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George Zimmerman Trial Begins

6/30/2013

Initially, I didn’t want to blog about the Trayvon Martin case because it’s so emotionally charged. How unfortunate it is, that some people sit faceless behind computers, and make the most vicious comments just because a person has a different opinion.

As I watch recordings of the trial, I can’t help but become deeply saddened. I had to take a break and turn it off, because it was weighing extremely heavily on me. I was even taking it to bed with me, thinking about it before I went to sleep at night.

Being a mother of teenagers myself, I can only imagine what Trayvon’s mother must be feeling. Sitting in that court room day after day, listening to her son being described as this monster that was so violent, that he deserved to be hunted down like a wild animal on the loose, then shot and killed. No, wait, as I think about that for a moment, even a wild animal wouldn’t have been gunned down in that way. It would have been tranquilized.

I want to discuss race for a moment. You see many people believe that had Trayvon Martin not been black, George Zimmerman would not have had been suspicious of Trayvon walking through his neighborhood, thus he would not have followed him, thus he would not have murdered him.

I have listened to George Zimmerman’s family on the news, I have listened to his friends and I have listened to his attorney repeatedly say that he is not a racist. Needless to say, I do not know Mr. Zimmerman personally, and I won’t pretend that I know whether or not he has any hatred in his heart towards African American people. But I will say this, that in America, I believe that many people of other races buy into the stereotypes of African American people. Especially African American men.

Stereotypes that most black men are violent. Most black men are murderers, thieves and/or rapists. I believe that it is the perpetuation of these stereotypes that feed into the fear that some people have of black male youth. And I believe it is this fear that causes some people to act or react towards black men in ways that they may not when they are dealing with someone of another race.

Racist is such a strong word and it angers many people when they are unfairly labeled as that. A racist person has malice and ill-intent in his or her heart. A racist person sets out to oppress another person just because they are different than they are.

Prejudice means that you prejudge someone based on certain attributes that the person or persons possess. It could be their skin color, race, gender, age or sexual preference. I won’t call George Zimmerman a racist, but I do believe that George Zimmerman is “prejudice.”

When calling the police to report Trayvon Martin (for what I am not clear because Trayvon wasn’t bothering anyone or anything), Mr. Zimmerman referred to Trayvon as “these fucking punks" and "these assholes, they always get away." From his statements, it is clear to me that George Zimmerman prejudged Trayvon Martin based on something.

We do know that Trayvon Martin was young. We do know that he was black. And we do know that he was wearing a hoodie.

It has been confirmed that George Zimmerman (who a friend of mine refers to an overzealous cop wannabe), was the neighborhood watch guy. It has also been confirmed that there had been several break-ins in his housing complex, and that the men who committed the crimes were young, black and wearing a hoodie.

Because Trayvon Martin fit the description of a couple of the young men who had previously broken into houses in the complex, George Zimmerman prejudged Trayvon as being there to burglarize.

Many folks believe that is enough for Mr. Zimmerman to have been suspicious of Trayvon Martin. I disagree. But if Mr. Zimmerman being the neighborhood watchman wanted to make sure that the residents were not in any danger, he could have simply politely said:

“Hello, I’m George Zimmerman, and I am in charge of the neighborhood watch. It is my job to be security for the complex, and I am afraid that I do not recognize you. I would like to know if you are visiting someone, or do you live here?”

That’s fair enough, because that’s what people in charge of the neighborhood watch do. They are for the most part security.

I mean Trayvon was a teenager, he couldn’t have been that intimidating. Really, what was he going to do? Pull out a gun and shoot Mr. Zimmerman because he asked him a question? If anyone believes that foolishness, that about confirms what I said earlier about the fear of young black men.

Mr. Zimmerman did not have the right to prejudge Trayvon Martin as being in the complex to rob the place just because he fit the profile of someone who had robbed the place prior. That is being “prejudice.”

