A Memorial For Yesterday's Children

It is just before dawn, and I can hear the first sounds of a few birds outside.

I am thinking of the yesterdays before 4/20, when a cataclysmic and preventable disaster struck the Gulf of Mexico. I am praying there will be tomorrows for God's other children in the oceans and skies - and us, for we are connected.

Sit back and enjoy the music and spectacular beauty in this post.

Al Gore's Voice & Barack's Sword

Al Gore, looking at a map of ocean currents

Help me, please. I spent years wondering where in the world is Carmen San Diego, and I'm having a here-we-go again moment with Al Gore's voice and Barack's sword. More about our Prez in a few moments.

Al is more famous among literate adults, having being Bill Clinton's VP, and running for President against George W. Bush, only to be cheated out of that election. Afterwards, he wowed the world with his book and documentary on global warming titled, An Inconvenient Truth.

So lately, I'm dealing with what may turn out to be an inconvenient truth of Al Gore's near-absence on the Gulf Oil Spill since that began on April 20, 2010.

Al Gore uses Twitter. On April 7th, he tweeted, "Another great post from Maggie Fox: http://bit.ly/dzp1qh #climate." This linked to his blog, were Gore did a copy 'n paste job of the commentator and partner he endorsed, Maggie Fox.

She wrote: "Expanded oil drilling will simply continue our reliance on dirty fossil fuels, while doing little to reduce our dependence on foreign oil. The President must now deliver a comprehensive plan for curbing carbon pollution so we can invest in the clean energy technologies we will need in the 21st century..."

Blah blah blah.

Dryly written stuff by well-paid white academia that bores the shit out of the general population, and is ignored by the media because it doesn't serve the desires of their avaricious, corporate masters.

The next day, The Hill ran an article titled, Oil Drilling Prompts Al Gore's First Public Split On Climate With President Obama.

The gist of that was, "The statement (Al's tweet, for God's sake) is significant because it marks Gore’s first break with Obama on his signature policy issue..."

Something is not right, and those WTF moments continued to roll through my soul.

I perused through his blog, "Al's Journal". For someone who writes so much about oil and carbon emissions, and climate change, if you go to "Edit" then "Find" on your Firefox browser, not one friggin' time did he pen the words "Gulf" or "spill" from the day of the disaster through the end of that month.

"Well," I thought, "maybe he got his bearings in May."

Again, I searched his May page. On the 7th, he did another brief journal entry, No Fooling Mother Nature, and said, "Tom Friedman publishes another great column in The New York Times..." with a link to TF's article of the same title.

On May 8, he directed his blog readers to an article he did for The New Republic article, "The Crisis Comes Ashore". It was so short I could have made a cup a coffee in the amount of time he must have spent writing it.

Finally, something found, from google searching - not his blog.

On May 17, Al Gore spoke at the Panetta Institute in a lecture, Saving A Planet That Sustains Us.

Gore said of BP:

"I respect a lot of the folks at BP... but ladies and gentlemen, I know a cover up when I see one."



direct video link
Also, here's a YouTube link w/o the commercial
but embedding is disabled.

Whoa!

I leaned into my chair, waiting... and waiting... in vain. He ain't said nothing beyond that, at least in the video, his site, or any thing that I could find on the World Wide Web.

As he left Panetta, a mob of 75 to 100 global warming deniers waited for him and chanted outside. This is typical; they're the small, nuisance crowds. A a few hundred years ago they were the ignorant loudmouths who hated science and believed that the earth was flat, or were paid to lie to support of those in charge.

What is also amazing about that moment caught on film is how it's gotten about zero publicity. The news station who ran the clip has it so that the video can't be embedded. The stories about his lecture at Panetta focus on the protesters afterwards, and either didn't know about or sanitized his suspicion of cover up.

I particularly found it odd that Gore, a Nobel Prize winner on climate change, made no mention in his own journal of his lecture at the Panetta Institute, or more detailed thoughts of BP, and has otherwise been publicly silent about our planet having a stroke.

Surely Al Gore knows what I painfully figured out all by myself and posted about on 5/19: that the oil and toxic dispersants will find their way from the Gulf Loop to the ocean's freeway known as the Ocean Conveyor Belt. It will wreak barely imaginable havoc on Mother Earth. Short of Divine Intervention, we are fucked.

I ain't even wrote in super specific details how fucked I think we are, it's too painful. Maybe that's been Gore's problem too.

Al Gore is the man who won the 2000 Presidential election by popular vote (50,999,897 to Bush's 50,456,002), but lost through what many consider theft by two states and particularly Florida.

How different the world might be now... probably no wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and perhaps stronger regulations put in place which if implemented because that was Al Gore's thang. This would have prevented off shore drilling - and this catastrophe going on now in the Gulf of Mexico.

I wonder if Al Gore looses sleep over not fighting harder for what he won, but was stolen from him - and us - in November 2000.



Perhaps it's a different lesson he learned the hard way of who is really in charge of this nation.

I no longer believe it's democracy or even our current President. Under his directive and the EPA, they were blown off by by BP when told not to use the toxic oil dispersant, Corexit which is banned in the UK. Can you imagine? These bitches treated the order as though this were a suggestion.

I hope Al Gore finds the courage to join the conversation he's been ducking, and do so with passion, like Rep. Charlie Melancon, who cried during a hearing last week, and James Carville and Bobby Jindall with CNN's Anderson Cooper at the sites of the oil disaster in Louisiana.

The world desperately needs more well-known and credible voices like Al's to raise fucking hell.


