they enjoy they are enjoying the the fruits of Food Stamps and Medicare without realizing these are two (2) of many government programs that keeps them alive.  They do not realize that everyone in this country except the destitute is on government welfare (Tax Loopholes, Medicaid, Medicare, Research Grants on, on & on.  Public Welfare works best for the rich people in the form of loopholes.  So why is President Obama the government nig….?  Is it because Rick Santorum wants all Black people to get off Food Stamps and since he said Black people, it is safe to assume that white people should remain on Food Stamps; this stance is blatantly racist and not the thought processing of a president and supposed beacon of light to all oppressed people including nigs…  Many conservative African Americans and Black people will endure their objections to Gay Rights and Abortion rather than vote for a president who considers them merely as niggers.  Meanwhile the Republicans will continue protecting the rich and oppressing of women  including their mothers, daughters, aunts and sisters; ladies, apologies are not in order since you don’t apologize for a dogma.  Rick Santorum is as goofy and as ignorant as handkerchief head Herman Cain and just as unsuited to be President of the United States of America.  The world has no place for a politician who refers to the president as a nigger.  You can bet your rent that it is not the first time the word nigger, has been associated with Obama, by Rick Santorum.  He touts himself a Christian and I recognize that we are not always true to our beliefs  that we espouse; I don’t know what is in Rick’s heart, only he and God knows.  Keep in mind that many of his actions betray the Christian principals that I am aware of . Mr. Santorum will, hopefully, reach his Waterloo in his home State of Pennsylvania and lose handily to someone else.  Just buckle your seat belts because we have a long time to deal with this confirmed cracker because he will return for the 2016 election when the presidency will be an open seat.  We will still be niggers but proud, strong and lucid.  All 15% of us.

SLAVERY NONETHELESS

• Student Athletes in the women’s and men’s NCAA Basketball Tournament have just delivered a ton of money to their universities, athletic departments, and/or general funds.  The coaches are swapping seats and angling for sneaker contracts meaning they will commit their team to wear a particular manufacturer’s shoe or other equipment .  The players don’t get a dime of that money beyond their paltry stipend each month; these unpaid teenagers are victims of a system which hides behind amateurism as a cover for their generating billions of dollars to universities.  The money is there because the NCAA has a 14 year contract for 10.8 billion dollars for the Final Four telecast and that does not include the preliminary round of 64, the round of 32 teams, the sweet 16 and the Elite 8 so the take is ballooned by the other networks (TNT, ESPN, etc) .  This partially explains why the elite programs lose their best players each year to Professional Basketball because of the fear of injury and/ or poverty and it is a vow of poverty that is almost impossible to thrive in; these teenagers at 20 years of age are lured by the NBA Draft and millions of dollars; much of it guaranteed, only a fool or an idealist would say no to a seemingly secure  amount of money.  Many of these young men do not make the NBA therefore they lose the avenue to a higher education which is especially important to their future.  Men’s basketball is no more culpable than than women’s basketball; what must it feel like to have a coach who is making a larger salary than all other employees of the state including the Governor and the University President.  When you think about the fact that a basketball or football coach can be the highest paid employee of a state with a TV  and radio show as a sweetener.  Concurrently the coach’s players are selling their game jerseys to keep their heads above the water; this is a serious breach of NCAA rules resulting in penalties while the university can sell the same game jersey for income purposes.  If that sounds fair and kosher to you, take another toke or drink to clear your head.  The Kentucky Wildcats defeated the Kansas Jayhawks for the vaunted national championship while lining the pockets of the Athletic Department, the conference, the university, TV networks and they only get adulation which is not money in the supermarket.  It would be a serious breach if one of these athlete slaves accepted a loaf of bread from the supermarket.  Slavery is defined as the “the condition of being a slave; bondage; servitude including hard work or toil”.  Since the Title IX legislation, women have become the latest prominent slaves because Baylor University just completed a 40-0 season, winning the National Championship on National TV while again filling the treasury of the university, the conference and TV networks.  Put aside your love and enthusiasm for college athletics for a moment and relate to the meaning of slavery.  Naysayers counter by saying that you get a free education which is paid for in full by the physical,  mental and economic stress.  Let’s face it most college athletes do not come from rich or middle class families.  When will this exploitation end and the sports and entertainment establishment face up to its responsibility.  I am sure the winner of the Kentucky Derby gets a fairer share of the winnings than the humans comprising the University of Kentucky Wildcats.  Rest assured that the establishment is not going to say “My we’ve treated our loyal athletes awfully and it stops now!!!!!”.  Turning pro asap is as much about survival as anything else.  Pay college athletes now!!!!

