Yes. Point well taken, Miriam. My thought was to point out how the
system itself has impacted our behavior. But absolutely, we are
responsible for ourselves. And I've seen many examples of people who
altered their beliefs and changed their personalities, and taught
themselves to think, not to believe it can't happen.
Still, I do believe we are seeing the anger and violence that has been
hammered into our heads via TV, leisure-time reading, and the games we
play or watch.
Good and kind behavior bores people. But slice up a beautiful damsel
or blow up a bunch of Terrorists and folks blood starts pumping.
Stir in a little pinch of suspicion and a glob of fear, stir until
reaching the boiling point and then pull off the lid.
Carl Jarvis
On 9/18/15, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
A few responses: I heard the piece about the debate on Democracy Now in
which it was pointed out that the debate moderator did not appropriately
follow up on many of the extreme statements and lies that were uttered by
the candidates. So the media is very complicit in allowing insanity to
reign. I also heard Rand Paul who sounded like the only sanity in the midst
of chaos, which shows how bad things have gotten. And although I certainly
agree that the public has been manipulated and lied to, let us also
consider
the possibility that each of us should, to some extent, be held responsible
for our own thoughts and behavior, that human nature contains some baser
elements, that this might be what Christians mean by original sin or Freud
meant by the id.
I had an experience yesterday which I used to have constantly when my
children attended the Westbury schools where the student body was
predominantly black. It is the evidence of the deep seated ongoing racism
and class divide in our country. A very sweet lady was driving me to do an
errand. She is a good person, active in her community, volunteers for her
church, is kind, but she is a white Long Island resident which, I suppose,
says it all. She was talking about what a lovely town Westbury is. Her
sister has lived here for many years, just a few blocks from my apartment
building. And then she said, very regretfully, "but the schools are so
bad".
And I answered reflexively, as I have been doing for 39 years, "No they're
not. Both my children attended them". She responded that her sister told
her that there was a lot of trouble and she asked when my kids attended,
and
I told her. And then I tried to explain something without explaining
specifically that people view everything that happens through a racist
lens.
My older daughter, the white biological one, came home from junior high one
day complaining that a black girl had beaten her up. She said the girl was
tough and mean. I asked what her name was and she told me. It happened that
I knew the girl's mother because we were working together on a PTA
committee
for the school board elections. So all I said to my daughter was, "Oh, I
know her mother". That's all I told this nice lady, that everything was
fine after that. Had I been a typical white parent, I would have panicked.
I
would have felt that I had to pull my daughter out of school for fear of
escalating racial conflict. I didn't do anything and my daughter actually
became friends with the girl. That rumor, that idea, that the schools were
bad, caused innumerable white parents to pull their kids out of our public
schools, turn them into segregated schools, and then lower the expectations
that many of the teachers had of the black children who remained. White
people don't depend on facts to make these kinds of judgments. They see the
color of people's skin, perhaps, listen to them talk, and write them off.
We
can talk about the reasons why this happens, about how the ruling class
divides in order to rule, economics, whatever, but it becomes real and
individual and every white person I know in this area, not South Carolina,
but Nassau County New York, has a deep, unconscious, ingrained prejudice.
And they can go on and on about training the police, as the people at Black
AGenda Report keep saying, training won't make a damn bit of difference
because it isn't going to reach the deep seated attitudes. And that's why
Donald Trump is so popular.
Miriam
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Friday, September 18, 2015 10:32 AM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Arrest of 14-Year-Old Student for Making a
Clock:
The Fruits of Sustained Fear-
Warning! This is the tip of a time bomb, ticking down to Zero.
If anyone has lingering doubts, just revisit this week's edition of,
"Republican Clowns On Parade", and listen to the clatter of weapons being
aimed at any who appear different. Listen to the exchange between Donald
Trump and his Hate-Spewing supporter, calling out for the extermination of
anyone who is Muslim, looks like a Muslim, is determined to be a Muslim,
and
most likely anyone with skin color that is considered too dark. And
Emperor
Trump did not slam the door in this freak's face. Trump allowed the flames
of hatred and fear to spread, even to the President of the United States of
America.
This is coming to us courtesy of the Republican National Leadership.
A clear picture of our future under any of those "Leader Wannabees"
And we, Fools that we were, believed Americans had become too educated to
fall for another McCarthy. After that demented Senator's effort to spread
fear and hatred by declaring a Communist Threat, and dubbing anyone or
anything that did not agree with his demented beliefs, as Red or Pinko, and
a threat to our American Way of Life.
