Monday, July 29, 2013

America Fallen: Chained and Shackled


I had a short discussion with a friend, Stephen Hayes, who told me that eventually people will wake up and we will win. I admire Stephen, whom I met on the steps of the Michigan Capital during a demonstration against Public Act 4, the emergency manager law. Like me, Stephen is a freedom fighter, a constitutionalist. He is a true American that continues to hold on to the values of what it used to mean to be an American. Sadly, we’ve been bought and sold. Americans, who used to lead the world in education, technology, freedom, and democracy has fallen. Greed, power, and our own ignorance have diminished us to third world status, medically, mentally, educationally, religiously, and economically. There is no freedom left in our nation, we are prisoners, nothing more, or less.

The people rallied around laws that took so much of our freedom, The Patriot Act, Patriot Act II, and National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). The government used fear, Hitler’s greatest modifier, to gain both control and support of the people.

I have had too many conversations with the religious fundamentalists that cast their votes of discrimination and hide behind God. I don’t understand this group the most. So many don’t believe the world even existed before Jesus Christ. They claim the earth is only a few thousand years old. With that belief, they vote? This is the group that protests and votes against our American freedom the most. They cast the same judgment the bible they thump warns against. They use God as their excuse to vote against abortion and gay rights when their bible doesn’t sustain it. Do they not know Jesus never spoke on sexual issues of any kind? Do they not understand that Leviticus is the only book of the bible that speaks against sexual sins? Yes, they know, but they choose to ignore Jesus to levy stones at those that don’t fit into their own mold of what other people should be. With the same self-righteous hand of judgment they continue to cast votes against feeding their own people. They back the murder of war, believing they are saving their own asses while they bash another for simply loving. They are an abomination against the same Jesus they claim is their savior. This is the sect of the Politicians Dream. They learned long ago how to work these people, via manipulation of God, they planted the seed and the God fearing followed. Jesus did say: “You fed me when I was hungry, gave me drink when I was thirsty, clothed me when I was naked, took care of me when I was sick, and came to visit me when I was imprisoned.” He said this to a man that didn’t follow God. Nowhere did he say this man got to the gates of Heaven because he cast judgment on why someone was hungry, thirsty, naked, sick, or imprisoned. Jesus didn’t stick a star on the man’s head for judging on homosexuality or other sins so he could hold back the gifts of his kindness. The entire point of the story was to help, no matter what, your fellow human beings. You take care of your own, no matter what their beliefs, sins, or lifestyle, because the people of God, in the name of Jesus Christ, have absolutely no room to judge. So many of these voters are committed to the Koch created Tea Party. It’s scary, but true, that so many are so easily led by propaganda and media. It’s even scarier that they don’t research anything beyond appointed sites that confirm what the propaganda has taught them. I guess they don’t even see the hypocrisy in their actions, their preachers haven’t told them, neither has Fox News, so they are oblivious. After all, the earth is only a bit over 2000 years old anyway, right?

I don’t understand why people, other than the fundamentalists, are so blind to what is happening, not only in America, but in every municipality in the nation. It seems the republicans are blindsiding us from every angle, keeping our heads spinning with insane bills and laws. It’s hard to keep up on a national scale.

There has been a political attack on our freedom since NAFTA. Even then I saw the grave consequences we would pay for free trade. Our jobs relocated. Yes, the politicians like to blame the unions. Corporations like to blame the unions, as well. They had to lay the blame somewhere, because the politicians didn’t want the truth known. They were falling to the feet of the lobbyists and corporate money, period. The truth is the labor union kept productivity and wage high. It sat the standard for decent wage, health benefits, decent working conditions, and the forty hour work week. Due to the hard work of the labor force our nation’s base was strong, rich, because the middle class taxes carried the American economy. As the free trade countries grew, our economy fell. As the rich became richer the poor and middle class became poorer. In reality, it’s only common sense.

We are no longer controlled by the patriotic American; we are controlled by the dreams and desires of Corporate America. It’s so easy to see if you open your eyes. All the talk of privatizing everything should be enough to shake one awake, even from the deepest propagandized American Dream.

