Thou Shall Not Kill

I haven’t posted anything here in months. Tonight I was beginning to work on a script while watching MSNBC’s coverage of the Troy Davis execution. Being bombarded with so much and so often in today’s news media cyclone, I was familiar with Davis’s case but not tremendously so.

I have tried to put myself in Davis’s shoes and it becomes uncomfortable.

I am very angry at those in the State of Georgia responsible for this right now that they would execute someone who I believe is obviously innocent.

I am very angry at Clarence Thomas for rejecting the stay of execution. I don’t care what narrow legal question the law permitted the Supreme Court only to consider. Something is wrong.

Isn’t Thomas famously quoted as saying he was the victim of a “high-tech lynching”? It seems to me Davis’s execution is the State of Georgia finding any ol’ black man and hanging him from a tree because it satisfies their racist blood lust.

As Lenny Bruce said, “Thou Shalt Not Kill means that, not amend section A”. Killing innocent people is wrong and we must end capital punishment in America.

Here’s a link to the Innocence Project. Please do what you can to change things.

http://www.innocenceproject.org/

God bless Troy Davis’s soul.  

The Prejudice Opposing Health Care Reform

One day this will all be history. And I hope this generation and the ones that follow will see the important lessons to be learned. One of the most important of which is how strong is the grip by American corporations on our country and our politicians.

In theory, I suppose, American corporations are not a bad thing. But when you factor in greed, and when greed is piggybacked on war profits, oh boy…! All hell breaks loose.

Every political era has its defining moments and its defining issues. It is no different now than it was in the 60s when I was a kid. With Ted Kennedy’s death, Obama on the ropes (hopefully doing a rope-a-dope), the Democrats being weak and spineless and the Republicans also on the ropes but screaming as if vocal intimidation instead of hard hitting punches will win the match, health care reform and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are the defining issues of today.

The passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was a defining moment in America because it helped lead to the correction of a centuries-old travesty in America, meaning slavery and discrimination against the descendents of slaves.

The possible passage of health care reform is similar to the passage of the Civil Rights Act in at least one respect which has to do with prejudice. In the case of health care reform that prejudice is based on class.

Perhaps because we are so focused on white/black and white/Hispanic racism, we have totally ignored and, therefore, not become educated about, nor had a national conversation about class prejudice. It seems that classism and class prejudice was discussed much more a century ago and through the Depression.

But that all seemed to be swept away by the American victory in WWII and to be crushed by the anti-Communist witch hunt of the McCarthy era in the early 1950s and replaced by the growing Civil Rights Movement in the mid-50s through to today with the election of America’s first African-American president and the appointment of our first Latina Supreme Court Justice.

Insurance industry CEOs and their corporate capo regimes are like the Jim Crow bigots of the Old South. They are the lords of the health care power structure just as some Whites in the Old South were the lords of that power structure.

Possible passage of a bill requiring all Americans to carry insurance so that insurance companies make money of the now uninsured 46 million means they control every aspect of health care in America just as the lords in the Jim Crow South controlled nearly all aspects of life for blacks back then.

Insurance industry CEOs view people with disdain and contempt because they know they need us just as the Old South Whites—especially the slave masters—viewed blacks with contempt and hatred and violence because they knew they needed them for as one of the primary pillars of their agrarian economy.

Just as the white power structure in America determined which blacks they approved of, the insurance industry power structure does the same with who gets an operation, who gets an operation denied and who gets coverage period.

Those in Congress now are like those Dixiecrats back in the 60s who tried to maintain their status quo on segregation until the Kennedys, Martin Luther King, Jr., LBJ and others forced the Civil Rights Act through Congress.

The insurance and health industries and their Congressional minions want to maintain the status quo and put the prejudiced power structure and its profits over providing the human right of adequate health care for the People. “The People” in America has always represented a class of people which is usually the heart and soul of America—the poor and working class and small business owners.

One cannot have such a profound lack of compassion for something as fundamental to compassion itself as quality and affordable health care unless they already have a prejudice, a disdain and contempt for “the People”.

Those opposed to the principles of equality during the Civil Rights Movement often resorted to convoluted logic and confused doubletalk when trying to explain why segregation was good and how white superiority was “God’s will”.

We hear this same convoluted logic and confused doubletalk today from Republicans and Democrats opposed to health care reform on unspoken class grounds.

