In 1985 I graduated from a nursing school as a Registered Nurse. I was in my mid 30s and my intention was to become a psychiatric RN. I had volunteered for a few years at a local mental health center and found great satisfaction working with the group of mostly paranoid schizophrenia diagnosed patients of the center. My wife had been a psychiatric nurse for ten years at that time.
I almost immediately hired on with Ft. Logan Mental Health Center, a state funded psychiatric hospital. I was hired to be a RN on a high risk assault team. Sounded dangerous but it wasn't. At least for me. Guess since they weren't shooting at me it really wasn't all that dangerous.
I liked being there. I enjoyed working with the men and few women who were patients on the unit. Granted, they could be very volatile but it also felt they needed human contact and a compassionate ear to hear them in the tortured state of mind they often seemed to be in.
At that time RNs were therapists, ran groups and took part in the therapy of our patients as well as the medication part of treatment. We were skilled at listening and picking up cues from our patients when they needed help. Our co-workers, a group of very skilled mental health workers, social workers, recreational therapists and psychiatrists valued us for our therapeutic skills and our medical skills related to the treatment of mental health patients.
As the 20th century ended and the new one began, mental health changed dramatically. It was the medical model in charge of treatment. HMOs, and managed care took over. The bean counters took over. Instead of a combination of therapy and medication to treat our patients, medication treatment became paramount. The pharmaceutical industry had discovered psychiatric care was a gold mine. Psychiatry was an area of medicine with many unproven and unknown theories that could be exploited by the pharmaceutical companies for huge profits.
New antidepressants, antipsychotics, antianxiety medications were developed and old medications repackaged and sold as "cures" and best treatments. Scientific studies were done to show how drugs targeted certain areas of the brain that were alleged causative factors for schizophrenia, mood disorders and anxiety disorders. Childhood mental health problems suddenly appeared with dramatic frequency. The diagnosis of childhood and adolescent problems exploded onto the the scene at rates unheard of in the history of mental health treatment. And the pharmaceutical companies had medications ready to treat the kids.
Suddenly, the use of medications first and minimal therapy was the treatment of choice. Registered nurses saw their skills of therapist taken away and became pill pushers and vessels of the psychiatrists under the influence of the drug reps from the pharmaceutical companies. Samples became the backbone of many mental health centers' treatment. And when new drugs were put on the market, the samples of the older medications dried up. So either the doctors ordered the newer medications or patients were faced with possible shortages of drugs that seemed to help them. Nurses were left justifying medications not on a certain HMO formulary. Congress allowed Medicaid and Medicare to be taken over by private HMOs to line the pockets of their private contributors.
Along with the pharmaceutical dominance of mental health treatment came a new type of nurse manager. They weren't valued for their skills as a mental health professional. They were valued for being able to manage nurses away from using therapeutic skills to focus only on pushing medications and billing for as many client as they could see.
And where do the clients (changed from patients) fit in this grand scheme? They don't other than to be seen as "billables" and money makers. Public mental health has begun to move away from the local clinics spread throughout a metropolitan area. Now they want to centralize and make it more difficult for some clients to reach the reduced number of clinics.
Mental health clients are seen as the pariah of health care. They enter an ER and they're seen only as a diagnosis, a GOMER, a nut job or loonie. Their physical distress is often ignored or medicated without consultation with the psychiatric provider. More and more the mental health client is prescribed narcotics for pain. They end up on a cocktail of narcotic, benzodiazapines, antidepressants, mood stabilizers and antipsychotic. And then medications for side effects.
Case managers are supposed to care for 20-40 clients on their caseload. The squeaky wheel gets attention and the poor isolated client often slides away into a drug induced oblivion.
Nurses are expected to see one client every fifteen minutes and told not to get into therapy discussions by alleged nurse managers. The first line of advocacy once expected of RNs and other nurses has eroded. Nursing professionals are now the drug procurer, the shot giver, the robotic pill pusher. The conversations asking the client about their lives and their emotional state are to be limited. The important information once obtained by the one time nurse caregivers is lost. Like a client saying they are being beaten by a spouse. Don't have time for that. Move on. Get the next patient going.
Where the client does fit is in the profits gained by the pharmaceutical companies. Today more psychiatric drugs are prescribed in the US than at any other time. Every American is a potential user of a psychiatric medication. We have to diagnose children for being children. School teachers are on watch for a rebellious kid and often suggests parents get them medicated.
Mental health treatment is a joke. Skills and experience are rejected as old fashioned and the managers of clinics and inpatient sites are only interested in getting the patient in and getting them out on medications. In some sites the old drugs causing tardive dyskinesia are prescribed because the drugs are cheaper. It is no coincidence these facilities often times hold the Medicaid contracts for the region. The contracts for managed care are structured so the contractor gets a flat yearly rate to provide care for patients having Medicaid in a designated region. The unspoken motto is " less is more". The less care given and billed to Medicaid, the more left over for the contractor as a profit. There isn't an incentive to provide good treatment as much as there is to provide less treatment.
Case managers and nurses are expected to make progress in the care of patients by reducing the need for care. The more they can get patients receiving less care the better. Often times patients needing a higher level of care are pushed into categories where they will receive fewer visits to doctors and therapists. The less care needed the more successful a contractor is seen to be. This would be a good measure of therapeutic success if it wasn't such a sham in which the therapy team is bullied into saying clients need less care when it isn't true.
Even the doctors have become just another vessel to make profit on the backs of psychotic, depressed, manic and anxious patients. They are often over booked with appointments. Their days are back to back with patient appointments and the opportunities for therapy other than prescribing drugs are much less now. The mental health centers and inpatient units are advertising themselves as recovery centers, wellness centers and places of excellent care. They spend great sums of money to tell the public about their wonderful care and seldom give their workers wage increases that keep up with the cost of living.
Mental health treatment is a joke. We've lost the human touch. We treat the patients like cattle pushing and shoving them into things they don't want to do. The patient has now been trained if in distress surely there is some pill they must take. While we deinstitutionalized the mental health patient from locked state hospitals, we've continued to institutionalize them using medication. The constant refrain is about medications. Emotional distress is treated by ignoring it by using techniques of coping that represses the past. Don't have time to discuss the pain of trauma. For years and years trauma in a psychotic or anxious patient was glossed over. The PTSD diagnosis was completely scorned and ignored. The phrase, "we don't want to open that can of worms" was common when it came to PTSD. Now with wars and returning combat veterans regularly having PTSD and drug companies "discovering" new ways to treat it, the PTSD diagnosis is common. One more pill to add to the bunch.
There is no where else in the world having the extent of mental illness as in the alleged richest and freest nation in the world, the US. No other nation uses medications for mental illness as much as the US per person. Emotional and mental health has become medicated. No therapy required.