If Mr. Zimmerman had a valid reason to believe that he and the residents were in danger, or if confronting Trayvon was against the neighborhood watch rules, then he had the right to call the police. Mr. George Zimmerman did do that, but his pursuit of Martin should have ended there, like the authorities told him to do. The Police commanded Mr. Zimmerman not to follow Trayvon, but he continued to follow him anyway.

This is the part that makes me suspicious of George Zimmerman’s’ motives. What was his reason for ignoring what the police commanded him to do and continuing to go after Trayvon Martin?

Here is where Mr. Zimmerman’s’ story gets murky. He says that while following Trayvon, he somehow lost sight of Trayvon. Trayvon then ended up behind George Zimmerman now following him. Trayvon Martin then managed to catch up with Mr. Zimmerman, attack him and ultimately start a fight with him. George Zimmerman somehow ended up on the ground with Trayvon Martin on top of him bashing his head into the cement. At some point, Trayvon attempted to take Mr. Zimmerman’s gun from him, but just before he did, Mr. Zimmerman, managed to keep hold of the gun and in self-defense shoot and kill Trayvon Martin. I am sorry, but this story sound outrageous to me. It sounds like something out of a badly written movie.

George Zimmerman did have some bruises and his nose was swollen, although he refused to get an x-ray to confirm that it was broken. And there are recordings that the police have when residents called the police to report the scuffle that they heard outside of their homes. On those recordings you can hear someone not screaming but screeching for help. George Zimmerman says that it’s him, but those screams do not sound like a grown man to me.

I don’t know exactly what happened that night. Only God, George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin know what really happened, and Trayvon Martin is dead.

I want to end with a something that I heard a talk show host say. If George Zimmerman did not take his gun with him that night, wouldn’t he have been just a guy who lost a fight?

Should Paula Deen Lose It All? I'm Not So Sure.

6/26/2013

When I first heard about Paula Deen and her use of racial slurs in her restaurant, I thought, “Oh no, not again. I am so tired of this age old story.” Not because Paula Deen used the word nigger, but because of the outrage behind it.

Now wait a minute black people. Before you go ham on me, let me explain myself. Since I was a little girl growing up in an all-black working class community in Los Angeles California, I have seen this story play out over and over. A white person uses the word nigger and automatically that makes him or her a racist. Or does it?

Yes it does. I am sure that was true in the 1960s and the 1970s when 99% of blacks and whites didn’t really live in the same neighborhoods, didn’t go to the same the schools, and didn’t shop at the same stores. Yes back in those days if a white person said the word nigger, they were prejudice.

You see I grew up right out of the civil rights movement. Here in Los Angeles, black people lived in the inner city, and for the most part whites lived in the suburbs. I remember instances of cross burnings in cities only a few miles outside of Los Angeles. Cities like Westchester and Northridge. White men posted large wooden crosses on the lawns of black people who were trying to integrate into their neighborhoods.

In those days, most cities outside of inner city Los Angeles were still segregated. No, not by law. And not because there were no black people that could afford to purchase houses in those communities, because there were. But because many escrow companies and banks made it difficult for blacks to purchase homes in all white areas. Orange County California, forget about living there if you were black. If a black family somehow managed to get funding and close escrow in any of those areas, their lives were often times made pretty difficult.

I remember vividly walking down a street in Torrance, California a few miles south of Los Angeles in 1980. I was coming from shopping when some white jerk yelled out of the passenger side window “Go back to where you came from nigger bitch.” Imagine that, racist and sexist. I remember the year so well, because when I heard him say that, it stopped me dead in my tracks. You see I had never been called that word, before that day, by “any white person.”

Though I grew up in an all black neighborhood, I had interacted with white people all of my life. Growing up, several of my teachers whom I loved dearly, were white. In fact my 2nd grade teacher who was white took me and me alone to see the ballet. My parents’ employers’ were white. My mother who was a manager for a major corporation, and my father who worked for the Transportation Authority had white friends. The meat men who my family purchased our meat from was one black man and one white man.The store owners where my family bought our furniture were white.The lady who my mother purchased her jewelry from was white. And when we traveled, our family interacted with white people.

