too far from then

October 22, 1962 Walter Cronkite sat behind his desk at the CBS studio, glasses at the tip of his nose reading aloud the current situation of a nation at the ready to either stop the ignition of World War Three, or to light the match enabling the annihilation of not only democracy but the entire globe. Finishing reading the factual text of current events, Mr Cronkite removed his glasses looked straight into the camera as if peering directly into the eyes of those watching him and added these are the facts as we know it.

January 10, 2015 a heinous, horrific, cowardly but purposely planned attack at the offices of Charlie Hebdo followed by the insane, inane and evil murders at a Kosher Market took place in Paris. Immediately the American population became aware of one more terrorist plot to uneven the playing field and to smack at the hearts and souls of those who still believed that good existed. And just as the planners of mayhem and murder wished the responses of the people of the world and the United States was quick, full of shock, anguish and anger. And then not missing a beat the three major Cable Networks of the US decided to stop using facts to relate this incident, preferring to spice up the truth with truth of their own.

MSNBC provided its viewers with soft spoken, yet precisely worded anchors to try and tell us the story of why this happened. The cadre of MSNBC celebrities brought their somber faces to the screen, and decided that the back stories held as much priority as did the present moments of violence. America had to realize why this unbelievable occurrence was hatched and Americans should not be fooled into believing it was just happenstance. The truth was that innocents died, but MSNBC story focused on the how come, and why did we not realize it aspect.

CNN had no patience to wait for the facts, no, instead they became seers and decided to predict the future. Always concerned about being the first to tell the story, often times one they made up as they went along, CNN looked beyond the here and now and provided their viewers with insight concocted by a many D list talking head who were seen salivating as they threw in their own bias. CNN, always believing that the story needs to be told differently was at the top of their game with random and at times some ridiculous  reasons and rational.

FOX News, not one to miss petty propaganda in any world wide event, went immediately on the attack to identify the bad guys. Their almost whites only need to work here entertainers, were able to establish who was bad, who we, white Christian America needed to fear the most, and how President Obama was some way or other responsible for this terrorist action. As at least a dozen innocents lay dead in Paris, the fools at FOX were able to mention the IRS, Benghazi, hoodies and lack of respect for the police as the real culprits of crime. If President Obama had been more like torture expert, Dick Cheney or shock and awe George Bush those Muslim’s would have never even considered attacking anyone in France.

So much terrible has befallen the world in the last few days, but do any of us really know why or how or what for? Perhaps I was too young when Walter Cronkite was on TV to not really know good journalism, but I recall a time when the facts were enough to discuss without the bias and bigotry of wanna be Divas.My opinions were not molded or managed in those days. I could listen to the facts and let them speak for themselves. I am so afraid we have moved too far from that.

Amerika's New Congress

They call themselves America’s New Congress; the Speaker of the House, John Boehner standing in front of predominately male white Christian T-Publican Representatives with a scattering of female subservient white females at the ready to abolish abortion, same-sex marriage and any immigration to this country by people of the brown persuasion. Voted in by a sweet success of gerrymandered districts, Corporations are People slush money and a cadre of FOX propagandists, these self anointed Bible thumpers and revisionist Constitutionals want to make America even more privileged, Christian, Caucasian, Far Right and anything but a democratic society. Spouting we versus they, friends or enemies, our way or no other way, these hypocrites, paid for by even more selfish financiers and the fanciers of the bigoted and bias, brag about creating a society of haters, and hated!

First items on their agenda, dismantle social security, affordable health care for millions of Americans, environmental protections, and of course even more tax breaks for the one percent and their minions of Corporations are People. These shallow men and women pretend that trickle down economies really trickle down instead of up and try to rewrite the US Constitution to include voter discrimination, and a hatred for the average American. They swear that the Founding Fathers left Europe to establish a Christian only nation and to prove their point they have added the name of Jesus Christ as an author of the US Constitution. Buoyed by the absurd bullying of FOX News and Limbaugh Radio and the stupid who feel safer if they can create a scapegoat for their own human failings, this batch of fools known as the 114th Congress have great regard for the kickback and care less for those they kick in the ass!