This goes for Barack too. Realistically, and after spending a huge amount of time this month studying the major and minor players in this deadly game, his role is a delicate as the Gulf of Mexico itself, and may not last as long no matter what he does.

In terms a child can understand, this could be a mega-battle of good vs. evil, if only good will pick up their weapons, and be willing to die for the cause.

Thus, in the end, for the political careers, safety, and lives of those public figures we look up to, it may come down to how they want what's left of history to remember them.





Rep. Melancon breaks down and cries
at a subcommittee hearing over disaster



Anderson Cooper interviews Bobby Jindal this week.
They note (at 3:18) they are under surveillance by air. BP's goons?



Anderson Cooper interviews a very emotional
and impassioned James Carville this week.

Troops At The Border: Are They There To Keep Them Out Or Us In?

Barack Obama ordered 1200 National Guardsmen at the US-Mexican border. John McCain wants 6,000. Other GOP members want more.

Considering that our problems are so great and that the world is like a lit fuse getting shorter by the week, what will happen if WW3 is triggered?

No, not from a sealed border, but from other events. North Korea and South Korea are a time bomb. Barack and Hillary are pushing a reluctant China to put North Korea in check.

Hell, we owe a fortune to China. Why would they get in the middle of a new Korean war to fight on behalf of our interests?

To save the dollar? Possibly, but I think not, because we're flat azz broke, and unlike them, produce little in the way of tangible goods to earn money. We are a nation of consumers and spendthrifts.

For oil deals with Iran and Iraq? Maybe, since they have invested billions in Iran's energy programs. However, if they can nudge us out of the way, they'd save a bundle, and geographically, they're closer to the oil fields.

No, they might think hard about playing peace maker with the Koreans since a war with them could go nuclear and tie up their manpower and resources.

And speaking of oil, a bad hurricane season will spread the oil and dispersants far and wide. This will undoubtedly put a strain on US relations with affected countries whose seafood industry will be damaged.

Then there are the Russians. We've been quite busy this century surrounding their country with our 2nd level allies. Patriot missiles arrived in Poland this week and will be pointing at the Ruskies, who also have huge investments with Iran.

And last month, Barack said we were "weeks away" from placing sanctions on Iran. I guess he dismissed their leader saying long ago this would be considered an "act of war".

In the middle of all this, we're right smack dab in two wars. Number of soldiers: 92,000 in Iraq, 94,000 in Afghanistan. Cost since the wars began: $1 Trillion Dollars. Number Americans reported killed as of today: 5,456. Double or triple this for the number of serious disabilities and suicides by service men and women.

There is also now a highly secretive, "systematic and long term" cladesdine war program authorized by General Petraeus. Oddly, he did not need the President's approval for this. It includes sending drones to bomb Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia at a huge cost of life to civilians there, and any good will toward us.

We are in a major "recession". All this looks and feels like the Great Depression II and a prelude to bigger wars to me. The last time this kind of shit happened, WWII was the remedy - and for the Nazis, mass exterminations the solution for Jews, and for the US, internment camps for the Japanese before they nuked Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

So this brings me to troops at the border. All it would take is for one mushroom cloud over one American city, and within hours folks would running like roaches for the Mexican and Canadian borders.

Canadian border spots are already tight as a drum: Bush & Co, the greatest warmongers in recent times, ensured that you need a passport to enter. Not true for Mexico.

The official story is troops are being placed there to keep out illegal aliens.

What if the real deal by the powers that be is they anticipate a major war on American soil, and they don't want us abandoning our country - particularly men eligible for a new draft?

So I ask you again, will the troops be guarding the US-Mexican border to keep them out, or to keep us in?

Pesticides Now Strongly Linked To ADHD. Thus, What Can We Expect From The Oil Disperants Used In The Gulf Of Mexico?

Can't sit still or focus? How about your significant other, BFF, or child? In some of these cases, pesticides in the food, house, yard, and elsewhere might be the culprit.

In a recent U.S. study, "researchers tracked the pesticides' breakdown products in children's urine and found those with high levels were almost twice as likely to develop ADHD as those with undetectable levels."

This shouldn't be a surprise since pesticides and many chemicals are toxic to the nervous system. When you add in the problems from processed foods, it's like the odds for being healthy and normal is stacked against us.

Maybe you've noticed like have that ADHD (Attention Deficient Hyperactivity Disorder) is a miserable condition, both for the person who has it and the ones who have to live with them or work with.

They can be fun at times since they're so spontaneous, but can also drive you nuts because they're often forgetful, speak and act before thinking, and are more accident prone. Impulsiveness tends to impair judgment.

They get bored easily. The temper tantrums of quite a few of these kids are unforgettable, although not all have that problem. Except for the most determined or the brightest, many do not finish school, so their ability to get or keep jobs are diminished.

Special education classes, the juvenile system and the jails are filled with kids and adults with ADHD, not necessarily because they're stupid, but because they can't concentrate, and get into all kinds of trouble. In the UK, 20% of kids suspended from school have the disorder. A quarter to 67% of inmates are thought to have ADHD.

Girls and women with ADHD may not be as antsy in general, but they're less likely to do well in school or go to college. More of them have eating disorders and serious weight problems. Sounds like a lot of young white women I see and know who were working for slave wages long before the economy crashed. Whether this is the result of a lifelong diet of processed foods, ADHD, both, or not being ambitious is anyone's guess. Black women too, but we also have the deck of discrimination stacked against us.

This new info about the link between pesticides and ADHD makes me wonder how the toxic chemicals that are unnecessarily and currently being dumped into the Gulf of Mexico will affect even more unborn and young children.

