Health Care Reform Debate Needs New Voices

A friend sent me the link to the video below. In it a woman by the name of Katy Abram makes an impassioned anti-health care plan speech to Sen. Arlen Specter at his town hall meeting. I was not impressed with her argument; she doesn't have a clue as to what she's talking about. I have no patience for people espousing opinions based on nonexistent facts. My friend, who is far kinder than I am, observed that while she was totally uninformed, that she nonetheless appeared to be a decent person.

I don't think that she's a decent person. I think that she's selfish and doesn't give a damn about anything except her own back yard. People like her are dangerous; they form the base of Limbaugh's dittoheads and the acolytes of Glenn Beck and all of the other ultra conservative groups. She's uninformed but too stupid to know that she doesn't know or understand the issues that she is attempting to address.

The biggest issue that these people have is some twisted notion that their hard earned money is going to be taken away and distributed to a bunch of undeserving, lazy ethnic minorities and illegal immigrants. That's the subtext of every reference to upholding the Constitution and getting back to the principles of the founding fathers.

Her entire opinion was based on her fears that so-called good, hardworking Americans such as herself are being asked to be their brother's keeper. In spite of the litany that these people espouse about America being founded on Christian values, they are as far removed from any resemblance to Christian values as I am from looking like Marlene Dietrich.

These narrow minded, ignorant, selfish semi-bigots scare me more than any honest, sheet wearing, card carrying member of the KKK. The KKK has always acknowledged that it is based on a sense of self-superiority and hatred of the "other;" these people delude themselves into believing that they are just being good citizens, trying to preserve American values.

I think that they are so consumed with their own sense of self-righteousness that they have no ability to empathize with others. As long as their little piece of the world functions well, they don't give a damn about anyone else's troubles. They are also incapable of recognizing that they may find themselves in the position of not being able to afford health care. They can't anticipate such a thing happening because they function under the misbegotten belief that such things only happen to the unworthy. Of course, they can't imagine themselves as ever being unworthy, therefore they can't imagine finding themselves in a position that they believe only befalls those who are lazy, shiftless, and worthless.

The level of ignorance would be laughable except that just because accusations and innuendo are without basis in fact does not mean that they are ineffective. I think back to the Clinton administration's attempt to enact similar reforms to our health care system; those efforts ultimately failed because too many people believed the outright lies that were propagated about the proposed changes.

Once again the lies abound, with stories about "death panels," about forcing everyone to give up their current plans and join the government plan, about huge tax increases on the middle class to pay for the plan, and the horrors of becoming a socialist country.

According to the evening news, most of the protesters admit that they haven't read the health care bill or any summaries of the bill. When did ignorance become so fashionable? How can you have a valid opinion on anything that you really don't understand?

Some 47 million people in this country have no health insurance. That number doesn't include the people who are under insured--they have insurance but not enough to cover a major illness. Insurance companies can deny coverage to an insured person who has paid premiums for years, alleging that a treatment is experimental. You can challenge it, but you may be dead by the time a decision is made in the case.

An insurer can refuse to insure an individual with a pre-existing condition unless you are part of a group policy through an employer or your state has a high risk pool plan. Of course, there may still be a waiting period before any treatment connected to your pre-existing condition is covered.

At one point, I was considering going into private practice, so I investigated how much I would have to invest in health insurance. After I dutifully applied online to Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina, listing that I am a diabetic, have atrial fibrillation, sleep apnea, and congestive heart failure, BCBS informed me that I was classified as uninsurable, but if I was willing to pay $3700 per month, they would provide me with a minimalist insurance policy.

When I was done rolling on the floor and laughing hysterically, I politely declined the policy. In spite of all of my diagnosed problems, I haven't been hospitalized in 10 years. I take my meds, exercise, see my doctors regularly, and eat healthy most of the time (chocolate is health food of a sort). Without insurance, I wouldn't be able to afford my meds or see my doctors, and would certainly cost the system far more with visits to the emergency room. I'm fortunate. I had the choice of taking a state job with health insurance benefits.

However, I know that everyone isn't so fortunate and I do believe that is is my responsibility, our collective responsibility as a society, to ensure that everyone has access to preventive and maintenance health care. That's what the proposed health care reform plan is about. Those of us who understand this have to speak up and serve as a counterpoint to drown out the lies being spouted that threaten to derail this renewed effort to ensure that all of us have access to quality health care. There are people whose lives depend on us.