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GERALDO RIVERA – SHAME, SHAME

• Gerald Michael Riviera AKA Geraldo Rivera (personally I distrust people who change their names) is an American Attorney, journalist, author, reporter and talk show host who appears regularly on the Fox News Channel.  Fox News Channel raises a red flag for any person who has the last name Rivera.  Mr. Rivera was born on 4 July 43 at Beth Israel Medical Center (Brooklyn, NY) to Lillian Friedman, a waitress and Cruz “Allen” Riviera a restaurant worker and taxi driver.  His father was a Catholic Puerto Rican and his mother is of Ashkenazi Russian Jewish descent; he had a Bar Mitzvah while growing up in Brooklyn and West Babylon.  He has three siblings Wilfredo, Sharon and Irene; he is an alumnus of The University of Arizona and he attended The State of New york Maritime College; he received a JD Degree from the Brooklyn Law School in 1969 and he did post graduate work at the University of Pennsylvania in 1969.  Rivera attended Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in the summer of 1970.  Following a brief career in law enforcement for the NYPD, he returned to law and became the lawyer for a Puerto Rican activist group called the Young Lords who occupied an East Harlem church in 1969.  Here is a Puerto Rican who allowed the WABC-TV news director, Al Primo, to convince him to change his name from Gerald to Geraldo.  He has had his odd moments as follows:

1. He falsely claimed to be at a friendly fire incident in Afghanistan.
2. Stage his assistance to a wheel chair bound women during the aftermath of Hurricane Ketrina.
3. Wrote a book called “Hispanic: Why Americans Fear Hispanics in the US.
4. On 10 October 11 Rivera was filmed being jeered by the Occupy Wall Street protesters at Liberty Square as the crowd chanted “Fox News Lies” until he and his crew vamoosed.

• So just think about parents, place of birth and education.  Why would a man from the background be so callus to say “when you see a Black or Latino youngster, particularly on the street, you walk to the other side of the street”.  You try to avoid the confrontation.  Trayvon Martin, you know God bless him, he was an innocent kid wonderful kid, a box of Skittles in his hands.  He didn’t deserve to die.  But I’ll bet you money, if he didn’t have that hoodie on, that nutty neighborhood watch guy wouldn’t have responded in that violent and aggressive way”.  End of quote.  I wonder how many times he saw people in El Barrio, as he was acting as a lawyer for the Young Lords?  Did he think Latinos being treated as criminals by the police or other whites in El Barrio.  Well his son Cruz tweeted that he is ashamed of his father and I am herewith saying that I am ashamed of his father also.  The way a human being is dressed or undressed should not prompt another person to enter his or her space especially a vigilante  who are supposed to observe, report and stand down and they certainly should not be armed.  Zimmerman  had made numerous calls since 1 January 12; why didn’t that indicate some kind of instability.  He must have seen a spook at every turn.