On the other hand, in the long term, maybe it won't even matter. I've been researching oil dispersants day and night. What I have learned is grim, so grim that I haven't been able to pull it together to write more about this cataclysmic event going on, and how the problem is being compounded by the usual suspects.

Meanwhile, I consider my ADHD and mood disordered son. I shake my head in sorrow, thinking of the possibility for so many more damaged people like him in the next generation...

How Our Hair Can Save The World Soaking Up Oil In the Gulf

Nobody's hair soaks up oil like black folks hair. Wild and woolly, turns out our hair can save the oil-soaked Gulf of Mexico, and if you read my last two posts, maybe the planet.

Not just our hair either, but all types of hair, fur, and nylons.

This video shows a group called MatterOfTrust.org doing what has to be one of the potentially greatest deeds on the planet. They are collecting what we don't want and stuffing it into nets. so it can be used to make "hairbooms". Hairbooms absorb the overwhelming majority of the oil as shown in this fascinating video.

Seriously, it's good, and it's fun:



Hat Tip: 24-7 Grimey News Cafe


These are what hairbooms looks like:






Here are some of the places they come from:











In their 'About' section, MatterOfTrust.org "was conceived in 1998, by Lisa Craig Gautier and her husband, Patrice Olivier Gautier (Vice President, iTunes Store & iPhones Apps Store Engineering, Apple, Inc.) this nonprofit received 501 (c) 3 public charity status in May of 1999."

That's Lisa Gautier on your far right,
in the "Hairy Situation Room


Filmed by a bro from CBS News



Receiving and distribution warehouses are in many areas, so please do not mail your hair or pet fur to their main San Francisco office!






So folks, tell your barber and beautician collect and mail all that hair they sweep up each day. Offer to help out. Hair doesn't weigh much, so it shouldn't cost much to mail it and is tax deductible since it's a donation to a 501 (c) charity. Their instructions are here, but you (individuals, salons, and businesses) will need to sign up here and will be told where to mail it.




There are visible minority folks in the pictures, and they all look and sound like a wonderful group of people. I'm sure they'd love our help. Sometimes I think that when we don't see any or enough other minorities in volunteer groups, we feel apprehensive about joining out of fear of rejection. This occasionally happens in some places, and it only takes one hater in the group for us to say eff it; been through it myself once.

However, this catastrophe is too important to allow any fears get in the way. Blog about it. If nothing else, print this post or the contact info for Matter of Trust, and please pass it along to your barbershop, beauty salon, or dog groomer. Even the military barber, 'cause I'm sure them boyz have enough hair to soak up a lot of oil.


Insert your fine or adorable self here
as one doing their part to save the world.

Maybe the mainstream propaganda media will get the hint that the hairboom option can no longer be minimized or omitted from their news stories. Call and write your Congressperson about using hairbooms instead of those toxic chemicals BP & their couldn't-give-a-fvck, profiteering cronies are doing.


Maybe we can even convince President Barack Obama to donate some of his hair.





I figure that's one way to know where he or any other politician really stands on the safest way to protect the environment, versus using expensive and toxic chemical dispersants that will make certain corporations richer. Man, wouldn't you love to see Rachel Maddow ask that to all those corporate for hire politicians in her interviews? Heh-heh.

I'm currently doing some investigative work on a related side to this story. So far what I've discovered is chilling, and I'll share it with you in my next post.

Some Of Mother Earth's Terrorists Are Oil Executives, Who Are Screwing With The Global Ocean Conveyor Belt

Humanity, or the few in charge who pass for humans, have unwittingly screwed around with the Thermohaline Circulation of the all the oceans.

This is sometimes called the

• Ocean Conveyor Belt,
• The Great Ocean Conveyor, or
• The Global Conveyor Belt.

Link: How Stuff Works: Ocean Currents

It maintains the world's temperatures, and was a major part of the dynamics in the last Ice Age and Mini Ice Age.

When the "saltiness" or salinity of the ocean waters become disrupted, the great conveyor belt is affected. As I see it, the density of the oil and the ph balance of the chemicals can't help but affect this.

I learned about this belt which dictates our weather and climate nearly ten years ago while reading about global warming and the ice ages. It's the reason the temperature is similar in Washington DC and London, even though the latter is much further to the north.

When I learned three weeks ago of this oil "spill", I was upset nearly beyond words, but as it continues, I have the worse sense of dread.

I'm no expert, and haven't read a thing yet about how this catastrophe might slow or shut down the ocean conveyor belt, only that it could spread oil and toxins beyond the Gulf of Mexico. However, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to consider the enormous possibility of it slowing down or coming to halt - which would throw many parts of this country and the world into a new mini- or full Ice Age.

Hang onto to that thought, and I'll return to it in a moment.





This little piggy is the Chief Executive for BP Oil, and his name is Tony Hayward.








You'd think he'd be on the verge of a nervous breakdown and crying over this:















Not by a longshot. Despite death threats, this pampered-looking man with soft hands says "he's sleeping well these days..."

That statement alone is infuriating.

The Forbes interviewer who met with him described him as "looking fresh, almost relaxed in his makeshift corner office at BP's emergency response center in Houston," and said "Hayward insists the company has been "extraordinarily successful."

In its response to the spill, "Hayward gropes for an upside," and says, "Deepwater drilling will be transformed by this event. If we can win the hearts and minds of the communities that are impacted, then we have the potential to enhance our reputation rather than have it damaged."

Keep dreaming, bitch.

