(Written by a Caucasian, American expat living in Germany).
THE AMERICAN 200 YEAR RACE WAR!! The German magazine Der Spiegel's English language edition is the equivalent of TIME magazine. As I'm a professional librarian and an American expat living in Germany, I've been asked by librarians often to review articles and I am pleased to do so, as what emerges out of this Spiegel magazine series is the ugly history of Ferguson, Missouri and indeed America's past of chattel slavery and sanctioned militarized police state violence against African American males under color of law.
Spiegel quote: In Ferguson: "IF WE DON'T DESTROY......THEY WON'T PAY ATTENTION". Spiegel quote: "BUT IT IS ACCURATE TO SAY THAT IT IS MOSTLY WHITE MEN WHO SHOOT YOUNG AFRICAN AMERICANS IN THE SERVICE OF THE STATE". Spiegel quotes Ferguson whites: They need to finally learn how to behave,""They are crazy". one woman shrieks, "LIKE ANIMALS"
Spiegel quote: "BUT IT IS ACCURATE TO SAY THAT IT IS MOSTLY WHITE MEN WHO SHOOT YOUNG AFRICAN AMERICANS IN THE SERVICE OF THE STATE".
Spiegel quotes Ferguson whites: They need to finally learn how to behave,""They are crazy". one woman shrieks, "LIKE ANIMALS"
Spiegel quote: Chicago pastor and friend Jeremiah Wright, who had accused the US government of crimes against blacks. "GOD DAMN AMERICA......FOR KILLING INNOCENT PEOPLE" he intoned from the pulpit in a sermon that threatened to derail Obama's candidacy.
Update - "Here is the photograph. Take a good look at Jesse Washington’s stiffened body tied to the tree. He had been sentenced to death for the murder of a white woman. No witnesses saw the crime; he allegedly confessed but the truth of the allegations would never be tested. The grand jury took just four minutes to return a guilty verdict, but there was no appeal, no review, no prison time. Instead, a courtroom mob dragged him outside, pinned him to the ground, and cut off his testicles. A bonfire was quickly built and lit. For two hours, Jesse Washington — alive — was raised and lowered over the flames. Again and again and again. City officials and police stood by, approvingly. According to some estimates, the crowd grew to as many as 15,000. There were taunts, cheers and laughter. Reporters described hearing “shouts of delight.” "Jesse Washington was just one black man to die horribly at the hands of white death squads. Between 1882 and 1968 — 1968! — there were 4,743 recorded lynchings in the US. About a quarter of them were white people, many of whom had been killed for sympathizing with black folks. http://www.dailykos.com/...
"Jesse Washington was just one black man to die horribly at the hands of white death squads. Between 1882 and 1968 — 1968! — there were 4,743 recorded lynchings in the US. About a quarter of them were white people, many of whom had been killed for sympathizing with black folks.
http://www.dailykos.com/...
TMC ByBrendan JamesPublishedApril 18, 2014, "A new study from Princeton spells bad news for American democracy—namely, that it no longer exists".
Spiegel quote: Indeed, the kinds of deadly events that took place in Ferguson and Cleveland have now convinced many blacks that it wasn't Obama who was right back in the spring of 2008. Rather, it was his angry pastor, Jeremiah Wright.
Spiegel quote: The American problem has many different facets, BUT IT IS ACCURATE TO SAY THAT IT IS MOSTLY WHITE MEN WHO SHOOT YOUNG AFRICAN AMERICANS IN THE SERVICE OF THE STATE. The actor Morgan Freeman recently told GERMAN NEWS MAGAZINE STERN THAT THE COLOR OF THE LAW IS WHITE.
Spiegel quote: Six years after Obama's race speech, more than a quarter of blacks in American live below the poverty line. Among whites, that figure is 12.8 percent. According to the Pew Research Center, the median annual income of a white household was about $27,000 higher than that of a black household in 2011, with the difference having grown over the course of the last several decades. The black "island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity," which Martin Luther King complained about 50 years ago, still exists in 2014. Every third African-American child born between 1985 and 2000 grew up in a neighborhood marked by extreme poverty.
