Posts Tagged ‘racism’

Sometimes I feel like a complete cynic. Today is a holiday and either last week or this week, school children will be deluged with the most superficial bits of Martin Luther King’s lifetime. I saw what my children were offered and it struck me as politically correct and unsubstantial, a human life rendered into something less than accurate history and less affecting than myth. The way to manage a man who would not BE managed apparently is to enshrine him in a holiday where people can sleep in and ignore the reason for the day.

And Gods forfend if the problems his movement attempted to address should be acknowledged to still exist, but with window dressing and euphemisms to soften the effect! I was a teen when MLK died, and I wept in front of the television that year—-twice, when King died and when Robert Kennedy’s life ran out on a restaurant kitchen floor. Racial tensions and economic hardship tied to race were acknowledged problems in 1968; now the perception is those are behind us, dealt with and over with for America. And that is BULLSHIT.

The only time America twitches and admits, tentatively, that it is not a “done deal” is when disaster strikes. Racism was obvious when Katrina hit a largely black city; Pat Robertson said God was punishing sinners. Yeah, Pat, black sinners is what you clearly meant; and if we had any doubt, your recent comments about it being the fault of those terrible Voo-doo praticing Haitians that an earthquake tumbled down what poor pathetic infrastructure they had, doubt was erased. If an island so near our coast was full of nice shiny white Christians, I am sure the level of suffering and misery that is the daily fare in Haiti would not be tolerated.

After all, America couldn’t watch the white folks of disintegrating Yugoslavia go on killing each other; but nobody blinked too hard about tribal genocide in Africa. Of course, most folks are not so blatant as the moronic Pat Robertson or the driveling sack of crap that is Rush Limbaugh; but an awful lot of folks just sit quietly or murmur something like “Well, you know THOSE people just don’t focus on cleaning up their own mess.” Right. Bit hard to do that when venal leaders grab theirs and go, when the world ignores you, when nobody really gives a damn what walls of impossible height block your progress. When a country’s first attempts at independence are beggared by bigger neighbors worrying about their own slave rebellion and make you pay off your former owners, it is a bit difficult to get off to a good start.

So, on Martin Luther King Day, what would Martin, Robert and John say, if they looked down on Haiti? And across the waters to an America that is still busy trying to grab all the oil, all the economic prerequisites for the top one percent of her population? I have this peculiar compulsion, probably because my spiritual life demands eschewing hypocrisy: I think a holiday (holy day) should retain something of the reason for its being. America should be looking at the suffering of black Haiti on the day we celebrate a black martyr who died for our sins.

Some could accuse me of posting a verbal self-portrait with that title! But I was actually thinking of the recent train of thought about my entire country. But I will begin with a confession of sorts. I AM self-absorbed at times; I get wrapped around the axle of self-examination to see if I am doing things “right”. When I say the majority of my countrymen and women are self-absorbed, I cannot, of course, know if they use that phrase the same way. I suspect not.

By insular, I mean that most Americans care little for what goes on beyond our borders; by self-absorbed I mean that most cannot be bothered to know the least thing about what goes on in the world outside their families and pets—as if ignoring it makes it incapable of reaching into their lives to monkey wrench things. And because I do believe most of my fellow Americans ARE people of good will and generous at heart, I believe in some deep recess of the mind, they KNOW this is what existentialists call “bad faith” and it depresses them.

I am sure most folks stopped reading right there, going “Oh God, another America hater.” I don’t hate America or Americans. I love my country and fellow citizens as I love my children or husband. But just as I can get pissed off when my grown children or husband do something remarkably stupid or self-damaging, I can get pissed off at my nation!

And I wonder how America got ISD’d to begin with? How does that happen?
When did reading the news about the celebrity de jour become more important than real news (like the ability to now create fake DNA at crime scenes, for one thing? How did America suddenly throw in the towel of involvement and retreat to pablum on the evening news? How did a nation like this become more involved in “comfort” that caring what is “right” in the world? When did our ideas OF what is right get skewed to mean “young, bouncy, thin, and sexy” instead of “honest, hard-working, determined, and fair”?