September 10, 2001, was America's last day of being oblivious to what terrorism feels like or worrying about the spread of wars in the Middle East.

If the Gulf of Mexico inhabitants could express themselves, they'd tell us they feel the same way about April 19th of this year, because the day after, 4/20/10, they have been terrorized and are dying at holocaust levels from a far worse catastrophe.

No, the most affected citizens who try to planet with us are not humans - not yet anyway. They are the birds and ocean life who depend on or live in the sea, and there are billions of them, from microscopic plants to dolphins, shellfish, fish, and birds - more than you can name.

And what's one of BP's solutions?

They are "using two products from a line of dispersants called Corexit, which EPA data appears to show is more toxic and less effective on South Louisiana crude than other available dispersants."

These products were banned for oil cleanups in the UK over a decade ago because they are toxic - to humans.

Worse, "scientists have discovered giant plumes of dispersed oil in the deep waters of the Gulf, though the EPA has said “there is no information currently available to link the dispersants to those deep-sea plumes. The plumes are now fast approaching the Gulf loop current, which could spread the oil into the Atlantic Ocean."

The next two images show the ocean temperature in the gulf, with an outline of the oil spill overlaid. The dark red bulb directly below the spill is the loop current; above it is the cooler and less distinct cyclone.

“It’s highly visible in our imagery,” said Nan Walker, an oceanographer with the Earth Scan Laboratory at Louisiana State University, where a separate analysis of the satellite images is being done. “It’s unmistakable. And oil spills, to my mind, aren’t usually that easy to track.”

The following image shows the spill on Monday, May 17, with a long tongue of oil snaking out to sea:


link





This next photo is from two weeks ago, May 6-7, showing the "spill" in relation to the Gulf loop current.





Once again, take a good, hard look at the thermohaline circulation in this map below of the Global/Ocean Conveyor Belt:


Link: How Stuff Works: Ocean Currents

As you see, what happens in the Gulf doesn't stay in the Gulf. It ain't like your weekend in Las Vegas.

I am dead certain that the cheap bastards running BP understand this. I don't think they give a shit. They are dumping chemical dispersants in the Gulf, and I understand what they most hope to save - things with a dollar value attached to it - but they are literally taking an all or nothing gamble with the entire planet.




I don't have enough nasty names or labels to call the people who made this disaster possible, or who work for or support them in some way, shape or form, and I'll be surprised if any of them see a day in jail, so the best thing I can say publicly is I hope they get the hottest seats in hell.

The Planet Is Having A Stroke How Soon Will We Be Crying Tears Of Oil?

When you think of the earth as a living thing, it is having a stroke. With the Gulf Oil Catastrophe, instead of blood leaking into places where it should not be, the fluid is oil.

How is this any different from that of a person or animal? A stroke incident is serious. Parts of tissue dies, and it is often fatal.

I'm guessing that it won't be long before people from Texas to Florida, Cuba, and the eastern coast of Mexico, will smell the stench of the dead. Just look at a map and the affected areas. Trillions of lives lost, algae and other sea plant life, fish, sea turtles, dolphins, octopuses, and birds.

Rotting away in a watery mass grave.

One of the strategies has been to add a chemical dispersant to the water. The problem with this is it keeps oxygen out of it. Ocean life needs that to breath. The problem is compounded.

And then I think of the dynamics of rain.

Moisture rises from oceans, forms clouds, which make rain. What will the rain be like in those areas a month or three months from now?

Will it rain oil?

Will people find clumps of tar on their cars and roofs?

How will the chemicals and oil residue in the rain affect agriculture? Will Florida oranges begin to smell and taste funny? Is our food production imperiled?

What happens to all the inland animals that eat the plants which soak up the rain? Most of us eat animals, and if they're contaminated, how will that affect our health?

Our fresh water reservoirs are refreshed by rain. This is the water we drink. How can it not be affected?

Just thinking of hurricane season - which is all about rain and wind - makes me unbearably sad, and nervous for the near and far future. I live in the DC area, but when a hurricane is powerful enough in the south, often a few days later it's windy and rainy up here. I'm no expert, but my intuition screams at me that this can't possibly be good under the circumstances.

I think the broadcast news media isn't covering this story as non-stop as they should, not only because of corporate interests, but because it frightens and pains them too on a primitive, fear-of-death level.

I have barely been able to read or write this about myself. Most of the times when I've tried in the past three weeks, I felt paralyzed. It's like looking at the sun, you know it's there, but it's too painful to stare at directly. Unlike the sun, however, this is a catastrophe that brings death, not life.

Albert Einstein once said, “Problems cannot be solved by the same level of thinking that created them.”

If this planetary stroke cannot be stopped soon by the greatest minds in the world, we may all be crying tears of oil later, and maybe sooner than later.


*******************



Be sure to use the slider under the "Adjust Leak Rate"



You can get the embed code here.

Guest Post: Let's Talk About That Dating Thang

I don't know if y'all forgot I have a fairly new blog, or if it's because I changed the web address and modified the name (call it blog growing pains), but I'm running a fantastic guest post there thru early Sunday afternoon. Click on the link below and show Black Girl In Maine some blogger love by leaving her a comment, okay?

Letters To A Young Person Of Color

Ramen Noodles For Brains

Reason #139 why your adult child should not live at home, or at least why you shouldn't ever buy him a video camera:



Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher (D), is running for Senate.
On this night, he is minding his business and working
shortly after midnight in his home. He is shirtless,
and surprise-surprise, is being video taped,
and then interviewed by his son.


