ANATOMY OF POLICE VIOLENCE

Graphic created by Benjamin L, Corey Formerly Fundie. He put a lot of work into this and I believe it's spot on. His blog is a great one. The link is on my sidebar. You might not agree with all his conclusions. On the other hand ask the few Pequots who survived the war engineered by colonists in Connecticut.

WHAT CAN'T BE CHANGED

I’m getting a little fed up with the comments that the Irish, the Germans, the Italians etc. ad nauseum had adapted to the majority culture in the US so why can’t _______ I don’t think you’ll have to think too hard to fill in the blank.

Well for starters many of those minorities are white or at least rather tan in complexion. Lose the accent, alter your name, move to the other side of the country and you can pretend to be just about anything you want to be. If anyone is curious enough to ask, that is. Even the Italians. For every immigrant’s son who looks like Antonin Scalia, there’s a blue eyed blond from the north of the country that was settled by the Germanic tribes. Change your name from Bellini to Bell and nobody will ask any questions.

As for the minorities from the orient, they faced some very extreme prejudice in the early years. And let’s face it. I didn’t take the time to run the numbers but there just aren’t that many Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Asian Americans in this country. I suspect that there are parts of the country where the good citizens can go for years and not see an Asian face outside of the TV or movies.

African Americans have been the quintessential other from the beginning. Were they persons or property? The constitution came down on the side of what? They were persons but only 3/5 of a person and only so they could be counted for census purposes. Called “black” even though most African Americans are varying shades of brown it conjures up all those images of darkness.

The dangers of night. Going over to the “dark side.” Thanks George we really needed that and Darth Vader in his midnight black get up to let us know he wasn’t one of the good guys. The psy cops in the Babylon 5 universe with their SS wannabe’s black uniforms. The black sheep of the family. The black market. All the negative images conjured up by “black.”

You can change your name. You can get an education that lets you speak like a BBC presenter. You can get a good job and dress the part. Even buy a decent car. There are still areas where the real estate agents will try to steer you away from. You can still be arrested for buying belt considered too nice for somebody like you. You and that nice care can still be pulled over for “infractions” that probably wouldn’t be noticed in a European American driver.

You can be stopped and questioned for walking while black with your hands in your pockets. (true story. Apparently a store owner had called because an African American with his hands in his pockets had been passing back and forth in front of the store and he was afraid he was going to be robbed. No matter that the man who was actually stopped was nowhere near the store. He was walking the mile between the house of a friend and his place about a mile away)

You can still be called every vile  name in the book because, unlike other hyphenated Americans, you can’t change the color of your skin. From the day you’re born until the day you die too many people will only look at skin color and no further. And from the comments I’ve been reading on too many stories too many people aren’t interested in doing things any different. 

BLACK FRIDAY SURPRISES?

Surprise, surprise. Turns out post Thanksgiving weekend retail sales were/are down. I suspect that the same people shop 'til they drop year after year. Give them more time to shop with the same amount of money something has to give and it did.

That and the suspicion that the "gift" being bought are pretty much for the buyers. I remember one year when mom took an old formal and reworked it into a lovely robe for my little sister. I still have the knitting instructions for the slippers we used to make. I could probably knock out a pair with my eyes closed. Same with knitted hats. We always made a lot more jams, jellies and kraut than WE needed because it all made good gifts. One year my room was awash in shredded foam for the Raggedy Anne and Andy dolls for the littlest sister.

Traditionally the Christmas tree went up the week before Christmas and went down at New Years. Providing the tree stayed green enough long enough. Ornaments were gradually collected. We still have two or three that were my grandmother's. Lots of lights to fill in the gaps.

Cars, TV's shop equipment? Christmas gifts? I watched film clips of the stores opening their doors on Thursday evening. Pushing, shoving, knocking other people down and not stopping to help them. Most of them looking like they were just this side of insane. Hell a security guard got trampled to death a few years ago. I think it was at a WalMart. If there's a War on Christmas it started about Halloween, hit the beaches on Thanksgiving and is being fought in your local mall. And we're losing. And whether you celebrate Christmas, the Winter Solstice, the Celtic pantheon or just want to hang with family, take a deep breath and enjoy watching the squirrels at the feeder we're losing. Big time.

