Quixotic Tales

   Today Republican Speaker of the House of Representative John Boehner, answering the charges of fostering a totally worthless Do-Nothing-Congress, said  Congress  “ought to be judged on how many laws we repeal.”

   OMG!  The current Republican majority in the US House of Representatives under the leadership of Speaker Boner has repealed THE SAME LAW, OBAMACARE, THIRTY-SEVEN TIMES!  What makes this action totally ridiculous is that Obamacare is the signature law of President Obama AND THE VERY REASON WHY A VAST MAJORITY OF AMERICANS VOTED FOR PRESIDENT OBAMA …TWICE! 

   Americans want universal medical care like the rest of the Western Civilized World. 

   These present-day Neocon Republicvans have so screwed the John Birch Society Republican State Governments and Gerrymandered the States Congressional Districts electing idiotic Bircher Republican nit wits to Congress that America has regressed 150 years in liberty (senseless profiling and killing Black juveniles) and voting Rights (John Birch Republican Supreme Court Justices  striking down Voters Rights and Citizens United).

   America’s greatness has deteriorated into a monster aggressive nation fighting oil wars, religious wars, eliminating democracy from American life, and reestablishing slavery and feudalism by eliminating organized labor unions.

   America is becoming an oligarchy and rule by wealthy elite, changing the distribution of wealth making the wealthy wealthier, and destroying America’s working middle class  creating a 21sr Century State of Feudalism and peasantry. 

White America has celebrated a Florida Court of Law setting free George Zimmerman, who freely admitted the killing of a Black juvenile, Trayvon Martin .  American Caucasian Society decided that George Zimmerman had a greater Right to defend himself than the Black juvenile, Trayvon Martin, had a right to defend himself from George Zimmerman.  The White Florida jury decided Zimmerman and Martin were absolutely equal under the Constitution  but the White adult George Zimmerman was just more equal to defend himself than the Black juvenile Trayvon Martin was.

The trial of George Zimmerman has held the interest of all Americans of all races for many days now.

Reaction to the decision has been appalling.  White Americans have had the audacity to rant and rave about what the slain Black juvenile “should have done” to save his own life, and their opinion is obviously a White opinion, the White critics have never been profiled, they have never been stalked by an unknown White aggressor, they have never known the fear that some crazed White man obsessed with guns might just want to kill some Black juvenile because he hates and fears Black members of our society.

What happened in the George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin case, as it related to Trayvon Martin, was that Martin observed the stalker, George Zimmerman, leave his car to stalk Martin for no known reason to Trayvon, but in all possibility, in the mind of the Black Trayvon Martin, “to kill a Black juvenile A-hole”.  Martin lived close by but home is the last place Martin would go while being followed; Black kids don’t let stalkers find out where the kid and his family live; and, this stalker is not a local, because Martin saw him arrive by car. 

Martin momentarily disappeared from the stalkers view where he could observe his stalker, unseen.  The stalker persists, he is aggressively seeking Martin out; the stalker doesn’t leave.

Martin is frightened, he’s being harassed for no reason, and Martin is angry; it’s not imagination, it’s a nightmare that Martin is living, alone and afraid.

At this time, Martin has an advantage; he’s hidden from the stalker.  It appears that it is his opportunity to resolve the issue now, or never.

Martin surprises the stalker, confronting him.  The stalker doesn’t identify himself, he doesn’t fight  back, he doesn’t run.  The aggressive stranger draws his gun and shoots the Black juvenile in the heart, not Martin’s hand or foot, but one shot in the heart.  The black Juvenile’s body has no other bruises, cuts, or scratches, just one bullet hole to the heart.

The jury found that George Zimmerman was innocent of murder or manslaughter because he was defending himself.

Trayvon Martin is killed without knowing why;  except that, Martin knows that he is Black and Martin knows that the killer, George Zimmerman, is White.

George Zimmerman believed Trayvon Matin looked suspicious and possibly could be a Burglar because he was Black and was wearing a hoody; Martin was Black, was wearing a hoody, and was not a Burglar.  The jury believed that George Zimmerman acted in self-defense and George Zimmerman is a free man!

ADDENDUM: After writing my post, I saw this poignant letter from Alex Fraser to George Zimmerman,  on facebook, andI was so impressed that I knew immediately that  I had to add it to my account of the killing of Trayvon Martin. 

