blogs-and-other-conversations

Streets Of San Francisco

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 13:08:33 +0100

Recently the winner of the "Life Achievement Award" - I have always been a fan of Michael Douglas. Since his role in Streets of San Francisco, with his suave, bowlegged walk, intense demeanor, he has always been one fine white boy to me and age added to his persona.

The news of his illness saddened me but I will keep him in my mind as he battles the big "C" and I hope it is a battle he will win. With humor and class he disclosed his illness on the David Letterman show demonstrating the toughness I have witnessed during his acting career.

I remember a time when I was growing up, my mother was a big fan of Kirk Douglas, Michael’s father, which meant that any and everything he had a role in we had to watch. Both father and son, I’m sure, caught the attention of many women.

A fantastic career, three children and an exceptionally beautiful wife, he has had a good life – I, like him hope it is not over yet. With much love I say, stay strong Michael and fight the fight. My prayers are with you!!!

And that's the way I see it!!!

Will Whites Ever "Get It"

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 12:39:24 +0100

Photo courtesy of Google Pictures

Dealing with people on a daily basis, up close and personal is more mental stimuli than I need and it truly inhibits my creativity. I have so many thoughts, feelings, comments running through my mind it is hard to focus and put them down on paper. Sometimes the negativity keeps me without energy, sometimes their duplicity leaves me shaking my head in dismay so frequently that my head aches from the motion.

I was reading an article at work the other day about the number of soldiers discharged from the Army dishonorably citing "personality disorders" as the cause. These are kids that dedicated their early years of life, as an adult, to fight in wars where the truth of why they are fighting has been whitewashed and withheld.

They have watched friends dying, bodies blown apart, living each day in an environment of danger, yet when they begin to show signs of being a thinking feeling person who becomes affected by the mayhem, they are thrown away, back into society with a blemish on their records that impedes their life to some degree because the military does not want to offer the help needed to move them past "post traumatic stress syndrome."

Then there was the irrational rant of Dr. Laura who used the "N" word eleven times while speaking to a black woman married to a white man, who had called into Dr. Laura’s show needing advice. Now if this black woman had not experienced the ignorance she had been experiencing dealing with her husband's white friends, this conversation would not have even taken place.

I could sympathize with the woman calling in because white people sometimes ask the stupidest questions and I know this to be true because I have been asked some of the same types of questions by white people as though my skin color makes me a different "type" of person and sometimes the stupidity of the way the question is asked is very irritating and annoying.

Let me make one thing perfectly clear. There are two pronunciations of the "N" word and therefore two meanings. "Nigger" is the white pronunciation which has very negative connotations based on the attitudes that white people still display to this day towards black people.

White folks invented the word and the derogatory effects of the word on black people and given certain situations a black person will immediately become a Nigger to the average white person – as I am sure President Obama has been viewed as just another Nigger who white American feels threatened by.

Now you can take offense to this, you can deny the truth in it but the attitude is being displayed on every level since Obama has been in office and especially with the cry of "let’s take back our government."

Then there is the term of endearment, "Nigga" that black people use towards each other. I have been guilty of using this term in conversation with other black people and truth is, it is a hard term to stay away from simply because of the society I live in. It’s a generational term that has been passed on from generation to generation. A level of sarcasm we as a people have adjusted to based on the society we have lived in.

For a white person to call us that is offensive because with that word, coming out of their mouths, comes the attitude that has been displayed for decades and has been surfacing more and more frequently in the recent past. When a black person calls another black person a Nigga, it is not the same as a white person calling a black person a Nigger, because the attitude is not the same.

Attitude is everything and until white America changes their attitudes the "N" word is a word they can never use when referring to a black person and if white folks can not understand that concept then they are showing the issues they have and truth is for me they are more insensitive than I thought them to be.

Dr. Laura’s attitude came shining through as she told the black woman rudely not to "‘NAACP’ her" and that "most black people only voted for Obama because he was black" – the same reason her and many white Americans voted against him.

With her old, bleached blonde self, she should know the prior effects of the word, for she has been in the world long enough to have experienced the hate and she should know, first hand, the mistreatment and racial discriminations that have gone on in America for too long against black people.

It’s the attitude that makes the word a negative coming out of a white person’s mouth – Recognize!!

And that’s the way I see it!!!!

Will The Words In The Constitution Prevail

Mon, 16 Aug 2010 13:18:12 +0100

It’s amazing to me that like the Bible, the Constitution is being used to support some things like free speech, the level of government intervention, the right to bear arms but when it comes to religious freedoms and where a Muslim can build a Mosque, the words in the Constitution appear to be irrelevant.

