Middle Ground (opinion) – Page 5

A few thoughts on the Confederate Battle Flag….

1) Yeah, I get it, it looks cool.

2) Yeah, I get it, you’re Southern, and you’re proud if it.

3) Yeah, I get it, I understand that the giant battle flag flying at the intersection of I-4 and I-75 is meant to be a memorial to confederate soldiers.

But, none of that matters to me, because…

4) A long time ago I personally decided I would not display it, because I have good friends, friends who are very dear to me, to whom that flag simply IS a symbol of hatred and racism. Now I could spend all my time educating them, and all the new friends and acquaintances I would make throughout my life, on why it’s not really a symbol of hate, at least not when viewed in its proper historical perspective, and why it is nothing more than a harmless symbol of southern pride and heritage. But I thought, even if it were possible, I have much more important things to do with my life.

And it shouldn’t matter to you either…

5) For those who continue to insist that the confederate flag has nothing to do with hate: Are you kidding me? Nothing to do with hate? The KKK adopted it as their flag. It’s their number one go-to symbol. White supremacists everywhere use it as their flag. Pull your head out of your ass, of course it’s a symbol of hate.

Maybe it didn’t start that way, but that is what it has become. Maybe that’s not what it means to you personally, but that most definitely is what it means to others. It’s time we grew up and faced today’s reality.

As a community, having that flag fly at our largest crossroad is like putting up a giant sign that says “Niggers Go Home”. You can talk all day about “History” and “Heritage”, but that’s what it says to the rest of the world. Don’t believe me — I’m sure you pride yourself on having at least one black friend, ask him or her what that flag means to them.

It’s time we grow up, face the truth, understand what the flag symbolizes today, not a hundred and fifty years ago, but today, and recognize it’s time we put our racist relics behind us, and try to act like decent human beings to ALL of God’s children.

And lastly…

6) For those of you who say it’s about “Freedom”. That you have the freedom to fly that flag, that it is your right to display it. Yep, you’re right. You are one hundred percent correct. We live in a free country. By flying that flag, and in a thousand other ways, you have the absolute, constitutionally protected, right to be an asshole.

Save the Christians

I recently saw a post on Facebook of a cartoon, it depicted a handful of protesters/activists/whatever holding up signs saying save this species or save that species or save this other species, while basically lamenting that no one was interested in saving the Christians. This is just one example of many with this same theme, the Endangered Christian.

Okay, here’s the thing… Christians are NOT an endangered species. There are nearly two and a half billion (that’s “billion” with a “B”) of them on the planet. There are more Christians than any other flavor of human. BY FAR. If you are Christian, you don’t get to play the oppressed minority. You ARE the majority. You ARE the culture. You ARE the dominant force in our society. You’ve won.

Need proof? Look at your money. The single most important non-religious artifact in our society, and you get to stamp the name of your God all over it. And speaking of money, we let you operate multi-billion (that’s “billion”, with a “B”) dollar industries, doing pretty much whatever you want, unregulated and TAX FREE. No one else gets that deal. No one.

Look, just because we may occasionally stop you from forcing some of your more onerous Christian beliefs on the rest of us, that does not mean that you’re endangered. No one needs to save you from the brink of extinction. If anything, we need saving FROM Christians. Too many Christians just aren’t happy unless their spreading their Christianness all over the rest of us, whether we want it or not. God, please save us from the Christians who are attempting to save us.

Seriously, you are free to do anything you like. Whatever your God requires of you, do it. But you are NOT free to require the same from the rest of us. You decide what’s right for you. Not for me. Just you. Your rights end where my life begins. This is not oppression. This is freedom. Thank God for freedom!

Washington Redskins, Offensive?

A lot of people think this whole controversy over the name Washington Redskins is being blown out of proportion, that people are making a mountain out of a molehill, that it’s a tempest in a teacup, that it’s… well use whatever colorful metaphor you like, the idea is it’s no big deal, it’s not important, and everyone should shut up about it and get on with their lives.

Not surprisingly, most of the people saying this are white people. Here’s the thing: White people don’t get to say whether or not it’s a big deal. You know who does? Native Americans. White people don’t get to decide whether or not it’s offensive. You know who does? Native Americans.

If Native Americans say it is offensive, then it is offensive. If Native Americans say it is a big deal, then guess what? It’s a big deal. Period. End of story.

