I see Rev, Al Sharpton, I see Representative Corrine Brown. I see the commentators on MSNBC, such as Rachel Madow. I see celebrities of all races, I lastly see crowds of people and their faces reflect a variety of nationalities. The people that have been missing are the leaders of the Hispanic and White communities. The power brokers that lead Central Florida in these two areas are not out front, where I believe they should be.
Yesterday, after mounting pressure from black activists and hordes of regular people on the social networks, Governor Rick Scott asked for a special prosecutor to handle the investigation. Where has he been for the last month. I have yet to hear or see Marco Rubio or Bill Nelson, Senators from Florida. I see Corrine Brown, who's district Sanford is in, out front with Reverend Sharpton, but where are the other representatives from nearby Florida districts?
My friend Brandon, brought up the issue yesterday and posted on his face book page, the question of whether the powers to be are afraid of a racial war. I am not convinced this is the underlying issue, but where are the leaders? The police in Sanford are calling George Zimmerman, white and Zimmerman's family say he is Hispanic. Right now we have a white police department, with past racial abuses, investigating, if you want to call what they have done so far investigating, either a white or Hispanic man killing a young black man, and yet no arrest and a very glaring absence of outrage from white and Hispanic leaders.
The question begs to be asked. If this were a black man that had shot a white or Hispanic teenager, where would the leaders be today, and more importantly where would the accused killer be today. The answer is simple. The leaders would be screaming for justice and the killer would be behind bars. A month after this killing and yet Zimmerman remains free. This should outrage leaders of all races and classes. Zimmerman needs to be arrested and the investigation needs to be handled by competent police officers, not a group of Barney Fifes. The parents of Trayvon Martin want one thing. Justice. They deserve nothing less and each day that goes by with George Zimmerman walking around free, is one more day of injustice in America.
Friday, March 23, 2012
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Before Purchasing Weapons There Should Be An Intelligence Test!
Get ready all of you second amendment rights people. Start screaming all of the NRA folks. Start your attack of me for my position. Guess what, I don't care. We have more killings by handguns and other guns in this country then any other place on the earth. The reason is simple. Idiots are allowed to purchase and carry handguns! They are protected and given this right by people who are blinded to reality.
The Trayvon Martin case is just one in a series of incidents that exacerbates the concept that we all have the right to have our guns. When the Constitution was written, people needed rifles to hunt and feed themselves. Now we carry our concealed weapons as we go to the grocery store. For what purpose? If the steak we are buying is already dead, are we armed to protect us from the cow coming back to life?
When I was a teenager and two guys got into an argument, someone, maybe, received a black eye. Today someone pulls out a gun and opens fire. Why? Because they were, now wait for it, DIS-RESPECTED. We kill to get respect? Someone dies and the killer goes to prison for life and all because someone looked at them the wrong way. People are plain, ridiculous.
We pass laws, that states, we can stand our ground. Write that on my tombstone. He stood his ground. Now people use it as a way to commit a racist murder. This is definitely the case with George Zimmerman. Then the Sanford police allow Zimmerman to just walk away. Would he be out of jail today if he were a black man that had just gunned down a white teenager. But back to guns. Where is the intelligence test of people that get to carry weapons? Where is the psychological test for mental stability? We have none and every time groups try to make it harder for criminals or idiots to get guns the pro-gun lobbyist crawl out from under their rocks to oppose any common sense approach to the problem.
They claim if we limit guns then only criminals will have them. Most criminals get their weapons by stealing them from law abiding citizens. or buying them from someone that stole them. They say if they have protection of a gun they will be able to stop criminals. Just because you can shot a target that is not firing back and the adrenalin is not flowing, does not mean you can do it when your life is in danger. They say we need it to protect us from the government. This one I really like. What good would that handgun do against a trained soldier with his M-16?
None of these arguments really hold water. There are too many handguns and unnecessary weapons in this country. We are killing each other and are becoming immune to the deaths. With each outrageous killing like the Trayven Martin murder, we become more apathetic.
Yes, I will buy the theory that guns do not kill people, people kill people. The problem is the gun cannot decide whether the shooter is mentally stable or just another whack job, stalking one of our children.
The Trayvon Martin case is just one in a series of incidents that exacerbates the concept that we all have the right to have our guns. When the Constitution was written, people needed rifles to hunt and feed themselves. Now we carry our concealed weapons as we go to the grocery store. For what purpose? If the steak we are buying is already dead, are we armed to protect us from the cow coming back to life?