Huffington Post Headline: Thousands March On NYPD Headquarters To Protest Police Killings
For the Americans the American Revolutionary War was essentially two parallel wars: while the war in the east was a struggle against British rule, the war in the west was an "Indian War". The newly proclaimed United States competed with the British for control of the territory of Native American nations east of the Mississippi River. The colonial interest in westward colonization, as opposed to the British policy of maintaining peace by designating areas reserved to Native Americans west of the Appalachians following the end of the Seven Years' War, was one cause of the revolution. Most Native Americans who joined the struggle sided with the British, as they hoped to win the opportunity to reduce settlement and expansion onto their land. THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR WAS THE MOST EXTENSIVE AND DESTRUCTIVE INDIAN WAR IN THE UNITED STATES HISTORY! http://en.wikipedia.org/...
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
As Americans, we must understand this is the history that Europeans and people from other highly developed countries have been taught about America in our history of slavery and the American history of wars of extermination against Native American peoples. Is it any wonder why their press and their media see us so differently than we in self-congratulatory terms see ourselves? And why the Plutocrat owned corporatist media has wrapped the American people in a red-white-and-blue brainwashed media circus cocoon, so we're never allowed to understand that the rest of the educated world has come to see America as a pariah nation given it's history of slavery, campaigns of extermination and violence against Native American peoples and African American slavery.
Native American Reservation Poverty is shocking and is kept hidden away, out of sight and out of mind in geographically often remotely located rural reservations which have sadly become islands of poverty to essentially half or more its proud Native American residents.
They've been taught that the US government has tried to subjugate and exterminate Native American culture from the face of the earth for all time and eternity. This has led to various situations to include the fact that US government has admitted to the theft of native lands and offered to pay compensation of 10,000 dollars per tribal member in the area of Monuments Park. Though these proud Native American peoples of the Plains are among the most severely economically disadvantaged people on the planet in any highly industrialized country, they have turned down this money because their sacred ancestral lands were never for sale to the US government or anyone else at any price. Though this seems strange to Americans, Native American peoples never consider their ancestors to be for sale at any price. The US government simply put refuses to accept this reality in its wholesale theft of Native lands to include the Black Hills of the Dakotas which includes the area of Mount Rushmore.
The sad fact is everything in America is always for sale and nothing is scared. Not even ones' ancestors. Ergo the fact that Native peoples in the matter of their ancestral scared lands do not subscribe to the American notion of commerce uber alles is foreign to Americans but is well understood by the peoples of Europe, especially the Germans.
(This understanding has arrived at in part through German literature of Native American culture by famous German writers such as Karl May who though he wrote fictionalized tales of the old American West where until near the end of his life he had never even been (in his book Winnetou which sold 200 million copies worldwide)and in doing so positively portrayed the honor of the proud Native American peoples in a way that has for over 100 years relentlessly captured the imaginations of Europeans. (Imagine if in literature, that is books and movies the Indians were always portrayed as positively as being the good guys and the cowboys were always portrayed as being the bad boys, what effect would that have on our culture? Well guess what, you don't have to imagine. All you have to do is look to Germany because that exactly is what's happened here, in no small part due to the writings of authors like Karl May.)
Especially the Germans who have become completely infatuated to the point of a positive obsession of everything related to Native American history and culture wherein throughout the last century when German children play Cowboys and Indians, everyone always wants to be the Native Americans because Karl May always portrayed Native Americans as being the good guys and the cavalry were always portrayed as the bad guys. So it is even in writings of fiction, the hearts of the German people always go on the side of the Native American people as opposed to the dominate contemporary American culture. In doing so the German people who have their own history as a very tribal nation, hold as a nation Native Americans in the highest regard and as such see with great condemnation the fact that the US government has perfidiously broken every treaty ever signed with the Native American peoples).
Therefore the Germans understand this very well. The fact that Native Americans continue to resist the fraud perpetrated against them by the United States government to this very day, and the people of the European Union (which has a population greater than that of the US and whose currency the Euro rivals the power of the US dollar) has an entirely different perspective on human rights, not shared by the dominant American culture on issues of racism, and even the death penalty. It should be noted, the death penalty in the European Union has been completely outlawed for decades and they will not even export drugs to the United States that may be used to inflict a death penalty.
We must accept that educated Europeans are taught that during the Revolutionary War, the ranks of the British Army were full of soldiers of African descent fighting for what they believed was to end American slavery, a fact that would be echoed later in America's own Civil War. Yet the history of the struggle of American civil rights went on long after the Civil War to the Voting Rights Act to Dr. Martin Luther King. So it is in a continuation of the civil rights' struggle we find ourselves as guests of the Spiegel staff, in a ride along with Jurmael in Ferguson, Missouri, the 2014 America. Here is what we see and unless we avert our eyes, some of this seen through the perspective of European eyes will be ugly in reviewing the true face of bigotry, racism and the ugly American in the year 2014.