We're working on Advent and the Solstice right now. We'll get around to Christmas when it is time.

JURIES

I haven't spent much time in the comments sections of stories about Ferguson and the protests. Not from lack of interest but in the interests of keeping my blood pressure at levels closer to Mt. Hood levels than Mt Everest.

What I have seen. If you aren't white you don't have the right to protest. I've seen comments that seemed to call for genocide against minorities in this country. Most African Americans are thugs or worse and those who acknowledge that like whites, a small minority are responsible for violent crimes. However, even that person called on the African American community to "police themselves." That's why we have the LAW, bonehead. Not all cops are trigger happy either. All African Americans are lazy, on welfare, on food stamps etc. etc. etc. One commenter even called for 7 PM to 7 AM curfews in the cities and if you don't "have a good reason to be out" subject to arrest. Shades of North Korea, the old USSR and Nazi Germany.

And something that really bothers me. Too many of our fellow citizens don't seem to know the difference between a grand jury proceeding and a jury trial. There's a joke that a careful prosecutor can get a grand jury to indict a ham sandwich. After the sandwich is indicted both sides have their chance to present their best evidence before the public and before a jury of the sandwiche's "peers." Now THAT presents an interesting picture. LOL

I've run into more than one comment of "he's not guilty, get over it." No, we don't know that. The grand jury didn't indict the officer and there are plenty of questions about how the prosecutor handled the proceedings. No indictment, no trial. No chance for the public to watch what's going on and see justice being served.

Now, about those protests. I'm all in favor of non violent confrontation, that's NON VIOLENT confrontation. And if it means going to jail, that's part of the price we pay for something resembling the rule of law. You don't throw bottles at the cops. You don't throw barricades at the cops. You don't spit at the cops.

Anybody out there ever watch the movie Gandhi? There is a sequence where demonstrators are marching on a salt works. There was a tax on salt and the British government controlled production. Row by row they marched towards the native police armed with bamboo staves. Row by row they were struck down and the women carried them to one side for first aid treatment. They kept it up hour after hour until after dark. It took another decade and WWII to finally achieve Indian independence but the Raj fell that day. True non violence is a disciplined, courageous confrontation of injustice. It doesn't always work. But it puts the violent response squarely in the oppressors ball park. Dr. King where you now?

WANTED POSTER

This was posted on Face Book and apparently you can buy this as a real live poster. Today is the first Sunday of Advent. Just want to be sure who we're waiting for here. I"m also waiting for the yearly conservative entries trying to prove that the family wasn't really poor etc. OK. Back in the day there were pretty much two classes of people. Especially in a backwater like Judea. The very rich and everybody else. Mary and Joseph were definitely from the everybody else class while the rich and the wannabe rich have been trying to claim Jesus for themselves every since. 

COMFORTED AND FULFILLED

Another piece from Drum Major for a Dream. Interesting how the piece works, with a few changes in words, works for just about any martyred prophet from the last two thousand years or so.

A silence now stands

Where hope once spoke.

The voice in the wilderness

of inhumanity crying

against the indifference

of the righteous.

Silenced?

            So then is justice,

            So then is hope.

            So then is faith.

            Decency.

            Dignity.

            And a dream.

Where one dies thousands rise

For Martyrs are made to

            multiply.

            The stars catch the sound

            The wind carries the word

            The earth contains the eternal law

            Struggling to be born in

                        Man.

In the silence

Where he once stood

The children grow

The poor gather

And those now mourning know

They shall be comforted

- Comforted – and fulfilled.

N. Ellsworth Bunce in Drum Major for a Dream.

THE UNKNOWNS

And the same social groups that ended up being drafted back in the sixties are the ones volunteering for a chance at an education or job training. And the real irony? The same guys were involved in both wars. Especially Rumsfeld and Cheney.

FOLLOW THE SPIRIT

MARTIN LUTHER KING

Above the shouts and shots,

The roaring flames and the siren’s blare,

Listen for the stilled voice

Of the man who is no longer there.

Above the tramping of the endless line

Of marchers along the street,

Listen for the silent step

Of the dean man’s invisible feet.