And the little prick has the nerve to ask at the start of video, "What could my father be doing now?"



Reason #1039 why the GOP sucks ass and will never be anybody's "Moral Majority":


GOP attack ad,
twisting and inventing shit, as usual.


Those two videos seen together, however, are hilarious. As for Fisher's son, if I had the brute strength of a father and I was his dad, the ER docs would be trying to remove that video camera from his azz.

And I thought my son was bad... Well, I can't lie, he is.

I don't know Lil' Fisher, but mine must have been watching the clock for Mother's Day to end. I woke up from either noise or smoke a few minutes after midnight, and the lil' ninja was having a mini-party in the living room, and burned up a pot of Ramen noodles.

I can't tell you how much I wanted to yell at him - and he knew it - but the loony landlord was in the basement, and that's one dragon who never needs to be awakened.

So I whispered, "Get those mofos outta here now!"

He's the last ninja who should drink because it doesn't mix well with his mood disorder, and his halfway drunk azz thought it was funny.

I didn't.

Smoking up the kitchen: strike one.
Having company over after 9PM and the kind of company he had: strike two.
Boozing: strike three.

Problem though - how in the heck was I to do a you're out, mah'fucka, when I couldn't?

Instead, I whispered, "Ssshh! You'll wake up the landlord!"

Ever the salesman, he tries to cut a deal, saying, "We'll be real quiet if they can stay."

"Oh hell no!", I whispered furiously.

He thought that was funny, too, while I worried about the fire-breathing dragon in the dungeon.

I suppose Lil' Fisher and his buddy were cracking up, too, when they ambushed Fisher's poor shirtless father and then uploaded the video to YouTube. Now poor Mr. Fisher has his own fire-breathing dragons on his azz and may lose a shot a good job.

Been there, done that.

Wish I could end the story there, but that night continued to be surreal. No sooner had I kicked Xavier and his buddies out of the house for the night, we could hear the Fire Department engines screaming. I thought a neighbor had called over the smoke from my place.

Next thing ya know, they're rolling down my street and I'm muttering, oh shit, my landlord is gonna go psycho.

Well, no, I got lucky, but not the house a few doors down.

Their sweetheart of a son was smoking in the car and must have dropped his cigarette... or whatevah. And engine fire my azz; the entire vehicle was flames - the kind of flames that were shooting up as high as the second story to their house.

Too bad it was parked in their driveway right next to it.

And what was my lil' moron and his homies doing? Standing across the street, laughing, while one of them was video taping the shit on his cell phone camera. Tell me, has being entertained at stupidity and destruction always been national pastime, or is it now simply more obvious due to our technology? And how come it didn't dawn on my son that this could have been our friggin' house?

I can just picture the back page headlines now:

Ramen Noodle Eating Ninja Burns Down House,
While Landlord Beats Mother
And Stomps Yapping Poodle To Death

Moral of the story: Who needs enemies when ya got family?

Well, at least my son's shit didn't technically happen until after Mother's Day.

I reminded myself of this yesterday, after my daughter snitched that she caught him trying to "borrow" my car to drive his girlfriend home. Yes, the girlfriend he helped flunk out of her 12th grade year. I found this out last week by accident when he was talking to her crying azz on the phone.

Does he take any responsibility for that either? No.

Xavier really got mad when he overheard me saying this on the phone to a relative that soon enough, maybe he'll be part of her family, 'cause I'm still praying for that full time job and enough money to get the hell out of Dodge.

He said indignantly, "You cannot put that on me! It was her choice to spend time with me instead of going to classes."

This relative, who is also a therapist, could hear his response, and burst out laughing. "That's good," he said.

This made me laugh.

"What's so funny?", Xavier complained with innocence as fake as his indignity.

I relayed the message. Saint Xavier ain't really stupid, and he got that, then got all huffy.

Sheesh.

Parents, this is the risk of what you get when your oppositional-defiant kid spends entirely too much time in therapy during their childhood. They learn how to say all the right things, which amounts to bullshit. I swear, he'd be dangerous if he had the education and connections to work on Wall Street.

By me talking about how he could go live with his girlfriend's family, Xavier suddenly remembered that I have an escape plan. I could tell, 'cause that's when he returned with The Usual Lie, followed by The Suck Up.

"Ma, I did not steal your car."

Somehow, I had a flash back of Bill Clinton saying, "I did not have sex with that woman."

I had to keep from laughing. I said, "You got caught, nigga, you busted."

"Casey's lying!"

I looked at him with that I ain't stupid look and said, "Xavier, haven't you learned by now that when you're caught, the correct thing to do is to apologize?"

"I didn't do that. She just hates me. She's jealous."

"Maybe she hates the idea of you effing up my car and it getting impounded 'cause you ain't got a drivers license and probably had a joint on you."

"Well, if you're so sure I did it, why don't you kick me out?"

"Leave anytime."

"You're just scared I'll break up something or try to commit suicide."

"Ain't like you haven't done that before."

He leaves, and returns 15 or so minutes later.

"I apologize."

"It ain't sincere."

"I need your help."

"Heard this before."

"What should I do?"

He ain't gonna leave my room until I bite the bait.

"You really want to know, Xavier?"

He nods, and I know it's a game, but I tell him anyway.

"The truth needs few words," I say, "and I have three for you. Follow them consistently and everything else will fall into place."

I took a long pause. He waited.

"Stop. Being. Selfish."

He feigned deep reflection for the rest of the evening. Oh, but he's good. I wonder how my son, and the youth a few houses down who burned up his parent's car, and Fisher's son would get along as roommates?