TEDDY ROOSEVELT’S LOWER EAST SIDE

• Theodore “Teddy”  Roosevelt was the 26th President of the United States of America.  Before he became president he held offices at the City, State and Federal level gut his fame was achieved as a naturalist, explorer, hunter, author and soldier are a part of his fame.  He was born into a wealthy family in New York City and was a sickly prone kid who was home schooled due to acute asthma.  He attended Harvard College studying Biology; gained an interest in boxing and Naval Affairs.  He was elected to the New York State Assembly in 1881 until his relocation after his wife and mother died on the same day (1884).  He departed for the Badlands of the Dakotas to become a rancher before returning to the New York City.  His run for Mayor in 1886 garnered him 60,000 votes for third place.  Roosevelt became the President of the Board of the New York City Police Commissioners in 1895.  During his two years in the post, Roosevelt radically reformed the policemen of the New York City Police Department.  The New York City Police Department was reportedly the most corrupt police department in the United States.  Mr. Roosevelt’s office was complete with a garden at the corner of Broome Street and Lafayette Avenue.  This stately police headquarters was located in the middle of the Lower East Side at 300 Mulberry Street.  Delancey Street and the Lower East Side house approximately 150 brothels; the famed Bowery Ballroom was the site of three brothels.  Roosevelt’s defeat in the race for mayor facilitated Tammany Hall’s return to power; they had the Ward Healers, controlled the saloons, neighborhood meetings, street corner rallies, campaign clubs, assembly district organizations and trade unions and an entire political counterculture to run their campaign.  Roosevelt was an iron willed leader who was totally honest with a reforming zeal which he brought to the New York City Police Commission in 1895.  Roosevelt and his fellow commissioners made many creative contributions by establishing new disciplinary rules; established a bicycle squad to deal with traffic law enforcement; standardized the use of pistols by officers; he selected the Colt new police revolver in .32 caliber as the first standard issue pistol for the New York City Police Department.  Roosevelt implemented regular inspections of the firearms; annual physical exams and he appointed 1600 officers based on their physical and mental qualifications and the process was strictly non-political; he established Meritorious Service Medals; closed corrupt police hostelries; he established a Municipal Lodging House through the Board of Charities and officers were required to register with the board.  He also had telephones installed in all of the station houses and he made it a habit of walking officer’s beats late at night or early morning to make sure they were on duty.  As the Governor of New York State, Roosevelt signed an act replacing the The Board of Police Commissioners with one commissioner which is continued today.  Rampant prostitution was evident at Delancey Street, Forsyth Street and Christie Street up until 1973.  Roosevelt’s reign as a member of the Police Commissioners lasted a mere two years and his accomplishments were many in spite of the lawless gangs of New York and Tammany Hall.  Each day I stop at Broome Street a mere 25 feet from his old office while remembering seeing his desk in his first floor office.  He went on to become Governor of New York and President of the United States.  A true American icon.

ANOTHER FLORIDA DEBACLE

• The charade of justice continues in Sanford Florida; the police videos of the killer’s arrival at the police headquarters shows George Zimmerman in handcuffs.  In my naivete, I thought you were handcuffed after you were placed under arrest  and only then.  I am assuming that Zimmerman has not been arrested or charged; the charade is fed by the constant leaks from the Sanford Police Department; that the lead investigator wanted to lodge a Manslaughter charge against Mr. Zimmerman but was overruled by the State’s Attorney.  Zimmerman, a man who weighs well over 200 pounds and is 28 years old, was allegedly taken down by a teenager whom he outweighs by 80 or 90 pounds; kinda strange that a neighborhood vigilante couldn’t protect himself from an unarmed teenager without resorting to deadly force.  Even if  Trayvon put  his ice tea and Skittles aside and kicked Zimmerman’s ass east, west, north and south that does not justify a shooting.  A shooting that would not have occurred without Zimmerman’s inappropriate possession of  a 9mm loaded handgun.  That part is unjustifiable and undeniable for there is an atmosphere in the State of Florida that seemingly justifies self-defense as a prelude to murder; question can be asked and concocted later.  There is a lack of integrity somewhere in the process because Zimmerman was allegedly injured by this teenager resulting in stitches to close a cut on his head and this lie was memorialized on the police report.  In light of the fact that head cuts tend to bleed profusely why was there no blood of evidence of stitches on Zimmerman’s head nor was there blood on his clothing.  You can safely dismiss this as another in a barrage of lies.  In spite of all protestation by concerned citizens an arrest has not occurred; the States Attorney is looking for Zimmerman’s non existent drug tests, parafin tests to assure that he had fired a firearm.  The Sanford Florida Police Department did not scour the crime scene which has surely been contaminated beyond our imagination by now.  I am sure that most Sanford Policemen have children or relatives the age of Trayvon Martin so how could they allow his body to lie in the morgue unidentified for three days.  That is inhumane and frankly uncivilized, yes uncivilized; was their hate and racism such that his parents frantic quest to find him didn’t matter.  Knuckleheads will say if both parties were white or both black, the headlines would go away, well guess what, racism is involved.  I abhor Latinos who try to hide behind their ethnicity to mask their racism.  For the record there are racist conservative Latinos who run the gamut and they know who they are.  Mention is made daily of Trayvon having worn a hoodie and that hoodie being the reason he was suspicious before being shot.  Enough already!!!  No matter what a person wears, his attire does not doom him to murder any more than a mini-skirts cause rapes.  Attempts to smear Trayvon Martin’s reputation due to pot possession has nothing to do with the justification of his murder whatsoever.  The State of Florida will not arrest George Zimmerman because they have never arrested an innocent person before; tongue in cheek or he must be guilty before arrest.  Well say whatever floats your boat but the fact is an unarmed teenager has been murdered and the murderer is resting comfortably and safely at home.  There is a high level of anger and exasperation among black people and good people of all races and ethnic groups regarding the fact  that Zimmerman has not been arrested.  But let me assure all of you that he will be arrested sooner or later to face Civil Rights charges in the Federal Courts as soon as the State of Florida stops shucking and jiving and scratching their heads.  Stay tuned this is not over!!!
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PAT ROBERTSON – LEGALIZE MARIJUANA