The truth is, unless you’ve ever actually been called “redskin”, or “nigger”, or “spic”, or “kike”, or “faggot”, you don’t know anything about it. Don’t for one second delude yourself into thinking that you do. You. Don’t. Know. And if that’s the case, get down on your hands and knees and thank your God you’ve never had to deal with that.

Vaccinate. Your. Children.

It’s not a matter of choice, or of preference, or of belief…

The simple truth is this — if you do not vaccinate your children, you are putting other people’s children at risk. Period. Other children MAY DIE, as a direct result of your action. If you have a legitimate reason to not vaccinate (immune deficiency, allergy, etc), then it is just unfortunate, but it cannot be helped. We will not hold it against you.

On the other hand, if you do not have a legitimate reason, if you are acting only out of fear, uncertainty, and doubt, or worse, out of “belief”, then you are, quite simply, a despicable human being. You can “believe” anything you like, but when your “belief” causes harm to others, it becomes a problem. The word we usually use to describe such a problem is “evil”. If you unnecessarily risk the lives of others, you are evil. That’s it, evil. It really is that simple. There is no way around that truth.

Don’t be evil.

Choke Holds (Eric Garner)

The NYPD banned the use of choke holds in any situation in 1993. It was banned exactly because it can easily cause the death of the suspect.

The right to a trial by jury is constitutionally guaranteed. It is the responsibility of the police to arrest suspects so that they may be brought to trial. Killing a suspect, when there is no threat, is not just wrong, it is a violation of the suspect’s constitutional rights.

Killing a suspect, even accidentally, using a technique that is known to cause death, to the extent that the technique is specifically banned, is not just wrong, at best it is criminally negligent.

By the way, it doesn’t matter what color the suspect is, or whether or not he committed a crime. Rights are rights. Some of the MOST important rights are the rights we have when we are accused of committing a crime. Let me say that again, some of our most important rights, rights which literally millions have fought and died for, are the rights that protect us when we are accused of a crime. If we lose that, we will find ourselves living in a police state, where government has absolute authority, and the people have no redress.

DO NOT SURRENDER YOUR RIGHTS JUST BECAUSE THEY ALSO PROTECT PEOPLE YOU DON’T LIKE. Unless they protect all of us, they protect none of us.

Ferguson, History, Repeating…

I’ve been around long enough to see a lot of “Ferguson”s, including some in our own back yard. It has happened before, and it will happen again. And every time we fail to understand it. It will continue to happen, over and over again, precisely because we do not understand it. Yet it happens with such predictability and certainty, that surely it is capable of being understood.

The problem is, we ask the questions, but we don’t like the answers. We dismiss the answers as fallacy, and because we cannot make sense of it, we tell ourselves it was a fluke, an isolated event, a random act of senseless violence, and we move on with our lives, and nothing has changed, and nothing has been fixed, and we have all but guaranteed that it will happen again. Until we learn from our history, we are condemned to repeat it.

If you would truly like to understand, read the short paragraph from Tim Wise below. Many of you will not like the answer, but I assure you, the answer doesn’t care. Truth doesn’t care whether you like it or not, and it certainly does not become any less true.

Only when we accept the truth will we be able to learn from it, and fix it, and move forward, and only then will we have any hope of stopping this from happening again. Ignore it if you like, but you don’t get to act surprised the next time this happens.

If your concerns about violence are limited to property damage and looting, and you have never shed two tears for the history of institutional violence, murder,colonialism, segregation, lynching, genocide and police brutality against peoples of color, your words mean nothing; they mean less than nothing. Your outrage, in such a case is grotesque, an inversion of morality so putrescent as to call into question your capacity for real feeling at all. So long as violence from below is condemned while violence from above is ignored, you can bet that the former will continue–and however unfortunate that may be, it is surely predictable. If you’d like the former to cease, put an end to the latter, and then I promise you, it will.

— Tim Wise

Happy Holidays 2014

It’s not even Thanksgiving yet, and already people have started that beloved annual Christmas tradition — belittling people and especially businesses who say “Happy Holidays”.

So I thought maybe I should get my “Happy Holidays” rant out of the way early this year, so here goes…

It’s not about fear of offending someone, it’s about being inclusive. It’s about a business valuing all of their customers, not just the Christian ones. It’s saying to everyone, “I don’t know what holiday you celebrate, but whatever it is I wish you happiness as you celebrate it.”