Lock doors, put troops at the gate,

Guard the legislative halls,

But tremble when the dead man comes,

Whose spirit walks through walls.

Edith Lovejoy Pierce in Drum Major for a Dream

Over a half century ago MLK gave voice to his dreams for his children. That a time would come when who they were would count for more than the color of their skin. It's 2014 and that dream is as far from being realized now as it was then. If not further. Dipping my toe into the comments on an article on AOL about the president pardoning two turkeys this Thanksgiving. I'm not providing a link to the story it's too damn depressing and frankly disgusting. And I only read the first page. I didn't feel like going any deeper into the cesspool. 

AND FOLLOWING THE REBEL

Just might lead to a similar fate. According to what I've read Jackson Brown wrote this for the Celtic group the Chieftains. Didn't record it himself until a little later. A couple of lines echo the lament of a Brazilian archbishop Helder Camara. "If I give food to a starving man, they call me a saint. If I ask why that man is starving? They call me a communist." And the Celtic churchman Pelagius wrote to a new convert that not only would she soon realize that scripture and doctrine were created by men, but that some pagans were better Christians than some Christians he'd met.

THE REBEL JESUS

All the streets are filled with laughter and light
And the music of the season
And the merchants' windows are all bright
With the faces of the children
And the families hurrying to their homes
While the sky darkens and freezes
Will be gathering around the hearths and tables
Giving thanks for God's graces
And the birth of the rebel Jesus

Well they call him by 'the Prince of Peace'
And they call him by 'the Savior'
And they pray to him upon the seas
And in every bold endeavor
And they fill his churches with their pride and gold
As their faith in him increases
But they've turned the nature that I worship in
From a temple to a robber's den
In the words of the rebel Jesus

Well we guard our world with locks and guns
And we guard our fine possessions
And once a year when Christmas comes
We give to our relations
And perhaps we give a little to the poor
If the generosity should seize us
But if any one of us should interfere
In the business of why there are poor
They get the same as the rebel Jesus

Now pardon me if I have seemed
To take the tone of judgment
For I've no wish to come between
This day and your enjoyment
In a life of hardship and of earthly toil
There's a need for anything that frees us
So I bid you pleasure
And I bid you cheer
From a heathen and a pagan
On the side of the rebel Jesus

Jackson Brown

And I'm old enough to remember that Christmas gifts meant a doll or a book or maybe a record. When I was a kid helping decorate our tree I never imagined they'd be pushing cars and big screen TV's and all the other glittery blankety blank blanks. Most days there are more ads than newspaper. 

THE ONLY GOOD PROPHET

is probably a dead one. The living ones are so inconvenient and pushy. They hold up mirrors to our actions and insist on pointing out that what we do and what we say we believe not only seldom match, they aren't even in the same zip code. And yes, Jackie is just a teensy, weensy cranky today.

Now that he is safely dead

Let us praise him.

Build monuments to his glory

Sing hosannas to his name

Dead men make such safe,

Convenient heroes:

They cannot rise to challenge the images

We would fashion from their lives.

And besides,

It is easier to build monuments

Than to build a better world.

So, now that he is safely dead

We, with eased consciences

Will teach our children

That he was a great man…knowing

That the cause he lived for

Is still a cause. And that the dream

For which he died is still a dream.

A dead man’s dream.

Carl Wendell Hines Jr. in Drum Major for a Dream

This piece was written in memory of MLK Jr. However it could also describe the fate of the teachings of a certain footsore rabbi who came a cropper when he went against the combined power of Rome and the Jerusalem power structure.

We don’t know what HE taught. He didn’t write anything down. People with their own agendas did write things down and out of those writings at least one author has identified eight distinct theologies. And he believed that seven of those were wrong.

Now that He is safely out of the way we can make just about anything we want out of the scraps that were allowed into the accepted canon and proceed to beat each other over the head with them and build fences with safely locked gates. Above those gates are the words Keep Out.

DRUM MAJOR FOR A DREAM

This is from a small collection of poems written after the death of Martin Luther King Jr. titled Drum Major for a Dream. Appropriate for the beginning of Advent. What happens to inconvenient prophets and Messiahs. 