When I was 14 years old, I altered my birth certificate to say that I was 16 so that I could get a full time summer job working in my mother’s office. I worked in the file room. Today, altering any form of identification would truly be breaking the law and land me In jail. But at that time, it wasn’t such a big deal. Back then, corporations had large offices in the basement filled with really tall cabinets, where all of the company files were kept. Companies hired lots of workers to maintain those files. No need for those gigantic files anymore, because we now have computers to store all that information. Ahhh, those were the good old days, when jobs were plentiful for anyone who wanted to work.

At that time, I worked for a temporary agency who would hook me up for three months straight. Then, I worked with many white people, and they all were great. Being the young girl on the job, several of the women would take me up under their wing and mentor me. Most of the women were white. Lots of times they would buy me lunch.You know, being 14, I really liked to eat junk food.

On that day, in Torrance California, when I heard those words, it stunned me. I was aware of people like that. My grandmother told me stories of white people good and bad growing up in Texas. She wasn’t bashing white people. She just wanted me to understand that life isn’t a bed of roses and that at some point in time I will come in contact with people who won’t like me just because of my skin. But she also told me that every person is not the same, and to judge everyone individually by what they show me. So far, it had been all good. Every white person that I had come in contact with prior was wonderful to me. So when that fool shouted like a maniac, it really hurt.

Going forward, as an adult, attending college, traveling and being in the workplace, though I have white people in my life whom I love, I have encountered racism from others. But guess what, I have never been called a nigger, since that day, to my face, by anyone other than a black person. Yes on many many many occasions, I have been called nigger, by an “African American Person.”

Now I am sure that a lot of my black brothers and sisters are not going to like what I am about to write. But I have to do it anyway. Ever since I was a small child I have been confused about the use of the word nigger. I was taught in school about slavery and the use of the nigger word by white slave owners to belittle, rape, kill and oppress black people. Many horrific things have been done by whites to blacks while using that word.

After reading and learning about those things in school, I would come home and hear on a daily basis, almost every black person that I knew, use that word.

Black women using it when referring to their crazy boyfriends, “Girl that nigga is full of it.” Black men using it as a term of endearment when greeting their friends, “Nigga, what’s up?” And yes, even my southern, church going grandmother saying “Some niggas just ain’t no good.” And my mother who was a professional, and my father used it on a regular basis. (By the way, black people say “Nigga not Nigger.” That’s for you white people reading my blog. And oh, by the way black people, I know that the politically correct term is “African American,” but for this story, black is more appropriate.) Moving on.

This thoroughly confused me. In fact, I would get into debates with black people over the use of the word. I would ask, “How could black people utter that word, when we were all taught that it is so awful and disgusting?” I was always told that when blacks use it, it doesn’t mean the same as when whites use it. When black people use it, it’s a term of endearment, but when white people use it, it’s nothing but hatred. That to me is crazy, and It sounds like bullshit. Nigger/Nigga is either good or either bad.

In my opinion, the word is ugly, and it should never be used by anyone black or white. But many black people use it publicly on a regular basis. Educated black people, non educated people, rich black people, poor black people, you name it.

That being true, “Is it realistic for black people to put conditions on the use of the word?” We can use it but no other race can.” Oh, there is an exception. The white people that black people give permission to or a "ghetto pass," can say the word. As long as they are talking to another black person, and are using the word in the way that a black person tells them to.

Yes permission to. Like when young people say to each other “What’s up my nigga?” If it’s a white person who is a friend of a black person, they have a ghetto pass to say that. Or when white people are listening to hip hop music, they get a ghetto pass to repeat the word “nigga.” I mean, that gets a little bit confusing don’t you think?

