A time to remember.

After a bus full of Freedom Riders was firebombed in front of her house in Anniston, Alabama on 1961, 12-year-old Janie Forsyth McKinney defied a hate-filled mob to perform a heroic act of compassion. At the time, civil rights activists were conducting "Freedom Rides" throughout the southern United States during which groups of blacks and whites would ride interstate buses together in violation of local segregation laws. The Freedom Riders, who were predominantly college students, were met with hostility and violence in many locations, including famously in Anniston where a mob attacked the bus and lit it on fire with the Freedom Riders trapped inside.

The mob forced the bus to stop right outside of McKinney's home. She witnessed smoke billowing out the burning bus and, after an exploding fuel tank forced the crowd back, she watched the riders pour out and get beaten by the mob. In an interview with the UCLA Today, she recalled that "They were so sick by then they were crawling and puking and rasping for water. They could hardly talk.”

Horrified by the scene before her, the 7th grader ran into her house for a bucket of water and cups and pushed through the violent crowd to reach the bloodied riders laying on the ground. She first went up to an elderly black woman who reminded her of her nanny, Pearl. She recalled, "I started with her. I took her a glass of water. I washed her face. I held her. I gave her water her to drink and as soon as I thought that she was going to be okay, I got up and picked out somebody else." McKinney knew that her actions would anger the local KKK but she explained that she was driven by one of her favorite passages of scripture, "Whatever you do to the least of my brothers, you do it to me."

For 15 or 20 minutes, she said, the police let the violence continue until they finally dispersed the crowd by firing warning shots into the air. After ambulances took the riders to a local hospital, officials announced it was closed and left them in the waiting room. "It took a black minister from Birmingham to form a convoy to come and pick them up and take them back to Birmingham,” she explained.

Although the violence was over, the repercussions for McKinney for her courageous act had just begun. She learned later that the local KKK discussed whether to try her as an adult for undermining them. Ultimately, the Klan decided that she was a "mentally deficient" child and took no action. But, life was never the same for her after that day. McKinney recalled how it "was such a black mark on my family that nobody — not even my father — would talk about it. I was the black sheep. I got ostracized in school by some hard-core Klan kids."

For years, McKinney believed that her father, in particular, had never forgiven her for her actions that day. After her father passed away and Pearl was on her death bed, McKinney asked her if this was the case and finally learned the truth. Pearl told her, "No, child. That’s not right. He told me he had never been prouder of you than he was on that day.” So too McKinney remains proud of her decision to act on that fateful May day many years ago: "All I know is that if I had made any other choice, I would have had to live with that. I’m proud of the choice I made. I think it was a moral choice, a humane choice, a spiritual choice. I wouldn’t undo it for anything.”

To watch a 5-minute documentary in which McKinney recounts her experience in Anniston that day, visit http://bit.ly/1g46cg0 -- or read more in the UCLA Today at http://bit.ly/1B0jt3Q

To learn more about the history of the Freedom Rides, check out the excellent book "Freedom Riders: 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice" (http://amzn.to/1IEffFl) and the accompanying documentary "American Experience: Freedom Riders" (http://amzn.to/1FnXtah).

To introduce young people to the girls and women of the Civil Rights Movement, we've compiled over 40 books for children and teens in our special feature on the "Top Mighty Girl Books on Civil Rights History" at http://www.amightygirl.com/mighty-girl…/civil-rights-history

For Civil Rights Movement-themed books for readers 4 to 8, we recommend "I Am Rosa Parks" (http://www.amightygirl.com/i-am-rosa-parks-1), "The Story of Ruby Bridges" (http://www.amightygirl.com/the-story-of-ruby-bridges), "Lillian's Right to Vote" (http://www.amightygirl.com/lillian-s-right-to-vote), "White Socks Only" (http://www.amightygirl.com/white-socks-only).

For tween and teen readers, we recommend "The Lions of Little Rock" for ages 10 to 13 (http://www.amightygirl.com/the-lions-of-little-rock), "Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice" for 10 and up (http://www.amightygirl.com/claudette-colvin-twice-toward-ju…), "Fire From The Rock" for 12 and up (http://www.amightygirl.com/fire-from-the-rock), and "Warriors Don't Cry: A Searing Memoir of the Battle to Integrate Little Rock's Central High" for 12 and up (http://www.amightygirl.com/warriors-don-t-cry).

I am an evil man.

I just ate two pork fillets with cilantro, onion garlic, chives and tomato sauteed in olive oil. My cardiologist would do a drive by on me if he knew.

I know this is probably OT but I had to confess to someone because anything that damned good is both bad for you and sinful.

New Test:

Replace the word "Muslims" with "Jews" and ask yourself: Do I sound like a fucking Nazi?

Exactly! But Americans seem to not understand nuance. They'll say, "But its different because Muslims are trying to kill us!"

Well, more Americans are killed by fellow Americans with guns than by foreign born Muslims, so what?!?

