I Lost Sympathy

“I lost sympathy for him when the mother and a gang banger got on top of a car and…
Hey, he stole, he was caught on tape roughing a store clerk, and he was a thug.

All of the above are and other statements are symbolic of what is wrong with our country.  They represent years of Jim Crowe discrimination and today a legal system that incarcerates millions in a prejudiced system that would rather jail than reform, would rather repress than educate  would  rather run than turn and deal with centuries of oppression that America has  barely addressed.

 We all are running from ourselves.  We sit in our locked community, holding tight to our guns, waiting…

This  is the America of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the forced busing of 1968, that lasted about 10 seconds.

The America of the War on Poverty that lasted two years!  Hundreds of years of oppression and we fixed it in two years??

 We desegregated our schools by segregating them!

We all know what happened.  Whites ran.  Whites left inner cities for the suburbs.  African Americans and other people of color were left in the inner cities to rot. People still laugh at Detroit’s failures, not realizing that those failures are our failures.

California, a liberal state, has one of the most segregated school systems in the country.  And this is a liberal state, one that some rural counties want to abandon because “they” live there.

The truth is we all have been running from “them” all of our lives.  When we shop for houses they must be in a “nice neighborhood”.  When we shop for schools, we make sure “they” are not in the majority.

Only the lesser live “there”.

And, because we are obsessed with “law and order” we pass law after law multiplying prison sentences for minor crimes, and for drug addictions, so we can “them” in jail forever.

If you care, read “A New Jim Crowe”…that book tells it all!

The United Nations just condemned the United States for two problems:  1. an incarceration rate that leads the world.  2.  A kill rate for police that leads the world.

But what the hell, it’s just the United Nations, what do they know.  We shouldn’t be in it anyway, right, just like we stayed out of the League of Nations and helped Hitler with his madness by doing so.

I spent 35 years in education and this is reality:  Charter Schools were started to get away from “them”, to find “better schools” away from ‘bad elements’.

The “Waiting for Superman” B.S.  purports to show the horrors of segregated education, then incredibly  offers segregated private schools as a remedy.  So we just RUN AWAY again.

Many voters want to end our public schools.

We no longer serve our country either.  The Armed Forces that you were forced to join because of the “peace time” draft forced many of us to spend time close to and under the supervision by people of color.  Less than one percent of us now get that experience.

Always the “them” are people of color…always.  And sure enough the children of color are relegated to the mean streets, where some (not the majority) adopt violence and gang behavior to fit in, to survive.

Sure some of them are punks….Sure they are gangsters.  Sure they are violent.  And they are human beings, children really, who often, have to join to survive, have to behave like animals because the mean streets demand it.

 And it will take a lot of work and money to fix this broken system that kills children everyday by its negligence.

I will never forget the many times African American children told me, after they trusted me, “Mr. Beale I have to get out of here or I will be dead before I am 25”.

 And many of them were.

And we sit back in our safe houses and wring our hands.  And we say, he was a bully he got what he deserved when a child is gunned down for stealing a cigar and pushing a clerk in a corner market.

If it was a white kid everything would be different and you all know it.

The tragedy is that liberal and conservative fail on this one.  We have failed for hundreds of years.  We will not face our past and learn by it.  We refuse to judge people by their character, but judge them by the color of their skin!

Every day we forget what Martin Luther King taught us…every damn day!

We watch “them” play professional sports at an incredible high level and root like hell for “them”.  But, we won’t live next door to “them”.

 We tolerate team names like Redskins and Braves, blithely ignoring centuries of repression and genocide in our own history.  We point to racist African Americans who point at Native Americans and Koreans as inferior.  We feel better if “they” discriminate also, as if that is somehow proving anything except the weaknesses of human behavior.

And many say, “Not me”, I’m not racist.  THEY are.  Not me.  You are just being politically correct by speaking out…”they lost me when they showed their anger”.

Jesus Christ, remember him?   The kid was shot over a half dozen times and was unarmed!   Sure he was pissed off.  Sure he ran!  He was shot!

 And it happens every damn day, by police, citizens, jerks; et al., and we still arm people to the teeth.

Ever wonder in one of the most racist cultures on the planet, why we allow widespread use of fire arms?  Every wonder just a little bit?  What does mass ownership of guns support?   Mass violence and oppression!

Ok, here’s a little story for you.  When I went to Stanford (which was almost lily white in those days), I joined a fraternity that allowed Jews, Latinos, and African Americans into it.  Now in the 60s, there weren’t a lot of “them” in the school but the fraternity was kicked out by the national office, which was housed on Alabama.

And my first roommate was a black guy, who happened to be captain of the football team that I also toiled for.   He was a star, I wasn’t.