But it appears that we've been too conditioned to love being scared and
shocked. We love that frightening feeling that at any moment a Boogie Man
might jump out and grab us. We are taking to our constant training in
violence, anger, unreasoned fear, and vengeance. How it must amuse our
Masters as they watch the results of their handiwork, seeing us turn on one
another, sparing them the task of doing us in.
Maybe we really are as stupid as they think we are. Maybe we are easily
marched by the Pied Pipers of the Empire, down the road of self
destruction.
If what we are witnessing as "The Cream of the best leaders our nation can
offer, then the fix really is in, and our self destruction cannot be turned
back.
Carl Jarvis
On 9/17/15, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
school. (photo:
Greenwald writes: "What happened in Irving, Texas yesterday to a
14-year-old Muslim high school freshman is highly illustrative of the
rotted fruit of the US's sustained climate of cultivated anti-Muslim
fear and demonization."
MacArthur High School student Ahmed Mohamed, 14, poses for a photo at
his home in Irving, Tex. On Sept. 15. Mohamed was arrested and
interrogated by Irving Police officers after bringing a homemade clock to
Vernon Bryant/Dallas Morning News)of my being"
Arrest of 14-Year-Old Student for Making a Clock: The Fruits of
Sustained Fear-Mongering and Anti-Muslim Animus By Glenn Greenwald,
The Intercept
16 September 15
There are sprawling industries and self-proclaimed career "terrorism
experts" in the U.S. that profit greatly by deliberately exaggerating
the threat of Terrorism and keeping Americans in a state of abject
fear of "radical Islam." There are all sorts of polemicists who build
their public platforms by demonizing Muslims and scoffing at concerns
over "Islamaphobia," with the most toxic ones insisting that such a
thing does not even exist, even as the mere presence of mosques is
opposed across the country, or even as they are physically attacked.
The U.S. government just formally renewed the "State of Emergency" it
declared in the aftermath of 9/11 for the 14th time since that attack
occurred, ensuring that the country remains in a state of permanent,
endless war, subjected to powers that are still classified as
"extraordinary" even though they have become entirely normalized. As a
result of all of this, a minority group of close to 3 million people
is routinely targeted with bigotry and legal persecution in the Home
of the Free, while fear and hysteria reign supreme in the Land of the
Brave.
What happened in Irving, Texas, yesterday to a 14-year-old Muslim high
school freshman is far from the worst instance, but it is highly
illustrative of the rotted fruit of this sustained climate of
cultivated fear and demonization. The Dallas Morning News reports that
"Ahmed Mohamed
-
who makes his own radios and repairs his own go-kart - hoped to
impress his teachers when he brought a homemade clock to MacArthur
High," but "instead, the school phoned police."
Despite insisting that he made the clock to impress his engineering
teacher, consistent with his long-time interest in "inventing stuff,"
Ahmed was arrested by the police and led out of school with his hands
cuffed behind him. When he was brought into the room to be questioned
by the four police officers who had been dispatched to the school, one
of them - who had never previously seen him - said: "Yup. That's who I
thought it was." As a result, he "felt suddenly conscious of his brown
skin and his name - one of the most common in the Muslim religion."
On Twitter, Anil Dash published a photo, provided by the boy's family,
taken as he was led out in cuffs. Note that he's wearing a NASA shirt:
There's absolutely no evidence that this was anything more than a
clock, nor any indication of any kind that the talented and inventive
freshman built it as anything other than a school project. But even
now, "police say they may yet charge him with making a hoax bomb -
though they acknowledge he told everyone who would listen that it's a
clock." According to the BBC, "police spokesman James McLellan said
that, throughout the interview, Ahmed had maintained that he built
only a clock, but said the boy was unable to give a 'broader
explanation' as to what it would be used for."
The Dallas Morning News let Ahmed speak for himself by posting a video
of him recounting what happened. Behold the Terrorist Mastermind:
The behavior here is nothing short of demented. And it's easy to mock,
which in turn has the effect of belittling it and casting it as some
sort of bizarre aberration. But it's not that. It's the opposite of
aberrational.
It's the natural, inevitable byproduct of the culture of fear and
demonization that has festered and been continuously inflamed for many
years. The circumstances that led to this are systemic and cultural,
not aberrational.
