Reading The Crawl

I am amazed at the news that never passes the lips of the newscasters, but that makes the crawl. I know it sounds odd, but whether there is a large breasted blonde or a handsome dark-haired man delivering the news, my eyes are often on the crawl. I cannot count the number of times that the words, scrolling across the bottom of the screen mimic the words coming from the mouths of the "talent". The really bizarre thing is that inexplicably, some of the best (or worst) news never rises to the level of spoken word. Somehow in the infinitely wise judgement of the producers, it is quite acceptable to let the small percentage of readers in on some of the greatest secrets ever kept, as long as those who are interested in the heavily make-uped, moveable reflective surfaces pay no attention to those persnickety letters racing across the footer.

Yesterday, I was reading along and caught a snippet that surely warrants a serious bit of coverage, but in a flash it was gone, never to come around again. This happened again today and it left me wondering what gives? How do these tiny bits of real information make it onscreen in the first place if they are nearly immediately removed from the feed?

Today, I saw that the American Psychiatric Association deemed therapies intended to "cure gayness" as malpractice. Not that I place much stock in psychiatrists, I certainly wouldn't want one raising any child of mine, but the fact that the leader of the largest religiously-based "reprogramming" organization in the world (Exodus International) has admitted that no amount of prayer can change our "god-given" sexuality should be enough to convince even the staunchest anti-gay lobby that they are flying in the face of reality. This was one of those interesting tidbits that never passed the lips of the good-looking newscasters. Perhaps this is an attempt to sanitize the news for those who would be made to feel uncomfortable if they had to change their worldview, perhaps it is an innocent oversight.

I frequently lobby for higher levels of truth being made available for public consumption and seeing this sort of thing in print, if only briefly, is a start. In this case, however, we need to integrate a more humane discussion of this subject into our schools, homes, churches and indeed our government. This week we are seeing a flap in the U.S. House of Representatives because a majority of our representatives there want to extend the same protections from workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation or status that we have for many other groups, but the Speaker of the House, John Boehner, will not call for a vote. The Senate has already passed the legislation and the President is ready to sign it into law, but the one guy who has the power to let the people be heard is holding up the show, presumably because his "morality" dictates that it be easy to remain bigoted and full of hate for a segment of the population that have exactly the same rights as everyone else, but who have been ostracized, made fun of, and shut out of many of the benefits that he himself has enjoyed as a citizen of our country. The truth is hard to determine exactly, but actions speak far louder than words and further inaction on this issue speak volumes about the character of this single and solitary man. They say that absolute power corrupts absolutely.

The second and perhaps more terrifying blurb that came through, again only once, is that Saudi Arabia has sent millions to Pakistan for ramping up that country's nuclear weapons manufacturing capacity. Those who stay up on U.S. policies regarding nuclear proliferation know that our leaders are currently in a tizzy about Iran's supposed pursuit of weapons-grade uranium, but any country that seriously took on this challenge was able to do so within three years. Our representatives to congress and the last several administrations have been spouting this bullshit for decades. Recognizing that one cannot prove a negative, it seems counter-intuitive that a nation, hell bent on getting "the bomb" would release with great fanfare, a year or so ago, that they were finally able to create medical grade isotopes, which by the way, are much easier and far less costly to refine.

I can't tell you what to think and I certainly don't want to lead you down a primrose path to ruin like so many seem to be doing in the media, but I can tell you that reading the crawl can yield a bit more fullness to your understanding of issues. They may not give you the full story, but they definitely can spark a line of inquiry that lets us begin the process of discovery. The media used to have the self-imposed job of creating an informed public, but in my short half century, it has turned more and more into entertainment. In my humble opinion, this is for the good of only the oligarchs. I will continue to speak truth to power and I appreciate the fact that so many people worldwide take the time to read my posts. I continue to study and pay attention and hope that you all do the same. Great change often comes in a flash and when enough people hear and understand that the great imbalance in power that the world is being subjected to cannot be sustained without catastrophic results, perhaps we will step away from he escalating demise of the planet and her people for the enrichment of an elite that has never known want, never thirsted for anything but the finest quality everything and who have no qualms about grinding the rest of us to dust under their oppression.

