My Heart is Full of Sadness

My heart is full of sadness.  Just as you think this country can’t go any lower a string of violent events consumes the media. These events are filled with hate followed by rhetoric of falsehoods, blaming and more hate.  Today it feels like there is no turning back to an America where we care about each other, watch out for each other.  Do you feel like people are out to get you, to get me, to get our neighbors, and just because we don’t agree with them?  Do you like me suffer from lack of hope? We are divided and I wonder if both sides suffer from a similar lack of hope or is it viciousness from one side? 

This week’s violence started on Wednesday when a white man walked into a Kentucky Kroger store killing two African Americans.  He had just made a failed attempt to barge into a black church for what they think a similar act.  This incident went under the radar, until the mail bombs were discovered and the synagogue killers took place back to back.  I can fill these pages with incident after incident of violent hate, I can’t find the caring, the unconditional acts of kindness.

A common thread in all of these acts of violence, white men killing nonwhites.  Never in my wildest dreams until Ragan became president in the 80’s did I think I would witness this kind of deathly discrimination in America after the civil rights movements’ gains of the 60’s.  The 60’s brought hope to me, through what I thought were reconciliations of the dark side of America’s history.  All that is gone this week and all I can think of are story after story of America’s violence towards Native Americans, African Americans, Jewish people, Asians, Japanese, and yes women and children.  We have gone back to the dark ages where only white men are safe.  Its as if the white men in power have other men do their bidding today keeping the rest of us in our place.

In 1992 Patrick Buchanan declared at the Republican Convention in Houston Texas, “that there was a cultural war taking place for the soul of America.  He denounced the Democratic Party as one that supports abortion, radical feminism and the homosexual rights movement.”  He accused President Clinton’s agenda as imposing abortions on women, supporting homosexual rights, discriminating against religious schools and forcing women into combat.  Buchanan claimed this is not the kind of change America wants.  Even though he didn’t declare a war on anyone who wasn’t white that’s exactly what he was saying between the lines.  Publicly racist rhetoric at this time was a big no, no.  I strongly believe the talk behind the scenes damned anyone who was not white, Christian or not on their side.  Their actions showed it and created the climate in today’s politics.

We witnessed this week the manifestation of the rhetoric started by Ronald Regan perpetuated by Patrick Buchanan and unleashed by Donald Trump.  They unleashed their agenda under the guise of freedom of the media, freedom of the individual, of religion, but the undercurrent, the real reason was for their white selves.  How do we get back to caring about the collective well being of the American people?  As I write this I try to think about a time in our history when all Americans ever had what was promised in the words of our Constitution;

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity……

And I slump into despair, I am not optimistic today, I was not optimistic when Trump got elected and I wish I could fill you with hope but today I have a hard time finding hope.  What kept me going over the last couple of decades was my right to vote, but today I feel like even my vote be has been manipulated into meaninglessness.  I will vote and I will vote against hate.  I wish I was voting for compassion, for hope for all of us but this has been taken away from us through Citizen’s United, big money, gerrymandering, and other tactics to suppress common peoples’ say in our government. 

The only hope I can grasp onto are acts of kindness towards my neighbors no matter who they are and hopefully that kindness will spread to the next neighbor, and the next neighbor and grow into a movement because my only hope today is to build a grassroots movement built on a chain of human kindness.  Pass it on.

Jamal Khashoggi's Murder Reminds Us of Our Presious Freedoms

Jamal Khashoggi wrote in the Washington Post “The Arab world needs a modern version of the old transnational media so citizens can be informed about global events. More important, we need to provide a platform for Arab voices. We suffer from poverty, mismanagement and poor education. Through the creation of an independent international forum, isolated from the influence of nationalist governments spreading hate through propaganda, ordinary people in the Arab world would be able to address the structural problems their societies face.”

Jamal Khashoggi’s murder highlights the threats to a global free press.  Journalist become targets around the world when they challenge power, whether that power is political such as leaders of countries or economic as in drug cartels.  Between 2010 – 2018 twenty-four Mexican journalists have been murdered some say by drug cartels.  Two Reuters reporters in Myanmar, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, were arrested December 12, 2017 for political reasons.   Khashoggi in the Washington Post piece where he writes “What the Arab World Needs More is Freedom of Expression” reminds us that freedom of expression is linked to freedom of the press and freedom of the press is linked to independent thinking of ordinary people.

In a democracy ordinary people need to think independently to be an informed voter to address the social issues of the country.  Where do you get the ideas that form your opinions?     Issues of our country today and where you get independent unbiased information is tied to freedom of the press.  Is there such a place in today’s media gluttony?  What newspapers, radio stations, news TV broadcast, podcast, or YouTube, do you listen to has straight fact news.   When I wrote for gay newspapers I always had in mind what I wanted to say, I just needed to find someone who I could quote who agreed with me and sometimes someone to quote with an opposite opinion to make my point. 

