Symbols of the Confederacy; The Flag

My take on the "flag flap";

My father was born in Little Rock, Arkansas.
I was born in Detroit (not technically, but I never saw that as an impediment to me making the entire metro/urban area my "stomping grounds").
Many of my neighbors were families from the South, that moved to Detroit for jobs after WW2.
We learned about the "civil war" like most school children do, and I NEVER saw a Confederate flag in real life until well into my late 20's, when I seen one in the front yard of a house in Monroe, Michigan; home of General Geo. A. Custer-the infamous UNION Indian killer.
Even then the irony did not escape me, and I wondered HOW they were able to fly such a flag.
A couple of years later a good friend told me about how the "war" was not fought over slavery, but over "State's rights", and how Lincoln knew the States had the right to secede, guaranteed by the Constitution, and that that part of the Constitution was never altered so the States still retained that right to this day. Plus, the issue of "slavery" wasn't introduced until late into the war in order to encourage others to join the fight.
I was leaning very much toward Libertarianism then, and this argument seemed to assuage my angst over this flag/symbol.
In the '90's there was again an uproar over this flag, and this time I took the time to research this topic to try to come to closure with it.

After due diligence I came to the conclusion that YES, the war was actually initiated much as he described.
YES, it was economics.
Yes, secession is protected under the Constitution.
But all-in-all, my angst was not misplaced; The "State's rights" and "economics issues" this war was fought over was the "right of these States" to keep humans as chattel, in order to benefit themselves "economically".

I had finally come to closure on this topic, but it didn't sit well with my old friend.
Returning for a moment back to General Custer;
My Mother was born in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan.
She was part Scot and part Chippewa.
She used to tell me about her people, their lives in poverty tar-shacks there, and why she left her homeland up North to find a better life in Detroit.
I loved to learn about the native peoples and their culture, and one of the things that stood out like a sore thumb was the use of the Swastika by the peoples of this area, and all over the world.
I found out that the Swastika was a very old, ancient even, symbol of peace an/or prosperity to MANY peoples of the globe.
So how had Hitler taken a symbol of peace and turned it into a symbol of horror, and why can't we just "take it back" to/for it's original purpose?

I know my "old friend" had his heart in the right place.
I know he was a good person. He didn't believe in slavery and he didn't hate the "union" that he lives(d) in; He was just honoring his "heritage" with the ONLY symbol his people had to hold onto.
It inspired him to be proud of "something", even if/when he had nothing else to be proud of.
I get that.

But the Flag had actually gone the way of the Swastika; They were now symbols of oppression and cruelty to millions of people who suffered under it's color.
And just like the Swastika, it too now had to be put away with the hope that at some later time in the future, at least ONE of these symbols will again be able to be lofted without pain, but with pride and goodwill.

Peace to you all.

YOU are a slave.

We are all slaves, and not just "figuratively".
Yeah, I know "This is a free country", and "I can choose whatever I please".
Blah, blah, blah.
Give up your job tomorrow.
You don't want to?
You CAN'T.
NONE of us can.
Even if we CHOSE to give up our jobs and live on the streets, THAT'S illegal.
It's illegal to panhandle, it's illegal to "loiter", it's illegal to pitch a tent anywhere.
You are born into slavery without your ever knowing it.
Sure, "free" slavery HAS it's perks. Afterall, who doesn't enjoy going out to a nice dinner and drinks afterward, but in order to enjoy that once-in-a-while treat, and with the ever elusive carrot-on-a-string of being "this close" to being able to do more than that, we have sold our lives and souls to the machine.

I made too much money!?!

• YES, I AM a liberal....
  But I have never endorsed anybody's lazy-lifestyle.
  Yes, I AM a liberal....
  But I have never endorsed anybody's "dependency on Gov't".
  
  I AM a liberal, but I believe that means I am for;
  freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of choice, freedom of travel, right to privacy, right to assemble, right to referndum.
  
  As a liberal, I have never endorsed the concept that a healthy person sit at home watching T.V., eating Bon-Bons, while living off of my tax-dollars.
  
  I believe we all have a RESPONSIBILITY to those hard working men and women of the Country; the carpenters, doctors, nurses, firewo/men and the artists, who are making life in America worth living.
  
  But this is NOT that America anymore.
  I have watched this country go from a time where there was plenty for all.
  Anybody who really wanted ajob could have one, one that paid well enough to keep a household.
  I myself made $45 thousand dollars a year, without a high-school diploma, back in 1995.
  
  Some would say I made too much money.
  To them I ask why didn't the companies and corporations make too much money?
  Because they gave me a job, I should have been so grateful that I would willingly work for $20 thousand?
  