This is what the European media tells Europeans everyday... but we in America never hear about that through the US plutocrat owned corporatist media. Why is that?
Spiegel quote form part one of Spiegel series: The car is now driving past large, old wooden homes with fresh-painted verandas and well-groomed front yards, small oases of order. "Look right up there," Jurmael says as he points to the front door of a house. There's a bronze plaque on the door, as there are at many homes in the area. It notes that a slave owner once lived in the home.........The plaques are not intended as memorials. Instead they appear to reflect the pride some of these homeowners have in their house's history. The neighborhood is the city's Historic District and is a tourist attraction. Even today, though, the district is inhabited exclusively by white people........ In the days leading up to Brown's funeral on Monday, white signs bearing the slogan of a new movement had been posted in the front yards of the former slave-owners' district. They read, "I love Ferguson." On this particular morning, the organizers of the initiative have gathered at the Corner Coffee House. A long line formed at one table with people waiting to buy signs and t-shirts. There's not a single African American in the cafe -- not among the guests or among the service personnel. Only the guy in the kitchen is black. The people gathering here are part of what could be described as the white countermovement.
In the days leading up to Brown's funeral on Monday, white signs bearing the slogan of a new movement had been posted in the front yards of the former slave-owners' district. They read, "I love Ferguson." On this particular morning, the organizers of the initiative have gathered at the Corner Coffee House. A long line formed at one table with people waiting to buy signs and t-shirts. There's not a single African American in the cafe -- not among the guests or among the service personnel. Only the guy in the kitchen is black. The people gathering here are part of what could be described as the white countermovement.
Quote from part 2 of Spiegel series: Marley's Bar & Grill, the only restaurant in the area that has remained open despite the protests, is just 500 meters away from the police station, but it is a totally different world. All 15 people sitting at the counter are white. Three of the televisions inside are showing ice hockey, while just one is tuned to CNN. Suddenly, "Breaking News" begins flashing on the screen: "Police car attacked in Ferguson." Voices become raised at the counter. "They are crazy. They need to finally learn how to behave," one woman shrieks. "Like animals," her partner adds. In the history of America, violence has occasionally paved the way for political improvements for the country's black population. When the escaped slave Shadrach Minkins was captured in Boston in 1851 under the Fugitive Slave Act, for example, slavery opponents stormed the courthouse, assaulted the court marshals and freed Minkins. The incident marked the beginning of a shift in attitudes
Voices become raised at the counter. "They are crazy. They need to finally learn how to behave," one woman shrieks. "Like animals," her partner adds.
In the history of America, violence has occasionally paved the way for political improvements for the country's black population. When the escaped slave Shadrach Minkins was captured in Boston in 1851 under the Fugitive Slave Act, for example, slavery opponents stormed the courthouse, assaulted the court marshals and freed Minkins. The incident marked the beginning of a shift in attitudes
Spiegel quote: Almost half of all murder victims and about 40 percent of the US prison population are black, even though the African-American share of the population is just 12.6 percent. And in many states, those with a criminal record forfeit many rights, such as access to welfare, for example. In 10 states, those who have been convicted of a criminal offense lose their right to vote for life.
There are no official govt statistics as to how many American citizens police kill annually, that is comprehensive. Though to be clear the exact number is well known to government, to police and the police unions, especially as a matter of accountancy every time a member of the police causes the death of an American, the police union will spend between 25 to $35,000 in legal fees on behalf of the member of the police involved in the killing. So as a matter of straightforward responsible accountancy and bookkeeping the number of persons killed by police in America is very well known by everyone except the American public. Why is that? Who benefits from that? Why as members of the public and voters do we tolerate this lack of accountability from our public servants, who work for us? Please let me invite to read. "No comprehensive, reliable database of police shootings exists" February 19, 2013 By Pat Schneider
CNN - August 19th 2014 Erin Burnett of CNN speaks with Michael Bell. "Erin says: There is still no national set of statistics for how many people are killed by police officers." http://edition.cnn.com/...
American Line of Duty Police Deaths for 2014: 67 Assault: 1 Automobile accident: 15 Fire: 1 Gunfire: 27 Gunfire (Accidental): 1 Heart attack: 8 Motorcycle accident: 2 Struck by vehicle: 3 Vehicle pursuit: 2 Vehicular assault: 7 Link: http://www.odmp.org/...
