In the Background He Stood Smiling

Many are talking about President Obama's Eulogy in South Carolilna.  It was a magnificant speech.

It also was very unusual, because for the first time the President really talked about race.

He dissected the past tragedy of slavery and its effect on the brutal killer who shot nine people to death during Bible study in a Church.  He spoke of Grace, a gift from God that we do not earn, but simply have God's love to do with what we can.  Most fail to even see it, because of our sins.

He described this eternal truth in a preacher's voice.

He told us the "conversation" that this tragedy should cause about race was not needed, because God only knows, we have discussed and fought over this endlessly.

It is Grace he said, Love for our fellow human, with no regard for racial characteristics, that is all we have to do.  We are blind and cannot see this simple truth.  

As the President spoke I focused on  another man on the podium.  He was in the back, fading in and out in time with the melody of the President's speech.  He smiled most of the time, with arms folded, surveying the crowd.

He was a very tall man, dressed a bit oddly  for the occassion, but his reactions to the President's message were unmistakable.  He shook his head in sadness as the President recited the names of the victims.  He smiled when the President spoke about taking the Confederate Flag down.  His eyes moistened when the President spoke of eternal grace, and being able to see that Grace and acting accordingly.

Then the President concluded his talk with Amazing Grace, which he remarkably  sung himself.  The old man on the podium was visibly shakened by this, and a tear flowed down his cheek.

And finally, in the most telling phrase in the speech, the President, as he always does, blessed the U-N-I-T-E-D States of America.  It was then that the old, tall man  applauded enthusiastically.  

The President read this slowly and for obvious effect, since  the Civil War started a few miles from where  the President stood.

As the crowd dispersed, and handshakes were all around, I saw the man, quietly walk to the back and merge into the curtains.

As he did so, he put on his  tall stove pipe shaped hat.  

The Vice President of the Confederacy Speaks

For all of you Republicans and Fox News Followers, who still believe slavery was not the cause of the Civil War, these are Alexander Stephens, Vice President of the Confederacy, words justifying the establishment of the Confederate States of America.

If anyone who can read English can read this and still believe the defense of slavery and racism was not the primary cause of the Civil War, then they are just living in a world of make believe!  

"Our new government is founded upon exactly the opposite idea; its foundations are laid, its corner- stone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery subordination to the superior race is his natural and normal condition. This, our new government, is the first, in the history of the world, based upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth. This truth has been slow in the process of its development, like all other truths in the various departments of science. It has been so even amongst us. Many who hear me, perhaps, can recollect well, that this truth was not generally admitted, even within their day. The errors of the past generation still clung to many as late as twenty years ago. Those at the North, who still cling to these errors, with a zeal above knowledge, we justly denominate fanatics. All fanaticism springs from an aberration of the mind from a defect in reasoning. It is a species of insanity. One of the most striking characteristics of insanity, in many instances, is forming correct conclusions from fancied or erroneous premises; so with the anti-slavery fanatics. Their conclusions are right if their premises were. They assume that the negro is equal, and hence conclude that he is entitled to equal privileges and rights with the white man. If their premises were correct, their conclusions would be logical and just but their premise being wrong, their whole argument fails."

This and other arguments of the time have been used for over a century, since the Civil War, to justify the "lost cause" and supported Jim Crowe and still motivate racist lunatics like that demented soul who killed the innocents in South Carolina last week.

Alexander Stephens was Vice President of the Confederate States of America and is here supporting the racist explanation for the need to preserve slavery....

To be fair, to a racist, Mr. Stephens did not have access to the DNA and genetic scientific facts of the twentieth century, that prove conclusively that all of humankinds is 98% genetically the same....there simply  are no significant differences tied to racial make up....NONE!  

This is why the battle flag of the Confederacy needs to come down and off every state government vestige in this country.  And flying it should be a crime!!!!

Freedom?

I can't put this one down without another comment.  

Mr. Will, true to his aristocratic upbringing and extreme condescension, states that political free speech is somehow the same, in a coroporate context, to "discuss" fairly with individuals in the political arena.  He equates  the economic power of Apple to Greg Beale.  Both deserve the same protections for speech.  Really?  

This is the rub.  I will bet if you ask 100 Americans what free speech means to them, they will speak of an individual's right to express themselves without recriminiation.  The First Amendment does not speak of political free speech for groups, or representatives of groups,  it addresses protections for individual citizens.  