  What did I do what all of that money I made?
  Look around you, and you will see every dollar every worker ever made, right in front of your eyes.
  
  What did the corporations do with the $BILLION$ THEY made?
  Look up and down your roads and see the empty buildings and houses, and you will see what they did with THEIR MONEY.

No country for old men...

     The Social Security system has been a panacea for the retiring masses who had no corporate supplied retirement bonuses, funds, and parachutes over the years it has been in place.
     Your father and mother very likely were very lucky to have had this to help them through their golden years.
This is not something that is negotiable in a free society.
If we need to fix it, so be it, but to abandon it?
     NEVER!

This is NOT the wild, wonderful expanse of land our forefathers came upon.
There are no "new Frontier"s to be settled, where a man can just pick up his belongings and head out west, get a scrap o' land, build a cabin with a couple head of cattle and rough out a life with nary a care in the world (seppin those dern Injuns might come in the night an scalp ya).

There is no such thing as "we're out here in the world alone, doing it by ourselves".
Everything you touch and see is there because of the efforts of ALL.
Your street.
The lights on your street.
The stop sign, the green light, the telephone and electrical wires coming to your house.

You would have NONE of these things were it not for the combining of the people's needs and interests to access services we could not afford to purchase individually.

Social Security and Medicare are the last two safety nets left to the working people of this Nation.
You will Rue the day you let them talk you into giving this up.
We all think that we will never use it, or we will never see it.
Both are wrong.
You have a plan for your life. Most of us do.
And if we keep doing the right things and are diligent, SOMETIMES we hit it right and things work out just grand for us.
But when the best laid plans go wrong, and believe me they do, at least you still have a safety net to fall back on.
If ALL else fails, you can retire at 65 and enjoy the last years of your life.
You won't have to be a greeter at Wallyworld when you're 75 because you don't make enough money to live on; PROVIDED you have been diligent all along and made good financial choices (paid your house off, payed into S.S., don't owe thousands to credit cards, etc).

But one bad accident can take it all away from you in a breath.
This is why single-payer health care is the next practical step for a progressive society.
This would secure our future in ways unimaginable to us now.
Could you quit your dead-end job and start your own company if you had health insurance, for yourself and your children, that followed you to whatever job you chose to work at, or whatever skill you choose to make a living at?

We need to put these options into action and move our communities toward healthy living.

If things keep going the way they are, and we get rid of the very things that keep us from drowning in debt when we are at our most vulnerable, this will be no country for old men (or women).

Gay Marriage and abortion are ruining America...

.....Cried Chicken Little as he ran through the barnyard.

     I was raised a Baptist.
I have fond memories of riding in the back of Mr. Fisher's pick-up truck (later he bought a station wagon) on Summer Sunday mornings, picking up other children in the neighborhood to attend Summer vacation Bible school at Fisher's church.
      There are times, once and again, when I have thought to myself that I may possibly like to get back into the 'fold' one day.
I know a lot of people who would be tickled pink were I to show up at church one morning, wearing my Sunday best.
     There would be lots of hugging and kinship going on, and then we'd all sit down and hear the lessons of Jesus, and of God, and at the end of the sermon we would all leave and go back our daily lives.

Meanwhile, back in the WORLD;

    America has over 700 military bases occupied with over half a million troops, in over 130 countries circling the globe.
On record.

Underneath that, there are entire separate entities that build up a very large network of military lobbyists, alphabet spy agencies, and black-operations; fomenting troubles that keep us in a constant state of fear and at-the-ready for war.

     Almost 52 million Americans have no health insurance, and every year that number grows higher.
Many of those people who do have insurance cannot afford the co-pays, so they too wait until it is absolutely necessary to finally go; by then making the illness' that much harder to treat.

Children and adults line up in the cold at food pantries across this country seeking shelter, medical attention, and something to eat.

Middle class jobs are gone from here, never to return, while the jobs that ARE coming back pay much less than ever before, and the cost of everything else just keeps rising.

Meanwhile American multi-national corporations are poisoning our air, food, and water with their factory pharms, oil spills, and mountain top removal operations; amassing tremendous amounts of wealth at our expense.


Our system is broken.

The Christian right talks a good talk, but the words in between belie a people who are very much concerned with how other people morally live their lives.
Decisions that have no impingement on your own liberty.

If the good Christian people of this world would focus their energy and strength into creating a world worth bringing a child into, demanding that their fellow human beings have a life worth living, and a planet worth living on; I just might find my way back to the people who carry Jesus' message of hope, love, and fairness.


There are very real issues facing America, and the world today.
Important issues that need our immediate attention before we won't have to worry about any of it 'cause there'll be nothing left to worry ABOUT.

Gay marriage and abortion are NOT them.

