Fully Present Post 50

I’m beginning to doubt that we Americans are as divided as many would have us believe.  It took the comment of a student the other day to get me thinking about our shared values.  We were talking about the NFL and the national anthem when the student said that he is in love with our Constitution.  I thought, don’t we all value our Constitution?  And isn’t it that Constitution that guarantees us the right to protest?  We grew up saluting the flag with our hand across our hearts as we utter the final words, “with liberty and justice for all”.  But I think too many of us have forgotten the actual values expressed in our defining documents.   Continue reading “Finding Unity in the U.S.”

I work with college students.  Over the course of these 21 years, I’ve noticed a  remarkable difference in their expectations for how they should be treated and what they believe is owed to them.  Gone are the days when a catered event was a simple thing.  In ancient times (15 years ago) students with dietary restrictions simply brought their own food or navigated the food line skipping the foods that didn’t suit them.  Today, a catered event had better provide a vegetarian, vegan, gluten free, and peanut free option or there will be hell to pay.  If only the new sense of entitlement with this generation ended with food options. Continue reading “Entitlements Pending”

People say and do some pretty horrible things.   I understand that under the right circumstances even decent people are capable of the occasional despicable act.  But some people behave horribly so much of the time that they could be characterized as “toxic” and have earned avoidance.  There were times in my life when that had to be my response for my own protection.  Frankly, the idea of forgiving those individuals never enters my mind, but survival does.  It’s sad that the specific people I’m referring to at this particular moment have have chosen a profession that is supposed to protect and serve: police.   Continue reading “When forgiveness isn’t enough”

As prayers and contributions go our to our fellow human beings  in the wake of hurricanes Harvey and now Irma and the 8 plus earthquake in Mexico,  my immediate focus is on being present with one of my daughters.  And yes, I finally contributed to the Red Cross for Harvey and will likely contribute again this week to assist with helping these new victims.

I’m blessed to be informed and sometimes included in the important  milestones in the lives of my adult children.  This weekend is one of those times and so I will pause from my blog today to be fully present as I participate in my business owner daughter’s (Nicole) move into her first official office space for FireStarter Entertainment  in the upscale Warner Center in Woodland Hills, California.

Most people don’t know that long ago I earned a certificate in interior design and worked as a designer. ‘ But my family and close friends know.  For them, I work for meals. And yesterday I got paid at the Ikea Cafeteria for lunch and  Cheesecake Factory for a very late dinner at about 9pm.  Not sure what I have a taste for today, but I have another full day of helping to create a beautiful and functional office space for her agents and clients to enjoy.

I hope you’ll excuse me for this week and instead enjoy one of my previous posts.  I get to be fully present at one of those rare milestones in my daughter’s life and I don’t want to miss a thing.

I consider myself to be a relatively generous person.  I like to give when I am able to meet a need or to encourage a public good.  When it comes to giving money, I’ve even automated my giving on a monthly basis to Women for Women International, Doctors Without Borders, The Boys and Girls Club of Detroit (hometown), PBS, Cal Lutheran University Annual Fund, a Cal Lutheran Scholarship Fund and KCLU public radio.  In stores, I often say “yes” to the receipt round up or extra $$ to benefit the charity of the month.  But when the call came out to donate to  victims of Hurricane Harvey, I have paused to consider it.  Continue reading “Giving Money Wisely”

I am always talking to myself.  I make comments to myself when I discover something I like or dislike.  I affirm myself.  I judge myself.  I convince myself, push myself, and even scold myself.  I forgive myself.  Sometimes, when things aren’t crystal clear, I dialogue with myself as if there were two of me.  Because there are: the emotional me and the rational me.  What I do know is that what I say to myself impacts my decision making and ultimately my well being and my self-esteem. Continue reading “Powerful self-talk”

I would venture to say that most white people are not white supremacists, Nazis, or hood-owning members of the KKK.  I doubt most would see themselves as racists or bigots either.  The majority are decent people who just want to earn a living, raise their kids, and enjoy their vacations.  But that is the problem when they fail to censure or hold accountable the few who are active racists and bigots.  It is the problem because white people are the majority in this country who also hold the reigns of corporate and political power.