Others simply won’t even participate in the discussion. There are Congresspersons, Democrat and Republican, who won’t even read the bills and won’t vote for health care reform anyway.

Just as they called Martin Luther King, Jr. a “communist” because that was how their simplistic minds processed the concept of equality, they view health care reform as “socialism” because it benefits “We the People” and that is how their simplistic minds view equality.

There are those in the intelligentsia of the insurance industry power structure who use these buzzwords to inflame the situation. The ultimate irony is these racists are accusing Obama of being Hitler without making a coherent argument because they simply cannot due to a complete and total lack of logic inherent in its premise.
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The vocal, violent mob mentality of the Old South’s power structure is very similar to what we see in the town hallers, the tea baggers and those “proud to be right wing terrorists” like that guy at the recent town hall in Reading, California.

The use of terrorism was how the Old South kept control over blacks, largely through the KKK and other vigilante means. The use of the town halls is how an insurance industry prejudiced against working class is keeping control over “the People”.

Between the two political parties, the Democrats were supposed to be for the people. Democrats like Ted Kennedy were, but many are not. Just as there were blacks known as Uncle Toms back in the day who sided with the white power structure that oppressed them and other blacks, many Democrats are traitors to the causes of the People because they are not of the same class.

Obviously Ted Kennedy was also not of the working class but was instructed from a very early age to help those less fortunate and that to whom much is given much is expected. That is compassion. But now they are trying to say that Kennedy was a “centrist” and not a liberal.

Just like some Whites in the Old South, Republicans and conservative Democrats believe that only they should be in power. They, like the Old South, believe it is God’s Will that they lead our country the way they see fit and the rest of us should shut up and be happy.

Now that we have a black president, can we now engage in some amount of discussion of classism in America without detracting from the worthy and ongoing national discussion of racism in America?

I still believe this moment in history gives us a profound opportunity to change America and make this country live up to its ideals that we so loudly profess to the rest of the world.

The forces that oppose health care reform in this country do so out of a deep, deep prejudice against the poor and working class in America. It is that simple and that discussion needs to be had on a national level so that we may out those bigots before they can poison our country any further.

Pig Fucking

In the movie “All the President’s Men”, the actor Robert Walden, as real-life Nixon White House political operative Donald Segretti, told Dustin Hoffman as Carl Bernstein that the pranks they carried out to keep McGovern and Muskie from gaining traction in the election was called “rat fucking”.

Donald Segretti was role model for Lee Atwater, Bush 41’s campaign manager who carried out the Willie Horton ad which helped insure Bush 41’s victory over Dukakis, and served as architect as a strategist to the modern Republican Party. Karl Rove also learned from Segretti.

Massive lying, and twisting and exaggerating some small measure of truth is the backbone of American politics. Using these tactics to smear political opponents is a long-honored tradition. You don’t need me to tell you that. The Birthers, the Deathers, et al are evidence of those lessons learned.

Before America elected a black president, racism and race-based attacks had never been really seen beyond local elections on the political level—the most blatant example of which was Jesse Helms’ 1990 campaign against his former two-time African American opponent Harvey Gantt.

What Glenn Beck said yesterday that Obama is a racist who hates white people is pig fucking, which is an amped up, 21st century version of rat fucking.

What Limbaugh says everyday is also pig fucking. They have stirred racism among their audiences over the Gates issue, the Sotomayor nomination, the birth certificate issue and during the campaign claiming Obama was secretly a Muslim, etc..

On election night I watched MSNBC. When Keith Olbermann announced that Obama would be our next president, I became choked up that we actually had elected a black president.

As a 51 year old, I lived through the recent racial history of America. While many people, especially blacks, would quickly say that America would never elect a black president, I always believed we would. And I also believed it would happen in my lifetime. I just thought I would be older. Electing Obama made it seem that we had overcome some issues and had reached a milestone in the collective psychic pain in our country that gave a sign we were healing.

Now, I do not mean to suggest we overcame racism by voting for Obama. That assumes racism is something that can be healed so easily. It can’t. Almost nothing is that simplistic. As someone who quit drinking, quit smoking and quit drugs, all without twelve step programs, and regularly goes to therapy for mental maintenance, I believe there is some benefit to all the racism talk in the air.