The Republicans are pushing for the most insane bills imaginable. In Texas, they are pushing to outlaw critical thinking in our schools through censure. We have another pressing to outlaw oral and anal sex. We have laws being pushed to make it illegal to be gay and to have abortions. Yet, while in the doctor’s office the other day he was giving out free samples of Viagra. Go figure.

We have politicians fighting to rid the nation of mandatory education, child labor laws, unions, health care, social security, retirement, food stamps, food labeling, and protections by the government we deserve.  

In Michigan it’s totally obvious. The man I can’t even call the governor, the imp, the phony, the man licking the bottom of the Corporate Koch shoes, Rick Snyder, has made a mockery of democracy and the constitution. Personally, I think he should be arrested and charged with treason. The bankruptcy in Detroit is a farce and just a part of the corporate plan. Privatize everything after all the city can’t afford it. Fellow republicans support this, but I doubt the simple man even understands where this will lead. Education would be taught by the values and morals of corporate institutions and obviously, they don’t have any. The premise of “by and for the people” would be dead.  

The Michigan Imp has pretty much deleted the “by and for” part of being American. This is a man that ignored a pending vote on the new Detroit Bridge, signing for it, even though it wouldn’t create jobs in Michigan, before the vote in November. I watched the clip of Snyder laughing when questioned about his untimely signing. His words were “why would I wait?” That clip has since disappeared from the internet, like so many others.

When the people voted against Public Act 4, the emergency financial manager law, he rewrote it and named it Public Act 436, it’s the same law. The vote didn’t count. The people don’t count. Above all, the crux of our democracy, our voting system, doesn’t count.

Now, before you bash me, again, this is what I want. I want clear and fair voting rights. I think we should be more like Australia. I think every American who is of voting age the day of election should have to vote. I don’t think they should have to go to a polling booth or show identification. I think they should be able to go on their personal computer, type in their social security number, and cast their vote. If they can’t use a computer then they should go to the polling booth. It would cut costs, time, lines, and suppression.

I want to stop the billions of dollars of foreign aid. I don’t want to supply military welfare in the form of lives, dollars, and equipment. This form of welfare needs to end. I want an end to corporate welfare. It contributes to the poverty and the fall of America. Corporate control and American freedom can’t and don’t mix.

I want to stop the media from its propaganda. I want to read from an American new source and be able to believe it without two added hours of researching the truth only to find the media lied, again.

I want the republican policy makers to quit making laws against our own people. I want the American Government out of everybody’s personal life on a global scale. We need out of Iraqi, Egyptian, Syrian, Iranian, Pakistani, and Israeli affairs. It’s time for the Americans to mind their own business. I know if there was another American revolution I wouldn’t appreciate Russia or China sneaking in our back door giving aid to their choice of an American leader.

I want America to quit talking out of both sides of their mouths. I want each and every politician to be accountable for the lobbyists they bob their heads for.

I want bills brought without pork slid in. I’m sure the government would hate this, so would the lobbyists, but a bill should be a straight bill, only one issue, not a bunch of lobbyists desires that get pushed through.

I want the politicians to have to read and fully understand every bill they sign to avoid the pork they claim they didn’t know existed. If they can’t manage that task then every bill should be brought before the people for a vote.

I want to make every vote count without the need for delegates and electoral votes. This isn’t the day of Paul Revere; nobody has to wait on the mail. The public vote should be the only vote that matters.

I want politicians that can run for office on their own honor and merit without having to sling mud, like a child, at their opponent.

For God’s sake and the sake of this country and all we are based on, I want politicians that are honest, that can’t be bought, that care only about preserving our American Constitution and our freedom that is promised through it.

I want people to be people and corporations to be corporations. I want lobbyists outlawed and the politicians that cater to the lobbyists charged with treason. If power and laws can be bought it is against the people and is treasonous.

I want to rid our politics of the damned two party system. I watched a president fight for his position in the courts and I watched another lose her votes by the party that turned on her. I’m sure I know who those lobbyists were. How dare any party take away my vote, Michigan votes, Florida votes, or any vote of the American people? It’s time to allow those to run without party backing, on their own merit, without lobbyists lining their pockets and funding huge smear campaigns.

