Saturday, December 31, 2016
Wednesday, December 28, 2016
Behind Trump’s victory: Divisions by race, gender, education
Behind Trump’s victory: Divisions by race, gender, education: Donald Trump's win followed a campaign that revealed deep divisions that were as wide and in some cases wider than in previous elections.
Tuesday, December 27, 2016
Monday, December 19, 2016
Thursday, December 15, 2016
Wednesday, December 14, 2016
Wednesday, November 30, 2016
Monday, August 8, 2016
Friday, August 5, 2016
Thursday, August 4, 2016
The facts behind Donald Trump’s many falsehoods
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-facts-behind-donald-trumps-many-falsehoods/2016/08/01/0571b048-582d-11e6-831d-0324760ca856_story.html
The Republican presidential nominee tweeted over the weekend that rival Hillary Clinton and her fellow Democrats “are trying to rig the debates” by scheduling them during NFL games. (In fact, the bipartisan debate commission, independent of parties and candidates, announced the dates on Sept. 23, 2015.)
The Republican presidential nominee tweeted over the weekend that rival Hillary Clinton and her fellow Democrats “are trying to rig the debates” by scheduling them during NFL games. (In fact, the bipartisan debate commission, independent of parties and candidates, announced the dates on Sept. 23, 2015.)
He further alleged that “I got a letter from the NFL saying, ‘This is ridiculous.’ ” (The National Football League says it sent no such letter.)
Monday, August 1, 2016
Jennifer Rubin: Start differences between the two conventions
Jennifer Rubin: Start differences between the two conventions
The Democrats once again excel in the medium of popular culture. They do “look like America.”
Alas, Republicans have become exactly what their critics claim — the party of white, rich, angry men from rural America.
Rubin writes the Right Turn blog for The Post, offering reported opinion from a conservative perspective.
The Democrats once again excel in the medium of popular culture. They do “look like America.”
Alas, Republicans have become exactly what their critics claim — the party of white, rich, angry men from rural America.
Rubin writes the Right Turn blog for The Post, offering reported opinion from a conservative perspective.
Friday, July 22, 2016
For some Christians talking about race is tough, and long overdue they say
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/for-some-christians-talking-about-race-is-tough-and-long-overdue-they-say/2016/07/19/4b3d85b0-4dd4-11e6-a7d8-13d06b37f256_story.html
“We are gathered where Martin Luther King Jr. preached the last Sunday sermon of his life, urging us to stay awake in the light of stained glass windows,” said the Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde, the Episcopal bishop of Washington and interim dean of Washington National Cathedral. The controversial windows, she said, “glorify a way of life that was sustained by chattel slavery and even now demands that we take account of what resources churches like ours was built on.”
The Rev. Kelly Brown Douglas, the cathedral’s canon theologian, honed in on why the “white church” was being singled out. “Why not just ‘the church,’ ” she asked? “You say white racism is a sin. Why colorize it?”
Wallis, who is white, chimed in: “If white Christians acted more Christian than white, black parents would have less reason to fear for their children. That’s a fact.” He paraphrased a verse in the book of Corinthians that says when one part of the body of Christ hurts, all of the body feels the pain.
“Not happening,” Wallis said. “When the black part of the body hurts, the white part doesn’t know what’s happening most of the time.”
The discussion was prompted by a sermon given last year by the Rev. Delman Coates, senior pastor at Mount Ennon Baptist Church in Clinton, Md. The sermon was a resurrection of themes from King’s 1963 “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” Sent to eight white ministers, the letter said King had “almost reached the regrettable conclusion” that the Ku Klux Klan was not the greatest stumbling block to black freedom; it was white moderates who were more devoted to order than to justice.
“We are gathered where Martin Luther King Jr. preached the last Sunday sermon of his life, urging us to stay awake in the light of stained glass windows,” said the Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde, the Episcopal bishop of Washington and interim dean of Washington National Cathedral. The controversial windows, she said, “glorify a way of life that was sustained by chattel slavery and even now demands that we take account of what resources churches like ours was built on.”
The Rev. Kelly Brown Douglas, the cathedral’s canon theologian, honed in on why the “white church” was being singled out. “Why not just ‘the church,’ ” she asked? “You say white racism is a sin. Why colorize it?”