Justice Really Needs to Take Off That Blindfold

Where to begin? I really think that I need to stop watching or reading any news. It just leaves me all discombobulated as if I went to sleep and woke up in the twilight zone.

On Tuesday, William Kostric strapped his loaded gun to his leg and went to stand outside the Portsmouth high school where President Obama was scheduled to hold a town meeting on the health care plan. Police officials asked him to move because there are federal and state laws against having a gun within a certain distance of a school. An obliging official at a nearby church gave Kostric permission to stand on church property with his loaded weapon. The local sheriff had no problem with Kostric exercising his 2nd amendment right to bear arms; if the weapon had been concealed there would have been a violation but as Kostric was carrying his weapon in plain sight, he was not in violation of New Hampshire law.

The loaded gun was a bit disturbing but it was the sign that Kostric displayed that really made me go WTF. It presented a line that referenced a quotation from Thomas Jefferson, "It is time to water the tree of liberty." The full quotation reads, The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It was a favorite quotation of Timothy McVeigh, America's home grown terrorist who bombed the federal building in Oklahoma. When he was arrested, he was wearing a t-shirt with a picture of Lincoln on the front and a tree dripping with blood on the back.

According to MSNBC, who broke this story, the Secret Service was informed of Kostric's presence and that he was packing heat. I assume that they kept their eyes on him.

Given this countries history of assassinating leaders, is it really unreasonable to tell a citizen that he can't be near the location where the President of the United States is scheduled to appear unless he wants to leave his loaded gun at home? None of the other rights enumerated in the Bill of Rights are absolute. There's freedom of speech, but there are restrictions and limits on it. If you don't believe me, run around libeling your neighbor and then wait for the lawsuit. The fourth amendment prohibits unlawful search and seizure, but if there is probable cause, a search can be made. As for probable cause, it's a somewhat nebulous concept that has been defined and redefined again and yet again, in case law in state and federal courts, as the law attempts to get a handle on exactly what constitutes probable cause.

Let's accept that the 2nd amendment guarantees a right to bear arms, does that mean that you can just carry a loaded gun any where? Of course it doesn't. When I go to the courthouse, I have to pass through a metal detector and there is a big sign telling me that I cannot bring in a gun, even if I have a permit to carry it. The only folks that may carry guns in North Carolina courts are law enforcement officers, although there was legislation proposed this session to allow judges and magistrates to carry weapons. (I'm not real fond of this idea; it would add new meaning to holding a loud mouthed lawyer in contempt.) So why is it that New Hampshire law enforcement felt that the right to bear arms was so tantamount that Kostric had to be allowed to indulge in some role-play fantasy that he was in an episode of Gunsmoke?

Chris Matthews interviewed Kostric and hearing the man speak didn't give me any comfort. Like so many people he twists the Constitution into some multi-headed hound from hell that is unrecognizable as the foundation of a government that was formed to protect the rights of all, the weak as well as the strong: We the people of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. The MSNBC video follows the text of this post. I apologize for not providing a transcript for my hearing impaired readers, but I really can't tolerate watching it more than once and I can't find the transcript online.

In another news story, a 20-year old named Antavio Johnson just received a two-year sentence in Florida for a video that he made when he was a teenager. He posted it on MySpace a couple of years ago. In it, Antavio performs an original rap song entitled, "Kill Me a Cop," in which he proposes to kill a cop. His mistake is that he gets real specific and names two cops that he would like to kill with a "glock" to the "dome." The two year old video was discovered by police officers who were surfing MySpace looking for signs of gang related activity. Johnson was charged with "corruption by threat of a public servant," a third degree felony under Florida statutes in which the perpetrator intends to harm or threatens to harm public servants, their families, or the people that they care about. The threats must have been made with the intent or purpose to influence public servants in the performance of their official duties. This law falls under the dangerous and profane speech exception to the first amendment.

They say that Justice is blind; I don't think so. I think that Justice is a borderline fool. How else do you explain a two-year sentence for writing a song that no one has heard? The officers mentioned in the song couldn't have been intimidated or influenced by it because they didn't know that it existed until a few days ago! In the meantime, a gun-toting, ignorant, hate-filled wingnut gets to stand around wearing his loaded gun waiting for the President. Makes me wanna holler and throw up both my hands!