When I was a teenager and two guys got into an argument, someone, maybe, received a black eye. Today someone pulls out a gun and opens fire. Why? Because they were, now wait for it, DIS-RESPECTED. We kill to get respect? Someone dies and the killer goes to prison for life and all because someone looked at them the wrong way. People are plain, ridiculous.
We pass laws, that states, we can stand our ground. Write that on my tombstone. He stood his ground. Now people use it as a way to commit a racist murder. This is definitely the case with George Zimmerman. Then the Sanford police allow Zimmerman to just walk away. Would he be out of jail today if he were a black man that had just gunned down a white teenager. But back to guns. Where is the intelligence test of people that get to carry weapons? Where is the psychological test for mental stability? We have none and every time groups try to make it harder for criminals or idiots to get guns the pro-gun lobbyist crawl out from under their rocks to oppose any common sense approach to the problem.
They claim if we limit guns then only criminals will have them. Most criminals get their weapons by stealing them from law abiding citizens. or buying them from someone that stole them. They say if they have protection of a gun they will be able to stop criminals. Just because you can shot a target that is not firing back and the adrenalin is not flowing, does not mean you can do it when your life is in danger. They say we need it to protect us from the government. This one I really like. What good would that handgun do against a trained soldier with his M-16?
None of these arguments really hold water. There are too many handguns and unnecessary weapons in this country. We are killing each other and are becoming immune to the deaths. With each outrageous killing like the Trayven Martin murder, we become more apathetic.
Yes, I will buy the theory that guns do not kill people, people kill people. The problem is the gun cannot decide whether the shooter is mentally stable or just another whack job, stalking one of our children.
Monday, March 19, 2012
We Should Have Left Afghanistan Years Ago.
Even better we should have never entered in the way we did. I support the President in many areas, but will not follow blindly. The war in Afghanistan is an example where I disagree. We should be out now.
The Afghan leaders are among the most corrupt in the world. Hamid Karzai, the president, leads a nation that is among the world's poorest. Most of the population there lives on less then a dollar a day. The literacy rate is 28%, meaning only 28% have the ability to read. It is even worse if you are a woman. That rate is a meager 10%. They live in rural villages with little or no modern convienences. They are simply, impoverished. Why? Decades of wars and the drug trade have influenced day to day living in Afghanistan, and their leaders are not looking to improve the lifes of the people anytime soon. Three million Afghans are involved in the drug trades and violent crime is rampant.
Look at the history of this country. Going back to Alexander the Great, who invaded them in 330 BC. Genghis Khan raided the Afghans in 1219 AD and it was not until 1709 that they overthrew Gurgin Khan. It wasn't long before the British arrived in the late 1870's, where the U.K. lost money and men in the attempt to defeat Afghanistan. Then in 1978 the Soviet Union got bogged down in the quagmire of the mountainous and isolated Afghan area. The United States, through Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, threw it's support behind the Mujaheddin, who's spiritual leader was none other then Osama bin Laden. The Soviets were beaten back and the amount of money and lives that was lost in Afghanistan, helped fuel the down fall of the once mighty Soviet Union Empire.
Finally in October of 2001, the United States, under the name of, Operation Enduring Freedom, entered Afghanistan and for over ten years we have poured trillions of dollars and tens of thousands of American soldiers, into the cause. The cause of what? Al-Qaeda has been forced into hiding. bin Laden was killed in Pakistan. The Taliban, which did not attack us on 9-11 has scattered, but will return whether we leave now or twenty years from now. What have we accomplished? What is our future prospects of victory? The Taliban wants to keep Afghanistan a second century country. Fine that is their decision and the decision of the Afghan people to make, not the decision of politicians and military people from America.
I want to place this war in historical perspective. We have been here for over ten years. Vietnam was nine and one half years and what results did we have from that disaster? The American Revolutionary War was over in a little more then eight years and we dictated our own countries direction with that war. World War I was five years and the second World War, the American participation was only six years. My point is this. We have invested money that should be used here at home, in this country and we see no return. More importantly we have invested lives in this and we can never be repaid for the sacrifices of so many great American men and women.