Only in America would people get upset about trying to wish happiness to everyone. Shame on you Christians, trying to keep all the holiday happiness for yourselves. Learn to share. Maybe be welcoming and friendly to others who aren’t like you. I think maybe Jesus would like that.

(Just guessing on that last part, based on what I’ve read about him — I’m not like hearing voices in my head or anything.)

Anywho…. Happy Holidays Everyone!

Sex, Birth Control, and Public Policy (A Pragmatic Approach)

Okay, first of all I get the idea of personal responsibility. I do. If you’re going to have sex, you should be responsible enough to provide for your own birth control. I get that, but…

As a matter of public policy, for the greater good of everyone involved (i.e. all of us), and beyond that, as a practical matter, as to what actually costs the taxpayers less money…

You are opposed to abortion. You are opposed to unwed mothers and single parent families. You are opposed to “welfare mothers” having babies just to receive more handouts. Your are opposed to illegal immigrants having “anchor babies”. All valid positions, but explain to me then why on earth you are also opposed to providing free birth control.

It seems to me that providing free birth control (and education to go with it) is not only the best way to address each of those issues, it is also the most cost effective way to address each of those issues.

To me it seems simple. If you want poor people to stop having babies, if you want poor people to stop having abortions. Give them birth control, and show them how to use it.

(And please don’t give me the abstinence nonsense either. Asking people to stop having sex is both absurd and naïve. It is contrary to human nature, and any time you try to fight human nature I guarantee you will lose. It’s a fact of life. Literally.)

That you are also opposed to birth control tells me you are not interested in actually solving the problem. It tells me that either you are caught up in some religious or ideological argument that has no basis in reality. Or that you hate women. Or that you hate poor people. Or both. Or all three.

Whatever your reason or reasons, I say this to you. Get over it. Seriously, get the fuck over it. Get over it, stop arguing just for the sake of arguing, and set about actually trying to fix the problem. And for God’s sake, if you can’t do that, at least stop making it worse.

</rant>

Science (GMO’s)

I’ve had the same thoughts rattling around in my head the past few days, but Vanessa Miller put it in words much better than I could…

The American Association for the Advancement of Science, the AAAS Board said, the World Health Organization, the American Medical Association, the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the British Royal Society, and ‘every other respected organization that has examined the evidence has come to the same conclusion: consuming foods containing ingredients derived from GM crops is no riskier than consuming the same foods containing ingredients from crop plants modified by conventional plant improvement techniques.

20 years of testing has found nothing. So we either make our crops stronger or we douse them in poisons that we know are harmful to us and the environment.

I choose science!

— Vanessa Miller

What should we do about Crimea?

Seems like everybody’s talking about what the US should do about Crimea. And by everybody, I mean mostly the 24 hour news-o-tainment channels, but they’re all asking: What should the US do about Crimea? What should the US do about Ukraine? What should the US do about Russia? What should the US do about Putin? What should the US do? You wanna know what the US should do? I’ll tell you what the US should do. Fuck All. That’s what we should do. We should do fuck all about Crimea. We have no interest in Crimea. None. Zero. It is simply none of our business.

You know who has an interest in Crimea? Crimeans, they live there. You know who else has an interest? Ukraine, it’s part of their country. You know who else? Russia, apparently most Crimeans are ethnically Russian (whatever that means). And you know who else? Europe. Sort of. Well, Crimea is Europe-adjacent. And they are a trading partner with Ukraine. And with Russia. So, yes, Europe has some interest in Crimea.

But you know who has no interest in Crimea? Trinidad and Tobago. They have no interest. None. You know who else has no interest? Papua New Guinea. They have no interest either. You know who else? The United States. Do we trade with Ukraine? No, not really. Is Ukraine a member of NATO? No, not yet anyway. Do we have some other defense treaty with Ukraine? No, we do not. Do we have any kind of friendship or special relationship with Ukraine? Nope. Nothing. Nada. Has Ukraine even asked us to do anything? No, they have not. Has anybody, outside of Fox News? No.

So here’s what we should do. We should stay the fuck out of it. All the way the fuck out of it. We should tell Ukraine, Russia, and Crimea, “Look, you guys work it out amongst yourselves, alright? We’ll be over here fracking around for oil. You just let us know what you decide. ‘kay? Cool.”