Stranger things have happened, and if it does, I'll send them a case of Ramen Noodles.

My Sunlight From Heaven

I was feeling pretty sentimental this morning and wrote a post to my late mother for Mother's Day, which is also the same approximate time as her birthday. I replaced it a few minutes ago this evening with this one, feeling maybe it was too mushy and personal for this blog.

It's a mixed bag for me, this time of year. I miss my own mother, yet at the same time, enjoy the extra attention from my children.

Anyway, on beautiful days like today has been, I think she isn't gone; I see my mother in the rays of the sun, shining down on me.

Cheers to those who are our biological or adoptive mothers, who sacrificed and acted toward us in a loving maternal role, and for those no longer here on Earth, leaving us with memories as warm as sunlight from heaven.

Passing Out Awards

I was pleasantly surprised to receive The Beautiful Blogger Award from Miz Represent of the Miz's Write For Life blog. Now I get to pass along several of these awards, which I've placed in alphabetical order. There is something unique in their perspective that I enjoy.




Abagond

Most of you are familiar with his regular blog, but have you seen his new one on Tumblr? It rocks.

Black Girl In Maine

Here's a sista with a clear-eyed view and is fun to read. I can't count the times she has been inside my head.

Cup of Joe Powell

One of my latest discoveries. I really like his perspective.

Diamond Dust and The Outlook

A. Smith is another intelligent blogger, and she has a mix of new and interesting personal stories and commentaries.

La Bella Vita

La is hands down one of the best writers in Blog Land. If she ever does a book, I want mine autographed. Her archives are amazing too.

Mason Says

Okay, he doesn't need this award, but if you haven't read him, you should.

Maybe So, Maybe No

Brownbelle... Now here's a sista with her head on straight.

Nu Vision For A Nu Day

I feel like I know Angela. Life's view from a wonderful, visually impaired sista who will teach you some things you didn't know.

[Other] Womyn-ism

Livication is political and on point.

Raving Black Lunatic

Brown Man, another brotha who writes current events and puts a smile on my face.

The Intersection of Madness & Reality

Most of you already know Rippa. He does political and news satire, and is a genius at this.

This Side Of The Wall

Another new find. Britni is the wife of a prisoner, and reveals what this life is like.

Thought Swirl

If you like to read what the globalists are up to, Jay Midnight recently began this blog to tell you. BTW, I contribute to it occasionally.

Ugly Black John

John has the feel of an awesome teacher in many of his posts, and tosses out tidbits of knowledge on a huge variety of things.

********************

As customary, recipients can post the award pic on their blog, write a little about themselves, and pass this one along to others if they so desire. So, here goes for me:

~ I like to write essays about things that can be read years later and still be enjoyed. I also like writing news commentaries and political satire.

~ If I'm writing a post and start to get bored, I figure it will bore the reader so I scrap it. One the other hand, I have written a few posts that I knew would make the eyes of most readers glaze over (like this one), but the idea excited me because it connects with so many different human problems that I had to share it.

~ I love to connect with others; to learn, teach, share, and try new things. Keeping a sense of humor about it all and life in general makes the journey more interesting and fun, and helps soften disappointments.


Well, I don't want to drag this out as I'm sure many of you want to check out the blogs listed above.

Heal Or Die: The Challenge To That Diseased Place On The Map

America's next revolution will be to vomit out the toxic racists who are struggling to take down the President and maintain white privilege.

Let's explore toxicity for a moment. When you ingest something toxic, your body shifts into survival mode. If it recognizes the danger in time, it vomits or craps out whatever is making you sick. If it doesn't, it absorbs the poison. The severity will determine whether you recover, are left in a permanently weaker state, or will die.

Now think of the culture, subculture, and nation you live it as a body. You are part of it whether like it or not.

Social toxins have always been around, particularly class issues and tribalism, aka racism, sexism, religious discrimination and other forms of bigotry. This body we live in has been feeding off various poisons since this nation was founded. It vomited up a lot of it after the Civil War when the slave holders were forced to free their hostages, when Women's Suffrage took place and men were forced to allow them the right to vote, and during the Civil Rights movement, which cleaned up a lot of the injustice left over from the Civil War.

Since a black man was elected to the White House, a huge number of whites have lost their damned minds. Their numbers are smaller than the majority of whites who made Barack's election possible, but the size of this tribe runs into tens of millions. Through medias like Fox News and Rush Limbaugh, and the Party of No, they are as determined as tuberculosis, cancer, or the HIV virus to spread and consume the entire body.

Those are stupid diseases, by the way, because unlike most others, they kill the host.

"Give me your tired, your poor,
your huddled masses yearning to breathe free..."

-Inscription on the Statue of Liberty

We haven't heard that saying in eons, and I think it's because the nation is so ill.

The infected whites and their equally infected, but far fewer in number of black and Latino sellouts conservatives, are oblivious that they are the disease. They actually believe they are the healthy ones. This nation has never fully vomited or crapped them out.

They continue to hijack political parties and media outlets, and recruit and train others how to hate on the healthy parts of the body and soul of this nation, which no thanks to them, has become very, very sick.

The sickest event this weekend was their drunken-like glee over a what so far is an unproved rumor that the President had an affair in 2004 with an intern.

Millions of racists have literally been praying that it's true and even began celebrating ahead of time.