Although there is a level of insensitivity and arrogance associated with the building of the mosque so close to “ground zero” that has to be emotionally dealt with I say that America’s constitutional cries of late have given Muslims the authority to pursue this act of blatant insensitivity and to win the battle that surrounds the building of this mosque/cultural center on what American’s may feel is sacred ground.

The bottom line seems to be that you can not have it both ways. Either you adhere to the Constitution on every level or the Constitution is irrelevant on every level. While I question the motivation of the act to build this cultural center in this location in New York’s Manhattan area, the act is supported by the very constitution that has been guiding the way of American’s for decades.

In neither speech, given by Obama, did he condone the building of the mosque what he did was emphasize the religious freedoms accorded in the Constitution of the United States of America. As he put it “This is America and our commitment to religious freedom must be unshakeable.”

We, as American’s are now being put to the test of what we truly believe to be “right” according to the words written by our founding fathers, the rights that have been written, communicated and emphasized lately by those with a desire to “take back their government” as well as support their need to say whatever they feel they want to say and arm themselves as though they are preparing to do battle are somehow against religious freedoms and the “rights” of Muslims to build and worship where they want.

And in the midst of this controversy, the words of Obama are being twisted to mean something different as Ed Rollins calls Obama’s comments “probably the dumbest thing that any president has said since Michael Dukakis said it was okay to burn the flag.”

Yet, all Obama was truly saying was that Muslims, like any other religion, have the “right” to worship and build a Mosque anywhere in America on private property in accordance with local laws and ordinances and that they, regardless of the wisdom to build so close to ground zero, are indeed protected by the Constitution.

Fear, racism, hurt feelings are not the determining factors but adherence to the Constitution, in this case, is the only thing that truly matters.

And That's The Way I See It!!!!

War, Lies And Delusions

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 12:15:55 +0100

Picture courtesy of AFP by way of Yahoo News

Wikileaks’ release of documents containing pertinent information on the war in Afghanistan and the possible connection between Pakistan and the Taliban have me shaking my head to clear the, I told you so out. It also has the potential to make people realize the futility of this battle which government officials and military heads keep trying to convince us is a winnable battle.

After nine years of warring, with a $60 billion war funding bill on the table, a pledge of $500 million to help Pakistanis generate more electricity added to the already staggering cost of this war, in life and money, I would say if this leak of information succeeds in smacking people in America back to reality, it has served its purpose.

With everybody in America crying the blues about the growth in the national debt, how much more money are we willing to donate fighting a losing battle in a country that may be behind the times in creature comforts but one step ahead of us on gleaning money from us on every level possible.

As allegations begin to swirl that Pakistan and the Taliban are mutual friends, with Pakistan’s military spy service guiding the Afghan insurgency with a hidden hand while America donates upwards of $1 billion a year to Pakistan for its "help" combating the militants, Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) could also be guilty of organizing networks of militant groups that fight against American soldiers according to what has been surmised from the Wikileaks documents.

Buying and becoming dependent on their oil, donating money for their "help", paying the cost of reconstruction in war demolished lands, paying those who have chosen to become double agents, leads me to believe America is the reason this war will never be won – we are funding it on too many levels.

How long before those in "control" recognize this and admit that they are playing both ends against the middle and the middle consists of our troops, fighting bravely and dying young and the American public who are suffering in a sea of unemployment, pay cuts through furlough programs, educational losses, relevant service program cuts while having to deal with an increase in divisive attitudes, fear, lies and power struggles, to name just a few of the consequences of living in denial.

War is hell, but living in denial on any level tends to perpetuate delusions. Be it delusions of a society free of racism or a victory in a war that is being seen as unwinnable – get a grip America and face the facts – you are not invincible, you are a racist nation but more importantly the money wasted on this war could have been put to better use here in America where the economy just does not seem to be taking a positive turn for the better.

Picture courtesy of Reuters by way of Yahoo News

And that’s the way I see it!!!!

Understanding Begins With Honesty

Sun, 25 Jul 2010 21:31:07 +0100

Picture courtesy of nydailynews.com

Not being into politics, not wanting to run for public office and having lived my life as a black American, I can be as truthful about race as I want to be and I say that in order to have a relevant conversation about race you have to be willing to face some truths and being politically correct hampers the effect of truth when it comes to race relations.