The mayor of Irving, Beth Van Duyne, became a beloved national hero to
America's anti-Muslim fanatics when, last February, she seized on a
fraudulent online chain letter, which claimed that area imams had
created a special court based on sharia law. In response, Mayor Van
Duyne posted a Facebook rant in which she vowed to "fight with every
fiber
thefor violence.
nonexistent "sharia court." One anti-Muslim website gushed that Irving
"is being called 'ground zero' in the battle to prevent Islamic law
from gaining a foothold, no matter how small, in the U.S. legal
system" and hailed her as "the mayor who stood up to the Muslim
Brotherhood."
That led to support for a bill introduced in the Texas State
Legislature banning the use of foreign law, which its sponsor made
clear was targeted at least in part at these "sharia courts." The
Irving City Council went out of its way to enact a resolution
supporting the state bill. It was enacted in June. One of the City
Council members who opposed the bill - William "Bill"
Mahone, who "denounced the vote and urged Irving to 'embrace the
Muslims'"
-
then lost his seat in the city election "by a wide margin." I've
spoken to Muslim groups in Irving and there is a small but thriving
community there, which in turn has produced intense anti-Muslim animus.
Just like Ahmed's arrest, Irving is representative of the U.S.
broadly, not aberrational. The U.S. just a few years ago went into a
shameful fit of mass hysteria over a proposed Islamic community center
near Ground Zero - as though Muslims generally were guilty of that
attack - but since then, in obscurity, ordinary mosques have faced all
sorts of opposition from their mere existence, or once they do exist,
physical menacing and violence. A
2014 Pew Poll found that Americans feel more negatively toward Muslims
than any other religious group in the country.
There are all sorts of obvious, extreme harms that come from being a
nation at permanent war. Your country ends up killing huge numbers of
innocent people all over the world. Vast resources are drained away
from individuals and programs of social good into the pockets of
weapons manufacturers. Core freedoms are inexorably and inevitably
eroded - seized - in its name. The groups being targeted are
marginalized and demonized in order to maximize fear levels and tolerance
But perhaps the worst of all harms is how endless war degrades theschool. (photo:
culture and populace of the country that perpetrates it. You can't
have a government that has spent decades waging various forms of war
against predominantly Muslim countries - bombing seven of them in the
last six years alone - and then act surprised when a Muslim
14-year-old triggers vindictive fear and persecution because he makes
a clock for school. That's no more surprising than watching carrots
sprout after you plant carrot seeds in fertile ground and then
carefully water them. It's natural and inevitable, not surprising or
at all difficult to understand.
Error! Hyperlink reference not valid. Error! Hyperlink reference not
valid.
MacArthur High School student Ahmed Mohamed, 14, poses for a photo at
his home in Irving, Tex. On Sept. 15. Mohamed was arrested and
interrogated by Irving Police officers after bringing a homemade clock to
Vernon Bryant/Dallas Morning News)of my being"
https://theintercept.com/2015/09/16/arrest-14-year-old-student-making-
clock-
fruits-15-years-fear-mongering-anti-muslim-animus/https://theintercept
.com/2
015/09/16/arrest-14-year-old-student-making-clock-fruits-15-years-fear
-monge
ring-anti-muslim-animus/
Arrest of 14-Year-Old Student for Making a Clock: The Fruits of
Sustained Fear-Mongering and Anti-Muslim Animus By Glenn Greenwald,
The Intercept
16 September 15
here are sprawling industries and self-proclaimed career "terrorism
experts" in the U.S. that profit greatly by deliberately exaggerating
the threat of Terrorism and keeping Americans in a state of abject
fear of "radical Islam." There are all sorts of polemicists who build
their public platforms by demonizing Muslims and scoffing at concerns
over "Islamaphobia," with the most toxic ones insisting that such a
thing does not even exist, even as the mere presence of mosques is
opposed across the country, or even as they are physically attacked.
The U.S. government just formally renewed the "State of Emergency" it
declared in the aftermath of 9/11 for the 14th time since that attack
occurred, ensuring that the country remains in a state of permanent,
endless war, subjected to powers that are still classified as
"extraordinary" even though they have become entirely normalized. As a
result of all of this, a minority group of close to 3 million people
is routinely targeted with bigotry and legal persecution in the Home
of the Free, while fear and hysteria reign supreme in the Land of the
Brave.