• Reverend Pat Robertson has called for the legalization of marijuana and for once I agree with Reverend Robertson; recognize that we agree for very different reasons as shown herein but the end justifies the means.  Pat Robertson says America should legalize marijuana.  Would Jesus agree?  Reverend Robertson says pot should be decriminalized and treated like alcoholism because the government’s War on Drugs has failed miserably and is costing taxpayers billions of dollars.  Most biblical scholars don’t agree on whether the Bible lays down the law on the use of mind altering drugs such as Cannabis commonly called marijuana.    Please be advised that there is no place in the Bible where it says marijuana is legal or illegal according to Father Thomas Reese, S.J.  Senior fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University.  Pro legalization Christians refer to Genesis 1:29 which states ” and God says behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the world which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed.  It appears that the provision of seeds means propagation of the herb species.  Who is Pat Robertson? He is Marion Gordon “Pat” Robertson who was born on 22 March 30; he is a media mogul and a television evangelist who politically aligns himself with the Christian Right.  He attended the McDonough Prep School (Baltimore); the McCalle Prep School in Chattanooga where he graduated with honors before enrolling at Washington and Lee University where he majored in History.  This was followed by volunteering for the U.S. Marines instead of being drafted in the U.S. Army.  I got drafted !!!  He was promoted to First Lieutenant in 1952 , left the Army to attend Yale University Law School where he graduated with a Bachelor of Laws Degree after which he failed the Bar Exam.  He then attended the New York Theological Seminary earning a Master of Divinity Degree in 1959.  He was ordained as a minister of the Southern Baptist Convention in 1961.  Reverend Robertson founded the Christian Broadcast Network (CBN) with the acquisition of a small UHF channel in Portsmouth, Virginia it has grown to being viewed in 180 countries and in 71 languages.  He has advocated unexpected positions before including but not limited to the following:

1. That some protestant denominations harbor the Spirit of the Anti-Christ.
2. That he could deflect hurricanes through prayer.
3. That Hinduism is demonic.
4. That Islam is satanic.
5. That Planned Parenthood is teaching kids to fornicate, teaching people to have adultery, every kind of bestiality, lesbianism and homosexuality.
6. That Hurricane Katrina was God’s punishment of America for abortion.
7. That oral sex is okay if you are married.
8. That the Haiti earthquake was caused by Haiti’s pact with the devil.
9. That Alzheimer’s  makes divorce okay.

