GUNS

Guns don’t kill people; people kill people as the National Rifle Association would say. Yeah, people with guns kill people. Take away the guns; it would be a lot harder for people to kill people.

LAST NIGHT, AMERICA WON

LAST NIGHT  NOV. 6TH 2012. . .

The winners . . . .

Women’s reproductive rights

Marriage equality

Climate Change

Civil rights

War opponents

Social liberalism

A vision of diversity

We are in this together

. . and whatever you can add

The losers . . . . .

Bigots and Racists

Religious zealots

Non-believers about Climate Change

Birthers

War proponents  

Social Conservatism

A monolithic vision

You are on your own

. . and whatever shouldn’t happen

Last night, America won with the re-election of President Obama

 

SHOULD OBAMA BE PLACED ON MOUNT RUSHMORE?

 I know a sitting president cannot be placed there, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t start thinking about it.  Why you ask?  

1)       George Washington was the first President. Obama is the first black president.  Clinton aside, Obama actually is black.

2)       Abraham Lincoln is credited with freeing the slaves. Obama enabled gay people in the military and country as a whole to live freely in a country that is still struggling to see them as equals. 

3)      Thomas Jefferson helped write the U.S. Constitution, a document about freedom and liberty. Obama is living by that document by allowing young immigrants to live with freedom and dignity in the only country they know.

4)      Theodore Roosevelt busted up big industrial trusts and set aside land for conservation. Obama is defending people against companies that are "too big to fail", and he is an environmentalist in the vision of Teddy.  

And among other things, Obama passed a national health care program that other presidents have been trying to do since Teddy Roosevelt, pursued and killed America’s real “Enemy Number One”: Osama bin Laden. And finally, Obama saved the massive American auto industry and thousands of well paying jobs when others said let them go bankrupt.

Need I go on?  

Therefore, I ask -- is it time to start thinking about it?

TO BE DISABLED OR BLACK IN AMERICA

 

             I often think about what it would like not to be disabled.  But then, I think about what it is like not be a black man.   You see, I’m both so I can compare the two from a position of experience.

            Born in Chicago in 1966, I thought the hardest thing was to be black or African-American male in America.  Having grown up in the Hyde Park and the University of Chicago neighborhood, yes, I do remember in route to Kenwood H.S., walking past a home that would later be the Chicago home of the future President of the United States.  

            Years later, the Travon Martin shooting in Florida happened.  Was he profiled because he happened to be in the neighborhood?  He had a right to be there but that didn’t matter.  I had a right to be in Hyde Park but that too didn’t matter. I, like Travon, were youths just trying to get where we were going. Oh wait a minute, we are black.

            Now, I am disabled and in a scooter.  Yes, the scooter gives me some independence but its nothing like being able to walk.  But I ask myself would George Zimmerman have profiled me if I had been in a scooter?  Would Travon have been profiled if he was in a scooter?

            I now notice things since being in a scooter.  No one feels threaten by me.  White men don’t have to worry about me stealing their women – the sexually strong black male – is no longer.  White women don’t clutch tighter their purse because I’m near.  Police don’t stop me anymore because now they probable say to themselves, he don’t fit the description and besides he couldn’t have done it.

            Had Travon been in a scooter would George had profiled him?  Would Travon be alive today had he been in a scooter?  Would George have drove past dismissing him?  Would George’s self defense claim been totally ridiculous? Yes, I can’t play basketball or baseball with my sons.  Yes, I won’t make it to all their track meets because of the double vision. Yes, I can’t have long walks on the Lakefront with my sweetheart.

            I can’t do those things any more. But now, I won’t be shot because someone feels threaten. I suffer from multiple sclerosis which is the same thing that First Lady’s father suffered from. Yea, I’m in a scooter but I’m alive.  George would have dismissed me.  There would have been no confrontation. Looking at what happened to Travon and as long there are people like George Zimmerman around, I ask myself:  Would I rather be disabled or a black male in America?  RIP Travon.