History has shown that it only takes a few well-placed and well-funded loud mouth bigots to make the lives of minority populations in this country and in countries around the world miserable.  They need only fill the heads of decent white people with fabrications that dehumanize or make villains of their targets.  These wealthy bigots have a perverted sense of superiority and are motivated by greed and power.  We’ve heard the baseless protestations that “Indians are savages who rape women and kill children without provocation” in order to raise enough fear and ire among the populace so that they could forcibly steal Indian lands.  We’ve known about how the false claims that “Blacks are lazy children and only 2/3 human” made it acceptable to steal their labor to build this nation; and how the ridiculous accusation that “the Jews killed Jesus and have a plot to take over the world” was enough to silence the masses that allowed for the holocaust.

Today the rhetoric is, “Mexicans are rapist and drug dealers”; “Muslims hate Americans and are terrorists”; “Immigrants are taking jobs away from Americans”; “Black males pose a threat”; “Jews are taking over”; and “transgender women pose a danger in public bathrooms”.  These are the daily messages whites are being fed on a daily basis through media outlets and now there is a bigot in the White House.  Remember President Andrew Jackson had the consent of whites as he made war upon the American Indians who only sought to defend themselves .

When wealthy bigots fund  bigoted media moguls who then join forces with bigoted politicians who enlist bigoted armed forces (police, military, and self-appointed militias) then disaster quickly follows.  Examine the decimation of the 500 Native American nations, the enslavement of millions of Africans followed by Jim Crow, the murder of 6 million Jews, the exclusionary immigration policies, and the internment of Japanese Americans.  These events began with wealthy funders of the media who then fooled the masses in believing their lies, giving political cover to political leaders who then sanction weapons to enact their will.

Bigots are not stupid people.  They are strategic and not to be underestimated.  Let me repeat myself:  they seek out like-minded individuals of influence who then sell their fabricated grievances against minority groups to the  unsuspecting white masses in order to give bigoted politicians cover to do their dirty work.  And it is easy to do because the masses are either apathetic, gullible, ignorant, or uneducated.

On occasion, I will turn on C-Span’s Washington Journal at 4am to hear what callers across the nation are saying about a particular current issue.  Yesterday morning, a particular caller identified herself as a strong Trump supporter and she said that it was now confirmed that President Obama’s birth certificate was a fake.  That neither Barack nor Michele were actually U.S. Citizens.  I would classify her as the gullible white person who is willing to believe conspiracy theories from fake news outlets. Another caller, a white male, also a Trump supporter, wants us to all chip in to pay for the wall because of all the dangerous people coming across to do us harm.  But the majority of the callers were apathetic.  They just wanted to give the president a chance and thought only that the liberal media and the democrats were out to get him.

Thankfully, there are whites who oppose the bigots.  We saw them last Saturday in Charlottesville and yesterday in Boston (Yay Boston!).  They are the whites who are paying attention. Educated whites are typically the first to recognize the lies and the motivation behind them and they are the first to raise the red flag in protest alongside the targeted minority group.  They try to sound the alarm for their otherwise sleeping neighbors.  Eventually they may successfully rally enough people of good will to the side of justice and liberty.  But too often it is only after the devastation.  Educated whites have to be brave as they face down other whites who have been so duped into believing  lies and conspiracy theories that they are willing to resort to violence on behalf of the bigots behind them. Heather Hyer was one of the brave (RIP).

Now is the time to wake up white people!  Rupert Murdoch and his Fox News is bad enough, but Steve Bannon just told you that he is back at the wheel of his media outlet, Brietbart News, funded by billionaire Robert Mercer (read more  ).  Brietbart News  traffics in conspiracy theories and claims itself as an outlet for the alt-right movement.  Bannon is ready to go to war against the ideals of freedom and justice for all.  The question is, will educated white people of good will fight now, before the damage is done and before violence breaks out in earnest?  Will they educate and challenge their white friends and family members who are too busy to pay attention to what is real and true?  I hope so.  And the 20,000 people (mostly white) who showed up at Boston’s Anti-racist rally yesterday gives me greater reason to hope.