Wallis, who is white, chimed in: “If white Christians acted more Christian than white, black parents would have less reason to fear for their children. That’s a fact.” He paraphrased a verse in the book of Corinthians that says when one part of the body of Christ hurts, all of the body feels the pain.
“Not happening,” Wallis said. “When the black part of the body hurts, the white part doesn’t know what’s happening most of the time.”
The discussion was prompted by a sermon given last year by the Rev. Delman Coates, senior pastor at Mount Ennon Baptist Church in Clinton, Md. The sermon was a resurrection of themes from King’s 1963 “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” Sent to eight white ministers, the letter said King had “almost reached the regrettable conclusion” that the Ku Klux Klan was not the greatest stumbling block to black freedom; it was white moderates who were more devoted to order than to justice.
In praising Trump, Mike Pence pushes an imaginary and corrupt narrative
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/for-some-christians-talking-about-race-is-tough-and-long-overdue-they-say/2016/07/19/4b3d85b0-4dd4-11e6-a7d8-13d06b37f256_story.html
The Trump syndrome was on full display in Pence’s convention speech. The vice-presidential nominee praised Trump as the natural heir of Ronald Reagan, which, no doubt, Pence wishes Trump to be. Pence said that Trump would stop “apologizing” to American enemies. He would “stand with our allies.” He would “lead from strength.”
But the same day as Pence’s speech, Trump gave a revealing interview to the New York Times. The candidate who would stop apologizing said: “I don’t know that we have a right to lecture. … How are we going to lecture when people are shooting our policemen in cold blood?” The candidate who would stand with our allies raised a cloud of questions about the United States’ commitment to NATO allies near Russia’s borders. We might come to their aid, said Trump, if they “fulfill their obligations to us.” The candidate who would lead from strength proposed a retreat from bases around the world. “When the world looks at how bad the United States is, and then we go and talk about civil liberties, I don’t think we’re a very good messenger,” Trump said.
There is a type of isolationism in which the United States is corrupted by engagement in the world, its ideals sullied by the lure of empire. And then there is Trump’s type of isolationism, in which the United States is too corrupt to engage in the world. In the mouth of any Democrat, Republicans would describe these words as anti-American. I cannot imagine such thoughts even crossing Reagan’s mind, much less leaving his lips. I think it is fair to say that if Reagan were alive today, Trump’s foreign policy rhetoric would make him puke.
There are many radiating effects of having a Republican nominee who is entirely ignorant about U.S. foreign policy but who wants to fundamentally redefine it. One of those effects is to make Pence look like a fool. His description of Trump had no connection to reality, which was demonstrated on the same day. Remember that soon after House Speaker Paul Ryan’s (R-Wis.) reluctant endorsement, Trump attacked a Hispanic judge in a manner that Ryan called “the textbook definition of a racist comment.” Every serious Republican who crosses the event horizon of endorsing Trump is sucked into a black hole of compromise and self-deception. And many of us — still loyal to a humane conservatism — will never be able to think about such leaders in the same way again.
The Trump syndrome was on full display in Pence’s convention speech. The vice-presidential nominee praised Trump as the natural heir of Ronald Reagan, which, no doubt, Pence wishes Trump to be. Pence said that Trump would stop “apologizing” to American enemies. He would “stand with our allies.” He would “lead from strength.”
But the same day as Pence’s speech, Trump gave a revealing interview to the New York Times. The candidate who would stop apologizing said: “I don’t know that we have a right to lecture. … How are we going to lecture when people are shooting our policemen in cold blood?” The candidate who would stand with our allies raised a cloud of questions about the United States’ commitment to NATO allies near Russia’s borders. We might come to their aid, said Trump, if they “fulfill their obligations to us.” The candidate who would lead from strength proposed a retreat from bases around the world. “When the world looks at how bad the United States is, and then we go and talk about civil liberties, I don’t think we’re a very good messenger,” Trump said.
