It's 2016, EYE am Back!

My annual mental health break is over and EYE am back, raring to go! First, EYE would like to wish my readers a Happy New Year!  It is my HOPE 2016 will be the year for CHANGE we can believe in. If EYE offended anyone in 2015 by Keeping it Real,  EYE apologize.  NOT.  It's only going to get worse in 2016. The first day of the January marks the last day of Kwanzaa. EYE will continue to keep my eyes on the prize, be a voice for the voiceless, refuse to be marginalized, minimized and undervalued, and, to speak my mind with passion, courage and Faith.  That said, let's get busy.

So much stuff happened while EYE was on break EYE don't know where to start.  Since EYE keep an EYE on the Reddest of the Red States let's with a year in review of Sweet Home Alabama, where football dominates, public education, jobs, environmental protection, ethics, and  quality of life for children,  not so much. 

Much Ado was made about the brawl between Birmingham Mayor William Bell and City Council Member Marcus Lundy.  The media tried to make them the poster boys for Scumbags  and incompetence (code for stupid), but EYE must remind them, this is what elected officials do in Alabama.... and, it's not just the African American elected officials.

So, while the white, EYE mean, right wing of the Alabama Democratic Party tried to pull a coupe on Joe Reed and his bunch so white folks could regain control of the party, Alabama republicans were dismantling the already pitiful public education system.  If democrats spent half as much time fighting republicans as they did Joe Reed and his bunch, maybe the state wouldn't be first in football and last in everything else. 

Who knew the reason white democrats stayed at home in 2010 was because they believed Obama hadn’t done enough so they decided to stay home to “punish” Obama for not being the Savior they thought they’d elected in 2008 and stuck all of us with GOP majorities in Congress).  If anyone should have stayed home in 2010 because Obama was not the Savior they thought they elected in 2008 it should have been African American democrats, but we didn't, because we don't have the luxury of not voting.  The right to vote is sacred to African Americans.  It's steeped in blood, sweat, tears, and sacrifice.  We can always be counted on to vote.  White democrats not so much.

African Americans vote even when we don't have anyone to vote FOR.  But that's going to change for me.  EYE will no longer vote a straight democratic ticket.  Just because someone is on the democratic ticket doesn't mean they are a democrat.  And no, an African American Pastor who moved to the state two years ago, who was an Independent (code for republican) before he was a democrat, whose deep personal belief is life begins at conception, and preserving second amendment rights  doesn't cut it. If EYE wanted a someone who shared his point of view EYE would be a republican.

Lot's more to talk about, stay tuned.

RedEye

Celebrating Kwanzaa 2013~ day 2: What's in a name?

 

The second principle of the Nguzo Saba is  Kujichagalia (pronounced koo-jee-chah-GOO-lee-ah) Self-Determination -To define ourselves, name ourselves, create for ourselves and speak for ourselves. 


What's in a name?  Ask the powers that be at  Huntsville City Schools.  In their haste to kill democracy and fairness the Huntsville City School Board of Education, under the ruthless command of Superintendent Casey WARdynski   declared

"From now on, this land will be ruled by the Tigers. We are, after all, the strongest, fastest and wisest of all animals. Therefore, we are the only fit rulers." they claimed.
A little mouse spoke up from the crowd, " But we have a council where we make our decisions together, we don't need or want any ruler." One of the tigers let out a roar so loud and fierce that the poor mouse started running and didn't stop until he was in the land of the humans. To this day, he lives in the houses of humans.

Despite petitions, marches, and protest the Huntsville City School BOE decided they are the rulers and the people be damned.  If the BOE spent half as much time trying to scheme their way out from under the federal desegregation order and furthering their political careers ensuring that ALL children  had equal access to a quality public school,  Huntsville would be One City One Vision  and companies would be begging to locate here.

Purposely withholding vital info from the people/community that will be affected is a nice nasty way of saying......"You are not valued as a person".......We know what is best for you, even though we need your tax dollars........We will do what we want in your community because we don't live in your community.

Slapping a new name on the outside of the school building won't change what's happening on the inside of the building.  The taxpayers have the right to self determination, instead they are being punished for it.

A proverb often quoted during Kwanzaa reads: “I am because we are; because we are, I am.” Harambee! (Let’s pull together!)

Happy Merry Everything to Everyone!

Celebrating and Living Kwanzaa: Sowing and Harvesting Seeds of Good

RedEye (get it?) would like to take this opportunity to wish you a happy, healthy, safe, holiday season. Postings will be light as RedEye takes time off to eat, drink and be merry with friends and family. Here are some must reads for you to read until  the RedEye returns.

Today Marks Two Months That Legal Schnauzer Rodger Shuler Has Been Unlawfully Jailed in Shelby County. 

"As Americans celebrate Christmas, I hope they will take a moment to realize their constitutional protections are rotting out from underneath them," Shuler said. "The prior restraint doctrine that grows from the first amendment and is supposed to protect my reporting in this case dates to 1780, and that predates the Lewis and Clark expedition. If our judiciary is so corrupt that it can't get simple constitutional law like this correct, then we are about to become more like Communist China that any of us care to admit."

Only in AmeriBama

Farewell to the "Most Hated White Man in the South"

  “Don’t ever go back to Birmingham. You’ll never be welcomed. You are a disgrace. You are the most hated white man in the south.”

You get the Twelve Months of Crazy you vote for.

No, 2013 really has made a name for itself in only one way. It was a year of general political incompetence, frothing buffoonery and self-made disasters. It was the year a chastened Republican Party did a lot of soul-searching as to why the voters no longer liked them, and followed it up by doing all of those same things twice over. We continued our tradition of not being able to accomplish even the most basic of legislative tasks; we were introduced to new battle lines declaring that however many children needed to be shot down in their classrooms, it was the price we were willing to pay for maintaining the collective white male gun erection; we saw the slow sinking of every last political savior into swamps of their own making.

What's that you say?  Better health care for blacks depends on the states?  I'm shocked!  Shocked I tell you!  Not.

 Of the 41.3 million uninsured Americans and legal U.S. residents, 16 percent are Black. African-Americans tend to be uninsured at a higher rate than other Americans, statistics show. While 16 percent of all non elderly U.S. citizens and other lawful residents are uninsured, 20 percent of eligible African-Americans lack health insurance.
Many of those uninsured live in Florida (677,000), Georgia (631,000), Texas (617,000), North Carolina (380,000) and New York (354,000).
But four of those five leading states – all except New York – do not plan to expand Medicaid, which advocates said is troubling as many African-Americans lack insurance because of meager incomes.

It's the Media that's making us stupid.

From Thomas Friedman, to Richard Cohen to Peggy Noonan and more. Here is Alex Pareene's worst of the worst.

The Poverty Rate in Alabama remains unchanged, seventh highest in U.S. but that's OK, at least Alabama is #1 in college football.  Snark

Ooops!  Black Male Dance Groups Stirs Controversy in Semmes Alabama Christmas Parade.

Dressed in red and white Santa sweaters and snug white shorts, the four young men performed a routine that entailed a combination of sharp thrusts, swaying and elaborate hip movements. Each member also sported pristine make-up.

Read on!  Read often!  Knowledge is power!