I want an honest nation, honest politicians, honest markets, and fair wages. I want our elderly not to worry about medications or nutrition. I want our children to be granted a fair education without having to worry about eating dinner. I want jobs to be plentiful and health to be abundant. It used to be that way in my land, not anymore, today we are scrappers, beggars for minor scraps of what the wealthy throw down to us and we have accepted it.

To my international readers: We are all alike in many ways. We all see the global economy cutting the throats of the working class people. We all love, bleed, and suffer for families, but we also suffer for the mistakes of our government and the 1% that have given the politicians the power to do what they have done. Some of us know the truth and some of us still believe the patriotic propaganda pushed in our faces. Please know our people are good.

We used to be a perfect world until we went corporate.
Now, what is my label, conservative? Liberal? Democrat? Republican? Or do I get to claim my fame as simply an American?

Till the next time,

As always,

Pam  

Thursday, July 25, 2013

Allen Park: Isn't Hindsight Always 20/20?


On March 21, 2012, I posted an article about Allen Park. I named the piece “‘Let’s Send the Letter’ Allen Park Votes.” I am a journalistic freedom fighter and I didn’t want the city to fall into the hands of dominate control.

In an interview I had with Mayor Matakas he stated: “I’d rather fight a devil I can see than the one I can’t.” I didn’t know he had become the target of the blame, though it wasn’t his. I did know he was doing everything humanly possible to keep city services intact while preserving the cities attributes.

I attended the city council meeting to vote on sending the letter to the state asking for the help of an emergency financial manager. I couldn’t believe what I saw. The room was packed. One by one residents approached the podium facing the Mayor and his council to voice their concerns facing the city. It quickly became obvious the main concern wasn’t police and fire protection, it wasn’t education, it wasn’t even trash removal, it was the ice, the hockey arena.

Almost every person asked about the arena or commented that they wouldn’t allow their children to go without the arena. A few people approached asking for the arena to be sold to a private owner before an EFM was appointed to protect it. Nobody spoke to save the police and fire departments or the city services. Nobody volunteered any personal help or ideas that would assist in pulling themselves out of the crisis. Recreation and sport was of supreme importance. A handful of people, including myself, shook their heads in disbelief. The council placated the crowd. The Mayor tried to explain, but was repeatedly interrupted and berated by Dennis Hayes. I realized many had become exactly what the imperialists had been working on for years. Americans had dummied down.

The State warned against sending the letter before the emergency May 8th election, but the council voted to send it right away. The people cheered. I watched the Mayor. He knew the implications of the EFM, the people didn’t. He had worked day and night to find a way out without the residents losing financial control of their city. He lost. His only hope was the emergency election on raising the tax base by 4 mills, for two years, would pass.

After the meeting was adjourned and the crowd began to disperse I saw the look of defeat on Mayor Matakas face. I approached him and shook his hand. We shared looks which said: “God forgive them, they know not what they do.”

I wrote the article and instantly I was ripped to shreds by the people of Allen Park. I was told I should be tarred and feathered and ran out of town. The comments poured in, mainly insulting comments, without any real basis. Some blamed the current Mayor for sucking up to the police because of his son in law or some other farfetched reason. Few agreed Mayor Matakas inherited the situation from the previous Mayor.

I continued to write urging Allen Park to vote in the 4 mill increase for two years. The result was a string of insults by people that absolutely refused to pay an extra penny in taxes to help their own situation. As I continued to warn them, they continued to bash, insult, and berate.

The two-year, 4 mill increase failed. EFM appointed.

Look where Allen Park was just a few short months after that May 8th vote. The Allen Park Recreation Center was leased out. It’s now a privately controlled entity. They lost control of their prized possession. It was a finalized deal by November 2012.

Now, EFM Joyce Parker has a new ballet proposal coming on August 6th. It’s not the same deal the Mayor had worked out for two years to keep the city from falling in the states hands, it’s a new one. Joyce is proposing a 10 year 6.75 mill levy, which includes the 3.5 mill already being paid, and there’s a catch. It isn’t a simple refusal for the voters. If the 6.75 mill levy isn’t voted in there are grave consequences. It isn’t a threat, or a strong arm, it’s a fact.

EFM Parker has a Plan B. If the tax increase isn’t passed 15 firefighters and 6 police officers will lose their jobs. There will be one furlough day without pay and the streetlights will need to be assessed. With this there may be a consolation of services.