Obama’s presidency is obviously about the immediate. But more importantly, his presidency is about those who are too young to vote. He is their childhood president. They are hearing all the racism of the Becks and Limbaughs and all Obama’s race-based detractors in a negative context and they are absorbing it and, I believe, they are being repulsed by it. We have a handsome, articulate young black president being called a racist by a fat, ugly, obnoxious white racist and an obnoxious, weepy, goofy racist. We need them to keep talking and making fools of themselves and forcing all of us to confront and deal with it to expand the long-overdue discussion. Time for therapy. And we need to have it not really for us, but for our children. They need to learn to confront their own and other’s racism and heal from it.

When quitting an addiction, one must talk about the emotional issues which started and fueled the addiction. We are addicted to power in America through our individual consumerism and our standard of living and our racial and cultural identities. The emotional issue of racism fuels our addiction to power on a national level, cultural level and, most importantly, a personal level because we do not want to lose what e have.

I am certain that many reading this will agree with the following statement that many times we all feel powerless and hopeless not just in global and national issues, but in our everyday lives.

I believe that espousing racism reveals a deep flaw in one’s character and emotional make-up. It reveals their fear of loss of personal power and hope.

But some wear racism as a badge of honor just as an alcoholic, wife-beating man wears drinking as a badge of honor. It reinforces his image of his own manhood and male mentality. However, I believe it is a fear and weakness that one should be embarrassed about and work to correct like spousal abuse and child abuse.

We have to talk about racism so our kids will talk about it and begin to solve it as an emotional issue as they grow into adulthood. Kennedy was my first president when my young consciousness was being formed, as did LBJ and Nixon later. The same is true with today’s kids and Obama.

Who remembers former Alabama Governor George Wallace’s words at his 1963 oath of office: “In the name of the greatest people that have ever trod this earth, I draw the line in the dust and toss the gauntlet before the feet of tyranny, and I say segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever.”

Little did Wallace know, the first black president who would desegregate the White House was then one year five months and ten days old.

Do we have what Wallace wanted—a segregated America? No. Wallace even later changed and apologized to civil rights leaders and, during his 1983-87 term as governor, appointed many blacks to state government jobs.

George Wallace is proof that a person’s racism can change.

Would Beck and Limbaugh also one day change? The difference between them and Wallace is they are commentators not politicians. The other difference is Wallace became a born-again Christian perhaps largely as a result of the paralysis he suffered due to the assassination attempt by Arthur Bremer in 1972.

I am not suggesting that for Beck or Limbaugh by any means.

Beck’s stupidity will make him irrelevant in time. Anyone remember Morton Downey Jr? Beck is so stupid that he completely contradicted himself within 75 seconds yesterday. First he said Obama is a racist who hated white people then when confronted about the reality of the whites in Obama’s administration, he said, “I’m not saying he doesn’t like white people.”

Perhaps the guy is a complete idiot, or perhaps I don’t understand the subtle yet logical shift he meant, or perhaps he is just pig fucking.

But Beck, Limbaugh and the rest have not yet learned the hard lesson that Wallace did. They must think their tactic will eventually win over the race traitors who voted for Obama.

But it won’t work. As the photo above suggests, they are not fucking America, they are fucking themselves.

Just because I always believed America would elect a black president does not mean I ever thought it would be easy. Just because a rock climber is able to grab hold of the next rock above does not mean their arms do not strain to pull themselves up.

Perhaps one positive aspect to all of this is that Beck and Limbaugh will keep drawing that racist poison out of us where it will dry up and turn to dust in the hot light of day and blow away in the wind—in another generation maybe??

Would There Be A President Obama Without Michael Jackson?

I wrote the bulk of this piece the Saturday after Jackson died, before I knew Al Sharpton would say the same at Jackson’s memorial yesterday.

Sometime after Obama’s swearing in, Wyatt Cenac of “The Daily Show” presented evidence to substantiate his theory that the Obama presidency was actually the Cliff Huxtable presidency, due in large part to the immense popularity of the long-term number one rated Bill Cosby program in the 80s. The theory was that America became used to seeing black people in an upscale, normal manner and not as exaggerated characters like pimps, prostitutes, or “The Jeffersons”.

I would like to offer that Bill Cosby was not the only African-America icon that “helped” Barack Obama become our first African-American president. I believe Michael Jackson deserves much credit as well.