Link: http://www.odmp.org/...
So you see in just the same way the American people have been lied into wars, we're being lied into the militarization of the police. Indeed it maybe said by some that though it may not violate the letter, it certainly violates the spirit of the Posse Comitatus actwhich states the military isn't supposed to be used to police America.
Only when a person can't tell the difference between the military and the police by looking at them anymore, what good is having the Posse Comitatus act, when the Pentagon has militarized the police substantially through its 1044 program. We in America have since become a laughing stock in the international legal scholarly community. It was bad enough that state governors could use the National Guard when wearing their state hat to conduct law enforcement to dance around the Posse Comitatus act to commit tragedies which has a history with the shooting of unarmed students protesting the Vietnam War at Kent State. For anyone too young to remember or know the reason why Kent State is important is because in America militarized police state violence has a history of repeating itself. Therefore it is important for people to remember our fallen brothers and sisters now, always and forever, because they laid down their lives for us, for our democracy. This is the legacy of the progressive hippie movement.
Why do National Guard soldiers have US Army printed on their uniforms? Though the National Guard even when I was serving it in, it was always concurrently deemed to be a reserve of the United States Army. So it was that my military ID card said "Armed Forces of the United States". Also under the Insurrection act the U.S. military may be used to act as Police force on American streets.
The law changed the name of the chapter from "Insurrection" to "Enforcement of the Laws to Restore Public Order." http://en.wikipedia.org/...
Is it any wonder that the international legal community looks at these laws as an international laughing stock of a racist militarized police state, wherein to quote Morgan Freeman who once played God in a movie told the German magazine Stern that "the color of the law in America is WHITE". That really says it all, doesn't it?
Ask yourself why is America putting out a militarized police response in the face of a low police death rate and falling crime statistics that have been dropping off for the better part of 2 decades. Why is it that America has the highest incarceration rate of any major industrialized country in the world per 100,000? Who profits from that and why?? Wherein the majority of the inmates, particularly in the for-profit prisons are members of the minority community, particularly African American males.
Racial Disparities in Incarceration * African Americans now constitute nearly 1 million of the total 2.3 million incarcerated population * African Americans are incarcerated at nearly six times the rate of whites http://www.naacp.org/...
Spiegel quote: Making matters worse is the discrimination practiced by state institutions such as law enforcement. The chances that a young black man will be shot dead by the police, for example, is 21 times greater than it is for young white males. The death of 18-year-old Michael Brown is far from abnormal. Just 10 days ago, a 12-year-old boy was shot and killed by a police officer in Cleveland because he was playing with a toy pistol at a playground.
Spiegel quote: Their expressions reveal hate and the word "fuck" is everywhere, in combination with words such as police, system, judiciary, government and power. 'If We Don't Destroy ... They Won't Pay Attention'
Spiegel quote: Yet peaceful movements, and the courts, have also played a role. Rosa Parks' refusal to move to the back of a public bus on Dec. 1, 1955 -- which led to a Supreme Court ruling that segregation on public transport was unconstitutional -- is just one example. But it was the civil rights movement led by Martin Luther King Jr. that achieved perhaps the greatest victory for racial equality in the form of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, using peaceful protests and civil disobedience. Even so, there was a threat of violence in the background, in the form of Malcolm X and his followers.
"The U.S. militarization of police displayed in Ferguson has been going on across America for decades" by Meteor Blades "When cops treat people the way an occupying army would, the consequences for citizens, for constitutional protections, for the police themselves are exactly the opposite of what is needed in a civilized society. "Serve and protect" is transformed into a sick joke."
"When cops treat people the way an occupying army would, the consequences for citizens, for constitutional protections, for the police themselves are exactly the opposite of what is needed in a civilized society. "Serve and protect" is transformed into a sick joke."
Spiegel quote: At the same time, it is also true that Obama has never really presented himself as an advocate of African-Americans during his time in office. He learned during a very early stage of his presidency the kind of fury he might unleash if he commented on conflicts with a racial element.