The Allen Park residents have voted themselves into a lose lose situation. Had they voted in the 4 mill, two year increase in May of 2012, they would have saved themselves a bundle in property tax dollars. What Ms. Parker isn’t revealing is that she has the power, vote or no vote, to instill the proposed tax increase. The vote means nothing. If you go against the vote she can put all of her promised Plan B tactics into effect and still take the 6.75 mills. That’s the new way in America.

The only advice I can give the City of Allen Park is to vote out Snyder in November. Take your city back.

Till the next time,

Hindsight is always 20/20,

Pam

Monday, July 22, 2013

Detroit Bankruptcy: Test Tube Politics


I spent a large part of the day reading and researching the bankruptcy in Detroit. Yes, I am well aware of the dilapidated, poverty embellished, neighborhoods. Yes, I am aware of the mismanagement of the city funds. I know all about top heavy governments and the rotted morals of the people in power. I am even aware of the mismanagement of county funds appropriated for the new Detroit jail. I know all about greed, privatization, and free enterprise. I understand the money owed and the accrued deficit. In the other vein, I also understand the role of an emergency financial manager, the dictatorship role it gives our governor, and who funds the beat of the drum that Rick Snyder dances to.

I read, article after article, about the population drop from 1950 until 2010. I understand the tax base dropped from the decline of residents to 70,000 from 1.8 million. Newsflash, the powers that be watched the decay chase residents away from their homes in the Detroit neighborhoods. Blame democrats or republicans, it doesn’t matter, it all comes down to the same issue, nobody cared as long as their pockets were being lined. They didn’t have to live there so it didn’t matter.

When NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) allowed our big manufacturing plants to move to Mexico and hire slave labor, people backed it. They actually believed it would better our economy. How could they believe outsourcing our jobs could be good for our economy? I have no idea, it’s a no brainer to me, all it did was give large corporations the incentive to move to an area and pay pennies on a dollar without protections or benefits to the slave labor trade. NAFTA became the catalyst to many more free trade agreements which crippled not only Detroit, but all the industrial and manufacturing fed cities.

Mayor, after Mayor, bonded the mainlined growth on the riverfront. As the neighborhoods began to decompose they were deemed unimportant. The residents complained to the city about the house on their street that worried them. They feared it nourished the bad element, housing drug dens, prostitution, rape, and other dangerous situations for their children. They were ignored. The main concern remained the riverfront development.

In 2000, a law was passed by the City of Detroit that allowed police and fire employees to move outside of the city limits. Detroit’s finest fled like birds flying south to protect themselves from the winter that was about to hit the city.

Soon, plants began to close, leaving the skeletons of a once prosperous industrial economy. The neighborhoods were abandoned by those that could flee, leaving 78,000 abandoned buildings behind. Of course, crime would soar off the charts, the people became hungry and there wasn’t any relief in sight.

Adding the salt to the already gaping wound, Snyder rids free enterprise of the business tax. This robbed the cities of the taxes needed to supplement their school systems. Detroit schools diminish and fail on every level. The suburban school systems welcome school of choice students to feed their own falling incomes with the over $5,000 per head, paid by the state, to teach an outsourced student.

These aren’t reasons, they aren’t excuses, it is simply the republican agenda. When you know the agenda is to privatize and nourish free enterprise, it all makes sense. The original plan is working, the people duped buy into the pushed propaganda.

Oh, please don’t act like propaganda is something that only other countries use against us. Our government has been blinding our people since day one. It’s the supplement to any agenda.

Today, I know the damage and destruction the Koch brothers have done and continue to do to us, environmentally, politically, financially, and personally. I totally understand their ability to pocket the politicians and to fund their success. I get it. Do you?

If you are aware of the truth you will understand why the signing of the new Detroit Canadian Bridge is a farce, you will understand the purpose of union busting, you will finally see, with clarity, why our food is poisoned, legally, and why our gas prices are so high. You will fully grasp the concept of free enterprise and privatization and how it can’t stand erect in a free country. The division of wealth has become too enormous to maintain freedom.

