Memorial Day - 2010

Memorial Day, 2010

It’s been a year since my last blog post, and much has happened since Memorial Day, 2009. One of the reasons I haven’t written since then is I didn’t have the experience of “the world getting better.” Yes, some things in the world are moving forward in a more workable fashion. However, I’ve been deeply troubled by a lot of the things that haven’t.

One of the things I did since last Memorial Day was visit the Vietnam Memorial. It was the first since I returned to the U.S. 40 years ago. I highly recommend visiting to everyone.

My first reaction was, I thanked God my name wasn’t on the wall, when there were plenty of times that it could have been. My second reaction was mixed. I was glad to see that some of the names of guys I served with were NOT on the wall. I was saddened to see that the names of the guys I was closest to, and who saved my ass more times than I could count, were also NOT on the wall, because even though they were “killed” while in Vietnam, they didn’t “die” (via suicide) until they were back home.

As I often say to friends, clients and pretty much anyone else who will listen, “there’s no such thing as a one-sided coin.” So, while I’m still basking in the miracle of the Obama election and what he’s been able to accomplish to date, I can also see the great lengths to which those who didn’t support him will go to discredit and thwart nearly ALL of what he’s trying to do for our nation.

The people who are constantly labeling him a “tax and spend/big government” villain, either have very short memories, or no memory at all. Last time I checked, Obama didn’t get us into 2 wars, nor any of the policy and law changes that resulted in the worst economic conditions since the Great Depression.

And, while it looks like it’s just “business as usual” in the political arena, I have a slightly different view of it all (and for disclaimer’s sake, let me state that it’s NOT the TRUTH… It’s just based on my 65 years and 10 months of being black in America).

WHY would I have the view I’m about to expound on, one might ask? Well, I’m glad you asked! It’s partly due to history, as in our nation’s history, and partly due to my personal experiences, which are extensive.

You see, we have people clamoring about “immigrants,” and what should be done about them. Excuse me, we’re ALL either immigrants or descendants of immigrants. And Christopher Columbus didn’t discover America. It was here all along, and there were people living here, and they were NOT “Indians.” They only got that name because Columbus was lost, and thought he’d found a new route to India! I mention this ONLY to point to the sense of entitlement that some Europeans and/or their descendants seem to have whenever they see something they want. They just TAKE it, in the name of whatever, be it claiming in the name of the Queen, or the King, or crafting a Constitution where black people aren’t considered human, and therefore, NOT entitled to their inalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness incorporated in the Declaration of Independence.

While that Constitutional flaw has been corrected – on paper – for many years, in actual fact, many of the remnants of slavery not only have persisted over centuries, but have in some cases, gotten worse. Oh, we’re no longer sold on the auction block as chattel. Instead, it’s “minimum wage jobs,” unaffordable housing, and a prison industrial complex that makes billions of dollars annually for keeping people of color locked up and out of the job market, and off the voting rolls. Have YOU, the reader ever wondered why African Americans make up only 13% of the U.S. population, but represent anywhere from 50-85% of prison populations? Do you honestly think it’s because they’re the ones committing most of the crime? If that’s really what you think, then it may be hopeless trying to re-educate you to anything to the contrary.

Let’s take a brief historical look at the “winning of the West…” What facilitated and greatly contributed to the “Manifest Destiny” movement? The introduction of guns and alcohol to the indigenous population. (For those that weren’t murdered in their sleep, run off their lands, or killed trying to protect what had been theirs for generations, and the “gift” of those blankets loaded with Small Pox.) The survivors were eventually tricked into moving (some via walking) to some of the most uninhabitable spots in the country. It was called a “treaty.” Only there was no “treat” for them. They were referred to as “savages.” Their homes are now called “Reservations.” And they have the highest alcohol addiction per capita of any place on planet earth.