They're the same ones who were glued to the TV and cheering when Bush carpet bombed the entire city of Baghdad - which wouldn't have been done if the city's residents were white, blue eyed and blonde haired. It is they who shrugged when told the WMD story was a lie, and yawned when told that over one million innocent Iraqis have been killed. They have an oh well attitude, and/or snicker over the death of 2,000 mostly black Hurricane Katrina victims and thousands more left to suffer for six days before getting help - yet get all bent out of shape over the 3,000 mostly white professionals who died in 9/11.

Funny thing is, half these white American peasants who hate are so ignorant that they couldn't get a job in the old World Trade Center if their lives depended on it. Now they're getting mental hard-ons at the possibility that our black President bedded down a woman who isn't his wife. They not only get a rush from this, but because they just know that with the help of the mostly racist GOP and fake news, they can get his black azz impeached. They're cut of the same cloth, I think, of the ones during slavery, who'd castrate and lynch a black man who dared to be, and they'd party afterwards.

The diseased ones have been dying to take out our Commander In Chief by any means possible, or cheering on those who are and will do the dirty work, from assassination to character assassination for the simple reason that he is not white.

This mob rarely fights on the grounds of well-thought out policy, which a thinking, non-racist person could respect. No, their #1 agenda is maintaining the illusion that white is superior, and this blinds most of them to legitimate liberal, middle or the road, or conservative concerns of all citizens.

Despite Obama's strength of inclusiveness - that oddly has become his greatest weakness because he tries too hard to compromise for the sake of bipartisanship with the increasingly insane, racist GOP, and rarely acknowledges the haters - they fear he is the antidote to white privilege.

Yes, they believe that if they can accomplish destroying him, the disease process of racism and xenophobia as business as usual will be back on track. They're like a human body that is sick but rejects good medicine.

Should the story of adultery be true and he is run out of office, I predict a greater crime wave by the dis-empowered, frustrated young blacks who have been marginalized and had unemployment rates at the Great Depression level for decades.

Crime will be their form of rioting.

It may not be conscious, but it will be their way of totally giving up hope and becoming social outlaws in never before seen numbers.

Should the story not be true, these infected, white cells among us and their few black servants will continue their effort to take him down, even though on some level most know that the entire nation will suffer.

They don't give a damn. They're as determined as the retrovirus that cannot regulate itself and find ways to live within the body without killing it.

In their greed for maintaining power via what little white privilege that they have or think they have - or to feel less powerless - they are inviting the death of this nation. They are too blinded by fear and hate - or for the handful black neo slave catchers dreaming of opportunities to be rich or famous at the expense of their brothers and sisters - to realize this.

The few non-white conservatives who promote propaganda, in particular, should inspire contempt, boycotting whenever possible, and showing up on election days to vote them out. I view them as the wooden handle of the axe that cuts down trees, and can never be trusted.

They are different from black and white conservatives who argue real points on real policies. Sometimes it's hard teasing out which is which, but legit ones, I at least listen to what they have to say and consider it. The mercenaries for haters can go to hell.

Back to the main infected ones: the fringe white Right. Should they succeed in killing this antidote named Barack Obama - like they've done in the past with Martin and Malcolm and the names of ordinary and barely remembered victims of white violence - we can anticipate the rest of the body trying to vomit out their toxicity through demonstrations and riots.


From the Francois Robert gallery

Perversely, the infected ones welcome this. Their guns are locked and loaded, they have plenty of ammo on the shelf, their vigilante groups formed, and they believe the odds are in their favor that if they randomly shoot and kill innocent blacks for sport, they'll get away with it, like they did during the Hurricane Katrina aftermath or like bad cops do from time to time.

They may be quite wrong about their hoped for end result of taking down the President. The times are different. The whole world is watching these nazi-like and neo-Klan Aryan dreamers try to "take their country back".

Other countries have learned through experience and observation the same lesson that the Native Americans, banana republics, and Iraq and Afghanistan learned, and they ain't having it.

They will shut us out of deals and speed up our economic demise to protect themselves from "that diseased place on the map" and some have already began that process. Like Wall Street, too many of our deals are of the robber baron kind.

Equally, there are too many non-racist white Americans who are fed up, disgusted and repelled by the germs among them. Latinos are infuriated by the stepped up attacks on their group, and blacks are literally sick of, and from, the hate.

This is the stuff of revolutions.

One could begin at any time, and we will either heal enough to function as a nation of many peoples, or die.

The grim possibility of getting sucked into an oil and currency based war with Iran, and doing or supporting a first strike, then getting nuked in return by their allies China and/or Russia will be our kiss of death. This will make for revolution in the form of food riots, more joblessness and lawlessness, and grinding poverty, inevitable. The cause of the problem will be the same old white entitlement, but the story will be spun differently, as it already is.

This body's fate is not a forgone conclusion.

Not yet. We will never stamp out certain physical diseases or the social diseases of tribalism, racism, xenophobia, and greed. However, like safer sex, we can keep them from spreading.

It is in the hands of the healthy - white, black, brown, red or yellow, from teens to seniors - to be the immune system, the right medicine, the voice of reason, and protection for the rest of the body.

We can feverishly fight this disease. It loves money, so boycotting the media advertisers that sponsor the haters, and voting them out will do much to arrest it.

The alternative is for this diseased place on the map is to descend back into the Dark Ages. Some of the infected ones are even lawmakers, who are busy trying to further infect America by replacing freedom with new laws that spread social disease.

It isn't far-fetched to say that the fringe will put those not being the ideal Aryan, you know, those of white European stock, and who are straight and non-handicapped, into death camps, if they can get away with it, because that's where they're really headed.

Ain't like it hasn't happened before.