What happened in Irving, Texas, yesterday to a 14-year-old Muslim high
school freshman is far from the worst instance, but it is highly
illustrative of the rotted fruit of this sustained climate of
cultivated fear and demonization. The Dallas Morning News reports that
"Ahmed Mohamed
-
who makes his own radios and repairs his own go-kart - hoped to
impress his teachers when he brought a homemade clock to MacArthur
High," but "instead, the school phoned police."
Despite insisting that he made the clock to impress his engineering
teacher, consistent with his long-time interest in "inventing stuff,"
Ahmed was arrested by the police and led out of school with his hands
cuffed behind him. When he was brought into the room to be questioned
by the four police officers who had been dispatched to the school, one
of them - who had never previously seen him - said: "Yup. That's who I
thought it was." As a result, he "felt suddenly conscious of his brown
skin and his name - one of the most common in the Muslim religion."
On Twitter, Anil Dash published a photo, provided by the boy's family,
taken as he was led out in cuffs. Note that he's wearing a NASA shirt:
There's absolutely no evidence that this was anything more than a
clock, nor any indication of any kind that the talented and inventive
freshman built it as anything other than a school project. But even
now, "police say they may yet charge him with making a hoax bomb -
though they acknowledge he told everyone who would listen that it's a
clock." According to the BBC, "police spokesman James McLellan said
that, throughout the interview, Ahmed had maintained that he built
only a clock, but said the boy was unable to give a 'broader
explanation' as to what it would be used for."
The Dallas Morning News let Ahmed speak for himself by posting a video
of him recounting what happened. Behold the Terrorist Mastermind:
The behavior here is nothing short of demented. And it's easy to mock,
which in turn has the effect of belittling it and casting it as some
sort of bizarre aberration. But it's not that. It's the opposite of
aberrational.
It's the natural, inevitable byproduct of the culture of fear and
demonization that has festered and been continuously inflamed for many
years. The circumstances that led to this are systemic and cultural,
not aberrational.
The mayor of Irving, Beth Van Duyne, became a beloved national hero to
America's anti-Muslim fanatics when, last February, she seized on a
fraudulent online chain letter, which claimed that area imams had
created a special court based on sharia law. In response, Mayor Van
Duyne posted a Facebook rant in which she vowed to "fight with every
fiber
thefor violence.
nonexistent "sharia court." One anti-Muslim website gushed that Irving
"is being called 'ground zero' in the battle to prevent Islamic law
from gaining a foothold, no matter how small, in the U.S. legal
system" and hailed her as "the mayor who stood up to the Muslim
Brotherhood."
That led to support for a bill introduced in the Texas State
Legislature banning the use of foreign law, which its sponsor made
clear was targeted at least in part at these "sharia courts." The
Irving City Council went out of its way to enact a resolution
supporting the state bill. It was enacted in June. One of the City
Council members who opposed the bill - William "Bill"
Mahone, who "denounced the vote and urged Irving to 'embrace the
Muslims'"
-
then lost his seat in the city election "by a wide margin." I've
spoken to Muslim groups in Irving and there is a small but thriving
community there, which in turn has produced intense anti-Muslim animus.
Just like Ahmed's arrest, Irving is representative of the U.S.
broadly, not aberrational. The U.S. just a few years ago went into a
shameful fit of mass hysteria over a proposed Islamic community center
near Ground Zero - as though Muslims generally were guilty of that
attack - but since then, in obscurity, ordinary mosques have faced all
sorts of opposition from their mere existence, or once they do exist,
physical menacing and violence. A
2014 Pew Poll found that Americans feel more negatively toward Muslims
than any other religious group in the country.
There are all sorts of obvious, extreme harms that come from being a
nation at permanent war. Your country ends up killing huge numbers of
innocent people all over the world. Vast resources are drained away
from individuals and programs of social good into the pockets of
weapons manufacturers. Core freedoms are inexorably and inevitably
eroded - seized - in its name. The groups being targeted are
marginalized and demonized in order to maximize fear levels and tolerance
But perhaps the worst of all harms is how endless war degrades the
culture and populace of the country that perpetrates it. You can't
have a government that has spent decades waging various forms of war
against predominantly Muslim countries - bombing seven of them in the
last six years alone - and then act surprised when a Muslim
14-year-old triggers vindictive fear and persecution because he makes
a clock for school. That's no more surprising than watching carrots
sprout after you plant carrot seeds in fertile ground and then
carefully water them. It's natural and inevitable, not surprising or
at all difficult to understand.
http://e-max.it/posizionamento-siti-web/socialize
http://e-max.it/posizionamento-siti-web/socialize