There is a type of isolationism in which the United States is corrupted by engagement in the world, its ideals sullied by the lure of empire. And then there is Trump’s type of isolationism, in which the United States is too corrupt to engage in the world. In the mouth of any Democrat, Republicans would describe these words as anti-American. I cannot imagine such thoughts even crossing Reagan’s mind, much less leaving his lips. I think it is fair to say that if Reagan were alive today, Trump’s foreign policy rhetoric would make him puke.
There are many radiating effects of having a Republican nominee who is entirely ignorant about U.S. foreign policy but who wants to fundamentally redefine it. One of those effects is to make Pence look like a fool. His description of Trump had no connection to reality, which was demonstrated on the same day. Remember that soon after House Speaker Paul Ryan’s (R-Wis.) reluctant endorsement, Trump attacked a Hispanic judge in a manner that Ryan called “the textbook definition of a racist comment.” Every serious Republican who crosses the event horizon of endorsing Trump is sucked into a black hole of compromise and self-deception. And many of us — still loyal to a humane conservatism — will never be able to think about such leaders in the same way again.
Thursday, July 21, 2016
James Dobson and The Christian Right Sleep With the Enemy
http://johnpavlovitz.com/2016/06/27/james-dobson-and-the-christian-right-sleep-with-the-enemy/
From Article: Every day people tell me that they’re finished with organized Christianity; that they’re walking away from the American Church for good, and it isn’t because of gays or cultural decay or materialism or lust or whatever these preachers like to lift while in the pulpit.
These millions of honest, wise (and yes faithful) people are making their exodus because they see Dobson and people like him and they realize the absolute absurdity of it all.
They see that to align one...self with Donald Trump in the name of “shared faith”, is the same as a vegan going into business with Burger King. It’s all dissonance. It’s a compete disconnect undermining the very bedrock of their core beliefs, and so they’re choosing to leave instead of being associated with such a blatant powerlust move. They’ve run out of patience with a spirituality that’s for sale. They’re through with a Christianity that only needs to win. And I’m right with them.
Article...If Donald Trump is the next President, Dobson and those with him right now will need to look in the mirror and repeat the question Jesus asked of his disciples: “What will it profit a man if he gains the world but loses his soul?”
These Evangelicals are making their bed right now, and it’s costing them everything to lie in it.
Morning is going to be rough.
Donald Trump is a Christian Leader. The GOP Says So.
http://johnpavlovitz.com/2016/02/21/donald-trump-is-a-christian-leader-south-carolina-and-the-gop-just-said-so/
From article: The GOP voter’s embracing of Donald Trump fully embodies the Frankensteined faith that the extreme Evangelical Right has been violently stitching together for the past few decades; the brutal, bastardized new monster Gospel, formed of equal parts power, white privilege, capitalism, xenophobia, warmongering, a little Old testament wrath of God rhetoric—and good old-fashioned hatred.
There’s no sense in fighting it or denying it or ignoring it: This is what Christ...Christianity in American is now.
It is not an outlier.
it is not the lunatic fringe.
It is the rotten, stinking center.
It is orthodoxy.
Donald Trump can claim Christ and fit comfortably here.
Bill Moyers: Tea Party Has ‘Sucked The Soul Out Of The GOP’
http://www.liberalamerica.org/2013/10/08/tea-party-radicalization-bill-moyers-says-they-have-sucked-the-soul-out-of-the-gop/
From article:
From article:
least let’s name this for what it is — sabotage of the democratic process. Secession by another means.” Moyers said. “And let’s be clear about where such reckless ambition leads. As surely as night must follow day, the alternative to democracy is worse.”
Meanwhile, Tea Party Republicans and their rich supporters, Moyer argued, have “sucked the last bit of soul from the Grand Old Party of Abraham Lincoln,” turning them first delusional, then rabid, with the aid of conservative... mouthpieces like Fox News and “multi-millionaire fabulist” Rush Limbaugh.
Meanwhile, Tea Party Republicans and their rich supporters, Moyer argued, have “sucked the last bit of soul from the Grand Old Party of Abraham Lincoln,” turning them first delusional, then rabid, with the aid of conservative... mouthpieces like Fox News and “multi-millionaire fabulist” Rush Limbaugh.