DRUM MAJOR FOR A DREAM

Ira G Zepp, Jr.

Your dream was clear,

We understood it perfectly.

Liberty and justice for all –

But that was too costly

For us, too expensive

Too dear, as they used to say;

Have-nots having

Disinherited, inheriting.

Is that what you meant by

Lowering mountains and

Exalting valleys?

But you beat your drum

Slowly, persistently, non-violently.

Your dream was clear,

We understood it perfectly.

Heaven on earth.

But heaven can wait.

It is often unwise and untimely for color of skin

To give way to content of character: for black, white

Brown, red yellow

To live together in Shalom.
Is that what you mean by

Making rough places plain

And crooked paths straight?

But you beat your drum

Lovingly, redemptively, faithfully.

Your dream was clear.

We understood it perfectly.

Love your enemies,

But that is impractical, not

Calculating enough.

Loving those who despise you

Who speak calumny against you

Enables us to be brothers and sister

In the Beloved Community.

Is that what you meant by

Seeing the Promised Land?

We understood all of this

So perfectly, saw it so clearly

That we beat the drummer

Senselessly, violently, fatally. 

TWO DADS

Ran across this on the web. Seems true enough. Bless the Anglicans.

NOVEMBER

Actually it's been an unusual mid October/November this year in the southern Willamette Valley. We haven't had the day in, day out, chilly fog so far. Rain yes, fog no. Ran across this by a Thomas Hood.

No sun - no moon!
No morn, no noon!
No shade, no shine!
No butterflies, no bees!
No fruits, no flowers!
No leaves, no birds!

November!

And Lisa knows exactly what I'm talking about. Althoooooogh, Earlier in the month when it was chilly, but sunny in the mornings you could still hear a few birds calling in the mornings. The flickers harvested all the dogwood berries. And we haven't cut down the black eyed Susans seed heads yet. The little gold finches and the siskins love them. How anything that tiny can cope with the cold. I think they hang out in the big holly tree across the street. If they stay close to the trunk of the tree almost nothing can get in.

SONS OF ABRAHAM

Last week theEpiscopal church hosted an interfaith get together with several hundred Muslims. During the service the South African ambassador to the US, who is a Muslim, called on Muslim moderates to fight back against extremism. Peace, brotherhood, prayers; what’s not to like. Apparently the usual list of suspects from Louie Gohmert to Franklin Graham found plenty not to like. Yadda, yadda, yadda.

But, what really struck me in the comments section was this little number from a commenter who shall remain nameless.

“So funny that the term "political fringe" was used in this article. It's not exactly just the fringe that would question this activity. That being said if it was the Episcopal church that hosted this, why would an evangelist have any input on it? The Episcopalians went off the rails a long time ago so why be surprised or outraged? I think the "having no other gods before me" would be where inviting a group into a temple dedicated to the God of Abraham to openly worship another god might get static. That IS one thing God makes pretty clear.”

You see it’s the bit about the God of Abraham that caught my attention. Other folks too. Over and over I’m amazed at the abysmal ignorance of the fundies on the right. Yo, spam for brains. Sorry for insulting a perfectly good, if high salt, brand of canned lunch meat. Islam is not only a religion. Islam worships the same God as the rest of us in the Judeo/Christo universe.

Bet he forgot that Abraham had two sons. The eldest, Ishmael, was the son of Abraham by Sarah’s slave girl Hagar. When Sarah finally had Isaac she was afraid that Ishmael would share in the future promised to Isaac so she convinced Abraham to send them away. You know Abraham doesn’t come off very well most of the time but that’s another story.

You’d think he’d have had the balls to point out that “look he’s my first born and we’re in the middle of a desert; their chances of survival are just about zero.” But he didn’t so God had to. Out of water Hagar despaired of her son’s life. To make a long story short, an angel appeared to Hagar and showed her a well. They survived and Ishamael, according to tradition also had twelve sons who were the founders of the Arabic peoples.

Abraham/Ibrahim. Samey, Samey. And since nobody can hurt you like family all three branches have been trying to kick the bejeezus out of each other ever since.