By the way, I can't help but wonder if Kostric would be so in favor of everyone carrying guns if a crowd of young Blacks and Hispanics showed up with guns strapped to their legs. Maybe I need to round up a posse and head for New Hampshire to exercise my right to bear arms.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

It's All in the Rhythm

It's no secret that I love music. There is something wonderfully primal about the rhythms of a really good song. Of course, I like instrumental compositions as well, percussion, some strings, the tinkling of a keyboard. I enjoy jazz, blues, country, R&B, classical, opera (mainly Italian, especially Puccini); there is no genre in which I haven't found something to like. That's why the video link that my sister sent me made me positively orgasmic. Rather than try to describe it to you, take a listen and experience it for yourself. It's a sort of global symphony of the song, Stand By Me. Don't forget to locate the music player to the left and hit the pause button, then hit the play button on the video below. It's a bit slow to load, for some reason I have to hit the play button twice before it will start.

Stand By Me Playing For Change Song Around The World from Concord Music Group on Vimeo.

Glenn Beck Has A Problem: He's An Idiot

I had a dream last night based on one of my favorite horror movies, The Fly. Not the sexy remake with Jeff Goldblum and Geena Davis, but the original 1950s film. In the dream, I am sitting in the garden sipping a mint julep when I hear a tinny little voice crying, "Help me! Help me!"

I whip out my magnifying glass and search for the source. There on the rose bush I spot an unusual fly with the head of Glenn Beck. Compassionate soul that I am, I whip out my eyebrow tweezers, carefully place them around Beck's little head, squeeze them shut, and pinch his tiny head off. Then I wake up. The best dreams always end too soon.

Glenn Beck's most recent anti-Obama comments are in character with his ongoing Obama-is-the-Antichrist rants. I don't watch his "news" show often, a small dose of Beck gives me the vapors. However, his recent pronouncements regarding President Obama weren't made on his own show but while he was a guest on the Fox and Friends morning show.

Beck and the rest of the Fox friends were discussing Professor Henry Gates, Jr.'s recent encounter with the Cambridge police and the president's comments about the incident. According to Beck, President Obama has exposed himself as a person with "a deep-seated hatred for white people or the white culture."

Beck's assertion was challenged on the air by Fox host Brian Kilmeade, who noted that most of the people who work for the nation's first black president are white. However, Beck was ready with a quick response. "I'm not saying he doesn't like white people," Beck said. "He has a problem. This guy is, I believe, a racist."

I know that Beck is just one guy, but he's one guy with a national television show that masquerades as a news show, grounded in objective, factual information. He has quite a following; the message boards are filled with comments from the amen chorus praising Beck for exposing the truth.

Beck's comments really pissed me off and I've thought about why, as a person with a lifelong commitment to resolution through discourse and an absolute opposition to the use of violence as a solution to anything, I'd really like to kick his ass.

I've concluded that I am bone-weary of the proliferation of voices in white America who continue to scream about reverse racism or black racism. It is such an insult to the real racism endured by black Americans.

When young black men gather on a summer's night, kidnap a young white man, tie him to a truck, and drag him down the highway until he is nothing but a bloodied mass of bone and flesh, speak to me of black racism. When grown black men plant a bomb in a church and murder young white children in their Sunday best, speak to me of black racism. When a crowd of black mothers gather in Boston to hurl obscenities, racial epithets, and bricks at school buses filled with little white children, speak to me of black racism.

When white bodies dangle from tree limbs and black families, children included, mill about below, smiling as if they have just witnessed some form of pleasant entertainment, speak to me of black racism. When black entrepreneurs, realizing that there is money to be made, make and sell postcards memorializing these lynchings, speak to me of black racism.

When grown black men kidnap, torture, and murder a 14-year-old white boy because he allegedly showed too much familiarity towards a black woman, speak to me of black racism. When black men--business leaders, legislators, governors, law enforcement, and state militias--gather together and march into white communities, burning, looting, and murdering to intimidate white people from trying to exercise their rights newly granted under the federal Constitution, successfully taking away the most fundamental right of a free people, the right to vote, speak to me of black racism.