• No why do I agree with Pat Robertson, why has pot made us allies?  First of all legalization will end the drug war in Mexico just let them use their present infrastructure legally; the jails are full, I mean loaded with non violent marijuana prisoners.  Their housing cost has become astronomical; it costs about $75,000 per year to house an inmate in Rikers Island, a New York City jail; not a State Prison of Federal Prison which costs more.  Harvard and MIT costs about $50,000. per year  and remember that a mind is a terrible thing to waste.  Legalization of marijuana will open an enormous stream of revenue not unlike alcohol and cigarettes; last but not least,  not one person has died in the United States due to smoking a joint or eating a brownie.  Many hypertension sufferers can control their pressure with marijuana; I can testify to its value after chemotherapy for prostate cancer.  We should relax and realize that God placed everything on Earth for the benefit of man.  Thank you Reverend Pat Robertson from Sir James L. Robinson, OSJ.  Maybe somebody’s listening.

BEING ALIVE AND BLACK IS DANGEROUS!!!

• The more things change, the more they stay the same.  Every year of my life on earth has seen the wanton murder of a black youth; Emmitt Till was not the first and Trayvon Martin was not the last and he might not be the latest.  Black males are an endangered species because there are enough bullets to kill us all coupled with the hate and racism of a large swath of America’s self appointed patriots.  I am in a rage because I have a dog in this race or more accurately many dogs in this race including myself, my father, brother, son and grandsons, all black.  The recent murder of Trayvon Martin ought to alert every Black person (including Michael Steele) especially Black males to his or her susceptibility.  Trayvon Martin 17 years old was killed on 26 February 12 by George Zimmerman and that can be considered a fact; Zimmerman’s wanton feat was accomplished with his licensed 9mm pistol while he acted as a vigilante or neighborhood watcher.  This story occurred after Zimmerman placed a 911 call to the police of Sanford, Florida saying a man was unaccountably in the neighborhood and he appeared to be Black and he lamented the  fact that the coons (that makes him a peckerwood) always get away.  He was advised by the 911 dispatcher not to follow the suspected youth and that he should stand down.  Instead, George Zimmerman exited his car and promptly destroyed the life of Trayvon Martin, his family and friends.  Trayvon Martin was shot because he was armed with a package of Skittles candy and a container of ice tea.  Zimmerman claimed self-defense was his only route which makes murder legal in Florida.  The governor appeared to question the integrity of the law; the national public outcry is intensifying daily.  The Sanford mayor met with justice department officials; the Justice Department can investigate under the Civil Rights Law;  a hate crime could be a life sentence if you kill.  The State of Florida has agreed to empanel a grand jury to investigate this legal crime; the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is also investigating the crime.  The legislation which catalyzed this murder is called “THE STAND YOUR GROUND STATUE” and kill another human being and you can walk home free; Zimmerman has not been arrested or charged.  It appears that dirty fingerprints are all over the law.  Every Black male carries the heavy weight of suspicion and is taught never to talk back to police even when we look like we are on drugs or up to something as Zimmerman informed the 911 operator.  Trayvon Martin’s father Tracy Martin with the assistance of the Congressional Black Caucus is pushing the Justice Department to investigate this travesty.  It was later revealed that Mr. Tracy Martin called his son’s phone which was in police custody and it was not answered by the police who knew Trayvon Martin was dead. Duh? It took them 3 days to release his body to his parents.  The shooter Zimmerman was not subjected to a drug test and why did he have a gun in his possession in the first place.  Neighborhood vigilantes should not be armed because they are supposed to watch, report and not engage.  Well the NRA has blood on its hands and its face because of its vaunted sponsorship of the STAND YOUR GROUND legislation in several states.  Black men dare to excel but always, always watch your ass.  Emmitt Till and I were the same age when he was brutally murdered and I have never forgotten how dangerous hate fueled racism can be.  I am still wary wherever I am and I remember that you are safe in a white or integrated neighborhood is to be pushing a lawn mower before sundown.  Many Black and white people readily assumed that the election of Barack Obama stemmed the tide of racism in the United States of America.  If you want an answer just look at how rudely the occupant of the Oval Office is treated and how he is disrespected.  There is no country where racism does not apply; just change the names of the parties because some group is at a disadvantage everywhere.  The more things change the more they stay the same. This story is evolving every day and I will comment as the story progresses.