Since 1985 this writer has worked in both public and private areas of mental health care. He has worked in emergency care and directed a mental health emergency department for a large private hospital system. He has been a nurse manager in a public mental health hospital and also worked in outpatient mental health. Most importantly.....this writer is a combat veteran that has been in treatment for PTSD and is in recovery using psychotherapy and medication treatment....the type of treatment studies show to be the most successful in the treatment of mental illness.
Saturday, April 28
The Mockery of Religion
The Catholic Church has just become so easy to mock over the past decade. The latest, if true, is the firing of a teacher at a Catholic school because she used in vitro fertilization. The first thought is ...HUH?? But remember the egg placed in vitro came from someone who rid themselves of the living being. Thus, the Church objection. And I'm still going ....HUH???
Doesn't the Church hierarchy have far more important social issues to condemn and comment on like the wars using drones to kill Muslims with impunity? Or coming out against the corruption of the banks and Wall Street that has left billions impoverished or more impoverished. Can't the bishops and cardinals bring their trumpeting clarions of moral superiority to bear on the issue of hunger around the world. Hunger and starvation that could be stopped but the alleged "first world countries" continue spending huge amounts to carry out the destruction of other humans.
War is profitable and the Church leadership has sat on its collective rosaries and praying hands when it comes to clearly and specifically condemning the current unending wars. Of course they can't. The boys of the Church are so feverishly attacking gays and attempting to subjugate women by their dogmatic intractability they just don't have time to look at their consciences for these other issues. They and all the other fanatics calling themselves the "true Christians" will quote the Bible, show the passages in the Bible that justify their insanity and feel this demonstrates the "WORD" of the only "living" God. And, they will look at their checkbooks and fear retribution should they take an upopular stand.
I don't come to mock the Church easily. Not so long ago I sought spiritual comfort and found it in the Church. Right parish and right priests for that time. They could deal with disagreement about the catechism. But by 2003, I knew I couldn't stay. Wars had already started and all the feelings of the atrocities I witnessed and took part in flooded me. I remembered the killing and sense of lost humanity, lost morality. I remembered thinking why would God allow these things to happen?
And, of course, the Church had the answer to that question. All would be forgiven in times of war protecting freedom and democracy. And every week there would be a call to pray for the "brave men and women in the military protecting all of us". I literally had to challenge the parish deacons to ask the laity pray for all the innocent victims of the wars. They did for a week or so but fell right back into old habits of only remembering our "peacekeepers".
I harbor no ill will toward those who are part of the military and are duped into fighting for an immoral system. There has been a huge propaganda onslaught attempting to make the wars moral. At one time in another war I was duped. I listened to the propaganda and drank the patriotic kool-aid. And rarely did the Church speak out against the slaughter in Vietnam and neigboring countries.
I'm tired of the kool-aid of the Church and this government. If this is what it means to believe in the alleged caring God, then I truly must be an athiest. If this is what patriotism calls for then patriotism is just another false concept of a nation's government rotten to the core.
The overt hypocrisy of Church and nation has made it easy to mock both.
Doesn't the Church hierarchy have far more important social issues to condemn and comment on like the wars using drones to kill Muslims with impunity? Or coming out against the corruption of the banks and Wall Street that has left billions impoverished or more impoverished. Can't the bishops and cardinals bring their trumpeting clarions of moral superiority to bear on the issue of hunger around the world. Hunger and starvation that could be stopped but the alleged "first world countries" continue spending huge amounts to carry out the destruction of other humans.
War is profitable and the Church leadership has sat on its collective rosaries and praying hands when it comes to clearly and specifically condemning the current unending wars. Of course they can't. The boys of the Church are so feverishly attacking gays and attempting to subjugate women by their dogmatic intractability they just don't have time to look at their consciences for these other issues. They and all the other fanatics calling themselves the "true Christians" will quote the Bible, show the passages in the Bible that justify their insanity and feel this demonstrates the "WORD" of the only "living" God. And, they will look at their checkbooks and fear retribution should they take an upopular stand.
I don't come to mock the Church easily. Not so long ago I sought spiritual comfort and found it in the Church. Right parish and right priests for that time. They could deal with disagreement about the catechism. But by 2003, I knew I couldn't stay. Wars had already started and all the feelings of the atrocities I witnessed and took part in flooded me. I remembered the killing and sense of lost humanity, lost morality. I remembered thinking why would God allow these things to happen?
And, of course, the Church had the answer to that question. All would be forgiven in times of war protecting freedom and democracy. And every week there would be a call to pray for the "brave men and women in the military protecting all of us". I literally had to challenge the parish deacons to ask the laity pray for all the innocent victims of the wars. They did for a week or so but fell right back into old habits of only remembering our "peacekeepers".
I harbor no ill will toward those who are part of the military and are duped into fighting for an immoral system. There has been a huge propaganda onslaught attempting to make the wars moral. At one time in another war I was duped. I listened to the propaganda and drank the patriotic kool-aid. And rarely did the Church speak out against the slaughter in Vietnam and neigboring countries.
I'm tired of the kool-aid of the Church and this government. If this is what it means to believe in the alleged caring God, then I truly must be an athiest. If this is what patriotism calls for then patriotism is just another false concept of a nation's government rotten to the core.
The overt hypocrisy of Church and nation has made it easy to mock both.
Thursday, April 26
The True Electoral Fraud
I continue to be amazed at how much attention the so-called progressives and liberals give to the corporate elections coming up in November.
C'mon, it's like a shareholders' meeting at Exxon. Delegates, electoral college, dirty tricks, billions on advertising lies and deceit. The Supreme Court is now the official legislative branch following Citzens United....who were those citizens, by the way? ...But are we really going to put huge energy into this?
The Occupy movement shouldn't become trapped into the electoral vortex (thanks to Stan Goff for that description). Momentum should be sustained as the weather gets warmer. While the cops and politicians focus on the absurd play of conventions and pretend democracy, the real world lags behind with poor housing, poor nutrition, poor health care, poor education, poor paying jobs, billions spent on killing, ever building debts on families, students and individuals as the income gap grows ever wider and on and on.
Do we really think any of these concerns will get serious attention at either convention? More likely the attention will be diverted from the single largest group of welfare cheats....the 1% .....and focused on the poor and disenfranchised who lack advocacy. The economic target is on the safety net of the poorest citizens of the world. They will not be represented on the floor of either summer convention. Only the Occupy movement will represent them if that movement takes the brave step forward to use the political circus to advocate for the 99% that is struggling the most.
Energy and time spent appeasing the quadrennial politcal insanity is energy and time lost that could be used in resistance and pushing the Occupy movement agenda forward.
