Essential Zen

Today on Martin Luther King Jr. Day I look back at what has changed and what has not and how it affects my life. For in the end, if we cannot apply something to our daily lives, it really means nothing to us, does it? I remember when Dr. King was assassinated. I remember even here in small town Maine that blacks were the butt of rude jokes in public. I asked my Dad why they made fun of people who were of another color...even though I had never met a black person. (There are very few black people who live in Maine still...who says they have less intellect than whites?) He did not have an answer, because he hadn't met ANY black people. They were just different, therefore less than. How does that happen? If you are different, somehow you are assumed LESS than till you prove yourself to be the same. Though now it isn't cool to feel that way about black people anymore...now its fat people, or poor people,or gay people, or Middle Eastern people, or, or, or. These are obviously the people who caused all the problems...because they are different. Not so much has really changed has it? Just changed the words. Gay is the new black...how fashionable, and for Gods sake dont let them have the same rights as everyone else...then it will be ok to be different, cant have that. All Middle Eastern people are responsible for 911! So lets go kill 600K (a conservative estimate by a group from Johns Hopkins, which has been revised to 100k) of their people, and ruin the entire country for the 2k that a few militants killed at the twin towers. That'll teach all those women, children, and old men who's in charge dammit!
Survey Iraqi deaths March 2003 to...
Iraqi Health Ministry survey 151,000 violent deaths out of 400,000 excess deaths due to the war. June 2006
Lancet survey 601,027 violent deaths out of 654,965 excess deaths. June 2006
Opinion Research Business survey 1,033,000 violent deaths as a result of the conflict. August 2007
(taken from Wikipedia Casualties of the Iraq War page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casualties_of_the_Iraq_War date retrieved 1/19/2009

No, nothing has changed. Grim facts. We are brutal killers, as a nation as we have sanctioned the killing of these innocents, by our inaction. Scorched the earth, and no one said a damned thing. I wish Dr. King and his ability to rally people for good was still around today. No one has stepped into his shoes. I pray Mr. Obama is not full of shit. I have hope as my kids are now transfixed by Dr. King giving a speech at the Lincoln memorial on the tube, all in the house is quiet except for the pecking of my keyboard and Dr. King...maybe we will get it right

"May a man be judged not by the color of his skin but by the content of his character."

...and before anyone starts with the accusations, My husband is a 9 1/2 year submarine veteran, of which I served 8 1/2 with him (have no doubt that the families serve too) and my niece has served a tour in Iraq, and now is sporting some fabulous PTSD...lets not go there. Thanks, D

My nephews in Iraq - hes the other capricorn of the family -

I would say honestly the best thing to do, per things changing is say, ask folks who lived back then thru that shit, if things have changed. I would say, that life in the us isnt the same as back then when folks were being hosed and lynched and nasty shit like that. So there has been change - many did vote for Obama based on character - he wouldnt have gotten elected if the majority of americans based their vote on anything less than character.

Kids also go to school no matter where or what. African americans can vote - they arent having to take bullshit tests with questions like 'how many bubbles are in a bar of soap.' But do folks shift to another race to hate? Surely - it happens. I remember in arizona, right after 911, a Sikh man was murdered who worked at a gas station - they mistaked him for a muslim. "Turbon" being worn, he was shot dead, cause people are ignorant, so yes, there is still ignorance - but to the magnitude for african americans today? Its much narrower nowadays thanks to MLK and really, many others who walked with him, supported what he stood for - equal rights for ALL. He didnt, and everyone else who supported, werent walking ONLY for rights for African Americans, but for EVERYONE in this country.

i do believe in that - I still believe in the Intent of the USC, of course I dont believe in war or killing others, or going into other countries fighting wars we have no business engaging in. But I do believe in the Intent of the USC.

Thats part of my point...now its not cool to be racist toward African Americans however the hate is not gone it has just shifted to others, Gays, Mexicans, fat people...anyone different. Hate...bad stuff that.

I don't know if it's hate so much as a sort of exclusivity. We're all part of that...even the American Indians...they had a word for themselves which translated to "human beings" exclusive of all others. White folk were not human beings. So, we have white folk (we're all superior...we set up this country, after all and still run it), and brown folk, and yellow folk and black folk. It's not a matter of hatred, I don't think...more as I said, exclusivity. We think we are the "human beings" and everyone else is, well, not. And Obama is not a black dude...he's a half white dude who plays basketball whose father is a Kenyan. Crazy, man, crazy. Shit, we're ALL racist.

~

Ignorance.

Ignorance: The condition of being uneducated, unaware, or uninformed.

Ignorance is bliss.