“To accept one’s past – one’s history – is not the same thing as drowning in it; it is learning how to use it. An invented past can never be used; it cracks and crumbles under the pressures of life like clay in a season of drought.” - James Baldwin
Up to 60% of anxious people are cured by placebo. But a placebo can be anything. Thus about 60% of Americans believe bull.
North Vietnam will attack America as soon as they beat the South.
58,000 dead Americans.
Iraq has weapons of mass destruction. About a million Iraqis dead.
10 or 20 million undocumented Americans will totally ruin their life by trying to vote for a Democrat.
About half of Americans read and write at the level of a 10 year old?
The evolutionary origins of the pumping of the sex act is to pump my ejaculate into the uterus (not true: the pumping is to remove the last males ejaculate, thus the neural pathways activated by human sexuality involve the joy of sabotage and thus the spirit of "owning the libs" will live on for eternity!)
Note: I find our flaws and misconceptions enormously funny! I truly pity anyone without a sense of humor! We should celebrate our god-given blind spots such as a total eclipse of the Sun by recognizing our god-given ego blindness is blindness to our own faults!
Can we? The possibility is always there. The question is, do enough Americans have the determination to persist in driving these vile notions out of acceptance?
I think we do. The folks out in the streets protesting are fighting for that day. The folks boycotting Target, Chick-Fil-A, Amazon, and the like are fighting the elimination of DEI programs through the power of the purse. But it takes all of us. As CSNY once sang,
"Teach your children well. Their father's hell did slowly go by. And feed them on your dreams..."
Steven: please emphasize that the disgusting trope was filed on his personal website on Truth Social at about midnight. He was forced by public opinion to remove it but not until about 12 hours later without any apology! Hours after he posted it his personal press secretary defended it after obviously consulting him personally but she did not claim it was a mistake by a fictional staff person! Nor did they remove it then? So lie after lie again stains this disgusting individual who happens to be President! But not for long after we rise up and vote in massive numbers.
Can we overcome this racism scourge? Yes. Will we eliminate it anytime soon? No.
We were naive to think it was all but gone in America. But, now that we know for sure it is still here, we can (and must) subdue it and eliminate from the body politic those who continue to display it.
George Floyd was murdered in the summer of 2020. Like so many others across the U.S. and around the world, my gut response was disbelief, outrage, and anger overwhelmed me as the news repeatedly showed his death. Eventually, I couldn't watch anymore. I grieved for his family and lost sleep and appetite, mourning deeply for our country. ANOTHER Black man had been killed at the hands of our police. There is a malevolent tragedy playing out in our country, and now – finally – spectators are recording these murders - a means that may lead to justice.
I grew up in a Republican family where both parents worked undercover for the CIA, and they freely expressed their dislike of “Blacks” without providing any justification for these feelings. Those were the days of Martin Luther King Jr., John Robert Lewis, and Black Panthers. A period in U.S. history where Marches were televised on old-boxed Sylvania televisions. My father's face turned beet-red as he watched the demonstrations in Selma and elsewhere. He saw demonstrations as signs of unrest and disrespect for the democracy he defended in World War II, where he was a prisoner of war in Germany. I never understood his anger, and he and I would heatedly discuss racial inequality at the dinner table. I was a product of 60’s and 70’s, and at the same time a reflection of my father who I loved dearly.
Despite our younger generation displaying far less race consciousness, our government has continued the venomous chant of bigotry. What does this say about our democracy, about WE THE PEOPLE, and about us as a society? The first word that comes to mind is “uncivilized.” Racial disparity has been endlessly deliberated in Congress, in national media, and especially in Black homes where parents feel the desperate need to protect their innocent children from this atrocity. The truth is
The constant bigotry seen by our current sitting President reflects hundreds of years of American discrimination. And as our country sways from one party to another over the years, one generation elects our first Black President who is ranked among the top seven Presidents of all times to a man who is last on this list – a bigot who is convicted of being a sexual predator, a fraud, and a man convicted of 34 felony counts. His one and only best friend for fifteen years was Jeffrey Epstein – a convicted sexual offender and predator of young girls. This man said of Mr. Trump – “I have known bad people in my life, but Donald Trump does not have a single decent cell in his entire body.”
The Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s was a significant, continuing part of U.S. history. Martin Luther King Jr. was the voice of this battle for justice. John Robert Lews, who died of pancreatic cancer in July 2020, was a magnificent pillar of peaceful demonstrations to fight racial injustice despite suffering a broken skull, bloody beatings, and incarceration. Lewis went on to affectionately become the ‘conscience’ of our Congress.
What is impossible to determine is if our current chapter in history is near the beginning or end of racism or whether American society will ever be able to eradicate this evil, irrational behavior? Is racism just a fear of the unknown and ignorance; is it inexcusable hatred; or is it brainwashing handed down from generation to generation of Americans. Is it a universal global human defect or a failed rationalization of slavery? The fact is no race is better or superior to another. Great strides were made in the U.S. from the Kennedy leadership up through Barak Obama.
This lie of American equality has set a country-wide standard of dishonesty and deceitfulness for generations of Americans. From Thomas Jefferson, who rpaed his slaves and who is the author of the famous saying, “all men are created equal,” – to Donald Trump – a bigoted, degenerate, illiterate who (1) closed all DEI programs, (2) started a genocide in Africa by shutting down USAID – an estimated 15 million Black lives will be lost, to his discrimination against immigrants – mostly Brown-skinned people – and the murderous actions of ICE - who has even arrested native Americans in Tucson, AZ.
The deaths of Renee Good, and Alex Pretti are examples of Trump’s ICE-instigated violence. It resulted in protest demonstrations in every major city across the U.S. The message was loud and clear that American citizens do not agree with Trump’s corrupt presidency and his form of distorted democracy whereby people are murdered by ICE or our own police. His election is an example of decline of our society - in one year under Trump we have digressed to the 1950s. Rebuilding after his departure may take decades.
I think alot of the racism is handed down generation to generation. Children are taught by their parents or their parents' actions. It's not as simple as that because each individual has outside influences (good or bad) or maybe just born with a special soul knowing innately good from bad/right from wrong and having empathy. I do think each generation seems a little better than the one before in my lifetime, but as we see, mistreatment and murder by racists in law enforcement happens all too often. I agree that with trump, we have digressed and he seems to have pardoned and hired all of the worst to be in ICE. Joyce Vance new book is titled Giving Up is Unforgivable. I think we have to forever fight for what is right.
Regrettably, pessimism emerges in response to the orange one. Now is the time for all good Members of House and Senate to step up the conscience, in service of the Constitution, and begin shutting doors on this heinous fellow. Don't fund cruelty. Don't bend to his renaming of historical structures and truths. Put an immediate end to the "SAVE Act" and his chain of actions designed to lead agents at voting places. Hold his Cabinet in contempt when they don't show or lie. Pass a meaningful War Powers Act. Publish Both of Jack Smith's volumes on his crimes.
For man's been endowed with a mushroom-shaped cloud
And we know for certain that some lovely day
Someone will set the spark off
And we will all be blown away
They're rioting in Africa
There's strife in Iran
What nature doesn't do to us
Will be done by our fellow man
I post this to show that racism (which is a myth, actually) is and always has been a 'human' problem since the Dawn of Man. Not just limited to the US, people of one nation have conjured up fictitious reasons to dehumanize people from others since we all left the Cradle of Civilization in Africa thousands of years ago. It's a collective problem that will require a watershed moment across the species to resolve, in my opinion. That hasn't happened yet for these past thousands of years in spite of the fact that we've gone 'round and 'round on this wheel endlessly.
I would be pleasantly surprised if humans were able to overcome that childish and false belief, but I'm not holding my breath, as it were.
And Trump did exceedingly well in the election with Black men, voting in the racist due to Trump's misogyny and anti-immigrant rhetoric. Every group who Trump abhors - which includes blue collar Republicans - finds a different hatred to vote for Trump.
It has been described as the county’s great sin. However, that doesn’t quite do justice to the damage it causes. One country, under God, with liberty and justice for all? No, I don’t think so. Racism, is not something a white person is born with, but rather a brain worm which is nourished by family and friends. A person’s lacking self-respect, needing to demine others, who look different, so that they can feel good about themselves. It has been used by the oligarchs, to make more profit and political leaders to gain more power. And it appears that the Christian religion is mostly helpless in its eradication effort. I doubt that we will ever see the dream that Martin had.
There is an organization called Sojourners, which was founded to fight for social justice. It can be found at sojo.net Please check it out and support it if you can.