Now, let’s fast forward to most urban areas today. Alcohol and guns alone were insufficient to de-stabilize the black and Hispanic communities, so they added drugs. But thanks to minimum wage jobs (or NO jobs at all), the people who stand to profit, both financially and politically recognized that the drugs (mainly powdered cocaine) weren’t affordable, so they put on their thinking caps, and came up with Crack cocaine. Easier and cheaper to produce, lower in sale price and way more addictive. Then, to complete the formula, they changed the drug laws, so that possession of powdered cocaine got probation or a minimum sentence, but possession of Crack cocaine had (and still has) lengthy mandatory sentences, in some cases, with no possibility of parole. So, now, we have the “perfect storm.” The private and public institutions that make up our prison systems have job security, black and Hispanic people (mostly men between the ages of 18 and 24 when first convicted), become people who can’t compete on the job market, even for the minimum wage jobs, and once they’re convicted felons, they are denied the right to EVER vote again, so they can’t even have a say in changing the system!

When they DO finally get released, there are very few companies that will give them a job, so what’s available for them to earn money to live and support a family on? Right – crime, and most resort to selling the very drugs that are choking our communities (and not just black and Hispanic communities), and providing more “customers” for the prison system and all their “support structures.” And the guns made available (thank you National Rifle Association) are no longer the “Saturday Night Specials.” Now the drug dealers and the ‘gangs’ (they’re often both the same people) have weapons that are as sophisticated or better than law enforcement officers. Weapons that are NOT needed for deer and duck hunting, so the 2nd Amendment of the Constitution has NOTHING to do with the hoarding and sales of automatic weapons!

Oh, and I almost forgot to add the sub-standard education systems that middle and low income people have to rely on for their children’s preparation for “making it” as adults. In Chicago, the average high school dropout rate is 50%. In some of the predominantly black high schools, it’s 85% or higher. And statistically, we know that once a student drops out of school, their chances of ending up incarcerated just went up to a minimum of 50%.

In the state of Illinois, it STILL makes more sense (and cents) to our politicians to spend upwards of $45,000/year to keep someone incarcerated than to invest $15,000/year to educate them and keep them OUT of the criminal justice system. Nationally, if we actually win the wars on drugs and crime, in excess of 1 Million people would lose their jobs.

This may sound like “ranting,” and to some degree, it may be. After all, I haven’t posted here in a year. But I promise, I AM getting to a point.
What has any of this to do with Memorial Day and veterans? Part of why I mentioned the above material is to paint a broad picture for how the past has contributed to where we are now and the road we’re on.

To quote (and maybe paraphrase) one of MY heroes and mentors, Werner Erhard, “We’ve gotten very sophisticated in the art of war and killing each other, but we’ve made almost NO progress in being related… since cave dwelling times.”

We’re still “taking what we want” from those that have it, whether it’s oil or other natural resources, and we’re still doing it at the expense of people who have little or no voice in the matter.

The people who are declaring and instigating wars are not sending THEIR children to fight and die, or come back maimed, and then given the run-around when they return home and try to get the treatment they need. Neither are the captains of industry (the Wall Street Execs, or corporate CEOs) sending THEIR children. Unless of course they happen to be graduates of prestigious universities, or one of the military academies, which one can only get into if they have political clout (meaning the parents contributed large sums of money to some Senator or Representative, or one of the parents themselves was a graduate of that military academy), so the overwhelming majority of middle and low-income families are automatically excluded. (YES, there are rare exceptions, just enough so no one can accuse the culprits of doing what they’re actually doing.) And that means that if the children of middle and low income families want to earn money for college – quickly, (and remember, minimum wage jobs and Pell grants won’t do it, and most are academically ineligible for scholarship, and athletic scholarships only apply to the super athletes) all they have to do is “volunteer” to go into one of the branches of the military, and risk getting killed, maimed, or have their brains scrambled for life, and if they survive that, THEN they can pursue their college education. Do you ever wonder why all the commercials for the military focus on “earn money for college,” or some other part of the American dream? Here’s a clue! It’s NOT for the wealthy! Or the people who don’t have to worry about their children being murdered on the way to school, or even in what is supposed to be the safety of their own home.

