Watch Out for the Okey Doke

Thoughts of a Fried Chicken Watermelon Woman is being released Tuesday, April 29th. It is my book of essays, op-eds and some previous blog posts on issues of the day. It was a labor of love but it was also a labor of a different sort. Writing a book is one hell of an endeavor. There were moments when I thought I'd taken on more than I could handle. But I realized that if I didn't write the book I wanted to see, no one else would. I hope, as readers of this blog, you will spend a few dollars to buy my book and then take some time to read it. I look forward to what you have to say.

A great deal has been written about statements made by L.A. Clippers owner Donald Sterling and Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy. My take is entirely different than what's been reported by the media except to those in my circle. We see things differently and are aware of what's going on here. I'm going to take a moment to share it with you.

Former L.A. Laker Magic Johnson, who was a target of a statement supposedly made by Sterling, said he didn't understand how someone could dislike Black people when the NBA is more than 75% Black. Magic needs to stop by one of the Starbuck's he owns and smell the coffee. Of course Sterling can dislike Black players even the ones on his team. He pays them to play a game, a very lucrative game but a game none the less. But he doesn't have to like them. If Magic took a moment to check the history books, he'd recognize Sterling's attitude as the exact type of attitude shared by slave owners. Hell, he could probably put the film The Help in his DVD player and see Sterling's attitude articulated very clearly. I imagine Magic's reaction has nothing so much to do with how Sterling feels about Black people but more about how Sterling feels about him. It is obvious that Magic is afflicted with the same disease O.J. Simpson had. All you readers may not be aware of that disease but a hell of a lot of us recognize it. It's called the How can White people not love me when I've worked so hard to make them accept me disease.

When the verdict was read at the O.J. Simpson trial in 1995, the reaction by White America was not a shock to most Black people but O.J. Simpson didn't get it. He was under the mistaken impression that he had been forgiven and all was okay. The conversation in my circle was that he shouldn't even jaywalk because White folks were gunning for him. Not until he was convicted of robbery in 2008 did he finally get it. Last year his parole request on five concurrent sentences was granted. Later last year, however, his request for a new trial was denied and he faces more prison time. If anyone should recognize the slave master mentality at this point, he should. Perhaps he should call Magic Johnson and give him a clue.

As for rancher Bundy, I think his statements speak volumes about his fondness for slavery times. Any person who speaks of slavery and picking cotton at this point in time is obviously a person out of time. And to talk about Black people and government subsidies while he refuses to pay the government the more than $1 million he owes, should be ignored and not given a platform to spew such madness. If anyone wants to take issue with him, take issue with the fact that the government has allowed him to owe this amount of money even as the IRS threatens average folks for a few thousand dollars for taxes.

I'm not amazed by what he said. I more amazed that people are so surprised at his views. I would imagine that at any given time in this country, his views are shared by millions. His statements were just made public.

I'm surprised the Republicans embraced him and then thought better of it and decided to distance themselves. As stated above, the focus needs to be on the money he owes and what the government plans to do about it. Given there are almost no ideological differences between Democrats and Republicans, I'm waiting for the sleight of hand that going to happen soon as the government quickly and quietly sweep this under the rug and Bundy will go back to business as usual as he becomes the poster boy for the Patriotism movement.

Once again, dear readers, we're falling for the sleight of hand tricks the government and mainstream media are performing. While we spend time debating about whether or not racism is alive and well in the U.S. (it is) and whether or not these gentlemen are racists (they are), the government is passing legislation that hurts us all, the Supreme Court is giving corporations more and more control over our elections and corporation media is bombarding us with programming that is so idiotic that watching it regularly drops our IQ by a few points.

We must be diligent. We must be aware. We must get angry and we must take action. The okey doke is alive and well. And if we're not careful, we'll be knocked out before we even get in the ring.

Happy Easter!

Today is Easter Sunday and Christians the world over are celebrating the risen Christ. Oh, how I remember this day well from my youth. Not so much for the religious significance but the pomp and circumstance surrounding it. Spending the week prior finding the right dress, purchasing white patent leather shoes, getting Shirley Temple curls in my hair, dyeing eggs the night before, Easter egg hunts at church - the memories go on and on. I would bet many of you have just as many wonderful memories as I do.

As I aged, Easter was still a time of buying a new outfit but it also signaled the arrival of spring and being able to finally wear white clothes. Although the egg hunts were a think of the past, I still loved dyeing eggs the Saturday night before Easter. Our Easter dinner was the stuff of legends with a great big honey blazed ham holding court in the center of the dinner table. After stuffing ourselves, our evening culminated in watching Charleston Heston , in perhaps his greatest role, play Moses in Cecil B. DeMilles’ greatest film The Ten Commandments.

As a church going adult, I found that I enjoyed the pomp and circumstance surrounding Easter even more since our church added a part of the Jewish celebration of Passover to the mix.