I have 4 younger siblings. They all voted and still actively support Donald Trump. They have routinely spouted racist tropes against the Obamas.
Trump has accomplished one thing in his presidency. He has revealed who his followers are and what they stand for. Sickeningly so.
I don’t know how any of them can look in the mirror. You’d think the hatred staring back at them would give them pause.
Trump has derailed America’s journey toward a more equal union. It may take generations to undo the damage. Just look at the young white men Kirk was helping to brainwash.
It is trump’s first instinct to demean, to demonize, to assert his own superiority. Hate runs through him like poison and he has found millions of followers who share that hatred of the other. That hatred is born of fear and people who are dissatisfied with their life will always be afraid, and thanks to America’s shameful history of slavery and the subsequent discrimination fostered by the Southern states, have picked black and brown people as scapegoats. There will always be fear, so the question is, will these bigots find another scapegoat? I’m not so sure.
In my dark heart, the answer is no. No, we cannot. I see a general lack, even amongst people who think they are otherwise-- more enlightened, whatever, to not embrace our sordid history, ever. The Gestapo isn't in our streets right now, the slave herders and the citizen-militia land-stealers are. All of this is as American as apple pie, redux. Unless we embrace this history and stand in that history, all this will continue forever. Truth and reconciliation, now.
We must.
“To accept one’s past – one’s history – is not the same thing as drowning in it; it is learning how to use it. An invented past can never be used; it cracks and crumbles under the pressures of life like clay in a season of drought.” - James Baldwin
Another fine quote, Al.
There is a treasure trove of them. We do not learn from history.
I think Steve, Mr. Historian, knows that.
Indeed he does.
Tribalism diminishes rationality.
Up to 60% of anxious people are cured by placebo. But a placebo can be anything. Thus about 60% of Americans believe bull.
North Vietnam will attack America as soon as they beat the South.
58,000 dead Americans.
Iraq has weapons of mass destruction. About a million Iraqis dead.
10 or 20 million undocumented Americans will totally ruin their life by trying to vote for a Democrat.
About half of Americans read and write at the level of a 10 year old?
The evolutionary origins of the pumping of the sex act is to pump my ejaculate into the uterus (not true: the pumping is to remove the last males ejaculate, thus the neural pathways activated by human sexuality involve the joy of sabotage and thus the spirit of "owning the libs" will live on for eternity!)
Note: I find our flaws and misconceptions enormously funny! I truly pity anyone without a sense of humor! We should celebrate our god-given blind spots such as a total eclipse of the Sun by recognizing our god-given ego blindness is blindness to our own faults!
Can we? The possibility is always there. The question is, do enough Americans have the determination to persist in driving these vile notions out of acceptance?
I think we do. The folks out in the streets protesting are fighting for that day. The folks boycotting Target, Chick-Fil-A, Amazon, and the like are fighting the elimination of DEI programs through the power of the purse. But it takes all of us. As CSNY once sang,
"Teach your children well. Their father's hell did slowly go by. And feed them on your dreams..."
I was cheated before
And I’m cheated again
By a mean little world
Of mean little men.
And the one chance for me
Is the life I know best.
To be on an island
And to hell with the rest.
I will cling to this island
Like a tree or a stone,
I will cling to this island
And be free—and alone.
You’ve got to be taught before it’s too late,
Before you are six or seven or eight,
To hate all the people your relatives hate—
You’ve got to be carefully taught!
R & H, South Pacific
“One homeland, one people, one heritage. Remember who you are…”
I think this may have sounded better in the original German.
Exactly.
Steven: please emphasize that the disgusting trope was filed on his personal website on Truth Social at about midnight. He was forced by public opinion to remove it but not until about 12 hours later without any apology! Hours after he posted it his personal press secretary defended it after obviously consulting him personally but she did not claim it was a mistake by a fictional staff person! Nor did they remove it then? So lie after lie again stains this disgusting individual who happens to be President! But not for long after we rise up and vote in massive numbers.
I’m channeling my inner Molly Ivins this morning.
I have 6 of Molly's books, 3 of them autographed. She and Gov. Ann Richards are my heroes.
Or maybe Spanish, is the Sec Labor is a Proud Latina.
Can we overcome this racism scourge? Yes. Will we eliminate it anytime soon? No.
We were naive to think it was all but gone in America. But, now that we know for sure it is still here, we can (and must) subdue it and eliminate from the body politic those who continue to display it.