MY WORST PRESIDENT!!!

• I have lived under presidents Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush I, Clinton, Bush II and Obama for a total of presidents. During this election campaign you will hear the deification of Ronald Reagan who, for me, was the worst president in my lifetime.  The Republicans refer to him with such passion and he was so loved by white Republicans who thought he was going to roll the clock back and put those Blacks back in the genie jar; this fight continues today.  He personified conservative because he was going to take America back into the wonderful past where Blacks were relegated to the bottom and he back of the bus routinely.  Make no mistake, Ronald Reagan’s policies were racist and ethnocentric.  A red flag should deploy in your mind every time you hear a Newt Gingrich lauding Ronald Reagan; we been there before.  He began his political career as a Liberal Democrat, admirer of FDR and an active supporter of New Deal policies.  Parallel with his relationship with Republican actress Nancy Davis he shifted to the right while remaining a Democrat; he endorsed the presidential candidacies of Eisenhower and Richard Nixon.  In early 1960 Reagan opposed some Civil Rights legislation by saying that” if an individual wants to discriminate against Negroes or others selling or renting a house, it is right to do so.

1. He joined the NRA as a lifetime member.
2. He opposed Medicaid in 1961 when it was introduced.
3. He broke the Air Traffic Controllers’ Union by firing all 11,345 striking controllers.
4. He for some reason was the father of costly tax cuts which were intended to stimulate the economy.
5. Congress passed and Reagan signed into law tax increases of some nature every year from 1981 to 1987.  The Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act (TEFRA) was the largest peacetime tax increase in American History.  He was a tax increasing maniac.
6. The minimum wage was frozen at $3.35 per hour.
7. He slashed federal assistance to local governments.
8. He reduced Section 8 Rent Subsidies by 50%
9. He eliminated the Community Development Block Grant Program.
10. His administration cut the budget for Medicaid, Food Stamps, Federal Education Programs and the EPA.
11. He lowered Capital Gains tax for the rich to 28%.
12. His War on Drugs was and is a farce says Reverend Pat Robertson and me.  This bedevils us to this day since it effectively was war on Black youth who now number 40% of the prison population and 12% of the general population.  If you think those numbers make sense, you are a Reaganite.  He was in office when the scandal about the use of proceeds from arms sales to Iran being diverted to the Contras of Nicaragua in violation of an act of congress.  In 1986 the united States was found guilty, by the World Court, of war crimes against Nicaragua.
13. His policies resulted in huge deficits and a wide gap in wealth.  Reagan did not fare well, as you can see,  with minority groups, especially Blacks due to his opposition to Affirmative Action policies.  He was a dichotomy by his emphasis on family values although he was the first divorced American President.  If you want to succeed as a president, just promise to put those Blacks back in their cages.

• R.I.P. Ronnie we don’t miss you.   Copyright © 2012 The Long View All Rights Reserved.
  