In fact, any beginning political science student will tell you that the Bill of Rights was added to the Constitution as a condition of its ratification, as amendments to address concerns that INDIVIDUAL rights be protected.  Hence the right to be protected from searches and seizures, the right to be informed of charges against you; etc.  Note, how the word  individual  

comes up again and again as we study the Bill of Rights.  

There is no corporate there.  A corporation is an organization, a group endeavor, usually for profit, or also non-profit.  Corporation groups were simply not in America in 1789.  And, the Bill of Rights was never intended to protect groups, it was specifically to protect individual rights.  That was part of the grand compromise that got the Constituion ratified.  Americans remembered the repression the British had used against them in pre-revolution times, many colonists could still remember why they fled Europe to America: individualism and individual rights.  

What the Supreme Court did was to treat corporate interests like individuals.  This goes to the infamous ruling by a former court, that, as Mitt Romney famously said, "Corporations are individuals too, my friend".  

So, as individuals we would expect a level playing field when it comes to the Citizen United political, free speech, right?  As Will smugly states, "we need to not regulate politics".  

And that is simply wrong.  Politics has been regulated from its inception.  The Congress of the United States makes laws through the political process.  And from it comes regulations of all sizes and colors.   Men are indeed political animals, but if left unregulated, you get war and violence.  Even a cursory study of the French Revolution will prove that.  

So, the "regulators" as Will states, are always out there, regulating free political speech and then are shocked by how their rules backfire.    And what does he consider a backfire...like the election of a Black President???

Finally, we need to ponder what this is doing to our political process.  By equating Apple Computer Corporation for example to me, Citizens United assumes fatally that we are both individuals and therefore should be regulated little if at all.  So I take my paltry retirement income and the resources it can buy, up against Apple Computer with its Billions.  I can buy 10 seconds on the local T.V. station, Apple can buy through a Super Pac, hours on the national scale.  This is fair?  This is a fixed game!

In the United States we use T.V. advertisements (and the Internet) as part of a highly materialistic political campaign process.  The size of monetary support for a candidate is reported constantly, or at least guessed  at, thanks to Citizens United, and is used to predict winners and losers.  Dark money runs the show.  

And sure enough, the size of a political war chest directly affects the future of a candidate's chances to win.  At last check, the Koch Brothers' corporation has dedicated over a BILLION dollars to elect the President.  

The Koch Brothers have poured money into state legislative races and governors races from Maine to California.  And the results have been spectaculor, the majority of governors are conservative Republicans and same with the state legislatures.  And these "representative" bodies in no way reflect the citizenry they represent.    The book, "Whats the Matter with Kansas" springs to mind.  Currently Kansas has a zealot for a Governor, who has bankrupted the state, but politically is protected by a right wing legislature and a election process that no longer can hold him accountable.

And accountability is essential to good government.  

Citizens United ended accountability in the United States.  

This occurs because voter turnouts are deliberately suprressed, people are sick of advertisement politics, and simply do not vote, leaving exactlly what the Koch brothers and others want, a political playing field tilted heavily in their oil interest favor and not accountable to the people they do not represent; the corporations is who they really represent.  

And if I decide to speak out, what resources do I have against their billions?  This is the point that Will and the other plutocrats don't bother to tell you:  THE GAME IS FIXED FROM THE BEGINNING.  EQUATING FREE POLITICAL SPEECH BY EQUATING CORPORATIONS WITH INDIVIDUAL FREE EXPRESSON IS A FATAL CONTRADICTION.  

 How in the world can I compete in a political discussion equally with the billions of the Koch brothers, the legions of political consultants they hire, the PACS and SuperPacs they employ?

So we slide further into the fascism they are pushing for so diligently.  And George Will loves it, since unregulated is his mantra, his religion; and unregulated gets lots of Republicans elected.   

Unregulated is good, he preaches,  it will always produce a better result.  Tell 1932 that.  Tell 1939 that.  Tell WWII surviivors that.

Unregulated political speech leads to death of democracy, and ultimately war, since the political process is regarded as unable to solve economic problems and issues.  So, sooner or later, a leader comes along that says, "forget democracy" follow me...Hitler, Mussolini; etc.  Or the people finally rise up and kill them all; witness Syria and the Middle East.  

