Civil Rights

I had the misfortune of watching Faux News yesterday in order to ascertain how the conservatives plan to defend the indefensible: The Killing of Freddie Gray. Many vicious, hateful accusations and talking points were spewed to justify the use of excessive force by police to "subdue" African-American males.

Instead of letting the GOP get away with trying to create an anti-identity based solely on what they oppose and want to repeal, it's a good time to recognize who they really are as a party and what they truly stand for.

"No matter which religion you belong to, as long as you study and follow the teachings of the Bible, you can be Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, any religion at all, all Arkansans are eligible for this tax credit," Davis stated.

Sure, people get away with lots of terrible things until they don't. And Mike Pence found that out to his utter shock. "Really? Americans don't like it when you make it legal to be bigoted as long as you hide behind 'religious beliefs'? Who woulda thunk that?"

I went to a church service last night on the anniversary of the Selma to Montgomery March at a small AME congregation. Mostly black, mostly middle class farmers. The minister, part time, as he is a farmer too, spoke passionately of the zeal of those protestors who stood up against injustice and of the cause that they lifted up. BUT, he also challenged the congregation to do more than just recall....

A lot of tough questions have to be addressed if we are to have a real conversation about race. And all of us have to face realities without excuses.

Roy Moore's resemblance to George Wallace is very striking. Both justified their hateful prejudices as moral and democratic imperatives, warned of terrible consequences from not sustaining their bigotry and both made sweeping, dictatorial-styled edicts.

Selma received nearly universal acclaim from film critics. It got tons of publicity. So where are the crowds? Well, I live in very conservative Missouri in an area where there are few blacks but "12 Years a Slave" did rather well here. It was made for $22 million and made $188 million. So???

President Obama will make his 2015 State of the Union speech tonight at 6:00pm PST and PlanetPOV will be hosting a Live Chat that will run simultaneously with his speech and the (now) three Republican rebuttals (known in some circles now as The Whiners Circle).

In a hot auditorium in Charleston, SC on July 30, 1977, I heard Dr. Martin Luther King declare: "I'm not gonna say, 'Burn baby burn'!" I'm gonna say "Build baby build!"