From the facebook account of Alex Fraser:

July 13 at 10:57pm ·

    Dear George Zimmerman,

    For the rest of your life you are now going to feel what its like to be a black man in America.

    You will feel people stare at you. Judging you for what you think are unfair reasons. You will lose out on getting jobs for something you feel is outside of your control. You will believe yourself to be an upstanding citizen and wonder why people choose to not see that.

    People will cross the street when they see you coming. They will call you hurtful names. It will drive you so insane some days that you’ll want to scream at the top of your lungs. But you will have to wake up the next day, put on firm look and push through life.

    I bet you never thought that by shooting a black male you’d end up inheriting all of his struggles.

    Enjoy your “freedom.”

    Sincerely,

    A black male who could’ve been Trayvon Martin

 Today I read about a commentator lamenting that there was a lack of diversity in the American media and no diversity in news in America. 

There is no diversity in the American media and there can be no diversity in the American media because the American media is owned, controlled, and edited by Corporate America and there is no competition. 

Corporate American media is not in business to provide reliable news; Corporate American media exists only to make profit.

 All American news media are owned and controlled by a very few Corporate conglomerates; that is why there is no diversity in the news but instead there is an abundance of the same misinformation and lies.  The “Freedom of the Press” in our Constitution provides no Rights for the People but only provides the Right for the media to publish misinformation and lies with impunity, which they do.  The American public is hence “dumbed-down”.

Polls of Ameircans indicate that 62% of all Americans believed that Saddam Hussein was responsible for 911; he wasn’t. 

All of the world excerpt Americans are aware of total American ignorance of the news.  There is no diversity in the American media; it is all in corporate hands!

  Admittedly, I am an emotional person and when I see People being deprived of the “good life” because of the selfish interests of the more powerful, I tend to be militant in taking up the cause, even when it appears to be a losing cause.  To me, democracy and the self determination of People are sacred; I believe in the power of the People. 

   There is power in wealth; but, wealth cannot produce anything, wealth cannot build anything, and wealth cannot create anything; only People can produce automobiles, and build airplanes, and create electronic devices that can communicate with and reach the most desolate places on the earth.

   People need freedom to crate and , only in a democracy do they have that total freedom to create. 

   When I was growing up, my home town of Decatur Illinois was a proud industrial city and modern in every way.  We had industries like the Staley company, the Mueller company, and the Hi Flyer Kite company that supplied the whole world with goods and services and Decatur also had the farmland that fed the world.  Decatur Illinois was the “Soybean Capital of the World and the Railway hub of Illinois, tucked away in the middle of some of the richest farmland in the world; Decatur hasn’t moved but time has passed it by.

   Decatur is my native city; I no longer live there, but I was born and raised in Decatur.  I didn’t grow up in Decatur, because I’m 83 years old and I never grew up; I just couldn’t stand to become “an old White man”; I was a mature seventeen year old and never got any older and I try to think positive and not remorsefully.  It is impossible for me to forget my roots and I still visit my Decatur at least once a year, or more, depending on circumstances

   My problem with Decatur is that there is no longer any viable public transportation to get to or from Decatur from anywhere else; no trains, no planes, no rapid transportation of any kind.  It is a sad state of affairs.

   It is with very fond memories that I remember when they built the Decatur Airport; my friends and I were adolescents and the airport is only a few blocks from where I lived.  The construction company left all their huge equipment, like earth moving equipment called “Kangaroos”, out in the middle of what is now the airport; the equipment wasn’t locked up, and in the dark of the night, my friend ‘Fat’ Gentry, would get in and drive those big machines all over the landing field, night after night.  Fat was crazy about driving and didn’t have a license to drive legally, so he was in his glory driving all over that vast field that was to become the airport; he hated to see them finish building it.

   When the airport was finished, we took great pride in the new first class airport in Decatur; I’ve always been convinced that Decatur was the greatest place in the world for a kid to live and become a man and personally, I was most fortunate to have both the Decatur Airport and Lake Decatur as “my growing-up territory”; I was lucky to live where I lived when I was a kid.