Easy to be fooled by this batch of sinister liars. If you can identify a villain for your own failures instead of expending any effort into your own soul, your problems are solved. Too many Gays are destroying same-sex marriages, too many Hispanics are ruining the the opportunities for employment for the real white Americans of this nation. Too many women want to emasculate men by asking for fair pay. Too many blacks are uppity and expect to be treated as normal when all they really are, are thugs. Too many regulations to keep Capitalism alive and thieving. Too many non Christians destroying the kind of America Jesus stated would exist when he wrote both the Bible and Constitution.

They call themselves America’s New Congress…ever wonder what kind of America they represent?

do i hear an amen!!

Jeb Bush said that he respects the democratic process and reluctantly agreed that even if the courts over ruled the will of the citizens in Florida and somehow or other felt that same-sex marriage was indeed lawful, he would NOT become one more nay sayer. And then he added as most Christian based T-Publican politicians do, a caveat, that no one should be angry with the good, kind folks who, believing that their religion usurps the democratic process, are really bad people. He insinuated that religious beliefs and those who carry them as a torch somehow or other have as much right to discriminate as do those who only want fair and equal treatment under the law. God comes first, and no matter how skewed your religious beliefs may be, they ALSO should be respected on the same level as equality for all. Jeb Bush is firm believer in freedom for religion and is certainly against the idea of freedom from religion.

Prior to 1967, It was assumed that God, one of the authors of the US Constitution, was not very  much a fan of interracial marriages. His self proclaimed spokesMEN, mainly from the Southern Baptist wing of Heaven, made it very clear that even if God did create man, he did so in a pecking order, and those with darker skin were not as created as equal as those whose skin shone white. Perhaps the South lost the Civil War, but Gods soldiers were not about to lose an even more precious war, one in which racial purity was the gold ring. Freedom may have come to the ex-slave but freedom never extends too far into the reaches of those who use religion as a weapon. Ministers both black and white stood upon their pulpits insisting this was a Christian nation and one tenant that stood above democracy was the ability of good men and good women to deal the Devil a blow and surely integrated marriage was a deadly ploy to be dealt with. In reality freedom only extends itself to the religious.

On Wednesday, January 7th, some very insecure men decided that the God they worship, or at least pretend to believe in was besmirched by a bunch of cartoonists and journalists in France. These terrorists, claiming to be an army of Allah decided that the mere parody of their God made their God weak and less God like and somehow in a whisper, or a direct command  promising them unending Virgin delights, this God who is powerless over a bunch of human reporters, demanded murder and mayhem must be committed to make this God a God once again. Denial of human rights was the priority of a group of individuals who wanted to act like God. These madmen believe in the sanctity of their religion and certainly like to demonstrate their disdain for anyone who doesn’t. God no matter how malevolent must be served.

Freedom it seems has different meanings depending with whom you speak. Those who proclaim a devout love of God, who insist their holy water is holier than anyone else’s, who clutch a book of prayer in one arm while their finger is on an assault weapon, who chant verses of the National Anthem wearing white robes, who permit charlatans to act as chaplains, love to use God as a scapegoat. Freedom it seems has a perverse meaning for those who want to rewrite American history insisting that the Founding Fathers established a Christian nation, a nation of freedom for religion and not from religion. God, any God for those so smothered in self taught hate, ignorance and suck on the tete of false idols, does not like just anyone, and he would would rather you murdered. maimed, defamed and denied the sinner, liberty and pursuit of happiness. Do I hear an AMEN!!!!

