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Showing posts with the label Hate speech

Oh, America

Oh, America Oh, America. You lay wounded in the blood of your democracy. Beaten by the hands of your own government. Choked by the lawlessness of those sworn to protect your dignity and your existence. Sirens wail in the streets. The emergency is real. The time is critical. But no one comes to carry you to healing. Nothing is done to repair your injuries.  Your citizens. Your people. They cry out. They weep. They protest. They walk in the hot sun holding handmade signs for your support. But their protectors, the men and women with badges, they wield clubs, they unload tear gas and shoot rubber bullets. They push citizens back. They shove them to the ground. They walk over them, left unattended as rubbish in the streets. Justice is trampled with them.  Judges, Administration officials, Congressmen, even the President, talk endlessly about the crisis. They pretend to care. They hold up the Bible. They say we are all in their prayers. They stand beside the Fl...

The Loss of Our Tranquil Certainties

The uproar over Roseanne Barr’s ugly comment about Valerie Jarrett is getting the attention it deserves. I’m only a small shell on a giant seashore but let me say I applaud ABC for their courageous decision to cancel Roseanne’s show. It takes true integrity to put a successful company’s core values over a TV series that was producing multimillions of dollars of advertising. Whatever other motives the network may have had, they certainly proved they were willing to lose a highly profitable show in order to stand on the side of common decency and intolerance of racist comments from one of their most popular stars. Let’s look at it once again. Roseanne Barr, responding to a comment about President Obama’s former advisor, Valerie Jarrett, tweeted: “muslim brotherhood and planet of the apes had a baby=vj.” If you can find a way to defend that statement, I’m afraid you have crossed the boundaries of rational thought. Just a joke, you say? Everyone does it? Others have said worse...