My junior year I was going to start, and during the summer one of “them” transferred in and took by spot.  I had to compete against “them”.  And when we were on the field, my whiteness gave me no advantage whatsoever.  It was a meritocracy for sure.

 Meanwhile my roommate graduated and when to UCLA Med School and became a doctor. He then spent several years in Africa tending to the sick.

He was one of the biggest African Americans I have ever known, incredibly strong and fast, and one of the greatest human beings I have ever known.  I know this because we talked for hours about each other, our girlfriends, our fears, our feelings, we became friends.  We grew to really know each other.  The skin color disappeared.

And it changed me.  Living with people of color changes you.

But  I am still racist to a point.  I also get that creepy feeling when in a group of people who are of color pass me on the, I put my hand on my wallet….I am wary.  I still feel fear.

But I also touch “them” every chance I get.  When I see a beautiful child of color, with their parents’   permission of course,  I get close as I can and touch them like I would a white child.  I purposefully break down the space barrier.  I slap the waiters on the back, I shake their hands.  

I do this because I spent at least five years of my career in “ghetto” environments.  I walked as a minority in a sea of colored faces.  I dealt with gang bangers, lots of kids on probation, child abuse, and yes racial violence.  I realized quickly “they” are just people like “us” and I go out of my way to show it.

The vast majority of the educational establishment then as now,  practiced  systematic repression of people of color.

It was sometimes subtle, sometimes graphic like when I witnessed our white Principal give “locker to locker” counseling to a seventh grader, throwing him from locker bank to locker bank until the kid was nearly unconscious.  And that Principal, white of course, later served on the California School Board in Sacramento!

White kids went to college, black kids went to jail.

And my great-great  grandfather was hung by confederate soldiers just before the Civil War broke out because he was a Cherokee married to a white woman.

And that makes all the difference in the world.  It makes a difference when your family has a lynching in its legacy.  It matters when your grandfather was born on an Indian Reservation.

One day we will have to stop running from ourselves.  One day we will have to realize that Love is First.  One of these days we will tell the Police to stop shooting people of color just because they are “mean” or “gangsters”.  One of these days we will stop shooting ourselves to “fix” a problem.  ‘\

Violence begets violence!!

One of these days we well all mourn and be appalled when any child, regardless of color, and regardless of circumstance is gunned down by anybody.

The Police see this every day.  They are on the firing line.  It isn’t Officer Wilson who we should be so concerned it is the “mean streets” claim victims all the time, like the five year old who just yesterday was killed with a shot in the head fired in a mistaken drive by shooting by a bunch of African American gangsters.  The girl was African American.

The Police are on the front line of crime and violence that is America.  And  black on black crime versus white on white crime is about the same.  We kill rape and rob from our own “kind” more often than not. We live in one of the most violent societies on the planet, so don’t so quickly condemn a public servant for acting in an  environment of madness!

We condone a gun ownership society and a violence entertainment industry that teaches that problems in  human relationships can be solved with a gun.  Everyday, every day I see on T.V. or at the movies, the lesson that justice emanates from the barrel of a gun.

And what has it got us; a society that the United Nations no less has condemned.   A culture that allows “Redskins” as a team mascot for our nation’s capital’s    football team?

That really says it all.  Washington D.C., which was once a slave trading center, STILL has REDSKINS as its football team’s mascot!  And an African American Heisman Trophy winner starts as its quarterback.

Jesus H. Christ!

Finally, when Stanford changed its mascot from Indian to Cardinal (actually changed it back), many of my fellow alums and friends STILL go off on that “political correctness”.

And as I imagine my great-great grandfather swinging from that rope.

Really? Really?

Sometimes the actions of the right wing defy imagination.

The latest is the Supreme Court's taking of yet another challenge to the ACA.

This time it is not on constitutional grounds, but purely on legislative pretext (the Court acting like the mortibund Congress).

You see Congress for the past four years, has refused to do ANYTHING in a bi-partisan way.  The ordinary "clean up" of bills, even if your side lost the original vote, has not occurred.

So the Court has incredibly taken on a decision that could take affordable insurance away from millions of Americans.

Because, the ACA is working.  Just like its clone, in Massachusetts, after a slow start, millions are signing up to one, avoid the tax penalty, but two, to get the tax credit that will drop their health insurance to affordable levels.

And this is all for one sentence in the ACA that seems to imply that only state originated exchanges can offer tax deductions.

Many other places in the ACA it directly states that participation in either the state or federal built exchanges will qualify the participant for a tax credit.  The title of the law is the Affordable Care Act, which would make no sense if only a certain exchange qualifies a person for affordable care.

If the court rules that the IRS cannot apply the tax credit to all, then it will be basically be saying that states can veto federal law, nullification again?