As I watched the conversations generated by what happened to Shirley Sherrod over the last week I have come to the conclusion that white people want to deny racism because to claim it would imply it is something that needs to be rectified and black people want to deny racism because things are not what they used to be.

The reality is that racists have just found new ways to play the race card they have been playing for generations. It is not enough that only within the last twenty or so years, blacks have been depicted in Hollywood movies as something other than drug pushers, prostitutes, pimps, hustlers, criminals, maids and butlers, black people are rarely primetime news anchors.

Education and money spent on education in inner cities has repeatedly come under fire, with the solution being, at one point the idea of busing. On another front in the great history of America, realtors only showed blacks houses in certain areas and when that was found out loans became more and more difficult for blacks to acquire while on the job front, blacks are denied promotions, paid less money than whites, in some cases for the same jobs performed and in some cases only hired in the first place to fill some legislated quota.

In the totality of the years America has been America, black people only recently acquired the right to vote so their political interests in the government has been denied as well.

Now when you look at the totality of the injustices perpetrated against "freed" blacks and then to even coming close to denying that racism still exists to the same degree it originally started is to lie to yourself.

Sure according to political correctness it is "wrong" to call someone a "nigger" but "nigger" is just a word, the attitude is the same and the attitude is what causes the injustices.

While everyone was focused on the deed that was done to Shirley Sherrod and some where even denying the fact that they had ever heard of Shirley Sherrod before the tape was released, I began to wonder why Shirley Sherrod. In that question is the reason. Shirley Sherrod was a person who was literally attempting to level the playing field and being successful in this endeavor.

The way I see it, it was because of these successes that she was even offered a position with the USDA in the first place. Not only that but in recent years she has won a thirteen million dollar settlement in the minority farmers’ law suit which acknowledges racial discrimination on the part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture for the years of 1981-85. This is the largest settlement ever won in the minority farmers’ law suit.

This is a very symbolic win – it addresses land, money and discrimination and you think for one moment those responsible for this malicious deed against Shirley Sherrod had no clue of who Shirley Sherrod was.

In an effort to keep the attitude going, the accusations are flying that it was the Obama Administration that truly forced Shirley Sherrod out of her position. Even after Shirley’s boss, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, took full responsibility for the forced resignation.

While the original culprit, Cheryl Cook, who told Shirley Sherrod the demand for her resignation came straight from the White House, has been unavailable for comment and at this late date would not be believable regardless of what she said as far as I'm concerned.

As though nothing has been learned from jumping to conclusions, people are jumping on the band wagon that promotes the idea that it was President Obama himself that gave the word to force Shirley to resign without really knowing for sure since Ms. Cook, the messenger, has not made herself available to discredit or confirm the rumors.

This in turn sets the stage for the game whites have always played of pitting one black against another black as far back as overseers and house negroes versus field negroes, divide and conquer, separate and control, when the original crisis was borne out of a racist white who perpetrated a bold faced lie that led us down a road that has me flashing back to another time period.

The real culprits are the Andrew Breitbart’s, the Mark Williams’, the Ann Coulter’s who incidentally is making her rounds on talk TV attempting, with some success, to push the story that Brietbart was a victim of racism who was set up by whoever is guilty of sending Breitbart the tape in the first place and the list could go on and on because there are still many who fit into the category of racists here in America.

Picture courtesy of MarkTalk.com

And that’s the way I see it!!!!

Devious And Malicious

Wed, 21 Jul 2010 12:46:09 +0100

This is a prime example of white racist attempting to flip the script, like they always do and make it appear that it is blacks who are the true racist.

Based on lies and manipulations of a speech made by Shirley Sherrod, they gave the impression that her remarks were indeed racist when in fact her speech was of growth and understanding, something racist whites will never be guilty of.

The main people guilty of race baiting, racist attitudes, racial hate and straight stupidity are white Americans who can not acknowledge the fact that, according to Newton’s laws of motion, for every action, there is a reaction and their actions, over the last four hundred plus years, towards blacks cause the reactions they get from blacks.

Even in the reactions they get from blacks, there is not a lot of hate involved so they attempt to create hate where there is no hate in an attempt to show that black people are just like them, but we are not.

In recent days, whites have called out the NAACP as being a racist organization, they continue to claim Reverend Al Sharpton as the qualifying race baiter because he has always had the courage to stand up and say, in their faces, that the things they do are racist.

More importantly by staging and manipulating a speech given by Shirley Sherrod that cost her the job she had earned and was far less offensive than the words spoken/written by Mark Williams and the Tea Party Federation, to give the impression that Sherrod was something she was not, a racist.