We shall overcome…
George Floyd was murdered in the summer of 2020. Like so many others across the U.S. and around the world, my gut response was disbelief, outrage, and anger overwhelmed me as the news repeatedly showed his death. Eventually, I couldn't watch anymore. I grieved for his family and lost sleep and appetite, mourning deeply for our country. ANOTHER Black man had been killed at the hands of our police. There is a malevolent tragedy playing out in our country, and now – finally – spectators are recording these murders - a means that may lead to justice.
I grew up in a Republican family where both parents worked undercover for the CIA, and they freely expressed their dislike of “Blacks” without providing any justification for these feelings. Those were the days of Martin Luther King Jr., John Robert Lewis, and Black Panthers. A period in U.S. history where Marches were televised on old-boxed Sylvania televisions. My father's face turned beet-red as he watched the demonstrations in Selma and elsewhere. He saw demonstrations as signs of unrest and disrespect for the democracy he defended in World War II, where he was a prisoner of war in Germany. I never understood his anger, and he and I would heatedly discuss racial inequality at the dinner table. I was a product of 60’s and 70’s, and at the same time a reflection of my father who I loved dearly.
Despite our younger generation displaying far less race consciousness, our government has continued the venomous chant of bigotry. What does this say about our democracy, about WE THE PEOPLE, and about us as a society? The first word that comes to mind is “uncivilized.” Racial disparity has been endlessly deliberated in Congress, in national media, and especially in Black homes where parents feel the desperate need to protect their innocent children from this atrocity. The truth is
The constant bigotry seen by our current sitting President reflects hundreds of years of American discrimination. And as our country sways from one party to another over the years, one generation elects our first Black President who is ranked among the top seven Presidents of all times to a man who is last on this list – a bigot who is convicted of being a sexual predator, a fraud, and a man convicted of 34 felony counts. His one and only best friend for fifteen years was Jeffrey Epstein – a convicted sexual offender and predator of young girls. This man said of Mr. Trump – “I have known bad people in my life, but Donald Trump does not have a single decent cell in his entire body.”
The Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s was a significant, continuing part of U.S. history. Martin Luther King Jr. was the voice of this battle for justice. John Robert Lews, who died of pancreatic cancer in July 2020, was a magnificent pillar of peaceful demonstrations to fight racial injustice despite suffering a broken skull, bloody beatings, and incarceration. Lewis went on to affectionately become the ‘conscience’ of our Congress.
What is impossible to determine is if our current chapter in history is near the beginning or end of racism or whether American society will ever be able to eradicate this evil, irrational behavior? Is racism just a fear of the unknown and ignorance; is it inexcusable hatred; or is it brainwashing handed down from generation to generation of Americans. Is it a universal global human defect or a failed rationalization of slavery? The fact is no race is better or superior to another. Great strides were made in the U.S. from the Kennedy leadership up through Barak Obama.
This lie of American equality has set a country-wide standard of dishonesty and deceitfulness for generations of Americans. From Thomas Jefferson, who rpaed his slaves and who is the author of the famous saying, “all men are created equal,” – to Donald Trump – a bigoted, degenerate, illiterate who (1) closed all DEI programs, (2) started a genocide in Africa by shutting down USAID – an estimated 15 million Black lives will be lost, to his discrimination against immigrants – mostly Brown-skinned people – and the murderous actions of ICE - who has even arrested native Americans in Tucson, AZ.
The deaths of Renee Good, and Alex Pretti are examples of Trump’s ICE-instigated violence. It resulted in protest demonstrations in every major city across the U.S. The message was loud and clear that American citizens do not agree with Trump’s corrupt presidency and his form of distorted democracy whereby people are murdered by ICE or our own police. His election is an example of decline of our society - in one year under Trump we have digressed to the 1950s. Rebuilding after his departure may take decades.
What a fine comment. Thank you!
I think alot of the racism is handed down generation to generation. Children are taught by their parents or their parents' actions. It's not as simple as that because each individual has outside influences (good or bad) or maybe just born with a special soul knowing innately good from bad/right from wrong and having empathy. I do think each generation seems a little better than the one before in my lifetime, but as we see, mistreatment and murder by racists in law enforcement happens all too often. I agree that with trump, we have digressed and he seems to have pardoned and hired all of the worst to be in ICE. Joyce Vance new book is titled Giving Up is Unforgivable. I think we have to forever fight for what is right.
