Words, Not Excuses.

My Haitian Sister, Nephew, and His Dad were havin’ dinner the other day, when someone said somethin’ about “crackers”, and we all laughed. It occurs to me, that until we can all sit around the table, and all laugh when someone says the word “nigger”, we’ll probably never be able to treat each other equally.

Come to find out, nephew hit a kid at school for callin’ him the N-word. Nephew didn’t get in trouble, but the kid got punished. That’s wrong. Just the day before, we were sittin’ with his Grandpop, and his grandpop was talkin’ about one of his grandsons: “he’s a big nigga.” The question I have for my nephew is, if you think it was okay to hit someone for callin’ him that, why didn’t he hit his Grandpop? The school probably felt that in the name of political correctness, they had to punish the kid especially hard for name-calling. But I don’t think my nephew should have gotten off scot-free for physical violence. That’s the wrong message. (I don’t want to misquote his dad, but I think he said something along the same line).

A blacks-only dictionary comes down to black-privilege. Sorry, I wasn’t raised to believe that you or anyone else is any better than me, just by happenstance of your skin.

The Ship Pops Served On: USS Lyon AP-71

The ship started off as a shiny new freighter.

a few short years later, a 16 year old kid would be on the bridge, helping navigate it.

USS Lyon AP-71

Plans for modifying the AP-71 to a troop transport.

Pops worked on the Bridge Deck, on the starboard side, at what is labeled “log desk” on Page 3. During landings, he worked on a LCC, (landing craft control), directing the other landing craft ashore. There’s a couple pics on page 288 of this book that look a lot like the one Pops was on. I’m not sure, but I think the 70 number means this LCC belongs to AP-70, though. Pops was on AP-71. Pops said his didn’t have a windshield, but the guy on the bow by the open hatch looked familiar to him. (there were only 99 LCCs built).

Pops served from January, 1944-January, 1945

Sounds like pops helped transport these guys.

Pretty sure pops was part of TF85 Delta Force during Operation Dragoon. (Pops just shrugs, the operation’s name didn’t mean much to him.)

Captain, (sometimes listed as Cdr.), T.C. Sorenson was the skipper of the USS Lyon, when pops was on board, I guess he’d been the Captain when it was a peace time freighter.

The ship was sold in 1966 and scrapped in 1972.

notes: jim hudson http://www.navetsusa.com/geobook.html
Malcom Bennet http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19990205&slug=2942559

http://www.delgazette.com/obituaries.asp?ID=1730&Obit=2

Power And Celebrity v Law And Justice

Polanski the child rapist

Champions Of Causes

Not sure how to approach this, it sort of reminds me of the Che-t-shirt wearers.

Che Guevera, you may recall, was responsible for a lot of political deaths. But the “iconic” image persists in popular culture.

So, today, on the 4th of July, someone posts a quote from someone I hadn’t heard of, saying “remember what you’re worshiping”. I found the speech to be just a little wacky, but I’ve lived and worked in Santa Fe, where the speech was given, so I know there’s plenty of people who think like that.

So I looked into who this person was. Seems like she did a sympathetic article on a group of Maoists in India who are battling with their government.

Now, this is the first I’ve heard of any of this, but when I look a little further into recent news of the group, I see a quote from that group regarding bombing a bus, killing a hundred or so people.

Referring to the May 18 incident in which the rebels blew up a bus in Konta block in Dantewada district, Usendi said its cadres had targeted the bus as Special Police Officers (SPOs) were travelling on top of the bus and without realizing that civilians were travelling in the bus.

Um, blowing up buses, isn’t going to win much support from me, for whatever your cause that I just found out about is.

Quoted in its entirety, because, this is just kind of shocking to me.

In yet another strike by Naxalite elements, a bus has been blown up in Dantewada district of Chhattisgarh by landmines and at least 50 persons are presumed to have lost their lives. Home Minister P. Chidambaram has to now modify his approach to the problem – sweet talks will not help, what is needed is strong action. The toll could be much higher because the bus was carrying 65 to 70 passengers and the explosion totally destroyed the bus and made a huge ten feet crater on the road. The IED was planted on the metalled road and was activated by remote control – locals heard gunfire after the blast and concluded that the Naxalites wanted to leave as many dead as possible. The private bus was an ordinary one carrying civilians but in this particular bus there were some SPOs (Special Police Officers) also. This could be a reason for blowing it up along with civilians.

So, I didn’t know where else to post this, but I found it rather shocking that someone would quote an apparent sympathiser to this group as having some kind of special insight in to what we celebrate on the Fourth of July.

More info on bombing public transportation…

Maoists bomb trains

Maoists bomb mine