News pundits pounded President Carter over his “malaise” speech. But you know what? He had a very good point. We have lost something—and we are losing more constantly. I have to fight the tendency myself, I find myself in danger of retreating into some mystic and solitary condition instead of putting up my fists to take on the world. Sometimes I don’t want to read the news either; but if I don’t? I have no right, next time shit hits an American fan, to cry “Oh, why US?” Because if you are not paying attention and working to counter the downhill slide, you have no right to bitch. Yes, all us nasty mean people who grew up saying things like “If you aren’t part of the solution, you are part of the problem!” had a point.

What problem are YOU solving? I know one friend fights against the bullshit stigmatization of fat Americans. I know a lady who takes on her local government when they do stupid land-grabby things. The “think globally, act locally” crowd is onto something. We live in a smaller and more crowded world than we ever imagined. Step out into it and CHANGE it; it will change YOU and suddenly the world will be your front yard, you will forget to worry if your crows feet are worse, and the depression will lift!

This post is public notice that our family wishes to announce that we are permanently disaffiliated with the Heathen spirituality group entitled the “Falcon Kindred.”  This is not because any of us disavow belief in or devotion to certain of the Nordic deities; far from it.

It is more a statement that we found certain racist and sexist behaviors unforgivable and that the apparent habit of considering drunken revelry and weapons in close consort at every “religious” gathering  necessary gave us considerable pause.  We found it dangerous and in some cases in possible violation of state laws.  I found their utter disregard of the reservations of members (aside from ourselves) disheartening.  The overall impression was one of arrogant presumption to ignore the members for the pleasure of the unelected and appointed for life leaders.

Behaviors observed by my son, who attended several gathers only led to more dismay.  And when rather harsh things were said about my personal intention “to destroy the Kindred” I took it as a sign of a certain paranoia, if not outright delusion.  I also, at one point in my life, left the Catholic Church—but I felt no need to destroy them, nor to make others cease in their devotions to such institution.  My need to disassociate myself from what I viewed as dangerous and addiction driven behaviors is not commentary on Heathen or Asatruar beliefs, but upon the leadership of this particular group.

We owe this group nothing, we offered them our hospitality and they responded with an arrogant attitude with regard to future hospitality and entitlements.  My views on weapons or the length of their stay, or the alcohol abuse were disregarded and my invitation permanently withdrawn.  They would quote me the Havamal with regard to how to be a good host; I would recommend they read the sections on the proper behaviors of guests.  They consider my eclecticism in religion not suitably “pure” for them; so they are spiritual racists in a sense as well as the unfortunately usual way attributed to white supremist groups.  Apparently, because I am devoted to Greek deities as well as Freyja, I am guilty of spiritual miscegenation of some sort.  I wonder if they are guilty of the same for worship of at least one god not of Nordic descent at all?  A worship my son was invited and declined to join.

Furthermore, since my son had created a website and kindly agreed to host it upon his own domain at his own personal expense, this group interpreted this as an obligation not a gift.   Below is his own letter of disaffiliation:

It is has come to my attention that certain members of the Falcon Kindred still seem to hold a personal interest in my person and in members of my family. The intent of this document is to provide the following:

1. That I did in fact leave the Falcon Kindred on my own terms and in good faith.

2. That any ‘intellectual’ properties of the Falcon Kindred were no longer in my sole possession and that the Falcon Kindred Board of Directors, in particular, the President of the Falcon Kindred, could have at any time dealt with the online face of the Falcon Kindred without my help.

3. That I no longer am obligated in any way, shape, or form to provide ANY assistance what-so-ever to any member of the Kindred. And that should I provide assistance, it is out of the kindness of my heart and not through any legal obligation.

I departed the Falcon Kindred and the Falcon Kindred Board of Directors for a variety of reasons. Chief among them were immoral and unethical behaviors which were allowed to prosper in the Kindred without rebuke from the Board of Directors or other persons in positions of leadership. These reasons are few in number, but they are of large consequence and unforgivable import—things which I have never tolerated in my life and will not tolerate now, under any guise, especially that of a religious guise.

With my departure came my full and irrevocable resignation from the IT position on the Falcon Kindred Board of Directors. Materials made for the Falcon Kindred (electronic documents, web site material, etc) were never ‘given’ to the Falcon Kindred. The copyright for these works (with a few notable exceptions) resides with the creator of said works. In other words: I created the works with the Falcon Kindred in mind, but they are STILL MY INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY. My work for the Kindred was my GIFT to them, not any obligation, nor recompensed in any way whatsoever.

