Life and Its Relative Value

Oscar Grant was a father. He was a son and a brother. Oscar Grant did what a lot of young men do. He got into some stupid trouble. Then he got into some more stupid trouble. And he served his time, which is how things are supposed to work. Commit crime, pay your debt, go on with your life.

But Oscar Grant doesn’t have a life to go on with does he? He’s dead. Shot in the back in a tragic moment.
There are a lot of things that need to be said about this incident. A lot of them are broad social and/or political points that very much need to be made. I’m going to do my best to make some of them in a logical coherent fashion but while I’m doing that and whenever you talk or think about this incident I want you to remember two things.

Oscar Grant is not a political football. He isn’t some point to be scored in a debate. He was a man. This is what he looked like.




The child that he is holding in this picture is, I believe, his daughter. She was 2 years old when her daddy died. At that age, you don’t remember a lot of important things, like the way your father sounded when he told you that he loved you, the look in his eyes when he held his baby girl, the kind of person he was. Oscar Grant’s daughter will never know what it was like to hear her father’s voice, look in his eyes. She may form an idea of what he was like but that will be from stories. She will never know him.

That, more than anything else is what matters in this story; the lives that have been so irreparably damaged by these events. That’s what you need to keep in mind.
Now to the issues.

Here are the facts of the case as far as I understand them:
It was New Year’s Eve. Lots of people were on the street and in the subway. Lots of people were rowdy. Cops know that. Hell, everyone knows that. It’s just common sense.

Some people were fighting on the subway.

Grant and another man ran back onto the train after being detained, but Grant voluntarily returned to the platform when Officer Tony Pirone grabbed the other man and dragged him from the train.

Officers removed Grant and several other men suspected of fighting from the train and detained them on the platform.

According to Mehserle's motion for bail, Pirone confirmed with the train operator that the men detained were involved in the fight. However, this has been disputed by every witness who isn’t a police officer.

A cell-phone video broadcast on local television station KTVU on January 23 showed what appeared to be Pirone rushing towards Grant and punching him in the face several times two minutes before he was shot.

Witnesses testified that Pirone was the aggressor during the incident.

Additional footage from a cell phone was presented in court showing Pirone standing over the prone Grant before the shooting and yelling: "Bitch-ass nigger."
In his past, Grant had been tazed.

In the process of detaining Oscar Grant’s friends they threatened them with tasers.
More than one witness has stated that Grant begged the officers not to taze him and his friends.

The police officers bellied Oscar Grant, but could not apparently get control of his hands.

As a result Officer Mehserle grabbed what I honestly believe he thought was his taser.

He pointed and pulled the trigger.

One bullet entered Oscar Grant’s back, passed through his body ricocheted off of the concrete and entered Grant’s body again.

Officer Mehserle’s reaction clearly indicated that he did not intend to shoot Oscar Grant.

That does not, in my mind, change a damned thing.

There are several aspects of this case that are simply wrong.

WHAT THE FUCK WAS BART THINKING? Why the hell are they using trigger grip tasers?
Why did they pull those guys off of the train in the first place? There had been weapons found and taken from young Black men earlier in the evening but not from these men. The officers claim that it was confirmed that these were the men who were fighting but everyone who doesn’t have a vested interest in protecting the officers disputes that.

Why did the BART authorities act in the way they did after the fact, demonizing the victim and later the people who protested the event? Those protests were largely peaceful.

Why so many lies and attempts to abrogate responsibility?

Why, above all else, did the jury return a verdict of guilty only on the charge of involuntary manslaughter? While I believe that Officer Mehserle did not intend to shoot Oscar Grant the fact is that he did mean to do him harm. The man was begging for the officers not to taze him. After they had, as far as I can tell, already used excessive force, they decided to jump the shark and hit him with the taser too?
You can, and are in some cases mandated, to do more time for a property crime than the guilty party in this case will do.

Aside from the obvious legal issues there are the social ones. More than one person has mentioned the history of race related violence is San Francisco including one man, in the 1960s who was shot while surrendering, and several others more recently, including one person who was handicapped and in a wheelchair.