Moyers also blasted the GOP for taking their opposition to the Affordable Care Act — and related demands — to extremes that threaten to damage the U.S. as a whole.
“When the president refused to buckle to their extortion, they threw their tantrum,” Moyers said. “Like the die-hards of the racist South a century and a half ago, who would destroy the Union before giving up their slaves, so would these people burn the place down, sink the ship of state, and sow economic chaos to get their way. This says it all: they even shuttered the Statue of Liberty.”
"To believe Donald Trump is going to beat Hillary Clinton requires one to believe so much that is not so and ignore reality. The reality is that this emperor has no clothes. The campaign, laid naked and bare, is a disaster built on top of a steaming divot." ~Erick Erickson - Conservation writer
“When the president refused to buckle to their extortion, they threw their tantrum,” Moyers said. “Like the die-hards of the racist South a century and a half ago, who would destroy the Union before giving up their slaves, so would these people burn the place down, sink the ship of state, and sow economic chaos to get their way. This says it all: they even shuttered the Statue of Liberty.”
"To believe Donald Trump is going to beat Hillary Clinton requires one to believe so much that is not so and ignore reality. The reality is that this emperor has no clothes. The campaign, laid naked and bare, is a disaster built on top of a steaming divot." ~Erick Erickson - Conservation writer
When did the decline of American character begin?
When did the decline of American character begin? Whenever. Whatever. Pick your date and trend. Not everything that happened to the American character in the past 50 years is bad—we are more tolerant, more empathetic and more relaxed—but much of it undoubtedly is. If Republicans are going to spend the next few days talking about making America great again, shouldn’t part of that discussion also be about making Americans great again—or, at very least, making us better? From it...s beginning, the impulses that have dominated Mr. Trump’s candidacy are the insult, the put-down, the slander, the threat, the refusal to apologize. These have poured out of him in such profusion and at such velocity that they have degraded Republicans simply by accustoming us to them. Mr. Trump’s apologists praise this as a refreshing burst of political incorrectness, but that just betrays an ignorance of what it means to be politically incorrect.
This column will elicit the usual mental wheezing from the True Believing Trumpsters, whose skins are as thin as their candidate’s, along with the slightly better rebuttal that the presumptive GOP nominee is the lesser of two evils. That’s pure conjecture, based on the prayer that Mr. Trump will soon transform into a statesman. People who believe this also kiss frogs.
But that’s beside the point. What’s at stake in Cleveland this week isn’t the identity of the next president. It’s the identity of the GOP: its ideas, its leaders, its followers. Above all, its character.
For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Fellow conservatives: the same goes for your political party.
GOP Conservative writer Bret Stephens July 18, 2016
This column will elicit the usual mental wheezing from the True Believing Trumpsters, whose skins are as thin as their candidate’s, along with the slightly better rebuttal that the presumptive GOP nominee is the lesser of two evils. That’s pure conjecture, based on the prayer that Mr. Trump will soon transform into a statesman. People who believe this also kiss frogs.
But that’s beside the point. What’s at stake in Cleveland this week isn’t the identity of the next president. It’s the identity of the GOP: its ideas, its leaders, its followers. Above all, its character.
For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Fellow conservatives: the same goes for your political party.
GOP Conservative writer Bret Stephens July 18, 2016
Election 2016- Voting Morally
http://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/opinion/letters/article_efc951c2-4a0a-11e6-920a-97ef2a314037.html?utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=user-share
Michael Gerson’s recent column did a great job of exposing the moral disingenuousness of those Trump supporters who call themselves evangelical Christians.
Their actions reveal them far less Christian than they would like to claim. Donald Trump, a man with the moral certitude of a will-o’-the-wisp, has charmed the Christian right into accepting his multitude of positions on abortion, his overt racism toward Hispanics, his intolerance of religions he doesn’t like, the advocating not only torture but the killing of families of suspected terrorist and his misogyny, as well as the fact that he intends to be an authoritarian ruler. Still, they find him a morally acceptable candidate for the presidency of the United States.
What would it take to dissuade these people from voting for this morally (and four times financially) bankrupt person?
Would any real Christian really approve of such a man? Not in the Bible I read.