And, when jobs are either scarce or non-existent, the military doesn’t sound like such a bad deal – until a weapon is placed in their hands and they’re told that “those people” are the enemy, and by killing them, you’ll be defending your country. The paradox here is that in some instances, that’s at least feasible. But let’s take another historical look. What exactly was the threat to the United States in Vietnam? The answer is, there WAS NONE! It was just a bullshit conversation to make some people rich-ER, and in the process, get some black men off the street. I was one of those, except, I wasn’t “on the street.” I was just completing my sophomore year in college (a City College, because there was no money available otherwise, minimum wage in 1965 was $1.75/hr. and I was working 3 part-time jobs while going to school full time) and this was before the military started “bribing” people to join), and, I was drafted. I was president of the Student Government and editor of the school newspaper, and totally opposed to any form of violence as a solution tactic. My years of exposure to Dr. King and the non-violent movement had groomed me well, but NOT for war. Once I was IN the Army, (at a whopping salary of $96/month) I got really clear why we were called the “Infantry.” Because we were all babies! Not in the literal sense – we ranged in age from 18-21, and I was one of the “old guys” at 21) but in the game of war, which I have to say is one of the absolute WORST expenditures of a human being’s time and energy. In war, even when you win, you lose. And when you lose, you lose big time, because the wounds of the war live on for decades!

NO, I haven’t gotten off-track. To the contrary, everything I’ve written so far is an integral piece of the fabric that is the condition we all have to live with.

Back to the current “wars” for a moment: Here are a few of the statistics of those wars…
- 300 = the number of active duty suicides since January 1, 2010
- ? = the alarming/yet unreported, number of returnees with one or more limbs missing – it’s in the thousands
- ? = Also alarming, the number of armed services women being raped, both in Iraq and Afghanistan, AND on U.S. Military bases – it too, is in thousands
- ? = the number that either have already suffered massive and irreparable brain damage, and those for whom brain damage awaits – it’s in the tens of thousands, if not the hundreds of thousands
- Nearly 1/3 of all homeless people are veterans
Add to this that we’re spending somewhere around $2 Billion Dollars a month to sustain the wars. I’m not suggesting that we stop supporting our men and women who are serving. THEY are not the ones who got us into the mess, and they should not be punished for their choice to serve. To the contrary, they are to be commended and honored for saying “yes” to being the ones to serve (monetary incentives not-withstanding). I’m pointing here to the mentality (or lack thereof) of the decision-makers who either instigate or support wars and their accompanying costs in money and human capital, which allows them to then justify reducing funding of education, laying off teachers and cutting programs like sports, art and music. Are you starting to see a theme here? If not, don’t worry, I’m not finished yet!

Here’s the “bottom line” that ties this all together. The “common thread,” so to speak. At the source of everything I’ve mentioned so far is a percentage of privileged white people, who by virtue of entitlement, feel they have the God-given right to dictate how things should go for the masses. And that includes the masses, wherever they are – where there is something the entitled group wants to claim in the name of whatever. Then to show the cleverness of this group, they have a certain percentage of the un-entitled group of white people convinced that if it weren’t for “those (black/Hispanic) people,” they could go from “UN-entitled” to “entitled.” Of course, this is not true, but the propaganda machine never sleeps, and because the message is coming from people that look “sorta-like them,” and because we have such a long history of racial bigotry in this country, it “just makes sense” to the “UN-entitled.”