Thank you Pam. IUf you get a chance read From Democracy to Democrazy. Warm wishes, Elizabeth
Regrettably, pessimism emerges in response to the orange one. Now is the time for all good Members of House and Senate to step up the conscience, in service of the Constitution, and begin shutting doors on this heinous fellow. Don't fund cruelty. Don't bend to his renaming of historical structures and truths. Put an immediate end to the "SAVE Act" and his chain of actions designed to lead agents at voting places. Hold his Cabinet in contempt when they don't show or lie. Pass a meaningful War Powers Act. Publish Both of Jack Smith's volumes on his crimes.
Now.
The Merry Minuet
by The Kingston Trio ‧ 1959
They're rioting in Africa
They're starving in Spain
There's hurricanes in Florida
And Texas needs rain
The whole world is festering
With unhappy souls
The French hate the Germans
The Germans hate the Poles
Italians hate Yugoslavs
South Africans hate the Dutch
And I don't like anybody very much
But we shall be thankful and tranquil and proud
For man's been endowed with a mushroom-shaped cloud
And we know for certain that some lovely day
Someone will set the spark off
And we will all be blown away
They're rioting in Africa
There's strife in Iran
What nature doesn't do to us
Will be done by our fellow man
I post this to show that racism (which is a myth, actually) is and always has been a 'human' problem since the Dawn of Man. Not just limited to the US, people of one nation have conjured up fictitious reasons to dehumanize people from others since we all left the Cradle of Civilization in Africa thousands of years ago. It's a collective problem that will require a watershed moment across the species to resolve, in my opinion. That hasn't happened yet for these past thousands of years in spite of the fact that we've gone 'round and 'round on this wheel endlessly.
I would be pleasantly surprised if humans were able to overcome that childish and false belief, but I'm not holding my breath, as it were.
Gotta ask: What is the SECOND most racist thing Tim Scott has heard from this White House?
Bet it’s a CLOSE second, ya think?
Good question.
Though I hope and hope without reservation, I fear not.
And Trump did exceedingly well in the election with Black men, voting in the racist due to Trump's misogyny and anti-immigrant rhetoric. Every group who Trump abhors - which includes blue collar Republicans - finds a different hatred to vote for Trump.
It has been described as the county’s great sin. However, that doesn’t quite do justice to the damage it causes. One country, under God, with liberty and justice for all? No, I don’t think so. Racism, is not something a white person is born with, but rather a brain worm which is nourished by family and friends. A person’s lacking self-respect, needing to demine others, who look different, so that they can feel good about themselves. It has been used by the oligarchs, to make more profit and political leaders to gain more power. And it appears that the Christian religion is mostly helpless in its eradication effort. I doubt that we will ever see the dream that Martin had.
There is an organization called Sojourners, which was founded to fight for social justice. It can be found at sojo.net Please check it out and support it if you can.
Not without a structural change in education , banking , housing .. healthcare and food distribution .
You are spot on.
I have 4 younger siblings. They all voted and still actively support Donald Trump. They have routinely spouted racist tropes against the Obamas.
Trump has accomplished one thing in his presidency. He has revealed who his followers are and what they stand for. Sickeningly so.
I don’t know how any of them can look in the mirror. You’d think the hatred staring back at them would give them pause.
Trump has derailed America’s journey toward a more equal union. It may take generations to undo the damage. Just look at the young white men Kirk was helping to brainwash.
It is trump’s first instinct to demean, to demonize, to assert his own superiority. Hate runs through him like poison and he has found millions of followers who share that hatred of the other. That hatred is born of fear and people who are dissatisfied with their life will always be afraid, and thanks to America’s shameful history of slavery and the subsequent discrimination fostered by the Southern states, have picked black and brown people as scapegoats. There will always be fear, so the question is, will these bigots find another scapegoat? I’m not so sure.
I'm not so sure he and the bigots haven't already found the next openly/vocally identified target.
In my dark heart, the answer is no. No, we cannot. I see a general lack, even amongst people who think they are otherwise-- more enlightened, whatever, to not embrace our sordid history, ever. The Gestapo isn't in our streets right now, the slave herders and the citizen-militia land-stealers are. All of this is as American as apple pie, redux. Unless we embrace this history and stand in that history, all this will continue forever. Truth and reconciliation, now.