And his quote about Hillary Clinton, “She’s been in the public eye for years and years and yet there’s no — there’s nothing out there,” is so Trumpian. It is a statement devoid of meaning or content, the intent of which is character assassination by negative inference. How can one argue with a statement without meaning? How can anyone accept a statement without content?
Jim G.
New Orleans
No, ‘Black Lives Matter’ is not ‘inherently racist’
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/wp/2016/07/13/no-black-lives-matter-is-not-inherently-racist/
From article:
Pointing out this discrepancy in life experiences is not “inherently racist.” Those who insist otherwise are trapped in a world of make-believe. A world where there are no differences. Or worse, such differences are neither recognized nor acknowledged. That kind of myopia makes the necessary discussion of race impossible..
And then the president added this:
Because with an open heart, we can learn to stand in each other’s shoes and look at the world through each other’s eyes, so that maybe the police officer sees his own son in that teenager with a hoodie who’s kind of goofing off but not dangerous — and the teenager — maybe the teenager will see in the police officer the same words and values and authority of his parents.
Both of those statements are true. Only an open mind and open heart will allow you to see it. Giuliani and Trump have yet to demonstrate that they have either.
From article:
Pointing out this discrepancy in life experiences is not “inherently racist.” Those who insist otherwise are trapped in a world of make-believe. A world where there are no differences. Or worse, such differences are neither recognized nor acknowledged. That kind of myopia makes the necessary discussion of race impossible..
And then the president added this:
Because with an open heart, we can learn to stand in each other’s shoes and look at the world through each other’s eyes, so that maybe the police officer sees his own son in that teenager with a hoodie who’s kind of goofing off but not dangerous — and the teenager — maybe the teenager will see in the police officer the same words and values and authority of his parents.
Both of those statements are true. Only an open mind and open heart will allow you to see it. Giuliani and Trump have yet to demonstrate that they have either.
Trump and NATO
http://www.mediaite.com/online/amanpour-and-brexits-farange-spar-over-trumps-newest-flap-nato-is-an-american-led-alliance/
Amanpour ultimately noted that if the United States has grand ambitions of continuing to be the world’s leader, it simply can not adopt the proposed policies that have emerged from the GOP nominee. Spreading the principles of democracy, freedom, morality and American values can only come when the country is in the driver’s seat, not waiting for others to pay their share. “America can not be America first if America is absent,” Amanpour argued.
Amanpour ultimately noted that if the United States has grand ambitions of continuing to be the world’s leader, it simply can not adopt the proposed policies that have emerged from the GOP nominee. Spreading the principles of democracy, freedom, morality and American values can only come when the country is in the driver’s seat, not waiting for others to pay their share. “America can not be America first if America is absent,” Amanpour argued.
Wednesday, July 20, 2016
Thanks, Obama
http://johnpavlovitz.com/2016/06/23/thanks-obama/
You live the grace so many Christians evoke but rarely
model.
From Essay: The truth is, many of us understand that the Evangelical
Right, the NRA, FoxNews, and far too many ordinary folks living here were
simply never going to be okay with a man of color leading them and
succeeding—and yet you have done both.
Eight years later, those same people still strain to bait
you into reciprocating violence and in fulfilling their toxic prophecies of
you, while you simply continue to do what you do with nobility, compassion,
good humor, and steadfast, unapologetic conviction.
White Voices About White Racism Matter to Black Lives
http://johnpavlovitz.com/2016/07/07/white-voices-about-white-racism-matter-to-black-lives/
If Alton Sterling and Philando Castile were white they would still be alive today.
White people need to admit this.
We need to stop rationalizing the killing of young black men at the hands of police.
They are being murdered because of the color of their skin and it’s disgusting.
We can say this without condemning all law enforcement officers. Of course we do.
We can even say this without condemning most law enforcement officers. We absolutely do.
But we should condemn these ones and the ones who disregard the humanity of people of color—and you better believe we do.
We have to look this all too familiar ugliness in the face, white America.
We have to call it out when it parades itself in front of us every week in crystal clear video.
We can’t rationalize theses deaths away or make excuses or act as if our eyes aren’t really seeing what they are seeing as they are shot repeatedly.