Ironically, the poltical system that the corporations work to control, in the end always leads to the destruction of the economic stability they need to continue to profit.  E

ver seen the ruins of Germany in 1945?  Consider that the Krupp Industries gave millions to support HItler and his political madness, then watched in horror as their factories were bombed into oblivion.  

Our political system from city councils to the Congress is poisoned by special interests.  The Republicans have pushed for years that this is somehow politically healthy, as one bribery case after another occurs.  Again, government regulation of political speech is seen as the enemy of democracy.  One thing it is the enemy of, bribery. 

In fact, leveling the playing field, so ordinary citizens can express their political opinions with equal volume as corporations is the ONLY way we can preserve freedom.  And, it is also the only way to continue to provide a stable and peaceful economy in which corporations prosper.  

And thanks to George Will, we are failing miserably...

The Tragedy of Shasta Lake City

Shasta Lake City, once called Central Valley after the Central Valley Project one of the largest water reclamation projects on earth, has always labored under a downcast second class stigma.

Most of this stigma  is very wrong and unfair.  Central Valley was and is one of the poorest areas in Shasta County, but much of it is not their fault.  Shasta Lake City is one of the more beautiful spots in Shasta County.  

Shasta Dam was the last large dam built as part of the  huge water reclamation projects of the early twentieth century.  Legions of workers, called dambusters, followed these huge projects to escape the ravages of the depression.  When a dam was completed, say Hoover or Boulder Dam, the Federal Government would leave a "planned" community for future generations.  

In Shasta Dam's case, there was no planned commuinity.  The dam was completed during the Second World War and the Feds did not have the extra money to leave a planned community.

So Central Valley, Project City and Summit City (named after the workers'  tent cities that grew up to support the dam's construction), had no  infrastructure, no water system,no sewage system to speak of.  The Feds just left, with practically nothing of benefit behind.  

The Federal Government did leave a small planned commuity, the administrative housing facility, which was famously taken over in the 60s by local Native American tribes for a time as a protest for the wrongs done to their land and interests. It was reduced to rubble.   Otherwise Central Valley had little in the way of a head start toward becoming a prosperous city.  I can remember during my eight years at Central Valley High School, the smell of sewage that would always follow a strong rain storm, because the sewage system was basically home made.  

So poverty was the starting point.  And a sense of being a second class area in a county that was becoming more prosperous after the war due to the explosion of the logging industry was strong.  Central Valley, in spite of the fact that the dam and federal project it was named after was directly responsible for Shasta County's affluence, was depicted in the larger community as a poor, underclass place.  

It is interesting, because the dam workers, many who lived in Central Valley, were the best paid workers in Shasta County in the late 1930s and early 40s.  They would come to Redding and spend their paychecks on the whores on California Street and the bars.  There were many fights between the "townies" of Redding, and the "hicks" from Central Valley.  There was great resentment in Redding citizens because the "hicks" from C.V. actually made way more money!  

In the mid-1950s Central Valley High School was built.  It was needed because Redding was growing rapidly, partly due to Shasta Dam, and one high school was not large enough.  Unfortunately for Central Valley High, it was the smallest high school between Enterprise and Shasta, but was forced to compete athletically in the NAL.  

So, winning was very difficult.  One year in the 60s Central Valley High did not win a varsity boys game in any sport until baseball season!

Understandably the citizens of Central Valley did not like this stigma.  And they rebelled by "unifying" Central Valley High out of the Shasta Union High School District in the early 1990s.  

At the time I was an Assistant Principal and Interim Principal of Central Valley High School.  I have the dubious honor of being the Principal of the school when it was unified out of the district.

There is more to this than  just a school reorganization.  There was a great amount of bitterness and resentment in the Central Valley community for alleged wrongs the greater Redding area constantly foisted upon them.  Some of these were fanciful, some not.  But for sure, there was a pent up resentment.  Shasta High students called C.V. students hicks and worse, while running up the scores on them.  

In the 1980s for example, the Central Valley Varsity Football Team won 3 games in the whole decade.  

The citizens of now Shasta Lake City blamed the Shasta Union High School District for this unfairness. And they had a point, the district for some strange reason, refused to allow the high school to move to a smaller school league.  This resulted in one year after another of defeat.

But, in the unification lies the moral of this story.  It should have never happened.  At the time proponents of unification studied future enrollments and quickly realized that a viable reorganization depended on Bella Vista and Columbia areas being included in the unification.  Both areas were independent and did not want to be associated with the unification, so they opted out.  This left the unified area with a small population base, in areas that did not promise rapid population growth. 