BIO-ENGINEERING

• Eugenics is the bio-social movement which aims at improving the genetic composition of a population; Eugenics, the philosophy was expounded by Plato, who believed that human reproduction should be monitored by the state.  In Plato’s Republic, mates would be chosen by a marriage number; persons with high numbers would be allowed to procreate with persons of high numbers.  Sir Francis Galton systematically supported these ideas and practices by arguing that “Genius” and “Talent” were hereditary in humans; he concluded that artificial selection can exaggerate traits in other animals, therefore one could expect similar results when applying the model to human beings.  The next proponent was Mr. Davenport, a U.S. scientist and one of history’s leading eugenics; Mr. Davenport was instrumental in the establishment of forced sterilization .  Alexander Graham Bell was one of the earliest  modern advocates and along with Mr. Davenport was actively involved with the American Breeders Association.  Davenport set up the ERO or the Eugenics Record Office collecting hundreds of thousands of medical histories from Americans which many thought were part of a racist agenda.  State laws were written in the late 19th Century and early 20th Century; researchers conducted a number of studies to document heritability of such illnesses as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and depression.  The U.S. Supreme Court ended these laws in the mid-20th Century; all and all 60,000 Americans were sterilized against their will or knowledge.  Many of the elite supported sterilization including The LA Times, the President of Stanford University, California Attorney General; California forcibly sterilized 20,308 humans.  The State of North Carolina has advocated the payment of $50,000. to every person in the state who was forcibly sterilized.  In 1907 the State of Indiana became the  first of 30 states, yes, 30 states to adopt legislation aimed at compulsory sterilization of certain  individuals.  The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of a Virginia Law allowing for the compulsory sterilization of patients of state mental institutions in 1927.  As early as 1896, many states enacted marriage laws with eugenic criteria, prohibiting anyone who was an epileptic, imbecile or feeble minded, from marrying.  Some states sterilized imbeciles for much of the 20th Century; the most significant era of eugenic sterilization was between 1907 and 1963, when over 60,000 individuals were forcibly sterilized in the United States.  A favorable report of the result of sterilization in California was published in book form by the biologist Paul Popence  and was widely cited by the Nazi government as evidence that wide reaching sterilization program was feasible and humane.  When Nazi administrators went on trial for war crimes in Nuremberg ( World War II) they justified the mass sterilization by citing the US as their inspiration.  The Nazis had claimed that American Eugenicists inspired and supported Hitler’s Racial Purification Laws while failing to understand the connection between those policies and the eventual genocide of the Holocaust.  Eugenics was used to formulate more restrictive definitions of racial purity in state laws banning interracial marriage; so call miscegenation.  This law was overturned when the Supreme Court ruled in the Loving v Virginia in 1967.  Every person sterilized without his or her knowledge should be compensated and given free health care for the term of their life. Is this what conservatives want to return to?

JOSEPH KONY…THE END IS NEAR!!!!

• Joseph Kony is a real life 21st Century monster of all monsters in Uganda and you are bound to wonder why the cruelty on his part.  Let’s look at who he is;  Joseph Kony was born in 1961 in Northern Uganda in the Village of Odek east of Gulu.  His father was Luizi Obol, a farmer and his mother Nora was prominent in his life.  His father was a Lay Catechist of the Catholic Church, his mother was  Anglican  and young Joseph was an Altar Boy up until the age of 15 years  after which he dropped out of school.  He was apprenticed to a village witch doctor who he succeeded after the witch doctor’s death.  He came to prominence in 1986 as the leader of a paramillennialist  in Acholiland who lost influence after the overthrow of Acholi President Tito Okello.  Joseph Kony’s popularity was spurred by the growing resentment against the Acholi.  His first raid was conducted in April after he recruited former Uganda National Liberation soldiers to join him in a raid on the City of Gulu.  The bulk of his foot soldiers are children and it is estimated that 104,000 children have been conscripted.  When abducting the children, Kony and his army often kill their family and neighbors leaving the children with little choice but to fight for him.  In 1992 Kony kidnapped 139 girls from the Sacred Heart Secondary and St. Mary’s Girls school.  Shame, shame on the Sudan Government for providing support for Joseph Kony’s LRA until the International Criminal Court issued a warrant for Kony’s arrest.  Consistent with most mad monsters there is a religious facet; Kony’s followers think that he is possessed by spirits including his annual trip to Ato Hills in Uganda.  He allegedly ascends the highest hill, lies in the sun for days covered by a blanket of termites that bite deeply into his skin; oil from the Yao plant was spread on his body followed by a secluded stay in a cave for seven weeks.  His young combatants are told that the cross symbol drawn in oil would protect them from bullets.  Kony practices polygamy resulting in 88 wives and 42 children as of 2007.  His time is coming!! On 6 October 05 the International Criminal Court announced arrest warrants against Kony, Vincent Otti (deceased), Okot Odiambo and Raska Lukwiya (deceased).  The Ugandan Army has attempted to kill Kony including former LRA combatants in remote areas of Sudan and the United States Treasury Department has placed Kony on its list “Specially Designated Global Terrorists.  The United States provided money and logistics in 2008 during the unsuccessful Operation Lightning Thunder including fuel, equipment, intelligence and advisers.  This operation may have pushed Kony deeper into the jungle and he was not captured. In May of 2010 President Barack Obama signed into law the “Lord’s Resistance Army Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act; this legislation is aimed at stopping the LRA and Kony by disarming them.  In October 2011, President Obama authorized 100 combat equipped U.S. troops to Central Africa with the goal of helping Uganda remove Kony and leaders from the battlefield.  By the way the U.S. troops are combat equipped for self defense.  Tell me how does a former altar boy  become so inhumane to his own people; he can’t possibly like the man in the mirror nor can he blame white people or colonialists? Folks this is sheer black on black horror, including murder, rape, torture and slavery of brain washed children.  Joseph Kony’s days are surely numbered as were the days of Adolph Hitler, Moammar Ghaddafi, Al Assad, Osama Bin Laden, Strom Thurman and a list too long to enumerate.  This man is a serious menace to a nation of decent human beings.

