Ending Racial Disparities

 

DALLAS (AP) — After Opal Lee led hundreds in a walk through her Texas hometown to celebrate Juneteenth this weekend, the 95-year-old Black woman who helped successfully push for the holiday to get national recognition said it’s important that people learn the history behind it.

“We need to know so people can heal from it and never let it happen again,” said Lee, whose 2 1/2-mile (4-kilometer) walk through Fort Worth symbolizes the 2 1/2 years it took after President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation ending slavery in the Southern states for the enslaved people in Texas to be freed.

A year after President Joe Biden signed legislation making June 19 the nation’s 12th federal holiday, people across the U.S. gathered at events filled with music, food and fireworks. Celebrations also included an emphasis on learning about history and addressing racial disparities. Many Black people celebrated the

day just as they did before any formal recognition.

Juneteenth, also known as Freedom Day, commemorates the day in 1865 when Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, Texas, to order freedom for the enslaved people of the state — two months after the Confederacy had surrendered in the Civil War.

“Great nations don’t ignore their most painful moments,” Biden said in a statement Sunday. “They confront them to grow stronger. And that is what this great nation must continue to do.”

A Gallup Poll found that Americans are more familiar with Juneteenth than they were last year, with 59% saying they knew “a lot” or “some” about the holiday compared with 37% a year ago in May. The poll also found that support for making Juneteenth part of school history lessons increased from 49% to 63%.  READ MORE...

Civil War in Myanmar

Myanmar is seeing increasingly deadly battles between its military and organised groups of armed civilians, new data suggests. Many of those fighting the military are young people who have put their lives on hold since the junta seized power a year ago.


The intensity and extent of the violence - and the co-ordination of the opposition attacks - point to a change in the conflict from an uprising to a civil war.


Violence is now spread across the country, according to data from conflict monitoring group Acled (Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project). Reports from the ground also suggest the fighting has become increasingly co-ordinated and has reached urban centres which have not previously seen armed resistance to the military.


Although precise death tolls are hard to verify, Acled - which bases its data on local media and other reports - has collated figures to suggest about 12,000 people have been killed in political violence since the military seized power on 1 February 2021. Clashes have grown deadlier month on month since August.


In the coup's immediate aftermath, most civilians died as security forces cracked down on nationwide demonstrations. Now, however, the rising death toll is a result of combat - as civilians have taken up arms - Acled figures show.  READ MORE...

The Heart and Soul of the SOUTH

The front door to my modest 1,800 square foot home is open and the all glass storm door allows full sunlight to enter.  I am sitting in a recliner just left and back from the front door wearing sweatpants and a fleeced lined sweatshirt jacket because it is a tad chilly inside our home during these months as we keep the thermostat on a constant 68 degrees which ordinarily is fine but as I grow older, I tend to need more warmth wrapped around me.

The outside temperatures have been in the 50's and tomorrow it will reach well into the 60's and whatever remnants of snow remaining will be for sure melted away.  Tomorrow, I will take down and package up our outside Christmas decorations...  well before New Years Day which is the tradition around these parts...  as they say in these parts...

My door is open because I feel relatively SAFE in East TN and not the slightest concerned that BLM along with the help of ANTIFA will be running around this neck of the woods rioting, burning, and looting...  although, we have plenty of black families living in this area...  and, actually not too far away if one were to take a notion to measure.

With a 30 minute drive, I can be in the heart of Knoxville, or Sevierville and if I were to add 30 more minutes, I can be in the heart of NASCAR country or Bristol, TN to the north and to the east Dollywood and/or Pigeon Forge and the resort area of Gatlinburg...  and in none of these places will I find any traces of BLM or ANTIFA...   even though more and more people are visiting these places from those bigger cities where BLM and ANTIFA seem to thrive.

Tennessee was one of the first STATES of our nation and was split in half more or less when we decided to have our Civil War...  as there were places about an hour from here that made munitions for the Union Army...  but, mostly it is a confederate State and because it was and still is in the business of "running moonshine" along the back roads provides the heart and soul of NASCAR...  along with North Carolina as they share The Great Smokey Mountains...  although, North Carolina may be a little more sophisticated.