Fascism always scapegoats unpopular minority groups, such as religious minorities and LGBT people. People might fool themselves into thinking that this is a "Judeo-Christian nation", but we were once anti-Semitic, too.

Peace out.

How effing hateful can they get? WATCH: Marco Rubio Vows to Roll Back LGBT Protections

Marco Rubio showed his true anti-LGBT colors in an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network, declaring if elected he would reverse President Obama’s executive orders to stop religious business owners who contract with the federal government from discriminating against gays as well as orders on gender identity, and appoint conservative justices to the U.S. Supreme Court who oppose same-sex marriage and abortion.

“The executive orders would be to reverse the executive orders the president has made on things like gender equality in restrooms,” Rubio told CBN’s David Brody in an interview November 24 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. “You’ve seen some local districts and others been forced to provide girls access to a boys’ bathroom and so forth. These sorts of things you’ve seen in Illinois for example, but also ensure that we’re not doing anything that at any part in our government that is putting organizations that are motivated by their faith or organized around their faith from having to violate the tenets of their faith and that includes government contractors. There are many government contractors and small companies who provide services to the government who are faith-based people, and they are being compelled to sin by government in their business conduct. That is not something we should be supporting.”

Rubio told Brody his goal is to protect religious liberty in America: “That includes reversing any administrative decisions made by this president that force religious, or religious-motivated entities. You may not be owned by a church, but you are a religious school, or your mission is to spread the Gospel and adhere to God’s teachings ensure that people in the private sector and the not-for-profit sector are being protected in living out their faith.”

<snip>

A lot more at this link http://www.advocate.com/election/2015/12/07/watch-marco-rubio-vows-roll-back-lgbt-protections

Seems like the R's are making the campaign all about who to hate more than the other person/group they hate.

A message from a good friend of mine on FB that both broke my heart and made me think.

"I'm in Jasper , Alabama and I just spent an outrageous amount of money for Christmas gifts.

Then I saw an old man standing on the main road with a sign that said "please help me get back to Memphis so I can take care of my dog before I die."

Of course, no one was stopping but as I drove by I noticed that he was one of my clients when I worked in mental health and he has an IQ of a 8 year old. He was safe and secure when we took care of him back then but cuts to mental health forced his release other than a visit every now and then to the Jasper mental health center. I actually know his story is true about his dog in Memphis because that was where he was sent to live with his drug addicted sister.

I called some of my former MH co workers and he now has a bus ride to Memphis with a mental health service administrator waiting on him when he arrives. If I wouldn't have known him would I have stopped? Probably not. I need to do some serious soul searching. What have I become? What have we become?"

That's the end of this message from my friend and it hits hard during this holiday season.

Dedicated to that special someone. I am The Frenchman.

Britons launch campaign to ban Donald Trump from the UK over hate speech violations

The British Parliament could soon review a petition calling for U.S. presidential candidate and former reality TV star Donald Trump to be barred from entering the country on grounds that he has violated the U.K.’s laws against hateful and defamatory speech.

The Independent reported that a petition begun by Suzanne Kelly from Aberdeen, Scotland must gather 100,000 signatures before it can be taken up for debate by the House of Commons.

This is not Kelly’s first run-in with the real estate tycoon. She led a 2013 effort to block Trump’s proposed construction on “the greatest golf course in the world” at Scotland’s historic Menie Estate. Kelly raised serious concerns about the development project’s environmental impact.

...

The petition to block him from entering the country reads, in part:

For those who didn't like a "liberal" Justice's opinion on gun control: I give you Warren Burger

‘Responsible’ Gun Owner 2nd Amendments His Friend At Most Ironic Place

A “responsible” gun owner accidentally shot his friend at a gun show in Phoenix, Arizona. The Arizona Department of Public Safety is investigating the incident, but the shooting wasn’t fatal. We do have to ask why this kind of thing keeps happening, though. One would think our growing gun culture would foster increased safety training, at a bare minimum, and instead, it’s having the exact opposite effect.

The man was looking at a semi-automatic weapon he’d recently purchased, but it’s not clear if he bought it at the show, or if he brought it into the show from outside. Nevertheless, signs at the show said that guns were not to be loaded. This is one of the key failures in gun safety that we refuse to address. Accidental shootings happen because people who call themselves responsible (but really aren’t) think the gun isn’t loaded right up until it goes off.

If they’re lucky, nothing worse than a hole in the wall happens. However, far too many result in injury—or death—to someone else, usually a family member. Sometimes, that family member is a child, which is very sad. One woman was braiding her 8-year old daughter’s hair when she dropped her gun, and it went off. As If You Only News writer Christian Drake asked, “Why the f*ck do you need a freakin’ gun to braid your daughter’s hair? Are there terrorists in it?”

Good question! Sadly, unlike the man at the Phoenix gun show, this little girl died from her injuries, all because her mother had a loaded gun out where she could drop it.

More at http://www.ifyouonlynews.com/guns/responsible-gun-owner-2nd-amendments-his-friend-at-most-ironic-place/