The domain name, www.falconkindred.com, was never mine, and still is not mine. In fact, the domain name was never even under the control of my hosting company. Even though my hosting company provided the domain name a temporary home, neither me, nor any member of my family, nor my hosting company ever claimed ownership of the domain name. The domain name has always been registered to Troy Wisehart, through godaddy.com and it was always under his control at that internet location. If the owner of the domain name cannot figure out how to move his website to another hosting company that isn’t my problem.

Finally, when I departed the Board of Directors, I made it very clear that they would need to find another person to fill the role of Information Technology. I provided a recommendation (to which they did not listen) and told them that once I had a point of contact to work with that I would in fact give them the information they needed. However, due to some personal issues (also a point in my leaving the Kindred to begin with), I was delayed in providing information. As such my inbox filled with request after request to give them information. I was hesitant; to say the least, to allow access to my webserver to a person I barely knew. It is unexceptional to refuse access to such personal and sensitive online materials. And when I decided that I was not going to renew my server this year, I informed them that they would need to find their own hosting company. Until said company was found and an account was created there was nothing further that I could do. Again, I must reiterate, I am in NO WAY, SHAPE OR FORM REQUIRED TO ASSIST THE MEMBERS OF THE FALCON KINDRED IN SETTING UP THE ONLINE FACE OF THEIR ORGANIZATION.

The above should make clear to one and all that I and any and all members of my family are not only disaffiliated from the above mentioned organization, but also permanently disaffected.

We have had our first frost.  I put the feather comforter on the bed.  Winter is coming, and I don’t think on tippy-toes this year.  The weather may be average, but nothing else about this winter will be ordinary.

We have a Presidential election in a few weeks and partizans for the Republicans openly post images of their opponent, Obama, with a noose alongside the photo.  They lie and call him a Muslim.  They say he hangs out with terrorists.  Gee, you know if anyone who knew a college radical in the 60’s “hangs out with terrorists”, it sure could go a long way to explaining the ever-longer no-fly list, couldn’t it?   I knew that if I looked hard enough, long enough and without my brain or glasses, that it would all make a twisty sort of sense!

We have two wars that are ruinously ongoing.  And in Afghanistan, people will be starving this winter while we get NATO troops to further make war on the opium farmers who are merely trying to stay alive and feed their families with the only cash crop they can find.  We are distrusted and hated around the world.

The financial markets of the world are tottering and bringing up mental images of the old train wreck posters produced in sepia tones with cheesy captions back when I was fresh out of high school.  Britain is so pissed that little Iceland went broke before Brit investors could get their payoff that they have invoked anti-terrorist legislation to seize assets!  So, now bigger nations will go strip whatever has worth in smaller debtor nations to make their “ends” look at each other?   Apparently, it really is impossible for nations to sit down and say “Well, we are ALL in the shit; how do we make the best of it and climb out of the crapper?”

And what are the average Americans doing?  The news around here finds it encouraging that they are going shopping for Halloween.  Are you kidding?  Yes, I went shopping for Halloween, too.  I spent $8 on colored hairspray.  I am paying off my bills as fast as I can, keeping even with repairs and maintenance and hoping we somehow make it through the shit that is coming down the pike.

Clue to America: You can’t SHOP your way out of this.  Pay off your damned debts, look up the word “stringent” in the dictionary and make it your watch word for financial matters  and general living for a while.  Keep your cabinets stocked, do your job, don’t act like a panicked racist prick, and pay some fucking ATTENTION to the world beyond your own petty damned needs for a change.

I love the fall, usually.  In spite of my apprehensions and fears of stupid people in large numbers, I WILL enjoy the season.  With simple pleasures…..a good home-cooked meal, a backyard bonfire, a glass of cheer from the long-ago stocked liquor cabinet.  It is time to keep on keeping on, but at a real level rather than on the fantastical level.  And yes, for all you whippersnappers, that is a reference to a black and white movie “The Night of the Iguana” ….because the American Stupid party is over.  It has needed to be over for good while.  Park your greed and ‘me me me” at the dumpster and join the rest of the planet.