But...   and, more importantly...  at least to me...  is the fact that on days like today, I can open my front door and let the sunshine in...   and, politics BE DAMNED...  and, I say that quite forcefully being the 73 year old threat that I am because...  politics has changed very little in this damn country of ours...  we have pretty much kept the STATUS QUO which is exactly why the BLACKS are bitching so much...  they see it too...

And, that is the great IRONY about POLITICS...  once you become a POLITICIAN and go that route under the FLAG of CHANGE... and WIN...   you quickly decide that nothing needs to change at all other than one's vocabulary...  in the sense of telling the people what they want to hear...

This is exactly why my front door is open and will continue to remain open while other front doors across the country at SHUT TIGHT and BOLTED.

America's problems lies not with her people but with her LEADERS...

ANCESTORS

 

If my ancestors owned slaves, what do I care...

If my ancestors fought in the Civil War, what do I care...

If my ancestors were illegal immigrants, what do I care...

My father and my grandfather were HONORABLE MEN and that is really all that I care about or should care about because it is those two from which my skills, abilities, and personality was derived...

Anything before this time does not really influence me in my actions or my deeds; in fact, my father and my grandfather actually have had little influence on me and my behavior...   my attitudes...  and, my assumptions as to the validity of life...

The course that my life has taken has been diametrically opposed to the life that my father wanted me to take...  and, by the time that I was old enough to actually move into my own direction without influence, my grandfather was dead...  

I was forced to attend church until graduating from high school and now I don't attend much at all because of my perceived religious hypocrisy of others...

I flunked out of college and was the only family member to have enlisted in the military...  all the rest were officers...

I failed to remain a Democrat even though that is how both parents raised me and when I was a Democrat, I was even more LIBERAL than they could ever imagine...

My working career was predicated on the foundation that I KISS NO ONE'S ASS FOR ANY REASON...  nor did I use a family member to open doors for me...  I open my own doors or those doors remained closed...

My biggest concern is that our FREEDOM OF SPEECH right is being taken away from us as organizations, news outlets, and people CENSOR the CONSERVATIVE point-of-views...  but, by the time it really becomes a problem, I will be TOO OLD TO GIVE A SHIT...  and besides, as long as the LIBERALS are in power, I will get more benefits paid out to me by the federal government...  and since I am old, someone else is going to pay for them...

ONCE AGAIN

 It would appear that ONCE AGAIN September 11, 2001 has come and gone with a memory lapse of what this country went through 19 years ago.  A few random photos were posted on the internet and social media forums and blogs and a few articles were written and published by the mainstream media and some people were interview and Churches in NYC held memorial services, but BLM matter and the memories of the CIVIL WAR seem to be a more important issue here in AMERICA, HOME OF THE FREE.

• China released COVID into the world population and all the Democrats care about is blaming Trump
• China has the largest NAVY in the world today and all the Democrats care about is blaming Trump
• Racism runs unmolested in our cities today and all the Democrats care about is blaming Trump

As a Vietnam Veteran, I find this behavior unacceptable but I have no idea what the rest of America THINKS because America is clouded over by the BLM movement, remembering the CIVIL WAR, and letting us all know that 13% of the population is going to bitch, moan, protest, riot, and loot until they get what they want.

BUT, and this is just my opinion, if the 13% actually get what they want, RACISM will increase in America as the rest of us begin to flex their muscles in the only way that we know how and that is PASSIVE RESISTANCE and RELUCTANT CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE that will manifest itself in our subtle actions towards the 13% in the future.

THIS IS NOT A THREAT BUT COMMON SENSE AFTER SEEING SO MANY UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES IN THE PAST DEVELOP OVER OUR INAPPROPRIATE ACTIONS.

For those of you who understand SYSTEMS THINKING, we are reaction to SPECIAL CAUSE VARIATION when we should be reacting to COMMON CAUSE VARIATION...