I realize I'm bombarded daily by the propaganda of the oligarachy. So hard to resist taking a side but there really is only one side. The platform of the plutocrats. Yeah, it would be nice to think the black guy is hip to the world's needs but the dude is too busy placating the masters of war intent on destroying the world.
Obama ain't going to be marching with the Occupy movement. He'll be too busy buying an election and stripping the rights away from the people and remotely killing humans thousands of miles away.
We said we couldn't stand another Bush. The audacity of hope has turned into the realization of despair. More violations of human rights, more sensless killing of senseless wars, more corruption of the banks and Wall Street. The policies of Bush haven't been rolled back. They have been dramatically expanded. Little hope but a great deal of audacity in pushing forth the wishes of the great corporate and "united citizens".
The little hope I see comes from the energy and dedication occupation movements around the world provide. Can't just be white. Can't just be progressives. We need diversity. This will not be a polite march down a city mall. The troublemakers are those who protect the system at all costs. Even those who profess to be progressive but can't quite turn the corner to the necessary radicalism. How well are the polite progressives and liberals treated by cops with pepper spray?
Don't care who gets nominated. The only winners will be the corporate interests, the masters of war, the bankers .....the 1%.
C'mon, it's like a shareholders' meeting at Exxon. Delegates, electoral college, dirty tricks, billions on advertising lies and deceit. The Supreme Court is now the official legislative branch following Citzens United....who were those citizens, by the way? ...But are we really going to put huge energy into this?
The Occupy movement shouldn't become trapped into the electoral vortex (thanks to Stan Goff for that description). Momentum should be sustained as the weather gets warmer. While the cops and politicians focus on the absurd play of conventions and pretend democracy, the real world lags behind with poor housing, poor nutrition, poor health care, poor education, poor paying jobs, billions spent on killing, ever building debts on families, students and individuals as the income gap grows ever wider and on and on.
Do we really think any of these concerns will get serious attention at either convention? More likely the attention will be diverted from the single largest group of welfare cheats....the 1% .....and focused on the poor and disenfranchised who lack advocacy. The economic target is on the safety net of the poorest citizens of the world. They will not be represented on the floor of either summer convention. Only the Occupy movement will represent them if that movement takes the brave step forward to use the political circus to advocate for the 99% that is struggling the most.
Energy and time spent appeasing the quadrennial politcal insanity is energy and time lost that could be used in resistance and pushing the Occupy movement agenda forward.
I realize I'm bombarded daily by the propaganda of the oligarachy. So hard to resist taking a side but there really is only one side. The platform of the plutocrats. Yeah, it would be nice to think the black guy is hip to the world's needs but the dude is too busy placating the masters of war intent on destroying the world.
Obama ain't going to be marching with the Occupy movement. He'll be too busy buying an election and stripping the rights away from the people and remotely killing humans thousands of miles away.
We said we couldn't stand another Bush. The audacity of hope has turned into the realization of despair. More violations of human rights, more sensless killing of senseless wars, more corruption of the banks and Wall Street. The policies of Bush haven't been rolled back. They have been dramatically expanded. Little hope but a great deal of audacity in pushing forth the wishes of the great corporate and "united citizens".
The little hope I see comes from the energy and dedication occupation movements around the world provide. Can't just be white. Can't just be progressives. We need diversity. This will not be a polite march down a city mall. The troublemakers are those who protect the system at all costs. Even those who profess to be progressive but can't quite turn the corner to the necessary radicalism. How well are the polite progressives and liberals treated by cops with pepper spray?
Don't care who gets nominated. The only winners will be the corporate interests, the masters of war, the bankers .....the 1%.
Saturday, April 21
Evolution, Revolution
Can't have a revolution without an evolution. Just changing the name plates on the doors don't change the conditions in the streets of the cities and roads of the towns.
Do we really want freedom for all or just have our voices heard over the voices of all the others? The right wants to shut up the left and left wants to shut down the right. And hungry kids and out of work dads don't give a shit w...hat you all say because nothing's changing for them. Raped, battered and oppressed women don't care about all the rhetoric and ideologies. They just want to be safe somewhere.
The clerk at 7-11 and holding down a second low wage job at some gas station charging 4 dollars a gallon... and helping make big oil billions... isn't going to march or rally. There aren't enough hours in the day.
Anybody knowing the Maslow hierarchy knows people need to have basic needs met before they can be part of any movement seeking revolutionary change. Food Not Bombs understands the concept quite well. They were at Katrina before the Red Cross at many sites.
Philsophical and intellectual mind fucking might make for good theater but it doesn't help the starving kid pay attention in the classroom that's overcrowded. Or take weapons away from child soldiers and give them refuge.
Churches calling for faith lack credibility in their rich temples with luxury cars in the parking lots. Does God or Jesus or Allah really think you deserve to have so much more than the impoverished? And priests raping kids and bishops covering it up make any authority they think they should have over the choices of women ludicrous and invalid.
There's so much God-damn misery in the world caused by fat cats and politicians along with ideologues spouting this "ism" or that "ism" it seems impossible to list it all let alone try to remedy it all.
And yet we try. And some beautiful souls like Kathy Kelly, Dhar Jamail, Stan Goff, Larry Hales, Zoe the Medic, Kelly Dougherty, Garret Reppenhagen, Jeff Englehart, Dahlia Wasfi, Abdul Henderson, Val Phillips, Paul and Mary Ellen Garrett, Carolyn Bninski, Claire Ryder and so many others fight past the despair of our world attempting to create the evolution needed for true revolution.
My wife, Pam, has been in healthcare 35 years and every day fights against the madness of a broken system to bring care and comfort to her patients.
I don't know exactly what I do or where I fit. Caught up in the anger of past times or outraged about present times? Sitting in my four cornered room afraid or ambivalent about leaving or facing off cops bent on harming me and others for practicing freedom?
I do recognize the extraordinary people that have somehow crossed my path in life. And look forward to meeting up with those I've yet to meet but for some reason reach out to me on places like this.
Once met an old guy climbing on a mountain trail leading to a 14,000 foot peak. He seemed way too old. He moved slow. And yet he had made the top and was on his way down. I asked him how he did it. "Perseverance", he said.
I think about that old guy, who long ago left this world, quite often. Some words like "perseverance", "resistance" "justice" and "revolution" just seem much more powerful. They make my mind think of the posssibilties.
Do we really want freedom for all or just have our voices heard over the voices of all the others? The right wants to shut up the left and left wants to shut down the right. And hungry kids and out of work dads don't give a shit w...hat you all say because nothing's changing for them. Raped, battered and oppressed women don't care about all the rhetoric and ideologies. They just want to be safe somewhere.