The Spiegel quote above correctly identifies the fact that though Pres. Obama (whom I voted for twice) has been seen to disappoint many of those who have voted for him. Please let's understand he is the President of a country which doesn't have for the most part a national police force. This is not an accident by any stretch of the imagination, because what happened in Ferguson with Michael Brown could not have happened anywhere in America, if America had a federal nationwide police force say critics. Now whatever it is that we may like to think about that or not, the effect of that is clear, which is that police forces in America are primarily local. This system of not having a federal nationwide police force has kept the federal government to some extent dis-empowered, while concurrently empowering local racist rubes in places like Ferguson to apply their trade and to sow hatred and division, along with their contributions of a racist militarized American police force that has a history dating back to chattel slavery in places like Ferguson, Missouri.
One of the problems that the media never wants to report on is the fact that only 1% of police departments require a four year college degree. This means there are more discipline problems with American police.
FBI.gov - Research estimated that less than 1 percent of all local law enforcement agencies require a 4-year degree. Also in 2014 why would the FBI rely on a 2006 report on it's website? http://www.fbi.gov/....
Only two states mandate higher education for officers: Minnesota and Wisconsin both require associate’s degrees. Other states require a minimum of a high school diploma or GED. It’s up to the individual agency to meet or exceed that requirement – which many do. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, 1% of all local police departments require a 4-year college degree; 15% require a 2-year college degree or some college. http://blog.discoverpolicing.org/....
There are a number of recent studies that provide evidence in support of the fact that police officers that are college graduates tend to have fewer disciplinary problems and tend to resort to force at a lower rate than police officers who are not college graduates. Whereupon it should be noted that 17% of police agencies, particularly in rural areas don't always even require a high school diploma or its equivalent. Clearly it would help professionalism in police agencies to hire better educated police officers.
-------------- Western Europe has learned its lessons from WWII well but America hasn't.
The US government to this very day has never offered financial compensation to Japanese-Americans who they wrongly interned in World War 2 as so-called "enemy aliens" under doubtlessly racist policies of the US government. Likewise many tens of thousands of Italian-American families and German-American families were are also classified as so-called "enemy aliens" during World War 2. None of which even to this very day have received any adequate financial reparations. This is all part of the history of shameful historic racist and xenophobic practices of the US government which were never acknowledged by reparations so that history could be interminably practiced against future generations of so-called "enemy aliens" who would lose all of their constitutional protections at the hands of a historically xenophobic and racist policies of the US government. To be clear educated people everywhere know that the German Spiegel's article series which this diary has reviewed is to be read in a context whereupon it's axiomatically clear that Germany has learned well its lessons from World War 2. This fact has become clear to educated people all over the world as peace has broken out across Western Europe. Germany has also learned the lessons of history and has now become a progressive nation and the richest country in the European Union who is the world's second leading exporting nation in the world, where its workers receive universal medical, dental and unlike in the US receive by law paid vacation, paid sick leave and also paid maternity leave. Germany has taken responsibility for her past in providing reparations to nations and people that it's wronged. We however in America have made no effort in this regard, either with Native American peoples or people of African ancestry or Japanese people and others who were wrongly imprisoned in internment camps during World War 2. To reiterate again, this includes no adequate compensation has been given to persons of Japanese ancestry wrongly put into internment camps during WWII as is presented in this video by famous actor George Takei (who starred in the original Star Trek television series). America must come to grips with its history of xenophobia, racism and oppression. Isn't it time that America take responsibility and finally provide meaningful reparations to people that it has wronged, because until that happens we will continue to see the type of tragedies that we have seen in Ferguson, Missouri.
While it is true, we can all be proud Americans this doesn't necessarily mean that we have to be proud of everything that America does or has done. (3 minute interview from George Takei as a Japanese American interment camp victim during World War 2 classified as "an enemy non-alien")
Quote from George Takei: "You can't imprison people for their race but that's what we were imprisoned for."
This comment below is taken from a quote by Meteor Blades on a story unrelated to this article, but his post nonetheless makes interesting reading as it correctly refers to the principle of persons being in possession of stolen property and outlines further the principle of and need for reparations from those who suffered from theft and genocide.
I suspect you view the situation with... …American Indians similarly, adopting the view that there is no connection between today's generations and what happened oh-so-supposedly-long-ago. Except, of course, little things like the fact most people who own property in this country today are in receipt of stolen goods. If you buy a car from somebody who stole that car, you can't say, "Well, I didn't steal it, I paid for it, so it's mine." In fact, under the law, it's not yours. But that law, of course, conveniently does not apply to land stolen from Indians. We're just supposed to "get over it" because nobody today is to blame. Certainly that's true when it comes to the outright genocide of past centuries. But the blame assigns to the unwillingness to accept that the genocide and theft has given advantages and continues to those who weren't Indians or slaves (or both). Don't tell me what you believe, show me what you do and I will tell you what you believe. by Meteor Blades on Thu Feb 05, 2015 at 12:32:02 AM CET http://www.dailykos.com/...