When white soldiers who return from defending their country find themselves being told that they must sit at the back of the bus, speak to me of black racism. When white people have to enter business establishments through the back door, or are barred from entry by signs reading, "No Whites Allowed," speak to me of black racism. But until these things come to pass, don't insult me or my people by calling us racists. (BTW, all of the examples that I reference are real and occurred long after the official end of slavery)

On a scale of one to ten, with ten being the pinnacle of racism, we're not even a one. It's rather surprising that we haven't become obsessed with revenge. Instead all that we have ever demanded is equality. Why does that frighten so many people so much?

Do Biscuits Have Holes?

One of my colleagues came across the biscuit holes commercial. Naturally she shared it with the rest of our office.

It's important to understand that we North Carolinians have our standards and we don't appreciate a dose of double entendre served with our biscuits, whether they be holes or whole. The largest Hardee's franchise , Boddie Noell Enterprises (BNE), headquartered in Rocky Mount, NC, is not pleased with Hardee's racy biscuit hole ads. You may wonder exactly how an ad about biscuit holes can be racy. According to BNE, the ad campaign for the biscuit holes is tasteless and inappropriate for family viewing. So far, Hardee's has said that it will not pull the ad campaign. According to the parent company, "(Hardee's) adopts a creative approach to our advertising. It is intended to communicate the core message of our premium quality food to our target audience of Young, Hungry Guys."

As we were having a brief lull in our work, my colleagues and I discussed the pros and cons of the ad that we watched, after we were done laughing. Of course we were also horrified at its tastelessness! Then our conversation segued into the origins of biscuit holes. Donut holes come from donuts, but where do biscuit holes come from? Are there biscuits running around with a hole in the center? I think that my colleague, Debra, summed it up most succinctly, "Biscuits don’t have holes . They shouldn’t go putting holes where they don’t belong."

What do you think? Is this commercial too racy or just sort of stupid, or maybe stupid and racy? Does it make you want to run right out and buy some biscuit holes?

Locate the music player in the left column and hit the pause button to stop the music and watch the video..


The text (note how they cleverly labeled the holes A and B):

Today we’re out finding out what kind of holes people prefer, donut holes or Hardee's new biscuit holes.

B-hole.

B-hole has it over the A-hole for sure.

Why? What do you like about it?

A-hole seems kind of small.

Great.

I just don’t like the A-hole.

B-holes are tasty and flavorful.

The A-hole is nasty.

The A-hole tastes funny.

I guess I’m just a B-hole kind of guy.

Introducing biscuit holes with icing. The best kind of holes money can buy.

Your Momma!

I hadn't planned to weigh in on Professor Gates' encounter with the Cambridge police. However, today my sister sent me a link to a Huffington Post article that confirmed my suspicions about the substantive legal issues in the case. I'd like to think that this information will be in the headlines as much as Gates' initial unfortunate encounter with the Cambridge police officers but I'm not counting on that happening, so I figure that I'll do my part in blog land.

Just in case you've been without access to the news for the last week, a brief recap of the facts. African-American Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. (aka Skip) was arrested for disorderly conduct by the Cambridge police because he verbally reprimanded a police officer investigating an allegation that Gates was attempting a break-in at a residence. Turns out the residence was Gates' own and according to officer James Crowley's police report, he ascertained that it was Gates' home before making the arrest. However, Crowley heard Gates making a phone call and asking to speak to the police chief about a racist officer. Then Gates allegedly made a series of comments to Crowley, accusing the officer of racial profiling, loudly and in disparaging terms. The entire police report is available on The Smoking Gun.

When I first heard the story, the one thing I couldn't figure out was how Gates' behavior could be construed as disorderly conduct under Massachusetts' state law. Guess what, it isn't. Talking back to a police officer, raising your voice, even talking about his or her momma, is not a crime. It seems that there is a body of Massachusetts' case law that establishes that yelling at a police officer, even while being arrested is not a crime and doesn't constitute disorderly conduct. Which brings me to all the brouhaha about President Obama's observation (solicited by a reporter's question as to his opinion on the Gates arrest) that the police "behaved stupidly." They did. Arresting someone who hasn't done anything illegal is behaving stupidly.

The message boards have been barraged with the usual nonsense from dittoheads and other mentally deficient folks. They insist that there is "reverse racism" at work and that's why the DA's office dropped the charges against Gates. Can we all say, "Nonsense!" The DA dropped the charges because there was no crime committed.