The clerk at 7-11 and holding down a second low wage job at some gas station charging 4 dollars a gallon... and helping make big oil billions... isn't going to march or rally. There aren't enough hours in the day.
Anybody knowing the Maslow hierarchy knows people need to have basic needs met before they can be part of any movement seeking revolutionary change. Food Not Bombs understands the concept quite well. They were at Katrina before the Red Cross at many sites.
Philsophical and intellectual mind fucking might make for good theater but it doesn't help the starving kid pay attention in the classroom that's overcrowded. Or take weapons away from child soldiers and give them refuge.
Churches calling for faith lack credibility in their rich temples with luxury cars in the parking lots. Does God or Jesus or Allah really think you deserve to have so much more than the impoverished? And priests raping kids and bishops covering it up make any authority they think they should have over the choices of women ludicrous and invalid.
There's so much God-damn misery in the world caused by fat cats and politicians along with ideologues spouting this "ism" or that "ism" it seems impossible to list it all let alone try to remedy it all.
And yet we try. And some beautiful souls like Kathy Kelly, Dhar Jamail, Stan Goff, Larry Hales, Zoe the Medic, Kelly Dougherty, Garret Reppenhagen, Jeff Englehart, Dahlia Wasfi, Abdul Henderson, Val Phillips, Paul and Mary Ellen Garrett, Carolyn Bninski, Claire Ryder and so many others fight past the despair of our world attempting to create the evolution needed for true revolution.
My wife, Pam, has been in healthcare 35 years and every day fights against the madness of a broken system to bring care and comfort to her patients.
I don't know exactly what I do or where I fit. Caught up in the anger of past times or outraged about present times? Sitting in my four cornered room afraid or ambivalent about leaving or facing off cops bent on harming me and others for practicing freedom?
I do recognize the extraordinary people that have somehow crossed my path in life. And look forward to meeting up with those I've yet to meet but for some reason reach out to me on places like this.
Once met an old guy climbing on a mountain trail leading to a 14,000 foot peak. He seemed way too old. He moved slow. And yet he had made the top and was on his way down. I asked him how he did it. "Perseverance", he said.
I think about that old guy, who long ago left this world, quite often. Some words like "perseverance", "resistance" "justice" and "revolution" just seem much more powerful. They make my mind think of the posssibilties.
Tuesday, April 17
Looking At the Stupid, Overlooking Reality
How fucking stupid are we??? Who gives a damn about Ann Romney being a housewife or some Democratic consultant being a working mom? Clearly Romney lives in a misogynistic culture that only recently gave up polygamy....i.e. only men were allowed multiple partners. And clearly the Democratic consultant, Rosen, isn't doing all that badly if she can attend White House functions. The true feminist issues are ignored while the power mongers snipe at each other. Women still earn 75-80 cents for every dollar a man does in the workforce. Women are discriminated against in a variety of ways by male employers and quite often by female employers. Sexism, like racism, is one component of the polarization the rich and powerful like to keep going to divert our attention from their plundering of the economy and planet. White males in America have held the power since the landing of pilgrims. And how has that worked out for humanity?
Hey, I'm white and know I've lived in the white male world of privilege. I haven't had cops roust me for the color of my skin. I've not been overlooked because I might get pregnant sometime from my teens until menopause. I've never been identified as a pariah because of my sexual orientation. Or scorned as an "illegal" because I entered a nation looking for a better life and don't speak the dominant language and it's assumed I can't learn to do so. I have gotten old and discovered my knowledge and experience doesn't mean a damn thing to my employer. They'd love to get rid of me because over the years I've "earned" higher wages and have healthcare benefits I'm more likely to use as I age. But I'm more likely to get a new job as a 62 year old white male than a 62 old male coming from a community of color.
Hell I could run for a seat in Congress and represent the special interests needing government handouts in the guise of contracts or grants. Probably not. I don't have an unnamed political action committee (aka a person)willing to give millions to smear any opponent with lies and miscontrued and distorted half truths.
I'm looking at Congress and wonder where the hell are the brothers and sisters representing their communities? Where's the blue collar representative? Where's the radical from Oakland demanding change? Where's the native American from Pine Ridge pointing out the crushing poverty of his or her community?
We all know that's a joke. Pure delusional thinking. I started this rant with the issue Ann Romney is out of touch with the rest of the population. Name one member of Congress that is in touch. Name one President. That is why it seems fucking stupid to get involved in the sniping of the privileged about one another. Fuck them! One out of five kids in this nation go hungry. And it gets worse outside the privileged borders of the U.S.. We flounder around in stupid controversy at a time we can least afford to do so.
Hey, I'm white and know I've lived in the white male world of privilege. I haven't had cops roust me for the color of my skin. I've not been overlooked because I might get pregnant sometime from my teens until menopause. I've never been identified as a pariah because of my sexual orientation. Or scorned as an "illegal" because I entered a nation looking for a better life and don't speak the dominant language and it's assumed I can't learn to do so. I have gotten old and discovered my knowledge and experience doesn't mean a damn thing to my employer. They'd love to get rid of me because over the years I've "earned" higher wages and have healthcare benefits I'm more likely to use as I age. But I'm more likely to get a new job as a 62 year old white male than a 62 old male coming from a community of color.
Hell I could run for a seat in Congress and represent the special interests needing government handouts in the guise of contracts or grants. Probably not. I don't have an unnamed political action committee (aka a person)willing to give millions to smear any opponent with lies and miscontrued and distorted half truths.
I'm looking at Congress and wonder where the hell are the brothers and sisters representing their communities? Where's the blue collar representative? Where's the radical from Oakland demanding change? Where's the native American from Pine Ridge pointing out the crushing poverty of his or her community?
We all know that's a joke. Pure delusional thinking. I started this rant with the issue Ann Romney is out of touch with the rest of the population. Name one member of Congress that is in touch. Name one President. That is why it seems fucking stupid to get involved in the sniping of the privileged about one another. Fuck them! One out of five kids in this nation go hungry. And it gets worse outside the privileged borders of the U.S.. We flounder around in stupid controversy at a time we can least afford to do so.
Friday, April 13
The Racist America
As George Zimmerman is finally charged for his vigilante killing of the young black male, Tayvron Martin, the subject of race once again rears its ugly head for discussion. Right wingers have rallied around Zimmerman as an example of a man using his constitutional right to bear arms and protect himself against the threat of a hooded black teenager walking in a gated community almost exclusively populated by whites. The irony is Zimmerman has a Hispanic mother and in most racist quarters would be considered one of "them".
The special prosecutor in the Martin case claims the Sanford, Florida police were still in the initial investigation of this shooting 45 days after the killing. She claims her charges against Zimmerman are based only on fact and not influenced by community activists or pressure from outside. She has yet to admit the killing had some racial profiling involved. To do that would be to admit we have a race problem in America.