If obscenity is the last resort of the inarticulate, as I am often lectured, is violence and mayhem the last stand of the present Republican Party candidates?

Not to put too fine a point on it, regarding my constant swearing, but it GETS attention QUICKLY.  It is a crude tool, but an effective one that focuses a lot of people without them needing to resort to a dictionary to get my meaning.

Likewise, Sarah Palin and John McCain attacking relentlessly with old lies, and with phrases that seem to encode the worst things about America—evil nasty, not-spoken-of-openly racist things, for instance, seems to get and hold the attention of a lot of people who may or may not actually be the type to go to a voting booths.  I have to wonder whether the vote is what they are actually seeking from this particular crowd.

If a speech makes the listener shout “Kill him!” about Obama, and the speaker accepts that with her folksy little smile or a wink?  What does that say?  Do you win all the same if the opposing candidate is simply dead?  How do we know this isn’t exactly what the GOP wants?  A dead Obama would certainly send a message to America, wouldn’t it?

I know a lot of liberals/progressives who were Hillary Clinton supporters because they said they didn’t believe Obama could LIVE to do the job.  I found that a horrifying concept: that you elect someone based strictly on whether anyone wants them dead by assassination.  You see, in that kind of thinking, you build in victory for the other side.  All they need do is show a readiness to off ANY person likely to win, and wow, everyone steps back from the plate and supports a weaker candidate who at least may not be shot?

I am voting for “That One” as McCain so dismissingly referred to Obama.  And the Republicans, if they are counting on the dregs of their base to step up with gun and scope and end the problem?  Why, then I would say, they better think again.  Because if they thought there were riots and madness in the wake of the Rodney King incident,  they better bring more than a single U.S. Army Brigade to the pic-nic if Obama is murdered.

I can’t be the only one wondering why that political Rubicon was crossed, can I?  As the election nears, and McCain falters in dotage and vindictive spleen, Bush brings home a combat unit and it is announced it will be for policing the streets of America in violation of posse comitatus custom?   Now of all times?  Why now?  Why does a truck-load of Colorado rednecks with said scope & rifle get dismissed as a “not-credible threat” while mere letter writers to Bush can find themselve in jail if they aren’t very careful?

I really try to avoid the conspiracy theory trap, but I smell a rat.  And it is wearing the smiling flag-wrapped face of the Republican Party.  What do they expect that is so dire that only a combat hardened Army Brigade would answer the need?  Why do they expect it, if they are not trying to set it in motion?

The sound of women going “Hillareeeeee” is still ringing in my ears.  I sure hope it isn’t all sour grapes.  I read my way around the blogs this morning, and some on the other side of the Hillary argument dismisses her followers as bitter bull dykes.  Welllll, that is certainly….well, yeah, let’s not, ok? Over simplification solves nothing at all.

Every hard-core Hillary supporter is not a bull dyke.  Not even any kind of dyke.  But I know a few dykes and mind you, I will defend their right to be bitter.  But not about Hillary, ok?  On that score I am willing to smack a few hands and act rather Nunzilla with a rapping ruler. Grow the hell UP, ok?  I have heard that “It doesn’t matter who is elected, it will likely only be for four years.”  Really?

Look what George the Fool accomplished in four years, will you?   And McCain is crazier and more damaged than he was—you really want to submit America in her already screwed up fragile state to THAT?  Because you think Hillary was unfairly treated?  Let’s grant you that, because judging from her speech last night, the stuff the media chose to show all through her campaign was NOT her best moments.  But geez louise, take it out on the MEDIA, not on the American public by letting John McCain take the White House.

Let me assure you from the seat of a half-crazed Sybilline sort (admittedly not as infallible as the Pope, but less dogmatically motivated), that hard and rotten times are in the very near future for America.  Do you really want a man in the Oval Office whose response to this will almost certainly be to blame some country far away and start another war?  Because that IS the GOP answer to economic woes—cause it works for THEM and THEIR friends, they are all getting richer.  And because they still pump the ‘trickle down’ bullshit, because if McCain’s $270,000 a year “domestic help budget” is any example, they envision all of us dressed in French maid outfits.  (I admit, I want to see them try that withe the reputed “bull dykes”, ok? )

Another blogger did float an idea that I have discussed with friends—whether Obama might put Clinton on the Supreme Court bench.  Oh, my, Scalia might stroke out at the thought…and that makes me smile and drool a bit too much for mixed company.  And others bitch that, while , yes Scalia is a puke, it is wrong to prostitute the Court for political quid pro quo.  Nice sentiment, I agree with the ideal behind it.