WHAT CIVILITY?

• Civility is the quality of being civil, courteous and polite; a polite act or speech.  It appears that incivility is sweeping the political landscape these days preventing people from agreeing to disagree.  Maybe this behavior does not bother you, I will tell you what makes hair rise on my nape.

1. Nonsense accusations of impropriety.
2. Personal attacks (racial, ethnic, sexual, gender related, religious slurs and derogatory references such as social class or nationalities.
3. Rudeness, insults, name calling, gross, profanity or indecent suggestions.
4. Taunting or baiting.
5. Harassment, bullying, repeated e-mails or other user space posting.
6. Sexual Harassment, Lying Quoting another speaker out of context.  Take the case of  Ms. Fluke, the Georgetown Law Student who is still being misquoted.

•  Her testimony centered around the fact that her friend was not able to get her insurance company to cover her birth control pills that were required medically to help control a health crisis concerning her ovaries.  At no time did she plea for birth control pills for herself; not once.  Rush Limbaugh turned her words and intent around for his own benefit.  Now that is uncivil.  For Federal Judge Cebull’s ranting about President Obama’s luck at not barking like a dog. That is uncivil.  Clearly civility means more than politeness.  Civility also does not mean that you have to “roll over and play dead”; people need to raise tough questions and present their case when they feel their vital interests are being threatened.  Civility must encompass the many differing interests which divide our diverse society with its endless series of confrontation over moral issues.  Keep in mind that some of these conflicts are irreducible to win/lose character; the enormous destructiveness in these confrontations leaves a negative lasting effect.  Many public policy debates can be solved with some sort of fact finding process; failure to discern available facts increases the possibility that solutions adopted will fail to achieve desired results.  Constructive civil debate therefore requires the parties cooperate to resolve factual disagreements whenever possible.  We the community should condemn the deliberate distortion of information and the presentation of unbalance views.  You will see incivility daily during the presidential campaign.  Whenever possible, parties should try to reframe the conflict in ways which transforms win/lose confrontations into win/win opportunities.  The most critical element of civility is recognition by conflicting parties that it is possible that they may be wrong and that policies advocated by their opponents are actually better.  Guess what?  This demands an obligation to seriously consider the persuasive arguments made by opponents.  I can’t ever, ever remember hearing someone in the public arena say “you know I think you are right”.  If you ever hear these words promptly call 311.  Just listen up to the rude remarks such as “you lie” by a South Carolina congressman during the State of The Union Address plus a whole litany of racist ads against the black side of the president and the remaining 12% of Americans who are Black and proud.  The Republicans must learn that political,  legal or other types of force may produce a short duration change through persuasion in which parties are converted to their opponents point of view, or through exchange through which the parties negotiate win/win trade offs.  Come on boys and girls play nice or we will take the sand out of the sand box

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