EYE understand the fear #AYearWithoutTamir #JordanDavis #EricGarner #MikeBrown #JFK

Timothy Loehman, who immediately killed #TamirRice on first sight, was never arrested or charged. #YearWithoutTamir pic.twitter.com/5rZmdQakL8

— Ava DuVernay (@AVAETC) November 22, 2015

EYE was in the second grade on 11.22.1963 when the principal announced over the intercom President Kennedy had been shot. I didn't find out he died until I got home. The days that followed were very sad, I remember feeling sorry for Carolyn, John John, and Jackie Kennedy. I also remember being  afraid for the leaders who tried to help African Americans. Sure enough, then came the assassinations of Martin Luther King,Jr, and Robert Kennedy . 

My ancestors lived through 400 years of torture/slavery, my generation lived through domestic terrorism/Jim Crow, my children are living through Trayvon Martin, Sean Bell, Oscar Grant, Jordan Russell Davis,Renisha McBride and other victims of senseless violence.

Just saying #BlackLivesMatter pic.twitter.com/2wDOnFJlwL

— Anon Trip (@Anontrip) November 23, 2015

First Donald Trump came for the Muslims

The GOP is at a crossroads that will define its party for years. They can nominate Trump, a man who has demonized American minority groups, or choose someone who truly embraces American values. But if Trump is the Republican presidential nominee in 2016, they will have made it clear to America that the Grand Old Party is no longer the party of Lincoln, but the party of hate.

You think? 

"I want them to see what they've done" Jacqueline Kennedy

I was in the second grade on 11.22.1963 when the principal  announced over the intercom  President Kennedy had been shot. I didn't find out he died until I got home. The days that followed were very sad, I remember feeling sorry for Carolyn, John John, and Jackie Kennedy. I also remember feeling scared for the leaders who tried to help African Americans.  Sure enough, then came the assassinations of Martin Luther King,Jr, and Robert Kennedy Jr. 

My ancestors lived through 400 years of torture/slavery,  my generation lived through domestic terrorism/Jim Crow,  my children are living through Trayvon Martin, Sean Bell, Oscar Grant, Jordan Russell Davis, Renisha McBride and other victims of senseless  violence.

In June 1963, President Kennedy promoted civil rights as the governor of Alabama blocked integration of the University of Alabama.

“Today, we are committed to a worldwide struggle to promote and protect the rights of all who wish to be free,” the president said in a speech. “And when Americans are sent to Vietnam or West Berlin, we do not ask for whites only.”

 Will we ever live in the land of liberty and justice for all, or is it just a slogan?  Time will tell the truth.

"Remembering the Legacy of A. Phillip Randolph on Labor Day"

the grio.com

 

“We are the advance guard of a massive moral revolution for jobs and freedom. This revolution reverberates throughout the land, touching every village where black men are segregated, oppressed and exploited,” the 74-year-old A. Philip Randolph told the estimated 250,000 people gathered at the Lincoln Memorial for the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom fifty years ago on August 28, 1963.

The idea for the March on Washington began in December 1940

A. Philip Randolph led the planning for a March on Washington that was slated to take place on July 1, 1941. When President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed an executive order banning military contractors from discriminating on the basis of “race, creed, color, or national origin,” Randolph called off the march — but the power of a black march on Washington was now a reality.

Labor Day Must Read(s)

Why I oppose military intervention in Syria

This is not about humanitarianism. It is about geopolitics and the control of natural resources. If Syria was not located in an oil rich region, there would be no calls for military action. Thousands of innocent civilians are dying in the Central Republic of Congo, Nigeria and many other countries around the world. Yet, the US does nothing. Clearly, this is not about protecting civilians.

Tavis Smiley:  Obama "Dishonoring" MKL's Memory with push for war in Syria

 “There’s the issue of violence. War, Dr. King would say were he here, is not the answer. We cannot worship at the altar of retaliation,” Smiley said. “It’s either non-violent co-existence or violent co-annihilation, Dr. King would say were he here.”

9 Cases That Prove We don't live in a Post Racial America

At the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington, speakers continually reminded us of how far we’ve come since the original march, but judging from just a few stories in the last 30 days, we haven’t come nearly as far as some seem to think.

GOP: it's all about slavery.  Update: Obama's Speech Today (Blast from the past)

This is Labor Day. Alan Grayson is up with a great offering, What Robert Kennedy Said.
But here's the bottom line: What the Republicans are fighting against, the reason they are pursuing a scorched earth policy that would rather see every last bit of progress in this country come to a grinding halt than give one inch to a government that might regulate them, is to ensure that what they have built over the past 30 years is never taken away.

Wishing all my readers, lurkers and commentators a safe and happy Labor Day.