Yes, that would be nullification that in U.S. history has always reeped bad returns:  read the Civil War, Jim Crowe, Civil Rights upheavals.

And what about the 14th Amemdment?  Does't that provide equal protection and equal application of law?

Every author of the law has stated that there is no way a segregated applicaton of the ACA's tax breaks is what they intended.  We NEVER heard anything about this mis-print, until a conservative group found the mis-print.

Again, in past years followup legislation would have fixed this.  But this is not ordinary times.

So, if the Supreme Court rules that the law may be applied unequally, millions will instantly be denied the lower cost insurance thay bought.  Millions.

And conservatives, who are arrogant beyond all belief, actually believe they will walk away without blame.  Are you kidding me?

There will be a backlash of millions of consumers, who got a break on their health care and now see their premiums go up with no tax relief.  Democrats will hammer them in 2016.

But worse, it will once again divide this country in a pre-Civil War consciousness, that I am predicting will have Americans killing Americans soon in wide spread violence.

All this so a bunch of ass holes can get their revenge on a President who only wanted to provide a system of health insurance that could bring down prices.

Really?   Then let them rot!

What about Congress?

This is a response to an article in the Sacramento Bee that fear mongered the threat of illegals might pose since they now won't be deported if they have a child that is a citizen:

Your well researched and totally biased piece wanders through logic until the last paragraph.   Your tortured logic demands that we deport illegals because they might commit a crime!

What?

We are to accept that illegal aliens (like from outer space) are all criminals who now can feast on us since we have to wait until they commit a crime before they can be deported.  Have you looked up extradition in the Dictionary?

In our technological world, we are to accept that criminals cannot be tracked from country to country, and if they are wanted in their country, can't extradite them?

A Sacramento  sheriff gets on You Tube and trumpets that we are at risk.  The sky is falling, the sky is falling.  Be afraid, always be afraid.

So the next time I am in a hotel I will carry a weapon because the maids are all axe murderers!

You quote huge numbers of "potential" criminals as proof of the danger.  That is fear mongering.

No wonder the kid was shot down in Ferguson.  No wonder our jails are full of people of color, many who stole a piece of bread metaphorically.  Try reading "The New Jim Crowe", to see how racism is alive and well in our justice system.  A Sacramento Sheriff is the LAST person I listen to relative to race relations.  How many people of color are in his police force:  I will bet way lower than the population at large!

Once again you use fear...why always the fear.?  Because it works.  It worked the last time citizens of your persuasion used it on a large scale:  witness Germany 1932.

The facts are that the huge majority of illegals in this state and country are law abiding citizens.  There are criminals of course, how about extradition for example to deal with them?  How about legislation legalizing and taxing marijuana nation wide that would break the back of the Mexican Cartels where most of the "alien" crime starts?

Oh, that would involve law changes right?  Or it might involve treating our Latin American neighbor countries as equals under the law and beef up our extradition treaties.

But that would involve CONGRESS right?  And CONGRESS right now is too much involved in shoving the conservative world view down our throats, tax cuts forever and balancing the budget on the backs of the poor.

Congress is dominated by the right wing, who don't give a damn about anything but power!

And meanwhile Ferguson burns.

And we all wait for real reform, bi-partisan reform,not my way or the highway reform that the principled right demands and Congressional Republicans fear more than death itself.

The problem is Congress,  who predictably have seized on immigration as the latest fear tactic for political power.

Meanwhile, we Democrats will continue registering Latinos to vote,  and vote you out of the state!

Enabling

So now its their turn.  After six years of obstructing every thing they can, of refusing to assist in any way health care reform, filibustering everything, refusing to approve hardly any administrative officials, the strategy has worked.

The American People, all 1/4 of eligible voters who bothered to vote, have sent a message that non-governing works.

We played with that nonsense in the great state of California for over 30 years.  Prop 13 ushered in a whole host of politicians, Ronald Reagan being the most well known, who propagated the myth that the best government was the one who governed least.

So for 30 years we cut taxes, put in an insane rule that 2/3 majorities for any increase in taxes but a simple majority could reduce taxes.  Republicans took a no tax increase pledge, and our government slowly starved to death.

And we as Democrats we enabled this behavior. We tried to compromise, the right went further right, we tried to accommodate,  more schools closed, we tried to negotiate, college tuitions went higher and higher; everything liberals did was rebuffed by a zealot led right wing Republican Party.

And along came Barack Obama and the Iraq War.  Suddenly the idea of small government fighting a big war while cutting taxes created a huge deficit, and de-regulation led us into a massive recession.

We basically repeated the sins on the 20s, ignoring the environment, and enabling the foolishness that the pursuit of profit in any way possible, would magically cure all ills.