So, more than one person has had their life taken by police in Oakland. And a not small portion of those people have been something other than Caucasian. And today, a judge, as a direct result of the actions of a California jury told the whole world that this man’s life was worth less than many types of property in that state.
Why is that acceptable anywhere, ever?

Dear Tea Baggers

You fucking morons.

Please inderstand me, I don't mean that you disagree with my point of view and are therefor morons. I mean you voted for people who spent nearly a decade doing exactly what you say you hate and they're about to do it again.

Soon-to-be-Speaker Bohner thinks that the first item on the agenda in the new year should be extending the Bush tax cuts. In the same breath he insisted that the debt needs to be cut. Um...yeah.

If you take the deficit we have now $13,736,760,770,420.66 according to the national debt clock. And you add $700,000,000,000 hich is the cost of the Bush tax cuts according to the CBO YOU GET A BIGGER DEBT!

Why is this math hard for some people?

So yeah, you are morons because you took the same lies and idiocy that got into a huge financual problem in 2008 and decided that it was a great idea to try it again, and did so despite the fact that it stands in direct opposition to our stated goals.

You got took. You got hoodinked. You fucking morons.

Sue Me

I haven't blogged in a while. Yeah, I know. I've been busy. I work. I do school and then I work some more, only the second round of work is on the election.

What? You thought I was only going to fired up and ready to go in 2008? Yeah screw that noise. This election is as important.

Oh, you're diappointed in the president because he didn't buy you a pony and set up a big candy fountain in your front yard? Get over it. He had work to do and he did it well, not prefectly but well.

I've heard a lot about the enthusiasm gap, lately. I could lecture you about it but I won't. I'll let this guy do it for me.



Then watch this.



Then fucking vote, bitches.

Sister Wives, if I Must

People won't stop asking me what I think of the the show so here is my one big answer to which I am going to refer anyone who asks me from now on.

I think that show is to my marriage as The Craft is to my religion.

In other words, those morons are on a fucking TV show. They have nothing to do with reality. Yes, I know they call it “reality television.” They’re lying. Nothing that heavily edited and carefully produced can accurately be connected with reality.
The primary difference is that Mr. and Mrs. Potamus are equally my spouses. We are not “sister wives.” We’re just wives. She is my wife as much as she is his. That’s how our family works.

Lots of people take it upon themselves to pass judgment on us, especially Mr. and assume that we are in some sort of religious, repressive, freaksome, patriarchal relationship.

Those people have never met us.

Seriously, have you been reading anything I’ve written here? There’s no “man as the head of the household,” bullshit in my home. It just doesn’t work that way. I don’t work that way.

The people on Sister Wives don’t work that way either, not really. I mean, they may have their whole divided up house, sleeping rotation thing going but anyone who believes that these women are simply cow towing to their husband they have simply never been married, or met other humans. Relationships do not work that way long term and the more people that you involve in the relationship the less likely it is that any one person is really in charge.
The bottom line of this show is that they, like every other person on “reality TV,” is in it for the adulation and the money. Period. Don’t kid yourself. Whatever their claims of motivation are, that’s what it’s really about.

Never Forget?

So everyone knows what today is. Everyone knows that a bunch of people died due to extremism and today everyone is going to bombarded with two things; idiotic “Never Forget,” signs, images, bumper stickers and what not as well as multiple television shows and movies attempting to retraumatize the public for cash.

And all we’re going to be told today is that we should never forget. Yeah…thanks. I needed that reminder because the image of two people holding hands as they leapt to their deaths from the higher floors of the North Tower, so as to have some human contact in their last moments on earth, was going to go away any time soon; just pop right out of my head.

You know what we shouldn’t forget?

We shouldn’t forget that there were actually three planes that crashed that day. One took out a building full of soldiers. One crashed in a field after it was retaken by the passengers. One hit two buildings full of people.

Why do so many people focus on the building full of victims rather that the building full of soldiers or a plane full of ordinary Americans who stepped up when it was necessary and made themselves heroes? I think we should never forget the other two planes that crashed.