Meanwhile in White Plains, New York a combat veteran of the Marines was killed by the police after his medical alert device accidentally triggered an alarm. Kenneth Chamberlain, in his 60s, was black. He struggled with health problems resulting in him having the medical alert device that sent a signal to a private security firm calling for medical assistance.
On the night Chamberlain was killed, the private security firm apparently asked police to do a welfare check. But before the police arrived it was determined the alert was a false alarm. The security informed the police of the false alarm. The police persisted, however. The were determined to do the welfare check despite the information.
The White Plains police arrived at Chamberlain's door and repeatedly banged on it to ask he open up so they could be assured everything was alright. Chamberlain insisted he was not in danger and asked the cops to leave him alone. His insistence on exercising his rights incensed the police. They demanded he open the door. Apparently three cops were needed to handle the situation of the 68 year old ex-Marine's refusal to open his door because the cops demanded he do so.
Once the police did force themselves inside Chamberlain's residence, one cop decided he would activate his taser just in case. When Chamberlain argued with the cops about the need for them to be inside his home apparently he was seen as being belligerent and a possible danger to three healthy cops. So they tasered him even though he pleaded with them not to harm him and to leave him alone.
When the taser proved ineffective and Mr. Chamberlain was still able to exercise his rights against the ruthless police actions, the cops claim he threatened them with a hatchet. Despite having been tasered and having severe health problems. One of the cops was heard to call Mr. Chamberlain a nigger. This came out when the family attorney for Kenneth Chamberlain discovered the taser had a camera activated to record the police actions.
The recording also showed Chamberlain begged to be left alone and finally lamented he was going to be killed that night by the police. And he was right. Months after the killing of Kenneth Chamberlain there has been no punishment of the police officers who bullied him and eventually killed him. Internal investigation for White Plains police resided inside the squad room of the cops being sent out on the streets. There was no separation of the investigatory branch of the police from the beat cops. They shared the same space, the same camaraderie and the same blue line of silence whenever another cop brutalized a citizen.
Only now has there been further investigation of the death of a black combat veteran with severe enough health problems he required a medical alert device for possible rescue. And it was the community prompting the police to reopen an investigation not internal affairs or a district attorney.
These racist attacks occur on a routine basis with far greater frequency than the greatest majority of Americans could imagine. A young man using a hoodie to protect himself against the elements is viewed as a threat to a vigilante community watch member. He also used the word nigger during his conversation with the 911 operator. But he was given a pass by cops under the "stand your ground" laws allowing citizens the right to bear arms and use deadly force if they felt threatened or in imminent danger toward their life. As the NRA continually tells us, "guns don't kill people, people kill people". And the racial profiling of young and old black men is stark testimony to that NRA pet phrase.
A few years back I spent some time in the Denver City Jail after a conviction of trespassing at a Halliburton office as an act of non-violent civil disobedience. Halliburton was and still is one of DOD's biggest private contractors. My cell mate in the jail was a young black male in his 20s. He had dreadlocks and appeared to possibly be someone police would profile as being in a gang.
The first few hours in the cell were a period of silence between us. I was a fifty something white male in a jail cell with a hip hop 20 something black male. All the stereotypical thinking took place by both of us it turns out. Eventually I asked him or he asked me what caused our incarceration. He was in jail because he didn't have the money to pay a traffic fine which had accumulated when he'd put off meeting the due date for payment. He was facing 30 days in the county jail. His stay in city jail was only temporary until a "bed" opened at the over crowded county jail.
When I told him I was in jail after a conviction for a non violent civil disobedience against the war in Iraq, he opened up to me. He told me he respected what we in the peace movement were doing. As the hours dragged on we held a non-stop conversation. I discovered he was a college grad who was working on establishing a recording studio for hip hop artists in the Denver area. He was married and had a child on the way. His degree was in business which he wanted in order to go into his own business.
He also told me about the constant police harassment he faced as a young black male in Denver. Exacerbated by his dreadlock appearance. He lived in an area where gang activity occurred and anytime something gang related happened he was either pulled over while driving or stopped when walking.
I asked how often this rousting took place. He said it was sometimes daily but at least a few times each week. He said he had grown used to the harassment and avoided becoming angry or adversarial. He knew the reputation of DPD was one of brutality and racial profiling.
I told him about my experience in Vietnam as a combat infantryman. We eventually got around to discussing the "poverty draft" and high number of black troops both in Vietnam and Iraq and Afghanistan. He was an extremely intelligent and pleasant young man. My jail time seemed to be easy because of him.
What also impressed me was his ability to not only talk with me but he also interacted with other inmates in whatever jargon or level of communication they were at. This wasn't a guy without street wisdom. He was a victim of profiling.
In recent years I also became friends with another younger black male who was part of the International Action Committee. He also had dreadlocks. Larry is an organizer for IAC and has since moved back to the NYC area. During his stay in Denver he was also constantly harassed by DPD. On one occasion he was rousted simply because he looked "suspicious" entering his apartment building in a gentrified area of the Capitol Hill neighborhood. He was held up from entering his apartment for over a thirty minute time period while the police ran his name through their computer system for possible outstanding warrants and criminal record. And, of course, he had to produce some kind of proof he lived where he said he lived.
The most egregious episode of the harassment of Larry by the DPD came when he and his girlfriend, a young white activist woman, allowed a parolee to stay with them until he could afford his own housing. The parolee worked a night shift in an attempt to save money for the housing.
One evening after the parolee had left for work his parole officer and police woke Larry and Melissa up banging on their apartment door. When Larry, dressed in only underwear and without shoes on, answered the door he was pushed aside and told his apartment was subject to search since he was housing a parolee. They demanded to know where the parolee was. Then they began "tossing" the apartment looking for drugs and weapons. Larry objected and demanded the police identify themselves and respect his rights.
Larry exercising his legal rights and objecting to an unwarranted search was enough for the attending cops to throw him to the floor face first and sit on his back as they cuffed him. The only resistance was him verbalizing objections to the police and parole officer violating his rights. Meanwhile, Melissa was told to sit down and shut up while the search proceeded. Melissa asked if she could put her kitten in a closed room so it wouldn't run out the open exterior door to the apartment. When she rose to do so, she too was thrown to the ground.
Larry was dragged down the stairs of his apartment building out into the winter night. He was bare-footed and dressed only in his underwear. When he kept objecting and asked to be able to dress for the weather a cop butt ended him with a night stick and made a racial slur toward him. Larry was transported to the city jail in a paddy wagon full of other arrestees. One was kind enough to offer him a sweatshirt to help with his near hypothermia state. He was processed through jail and put in a cell charged with attempted assault on a police officer. This is usually the charge when a case of police brutality occurs in Denver. They beat the victim and charge them for an attempted act of violence.