I remember hearing Ice Cube during an interview answer a question about his use of the word. He was being scolded about the word in his music. His response was that black people have taken the word and turned it around. He said that nigga does not mean what it used to. It is now used in a good way.

“Well if we as black people have taken the word and turned it around and made it positive, than why do we get so angry if a white person uses it?”

For those of us who are older and closer to the outwardly racist days of the past, nigger meant something different than it does for today’s black youth, who are farther removed from the civil rights movement. They do not really understand the heinousness of the word. They have not experienced it in the same negative way. In my opinion that word could never be positive.

But if we as a black people are going to use it publicly and on records, and in stand-up comedy routines and when referring to our friends as“My Nigga,” than it’s really foolish to tell someone else they cannot use the word just because they are not black.

These people can pay money to come to black shows, download music by black artists, buy the records released by black artists, all while hearing black entertainers say the word nigga, but they being white cannot speak it. And if they do, they will possibly have their entire lives turned upside down, and everything taken away from them. I don’t care what anyone says, that is ridiculous!

I do not like the word nigga. I never have. But even I have found myself using it in the past. I heard it so much up growing up, that it just rolled off of my tongue at times. Usually when talking about a horrible boyfriend. The word for me was never a term of endearment. Nigga or nigger means ignorant. And that’s how I have used it. When I referred to someone as nigger, I meant that they were stupid or ignorant.

Black people we cannot continue to crucify a white person every time they say the word, unless the white person is lynching, murdering, raping or stealing from a black person when they are saying it. And we have laws against those crimes now. So they will get their punishment.

In addition, black people say things about white people all the time. Black people let’s not act as though blacks have not said “Honkey, Cracker, White Bitch, Becky which means whore, and so on, behind closed doors.

I am not saying that white people can greet me as a nigger when they see me.You better not! It will be World War lll, and you might get punched. But a black person better not call me a nigger or nigga either. I am from the old school, so the reaction will be the same.

But, if a white person slips up and says nigger or nigga, maybe they get cursed out from those blacks who don’t like that word.

They should not get sued and have their entire livelihood destroyed just because they use the word! Unless there is something else attached to the word, like a clear case of discrimination.

Read more at www.cnn.com

President Obama To Reveal Plan On Climate Change

6/23/2013

President Obama is scheduled to speak on Tuesday at Georgetown University regarding his plan to deal with Climate Change. Read more at www.whitehouse.gov.

U.S. Is Reducing Nuclear Weapon Arsenal

6/23/2013

On Wednesday June 19, President Obama visited Berlin where he gave a speech at Brandenburg Gate. Nearby was the Gail Halvorsen also known as the "Candy Bomber." The Candy Bomber was the first to drop candy to children during 1948-1949 United States airlift, which supplied West Berlin after a Soviet Union blockade. Also present was the 92 year old Halvorsen, who the President paid tribute. "We could not be prouder of him." "I hope I look that good, by the way, when I'm 92."

President Obama said that he will ask Russia to join the U.S. in reducing its arsenal of nuclear weapons. "I intend to seek negotiated cuts with Russia to move beyond Cold War nuclear postures."

"After a comprehensive review, I've determined that we can ensure the security of America and our allies, and maintain a strong and credible strategic deterrent, while reducing our deployed strategic nuclear weapons by up to one-third."

The United States and Russia are already in agreement with the "Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, better known as "START." START calls for each country to limit its nuclear warhead arsenal by the year 2018, to 1,550. President Obama's proposal reduces both countries warheads to about 1,000.

The President stated that the U.S. will only consider using nuclear weapons in extreme circumstances to defend the interests of the U.S. and it's allies. "We may no longer live in fear of global annihilation, but so long as nuclear weapons exist, we are not truly safe."

"Today's threats are not as stark as they were half-a-century ago. But the struggle for freedom and security and human dignity, that struggle goes on."

This year the Air Force has said that it plans to put nuclear cruise missiles on board stealthy B-2 bombers. At present, only the 50 year old B-52 bombers carry these weapons. The Air Forces also plans to add Nuclear "Gravity Bombs."

