This book is a product of its time and does not reflect the same values as it would if it were written today. Parents might wish to discuss with their children how views on race, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, and interpersonal relations have changed since this book was written before allowing them to read this classic work.This is a disclaimer at the beginning of a book. Sounds pretty horrific.
What kind of book could this be? A Nazi manifesto? A testament from some fringe pervert group like NAMBLA? Perhaps it's from some opressive religious group?
No. It's at the beginning of a book on the US Constitution.
I saw this image on Glenn Beck's TV show last night, and was stunned. Good Lord, what is happening to this country? How can our founding document - the very basis of our form of government and way of life - be considered to be an extreme text?
We're screwed.
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Most of the Beck show was about a book called, "The Road To Serfdom". It's next on my non-fiction reading list.
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Here's a heads-up to anyone living in any large US city, but especially in the cities of Los Angeles or Oakland: If BART cop Johannes Mehserle is not found guilty of the first degree murder of BART rider Oscar Grant, there is going to be immediate, wide-spread violence.
Why? The cop is white and the alleged murder victim was black. His jury was just selected and there isn't a single black on the jury.
In a surprisingly quick selection process Tuesday, the prosecutor trying the case and Mehserle's defense attorney came to an agreement on a jury that includes seven white Los Angeles residents and what appears to be five Latinos.Forget that the "luck of the draw" only had 5 blacks in the jury pool. Forget that the defense attorney could have objected to the removal of those 5 blacks if he thought the removals were race-based. Forget that in a jury pool of 50 people, 5 of them being black roughly approximates the percentage of blacks in the LA Area.
In addition, at least four of the jurors have a connection to law enforcement, either by having police officers as friends or in their family or by having worked with law enforcement on neighborhood crime committees.
According to BlackDemographics.com, blacks make up approximately 7.8% of the Greater Los Angeles area -
So, that means blacks were actually OVER represented (at 10%) on the jury pool. I don't think I've seen that mentioned in the Main Stream Media... Surely, they're not implying that someone should be on the jury ONLY because they're black, are they?
It won't matter. If this guy is not found guilty of first degree murder, the top is going to blow. Oakland (where the alleged murder occured), Los Angeles (where the trial is being held) or any large US city are going to have rioting the likes not seen since the Rodney King verdict.
The rioting with that little mess lasted for 6 days.
The trial starts tomorrow and is expected to last up to a month. Early July should be interesting...
Accept The Challenge
So, what do you do about these two troubling items - a disclaimer for our Constitution and a highly-likely riot at the peak of summer?
If I had school-aged kids, I would not even consider sending them to public school. I'd either home school or find a reasonably priced private school. They would not be going to a public school, period.
I don't know what else you can do. Our public schools have simply become educational cesspools. Here in California, we have the highest per-student cost in the nation, and are something like 47th or 48th in performance.
Our system is broken, and no one in educational seats of power seem to care. Protecting jobs is more important than educating our children. Time to pull out of the game.
With regards to the trial, when you hear the jury is ready to deliver its verdict, under no circumstances should you be in any large city in America if at all possible. You're simply insane if you're in Oakland or LA.
See our previous posts on the subject, ("Unpredictable Violence"), ("Evacuation Plan, Part 3"), ("Shelter In Place") and ("Civil Unrest").
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It is obvious the shooting was an accident. I'm not trying to defend the officer but it was clear he didn't intend to fire the gun. Arguably he was incompetent in the way he controlled his weapon. The victim didn't deserve to die. But this is simply not a case of "murder" regardless of skin color of the two people involved.
ReplyDeleteChief,
ReplyDeleteAbout the time I started to hear people refer to the US Constitution as an "Antiquated Old Rag"... is when a little piece of me started to really worry for America.
What people may not realize (or maybe they do and just don't care) is that while we are spending our time debating who is the best QB of all time and if Brett Favre is coming back... or Who is going to win American Idol or what is going to happen on the next episode of Glee.... Our nation... Our precious nation is under attack... LIBERTY itself is being attacked. I don't even think people understand what Liberty is anymore. It's almost easier to explain to people what they have lost rather than to show them what they have, because honestly we have already fallen so far from the Republic that our Founding Fathers constructed.
I was brought up in a time when history and civics classes inspired patriotism and provided insight into the workings of government. I'll grant there were "omissions" and "distortions" that covered over certain "less than honorable" acts, conducted or authorized by the American government but, many of us were inspired to a strong sense of love of country.
ReplyDeleteSince the turnaround occurred, those covered over acts are being uncovered in a manner that inspires shame and loathing toward America. And many, in the generation preceding me, have absolutely no clue as to the role of government and the rights of the people to control it.
In short, they are being deliberately "dumb down" to believe, and systematically reinforced with "the government is all knowing, all powerful and we have no recourse". "Resistance is futile... therefore, we are the Borg."
As for guys like you and me, Chief; we have a real good grasp of what's going on. Problem is, the harder we try to "re-educate" folks, the more they resist us and cling tighter to the Borg umbilical.
Yes Sir, you are most correct. We are screwed.
MikeH.
Anon, from what I've seen (which may not be the whole story), it seems as though he made an inexcusable mistake by grabbing his firearm instead of his Taser. It appeared to me that he was intending to Taze the guy.
ReplyDeleteNot being a lawyer, it seems as though this is a case of involuntary manslaughter.
He took a life and needs to go to prison.
Montezuma, I don't even think people understand what Liberty is anymore.
Amen to that. Our schools produce a bunch of soft-skulled puddin' heads. The schools don't want our kids to understand what liberty is all about, because it might put scary thoughts into their heads. Ideas that would challenge the entire social structure, which is so anti-Constitutional it is stunning.
We get stuff like the disclaimer jammed into our kid's heads to undermine the legitimacy of the document.
Mike, great point. In our history, we've clearly made mistakes. But our form of government allows us to fix those mistakes. Slavery is the obvious glaring example.
Voting rights and prohibition are two other big ones. But they were fixed.
To denigrate and marginalize the Constitution - to dismiss it because it was written by men characterized as, "Rich, white, slave-owning women haters" makes my head want to explode.
I was taught the ideals behind the Constitution. The repulsion of tyranny. The belief that rights granted by a government can just as easily be revoked as they were granted. The belief that we are responsible for our own destiny as long as we don't trample on the freedoms of others.
Our kids are taught that paying your taxes is a patriotic duty. Gotta provide for The Hive. The Hive is what's important, not the individual bee.
Not in my world. But how to change things?