On January 6

Guns we are reminded are as Americana as was, slavery, religious bias, heterosexual marriages, and of course the little lady wearing an apron cleaning the house with a martini in her hand as she awaits her husband’s return from ‘bread winning’ as she holds her fourth or fifth child in tow. Guns we are reminded are not the enemy, but those who would rather permit the bad guy to shoot first are the real culprits. Guns don’t kill unless you are standing your ground, or happen upon a thug who needs to know who the boss is. We are told all of this by the men and women who unabashedly have become the T-Publican majority in both the Senate and House of Representatives for 2015.

Voting rights we are reminded were so 1865, and according to a very right politically leaning ambivalent to fair and free, equal and just group of Right Wing activists Supreme Court Justices, one person one vote is not an issue to ruffle anyone’s democratic feathers. Nope, gerrymandered districts, pay for play, corporations are people is the way, the reason du jour to make America a more capitalistic and caring nation. Voting rights is not really something the Founding Fathers, found to be an everyman issue, nope this batch of demigod Justices who insist they know the Constitution better then anyone else, insist that what Washington, Jefferson, Hancock and Jesus wanted was to limit voting to those who could foot the bill, be a good Caucasian, and of course pray to the God of the greenback. 

Healthcare for all, affordable, reasonable, accessible, is a foray into Socialism and God forbid Communism, and is a priority to amend as soon as possible by a a majority of T-Publican Senators who of course receive Government paid health insurance and a bonus check from the lobbyists of each and every imaginable Health Insurance Corporation. America will crumble if its citizens ALL share equal access to physicians/hospitals/prescriptions. Pilgrims, those independent true blue Americans, who crossed the rutted plains, without doctors at their beckon call would turn over in their graves if they thought the government of the United States cared enough to provide health care to its citizens. Health care is UnAmerican and given the political bias of the majority T-Publican/Supreme Court Justices, there will be an end to this chicanery and a resolve to bring back the days of dying at home or prioritizing health care over, rent of food.

On Tuesday, January 6, 2015 the 114th Congress was sworn into office. On Tuesday, January 6, 2015 the American dream is about to take on a new theme; no longer concerned about rights, equality, fair, or honest. Environmental protections, fair wages, accessible health care, definition of who people are, religious freedom or freedom from religion, too big too fail are just some of the cornerstones of what America might be, are ALL on the wrecking block. On January 6, 2015 we all got to witness what happens when some of us are too lazy to vote, too intimidated by fear and loathing, believe FOX News is news, or just hate anyone who we deem not like us. On Tuesday, January 6, 2015 we got to see a glimpse of our future for at least the next two years, with ramifications for decades and decades to follow!

miracles

Miracles

Ever wonder why miracles are needed in the first place? How come the events of our lives sometimes desire that extra big bonus of hope, help and happiness? Yet when something unexpected comes around and changes the course of our lives we celebrate, wiping off the sweat of a furrowed brow, release the pain which held tightly to our temples, breathe a deep desired breath and shout loudly what a miracle!

Tis the season we are told of Miracles. We hang our lights on the tree, or gather eight of them on the menorah. We recount the birth of a man with the promise for all humankind or remember when humankind was adrift in slavery and how that sadness changed for the better. Then some of us recall this time of year when humankind can watch the days fade into night earlier and how the night can cradle us with a glow of a fire, the warmth of a blanket, the love of family and friends.

Miracles

They never happen on schedule and actually like to surprise you, eliciting  a laughter so deep in the belly that when released it seems miraculous enough.They never are posted on your calendar, or to do list, instead find their way to the front of the line in a most miraculous manner. They are many times imagined, but when they appear they are deliciously hard to imagine.

We wish you a reason for a miracle or two this season. We want you to find your own surprises,  promises or passion for a celebration of miracles. Let them be as loud as you desire or as calm and quiet as you need. Let them be bold, brash and brilliant or so subtle that it takes keen eyesight and sharp listening to see and hear them. We wish you the kind of miracle you want!