Most white people know what we see, we just need the stones to say it:
Systematic racism is still alive and well in America and it is still killing
young black men.
We can’t be okay with this.
We can’t contend that the rules are the same for people of color.
We can’t pretend that the justice system is an equal opportunity entity.
We can’t act as though staying alive is simply a matter of “staying out of trouble”.
To paraphrase Pastor Eugene Cho, we can’t allow people to be killed, and then assassinate their character to make it okay.
For as far as we’ve come we are not at all where we need to be, not while black parents have to teach their children to fear the police, not while people of color are incarcerated at exponentially higher rates than whites, and not while men like Alton Sterling, Michael
Brown, Freddie Gray, and Tamir Rice (a 12-year old child) continue to be snuffed out at the hands of people who are specifically taught to de-escalate tense situations, who are supposed to model restraint, men and women who are charged with protecting and serving all life equally.
And those of us who have every advantage also have a responsibility to speak. We have a responsibility to name bigotry. We have a responsibility to demand justice. We have a responsibility to hold ourselves accountable.
As a white man I realize that I’ll never escape some inherent racism. It’s built into my operating system. My whiteness and nearly five decades in the cushy shoes of privilege will continue to create blind spots for me that are almost impossible to discern without a great deal of self-awareness, a lot of help, and a teachable spirit. And even then, despite every way that I try to stay aware of it, I will still unknowingly participate in both personal and systematic discrimination.
But I refuse to participate in this.
I refuse to be a white apologist for the mortal sins of other white people.
The only color my allegiance is to, is the identical red that runs through the veins of all of humanity.
Alton Sterling’s blood. Michael Brown’s. Freddie Gray’s. Tamir Rice’s. My son’s. My own. Yours.
I’m calling racism what it is and not something that is less offensive to those who don’t believe black lives matter enough to say that they matter.
I am not going to let my brothers and sisters of color grieve or fight or live or die alone by staying silent.
This silence it is consent.
This silence is blessing.
This silence is participation.
Of course we don’t need to indict all members of law enforcement who do some of the most difficult work on the planet, but if we can’t call out even these most egregious displays of disregard for human life, we have no chance to admitting and copping to and addressing the subtle, more insidious discrimination in our systems and our hearts.
White people we need to wake up—and we need to go to work.
We need to be in the trenches and in the streets and in the political process alongside people of color to demand equality.
We need to be as loud as the most hateful of our own friends and families and coworkers.
If not, we’re the problem.
My faith compels me to demand that all people be treated as though they are made in the image of God.
My homeland declares that all men and women are created equal in the eyes of the law.
I will no longer deny my faith or my country by accepting the unmerited death of Alton Sterling or any other man of color.
It’s time for the white people who say “not all white people are racist” to call out those white people who are—or we are too. If we refuse to stand up for the humanity of our brothers and sisters of color we forfeit our own.
I don’t know how to change things, but I know that saying and doing nothing will ensure that we’ll soon be eulogizing another black man.
And I won’t have that on my hands.
Black lives matter.
White Voices About White Racism Matter to Black Lives
July 7, 2016 by Pastor John
Pavlovitz
If Alton Sterling and Philando Castile were white they would still be alive today.
White people need to admit this.
We need to stop rationalizing the killing of young black men at the hands of police.
They are being murdered because of the color of their skin and it’s disgusting.
We can say this without condemning all law enforcement officers. Of course we do.
We can even say this without condemning most law enforcement officers. We absolutely do.
But we should condemn these ones and the ones who disregard the humanity of people of color—and you better believe we do.
We have to look this all too familiar ugliness in the face, white America.
We have to call it out when it parades itself in front of us every week in crystal clear video.
We can’t rationalize theses deaths away or make excuses or act as if our eyes aren’t really seeing what they are seeing as they are shot repeatedly.
Most white people know what we see, we just need the stones to say it:
Systematic racism is still alive and well in America and it is still killing
young black men.
We can’t be okay with this.
We can’t contend that the rules are the same for people of color.
We can’t pretend that the justice system is an equal opportunity entity.
We can’t act as though staying alive is simply a matter of “staying out of trouble”.