However, I am of the camp that applauds the selection of Joe Biden because Biden will open his mouth and shoot poison arrows back at McCain.   The Democrats have been taking the supposedly high moral road in Congress and in public discourse for the last eight years and it has availed us NOT.  It has been the political version of advice I was given (and discarded) as a girl: In case of rape, it is inevitable, so lay back and enjoy it!

WE have not been enjoying it, but the Democrats HAVE been laying back.  It is time to do some punching, some stiletto heeling of foreheads  and that includes on the Supreme Court.  The pendulum needs a good damned shove to the opposite direction if we ever hope to put the country back in shape to be recognized on any moral map again.  If Obama  wins and puts Hillary on the Court, pray there are enough folks in Congress to ratify that choice!

If Hillary truly has enough disgruntled followers who will either fail to vote or vote for McCain, or any other candidate, just don’t let me hear any of you saying bad things about Ralph-Spoiler-Nader again, ok?  Because if this election is thrown to McCain , you will all surely learn a most unpleasant lesson in why it certainly does fucking matter who is elected. One blogger I read has one thing dead right—if McCain is at the Wheel of State when it goes down, it will be on the GOP neo-con slate as it deserves to be.  But the signatories at the bottom will include all those misguided, cult-of-personality Hillary-ites who can’t see the writing on the Babylonian wall.   Are you really all up to put your “John Hancock” to THAT?

Must post…must make it so my own picture does not greet me here like a very bad copy of an Oprah magazine!  So, why not just take down the picture that I put up in a mentally shaken state?  Why blissfully (or nervously) display what my most controlling personality side thinks must surely be a sign of mental disarray?  Well, for one thing, that alone would be sufficient reason to leave the picture there.  I am all about embracing the parts of the self that scare you the most, you see.  Running away from the scary parts of life and self is just a bad idea.  The best way to wrestle demons, personal or public, is up close!  And you see, wrestling demons–my own as well as some not of my choosing, is what I do; it is my spiritual tradition to fight battles that happen in some non-corporeal place, it seems.  I won’t say I do it well, but I am getting constant practice.

What has this to do with a blog that is usually about the wars, the warriors fighting and dying in the wars?  Well, it seems to me that for the last seven years at least, America has been skirting the edge of the long-sleeved white jacket set.  Yep, verging on nutso-profundo, as an old friend once called it.

And the scariest part of this is that most people don’t recognize it—-stuff that would have gotten pointed and laughed at in my youth is passing for mainstream now.  Stuff like not falling over in shock at the idea of a CHILD in school being tasered, for instance.   People like Ann Coulter spewing hatred of so many flavors that Life Saver candy should sue her for stealing their schtick.  Things like Americans seeing a prone man being beaten by about six cops and saying stuff like “Wow, he musta done something bad to piss them off.”  Excuse me??  He pissed off the cops and so they BEAT him and that is ok??  What the fuck happened to “protect and serve,” folks?  America has been pushing the sanity envelope for a while now, if you ask me.  Ok, even if you don’t ask me.  And not in a good way, cause yes, there are good ways and bad ways to push the envelope of sanity.

After all, some sorts of sanity are overrated.  I have already many times bitched about the uptight silliness of when one wears white shoes, and whether your handbag matches, for instance.  That is not an example of sanity or good taste, it is a silly trivial way for someone to convince you to buy more purses and shoes that need polished every ten minutes.  It does not make you sane to match belt, shoes, and bag.  It makes you fussy.  America has been focused on “fussy” a good deal lately.  Including my favorite: patriotic fussy.
Flag pins on every applicable  GOP lapel, for instance.  That isn’t patriotism, or sanity.  That is fussiness and phoniness.  It just might be sanity to do as one blogger suggested—EVERYone wear a freaking flag pin so that the “owners” of the fussy idea of that being the patriotic barometer can’t tell us presumably unpatriotic liberal, progressive sorts from their ‘own’ base.