However, in their desperate attempt, the truth came to light because the only darkness was the darkness created by splicing and dicing the video to give the impression of inappropriateness in their attempt to flip the script and even though Shirley Sherrod was forced to resign the true villains are being seen for what they are – race baiting liars that will go to any lengths to make blacks appear racist.

Twenty years ago when this example of growth, that Shirley Sherrod underwent, took place, where she recognized we are all basically the same, white folks were still of the attitude, much like they are today, that they were somehow better and her choice of words to take this land owner to an attorney of "his own kind" was, for me, an appropriate statement based on the times then and to some degree even now.

Her words can not equate to the demeaning, defamatory, irrational and arrogant words of Mark Williams which attempted to dehumanize blacks and give the impression that we, as a group of people, still fit into the proverbial stereotype that has followed us since we have been in this country of being lazy and unable to think for ourselves, even though we were the ones working the fields, cleaning, cooking and raising the white man’s children.

I have said it before and I will say it again, whites have no reason to hate blacks, yet they do. Blacks have every reason to hate whites, yet we don’t.

What happened to Shirley Sherrod is too typical of the games racist whites play, have played for generations and the truth is, what hurt me the most is that the NAACP did not attempt to investigate, they chose to believe the lie the white man told, the lie that was perpetrated to distract and confuse the issues created by the true racists in America.

And that’s the way I see it!!!

I Was Offended

Wed, 21 Jul 2010 12:13:13 +0100

A sign of racial immaturity - When does it stop? When will America grow up, particularly white Americas who logically speaking have no cause to be racist other than their narcissitic belief that they are somehow better.

Until they grow up race relations will remain as they are and the Mark Williams' of this country will continue to get their five minutes of stardom as they attempt to flip the script and place racism on blacks which I have found is the game most racist play.

Black people on the whole are not racist they only want equality, respect and the white man's shoe off their backs but until whites recognize the attitudes of entitlement they display, nothing will ever change and blacks will continue to call whites out when they say offensive, rage producing statements like the ones Mark Williams spoke.

The thing about irrational people is that they think they can say whatever and do whatever and not be held accountable because they have freedom of speech - think again is what is being repeated time and time again but you still don't get it because irrational thoughts lead to irrational actions and irrational people feel justified in their irrational deeds.

And that's the way I see it!!!!

Will Racism Ever Die

Fri, 16 Jul 2010 12:11:19 +0100

One thing that still amazes me is the attitudes of some white people. Now I am not racist, I do not hate, it involves too much negative energy but I am a perceptive observer of things in the world and especially the attitudes of white Americans.

I have watched the Tea Party Movement develop and witnessed the signs they carried, the attitudes they displayed but more importantly, the words they have used to express their desires to "take back their government" now that a black man is president.

When you bring this attitude to their attention what they do is stand in denial and agree that it is the fringe element that is showing this attitude when in reality it is people like Sarah Palin, Michelle Bachmann, Ann Coulter, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, John Boehner and a list of others who encourage the racist behaviors I have witnessed since Obama has been in office.

Now that black organizations such as the NAACP are beginning to take notice as well and verbalize their discontent, while other organizations such as the Black Panther Party are beginning to resurface due to this lack of respect and civility towards the black president and the words and actions of the Tea Party Movement, white people are standing in judgment and quite frankly showing a level of distain they were not showing towards the members of the Tea Party carrying irrational and insulting signs regarding President Obama.

As I was surfing the web today I discovered this site entitled "Did I Miss Something," which irritated me, to say the least. According to the words you have written, I would say 'yes' you missed quite a bit.

Now he posts his sign stating "Proud Descendant of a Confederate Soldier" with all the racial connotations this statement holds as he rants about the Black Panthers, Muslims and black people in general – one white racist upset because a black "racist" and I use that term lightly, is voicing his discontent about the way things are and have been here in America for as long as I have been in the world and I have more years behind me than I do in front of me.

Whites have no reason to be racist and hate blacks, but yet in their irrational mindset, they are racist and they do hate blacks. Blacks did not steal or buy them to force them to perform their grunt work, while being physically, mentally and emotionally abusive. Blacks did not use humiliation, separation from family, unequal education, sub-standard housing, stifling their ability to earn and drugs to attempt to keep whites down.

Despite all the negativity that has been forced on blacks in this country, we have risen, to some degree, above the hate and destructive negativity and we survive, we prosper and we are still hated by a large group of white Americans who hate to see the progress we have made in spite of all the things done to keep us down.