Then, low and behold, the entitled group screwed up things SO badly (and I mean, you really have to get just HOW bad things had to get, given our history), that a black man got elected to the highest office in the land. If you’re NOT African American, and haven’t experienced what life has been like for us, you have NO idea, and I mean NO F _ _ _ King idea, only because you most likely haven’t ever been subjected to that level of hatred – directly! It’s true, some of my Jewish friends can relate. Certainly those who participated in the Civil Rights Movement do, and to some degree, the various political campaigns we were active in. But trust me, it’s different! I’ve never once been able to “blend in,” or been confused for a white person. When I walk into ANY room where the majority of people are white, EVERYBODY is clear who the black person is. And, by the way, if I’m one of only a hand full of blacks, say 5 or 10 in a room of 100 or more whites, then that’s “acceptable” for most white people. But let those numbers be in reverse, and those white people must obviously be “nigger-lovers.” Or stupid! Why else would they be mingling with “those people.” (The view of the Klan and other entitled thinkers)

Envision this if you will… The entitled group and their entitlement-wannabes were (and still ARE) so convinced they were on the right track, that they even refer to themselves as the “Right,” were SOOOOOOOOOO off track that someone they considered “less-than” themselves (remember our Constitutional history), won the Presidency of the United States.

For certain, it took the support of millions of white people who did NOT consider themselves part of the entitlement group, or, they used to but could no longer buy the lie, and in some cases jumped ship from the “UNentitled,” and switched sides in honor of what was possible – without the usual racial rancor. In case you missed it, there was actually a group called “Red-necks for Obama” at the Democratic National Convention.

Not only did Barack Obama have the audacity to win, he promised to rectify some of the screw-ups perpetrated by the entitleds, like bringing the troops home, and coming up with a health care plan that would add 30 Million uninsured Americans to those “entitled” to affordable health coverage. (This REALLY pissed off the entitled group, and what was their justification for voting NO on every idea proposed by Obama?) It was going to raise the deficit, and besides, it was going to have a “death clause,” and kick old people off Medicare, and it was just too much BIG GOVERNMENT interfering in our lives, etc. etc. etc. Hmmm, let’s see now, All the houses of Congress, their families and their staffs are “entitled to” the best health care in the country, and it’s paid for with tax payer’s dollars, but those 30 million that have NO coverage, except the Emergency Room, don’t deserve to have even a watered down version of the privileges enjoyed by the entitled group. (No mention of why the country is in more debt than ever before in our history, and that it’s the entitled group that’s the source of it. When it comes to war – and sending somebody else’s children, husbands/wives, etc., the sky is the limit when it comes to spending, but health care, or education… well, that’s just un-American.)

Lastly (I know, you were wondering if I was ever going to get to the end, right?), I only want to emphasize Memorial Day is not just another 3-day weekend, a day for barbacues and retail sales. Many people have paid a dear price so that we can enjoy our lifestyle – to whatever degree we can call it a “style.” Every year, 1 Million children in Africa die from diarrhea! Another hundred thousand or so from malaria, and let’s not leave out HIV/AIDS, the “mysterious” disease that allegedly came from monkeys. They are not experiencing “life-STYLE.” It’s all they can do to handle life.

What has any of this got to do with YOU? Whether you supported Obama, or those who opposed him, or participated by NOT participating in the electoral process, or know someone who falls into the latter 2 categories, WE ALL have a hand in the current conditions, whether we agree with/like them or not.

And just because an African American got elected President does NOT mean racism is dead in America. I offer as a small sample of evidence, an e-mail post that was on the AOL Home Page a couple of days ago. Thanks for reading and tolerating my “rant.” And, do something nice for a veteran. More often than not, a simple “thank you” would go a long way.

Pissed
Nice info if your elected idiot wasn't killing jobs every single day?? Try being 57 years old and trying to find a job!!! Nobody will hire you because there's too many younger folks out of work!!!! Two more months and unemployment runs out and I go on food stamps and welfare to try to keep my home!!! Thanks Owe Bamma!!!! Go back to your home country of Kenya and run around naked you piece of sh-t!!!!!!!
This was a response to AOL listing companies that were hiring. Apparently, being unhappy wasn’t sufficient for this gentleman. Of course, he had the courage to identify himself – as “Pissed!”