Maybe Professor Gates would have been wise to refrain from getting into a verbal dispute with Officer Crowley; however, I understand his frustration. Gates is four years older than I am. I feel confident that this was not his first encounter with what he perceived to be racial profiling; besides, the man was in his own house. There was no break-in taking place. The officer doesn't dispute that he became aware of this fact pretty early on in his interaction with Gates. Why didn't the officer just apologize to Professor Gates and move on?

Gates is a renown scholar, has hosted documentaries on PBS, published several books, and is known as a public intellectual. His biography on the Harvard faculty site is impressive. If you don't know who he is; you should. He's one of the leading voices in African-American history and culture. If you want to be enlightened and fair in race relations, one of the first steps is to learn who we are.

However, there is a larger issue here than one black scholar. If this were an isolated incident, a rare occurrence, it would just be an unpleasant incident. Racial profiling is a real issue in America. If you aren't aware of it, perhaps it's because you're not a racial or ethnic minority, or a practitioner of a faith other than Christianity. A 2004 report released by Amnesty International USA (AIUSA) found that racial profiling impacted 32 million people. This is far too complex a subject to deal with in a blog entry. If you are interested and want to learn more, the AIUSA report is a good place to start. There is a link to the executive summary and the full report on the site.

Icons, Race, and Listening

I'm feeling a bit guilty because I didn't intervene more directly back in 2007 when Bill O'Reilly was suffering from foot-in-mouth disease. I did suggest in a blog entry that he should refrain from trying to help black people by making inane observations marveling at our ability to drink ice tea and eat in a restaurant without break dancing and spouting profanity; however, I didn't send Mr. O'Reilly a personal note cautioning him to never again discuss the affairs of black folks. My bad.

Last week, O'Reilly took issue with Rev. Al Sharpton's declaration that Michael Jackson was an African-American icon. Sharpton asserted that Jackson's use of his status as an entertainer to knock down doors in the music industry such as breaking the color barrier on MTV, and landing on the cover of Rolling Stone was another step in the same journey towards racial equality as evidenced by Rosa Parks decision to sit down on that bus. Sharpton also noted Jackson's considerable charitable contributions to organizations and individuals, including his bringing together the star power to produce We Are the World long before there was a Live-Aid. I agree with Sharpton's assessment; however, I don't know that all African-Americans do, but I feel confident in saying that a significant majority view MJ as an African-American icon. However, I digress; this really is not about MJ.

Let me try and explain. A few years back I was attending a birthday party for a friend who is a white male. Another guest, also a white male, whom I had never met, attempted to engage me in a conversation about what he perceived to be the problems of black folks. I attempted to dissuade him from taking this path. I was the only black guest at the party (it was very small, maybe a dozen people) and I was in no mood for a serious discussion about race. He persisted and made the fatal error of proceeding to speak of, "You people...." I really don't recall what he said after that; it's difficult to think clearly when your head is revolving and you're trying to control your impulse to do a windmill on somebody's head. My friend, the birthday boy, observed that, "White people should have more sense than to ever attempt to tell black people how to be black." I love this man. This is why we are friends.

So, Bill O'Reilly, this is an open letter to you. If you would like to be friends with black people, you must understand that neither you nor any white person gets to tell us who our icons are. You do not get to measure our blackness. You do not get to sling accusations that any of us want to be white. You don't know or understand any of us that well. If we tell you how we feel, then you need to listen and try to understand our feelings, not tell us that our feelings are invalid.

Once and for all, understand that there is no such thing as reverse racism. You made that up to soothe your conscience. Racism is unfounded hatred for a group that you perceive as being inferior to your group. Any anger that we have towards white people is not unfounded; it's based on more than 400 years of discrimination in this country, much of it legalized. We don't hate you; we just want you to acknowledge that our shared history is based on an unconscionable system of discrimination and to recognize that our anger is righteous. We don't believe that you are inferior; we never have. We have tried to blend your cultural norms and values with ours. We ask that you respect ours and recognize that they too have shaped this culture. When we express distrust of institutions that have traditionally been exclusively white and that have intentionally excluded us by starting our own institutions, that's not reverse racism; it's called survival. Understand that just because you have begun to allow everyone to play in the sandbox, it's still going to take some time before we fully believe that you really mean it. Perhaps when we get to build more of the sandboxes, we'll feel more comfortable entering them.