Shasta Lake City for example is a retirement community with few school aged students.  The Buckeye area is mostly commercial with few new housing developments.  So, while the greater Redding area grew into the twenty first century, the attendance area of the new Gateway Unifed School District did not.  In fact it is shrinking.  

And then, in another spurt of local civic pride, Shasta Lake City was born.

Again, this organization faced formnable obstacles, small tax base, little real growth potential, and another threat that nobody could foretell:  the implications of a killer drought on a community that relies greatly on recreation revenue from Shasta Lake.

As Shasta Lake goes, so goes Shasta Lake City.  And Shasta Lake is running dry.

So now we see about 150 students graduate from Central Valley High.  The size of the student body has almost halfed in the years since the unification.  The school does compete in a smaller school league and the years of losing have ended, but the school district is becoming less viable by the year.

Small high schools are dificult to run, because the smaller they get the more difficult it is to offer a full ranged curriculum.  College bound students transfer out to larger schools because they have to.  The University of Califorinia system requires what is called an A to G curriculum, full ranged from chemistry to calculus.  Small high schools cannot offer that.  

So Central Valley High School, who once had Bella Vista students and Columbia students in its student body, now have way less.  Ironically, the claims that under the Shasta Union High School District the school was being shortchanged have only come true AFTER the unification due to declining enrollemnt.  

It pains me to see what was a wonderful high school struggle with declining enrollment.  No school can overcome this.  The state's financial support of schools punishes declining enrollment severely.  I have often said, Jesus himself could not overcome declining enrollment.  

And now we see Shasta Lake City's council cut the fire department in half due to declining revenues in the middle of the worst drought in recorded history.  This seems to make no sense.  

But it makes perfect sense in the tragedy that has become Shasta County and Shasta Lake City in particular.  Reactionary political and educational moves almost always result in unwanted and unforseen consequences.  As it turns out Shasta Lake City and the Gateway Unified School District are in big trouble because they are separate and smaller.   

In retrospect they needed to stay part of a larger governmental entity (there was a move to incorporate them into Redding in the 1980s) for fiscal, educational and viable government reasons.  

Smaller is not always better.  I worry about my friends in the Shasta Lake City area as the days grow hotter and the water dwindles with 1/2 the fire fighters.  I worry about Central Valley High School.  

Benign Neglect

Richard Nixon, after a few years of racial unrest, versus hundreds of years of slavery, brutality and even genocide, remarked that what American needed now was a few years of "benign neglect".

And this was after the civil rights "unrest" of 1960 to 1970.  

Ten years of unrest, versus almost three centuries of racism, segragation, discrimination and murder.

Yesterday, President Obama remarked that what we are seeing in the recent protests, most peaceful, is the product of years of indifference.

There is that term again, except this time the President was not calling for more of it, but calling for it to end.

I taught and led in lower socio-economic areas for over half of my educational career.  I saw everyday the product of "benign neglect" and "indifference" in the hopelessness of school children.

The memories are too numerous to recount.  It was a culture of very limited chances.  On the Grindstone Rancheria there was a culture of despair, with drugs and alcohol prevalent, sexual and physical abuse rampant and suicides common.

In Del Paso Heights, there was violence and a feeling of anger, repressed rage for the second class citizenship that people were doomed to from birth. 

In the 1970s in Del Paso Heights, a mostly minority school district was dominated by whites.  The sports teams were great, the test scores were not so great.  We had African American leadership, but little opportunity.  The district had police, and bands of teens roamed the halls, beating those who looked differently from them.  Teachers and aides were also fair game and you were schooled to not go alone across campus.  

I will never forget after a football awards ceremony, the star quarterback for Grant High School came up to me and asked me how to get into college, "Because if I don't get out of here I will be dead before I am 25".  

I gave him some advice, and he was dead, I found out later, by 22.

And what reaction was there from the "dominant culture"..indifference.

That is the incidious part, the indifference.  No longer do you see much blantant racism, it has gone underground via a "New Jim Crowe" that incarcerates African Americans and Latinos at high rates, wiping out whole generations of young colored generatioins.   

Native Americans now have casinos, but little else, as their suicide rate is climbing.