To paraphrase Pastor Eugene Cho, we can’t allow people to be killed, and then assassinate their character to make it okay.
For as far as we’ve come we are not at all where we need to be, not while black parents have to teach their children to fear the police, not while people of color are incarcerated at exponentially higher rates than whites, and not while men like Alton Sterling, Michael
Brown, Freddie Gray, and Tamir Rice (a 12-year old child) continue to be snuffed out at the hands of people who are specifically taught to de-escalate tense situations, who are supposed to model restraint, men and women who are charged with protecting and serving all life equally.
And those of us who have every advantage also have a responsibility to speak. We have a responsibility to name bigotry. We have a responsibility to demand justice. We have a responsibility to hold ourselves accountable.
As a white man I realize that I’ll never escape some inherent racism. It’s built into my operating system. My whiteness and nearly five decades in the cushy shoes of privilege will continue to create blind spots for me that are almost impossible to discern without a great deal of self-awareness, a lot of help, and a teachable spirit. And even then, despite every way that I try to stay aware of it, I will still unknowingly participate in both personal and systematic discrimination.
But I refuse to participate in this.
I refuse to be a white apologist for the mortal sins of other white people.
The only color my allegiance is to, is the identical red that runs through the veins of all of humanity.
Alton Sterling’s blood. Michael Brown’s. Freddie Gray’s. Tamir Rice’s. My son’s. My own. Yours.
I’m calling racism what it is and not something that is less offensive to those who don’t believe black lives matter enough to say that they matter.
I am not going to let my brothers and sisters of color grieve or fight or live or die alone by staying silent.
This silence it is consent.
This silence is blessing.
This silence is participation.
Of course we don’t need to indict all members of law enforcement who do some of the most difficult work on the planet, but if we can’t call out even these most egregious displays of disregard for human life, we have no chance to admitting and copping to and addressing the subtle, more insidious discrimination in our systems and our hearts.
White people we need to wake up—and we need to go to work.
We need to be in the trenches and in the streets and in the political process alongside people of color to demand equality.
We need to be as loud as the most hateful of our own friends and families and coworkers.
If not, we’re the problem.
My faith compels me to demand that all people be treated as though they are made in the image of God.
My homeland declares that all men and women are created equal in the eyes of the law.
I will no longer deny my faith or my country by accepting the unmerited death of Alton Sterling or any other man of color.
It’s time for the white people who say “not all white people are racist” to call out those white people who are—or we are too. If we refuse to stand up for the humanity of our brothers and sisters of color we forfeit our own.
I don’t know how to change things, but I know that saying and doing nothing will ensure that we’ll soon be eulogizing another black man.
And I won’t have that on my hands.
Black lives matter.
If You Believe Donald Trump Deserves to Be President
http://johnpavlovitz.com/2016/05/24/if-you-believe-donald-trump-deserves-to-be-president/
O n African-Americans and Jews:
“Black guys counting my money! I hate it. The only kind of people I want counting my money are little short guys that wear yarmulkes every day.”
“I have a great relationship with the blacks.”
“Our great African-American president hasn’t exactly had a positive impact on the thugs who are so happily and openly destroying Baltimore.”
On women:
On protestors:
“That guy was so obnoxious and so loud maybe he should
roughed up.”
On Hillary Clinton:
On his daughter posing nude:
On sexual assault in the military:
“26,000 unreported sexual assaults in the military — only
238 convictions. What did these geniuses expect when they put men & women
together?”
On John McCain:
On God:
On his penis:
On his supporters:
On revenge:
On his education:
On GOP candidate Carly Fiorina:
If you believe these
are the words of a man who is at all Presidential, whose character and
intellect and demeanor should represent America in the world, if you feel as
though they represent you, especially if you claim to follow Jesus…
… I guess I’m genuinely wondering why.
If You Believe Donald Trump Deserves to Be President
These are the words of GOP Presidential candidate and impending nominee Donald Trump…
These are the words of GOP Presidential candidate and impending nominee Donald Trump…
On Mexicans:
“When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re not sending you. They’re not sending you. They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”
“When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re not sending you. They’re not sending you. They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”
“Black guys counting my money! I hate it. The only kind of people I want counting my money are little short guys that wear yarmulkes every day.”