Larry was bailed out of jail after many hours in a cell. He was bruised and battered from the beating by police. Melissa wasn't arrested but she was also injured during the unnecessary take-down by police. And her cat ran away.
A call went out to organize a protest at city jail for this arrest. A small group of us turned out. Most were members of the black community. A friend of Larry who happened to be Muslim spoke out against the brutality. He, too, had experienced police brutality when attempting to speak at a university regents meeting that was said to be an open meeting.
Eventually all charges were dropped against Larry. But there was never an apology. The cops responsible for the brutality weren't disciplined. And to be truthful, Larry's experience with Denver's police was mild compared to many high profile cases of brutality against people of color.
In the late 60s and early 70s I was an organizer for VVAW. I had a veteran friend who worked the Black Panther breakfast program in the Five Points neighborhood. He was also a member of VVAW. He had lost a foot and lower leg by amputation following a wound incurred in combat in Vietnam. Butch was harassed, beaten and terrorized by Denver police almost weekly because of his activism in the Black Panther Party and VVAW.
Butch was as gentle a soul as I've ever met. He and his wife Penny had beautiful kids and attempted to live in peace and bring necessary changes to their community. They were seldom allowed peace. Not only was Butch terrorized but so was his family by late night "raids" of cops trying to find drugs and weapons.
When I had just returned from Vietnam I was walking in the Capitol Hill neighborhood with another veteran. We were talking with one another when we heard a man's cries coming from a nearby alley. We ran to the alley and saw a black male being beaten by two white cops. They were using their long and heavy flashlights to repeatedly strike the man in the gut and across his cheek. My friend and I ran up to the scene demanding the cops stop beating the already cuffed and subdued man. One of the cops pulled his pistol from the holster aiming it at us. He threatened to shoot us if we didn't leave. Both of us were combat veterans. We stood our ground for a minute to ask for the cops' names and badge numbers. The cop with the gun made his threat again telling us the bullet he shot us with would have his badge number on it. We moved on.
The next day we went to the HQ of DPD to file a complaint. We were made to wait over an hour and treated like we were suspects of a crime. Finally we were handed complaint forms without instructions by the cop on what information was necessary. We wrote our complaints but refused to put our names and addresses. We knew we could become victims ourselves giving out personal information.
Police intimidation, fear tactics, racial profiling, brutality. This is nothing new. And yet we continue to ignore it or endorse it as a way to have a peaceful society. We look the other way. We allow kids like Tayvron Martin to be killed before we speak up in large numbers. We deny racism but right at this time there is a bumper sticker being circulated that says it is a reality and getting worse. The message on the bumper sticker- "Don't re-nig in 2012" and the Obama hope symbol from 2008 is present with a slash through the round symbol.
And still we refuse to hold the discussion. We tolerate code words of overt racism. We tolerate actions by radical groups against blacks and other people of color. We tolerate the hate. The violence. We tolerate the criminalization of young men of color for possession of small amounts of drugs. We use the war on drugs to control the so-called "savages" or "mud people". We flooded neighborhoods in urban areas populated with black activists with CIA bought drugs to control the dissent. We discharge black veterans and veterans of color with less than honorable discharges in far greater proportion than white soldiers. We use 'em and lose 'em.
You'd have to be either stupid or stupidly naive to think this nation doesn't have a race problem. The election of a black President who has been as white as any other President in his interactions with big business has demonstrated the hatred simmering just below the surface of most of our nation. The white racists carrying monkeys with Obama's name on them is a vivid reminder of the hate. The total blockade of any proposal by the conservative right wing forces of Congress is a vivid reminder of the hate. No President in our history has ever faced a 100% filibuster in the Senate for every bill brought to a vote. Every bill required at least 60 votes of the 100 in the Senate.
The McConnells and Boehners of Congress can hardly withhold their hatred and racism whenever they speak in public. Watching them is like watching a secretive Klan meeting with the white robes missing. The Tea Party denies their racist intent but continually demonstrate it by their actions. Karl Rove thrives on racism and hate mongering to secure power for the right wing but even he has lamented things might have gone too far.
I could fill my blog with anecdotes about American racism, white police brutality and the hate. Arizona and other border states are forming citizen posse groups to go after perceived "illegals" entering the sacred borders of America. Most of the posse members are descendants of refugees and citizens of other nations seeking citizenship because of the better conditions in which a family might thrive. The irony doesn't faze them.
We continue to have reservations for the true indigenous people of North America. They live in squalor, without hope and resemble communities more like present day Haiti than America. The mentally defected, the impoverished and the openly gay join the communities of color in being disenfranchised. We are haters. Our churches don't promote the powerful message of tolerance and love Christ espoused. They promote hate toward those who don't meet their standards. Christ didn't have standards of who could follow his message. The churches claiming his name certainly do.
The most vivid example of hatred and racism by the Christian church has been the wars against the Asian commies of Vietnam ....godless, of course....and the crusades against the Islamofascists in Iraq and Afghanistan. The churches of Christ hate the Muslims of the world and hide behind the phony veneer of Christian do gooding. The NGOs of the churches aren't only attempting to bring relief to the most impoverished and in need around this globe. They are attempting to "rescue" the souls of those who believe in the "false gods" of the non-Christian churches. Racism is hate and we have plenty of hate in this nation. The faux world of America presented by white controlled media is constantly being exposed by the hate that is so poorly covered up.
Until the American people have a mature conversation about racism the problem won't go away. Right now calling a racist out for what they are will elicit a response of accusations about class warfare. Class warfare is when the rich white folks along with a few token non-whites gain over 274 % in their yearly income over a period of ten years while the other 90+ % of the population has only gained 8% in their yearly income over the same time period. Class warfare is when the same working class people increase their work production by 80% during that same time frame and they don't even receive an income increase that keeps up with increasing prices of the most essential items such as food.
Racism is a component of the larger problem of the haves and have-nots. The 99% versus the 1%. The race baiters like to keep the 99% polarized against each other to divert attention away from their corrupt theft of the global wealth. Vilify immigrants and people of color. Create homophobia at every turn. Make women killers of babies and sluts. Use misogynistic pornography and advertising to objectify females. Treat sexual issues with the maturity of preadolescence. Keeping people of color derided as inferior maintains the polarization and keeps us all fighting amongst ourselves. And not watching as our resources are stolen, our environment raped and our lives indentured. We are surely a racist nation but we are far beyond just that.