And we have a conservative plutocracy in the country, that threatens to run it...into the ground of denial and indifference.  Fox News puts up a wall of denial; the con is that racism is dead in America, discrimination is over, no need for any affirmative action, even though all the statistics show little progress for people of color since 1960.  The United States has not put a dent into racism in this country!

People of color know there will be no change, there has been so little so far after the sacrifices of Dr. King...so few. The white dominate culture is firmly in control, the rich get richer and poor, poorer.

The statistics don't lie either, if you are of color your chances for success in this country are way lower than if you are white.

We live in a country of lies and of radical right indifference, that often result violent denial.

So police profile, they kill people of color in higher percentages than whites, and they are never held accountable.

And the streets are mean where the Police work, and they get mean as a result, going from those who should protect and serve, to those who protect themselves and beat down the enemy, who is the community they are paid to protect.  

Until recently the white dominant culture neglected these realities.  

The neglect never has been benign!  The indifference is deadly!

Entrepreneur or fool?

Entrepreneurs: I just left an "idea" on the website of the California entrepreneur who wanted to split California into six states. My "idea" was to consolidate local school districts;not exactly a new idea breakthrough.

What bothers me about these "thinkers" is most of them are engineers by training. Now, some of my best friends are engineers, but they make rotten governors. 

Public Administration is actually a skill set. In our democracy it is one that is constantly criticized by businessmen and women who , because they can run a business, think they can govern. 

I am always reminded of the most spectaculor failure of an engineer trying to govern: Herbert Hoover.

Hoover was a man of business, who trainwrecked the American government.

Now to be fair, Hoover was a product of his time. In 1930 government had a minimal role to play in the economy. Free enterprise was nearly completely unregulated, and had put the country in the ditch for years.

The Great Depression taught the country that government regulation of the economy and bureaucracies were not bad.

Today we hear calls  to eliminate these same regulations as "bloated" and ineffective. That may be true that  some that are outdated, but the basic truth that government requires, well, laws, regulations and GOVERNMENT.  

And the free thinker , who is collecting ideas, as if they haven't been been made countless times before, is almost ludicrous.  It is like only business technology billionaires can come up with ideas to reform government.  You are talking fish out of water here.  They don't have a clue!

Over 300 million people live in the United States. The vast majority of the population live in highly complex urban environments. How on earth can we govern this with the minimalist approach of conservatives is beyond me?  

What we get with small government is ALWAYS poor government, poverty and ultimately, violence.

The Marshall Plan is given credit for saving Europe from Communist take over after WWII.  The reason it worked is Marshall recruited local government experts to rebuild war torn countries and public bureaucrats who knew how to make cities work.  And he got them cheap, many still had enlistments and were in the service, or extended to do the work for a few year; and Europe rebounded faster than anyone imagined.

Credit American City Managers, sewage experts, firemen, police; etc., all those mundane bureacrats that conservatives criticize every day.  

President George W. Bush imagined Iraq as a new conservative Marshall Plan.  He promised that a conservative approach, with privatization not public administration would rebuild Iraq cheaper and better, calling his efforts a new "Marshall Plan" for Iraq.  

Nobody calls it that anymore.  Bush's efforts were wrong headed and a disaster.   Water systems STILL don't work, billions of dollars were basically ripped off by private contractors and nothing works.  This led to a rebirth of opposition to American efforts for reform, sectarian violence, and a train wreck.

Why, well go back to 1930 and Hoover, and you find the same thing.  Anti-government politicians make rotten governors.  

Now , we have made the horrible mistake of allowing big money and corporations to buy what government we have, rendering state and local governments ineffective and actually aiding the huge gap between the rich and the poor.

We need government with a new reform movement, not to get rid of government, but get private enterprise whores out of it. Otherwise, we can brainstorm all we want, it won't work!  It has never worked before, witness Hoover and lately Bush.  

There is a saying, "The People get the government they deserve".  

Another Nameless Faceless Indian

She was a beautiful girl and very intelligent.  She was the top student in her class and would have been headed to a major college except for the "Rez".

You see on trhe "Rez" any Native American, especially a girl, who excelled in school was seen as uppity, as being stuck up, "acting better than us".  

And the pressure was telling.  I met with the girl for hours to try to bolster her spirits.  Our counselor did so as well, literally helping the girl question by question to fill out her financial aid forms.