And just like a typical white male, this writer shows that he does not have a clue about laws and inequality because laws may provide an avenue but attitudes you can never legislate and those attitudes are resurfacing with a vengeance in white America today.

I have seen it in the making since President Obama was elected; I have felt it in my day to day dealings in the world and quite frankly I am appalled that at this stage of the game some white folks refuse to move past the hate to see things clearly.

To quote this writer in the attached blog – "America, Love it, or LEAVE!" – cause it is what it is and you, as a white American, can not hold blacks down forever with your hate, lies, fears and irrational thought processes.

And that’s the way I see it!!!

Rational Thought - I Don't Think So

Wed, 14 Jul 2010 12:41:39 +0100

Picture courtesy of Sacbee

As Americans discuss the corruption in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Haiti and other governments, I stand witness to the bully mentality of our local government here in California where state workers are being threatened with minimum wage salaries as a means to force them into contract agreements that are not completely in their best interest.

Never mind the fact that having just come back from mandatory furloughs where they lost 15% of their salaries for a period of 18 months and the burdens this caused for some families, now the Governor’s attitude is do what I say or suffer harsher penalties of further reduced wages down to minimum wage level.

This threat to reduce wages has little to do with the deficit but more to do with control and manipulation. Furthermore, in the long run it is not a very rational decision in an economy that has suffered the harsh blows of high unemployment.

Thousands of state workers could be affected by this irrational act along with businesses that cater to state workers for lunchtime revenues, basic shopping, mortgages, car loans and the like, which negatively impact an already failing economy.

With all the lawsuits the state of California is embroiled in based on the mandatory furloughs coupled with the lawsuits that are being filed in an attempt to stop the threat of minimum wages, how much money do you think is being wasted by the Governor and the State of California to pursue these issues – this on top of a budget that can not be reconciled due to lack of funds.

To say that the decisions of Governor Schwarzenegger are, to coin a phrase from my daddy, stupid, would be an understatement. Desperate times call for desperate measures but let’s at least think the situation through clearly – the aim is to save more money, not spend more based on a bully mentality creating issues that will eventually have to be settled through long and expensive court battles.

Even though the minimum wage status would only be temporary, what happens in the end is that this debt to pay state workers back this money, in lump sums, only increases the debt California already has so how does this make rational sense?

Not only that but there are certain banks willing to help state workers by offering short term loans with low interest fees which in turn feeds money to them – everybody wins but the working poor and yet we find the words to criticize governments in other countries.

Again, I find myself shaking my head to clear the insanity that passes for rational thought patterns by those in the position of leaders.

And that’s the way I see it!!!

Haiti Six Months Later

Tue, 13 Jul 2010 12:37:08 +0100

Picture courtesy of NBC News

Yesterday marked the 6-month anniversary of the earthquake in Haiti. Six months later and people are still living in tents; six months later and rubble still inhibits movement, six months later and international funds are still nothing more than pledges.

As hurricane season threatens to add insult to injury no move has yet been made to assimilate those people living in tents into a sturdier home base. They say it is because of the ‘corruption’ that is taking part by government officials as medicine, supplies and equipment are being held hostage to taxes and rental fees.

Hospitals are closing, supplies are not moving out to the people in need, heat is increasing as people attempt to survive out in the open crammed together like shrimp in a can and feeling as though no one cares anymore.

All the money that was raised – where is it now and what has it done for the people who need it most. Tens of thousands of people living in tents, no running water, no electricity, barely enough to eat and according to news reports those in control are ‘saving the money for the long term goals of rebuilding’ – just when does the building start.

Although some money has been directed to medical care which in turn prevented, to some degree, the widespread potential of disease and infections and many were given prosthetics to replace missing limbs destroyed by falling debris during the earthquake not much else has been done for the people of Haiti as people around the world seem to have just lost interest.

I am saddened by this turn of events even though I could have predicted the loss of interest and I can not help but to wonder if this loss of interest is because those affected are brown/black like me.

More importantly, as those courageous people live month after month in tent cities, waiting for confirmation that they are human, that someone in the world cares, that their plight, none of which they had control over, has not been forgotten - how do we move them into a state of being that is conducive to the human experience.

As you speak of the corruption, take a look in the mirror and know that corruption exists as close as the person looking back at you as the politicians here in America use fear, lies and personal interests to sway votes and keep money flowing into their pockets and their causes, as is the method everywhere in the world. What is needed is less hypocritical criticism and more constructive action.

And that’s the way I see it!!!