A Mother To All Lost Children

My son was fine in April, and by that, I mean he didn't freak me out or anyone else with another suicide attempt when he couldn't get his way.

One of his friends, a very nice young man, showed up at my door, complaining that Xavier had stiffed him for quite a bit of money. We had a nice, long chat and it didn't take long to discover he'd gotten into the moonshine business, or in today's language, dealing weed to keep from being flat-azzed broke.

I asked him how they began doing this. The kid had a friggin' business plan, and is awesome in math. I couldn't keep up with him.

The interesting thing about him is that he doesn't fit the stereotypical profile who deals cannabis. Like his father, he's bright enough to get college degree. He had, in fact, made it to the 11th grade with A's and B's. His life hit a major bump in the road at age 17, when his racist and abusive gym teacher cursed him one time too many, and he cursed him back.

"I told him what I really thought of him," he explained. "I said he was a mean, redneck son of bitch and he could go fuck himself."

The teacher jacked him up in the gym in front of another teacher and student. By jacking him up, I mean this literally. The guy grabbed him by the neck and slammed him against the wall. It was even caught on film. But you know how it is with these videos. Folks cover their azzes and say, "you can't see the part where he swung on me while I had my hands around his shoulders - not neck - to keep him under control."

The young man's mother saw marks around his neck and the video on the afternoon of the incident when she went to the school to pick him up. That was the last time she saw what happened, too, because the video was mysteriously lost.

Teachers get cussed out from time to time, but they aren't supposed to put their hands on the kids. As for the other teacher who witnessed it, she wasn't going to allow some lil' darkie to get rich suing the school system, even if he was assaulted. I haven't a shred of doubt that if the races were reversed, a black teacher would have had his black azz fired and his white victim would have enough money to attend whatever university he desired.

And the other student witness?

She's black. She called him at home and apologized for being unable to help. She said she'd been warned that if she opened her mouth, she could kiss any scholarship recommendations goodbye.

The problem wasn't only that this young man had been bullied for the school year and assaulted by the bully teacher, but that he had to be expelled so the school could justify the teacher putting his hands on him.

"What happened after you were kicked out?", I asked.

He looked really sad.

"I was depressed for a long time, two or three years. My parents were depressed too. They felt as victimized as I did."

I thought about how psychologically hard it is for black folks to sue white folks. Been there myself and know how horrible it feels when they gang up on you with one lie after another to conceal what they did. This is true even when everyone is black, but it's a little different when the aggressors are white, because you have all the historical baggage and know that shit hasn't changed that much.

You know that the system leans heavily in siding with authority and whoever has the most social status. The stress is incredible, and you know that fighting a legal battle will be expensive and the outcome uncertain. This adds to your worry, and if you lose, not only will that re-open the pain from the original wound, but you will have lost money you really can't afford to lose.

Our conversation was an unexpected therapy session in disguise. I explored his hopes and dreams. The kid is intelligent, the real thing, and has always reminded me of someone who could be a math or science teacher, as opposed to a C student jock who was lucky to become a coach in a school. I pointed this out. He smiled.

"People say that all the time," he replied. "I liked school. I did well there. I recently took the ASVAB (the military vocational exam) and they said my scores were great and they wanted me, but I had to get my GED before I could enlist."

"And?"

"I started an online program for this two weeks ago. It's easy."

"Think you'll follow through with it?"

"Oh yes," he said, nodding. "I researched all the branches of the military, and something about the Coast Guard is appealing. By the end of the summer, I should be in."

I thought of long, hot summers, and how shit has a way of happening.

I asked, "What will happen if you get busted between now and then?"

"I'm too careful for that."

I looked him dead in the eye and said, "Not if you're hanging with my son. He'll fuck you over and fuck you up. It won't even be intentional, 'cause shit just happens with people like him."

He blinked.

I said, "When someone's mother tells you this, you should listen. Walk away. Forget about ideas of him being your partner. He can't add, subtract, and he smokes up the inventory. As for the $200 bucks he owes you, think of it as tuition for a class in life."

He gulped.

"That's a lot of money," he said haltingly.

"Cheaper than a felony or paying a lawyer. You do the math."

"Actually," he said, "I have. You're right, but I've thought that I could keep doing this for only another two or three months. I already saved up almost $2,000."

"Remarkable," I replied. "A racist white teacher set a trap for you and other black boys to fail. You were an unknowing child and fell into that trap. This led you to the trap you're dangerously close to now, but this one is filled with money. In the last one, your anger caught you. This one is different. You got some cheeze without being caught. If you can walk away now by not being greedy, you'll avoid getting caught in a bigger trap, one that will hurt you far more."

Kids don't always listen, but this one, not really a kid anymore and now 22 years old, seemed to be.

"I never thought of it like that," he said finally. "I have one, no, two friends, who just when they were ready to quit the game but were going to do it one last time, they got caught. They're in jail."

"There ya go! Greed gets ya every time."

******************

I prayed for that child. I know the odds of my son surviving well in this tough world are thin, because he has significant mental health issues and learning disabilities, but this one can make it.

The next few days I noticed Xavier was a little more irritable than usual. One guess: no weed. A few days after that, I asked him if he paid back his friend.

"That mah'fucka can kiss my azz," he yelled. "How's he think I'm going to get money to pay him? I don't have a job!"

"He said you was his partner."

Xavier's eyes shifted away, knowing instantly that I had once again talked one of his friends out of their secrets about him.

I asked sarcastically, "Did he fire you?"

"Fuck him! I hate him! He quit!"

Good.