In Utah, there is a bill to abolish mandatory education for our children. In Maine, they want to shelve child labor laws. Nationally, they think of raising the retirement age to 70. They have tried, and succeeded in censuring our internet, pulling as many incriminating videos, reports, and recordings as possible. They wire tap us, they spy on us, and they can violate our freedoms of speech. They can arrest us and detain us indefinitely without charges. They can order our own military to attack our own people on our own soil. They can implant their politicians and silence other’s. They can sign for bridges, with an impish imperialist grin, knowing they violated the voting process and severed our constitution. They have made a mockery of our freedom, of our constitution, and of America, and Detroit matters, why?

Detroit is going to be the test city. If Koch, Snyder, and Orr win in court on the bankruptcy it’s going to create a domino effect. City after city will follow suit to abandon responsibility to the creditors (which will be settled for a percentage of the original debt, either way), the elderly, the retirees, and the poor. Billionaires will flock to rescue (purchase) assets, school systems, police forces, ambulance companies, and fire departments. These people will be employees of Free Enterprise and they will follow the rules of those employers, not of the United States Constitution. Students in a privatized school will be taught only what the school owners want to be taught. We will become brainwashed, breathing, controlled human drones without any say in our destination. We will become nothing more than test subjects, which we basically are now.

So, why shouldn’t Detroit be allowed to file Chapter 9 through an EFM? Because that EFM is appointed by a dictator that is owned by David and Charles Koch, and they are as anti constitution, anti collective bargaining, and anti environment as they come.

As we continue to believe that our answer lies in the private sector we are tying a noose around the neck of the very freedom that once made us the strongest, the most educated, the most powerful nation in the world. We have become their test subjects; they polluted our minds, our food, and our freedom with carcinogens and propaganda.

With all the decay and degradation, Detroit, and their people have stood their ground with so very little to work with. The people treaded water because they had no other way out. The city has beautiful attributes that are about to be stripped away.

Michigan’s heart lies in Detroit and it’s about to be manually stopped.

Till the next time,

Sadly,

Pam

Wednesday, July 17, 2013

GMOs and Ag-Gag Laws: America’s Government-Protected Poison

By | Wednesday, July 17, 2013

First published as an Editor's Pick on Blogcritics.org: http://blogcritics.org/gmos-and-ag-gag-laws-americas-government-protected-poison/

As I was doing some legal research I came across ag-gag laws, anti-whistleblower laws created to protect agribusiness from accountability. I could not believe what I read. These laws created by billionaires with an agenda deny the people necessary protections. Money and power seem to be the capital on which all is based, not the human element, which is berated as anti-American liberalism, as if caring about human existence is an untreatable condition.


cows

Under ag-gag laws, no longer can reporters or investigators expose inhumane treatment of livestock, unhealthy working conditions on farms, or disease-infested situations. Taking pictures and videos behind the backs of the farmer are now punishable by law and deemed a felony. I find it incredible that this is what America has succumbed to.

A great example of the possible dangers of ag-gag is Smithfield Ham Corp. Smithfield sold their entre company to China at about the same time 11,000 dead pigs were found in the Shanghai River. If those dead animals were shipped to the new, China-owned Smithfield Ham processing plant and butchered for sale in our grocery stores, wouldn’t you want to know? I would, but due to ag-gag laws anyone who would try to leak the information could be charged with a felony, equal to severe crimes like home invasion and murder. Under the Monsanto Protection Act, the federal courts can’t stop it. We’re screwed.

I knew Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas once served as an attorney for Monsanto, but I couldn’t understand how a law, now popularly called the “Monsanto Protection Act,” could be snuck in and signed by our president. This law bans our federal government from jurisdiction on GMO seed issues, even if there was clear and eminent danger to the public. It was snuck in as a rider on HR993, the bill that was approved to halt the government shutdown.

I wondered if the Koch Brothers were connected. I started researching and I was shocked at what I found.

The Director of the National Institute of Food and Agriculture of the USDA, Roger Beachy, is the former director of the Monsanto Danforth Center.

The list grows:

Linda Fisher, one-time assistant administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Pollution Prevention, Pesticides and Toxic Substances, is now the Vice President of Government and Public Affairs for Monsanto.

Michael A. Friedman M.D., the former acting commissioner of the FDA (Food and Drug Administration), is now the Senior Vice President for Clinical Affairs at G.D. Searle & Company, a pharmaceutical division of Monsanto Corporation.