Passover is celebrated by Jews worldwide. The story of Passover is found in the Old Testament book of Exodus in the Bible. After suffering from various plagues, Moses told Pharaoh that the next plague would be one he himself would declare. Pharaoh ordered the death of the firstborn in each house. Only houses where the doorposts were smeared with the blood of an unblemished lamb was the firstborn spared. Hence the term "Passover."
The meal that marks the beginning of Passover is called a Seder service." There is a retelling of the story of the Jews exodus from Egypt and some symbolic foods are eaten representing both the slavery and eventual freedom experienced by the Jews. The meal consists of eating matzo (an unleavened bread representing poverty), bitter herbs (representing the bitterness of slavery)and a sweet paste (representing the mortar that was used to cement bricks). During the second half of the meal, matzo is eaten again along with vegetables dipped in salt water (representing bitter tears) and wine. It should be remembered this is the meal eaten by Jesus the night he was betrayed and memorialized as the Last Supper. The partaking of bread and wine is known as Communion in the Christian church.

At my home church, we held a Maundy Thursday potluck after our service where we washed each other’s feet. Prior to the potluck, we had a Seder service and I always felt it was a wonderful way to connect the Old and New Testament and connect Christianity and Judaism.

Eventually my church stopped the combined Passover/Maundy Thursday celebration and I stopped going to church. We don’t have a traditional Easter meal anymore. But I still watch the Easter time movies like King of Kings, The Robe, Barabbas, Ben-Hur, Easter Parade and Jesus Christ Superstar. Many of these movies I watched since I was a child and they are just as great now as they were then. The memories are as clear as the sky is today. They take me back to a time when the biggest decision I had to make was whether or not to wear lace socks or tights.

I can’t promise that I will never attend church on an Easter Sunday. I certainly can’t promise that I’ll never make another Easter ham. But I can promise that I will celebrate Easter in my own way, eating dyed eggs and chocolate bunnies till I burst.

Happy Easter!

Too Much

The news this week has been so heavy that finding one subject to cover in this post was almost impossible. There have been additional reports of how the search for Malaysia flight #370 has been further mishandled.

The Supreme Court continues its quest to disenfranchise the American people by allowing rich people the opportunity of giving as much money to political candidates as they wish. This is the follow-up ruling to the disastrous Citizens United.

DuPont heir Robert H. Richards IV was convicted of raping his three year old daughter but was spared prison because he “would not fare well in prison.” I never realized that faring well in prison was a determining factor if one is found guilty of a felony.

In Pennsylvania and Illinois, razor blades were found duct taped to playground equipment. A two year was hurt Monday afternoon suffering a minor cut to his hand.

This is just one week’s worth of news and I’m sure I missed something important but these are the four subjects that caught my attention. Allow me to offer some thoughts on each.

Since Malaysia #370 first went missing, the search has been mishandled. The airline officials seemed rather flippant in their communication to the families and the media about the steps being taken to find the flight. For two weeks, the families and friends of those passengers hoped their loved ones would be found. In this age of instant communication, it would be close to impossible for a plane to be out of contact two hours let alone two weeks and no one can find it or any indication of where it could be. Cars have On Star. ADT can turn off appliances and lock doors with the touch of an app. Seniors have Life Alert and even dogs have GPS but a jet plane disappears and it takes over two weeks to determine the plane was down. Adding insult to injury, families were notified by email that their loved ones were lost. Yet, it would have been time consuming to contact each family but given the hell those people went through, a personal call was the least they could have done.

The Supreme Court continues to prove that it has forgotten its original mandate in that it is the final interpreter of federal constitutional law. It’s become increasingly obvious that the court believes the Constitution and the rights guaranteed by it are reserved only for the rich and powerful, the rest of us be damned. The Citizens United decision is a travesty and should be repealed immediately. If corporations are people, I’d like to see Citibank, J P Morgan Chase and other corporations sit and wait at the doctors’ office or simply do something the rest of us do like use the washroom. It’s bad enough that we have to contend with corporation lobbyist’s stranglehold on our elected officials. We now have to contend with the rich being allowed to just outright purchase the people we rely on to work in our best interest.

This is the second time this year that a judge has allowed a rich person to avoid going to jail because the individual is not responsible or is unable to survive the prison system. Are prisoners being sentenced based on their survival skills? If so, there are a number of young people and women who have been unjustly sentenced and living lives of terror because they are not capable of surviving in jail. It’s obvious why Robert Richards was given probation for raping his daughter – he is a rich White man in America. Enough said.

There is a special place in hell for the perpetrators of this type of cruelty. Anyone who intentionally hurts a child should be tossed in a hole in the deepest, darkest part of the jail. This is not an April fool’s joke. This is not a harmless prank. This is the work of someone who doesn’t deserve to see daylight let alone share space on this planet with the rest of us. Every time I think people have gotten as low as they can go, someone comes along and makes me weep with the realization that I was dead wrong. Only divine intervention can save this soul.