So why are we still here. In February our soldiers accidentally burned the Muslim holy book, the Koran. Last week a Staff Sergeant, Robert Bates, killed several Afghan civilians. These incidents will happen and the longer we keep our fighting people there the more it will happen. Sergeant Bales, has seen four tours of duty in Afghanistan and has seen more death and destruction then most people would ever see in a life time. He has witnessed his friends dismembered, blown up, shot and destroyed in so many ways. This is not an excuse for his actions only an explanation. More of this has and will occur. The time to end it is now.
The Afghan people have a right and responsibility to decide their fate. They can choose to live their lives in centuries old style if they choose. They have the God given ability to change or remain the same. They do not have to forcibly be moved into the twenty first century. It is time for the American politicians and military leaders to end this. The politicians want to make this a political football. the President does not want to be seen as the man that lost Afghanistan. Afghanistan is not ours to loose. The Republicans want to stay there and win the victory. What victory. We have already lost and yet our leaders are too afraid to tell us. We can get out now and start to rebuild our own country or we can stay and suffer the same results that many others have. Afghanistan is the place that empires go to die. I want us to live.
The Afghan leaders are among the most corrupt in the world. Hamid Karzai, the president, leads a nation that is among the world's poorest. Most of the population there lives on less then a dollar a day. The literacy rate is 28%, meaning only 28% have the ability to read. It is even worse if you are a woman. That rate is a meager 10%. They live in rural villages with little or no modern convienences. They are simply, impoverished. Why? Decades of wars and the drug trade have influenced day to day living in Afghanistan, and their leaders are not looking to improve the lifes of the people anytime soon. Three million Afghans are involved in the drug trades and violent crime is rampant.
Look at the history of this country. Going back to Alexander the Great, who invaded them in 330 BC. Genghis Khan raided the Afghans in 1219 AD and it was not until 1709 that they overthrew Gurgin Khan. It wasn't long before the British arrived in the late 1870's, where the U.K. lost money and men in the attempt to defeat Afghanistan. Then in 1978 the Soviet Union got bogged down in the quagmire of the mountainous and isolated Afghan area. The United States, through Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, threw it's support behind the Mujaheddin, who's spiritual leader was none other then Osama bin Laden. The Soviets were beaten back and the amount of money and lives that was lost in Afghanistan, helped fuel the down fall of the once mighty Soviet Union Empire.
Finally in October of 2001, the United States, under the name of, Operation Enduring Freedom, entered Afghanistan and for over ten years we have poured trillions of dollars and tens of thousands of American soldiers, into the cause. The cause of what? Al-Qaeda has been forced into hiding. bin Laden was killed in Pakistan. The Taliban, which did not attack us on 9-11 has scattered, but will return whether we leave now or twenty years from now. What have we accomplished? What is our future prospects of victory? The Taliban wants to keep Afghanistan a second century country. Fine that is their decision and the decision of the Afghan people to make, not the decision of politicians and military people from America.
I want to place this war in historical perspective. We have been here for over ten years. Vietnam was nine and one half years and what results did we have from that disaster? The American Revolutionary War was over in a little more then eight years and we dictated our own countries direction with that war. World War I was five years and the second World War, the American participation was only six years. My point is this. We have invested money that should be used here at home, in this country and we see no return. More importantly we have invested lives in this and we can never be repaid for the sacrifices of so many great American men and women.
So why are we still here. In February our soldiers accidentally burned the Muslim holy book, the Koran. Last week a Staff Sergeant, Robert Bates, killed several Afghan civilians. These incidents will happen and the longer we keep our fighting people there the more it will happen. Sergeant Bales, has seen four tours of duty in Afghanistan and has seen more death and destruction then most people would ever see in a life time. He has witnessed his friends dismembered, blown up, shot and destroyed in so many ways. This is not an excuse for his actions only an explanation. More of this has and will occur. The time to end it is now.
The Afghan people have a right and responsibility to decide their fate. They can choose to live their lives in centuries old style if they choose. They have the God given ability to change or remain the same. They do not have to forcibly be moved into the twenty first century. It is time for the American politicians and military leaders to end this. The politicians want to make this a political football. the President does not want to be seen as the man that lost Afghanistan. Afghanistan is not ours to loose. The Republicans want to stay there and win the victory. What victory. We have already lost and yet our leaders are too afraid to tell us. We can get out now and start to rebuild our own country or we can stay and suffer the same results that many others have. Afghanistan is the place that empires go to die. I want us to live.
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