Happy Holidays/Season’s Greetings,

Black or right

Life in America has become all about we vs. they and has fallen far from the facts replaced by finding and forming divide within the community we live. Madmen kill innocents with guns but we never discuss the murders but instead take sides on something as absurd as the 2nd Amendment. Cops kill black men and boys and instead of questioning why we move to one side or the other never debating the death of so many but who is right in doing the killing and who deserved to be killed. Compromise we are told is a weakness, (ask any T-Publican in Congress and the Christian right wing people who elected them), to find common ground suddenly is so un American and of course something Jesus the first president of the US would have never wanted. Events happen and we refuse to look closely as to the sad rational behind them instead we insist someone was right and someone was wrong and if you don’t agree with me you must be one of them! It is either black of right!

Trayvon Martin is gunned down, Michael Brown is shot in cold blood, Eric Garner is choked to death and somehow each black man deserved to die because it was the black man against the police. And as is the case in this very volatile and divisive nation you either take the side of the police or you must be a Commie loving/African American on the dole/anti-law and order traitor. There is no conversation about why so many black men are killed but instead a diatribe as to why you like the police or you don’t. No longer are we pressing for truth, but would rather take shelter in our own biases fearful that anything else might expose our own personal experiences lack of insight and of course our own hate. You are either black or right!

When did discussion of fear, bigotry, and stupid stop being permitted to take precedent? When did the Constitution become highjacked by pistol packing Patriots who long for the days of the Confederacy, Jim Crow and of course old time region where Jesus was a white straight man and frowned upon anyone not? When did the strides of integration get sidetracked, or were they just a facade to begin with. When did policing stop serving and protecting all of the people but instead became a fraternity for some of the people? When did it become all or nothing as in your are black or you are right?

Imagine this?

Rick Santorum: “Separation Of Church And State A Communist Idea, Not An American One” -. Imagine if a liberal/progressive/democrat inferred that the founding fathers of this nation like Adams, Franklin, Jefferson were commies; Sarah Palin, Mike Huckabee, Rush Limbaugh, Bill O’Reilly would demand they burned at the stake. In the world of men like Santorum history is only useful when it is twisted to suit the twisted bigotry of a very small minded and hateful brain. For many T-Republicans the Constitution is always an immovable object until it needs to be moved more to the right enabling false prophecies to be propagated by false prophets!

Ben Carson: “Young African American men like Michael Brown are getting killed by the police because they “never really learn how to relate to authority in the proper way.” “Certainly in a lot of our inner cities, in particular the black inner cities, where 73 percent of the young people are born out of wedlock, the majority of them have no father figure in their life. - Imagine how much more pleasant and safer this world would be if Ozzie and Harriet were everyone’s parents, if June and Ward Cleaver took the time to raise all of our families, if Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar would take the time and not only parent their brood of 19 kids but the entire black community? Violence in the world of the T-Republicans is never the fault of the propagator but usually of the victim.

Mike Huckabee: blamed the legalization of abortion and same-sex marriage on the failure of pastors to become active in politics. Huckabee said Americans have “blood on our hands” for failing to criminalize abortion and contended that reproductive freedom is much worse than the Nazi Holocaust. He added that the country will also “pay the consequences” for trying to “tinker” with marriage and “having upended the very foundation which is the essence of how a civilization survives.” Imagine an Amerika which limits certain freedoms and choices based on the bias and bogus of self proclaimed Crusaders for Christ. Imagine just how much more pure this nation would become when purity tests for morals and values based on nothing but a human interpretation of the Bible become the standard. The laws of the land in the mind of T-Publicans are for a few and even fewer get to pick and choose who lives free and who receives equality.

Santorum, Carson, Huckabee are all potent predators at the ready to run for the office of President from the T-Publican party. Imagine if any one of these men are elected to the highest office of the land and then wonder depending on your religion, ethnicity, gender, sexuality and level of income upon which rung you will become stranded or upon which gallows you will be hung?