Marcia Hale, former assistant to the President of the United States and the Director of Environmental Affairs, is now the Director of International and Governmental Affairs, Monsanto.

Michael Kantor, former Secretary of the United States Department of Commerce and former trade representative, is now a Monsanto board member.

Josh King, a former Director of Production for White House Events, is now the Director of Global Communications in Washington D.C. for Monsanto.

Margaret Miller, former chemical lab supervisor for Monsanto, is now the Deputy Director of Human Food Safety and Consulting Services for the New Animal Drug Evaluation Office, Center for Veterinary Medicine at the FDA.

Michael Taylor, former advisor to the F.D.A., Bureau of Medical Devices and Bureau of Foods, then Executive Assistant to the Commissioner of the F.D.A,, and Deputy Commissioner for Policy at the F.D.A., now heads Monsanto’s Washington D.C. office.

Lidia Watrud, former microbial biotechnology researcher at Monsanto, is now with the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) Effects Lab, Western Ecology Division.

Jack Watson, former Chief of Staff to Jimmy Carter, is now a staff attorney with Monsanto.

As I dug further into Monsanto I learned there were American politicians who own shares in Monsanto. The eight shareholders are: Dave Camp (R-MI), Kay R Hagan (D-NC), Joe Kennedy III (D-MA), Alan Lowenthal (D-CA), Michael McCaul (R-TX), Jim Renacci (R-OH), James F Sensenbrenner Jr. (R-WI), and last but not least Fred Upton, (R-MI.)

Sixteen out of 22 Monsanto lobbyists in 2012 have previously worked for our government.
Monsanto has made political donations totaling $1,093,564, divided among candidates ($514,529), Leadership PACs ($60,250), parties ($48,575), 527 committees ($646,110), and outside groups ($750). These were bipartisan donations, but there was also a $23,725 donation to President Obama.

Still, with data crowding my mind and notes filling my pad, I still felt it had something to do with the Koch brothers. I stumbled upon a billion dollar lawsuit filed against DuPont by Monsanto relating to GMO soybeans. As I dug into DuPont, there was my golden egg. DuPont is a fertilizer company that is now in the GMO business. DuPont is the Kochs’ Monsanto. The case was settled out of court. They agreed to work together and basically share the genetically modified soybean.

With the new knowledge that the billionaire brothers own DuPont and Matador Cattle Company, I saw their connection to the Monsanto Protection Act and the ag-gag laws. Both DuPont and Monsanto needed laws to protect their immoral and illegal practices. Sad to say, they bought the votes they needed to pass those laws, again.

In Russia, President Putin outlawed Monsanto because its GMOs have been linked to cancer-causing agents. He urged President Obama to outlaw the insecticides produced and used by Bayer, DuPont, Dow, Monsanto, and Syngenta. These companies own almost 100% of the global market for genetically modified pesticides, plants, and seeds. Putin spoke out on the poisonous effects on the land and water supply, globally, from the neonicotinoids that poison us all and damage the entire food chain. Unlike Obama, Putin acted to protect his people.

Other countries have outlawed GMOs, but in America, we make laws protecting them. We protect free enterprise above all else. We make laws against federal involvement if our food becomes a threat to us. We even make laws that prevent us from knowing we are consuming GMOs, because labeling isn’t warranted in America. Pathetically, The GMO companies are allowed to commit assault on Americans for capital gain. Criminal, without a doubt, but hidden under the surface of free enterprize.

Our president orders pink slime, ammonium meat, for our public schoolchildren’s school lunches; food growers and livestock breeders can operate without regulation; and the Monsanto Act made it illegal for our federal courts to get involved.

Seventy percent of items in U.S. food stores contain GMOS. That’s pretty scary.
My open invitation to the politicians, to my president, to the Koch brothers, and Monsanto:
You guys are poisoning us. What does it feel like to kill and destroy our land and our people for capital gain? Do they make criminals worse than the lot of you? I doubt it. You’re cowards, afraid of labeling, of giving us a choice. You’re pathetic. The sad thing is you’re all empty, your billions aren’t satisfying enough, now you want to play God… Eat well.