…American Indians similarly, adopting the view that there is no connection between today's generations and what happened oh-so-supposedly-long-ago.
Except, of course, little things like the fact most people who own property in this country today are in receipt of stolen goods. If you buy a car from somebody who stole that car, you can't say, "Well, I didn't steal it, I paid for it, so it's mine." In fact, under the law, it's not yours. But that law, of course, conveniently does not apply to land stolen from Indians. We're just supposed to "get over it" because nobody today is to blame. Certainly that's true when it comes to the outright genocide of past centuries. But the blame assigns to the unwillingness to accept that the genocide and theft has given advantages and continues to those who weren't Indians or slaves (or both).
Don't tell me what you believe, show me what you do and I will tell you what you believe.
by Meteor Blades on Thu Feb 05, 2015 at 12:32:02 AM CET http://www.dailykos.com/...
Below there is a comment from a reader of this diary who disagrees with this postulate to which this diary asks you to judge for yourself. Title: Spiegel quote: It is mostly white men who shoot young African Americans in the service of the state.
Isn't this sort of as obvious as "It was mostly Germanic Aryans who shot down Jews in the service of the Homeland (State)" years ago?...... " My faith in the Constitution is whole; it is complete; it is total." Barbara Jordan, 1974 by gchaucer2 on Sat Dec 13, 2014 at 07:46:51 PM CET http://www.dailykos.com/...
" My faith in the Constitution is whole; it is complete; it is total." Barbara Jordan, 1974 by gchaucer2 on Sat Dec 13, 2014 at 07:46:51 PM CET http://www.dailykos.com/...
So I ask that our readers support the issues raised in my article please.
flabbergasted by the parochialism and xenophobia in the comments to this diary. Wtf. Since when do Kossacks not welcome with open arms and ears critical insights into American's challenges, as seen through foreigners' eyes? Reading the comments here makes me feel like I've stumbled into some anti-foreigner, Know Nothing offshoot of RedState. by BvueDem on Sun Dec 14, 2014 at 03:11:27 AM PST http://www.dailykos.com/...
by BvueDem on Sun Dec 14, 2014 at 03:11:27 AM PST http://www.dailykos.com/...
This may not come across in the English translation, and I'm pretty sure he did not get out of the car to check himself. That means if he got it wrong, then it is more due to sloppy background research than to intentional misinformation. Der Spiegel has a large research department, but I think they dropped the ball on this one. If you have a complaint, why not write to the journalist, who is in the Washington D.C. bureau of Der Spiegel: Markus Feldenkirchen, 1202 National Press Building, Washington, D.C. 20 045, Tel. (001202) 3475222, Fax 3473194 „Wer kämpft, kann verlieren. Wer nicht kämpft, hat schon verloren.“ - Bertolt Brecht by translatorpro on Mon Dec 15, 2014 at 02:14:15 PM CET http://www.dailykos.com/...
„Wer kämpft, kann verlieren. Wer nicht kämpft, hat schon verloren.“ - Bertolt Brecht by translatorpro on Mon Dec 15, 2014 at 02:14:15 PM CET http://www.dailykos.com/...
I don't understand why so many commenters think only Americans can criticize America. Der Spiegel hasn't said anything that hasn't already been said in American media. It is always hurtful when "outsiders" are critical: it's ok for me to criticize my mom, for example. But if anyone outside my immediate family dares to criticize her, they have earned my wrath. Weird how that works. by Emmy on Sat Dec 13, 2014 at 10:15:10 PM PST http://www.dailykos.com/...
by Emmy on Sat Dec 13, 2014 at 10:15:10 PM PST http://www.dailykos.com/...
To be clear we in America have made real progress in many areas. However before we get too self-congratulatory shouldn't we ask can we do better? While it is true, we can all be proud Americans this doesn't necessarily mean that we have to be proud of everything that America does or has done.
Dr King has shown us the way when he reminded us that those who have gone before us in facing the forces of xenophobia, racism and bigotry of all sorts have said "enough". ---------------------------------------- All Rights Reserved. © ----------------------------------------
PS: Please note, this diary is being heavily trolled. Your support is much appreciated! Thank you.
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