Please stop interjecting, "I never owned slaves!" into every discussion of race. We know that. However, do acknowledge that as a member of the majority group, you benefited from white privilege, the biggest element of which is that you didn't have to notice race. Slavery was certainly an evil, but the real horror in this country is the generations of Jim Crow, of legalized discrimination that lasted well into the 20th century. The civil rights movement wasn't about slavery; it was about the system of legalized discrimination put into place after slavery was legally outlawed to ensure that black people continued to be placed in a position of servitude and exclusion in the United States of America. This isn't ancient history; it's my life.

I know that you are tired of talking about race; so am I. Perhaps the day will come when such discussions are no longer necessary. I dream of a day when I will not turn on my television to hear a little black child trying to hold back his tears as he recounts the racial hatred that he heard from white adults who feared that the Black and Hispanic children in his summer camp group would contaminate their swimming pool. When that day comes, I'll be the first person to stop talking about race. In the meantime, Mr. O'Reilly, please feel free to speak with us, but don't presume that you can tell us who we are, or how we should feel.

It's A Family Reunion

I have a lot of first cousins on my mother's side of the family. My grandmother birthed 17 children, four died in infancy. I never knew my Aunt Helen, she died before I was born but I knew the rest of mother's siblings. There are only four of my mother's siblings still living.

Over the years, we've gathered for a lot of funerals, often in clusters. My mother died two weeks after her oldest sister, my Aunt Mabel. After my mother's funerals we (a group of first cousins) gathered and mused as to why we had never held a family reunion. We decided to rectify this oversight and give ourselves a reason to come together other than to bury someone. The Hall (my mother's maiden name) family reunion committee was formed, consisting of my sister Rhonda, my brother James (aka Jimmy), and my cousins, Michelle, Jennifer, Betty Rose, and Laura Ann. By the third planning call the group had reduced to me, Michelle, Jennifer, and Betty Rose. The others had succumbed to the dreaded family reunion planning committee dropout syndrome.

After months of the family reunion planning committee meeting via bi-weekly conference calls, we held our first Hall Family reunion from July 3-July 5. It was well attended with 80+ family members joining in the festivities. We talked, we ate, we sang and we danced. Members of my grandmother's family, the Flemings, also participated in the reunion and I got to meet people whose names I had only heard in family stories told by my grandmother. Then there were those of us who knew each other but had not been together other than for a funeral in years and it was a delight to reconnect in an atmosphere that didn't involve sorrow. In an email to my friend Mark, I summed it up thus: "Our family reunion went well. Only one relative drank too much and she wasn't a mean drunk. There were no fights, and only a few minor insults. We may do it again in two years."

I neglected to add that I did The Twist with my cousin Betty Rose in front of a room full of people, laughed loudly and often, hugged a lot and was hugged a lot in return, and that a good time was had by all.

Why Are All Those People Crying?

This post has been rattling around in my head since yesterday; however, in the spirit of full disclosure, I must reveal that my blogami, Mark, also addressed this topic in a post, The Death of Strangers, that I read before writing my own. Any plagiarism on my part is totally unintended. BTW, Mark's post includes a really great piece of photoart.


I've watched a lot of television in the last two days. I've felt a little sorry for Farrah Fawcett. She had the misfortune to die on the same day as Michael Jackson. Farrah was a star but MJ was a superstar, a cultural icon, a bit tarnished, but nonetheless, a shining star. MJ has excited the sort of tear-streaming, "I can't believe he's gone," drama that followed Princess Diana's untimely demise.

Good and grown men and women are holding vigils, mourning the death of Michael Jackson. I don't get it. There is something overdone and fake about it all. A lot of crocodile tears, offered more for the display of grief than any real feelings of mourning. I take it back; maybe Farrah was the lucky one, her family and friends allowed a bit more privacy as MJ's fans make a display of expressions of grief.