It didn't during the Teapot Dome Scandal, the bust and boom cycle of the late 1800s, and in 1929.  But we Democrats enabled it.

We looked the other way as more and more people lost their homes to crooked mortgage lenders, more were made homeless, and veterans were treated like crap for service in a war that was more about George W. getting even  with a dictator for threatening his father than any national security concern.

We stood by as the United States threw trillions of dollars away and destabilized the Middle East all for oil.

Meanwhile conservatives seemed to have a death wish, refusing to compromise on anything, pure to their principles.  After 2012 it looked like they finally had done it, being crushed in an election that left them finally to confront a radical right wing that was leading them to irrelevancy.

Then we enabled them again by not finishing them off.  We apologized for our President, one even refused to admit she voted for the President and was crushed for her lack of honesty and loyalty.

And now we sit with a majority of cons and only the President in the way of rolling back the actions that saved the country from another great depression.

Meanwhile the Supreme Court yesterday took on a case that could gut the Affordable Care Act over a typo in the law...

Usually Congress would have long ago done follow up legislation to fix these common errors in language, but not the conservative Congress.  No, we have enabled their behavior,  we  have rewarded non-cooperation and obstructionism.

So we, all Americans will get what we deserve.  We will get what California got for almost 40 years, drops in services, deficits, pot holes, high tuition that is killing the American Dream, a medical system that is 35th in the world, poverty, and the fatal attraction that less is more regarding good government.

We get the government we deserve, and right now we don't deserve much.

Two Things

Tomorrow we face an "off year" election, a midterm, that customarily in American history means the party out of party makes big gains:  especially in the last two years of a sitting President's second term.

There are many political science explanations for this, coupled with the Senate electoral rotation, that happens to put more seats up in this rotation.

Moreover, the sitting President's party usually is exhausted by the events of the last election and quite simply sits home.  Mid-term gains for the non-Presidential party are common.

This phenomenon presents itself again this year.  Unfortunately, the stakes are incredibly high this time around and most Americans don't even know it.  A radical shift in the balance of political power is not in our best self interest.

It will be 80 degrees this week in Redding, California!   It is November.  California is caught in a killer drought.  More threatening is a trend of far less Sierra snow pack every year.  Not only are the ski lodges closing, but the water supply is dwindling.

Recent articles from 98% of the climate scientists in the world show a 97% certainty that climate change is man made.  In short, climate change is REAL and MAN MADE!  We must change our energy consumption habits and move to clean energy NOW.  Luckily solar and wind technology make this very possible.

Meanwhile, the first THING:  Republicans for some strange reason (they owe their money to oil, coal and gas companies, have decided that climate change is not real, or worse, that we can adapt to its ravages so why worry.

The cynicism of this is manifested in taking bribes from large companies to get elected, nothing more, nothing less.

We have to act now to avert catastrophe.  This is not a "scare tactic" it is real!   But Conservatives have a "winner " here.  They are gaining votes from their base, by simply putting their heads in the sand.

It reminds me of 1940, when conservatives lived in a isolationistic world of their making, having blocked America's entry into the League of Nations.  This head in the sand approach led to a one vote thin margin to implement the draft in 1940, that quite frankly saved the country when war broke out.  Without that victory over stupidity, America would not have won WWII.

 ONE VOTE!

The same thing applies now:  climate change will kill millions by mid-century, you grandchildren, and great grandchildren will live in a world at constant war over water, food and basic living conditions.  It will be chaos.

Meanwhile Republicans are solidly in the Koch Brother's camp, chemical and oil barons who are very unconcerned if your grandchildren die.

Secondly Republicans have decided that the decidedly conservative Affordable Care Act must be either appealed or emasculated.  They promise both if they get majorities in the Senate.

The President of course will veto any action threatening the Act, but a majority Congress can find a multitude of ways to destroy the ACA.

And this happens just as health care costs threaten to destroy the American economy and the middle class.

The Baby Boom is aging, the first two years have already reached 65.  As the majority reaches retirement Medicare will feel the strains.  Republicans want to destroy Medicare as we know it to "save it".

In fact they have hated it ever since it was passed.  They hate it because it helps people like my father, who without it, would be miserable even more than he is now.

In the larger context, millions now have access to health care thanks to the ACA.  It will take years to ramp up our medical system to serve them.

We cannot afford a two year hiatus, while the Republicans work overtime to destroy an African American President's legacy.

And that is what it is ALL about anyway: an African American President.  Southern racist conservatives cannot abide that a black man is in the White House (note the symbolism).

They will do anything to destroy President Obama, as a warning that only white people can be President.

And they are willing to destroy millions of people's lives to do it.

So, my fellow voters, those are the Two Things you face IF you vote tomorrow.

I pray that you vote.