Saturday, November 15, 2014
This Week in American History
From the Facebook page of Isabel Wilkerson
On this day, Nov. 12, 1940, the Supreme Court ruled on a case that would inspire one of the seminal plays of the 20th Century, “A Raisin in the Sun.” The parents of Lorraine Hansberry, Carl and Nannie, a real estate broker and a schoolteacher, had left the Jim Crow South only to discover hostility in the North.
It was in 1937 that they tried to move into the all-white Washington Park section of Chicago. Neighbors filed a lawsuit forcing the family out on the basis of restrictive covenants. Lorraine, the youngest of the couple’s four children, was eight years old at the time and witnessed violence against her family as her parents tried to stand their ground. The Hansberrys went to court to challenge the restrictive covenants and to return to the house they bought.
The case, Hansberry v. Lee, culminated in a 1940 Supreme Court decision that helped strike a blow against segregation, though the hostility continued. Neighbors surrounded their house at one point, throwing bricks and broken concrete, narrowly missing Lorraine’s head, and neighborhood children ganged up and attacked her at school.
The experience would plant the seed for the 1959 play and later the film, “A Raisin in the Sun,” starring Sidney Poitier, Claudia McNeil and Ruby Dee. It would not be until 1968 that the landmark Fair Housing Act would officially prohibit housing discrimination in the United States.
Her father would not live to see that day nor his daughter's Broadway triumph. Carl Hansberry, a Mississippian who had journeyed to Chicago during the Great Migration, never recovered from the family's housing ordeal. He died at age 50 in 1946 of a cerebral hemorrhage in Mexico, where he was planning to move his family out of disillusionment. Their house at 6140 South Rhodes is now a Chicago landmark and the beloved play their family's legacy.
The experience would plant the seed for the 1959 play and later the film, “A Raisin in the Sun,” starring Sidney Poitier, Claudia McNeil and Ruby Dee. It would not be until 1968 that the landmark Fair Housing Act would officially prohibit housing discrimination in the United States.
Her father would not live to see that day nor his daughter's Broadway triumph. Carl Hansberry, a Mississippian who had journeyed to Chicago during the Great Migration, never recovered from the family's housing ordeal. He died at age 50 in 1946 of a cerebral hemorrhage in Mexico, where he was planning to move his family out of disillusionment. Their house at 6140 South Rhodes is now a Chicago landmark and the beloved play their family's legacy.
-- The Warmth of Other Suns
For more on the family's ordeal:
"To Be Young, Gifted and Black" by Lorraine Hansberry
http://www.chipublib.org/lorraine-hansberry-biography/
http://www.theroot.com/…/cu…/2009/03/not_in_my_backyard.html
http://www.chipublib.org/lorraine-hansberry-biography/
http://www.theroot.com/…/cu…/2009/03/not_in_my_backyard.html
Thursday, November 13, 2014
Fukushima Radiation Nears California Coast
Yes, I saw this two days ago:
It immediately reminded me of this:
Have a nice day, y'all. Keep warm.
The disrespect--and lies--heaped on and attributed to this president
This is the kind of character assassination President Obama gets now. It used to nearly exclusively come from the Fox Network (I refuse to call it news). These all came, on the same day, yesterday, from Yahoo "News":
Wednesday, November 12, 2014
Kansas City, St. Louis and Missouri not on a good list
The FBI's latest murder rate list came out and St. Louis and Kansas City, specifically and so, Missouri, in general, don't come out looking very good. The list?
Check out number 10: Kansas City, Missouri
Allan Baxter via Getty Images
Murder and non-negligent manslaughter rate per 100,000 people: 21
Total murders and non-negligent manslaughters: 99
Violent crime rate per 100,000 people: 1,260
Total violent crimes: 5,864
Population: 465,514
All data from FBI's 2013 Uniform Crime Report.
To lick our collective wounds on the West side of the state, here's St. Lou---
No. 4
Byron Jorjorian via Getty Images
And their rather lamentable stats:
Murder and non-negligent manslaughter rate per 100,000 people: 38
Total murders and non-negligent manslaughters: 120
Violent crime rate per 100,000 people: 1,594
Total violent crimes: 5,077
Population: 318,563
All data from FBI's 2013 Uniform Crime Report.
Note, only one other state had two cities on the ignominious list (and that was Louisiana).
Missouri, it's starting to suck to be you, kiddo.
Any ideas, citizens of Missouri? Solutions, anyone?
Tuesday, November 11, 2014
On this Veterans Day
For all the Veterans of all wars, let's remember this
and make sure we don't create any more.
Veterans Day, 2014
"I am prepared to die, but there is no cause for which I am prepared to kill.”
--Mohandas K Gandhi
Monday, November 10, 2014
Sunday, November 9, 2014
Check out what's coming from Right Wing, Republican, "Conservative", "Small Government" Southwest Missouri
Check out what just came out of Southwest Missouri---and don't think it won't be headed your way:
If this isn't a rights travesty, I don't know what is. Check out the details:
Numerous arrests were made during sobriety checkpoint Friday evening.