Real Liberal Quotes from Real Liberals, for the Real Liberal Mind to Chew On

"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself"~President Franklin D. Roosevelt

Franklin D. Roosevelt had campaigned against Herbert Hoover in the 1932 presidential election by saying as little as possible about what he might do if elected. Through even the closest working relationships, none of the president-elect’s most intimate associates felt they knew him well, with the exception perhaps of his wife, Eleanor. The affable, witty Roosevelt used his great personal charm to keep most people at a distance. In campaign speeches, he favored a buoyant, optimistic, gently paternal tone spiced with humor. But his first inaugural address took on an unusually solemn, religious quality. And for good reason—by 1933 the depression had reached its depth. Roosevelt’s first inaugural address outlined in broad terms how he hoped to govern and reminded Americans that the nation’s “common difficulties” concerned “only material things.”

The problem of power is how to achieve its responsible use rather than its irresponsible and indulgent use — of how to get men of power to live for the public rather than off the public.~Senator Robert F. Kennedy

First is the danger of futility; the belief there is nothing one man or one woman can do against the enormous array of the world's ills — against misery and ignorance, injustice and violence. Yet many of the world's great movements, of thought and action, have flowed from the work of a single man. A young monk began the Protestant reformation, a young general extended an empire from Macedonia to the borders of the earth, and a young woman reclaimed the territory of France. It was a young Italian explorer who discovered the New World, and 32-year-old Thomas Jefferson who proclaimed that all men are created equal. "Give me a place to stand," said Archimedes, "and I will move the world." These men moved the world, and so can we all.

"Politics is about the improvement of people’s lives, lessening human suffering, advancing the causes of peace and justice in our country and the world… Politics is what we create out of what we do, what we hope for, what we dare to imagine."~
Senator Paul Wellstone 1944-2002

I remember how he stood his ground in an era during which the needs of average Americans were largely ignored while power and money became even more concentrated in already wealthy, powerful hands; how he fought for economic justice, for universal health care, for a higher minimum wage and prescription drug benefits under Medicare; how he always had time to listen; how he challenged us, asking in The Conscience of a Liberal, ”How can we live in the richest, most privileged country in the world and still hear from Republicans, and too many Democrats, that we cannot afford to provide a good education for every child, that we cannot afford to provide health security for all our citizens?”; how he expressed concern for the safety of Muslim Americans after the 9-11 attacks; how he set aside an hour a week to talk with his interns to stay in touch with their lives; how he relied on and frequently sought the advice of his # 1 campaigner, his wife Sheila, who died with him; how he chose to run again despite the onset of multiple sclerosis, relying on his bubbling spirit to pick up the slack while the money poured in from out of state conservatives who were determined to bring him down; and how he was winning despite the efforts of corporations like the big pharmaceuticals that blessed his opponent with $200,000 while giving Wellstone $900 and change. Paul Wellstone was outspent time and again, but he was a winner because he played no favorites and was never outworked. Senator Tom Harken, Paul’s best friend and comrade through many Senate battles, fought back tears to say it best: “Paul was hampered by a bad back, but he had a backbone made of steel!”

A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death. Martin Luther King, Jr., Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? 1967.

I believe it will end with a ruling of the 11th Circuit Court of
Appeals or a ruling of the U. S, Supreme Court. If this can happen to me, it can happen to mayors, congressman or presidents who appoint or take some action favorable to a contributor.

My conviction is anti-American in the sense politics must be funded and presidents who are elected appoint contributors as ambassadors, members of Congress vote in favor of issues that benefit contributors and governors appoint contributors to all kinds of positions. This is done every day in America, in every state and in Washington, DC.~Former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman

"I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired"~Fannie Lou Hammer

Fannie Lou Hamer, a Mississippi sharecropper, changed a nation's perspective on democracy.

Hamer became involved in the civil rights movement when she volunteered to attempt to register to vote in 1962. By then 45 years old and a mother, Hamer lost her job and continually risked her life because of her civil rights activism. Despite this and a brutal beating, Hamer spoke frequently to raise money for the movement, and helped organize the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, to challenge white domination of the Democratic Party. In 1964, the MDFP challenged the all-white Mississippi delegation to the Democratic Convention, and in l968, the Convention seated an integrated challenge delegation from Mississippi.

Deeply committed to improving life for poor minorities in her state, Hamer, working with the National Council of Negro Women and others, helped organize food cooperatives and other services. She continued political activities as well, helping to convene the National Women's Political Caucus in the 1970s. She is buried in her home town of Ruleville, Mississippi, where her tombstone reads, "I am sick and tired of being sick and tired."

"If you think Halloween is scary, don't vote on November 2nd and see how scary it will be"~Redeye