Every one of the thousands at the airport, about to leave for Jeddah, was dressed this way. You could be a king or a peasant and no one would know. Some powerful personages, who were discreetly pointed out to me, had on the same thing I had on. Once thus dressed, we all had begun calling out "Labbayka! (Allahumma) Labbayka!" (Here I come, O Lord!) Packed in the plane were white, black, brown, red, and yellow people, blue eyes and blond hair, and my kinky red hair -- all together, brothers! All honoring the same God, all in turn giving equal honor to each other.
That is when I first began to reappraise the "white man." It was when I first began to perceive that "white man," as commonly used, means complexion only secondarily; primarily it described attitudes and actions. In America, "white man" meant specific attitudes and actions toward the black man, and toward all other non-white men. But in the Muslim world, I had seen that men with white complexions were more genuinely brotherly than anyone else had ever been. That morning was the start of a radical alteration in my whole outlook about "white" men. ~Malcolm X, letter written following the Hajj....
You get freedom by letting your enemy know that you'll do anything to get your freedom; then you'll get it. It's the only way you'll get it. ~Malcolm X.
I've been seeing stuff like this for awhile now.Ron DeSantis trying to get Florida schools to say that slavery benefitted Black people.
And I'm sick of this fucking bullshit.
There's this kid I used to work with, Dre. Dre was a Black kid from Detroit, finance major at Central Michigan University...held two different positions in my department at the casino in five years of working there, and one night when I was pushing a trash can through the Steak House emptying cans and passed by where he was working...we were both Custodians at that point...he walked up to me and he said "You know, bro, it occurs to me that my ancestors didn't ask to be here. Think about that for a second."
I did.
That's what Slavery was, my friend's ancestors literally didn't ask to be here, or to come to this country...or to be used as basically farm equipment and exploited for every other purpose the debased minds of rich men could think up.
I've been a student of Civil War history...including the causes and events leading up to the Civil War...for my whole life. Slavery was
so damn bad there was an entire social movement built around ending it, and an entire insurgent operation largely composed of Pacifist Quakers and other Christians...the Underground Railroad...dedicated to helping escaped Slaves to
get to freedom.
Pretty much every Civil War movie I've ever heard of, most of the books I've ever read...and I've read quite a few, counting in my collection a Regimental History of the 54th Massachusetts Regiment of Volunteers...the first regiment of Black troops in the United States Army...says, in so many words "Slavery was bad."
Slavery was bad enough we fought a war to end it.
And the only fucking people who've ever said anything otherwise in my lifetime have been the descendants of Slavers, those who sought to curry favor with such people, and a very small number of religious nuts. It's not even a goddamn question.
Not to be outdone, the House Freedom Caucus and the usual suspects in "Professional Conservatism" you know, the Family Research Council, the Heritage Foundation and the Susan B. Anthony List, are trying to derail reauthorization of the PEPFAR AIDS program because something something abortion, or some shit. PEPFAR which has saved millions of lives in Africa and throughout the world...and bought not only America in general but Republicans in particular a great deal of goodwill
from Africans...was a signature issue of the Bush 43 administration.
The Cruelty is the goddamn point.
The Racism is the goddamn point.
These fucking people's fantasies about why AIDS is a problem in Africa (and here's the thing, there it primarily is transmitted by straight sex) are the goddamn point. These motherfuckers could give a shit about reality. They'd rather judge people about whom they know nothing.
And this is where you learn that all their other justifications are crap. I've been to churches that had a large Black African demographic and I'm here to tell you...you wanna see some absolute rock-star passion for The Lord...go to a church that has a bunch of Nigerians or Ugandans in it!
But see..."Conservatives" don't really care about that.
Hurting Black people is more important.
Well, not
just Black people.
The edge-case "Conservatives" want to shit all over women in the military next.
I was serving when a lot of stuff was opened up to women in the early 1990's. But women had been in my particular AFSC (Air Force Security Police) since 1973 (That's right, thank you Richard Milhous Fucking Nixon) and nobody gave it a second thought by the time I graduated Tech School in the fall of 1993.
Hell, my LT in the 410th Security Police Squadron at KI Sawyer Air Force Base was female. Not only could she do the job the same as the rest of us (of either sex) but she did it better than most of us. As a Sergeant, a squad leader myself...I had to keep up with the goddamn Terminator and I said as much many times. You know what I got told? "I saw that movie, if you're smart you'll run faster than me."
Because she saw it as her job...as her duty...to be a leader, to lead by example, to set the fucking tone.
You're either that person or you're not. It's just that simple.
You either
get it or you
don't. If you
don't get it, I
can't explain it to you...nor do I want to
try.
Some things just are what they are.
Facts. Truth. The nature of a person. That there is a power in the Universe greater than your Self.
And we don't have to know what it is, only that it is. There's no point and no purpose in constantly trying to re-litigate reality.
To question certain things is a disgrace and a dishonor, and usually done in bad faith anyway.
I'm tired of waking up every goddamn day and having to argue with these ass-clowns about whether the sky is blue or not. Some things are just observable facts and do not require "Belief" in any form whatever.
Like the fact that Communism hasn't been a thing since 1989.
Barack Obama was born in the United States and had every right to be President, certainly he was better at it than a lot of people.
Joe Biden is a Christian, a good President and perhaps more importantly a decent man.
Vaccines, etc. wouldn't be a thing if they didn't work.
Small-L, small-D liberal democracy works better than any authoritarian system, and is more fair than most others...no less of a conservative than Winston Churchill had a memorable quote on this subject.
And facts, laws, and truth give people...all people...a floor to even stand on to push back against Power.
You wanna know why the Right wants everything to be a subjective "Belief" that's why.
Because they don't want you and me to have that.
But my annoyance with this shit doesn't even go that far. I'm just tired of arguing with morons who are trying to do nothing better than waste my time.
Just because motherfuckers wanna believe doesn't make something true. What's true and what's false can be tested. We have ears to hear, eyes to see, minds to think, imaginations to dream of something better.
And in my experience the only thing modern "Conservatives" care about or think is true is their own shitty belief system.
All this Idiocracy bullshit really does trace back to racism, in one way or another.
But the world doesn't work like that, not really. As I was taught, God made all people...and who are we to say that one is better than another based on something like appearance or skin color? Did God...the perfect all knowing Creator according to Christianity...make a mistake when he created Black or Brown or LGBT people? Did He only get it "Right" with White Conservatives??
Folks, either he's God or he's Not.
The fact that people keep trying to argue and re-litigate shit our ancestors
already decided tells you that when these people say they're "Conservatives" they're lying. "Things as they are" is not what These Fucking People even
want.
The Sky is Blue and we've the means to know why, anybody wants to argue with that is either a fool or a liar.
And don't you forget it.
Don't listen to the Florida Lies.
If you want a better country, you have to be a better citizen...and this ain't it, folks. This ain't it.
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Four
We welcome change and openness; for we believe that freedom and security go together, that the advance of human liberty can only strengthen the cause of world peace. There is one sign the Soviets can make that would be unmistakable, that would advance dramatically the cause of freedom and peace. General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization, come here to this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate. Mr. Gorbachev...Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!
~Ronald Reagan
...
Blood that has soaked into the sands of a beach is all of one color. America stands unique in the world: the only country not founded on race but on a way, an ideal. Not in spite of but because of our polyglot background, we have had all the strength in the world. That is the American way. ~Ronald Reagan
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