I grew up listening to MJ and his brothers. I was far more into the Jackson Five than I was into the Beatles. They were young black boys with cool clothes, big afros, and a soulful sound ; and they made a young black girl growing up in a southern town believe that there was a world for her outside of her own backyard. I suspect that I wasn't alone in feeling that the five brothers from Indiana spoke to me of hope and opportunity. I sang along with their songs and tried to copy their dance steps. When Michael went solo, I continued to be a fan. I still sing along with the radio, Billie Jean was not my lover, she's just a girl who says that I am the one, but the kid is not my son. Every time that I hear Beat It I start shaking my hips and tapping my feet. I cry over She's Out of My Life..

Of course, I am saddened by Michael's death, but I'm not in mourning. I'm saddened because his death reminds me of my own mortality. I'm saddened because he was a young man, who died early. I'm saddened because he struck me as a troubled person, who in spite of his success and fame, never found any lasting happiness. I think that he was a musical genius and I am saddened to see his creative force extinguished.

However, I just can't join the teary-eyed masses who engage in wailing and gnashing of teeth as if they've lost a family member. I confess that I am fascinated by this outpouring of what I dub pseudo-grief. I empathize with the Jackson family; I can imagine how overwhelmed they must feel, especially as total strangers try to claim the family's private grief as their own. Michael Jackson has left a legacy of music and memories that belongs to the ages, but the enormous sorrow of his passing is the rightful property of those who knew him and loved him as a person, not as an icon.

In the Absence of Profundity...WTF

After such a long absence from these pages, I feel an obligation to say something profound. Hmm...well...um...sorry, nothing comes to mind. I've been working a lot of 10 to 12 hour days and that kind of work schedule sort of saps your profundity gene.

There have been so many things that have caught my attention during this month of blog-silence, things that have made me mutter WTF as if it were some ritual chant. Regrettably, most of them have faded from my memory, although there are a few standouts.

There is the young woman who went to school without her underwear on the day that pictures for the yearbook were being taken. Sitting on the front row of the bleachers for a shot with her fellow members of some club, she became upset when the yearbook was published, feeling that she had inadvertently flashed the camera. The young woman and her mother made much ado about the photograph, demanding that the school recall all of the yearbooks. The school declined to do so, insisting that the picture didn't reveal anything and much ado was being made about what was no more than an innocent shadow on the image. The mother and the daughter were all over the news, making certain that those of us who didn't have access to the yearbook knew all about the daughter's faulty memory. Why else would you put on a short skirt and neglect to add underwear, except you forgot?

Then there is the husband who decided to fulfill his sexual fantasy of watching his wife with another man, but neglected to include his wife in the planning of the event. Instead, he hired some guy to pretend to break into his home and pretend to rape his wife. Oh wait, if she wasn't in on the plan, maybe pretend isn't the right word. The wife called the police and her husband was placed in a non-pretend jail cell. I hope that the next stop will be divorce court.

These stories are just small potatoes in the WTF competition compared to the ongoing attack on Supreme Court nominee, Sonia Sotomayor. Among the nonsense spouted by conservative pundits has been comparing her membership in the National Council of La Raza to membership in the KKK. La Raza is a private, non-profit, and non-partisan organization focused on reducing poverty and discrimination, and improving opportunities, for Hispanic Americans. It's difficult to believe that any rational, thinking individual could equate an organization like La Raza with the KKK. Until La Raza starts burning crosses in the yards of non-Hispanic people, not allowing them to live in their neighborhoods, bombing their churches, and advocating for a complete denial of rights based on skin color, then it equals the Klan about as much as night equals day. Don't waste my time or yours sputtering about why do Hispanic people or other ethnic and/or racial minorities in this country need special organizations. It's really very simple. No, I'm not going to explain it to you. I've written about racial discrimination way too many times in this blog. If you don't get it by now, you're hopeless. Besides, I've reached a place in my beliefs where I no longer consider it my responsibility or the responsibility of any person of color to explain to the majority about racism, discrimination or prejudice. Work it out amongst yourselves. I'm in a tough love phase.

There are countless advocacy groups in this country that La Raza parallels: the League of Women Voters, the NAACP, Mothers Against Drunk Driving, AARP, The ARC of the United States, etc. I don't believe that the spouters of this garbage about Judge Sotomayor or La Raza believe it. They speak out of fear. This country is actually moving forward on matters of race, beginning to recognize that the bigotry of the past has no place in the 21st century. My message to Limbaugh and his dittoheads: get over it and find some real issues to focus on, like homelessness, poverty, genocide, famine, war....