Till the next time,

Pam

Monday, July 15, 2013

Travon Loses Twice


I deactivated my Facebook account back in February. There was too much drama and I didn’t want to deal with it. I reactivated it yesterday, just in time to see all the insanity posted on both sides of the George Zimmerman acquittal.

As I read the posts, I found myself shaking my head in disbelief at some of the posts that were filling my homepage. The white American’s are just as guilty of making it a racial issue as the black American’s. The issue is blown out of proportion on the race issue. A dead child is a dead child, black or white. A cocky, over-zealous, pompous man, with an over inflated ego, is still just that, it isn’t because he is Mexican.

I remember the beginning coverage. I remember the first glimpses of George Zimmerman. He wasn’t the chubby looking man with the conservative, side parted, hair. He was in shape and his bald head would stereotypically put him in the group of gang-banger, thug. If in a different location he may be considered a Latin Count.

Now, Travon, a hoodie wearing, black teen, looked like every other teen. He didn’t appear to look like a gang banger or a thug, he looked like a kid, but he was black.

Now, taking race out of the picture, taking out the stereotypical labels, you have George Zimmerman, a man that wants to be a police officer. He wants to protect society without a license. He wants to be a vigilante. That’s all fine and good, but the person you are hunting has to do something wrong in order to be hunted. Travon didn’t. George did.

George, in his power as the neighborhood watch commander and chief, passed judgment too quickly on an innocent American. In his own words to the 911 operator he labeled and convicted Travon as being “up to no good.” His judgment was wrong. An American is not up to no good just because he is walking home in the rain with his hoodie up over his head. Now, of course, if it was a white kid would George pass that same judgment? We have no idea.

George did follow and stalk Travon after being warned by the 911 operator not to do it. He stated: “That guy is a f****** punk.” He first followed him from his vehicle and then on foot. Why didn’t he just watch Travon to see where he was going? I guess that wouldn’t make George feel as powerful. He saw what he wanted to see, he mentally convicted him, and he acted as a bounty hunter with excessive and absolute power.

Now, being Travon, he’s a kid, it’s cloudy and rainy, dark. There isn’t anyone out on the streets. He does his own racial profiling. He sees this thug looking Mexican stalking him. He’s talking to his girlfriend on the phone as he walks home. He calls upon his Mother’s warning about stranger danger and I’m sure he was scared. Kids get molested, kidnapped, and killed all the time. I’m sure he was thinking, “Why the f*** is this guy following me?” There is no way that it didn’t send fear through his body. Human reaction is flight or fight, Travon tried both.

Now, though George admitted he stalked Travon, there was no reason to pull a gun on someone unarmed. If it’s true that Travon said: “You’re going to die tonight.” George still was under no threat. He could have held Travon at bay and called the police, but he didn’t like that this kid wasn’t going to accept George’s abuse. What could Travon done to save himself? Could he have saved himself or was George just looking to be his own hero?

I have to say, if George was embarrassed because Travon was kicking his butt in a man on man altercation, George deserved it. Travon had every right to defend himself. He was both stalked and attacked. George acted in a cowardly fashion by pulling his firearm and shooting Travon at point blank.

Now, about the 911 tape showing that someone was calling for help. I don’t understand why either side didn’t take that tape and have voice recognition identification tests ran to prove who was screaming out. It would have been proof positive. I bash both the defense and the prosecution for not testing this tape for voice recognition. It would have spared the jury the testimony of weeping friends and family members of the defendant. Being a mother of six, three which are boys, my personal opinion is it sounded like a kid screaming out, not a man. If I had to pin it on one of my sons, I would have bet it was the scream of my 18 year old over my 27 year old. It just didn’t sound like the voice of someone older.

The scariest side of a not guilty verdict in this case is George walks and is still free to carry his gun, lawfully. Will he now shoot people that he feels are going to be his attackers?

I also don’t understand the six person jury in Florida, but those laws open a whole new door.

So to Facebook poster’s, please think things through before you post your rhetoric. Please don’t bash Toni Braxton because she hid money during a bankruptcy because she felt ashamed as an American. Don’t continue to bash, try some understanding. It’s a terrible situation. My heart goes out to the Travon family for the loss of their son. Yep, he had some middle finger flipping pictures and he may have smoked weed, but have those of you who condemn checked out your sons Facebook pictures lately? You may be shocked to learn, black Travon was no different than white teens.