Indisputably, Jackson was a very, very powerful entertainer. The power of musical entertainment from highly iconic figures, as Nixon feared all too correctly about John Lennon, was the heavy political aspect to pop cultural fandom.

There is also the generational factor that exists at the heart of my theory. I am less than a year older than Michael Jackson. I grew up with him. I remember “ABC”, “I Want You Back” and “I’ll Be There”. Everyone was amazed by the dancing and singing talent that came out of that little kid.

In the 70s, racism was very evident and strong in America. On television in the 70s, blacks did not rise above thieves, pimps and prostitutes, unless they were in a singing group, on “The Jeffersons” or in “Roots”. The seed of the transformation Jackson would lead was planted in this extremely talented and innocent young black boy, who, when he grew into a young black man, made millions of whites, Asians, Latinos and the rest of his non-black fans, feel comfortable with him like no other black entertainer before except, perhaps, Sammy Davis Jr., although Sammy never appealed to kids and teens, really, only adults.

As I mentioned in this space on June 26, I was a fan of the album “Thriller” and listened to it in my first few months in New York. Jackson had many, many white fans, ten years old (and perhaps slightly younger) all the way up to their late-thirties—I am certain of that. And that was in 1982, barely out of the racially-charged 70s. And then it all began to seem different.

Perhaps that is because to many white people, Jackson was not a black singer, but simply a singer. He appealed to everyone in a way no R&B singer—or many other singers, period—had before or since.

“Thriller” was twenty-seven years ago. If a young white boy or girl was ten years old at the time of its release that would make them thirty-seven years old today—twice the legal voting age.

Jackson also made it possible for more black entertainers to hit the big time. Don’t forget the power MTV once had in this country until they lost it all to reality TV. With the possible exception of Bill Cosby, Michael Jackson was relatively alone in the size of his black star.

I know many of you out there are saying, “Oprah.” Sorry, she didn’t go national until September 1986. “Thriller” had been out for nearly four years by then.

While I am not saying Jackson made it possible for Oprah, Whoopi, Spike, Denzel, and the others to have successful careers, I will argue that Jackson’s gentle musical genius contributed to a lowering of the barriers of racial thought in many in his generation and many more in younger generations in his own very unique way for the past forty years.

Forty years!

That is a relatively long period of time during which there has been more racial healing in America and, arguably, the world—with obviously much more healing to go—than any other time in human history.

However, I want to re-emphasize the point that Jackson’s gentle genius helped bring about this change. In no way am I trying to dismiss advances by more political blacks. Malcolm X has been one of my biggest heroes since 1984 when I first read “The Autobiography of Malcolm X: As Told To Alex Haley” and began collecting books and seeing films on Malcolm.

By gentle, I refer to the ethereal, enigmatic, spiritual quality that Jackson had. He almost seemed mythical in life. This was reinforced by the “We Are the World” song which he co-wrote which took everything beyond black and white and beyond America. Although it was actually written and performed for Ethiopian famine relief, the song was about hope. Jackson used hope for a better future for all in that song to elevate everyone, in the context of responsibility and possibility, to make it so. And Obama capitalized on that theme and, to many, became hope incarnate.

To simplify my gentle point, the old adage, “You get more flies with honey than vinegar” illustrates. It is obvious Jackson’s persona and music attracted lots of white boys and girls who may not have been as easily intrigued by Malcolm’s fiery speeches or Martin Luther King’s pleas for justice. I can remember in the mid-80s, white boys trying to do the moon walk and singing his songs, but none of them reciting either of these two civil rights giants’ words.

Another analogy I think may be illustrative may be this: racism is like an ice cube. It is a block of frozen feelings. Those feelings, like racism, don’t change easily or quickly. Ice requires heat to melt it. Jackson had tremendous heat and he began to melt the ice of racism as ice melts, first from the outside. But the interior becomes the outer edges as the ice of racism melts, and with successive generations, until it’s simply gone.

Jackson’s sweetness and awkwardness and all those things that made women and girls want to love him melted that ice just as his talent and coolness that made guys and boys want to be him also melted the ice. Skin color didn’t matter. Just talent. That’s what Jackson communicated to hundreds of millions worldwide.