The girls mother came in and we talked for hours as well,as to what we could do.  The girl  was depressed, angry, disorientated even and scared.  She had never been off the "Rez", had barely travellel at all.  She was a local Native American, had attended the school district all of her life.

And she was a winner.  She was one of those I met in my 35 years in education who you just knew was going to do great things.

So graduation came, she was Valedictorian and she prepared to attend Yuba College and end her "Rez" stay.

I retired that year.  In the fall I received a letter from her mother, thanking me for the countless hours of counseling, and informing me her daughter had at the last minute changed her mind, had got a boyfriend and moved to Willows.  At least she was out of here the mother said.  She hoped her daughter would enroll in Yuba College in the winter semester.

A year later the letter came.  The girl had hung herself.  She was gone.  Yet another Native American statistic, of a number that shoulld shame us all, more Native Americans commit suicide by percentage than any other group in America.  So a flame for the future, a hope for us all, was extinguished at 20 years old.

This last week I did a WASC in a remote area of California (I won't give the location for reasons you will soon know).  The next to last day of the visit, the Principal came to us and told us the visit would be very different.  A "sporatic student", a Native American sophomore who lived on the "Rez" had hung herself.  The girl had drug issues was all the Principal said.

The girl was 15 years old.  

A little over a century ago, this country deliberately stole billions of acres of land from countless Native American tribes.  Then a system of genocide killed millions.  The ones who were left, were "civilized" with a system of reservations, forced into inhuman conditions, and then took the children away to be "Americanized".  Carlillle Indian School put five year olds into uniforms, locked the children in dorms, with no mothers and little adult supervision, beat the children if spoke their native language, and produced Jim Thorpe, America's Greatest Athlete.

Later, his coach, Pop Warner, moved on to Stanford, who changed its mascot to Indians.  When I played there I was an Indian....Stanford changed it mascot to Cardinal because the history you are reading here, and some alumni still are upset.  We had a African American quarterback, who the publicity department put a Indian Headress on, and made him into a Chief as quarterback.  He wasn't Native American.  And the "song dollies", all white, put on short little skirts with Native American logos on them, the tom tom would sound, and here came the wild Indians.  

Later, when I found out the whole story that I was part Cherokee it made me ill!  And today we still have the Redskins, the Braves, the Utes, the Seminoles; etc.  

Meanwhile a wasteland of cultural destruction resulted in generations of alcoholism, drug use and yes suicide.  The noble savage and brave warriors the cartoons white culture put on the sides of football helmets, were in reality living in poverty, hopelessness and yes, suicide!

And, if it could be worse, then the dominiant culture discovered oil, took even more land, and plunged us into an industrial age that has loaded the atmosphere with CO2, cut all the trees down, and today it will be 95 degrees in Redding, California in April, and it hasn't rained for weeks.

Death, destruction, hate, genocide, environmental genocide; you name it, the white dominiant culture did it.  And they are still doing it!

Fifteen years old and hung from a door in her "Rez" room.  Twenty years old and dead of a deliberate overdose  and she was the top graduate in her class, with a limitless future.

You see, that is what it did, the American Holocaust, it killed the future for millions of Native Ameircans:including  my great great grandfather who was lynched because he was a Cherokee and married a white woman: and they made the children watch.

Several Native American Chiefs talked about this tragedy and foretold the furture.  They speak of a Reckoning, a time when nature and the Great Mystery, reacted to the holocaust, and strikes back at the invaders.

I have grandchildren.  I don't want them hurt no matter what.  They are a small amount mixed blood, with Cherokee history as part of them.  

But the dominant white culture continues in its headlong rush to reckoning.  Republicans don't believe in global climate change.  They scoff at any laws to build human beings rather than Apple watches.  They cut education.  They cut aid to the poor.  And they have cut assistance to Native Americans always....Democrats have done this too.  It as if the dominant culture does the same thing over and over expecting a different result, but their greed blinds them to the enormous danger!

Reservations and Racherias are not very nice places.  They are underfunded and underserved.  Only the Casino movement has helped put some money into education, health and welfare, but only for a small minority: and even they are fighting amongst themselves for the bounty, as their white masters stand back and chuckle.

But someone else is not chuckling.  The Great Mystery is not laughing.  And the reckoning is coming for all of us, a living hell on earth, of wars, starvation and ultimate the extinctiion of us all

I hope those two beautiful souls are in a better place.  I know we aren't!