George looked for trouble, created it, killed someone, and walked. End of story.

Till the next time,

Pam

Sunday, July 14, 2013

I'M BACK!


I’m back!
I’ve been on a writing hiatus for months now. As my friend, Don, would say, I was out sailing across the sun like the song, “Drops of Jupiter,” by Train. I was looking for the truth in my soul, trying to find the scattered shards of yellow brick that would lead to my Oz. He’s right, I was.

I’ve danced along the light of day and fell from my shooting star. I’ve felt every emotion piled up at one time and none, many times.  I’ve loved who I’ve hated and hated who I love. I’ve had to crash through barriers of persecution, alienation, and degradation, sometimes of myself, to stay on the path of what I knew was right. It wasn’t easy.

I’ve had health issues in my immediate family. My youngest daughter, Sheree, was in the hospital. Figuratively, I was brought to my knees. My oldest daughter, Nicole, who always believed I was the pillar of strength, reached out and pulled me up. I felt guilty for telling her I couldn’t handle the situation if it worsened. That wasn’t me; I could handle anything, at least on the outside. Calm faced, and in control, she said: “I’ve got this, Mom.” I questioned, she reassured. I saw it in her eyes. She could. At that moment I realized, she too, had grown into a pillar. She was me.
I’ve doubted myself, which I learned years ago not to do, and I condemned myself for the weakness that allowed me to doubt what I knew was truth.

I found myself in a position, by powers much greater than me, to face where I was spiritually and to accept where it was taking me. I learned and saw miracles form through simply surrendering to the role appointed. It took awhile for me to accept that role, because I knew I would face many demons. I did, but I overcame them, eventually.
For the first time in my life, I found myself in a position to where I wanted to throw in the towel. I wanted to sleep until I felt better, but that was short lived. I just can’t give up or give in that easy. I wanted to, though. I wanted to wake up in the bright and colorful Land of Oz, without following the trail or overcoming the obstacles. For a minute I was suspended in the peace of the poppy fields.

I have finally learned, without any regrets, the power of negative forces. It’s easy to see. I have finally had the power to see beyond my own negativity and the feelings that kept it alive. Being able to see through the darkness enables us to focus on the light. No matter how life can hurt us, it’s based on our personal choices and those choices bring us what we need to tweak and fine tune the crux of our journey. I learned that no matter what I may suffer, other’s suffer, also. If I can aid in alleviating the suffering of another person, because I am a pillar, it’s not only my job or my duty, it’s who I am. It is a gift. It’s one of my many blessings and I can do so without malice, blame, or shame.
Now, coming out on the other side of expanded lessons, I’ve learned many things about myself. I have the strength to take on any persecution given. I’m not sure I like the way the signs that lead to the shards of broken yellow brick are delivered, but I get it. I understand where, no matter how hard or insane it may seem, I need to go to continue my journey of higher acceptance and learning.

Today, I embrace every hardship, every personal pain, because those trials have molded me into who I am right now. I don’t hold any hatred or resentment to those who have caused me to fall, inhale deeply, or pray. As crazy as it sounds, I have to thank them. From cradle to grave, every person is a gift, no matter if they were the negative evil, fallen angels, or positive forces, they were all a part of my learning experience. They all shed some small ray of light to a glimmering shard on my sometimes hidden road. Today, I have no problem dissecting the negative out of the person I have become. It’s like a cancerous tumor; you cut it out and rid yourself of the impending pain and gradual death it will eventually cause, be it mental, physical, or emotional.
There is no pat on the back for making it this far. There is no high fives. Nobody can know or understand where I’m at or how I got here, but me. There is only me. I now look in the mirror and laugh and say, “Girl, You Rock!!!”

I have a lot of people to thank for this past eight months. You’ve helped mold me in many ways, but I can’t name everyone. I can name Jill (Delestienne) Megdall, my bestie. Jill, you are probably the only person that fully understands the sense, the extra perception, the “gift.” Thanks for listening and knowing it was making me crazy. I love you, always!

Till the next time…

I’m off to see the Wizard,

Pam