The four-hour checkpoint at the intersection of Kansas Expressway and Broadmoor Street involved more than 900 motorists.
This new program is an effort to help keep impaired drivers off the streets.
It is called a "no refusal" policy because all arrested impaired drivers who refuse breath testing are subject to blood testing for alcohol if a judge approves a warrant. The ability of law enforcement officers to submit their search warrant applications to judges electronically make this process both easy and relatively quick.
The checkpoint was funded through a grant from the Missouri Department of Transportation, Division of Highway Safety.
There are so many things to say about this, I'll do my best to be brief.
And understand, up front, I have personally been the victim of two drunk driving accidents where the person smashed into my car. My own injuries were extensive in each, too, so I'm not against keeping drunks or drug addicts off the streets and out from behind the wheels of cars, don't get me wrong.
What I am patently against here is the presumption, from the outset, of sobriety checkpoints, first, and then, this second, added feature of a "no refusal" policy for a breath test.
What part of "innocent until proven guilty" do these people not understand?
This is what we've come to in America? Personal rights be damned, full speed ahead?
And I love that they got everyone on board here, too--the county sheriff, the local police, the highway patrol, the whole kitten-kaboodle. I'm surprised the Boy Scouts of America weren't asked to participate. "Sure! Get 'em all on board! Let's show 'em how we treat rights in America!"
Whatever in the world happen to Fifth Amendment rights and the Presumption of innocence?
I say again, this is supposed to be Right Wing, if not extreme Right Wing, very Republican, very "red", "small government", "conservative" Southwest Missouri and Springfield. Where are these Gestapo tactics coming from?
I think people ought to organize down there in Springfield and the surrounding area, Greene County and others, and go straight for the next weekend checkpoint. Then, when they're pulled over, all say the same thing: "No, I won't take a breathalyzer test. I've done nothing wrong. I know my rights. This is America, after all."
Then, let them drag them all, hopefully hundreds of them, into jail.
I'd join that party.
Saturday, November 8, 2014
Entertainment Overnight -- Amazed
From the upcoming album of other artists covering Paul McCartney tunes:
Hope y'all are having a great weekend.
Making Sure Missourians Know How One Billionaire Was Trying to Buy This Election
And that billionaire is--no surprise--Rex Sinquefield. Did you all see this from a week or so ago?
Here's the story:
ST. LOUIS • A representative of a Missouri PAC funded by wealthy conservative political activist Rex Sinquefield tried to recruit several political reporters from mainstream media outlets around the state to write copy on the side for its causes — a clear no-no among working journalists, as the PAC's representative quickly learned.
The public relations firm Skyword Press, representing the Sinquefield PAC Grow Missouri, sent out an email to several reporters in which it offered $250 per article for the journalists to write about tax reform, politics and other controversial issues on which the PAC lobbies.
Some of the offers were sent to reporters who regularly cover Sinquefield's political activities, including Alex Stuckey of the Post-Dispatch Jefferson City Bureau. Some of the emails specified that the writers would be allowed to write anonymously.
National media blogger Jim Romenesko, who wrote on the issue Friday, said others who reported having been approached include St. Louis Public Radio's Jason Rosenbaum and Columbia Daily Tribune’s Rudi Keller.
It's disgusting. It's vile. And it's blatant.
Fortunately, a government representative is saying something about it, if even without out-and-out naming him. This, then, from The Turner Report:
Schweich rips into Sinquefield during victory speech
Here's the video:
Missouri needs campaign contribution limits put back in place in Jefferson City, without question. This is beyond disgusting. And the change needs to come from us.
Friday, November 7, 2014
Wednesday, November 5, 2014
On David Glass and his/our Kansas City Royals
Here's hoping Kansas City Royals owner David Glass has gotten spoiled this year by having his/our team go first into the playoffs and then the actual Series.
Hoping he got addicted to all that extra money so he'll do all he can---including spending money--to make sure we get back there again.
And again.
And again.
Go Royals!
Tuesday, November 4, 2014
Entertainment Overnight -- from last night
Big Chris Botti fan here. This is from last evening's Monday Night Football game.
this is very good by dm_520cd98243c9e
The Problems With Our Government--and Our Elections
The problems with our government are that
a) the elections for our representatives in our governement go on forever
b) we've made "campaign contributions" legal and
c) we've made unlimited spending on these campaigns not just legal but unlimited. That's insanity.
This is true for our national as well as state elections, too.
The fix?
We need to do what the Brits did, years ago, and limit our elections to one or, at most, two months in length, by law. This way, the big campaign money wouldn't be needed.
It's simple. It's badly, wildly needed. It's long overdue. It's simple.
But Americans and especially the wealthy and corporations won't easily go along with this just as so many don't understand the benefits of the Fairness Doctrine in our media we used to have.
We can only hope.
Fight and work for change.
And hope.
Link: We could learn a lot from the U.K. election
Kansas heads will be 'asplodin' today
First this:
And then tonight, some Republicans losing, and big time?
Monday, November 3, 2014
Sunday, November 2, 2014
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