Justice

It is 50 years since the Civil rights Movement began to grow tall. But, 50 years later, despite Federal Laws, states are still denying voting rights to American Citizens and are even using underhand means to keep the minorities 'in their place'.

Terrorist organizations want the U.S. to be so frightened by them that the US elevates them by declaring war on them. Would the US declare war on an entity that wasn't challenging and threatening to the most powerful military nation in the world?

April 1969. Fire Base Diamond, Vietnam.  I was ordered to go outside the perimeter and set up a listening post facing the Cambodian border....

Self-proclaimed critics attempted to tie Michael Brown to the Gangsta Life of the rap songs and violence, concluding that a kid with no criminal record was no better than a thug. Perhaps these critics have forgotten about the past, when young children idolized the pirates of the 1700s, the cowboys of the 1800s Old West, and the gangsters, bank robbers and killers of the early 1900s for their criminal exploits.

Some studies have been done to determine the effectiveness of body cameras worn by police officers. Effects on police/community relations and the numbers of complaints by citizens, of excessive force used by police officers were two key factors in these studies.

Can we as citizens of this nation have an influence on policies that could help to alleviate some of the pain/strife that we see in this nation? Should we be trying to make this country/this world a better place or should we just be spectators?

"These ISIS guys, they won't be armed, right? I mean, we're seasoned Ferguson cops, we're used to dealing harshly with groups of unarmed enemies, we're great at that."

Apparently, revolution and guns are only good things when in the hands of white people. Can you imagine what would be happening in Ferguson, MO right now if those protesting over the murder of Michael Brown openly carried rifles and hand guns in their protests?

Ferguson, Missouri, is a majority-black city governed and policed mostly by whites. The mayor is white. The police chief is white. The police force is 94 percent white. Only one of its six city council members is black. Ferguson, with a 67 percent black population, seem to defy electoral logic.

The militarization of police forces has turned them from a philosophy of protecting and serving the community to responding to even minor situations en masse with armored vehicles, military gear and combat uniforms complete with helmets and gas masks and we see an America that only used to live in dark science fiction stories.