The special prosecutor in the Martin case claims the Sanford, Florida police were still in the initial investigation of this shooting 45 days after the killing. She claims her charges against Zimmerman are based only on fact and not influenced by community activists or pressure from outside. She has yet to admit the killing had some racial profiling involved. To do that would be to admit we have a race problem in America.
Meanwhile in White Plains, New York a combat veteran of the Marines was killed by the police after his medical alert device accidentally triggered an alarm. Kenneth Chamberlain, in his 60s, was black. He struggled with health problems resulting in him having the medical alert device that sent a signal to a private security firm calling for medical assistance.
On the night Chamberlain was killed, the private security firm apparently asked police to do a welfare check. But before the police arrived it was determined the alert was a false alarm. The security informed the police of the false alarm. The police persisted, however. The were determined to do the welfare check despite the information.
The White Plains police arrived at Chamberlain's door and repeatedly banged on it to ask he open up so they could be assured everything was alright. Chamberlain insisted he was not in danger and asked the cops to leave him alone. His insistence on exercising his rights incensed the police. They demanded he open the door. Apparently three cops were needed to handle the situation of the 68 year old ex-Marine's refusal to open his door because the cops demanded he do so.
Once the police did force themselves inside Chamberlain's residence, one cop decided he would activate his taser just in case. When Chamberlain argued with the cops about the need for them to be inside his home apparently he was seen as being belligerent and a possible danger to three healthy cops. So they tasered him even though he pleaded with them not to harm him and to leave him alone.
When the taser proved ineffective and Mr. Chamberlain was still able to exercise his rights against the ruthless police actions, the cops claim he threatened them with a hatchet. Despite having been tasered and having severe health problems. One of the cops was heard to call Mr. Chamberlain a nigger. This came out when the family attorney for Kenneth Chamberlain discovered the taser had a camera activated to record the police actions.
The recording also showed Chamberlain begged to be left alone and finally lamented he was going to be killed that night by the police. And he was right. Months after the killing of Kenneth Chamberlain there has been no punishment of the police officers who bullied him and eventually killed him. Internal investigation for White Plains police resided inside the squad room of the cops being sent out on the streets. There was no separation of the investigatory branch of the police from the beat cops. They shared the same space, the same camaraderie and the same blue line of silence whenever another cop brutalized a citizen.
Only now has there been further investigation of the death of a black combat veteran with severe enough health problems he required a medical alert device for possible rescue. And it was the community prompting the police to reopen an investigation not internal affairs or a district attorney.
These racist attacks occur on a routine basis with far greater frequency than the greatest majority of Americans could imagine. A young man using a hoodie to protect himself against the elements is viewed as a threat to a vigilante community watch member. He also used the word nigger during his conversation with the 911 operator. But he was given a pass by cops under the "stand your ground" laws allowing citizens the right to bear arms and use deadly force if they felt threatened or in imminent danger toward their life. As the NRA continually tells us, "guns don't kill people, people kill people". And the racial profiling of young and old black men is stark testimony to that NRA pet phrase.
A few years back I spent some time in the Denver City Jail after a conviction of trespassing at a Halliburton office as an act of non-violent civil disobedience. Halliburton was and still is one of DOD's biggest private contractors. My cell mate in the jail was a young black male in his 20s. He had dreadlocks and appeared to possibly be someone police would profile as being in a gang.
The first few hours in the cell were a period of silence between us. I was a fifty something white male in a jail cell with a hip hop 20 something black male. All the stereotypical thinking took place by both of us it turns out. Eventually I asked him or he asked me what caused our incarceration. He was in jail because he didn't have the money to pay a traffic fine which had accumulated when he'd put off meeting the due date for payment. He was facing 30 days in the county jail. His stay in city jail was only temporary until a "bed" opened at the over crowded county jail.
When I told him I was in jail after a conviction for a non violent civil disobedience against the war in Iraq, he opened up to me. He told me he respected what we in the peace movement were doing. As the hours dragged on we held a non-stop conversation. I discovered he was a college grad who was working on establishing a recording studio for hip hop artists in the Denver area. He was married and had a child on the way. His degree was in business which he wanted in order to go into his own business.
He also told me about the constant police harassment he faced as a young black male in Denver. Exacerbated by his dreadlock appearance. He lived in an area where gang activity occurred and anytime something gang related happened he was either pulled over while driving or stopped when walking.
I asked how often this rousting took place. He said it was sometimes daily but at least a few times each week. He said he had grown used to the harassment and avoided becoming angry or adversarial. He knew the reputation of DPD was one of brutality and racial profiling.
I told him about my experience in Vietnam as a combat infantryman. We eventually got around to discussing the "poverty draft" and high number of black troops both in Vietnam and Iraq and Afghanistan. He was an extremely intelligent and pleasant young man. My jail time seemed to be easy because of him.
What also impressed me was his ability to not only talk with me but he also interacted with other inmates in whatever jargon or level of communication they were at. This wasn't a guy without street wisdom. He was a victim of profiling.
In recent years I also became friends with another younger black male who was part of the International Action Committee. He also had dreadlocks. Larry is an organizer for IAC and has since moved back to the NYC area. During his stay in Denver he was also constantly harassed by DPD. On one occasion he was rousted simply because he looked "suspicious" entering his apartment building in a gentrified area of the Capitol Hill neighborhood. He was held up from entering his apartment for over a thirty minute time period while the police ran his name through their computer system for possible outstanding warrants and criminal record. And, of course, he had to produce some kind of proof he lived where he said he lived.
The most egregious episode of the harassment of Larry by the DPD came when he and his girlfriend, a young white activist woman, allowed a parolee to stay with them until he could afford his own housing. The parolee worked a night shift in an attempt to save money for the housing.
One evening after the parolee had left for work his parole officer and police woke Larry and Melissa up banging on their apartment door. When Larry, dressed in only underwear and without shoes on, answered the door he was pushed aside and told his apartment was subject to search since he was housing a parolee. They demanded to know where the parolee was. Then they began "tossing" the apartment looking for drugs and weapons. Larry objected and demanded the police identify themselves and respect his rights.
Larry exercising his legal rights and objecting to an unwarranted search was enough for the attending cops to throw him to the floor face first and sit on his back as they cuffed him. The only resistance was him verbalizing objections to the police and parole officer violating his rights. Meanwhile, Melissa was told to sit down and shut up while the search proceeded. Melissa asked if she could put her kitten in a closed room so it wouldn't run out the open exterior door to the apartment. When she rose to do so, she too was thrown to the ground.