Today I am lost in a sea of information.  Depending on where I go to find statistics I get conflicting information. I have taken the progressive side on the social cultural divide. I look at websites such as the Brennan Center for Justice, State Initiative Exchange, and the South Poverty Law Center to get what I consider accurate information.  This furthers my polarization on solutions to solve social problems and I am stuck; frustrated and think I am right. The current tone of news casters such as Fox News and MSNBC banter back and forth on who’s reality we should believe.  What was it like for Jamal Khashoggi in Saudi Arabia?  Do the people struggle with a he said the government said in the same way we struggle with accurate reporting in a climate of accusations of fake news drawing lines of separation among us.

When we say freedom of the press, do we also mean freedom of editorialized ads on TV?  In this midterm election season, the ads on TV hunt me, particularly the ones by unaccountable PACS.  I first noticed them during Sessions’ nomination for Attorney General then during the Kavanaugh hearings, and now they demonize the democratic party. Where does freedom of the press start and where does it end.  Where are the dependable facts?  I know that if two people go to the same event they will have two different ideas of what happened, so how do we get a consensus on what reality is or is it just in the eye of beholder.  Then there’s the question of what facts we get from media that are nothing but propaganda.  Both sides of the cultural divide wrestle with this question, I know this because of what my republican friends have told me about what they think about what is going in our politics today.

As we mourn the loss of Jamal Khashoggi a person who gave his life to be able to stand up and say what he thinks, let’s remember we need to do the same thing in our lives, in this way we take advantage of our constitutional freedoms and not let those freedoms slip away in obscurity.  Voting in the up coming midterm elections express those freedoms more than any other action we could take.  Get out and VOTE!

Don't Dismiss Kanye's Message to Trump

Kanye West seems to have drunk the Kool-Aid of Trump this maybe what got him an audience with President Trump and why Trump praised the rapper. Hopefully Kanye West’s innovative ideas were heard between the worshiping and praise and crazy side bars.  Many of you may have had a hard time listening to Kanye’s important message because it was hard not to focus on the manic talk of the hat, or his reality show presentation that you have to admit out did Trump’s normal take the conversation over.  Trump sat back with folded arms for a lot of the meeting which we don’t see him do very often.

As much as Kanye West’s worship of Trump distracted me Kanye shared many good ideas. Starting with Kanye not denying that Trump is racist, his response “Racism can not control me.”  Kanye expounded examples of bad racism in the way he believes Liberals use racism to try to control black people.  I never thought I would see Trump listening to a conversation about racism, maybe it's all in the way you talk about it.  Calling someone out as racist stops any kind of constructive conversation that follows. Kayne by turning the conversation on him and his push back on racism I have to admit was inspiring.

Halfway into the Fox News interview Kanye got the opportunity to layout his ideas he had come to talk about.  Starting with his number one issue “Stop and frisk” he unapologetically told Trump does not help his people in the cities saying several times “Stop and frisk” has got to stop.  Kanye and his wife Kim have a clothing line and want to open up factories in Chicago Kanye advocated for new tax breaks because manufacturing here in the USA costs too much. These taxes could create Trump factories because he’s a master builder Kanye again sandwiching his ideas between praises for Trump.  

Kanye’s ideas sprang out fast fragmented between reality show bits and praise for Trump.  He did have a good idea in block leaders creating curriculum in the schools for people who came from the streets not just people who want to set us up to go to a work or go to the prison system.  These ideas from Kanye on schooling are no new messages but Kanye managed to an audience with Trump and seemed to be listened to.  Kanye started by saying school is boring we have to make school more interesting than a cell phone, we need to have mixed curriculum students need to learn about music while meditating in the morning, we to have bring back a mix of mental health and art programs into the city schools.  Good for you Kanye you got national media coverage airing great ideas so let’s don’t dismiss these ideas because of the presentation.

Kanye put out good ideas for prison reform when he used Larry Hoover, as an example of a person in the prison system who started turning his live around when he was hit with 7 live sentences, pointing out our harsh prison system. The Chicago Sun Times recently published an article call Larry Hoover’s loudest advocates believe that imprisoned Gangster Disciples leader would be a voice for peace in Chicago.  Kanye in his backing of Larry Hoover’s plight brings a strong message to prison reform and the victimization of African Americans.

When asked about gun control Kanye pointed out Illegal guns are the problem, we have a right to carry guns. He went on to send a message to stop worrying about the future, black people have a problem with “again” all we really have is today because of the idea of racism it hurts us today.  Kanye brought red hats for Trump that read “Make America Great.”  Yet another example of sandwiching in praise for Trump while talking about a serious and personal issue.

What got to me more than Kanye’s part of the talk was Trump's positive responded to Kanye saying “I’m open he can speak for me any time,” Trump said as he praised Kanye saying he has been a fan of the rapper for a very long time. Trump’s history of saying one thing one moment and contradicting himself the next I found this statement hard to believe in contrast to Kanye’s sincerity.