   After I became an adult and my work took me away from Decatur, I used to fly Ozark Airlines into Decatur; I flew into Decatur many, many times and then suddenly, the world seem to come to believe Decatur wasn’t really a modern industrial metropolis and home of Staley’s syrup and Mueller’s bathroom plumbing,  I literally could not get home by plane or train anymore; passenger planes and trains just didn’t serve Decatur. 

   My dad had worked for the Wabash Railroad for 42 years, helping to build fantastic steam locomotives and when I was 5 years old, I stepped on a train in Decatur and got off  of a train in Los Angeles California.  Today, you can’t even find a train to step on and Decatur is the Rail Head of Central Illinois.  Children in Decatur grow up never seeing and waving at people in a choo-choo!

   Most recently, I discovered that Decatur again had air service to Decatur from Chicago.  I understand it is very good service, the planes seat 8 passengers, but the planes lack a men’s room; now I have a 83 year old prostate and I am too proud for Depends, so a year ago, I flew from Chicago, with a men’s room, to Springfield Illinois where I then I rented a car and drove to Decatur.  There is NO public transportation from Springfield to Decatur less than forty miles away.

   My son is 50 years old and he flew to Decatur to be with me; he flew from Chicago sans Men’s room and I met him at the Decatur Airport.  While at the airport waiting for his plane, I noticed there were huge cylinders all over the landing field and I ask the one employee of the airline, “What are those big cylinder shaped things on the airport; they looked like cylinder bales of hay.”

    “Those are bales of hay!” he answered. 

   When I took my son to the Airport a week later to return home, the hay was still there.

   Don’t get me wrong; I think growing hay on the airport is great, but shouldn’t the hay be stored in the barn off of the airport?

HAY BALES HARVESTED ON DECATUR IL AIRPORT

AIRLINER TAXIS THRU HAY BALES AT DECATUR IL AIRPORT

DIRECTING THE AIRLINER TO ITS GATE; HE IS ALSO THE TICKET AGENT

PASSENGERS DISEMBARK THEIR AIRLINER: DECATUR IL AIRPORT

   In my lifetime, I’ve traveled some, and I was impressed by public transportation that the Europeans’ have.  In spite of what politicians tell you, Europeans are not old fashion and dumb.  Typically, I fly into Zurich, get off the airplane, take an escalator to the Railroad station in the terminal, and I get on a train and go anywhere in Europe, including my destination 20 miles away.  Here is a hint for Decatur; there’s a railroad track that runs along the edge of the Decatur Airport that could run to the airport terminal and bullet trains could carry passengers to Chicago or St. Louis or anywhere along the way, if Decatur was a modern industrial city with trains, planes, and electricity.  Not just Decatur, but all of Macon County would benefit from having modern public transportation into and out of Decatur; Springfield Illinois, the capital of Illinois, is only minutes away from Decatur by Bullet Train.

   When the Decatur Airport was built, it became the property and responsibility of the Decatur City Park District; even at my young age then, I knew that the Airport was not supposed to be a park!  Now, it appears the Decatur Airport has morphed into a hay park.

   The Decatur Airport needs to be more political and it needs to belong to the People of the whole metropolitan area, the whole county.  The Decatur Airport cannot be a functional airport when it is treated like a park; the Decatur Airport needs political clout from the People of the entire area served by the airport.  The Decatur Airport needs to become the Abraham Lincoln Airport of Central Illinois and owned an operated by the Abraham Lincoln Airport agency.

   Often, I wish I was back, living in Decatur.  I would rise up and tell the People that our Decatur is “of the People, by the People, and for the People”.  I would organize the metropolitan area of Decatur to march on City Halls and the County Supervisors to demand that we the People have an airport that is for serving all of the metropolitan area and all of Macon County and the neighboring counties.  The Decatur airport is not a park for growing hay, and airplanes flying to and from Decatur should have a men’s room.  

   We the People demand that you, the Decatur City Council, the Mt. Zion City Council, the Forsyth City Council, and the County Supervisors lead us in a march on Springfield and a march on our Congressmen to get passenger Bullet Train service and viable airline service for all the People of Macon County and our neighboring counties; we won’t stop till our demands are met. 

    Decatur and central Illinois needs 21^st Century public transportation; we the People and our city deserve it.  It is a necessity for we the People to thrive, for our industry to thrive, for our workers to be employed.

   Of course, I tend to be just a little militant in my pride and expectations for Decatur; but there must be someone in Decatur who feels as I do, and can get this done.