“I have a great relationship with the blacks.”
“Our great African-American president hasn’t exactly had a positive impact on the thugs who are so happily and openly destroying Baltimore.”
“You know, it doesn’t really matter what the media write as
long as you’ve got a young and beautiful piece of ass.”
“Women have one of the great acts of all time. The smart
ones act very feminine and needy, but inside they are real killers. The person
who came up with the expression ‘the weaker sex’ was either very naive or had
to be kidding. I have seen women manipulate men with just a twitch of their eye
— or perhaps another body part.”
“I think the only difference between me and the other
candidates is that I’m more honest and my women are more beautiful.”
On Muslims:
“I think Islam hates us. We have to get to the bottom of it.
There is an unbelievable hatred of us — anybody. And we can’t allow people
coming into this country who have this hatred of the United States.”
“I think that we should definitely disallow any Muslims from
coming in. Any of them. The reason is simple: we can’t identify what their
attitude is.”
“They’re not coming to this country if I’m President.”
“I love the old days—you know what they used to do to guys
like that when they were in a place like this? They’d be carried out on a
stretcher, folks.”
“If you see somebody getting ready to throw a tomato, knock
the crap out of them. I promise you, I will pay for the legal fees.”
“If Hillary Clinton can’t satisfy her husband what makes her
think she can satisfy America.”
“The only card Hillary Clinton has is the woman’s card.
She’s got nothing else to offer and frankly, if Hillary Clinton were a man, I
don’t think she’d get 5 percent of the vote. The only thing she’s got going is
the woman’s card, and the beautiful thing is, women don’t like her.”
“I don’t think Ivanka
would do that, although she does have a very nice figure. I’ve said if Ivanka
weren’t my daughter, perhaps I’d be dating her.”
“He’s not a war hero. He was a war hero because he was
captured. I like people who weren’t captured.”
“My fingers are long and beautiful, as, it has been well
been documented, are various other parts of my body.”
GOP platform, which calls coal ‘clean’, would reverse decades of U.S. energy and climate policy
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2016/07/19/gop-platform-which-calls-coal-clean-would-utterly-reverse-decades-of-u-s-energy-and-climate-policy/
From article: The GOP platform calls coal “clean,” pledges to reverse a Supreme Court ruling on the scope of the Clean Air Act, seeks to open vast amounts of federally protected public lands and waters to oil, gas and coal exploitation, rejects the Paris climate accord and Obama’s Clean Power Plan, and opposes a carbon tax. It takes aim at “environmental extremists” and calls the environmental movement “a self-serving elite.”
Environmental groups have been tracking the GOP platform. Sierra Club political director Khalid Pitts said Monday night: “If this extremist platform were ever actually implemented, it would imperil clean air and clean water for all Americans. Donald Trump has vowed to eliminate the Environmental Protection Agency, and now the Republican Party has codified a radical and dangerous path to enable Trump and his anti-environmental ideology.”
From article: The GOP platform calls coal “clean,” pledges to reverse a Supreme Court ruling on the scope of the Clean Air Act, seeks to open vast amounts of federally protected public lands and waters to oil, gas and coal exploitation, rejects the Paris climate accord and Obama’s Clean Power Plan, and opposes a carbon tax. It takes aim at “environmental extremists” and calls the environmental movement “a self-serving elite.”
Environmental groups have been tracking the GOP platform. Sierra Club political director Khalid Pitts said Monday night: “If this extremist platform were ever actually implemented, it would imperil clean air and clean water for all Americans. Donald Trump has vowed to eliminate the Environmental Protection Agency, and now the Republican Party has codified a radical and dangerous path to enable Trump and his anti-environmental ideology.”
Friday, June 24, 2016
Trip to Monroeville Alabama - Harper Lee's Home Town
Harper Lee
Author of
To Kill a Mockingbird
Go Set A Watchman
May 2016 visit to Monroeville Alabama
Sunday, April 10, 2016
Thursday, February 4, 2016
Book TV: "The Kingmakers: How the Media Threatens Our Security and Our D...
Book TV: "The Kingmakers: How the Media Threatens Our Security and Our D...
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