Guess what else we shouldn’t forget?

The terrorist attack on September 11th wasn’t random. It was the result of two things; religious extremism and global politics.

Notice that I didn’t say Muslim extremism. Yes, the people who attacked the U.S. were Muslims but that is peripheral. Religious extremism isn’t exclusive to Islam as evidenced by the idiot reactions to Park 51.

As a result of the religious extremism that led to the attack on September 11th we, the United States have responded with a level of extremism that makes no logical sense and is, in fact, pathetic and sad.

Somehow, in our strong, tough response to terrorism we’ve embraced the very worst traits of those people who attacked us and shown that what we as a nation mean by strong and tough is actually acting in the most cowardly, counter-Constitutional way possible.

Never forget that in the days after September 11th people who looked like they might be Muslims were attacked and in some cases were killed.

Never forget that fear and panic are exactly the reactions that the people flying those planes on September 11th wanted.

Never forget that religious extremism is what is happening right now in the United States. Go to any right leaning website and do a search for the word Muslim. You’ll see what I mean.

Never forget that September 11th is the event that led our nation into signing away our civil rights in the form of the Patriot Act.

Never forget that September 11th is the event led directly to a war we never should have fought in which 4400 American service men and women gave their lives and countless civilians died.

Never forget that the U.S. tortured people.

Never forget that part of the reason that the U.S. was targeted was our actions. That doesn’t, in any way, justify the actions of the terrorists but it’s something that we need to cop to.

The U.S. has been meddling in the Middle East for decades and doing so with little regard for the wishes of those in the region or the sovereignty of the nations therein.

Never forget that the events of September 11th are far more nuanced and complex than any t-shirt of very special episode can possibly cover.

You want to memorialize September 11th? Remember that real patriots respect Islam. Remember pluralism, the concept that two divergent ideas can and must exist in the same nation at the same time and each be equally respected. Remember that we the people have a responsibility to the nation and the Constitution to stand up for our fellow Americans, no matter what religion or nation of origin.

Remember that. While you're at it, remember that all of the memorials that are showing on TV are happening for profit and all the memorials that are happening in the media are too.

Let Justice Roll Down Like Waters

Many people will comment on Glenn Beck and his live action infomercial today.

I'm not going to be one of them.

Here's what I'm going to say.

47 years ago a group of people marched on Washington. It was one of many marches, boycotts, registration drives and bus drives that had been happening for years. It was hard. It was dangerous. Some of them, including the man whose speech became timeless as soon as he spoke it, died in the fight for equality.

So to all of them I say, thank you. Well done.

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we've come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the "unalienable Rights" of "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds."

But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so, we've come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.

We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of Now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. And those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. And there will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

But there is something that I must say to my people, who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice: In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.

The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.

We cannot walk alone.

And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead.

We cannot turn back.

There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their self-hood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating: "For Whites Only." We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until "justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream."¹

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. And some of you have come from areas where your quest -- quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive. Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed.

Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends.

And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of "interposition" and "nullification" -- one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; "and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together."2

This is our hope, and this is the faith that I go back to the South with.

With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

And this will be the day -- this will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning:

My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing.

Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim's pride,

From every mountainside, let freedom ring!

And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.

And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire.

Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.

Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.

Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.

But not only that:

Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi.

From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:

Free at last! Free at last!

Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!

The Best Part Of My Day

That's the prompt for the second day of the journaling project. I haven't decided if I'm going to post pics of the things that I put in the journal or not because it's kinda private.

But I did the first prompt and have just finished the second. So, yay me for following through for two days.


OK, subject change:

Dear M. Knight Shitty Director,

Nope. Sorry. You will not fool me again. I don't care how interesting the commercials for Devil look. It will suck. We all know it will suck. Everything you have gone near has sucked since Unbreakable.

No Love,
Me

There's been a lot going on in political idiocy lately but I need to research and reflect before posting about it so it'll be a couple of days.