Larry was dragged down the stairs of his apartment building out into the winter night. He was bare-footed and dressed only in his underwear. When he kept objecting and asked to be able to dress for the weather a cop butt ended him with a night stick and made a racial slur toward him. Larry was transported to the city jail in a paddy wagon full of other arrestees. One was kind enough to offer him a sweatshirt to help with his near hypothermia state. He was processed through jail and put in a cell charged with attempted assault on a police officer. This is usually the charge when a case of police brutality occurs in Denver. They beat the victim and charge them for an attempted act of violence.
Larry was bailed out of jail after many hours in a cell. He was bruised and battered from the beating by police. Melissa wasn't arrested but she was also injured during the unnecessary take-down by police. And her cat ran away.
A call went out to organize a protest at city jail for this arrest. A small group of us turned out. Most were members of the black community. A friend of Larry who happened to be Muslim spoke out against the brutality. He, too, had experienced police brutality when attempting to speak at a university regents meeting that was said to be an open meeting.
Eventually all charges were dropped against Larry. But there was never an apology. The cops responsible for the brutality weren't disciplined. And to be truthful, Larry's experience with Denver's police was mild compared to many high profile cases of brutality against people of color.
In the late 60s and early 70s I was an organizer for VVAW. I had a veteran friend who worked the Black Panther breakfast program in the Five Points neighborhood. He was also a member of VVAW. He had lost a foot and lower leg by amputation following a wound incurred in combat in Vietnam. Butch was harassed, beaten and terrorized by Denver police almost weekly because of his activism in the Black Panther Party and VVAW.
Butch was as gentle a soul as I've ever met. He and his wife Penny had beautiful kids and attempted to live in peace and bring necessary changes to their community. They were seldom allowed peace. Not only was Butch terrorized but so was his family by late night "raids" of cops trying to find drugs and weapons.
When I had just returned from Vietnam I was walking in the Capitol Hill neighborhood with another veteran. We were talking with one another when we heard a man's cries coming from a nearby alley. We ran to the alley and saw a black male being beaten by two white cops. They were using their long and heavy flashlights to repeatedly strike the man in the gut and across his cheek. My friend and I ran up to the scene demanding the cops stop beating the already cuffed and subdued man. One of the cops pulled his pistol from the holster aiming it at us. He threatened to shoot us if we didn't leave. Both of us were combat veterans. We stood our ground for a minute to ask for the cops' names and badge numbers. The cop with the gun made his threat again telling us the bullet he shot us with would have his badge number on it. We moved on.
The next day we went to the HQ of DPD to file a complaint. We were made to wait over an hour and treated like we were suspects of a crime. Finally we were handed complaint forms without instructions by the cop on what information was necessary. We wrote our complaints but refused to put our names and addresses. We knew we could become victims ourselves giving out personal information.
Police intimidation, fear tactics, racial profiling, brutality. This is nothing new. And yet we continue to ignore it or endorse it as a way to have a peaceful society. We look the other way. We allow kids like Tayvron Martin to be killed before we speak up in large numbers. We deny racism but right at this time there is a bumper sticker being circulated that says it is a reality and getting worse. The message on the bumper sticker- "Don't re-nig in 2012" and the Obama hope symbol from 2008 is present with a slash through the round symbol.
And still we refuse to hold the discussion. We tolerate code words of overt racism. We tolerate actions by radical groups against blacks and other people of color. We tolerate the hate. The violence. We tolerate the criminalization of young men of color for possession of small amounts of drugs. We use the war on drugs to control the so-called "savages" or "mud people". We flooded neighborhoods in urban areas populated with black activists with CIA bought drugs to control the dissent. We discharge black veterans and veterans of color with less than honorable discharges in far greater proportion than white soldiers. We use 'em and lose 'em.
You'd have to be either stupid or stupidly naive to think this nation doesn't have a race problem. The election of a black President who has been as white as any other President in his interactions with big business has demonstrated the hatred simmering just below the surface of most of our nation. The white racists carrying monkeys with Obama's name on them is a vivid reminder of the hate. The total blockade of any proposal by the conservative right wing forces of Congress is a vivid reminder of the hate. No President in our history has ever faced a 100% filibuster in the Senate for every bill brought to a vote. Every bill required at least 60 votes of the 100 in the Senate.
The McConnells and Boehners of Congress can hardly withhold their hatred and racism whenever they speak in public. Watching them is like watching a secretive Klan meeting with the white robes missing. The Tea Party denies their racist intent but continually demonstrate it by their actions. Karl Rove thrives on racism and hate mongering to secure power for the right wing but even he has lamented things might have gone too far.
I could fill my blog with anecdotes about American racism, white police brutality and the hate. Arizona and other border states are forming citizen posse groups to go after perceived "illegals" entering the sacred borders of America. Most of the posse members are descendants of refugees and citizens of other nations seeking citizenship because of the better conditions in which a family might thrive. The irony doesn't faze them.
We continue to have reservations for the true indigenous people of North America. They live in squalor, without hope and resemble communities more like present day Haiti than America. The mentally defected, the impoverished and the openly gay join the communities of color in being disenfranchised. We are haters. Our churches don't promote the powerful message of tolerance and love Christ espoused. They promote hate toward those who don't meet their standards. Christ didn't have standards of who could follow his message. The churches claiming his name certainly do.
The most vivid example of hatred and racism by the Christian church has been the wars against the Asian commies of Vietnam ....godless, of course....and the crusades against the Islamofascists in Iraq and Afghanistan. The churches of Christ hate the Muslims of the world and hide behind the phony veneer of Christian do gooding. The NGOs of the churches aren't only attempting to bring relief to the most impoverished and in need around this globe. They are attempting to "rescue" the souls of those who believe in the "false gods" of the non-Christian churches. Racism is hate and we have plenty of hate in this nation. The faux world of America presented by white controlled media is constantly being exposed by the hate that is so poorly covered up.
Until the American people have a mature conversation about racism the problem won't go away. Right now calling a racist out for what they are will elicit a response of accusations about class warfare. Class warfare is when the rich white folks along with a few token non-whites gain over 274 % in their yearly income over a period of ten years while the other 90+ % of the population has only gained 8% in their yearly income over the same time period. Class warfare is when the same working class people increase their work production by 80% during that same time frame and they don't even receive an income increase that keeps up with increasing prices of the most essential items such as food.
Racism is a component of the larger problem of the haves and have-nots. The 99% versus the 1%. The race baiters like to keep the 99% polarized against each other to divert attention away from their corrupt theft of the global wealth. Vilify immigrants and people of color. Create homophobia at every turn. Make women killers of babies and sluts. Use misogynistic pornography and advertising to objectify females. Treat sexual issues with the maturity of preadolescence. Keeping people of color derided as inferior maintains the polarization and keeps us all fighting amongst ourselves. And not watching as our resources are stolen, our environment raped and our lives indentured. We are surely a racist nation but we are far beyond just that.
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