A stick and a carrot

Jamie Walker

2 seconds ago

Ron Paul is THEIR carrot.
Are you Jack-ass enough to follow it?

Look at the caliber of people they have presented here.
Not a single one could muster enough people dumb enough to vote to allow one of them their finger on a nuclear trigger.

EXCEPT; Ron Paul, of course.

Sure, he has a couple of real bumps that would be hard for folks to take, but hey, he's talking about ending the wars.

Think about that for one minute......

A President Paul would have WHO, and WHAT, in the House and Senate to deal with?
WHICH of his policies are THE most likely to see through?

The end of the wars?
Who in Congress has been talking about that?
Not the Republicans.
Not very many Democrats either.

How likely is he to get the backing needed to retract the arms-sales race?

How about his other policies?

Deregulation of vast industries.
This one he will likely get traction on.
I imagine every district of Congress has a need for jobs, and what better way than to deregulate everything?

So yeah, we'll get some jobs back.
At what cost?
Only Gahd knows.

Then there's his policies on health care.....OR should I say LACK of health care policy?
OR, better yet, his lack of care about health care....and pensions..... and Federal disaster emergency funds....and Medicaid.....and Social Security.....and Medicare.....

Well, we'll just HAVE to sacrifice SOMEWHERE, right?
He'll get the traction he needs for this too.
They'll move the retirement age up to 72 cause, you know, people are living longer now, even as they poison us with our phood and fluoridate our water along with heavy-metal pollutants.

The pipeline will roll across the Great Plains. Covering a diversity of ecosystems, some farmland, some grazing, and some of it wildlife fly-overs, while it staggers South, over the Oglala Aquafier, THE source of fresh water for millions of people in several States, until finally reaching the Gulf of Mexico.
All of this is going to happen even though the one year old Keystone pipeline 1 (YES, as in the first 1) has had over 30 leaks since it went online.
A leak last year sent thousands of gallons of tar sands oil into the Kalamazoo River, near Lake Michigan.

I don't know about you but, I don't see a carrot....
....I smell a RAT!

Church sits by silently ...

The Church sits by silently ...

I am not angry as much as I am frustrated with trying to be civil to people who
do not deserve civility.
People who need the sharp point of a boot in their asses, not the gentle
guidance of a child, though they act very child-like.

There are times I want to point to someone and say "There you can see why Christians were so persecuted.
NOT because they believed in Jesus, but because they are tunnel visioned cock
roaches who think they have been given a divine connection to the earth's
creator.

There are millions of churches in this country, and they cannot keep their doors open unless someone is putting money into the collection basket each week; meaning that there must be MILLIONS AND MILLIONS of Christians in this country that attend church and who donate/tithe their money so that the church can continue God's work (I'm not including the millions who say they are christian but attend no church).
What are the Churches saying today about our morality concerning our killing of innocents in foreign lands?

...........SILENCE!

.....Oh wait, I CAN hear a couple of churches.
What are they saying?......
Obama is a Muslim and doesn't belong here?.......
He's making the world unsafe by withdrawing our troops from Iraq?.........
They want him to send in more troops to fight the Muslim extremists?.......

There are no political terrorists in the world and longer, they are all now HOLY terrorists.
They are attacking God's people to overturn God's will, and change the Western
christian world into Sharia law.
They're not angry at us for slaughtering their babies, they hate Jesus.

We sent a troop surge of 50,000 into Afghanistan within weeks of our own C.I.A.
saying there were "less than 100 Al-CIAduh" in the country.
50 thousand troops for LESS THAN 100 men.
We have KILLED 100 times more innocents with collateral damage than there were terrorists.

All of this war, that is either encouraged by some churches, or allowed to proceed in "complicity by silence" by others, creates chaos for the populace being attacked.

The warhawks are foaming at the mouth at the thought of us going to war with Iran.
WHY?

To do JESUS' WORK?

Who do you think would believe such a crock of bullshit?
It's about money and it always HAS been about riches for the conquerors and their accomplices.

Why do YOU think it is SO important to have a religious man as President of this
country?
To bring us "back to God"?
You have to know as well as anybody else does that that will NEVER, EVER happen.

And what would HAVE to happen to GET this country back to God's way?


They are pretending this is the crusades again, and the end-times are upon us so we have to fight for Jesus, as if WE can control the day he comes back by bring Armageddon upon ourselves.

It is about control of resources.

It is about digging more oil wells.

It is about fracking more grasslands

It is about cutting down more forests.

It is about mountain-top removal, and tar-coal sands and unrestricted corporate
control of resources, INCLUDING THE VERY FOOD SUPPLY,.... world-wide;.... at the
expense of whomever and whatever is in the way.