“America right now, desperately needs an Amendment to the US Constitution that would allow the People of America to dissolve a do-nothing, filibuster everything, Republican Congress and elect a new Congress, just like Parliamentary governments can do.

Today, with America’s electronic technology, the people of America should be able to vote in national referendums on important issues, like raising the debt level, and not leave important issues to be determined by politicians and the selfish interests of Corporate America and their Republican lackeys.

Today’s Republican Party has no consideration for the welfare of the United States of America or the People.

We the People are wallowing in Republican Party indifference while corporate profits hit record highs and wages of working Americans are getting lover every day. The inequitable distribution of wealth, created by the machinations of the Republican Party are destroying the American working Middle Class, who are the People.

The American People need a 21st Century Declaration of Independence from Neocon Republican, selfish Corporate American interests.”  Corporations are NOT People.

Restore America to the Nation of the People, by the People, and for the People.

    Today, I read the morning news and a new political cause called out to me; it made me very sad: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/07/hollie-mcnish-breastfeeding-in-public-embarrassed_n_3557230.html

   The story was about incidents, where mothers have been persecuted for breast feeding their child in public. 

   Though I have been of the male gender all of my life, I have always been a feminist at heart, and at times, it did get me into trouble.  But, “Public Breast Feeding” has never, it seems to me, to have been a bono fide national issue before; I just cannot perceive a prurient mind, believing that breast feeding a child in a public place, is a “dirty” sexual exhibition or that a nursing mother is a sexual deviate.  Motherhood is sacred to me, and a mother nursing a child is the epitome of motherhood; there is no way that I can perceive a child dining at the breast to be a sensual sexual exhibition. 

   Readily, I can acknowledge a woman’s breast is an erogenous zone but so is a woman’s ears and nude ears have never been banned from public view.  I hesitate to mention the fact that the nipples of men have also been known to be erogenous, and I have seen pictures of Mick Jagger performing bare-chested on stage, eagerly exposing his erect nipples to his audience.  In America, a mother nursing her child is considered a prurient act; and, men baring their nipples on a public beach is asexual?  That just cannot be!

   Where oh where is women’s equality of nipples?  I personally stand by nipple gender equality!

   Nipplephobia apparently, is an American disease.  Pictures in American publications and on TV with a woman’s nipples blotted-out continues to amaze me as being the quintessence of ridiculous; it doesn’t happen in all the cultures of the civilized world. 

   But I digress; the article about persecution of breast feeding mothers that I read, went on to indicate that mothers have from time to time, organized to actually demonstrate against the persecution of babies being nursed in public.  This caused me to wonder why I was not more aware of breast-feeding discrimination in America.  I would most certainly be glad to join the Mother’s cause; perhaps the US Bill of Rights needs a an eleventh Freedom!

   What is the first thing that comes to mind, at the sight of a mother breast feeding a child?  In my case, I have visions of my own sainted mother caring for me.  A person just has to be of a perverted mind, to be sexually aroused by a mother breast feeding a child.

   How can America claim to be a civilized society if it suffers female nipplephobia?  How can America be trusted with nuclear power, if they cannot perceive breastfeeding a child as a natural act?

Today, I received a reply on line to a comment I made about, “Republican voter suppression being an attack on democracy in the American democratic Republic”; the reply to my comment was typical of a Republican of John Birch ideology.

This is the reply, “America is a representative republic, not a democracy.”

This is my answer to the reply, “And you are a John Birch Society member, the only people in America who believes that this is not the American democratic Republic as it was intended.  Old Papa Welch (John Birch Society founder) rewrote history to claim America is not democratic and his worshipers like you to still want to believe America is a plutocratic oligarch of 2% lords and 98% peasants; Americans are only now beginning to understand the John Birch Society coup of Bush vs. Gore in 2000, when the 5 John Birch Society Supreme Court Justices threw out Florida’s democratic election and appointed W. Bush President.  Bush never uttered the word democracy, except once, in his entire Presidency; when there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, President W. said we invaded Iraq to make Iraq a democracy (evidently, not like the USA).  That’s not opinion; that is history look it up, I had to live it, unfortunately.  History books call America a democracy.”