 

I knew Saturday’s white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia wasn’t going to be well received by decent people around the country.  It was billed as the largest white nationalist rally ever, joining such groups as Neo-Nazis, alt-white activists, and the KKK.  I thought there would be a handful of anti-racist protesters there too, and that they would be kept separated by the police as they held their signs (and their noses) while these haters marched through the streets.

But this turned out to be something very different.  These young white supremacists showed up with guns, bats, and pepper spray, itching for a fight. And they got one.  With only a small police presence, they physically attacked the counter-racists protesters.  And vice versa.  I watched on television from the beginning as few police could be found and those who were present, did little to stop the attacks.  It was strange.  I can only surmise that the police had miscalculated the ensuing violence and were waiting for backup before they finally intervened.

I am most disturbed by the youth of the people involved.  It tells me that my generation has failed!  As a parent and an educator, I ask myself how my generation allowed our children, now these young men and a few young women, to hate Jews, Muslims, black and brown people?  We somehow failed to teach them that America is a nation of immigrants that belongs to all of us.  Why did they revert to the bigoted past when America was first and foremost for white people? Did they think that was America at its greatest?  Do they really want to revert back to the days of genocide of the American Indian?  Slavery or perhaps Jim Crow for black people?  Exclusion for everyone else who is not white nor Christian?  And most importantly, my peers failed to teach these young adults that violent confrontation is unacceptable.  My generation bears the blame for yesterday.  And you can see the kind of failure that led to yesterday’s shameful display in the words and actions and began with the campaign of President Trump and now his cabinet members: Steve Bannon, Stephen Miller, and Jeff Sessions.  This President couldn’t even condemn white supremacy and white nationalists when he addressed the situation yesterday.

A young woman lost her life.  She was only 33 years old.  She was murdered at the event by a 20-year old white male nationalist who turned his car into a weapon and ran over a crowd of anti-racists protesters.  Two police officers  were killed when their helicopter crashed and many others were injured in the violent clashes.

I have to admit that as a black woman, I can’t begin to understand how one group of human beings actually believes that they are better than other human beings based on the color of their skin.  Science already proved the eugenics experiments wrong.  Nazi Germany learned the hard way that they weren’t superior.  And I can’t wrap my head around the reasoning that claims that this nation actually belongs to white people and that Donald Trump was elected to give it back to them.  What about the Native Americans?  That’s like saying a thief who enters your house, kills you, and then claims that God made him the rightful, true, and only legitimate owner of the house.

What I do understand is fear, self-preservation, and greed.  These are base emotions that I believe to be the fuel that these young white nationalists are tapping into.  They fear having to compete in life with the talented youth from other ethnic groups, like the “Jackie Robinsons” and “Barack Obamas” in the country.  They fear being irrelevant because they can no longer take it for granted that they presumably have the best ideas and the best athletic ability.  They want to preserve their privileged place where opportunities to attend Ivy League schools, to apply for the best jobs, and to obtain investment capital,  were all set aside for them alone.  And they want as much of everything that they can get for themselves without having to share with others.   And by others, I’ll include women.  Just look at what happened at Google last week where a young white male engineer announced in a memo that women naturally lacked the technical ability of men.   I call that fear, self-preservation, greed and delusion.  The question is, how are we going to reach this generation before it is too late?

 

 

 

The other day, a companion and I watched a news story about how someone had broken particular laws, causing financial injury to several people.  My companion immediately proclaimed that the perpetrator needed to be locked up.  I objected. Why should we taxpayers foot the bill to lock this person up? I’d rather the perpetrator repay the people he harmed and also render a public good to society in retribution for his crimes.  I think we lock up way too many people and I think there is a better way to exact justice. Continue reading “Debt to Society”

I have no great love for Attorney General Jeff Sessions.  I think he is moving the justice system away from “justice” in his approach to immigration, civil rights in policing, women’s rights, and criminal justice sentencing.  That said, even I was taken aback by President Trump’s repeated public ridicule of the first senator who supported his bid for president when no one else did.  And then the nastiness got worse. Continue reading “Is being mean our new cultural norm?”