Read more at www.cnn.com and www.cnn

An iPhone Case That Is Also A Stun Gun

6/23/2013

When former soldier Seth Froom was robbed in 2011, in his home at gunpoint, he said about the ordeal, "I kept thinking what I could have done to stop this?"

He and his partner Sean Simone have invented an iPhone case that doubles as a 650,000 volt stun gun. For safety, users have to flip two safety switches and press an activation button. The company that the college buddies founded named "Yellow Jacket," has sold thousands of the cases since February. The stun gun retails for $139.99, and buyers must be at least 18 years of age. Presently the stun guns are not sold in the U.S.

Read more at www.money.cnn.com

Starbucks Raising Prices

6/23/2013

Starbucks is set to raise prices on drinks sold in the U.S. by 1 percent. The price increase will include latte, espresso, coffee and tea. Prices will vary from city to city. The price hike will not include the majority of Starbucks stores venti and grande sized brewed coffees, or it Frappucchinos.

Spokesman Jim Olsen said that the price increase is due to the higher costs of labor, rent and raw materials.

Read more at www.money.cnn.com

Two Jets Nearly Collide Over New York

6/23/2013

The FAA stated that two large passenger jets passed to close to each other over New York about 2,000 feet above Queens. The Delta Boeing 747 Jumbo Jet and the Shuttle America Embraer E170 did land safely.

Both planes were turning away from each other at the point where they "lost required separation as the 747 was approaching JFK and shortly after the E170 had taken off from LaGuardia

At their closest, the planes were separated by half a mile horizontally and about 200 feet vertically. FAA regulations state that the planes are required to be at least three miles apart horizontally or 1,000 feet apart vertically.

Phil Demer, the founder of the site NYCAviation.com stated that "New York has a very, very tight airspace." "You're talking about three major, packed airports that are trying to act in unison. It can be very unforgiving."

Read more at www.cnn.com

Marines Arrested On Drug Charges In California

6/7/2013

15 United States Servicemen have been arrested in Southern California on weapons, drugs and auto theft charges. Charges include insurance fraud, sales of cocaine and methamphetamine, sale of high capacity ammunition magazines, illegal gun possession, burglary, possession and sales of stolen military equipment including bullet proof vests, Kevlar helmets, night vision goggles, gas masks and thermal sights.

50 people were arrested including seven former Marines, seven active Marines and one Navy servicemen. Bonnie Dumanis the San Diego California County District Attorney, stated that the 64 count indictment was the result of an eight month sting named "Operation Perfect Storm." The operation included local law enforcement, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. Read more at www.security.blogs.cnn.com

Apple Can No Longer Sale iPhones And iPads In The U.S.

6/5/2013

Yesterday, the United States International Trade Commission ruled that Apple had infringed on a patent owned by Samsung. The Commission has banned the electronics giant from selling in the United States, the iPad 2, IPad 3G, iPad 2 3G, iPhone 3, iPhone 3GS and the iPhone 4.

The ruling states that Apple cannot import wireless communication devices, portable music & data processing devices, and tablet computers. Presently AT&T is the biggest seller of Apple devices in the U.S.

President Obama has 60 days to review the ruling. If he chooses, he can veto it. If not, the ban will go into effect immediately. Read more at www.reuters.com

Building In Philadelphia Collapses

6/5/2013

This morning, in downtown Philadelphia, a demolished four story vacant building collapsed on top of a Salvation Army Thrift Store. During a news conference, Fire Commissioner, Lloyd Ayers, stated that 12 people with minor injuries have been pulled from the rubble, but that there are possibly 2 other individuals still trapped. "We have located them and we're going to continue until we can get them out and we can get them to hospitals."

Mayor Michael Nutter stated: "We have a significant number of people on the scene, and we will continue this operation until we are certain that anyone who was in the building has been recovered and taken out of the building."
Read more at www.cnn.com

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