A lot of comments on the internet are John Birch comments, not because there are so many of them but rather because the John Birch Society organizes “Comment Writing “ committees to spread their word; being fanatics, they take the comment writing seriously on the internet and letters to the editor in newspapers.  Comment writing committees are mentioned in the Society’s manifesto, The John Birch Society Bluebook, 1961; I have a copy.

The most striking aspect of the JBS ideology is their adamant belief America was never intended to be a democracy, which defies reliable history.  Consequently, I listen carefully to American politicians when they talk about America to see if they publically use the word democracy in the same breath.  Of course, I could be wrong but I listened to President W. Bush’s every word when he was president and he used the word “freedom” a lot; however, I was taken aback when after the Iraq invasion proved there were no “weapons of mass destruction”, in his next State of the Union address, he told Congress that America would “make” Iraq into a “democracy”.  I almost fainted.  Presumably, I was the only person who noticed his rare use of the word; and, it was not in reference to the USA.

Of course America is not a pure democracy; but, democracy exists to degree, and America is more a democracy than any other authoritarian type government.  Little Switzerland probably is the closest to pure democracy; they have national referendums.  And Switzerland was one example that our forefathers considered in writing our Constitution; Switzerland has been a democratic confederation since 1291.

Democracy is very important to me, personally; I say it is sacred to me politically.  Therefore, I am always frustrated by journalists never coming right out and ask American politicians if they believe America is a democracy.

 The American people should insist that believing America is a democracy is a defining question when making a decision to elect government officials.  The political science definition of democracy is: All citizens can vote, majority rules, and liberty exists (the Bill of Rights) to provide the minority protection from the tyranny of the majority. 

Americans do vote for government, including the President, albeit Electoral Votes in the case of the Presidency.  America was originally limited in implementing democracy by the very technology of the time in 1787.  America was created as democratic as possible at the time; and, today, with the Age of Electronic Technology, it is possible to amend the Constitution to make America much more democratic, including the popular election of Presidents and national referendums, where all Americans vote on the most important issue.  Instead, the John Birch ideological Republicans are currently using 1787 technology to suppress voting Rights and eliminating the American democracy that exists.

Like Martin Luther King, I also have a dream.  A dream where my progeny will each personally cast a vote for President, where they will personally cast a vote on immigration, where they personally, will vote on raising the national debt, where they personally will vote on whether or not America should go to war over possible “weapons of mass destruction”.

I shudder to think of my children and my children’s children not being able to vote because they do not have a driver’s license, or sending them off to war because some politicians want access to foreign oil and the People have no choice but give up their life for a corporation’s access to oil.

I have a dream that some day, every American citizen born will establish a national record of his citizenship, and vital statistics that allows him or her to vote when they become of age, their national ID records proves their eligible to accept employment in the USA, and the national ID serves as a census every ten years; I have a dream that all elections are Federally ran and supervised by an independent non-partisan entity that provides democratic elections for all candidates and national referendums on important issues that Congress cannot or should not decide on political party grounds.

My dream is possible using known Twenty-First Century electronics technology.

I dream of a more democratic American Representative Republic; not a plutocratic oligarchic Representative Republic.

Democracy is the American dream.  Happy Independence Day!

Today, former President W. Bush commented on the NSA electronic PRISM  surveillance program, “I put that program (PRISM) in place to protect the country. One of the certainties was that civil liberties were guaranteed,” Bush told CNN. “I think there needs to be a balance, and as the president explained, there is a proper balance.”

When asked if Snowden is a traitor, Bush said, “I know he damaged the country.”

“George W. Bush Defends PRISM”: Huffington Post, 6/1/13:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/01/george-bush-prism_n_3528249.html

With all the crap being published and vehemently argued about NSA surveillance, I am most greatly impressed with the words on the matter by both President Obama and former President W. Bush; of all the issues perpetrated in the 8 years of the Bush Administration, every American has to be impressed with W. Bush’s commentary on the NSA surveillance in this article.

To his credit, President Bush was brief, concise, and spoke without any political double-talk; he said his piece with authority and confidence.

I certainly am not a fan of President George W. Bush, but in this instance I have to have respect for him and for his expression of apparent reasons for speaking out; perhaps this took more courage than anything in his Presidency.  The President was not defensive, apologetic, contrite, nor self-serving.

Here, W. Bush is worthy of respect from all, regardless of any American’s Political loyalties (and possibly a first for me).