gopiscrap
gopiscrap's JournalI never do this, but just now watching the singing of the
Star Spangled Banner, I broke into tears. There standing at the Lincoln Memorial were President's Obama, Clinton and Carter, that great civil rights advocate Rep. John Lewis, Carolyn Kennedy and for some reason all the history both personally politically for me, and corporately as a US body flashed before my eyes. I remember Vietnam protests, the assassinations of the Kennedy's, Watergate, El Salvador, Iraq, Afghanistan etc. I remember making my citizenship and running for congress and there embodied much of that history standing at the Lincoln Memorial.
As we spend the day commemorating Dr. King's Speech let also remember the others who gave their
lives for civil rights....please add to my list!
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King
Senator Robert Kennedy
Medger Evers
Chaney, Schwerner and Goodman
Malcom X
Those killed in the Greensboro KKK massacre
Those killed at the Edmund Pettus Bridge
I dimly remember 50 years ago today!!!
I was a six year old in Frankfurt, Germany and living in a high rise apartment complex in the middle of the downtown core of this large urban city. Each floor had two TV's. We were living on the 14th floor and I remember that the German TV station was broadcasting Rev. King's speech. My parents made a point of keeping me up to watch it. I was excited because it was break from the usual and I got to stay up later than normal. But I also remember the seriousness of the adults there, specially of the few US expatriots living in the complex. Little did I realize how historic that moment would be.
Now 50 years later in many ways, I feel that racism is worse. Back then it was blatant and could be directly combated. Now it's couched in euphemism's and polite terms. In many ways that is more insidious than what was going on then. Using phrases such a voting fraud, birther talk, welfare queen etc etc is the same talk as using the "N" word, except that the cock roaches that use this kind of language know that direct racist talk is no longer acceptable. Hopefully less than 50 years from this kind of talk will also not be acceptable either.
As Rev. King said: "I have a dream" Hopefully WE ALL HAVE A DREAM!!!
A dream that we live in a just society, a dream that people have the dignity of labor, the right to a reasonable standard of living, that education once again will be valued and prioritized, that the least among us will be lifted up!
WHEN DID WE STOP NOTICING AND LISTENING?
To me it started with Reagan. His administration set out a long term agenda to dismantle living wages, and constitutional rights. Some of it was stemmed by Clinton but not much. A prime example other than the air traffic controllers is teachers. For 30 years now we have heard how bad our educational system is and how teachers are over paid. As soon as teachers in most districts started getting paid and TREATED as professionals, the war against them was begun. The same with postal workers and other union folks.
Another facet of this is the fact that we have dumbed down our text books for educating our nations young. Some of that results from buying them from Texas.
Most of it I feel is more insidious than that. Agree or disagree if you like: but I feel that the corporate overlords made us just fat and comfortable enough to not riot and create revolution, but fearful enough to know that we could be destitute in one or two paychecks ourselves.
We've got enough electronics to make life comfortable, quick results offer instant gratification so we to want things fast and that includes our news. We are acclimated to not listen more and 30-60 seconds to a news report, we don't delve into the why and how of events in our lives and while we are not looking: poof, your standard of living and rights are being diminished.
August 29th is a call by our brothers and sisters in the fast food industry to strike for better wages. I would love to see an all out nationwide strike. WE NEED TO WAKE UP!!!
IF YOU BELIEVE UNIVERSAL SINGLE PAYER HEALTH CARE IS A RIGHT CHECK IN!
With the news of UPS cutting 15K folks from their health insurance plan, once again it hits me just how backward this nation is when it comes to health care. medicine and medical treatment should NEVER be a for profit endeavor. Once we decide to have our priorities correct in this issue, you will see a great reduction in bankruptcies and destitution. One should never have to choose between health, housing and or food!
If you've seen the movie "The Butler" would you rate it for me?
and if you feel like sharing please tell why. My wife and I saw it yesterday
Egypt
I was watching the protests in Egypt the other night and it struck me how passionate they were about getting a new government. It seems to me that in the US the TPTB (elected officials and large corporations, Wall Street) have us just where they want us...the vast majority of us have just enough food and shelter to stop us from getting too excited and they also have us in the position that almost all of us are 1-3 paychecks away from disaster. I don't think that at this point this country is capable of meaningful opposition to injustice or oppression. Just my humble opinion.
Updated poll on George Zimmerman trial guessing the verdict
At this point of the trail now-what do you think the outcome will be?
CONGRATS LGBTQ friends/brothers/sisters
in 1989 I helped run a city initiative in Tacoma, Washington (not a redneck town) requiring equal protection for lgbt folks and was reviled and ridiculed and the initiative went down. In 2008 through our church a Methodist Reconciling Ministry Network Church, led a protest March against Prop 8. In 2012 the peace and justice project I chaired was a proponent of same sex marriage and we won...and now today!!!! As Martin Luther King Jr. had said: "The arc of the universe tends to bend towards justice" and yes, today it has!!! We have come a long way in 23 and a half years......but as Robert Frost said: "miles to go before I sleep"
This Memorial Day I would like to honor my father
My father Robert was born in 1926 and when he was 17 entered the World War II and fought in Germany and France. He was born in New York and had a gift for languages. Because of that gift after the war he served the US for a time posing as a clerk at an East German hotel gleaning information and passing it onto the State Department. When the Korean War started he was sent to fight in Korea in the signal corps. After a brief stint in Texas he was sent to his final station early in the sixties (Vietnam) was shot by a sniper near the North border and sent stateside to be retired. This wounding caused him to have high blood pressure and on the week before Christmas when I was 7 years old he died of a massive heart attack. I remember well attending his military funeral. He was not niave about his service. When the Gulf of Tonkin incident came down, he immediately said that the US was lying. I would like to thank him for his service and also for helping me form the liberal/progressive outlook I have today! HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY EVERYONE
Profile Information
Gender: MaleHometown: Frankfurt am Main
Home country: Germany
Current location: Tacoma, Washington
Member since: Sat Jul 18, 2009, 11:55 AM
Number of posts: 23,766