Everyone is so into the appearances of “proper” and “patriotic” the last few years that the real meanings of those words has gone down the toilet.  Everyone wants to rattle the proper sabre….even Democratic women striving for the Presidency, it seems.  Absolutely nobody seems up to the task of saying “Are you SERIOUS?  Is this really how you think it should work?”   Because, pssssst, here is the clue, it IS crazy to think America should control the freaking world, ok?

I have been busy the last few weeks, studying up on a wee drop of ancestral bloodlines—reading histories of the Comanche Indians.  Quite enlightening, too, although possibly not in ways I expected.  I discovered that historians can easily get away with being quite racist.  It is ok if you are talking about folks a few centuries or a couple millenia back, apparently, to call them “short, poor, dark, dirty and ugly”.   And later you can attribute their cruel warlike ways to maintaining their place at the top of the human predator chain so they don’t have to return to being as poor and dirty as they formerly were.  No surprise to me that the author who so characterized the Comanche is not mentioned by other historians like Kavanagh or Hagan.

But one thing in his book did jump out at me.  He was very busy giving both the independent state of Texas and the United States absolution for the way they dealt with the Comanche (and other tribes), while lambasting the latter for trying to make farmers of the horse warriors.  He did a pretty good job of blasting as utterly stupid and self-defeating the notion that killing the bison and giving Comanches suits, hoes and a few cattle would solve the problem and create joy joy feelings.  And that is when it struck me, you see.

The oh-so-sympathetic Mr. Fehrenbach, who pitied the Comanches with one sentence and insultingly back-handed them with the next, DID know how to cry “Crazy stupid!” at the activities of the federal government.  The biggest thing he nailed them on was trying to impose their standards of the “good life” on the Indians who thought that type of life sucked rocks.

And so, if this author, who in spite of decent historical facts and a pretty nice writing style pissed me off every other page, can cry “Foul!” at something so blatant as the 19th century federal government cramming US standards down the throats of Indians, why is there nobody around who can do the same when our present-day federal government is all on board with cramming American “democracy” down Iraqi throats and Afghani throats, and yes….yet again, with the point of a rifle?

After all, Iraq and Afghanistan are supposed to be sovereign nations (as is Iran….just sayin’), so why are we telling them how to govern themselves?  And there is that little political fiction still a-lingering here in America…you know, calling the Indian tribes “sovereign” too.  Mind you, we don’t let THEM determine much of their own lives, either.  If they really get out of hand and try acting sovereign, we tend to send the FBI and other sorts onto their reservations.  Because that is ok, it is part of the officially sanctioned “crazy” I guess.   The same official crazy that has several thousand young Americans dead on foreign soil in the last five years…because we need to tell other nations how to be sovereign: OUR way or the blasted, bomb-cratered highway, by Gawd!

So, do I really feel crazy to have ripped off my shirt and donned beads and a blindfold to show grief and dismay?  No, cause what I REALLY feel like every time I read of another 19 year old or 51 year old American dying in Afghanistan or Iraq, is like doing something notably Comanche.  I really feel like screaming out loud and chopping off my hair to strew on the monument stone out there.  Or hacking off a little finger joint because I often do feel like some 5000 families are bearing too much of the pain alone, while the bulk of America  feels contentedly patriotic when they put yellow magnets on their vehicles that get 14 mpg.  Because that shit IS crazy, comfortable avoidance IS nuts.  I’m NOT crazy for making myself stay immersed in the nasty, bloody, painful reality of what my government is doing in my name, without my permission.  To pretend things are ok when they are so blatantly not ok, that IS crazy.  It is sanity to respond in ways that are open to saying “This is wrong and it hurts like hell….why the fuck have you not noticed!”

Yeah, I am open to the crazy, alright.  Because America needs a really obvious example of what it looks like, up close, personal and unpleasant enough that they cannot ignore it.  EVERY Congressional member should have to tour about a dozen Army hospitals and VA centers BEFORE they vote more money for this gods-damned war.  EVERY mouthy war-mongering pundit should have to do a tour or two embedded in a motorized infantry unit in Iraq, and possibly have a magnetic yellow ribbon shoved up their ass for the entire time, too, cause you know—if they SO love this shit, they should just jump right on in.  The water is fine.

Fine, that is, if you don’t mind your water bloodied.