According to one report, 43 percent of whites voted for Obama versus 55 percent of whites who voted for McCain. Whites voted twelve percent higher for McCain. In 1980, 36 percent of whites voted for Jimmy Carter versus 56 percent of whites who voted for Reagan. The differences between Carter and Obama are obvious—and deep. No one ever accused Carter of not being American born, no one ever accused Carter of secretly being a Muslim, no one ever shouted out “Kill him!” about Carter at Reagan rallies, no one ever passed along racially stereotypical caricatures about Carter, no one ever—you get the picture.

Jackson never espoused a political position to my knowledge. Further to my point, I don’t remember him endorsing any political candidate. His type of political power was much more subversive. Obviously his skin color already spoke to civil rights, and justice and equality for him. He did not have to make speeches. He had to win hearts and minds through his music.

He was the “King of Pop”. To reiterate an earlier point, pop cultural icons intrinsically carry religious and political power. Need I remind anyone of the religious outrage John Lennon caused with his entirely misunderstood and distorted “We are bigger than Jesus” remark? Does anyone remember the particular reporter’s question at the JFK press conference that went something like, “Are you guys a communist plot?” to which McCartney responded, “We’re the biggest capitalists around.”

Inspiration is a big political tool. Jesse Jackson inspired many in 1984, John Kennedy inspired many more in 1960. Barack Obama inspired even more in 2008. Michael Jackson certainly inspired millions and millions—worldwide.

While there is no study that backs up my theory, perhaps I can make my point in an even more concise, but personal way. When I was twelve, Flip Wilson, who, like Michael, was a black entertainer with heavy white appeal, was one of my absolute comedy heroes. I studied his comedy. When I was twenty-six, the first person I ever cast a vote for was African-American, Jesse Jackson. I have voted five times in my entire life and four times I’ve voted for an African-American.

Is there a legitimate connection to Flip Wilson and my first vote? Well, not just Flip Wilson. Flip Wilson paved the way to Richard Pryor, Dick Gregory, George Carlin and Lenny Bruce. I got the message of “All in the Family”, although many maybe did not. I recognized that Johnny Carson opened his stage and launched into stardom, the careers of many black entertainers and he treated every guest with kindness and/or reverence. Lots of black music was played on the white radio I listened to in the 60s and 70s. These things may seem superficial, but they are important because they melt that exterior layer of mental separation.

Several times in my nearly fifty-two years on this planet, I have heard black and white people say that America will never elect a black president. However, I always believed America would elect a black president and would do so in my lifetime.

Obviously, Obama is not like other black presidential candidates of the past: Shirley Chisholm, Jesse Jackson, Lenora Fulani, Alan Keyes and Al Sharpton. Obama is reminiscent of a pop star—young, sleek, good looking, his humor, sharp mind, his voice. He is as close to what Michael Jackson made white boys and girls comfortable with (to borrow from Sharpton) as any black presidential candidate could be at this time in history.

While Obama’s victory was due to a seven percent gap, perhaps a white guy would not have beaten McCain-Palin. Jackson may not have been able to get a white male Democrat elected over McCain as easily as he did Obama.

So, to carry my Jackson theory to the next level, imagine the state of racism in America twenty-seven to forty years from now with children growing up with our first African-American president, especially if he serves two terms.

I do not mean to suggest that Jackson killed racism, nor that Obama will kill it in forty years. However, it may be crippled then and maybe the grandchildren of the white kids who voted for Obama may have as many black friends as white friends.

However, a president is not a friend, despite how desperately George Bush campaigned as a guy “you’d love to have a beer with” or Sarah Palin proclaiming her hockey mom-ness. A president is someone you put your trust in who you will never know.

But it wasn’t just Michael Jackson. Jackson led to Prince, Eddie Murphy, Whoopi, Oprah, Denzel, Tiger, Spike, Public Enemy, and on and on in this generation who would experience so many black entertainers, black politicians and black athletes that black didn’t matter anymore.

Many whites put their trust in some African Americans they will never, ever know or never, ever meet. Oprah is the perfect example. More than 99.9 percent of whites or non-blacks affected by Oprah would never know her on a personal level.

Maybe I’m wrong about Michael Jackson and President Obama. Maybe, I am just trying to project onto today’s world, how Flip Wilson helped me to cast my first vote ever—and volunteer in some projects in New Jersey—for a black man for president more than a quarter century ago.

Sharpton is right. Jackson created a comfort level.