With One Hand

With one hand we are given what the other hand takes away. This week in the United States of America, our Supreme Court has struck down two unjust laws that attempted to make second class citizens of our elders, our fathers and mothers, brothers, sisters, sons and daughters, for their "sexual orientation". Great celebrations took place across our great land for this important step toward a more humane treatment of those all successful native tribes revere. Both DOMA (the Defense Of Marriage Act), which limited marriage to couples of two sexes and Proposition 8 were struck down. I am as happy as anyone would be knowing that our federal Government will not withhold rights guaranteed to some individuals from others simply because they love someone who happens to be of the same sex. It is ironic that one day earlier, the same nine justices negated the Voting Rights Act, which attempted to eliminate the disgraceful exclusion of minorities from voting.

In my state, over 400,000, mostly poor, black individuals, were recently shifted from one district to another to keep them from voting for a state senator for the next six years. As heinous as that sounds, it is the type of deceitful and unpatriotic approach that "conservatives" often take when they are allowed into office. Each time a census occurs, population trends require some shifting of district boundaries to keep the populations of each district about the same, however, if you can cut people out of the voting process legally, it seems, the mostly rich, mostly white, mostly men seem to feel that they have every right to do so. In the eyes of the Supreme Court, they are right. I continue to see, hear and feel the prejudice still alive across our country. Not only is it alive in our language, our policing practices, the courts and our schools, but it is dripping from open wounds reflected in comedy, political rhetoric and in the unilateral opinions expressed by most clergy. Now, even if this criminal, but legal, disenfranchisement were to be challenged, there would be no legal foundation for those seeking to put things right.

Sadly, it seems, both of these decisions were made by money, for money and of money, not the people. First, let me take on the issue of gays. Please, remember that my father only wed my mother to help mask his own attraction to men. I have nothing at all against anyone who is open and honest about who they are. I respect whatever people feel or believe, but the court may be wiser than any of us can fathom. they knew that there would be hell to pay if they did not give something at the same time they were taking away rights from the growing population of "minorities". For many years one of the "gay" slogans was 10%. "They" claimed to be 10% of the population. I don't want to debate that, I have not looked closely at the numbers. Just in the last week or so, we have seen the admission of the founder of Exodus International, a gay man himself who began the "deprogramming organization" which sought to reorient gays, motivated by religious doctrine, that the whole theory of changing sexual attraction is a farce. This organization dissolving this week was, in my opinion, more important than the Supreme Court case that upheld the rights of individuals to marry whomever they desire.

Many, who would be happier in the "gay" community have not yet come out to themselves. The number could conceivably be much higher than 10%. The court threw them a bone. My cynical side says that it may be because "they" are mostly white, mostly better educated and certainly more politically active than those whose rights were undermined this week. Their celebrations certainly captured more media attention than the protests against gutting the Voting Rights Act. The "mostly white" part is because many minority communities are still in the grips of religious doctrines imposed on them by their oppressors and culturally important norms that keep many gay individuals from open admission about their sexual preferences. Having friends that are homosexual in both the black and Hispanic communities, I have seen this first hand. The stereotypes and malingering distrust and hatred of gays in both communities seems as strong as it was amongst whites fifty or more years ago.

Rich white men know that they are already a minority. That is why they work so hard to keep their women voting the way they tell them to (that effectively doubles their vote). That is why they continue to seek ways to legally keep people away from the polls and incarcerate or call into question the legality of more and  more minorities. These power brokers know that as all other segments continue to increase, they will become an ever-shrinking piece of the pie. The writing is on the wall, but they keep calling it graffiti and whitewashing away the inevitable. It is disgusting that the Federal Government has effectively turned their backs on those who suffer at the hands of rich white men day in and day out, the poor, the elderly, the women of our great land, the blacks, the Hispanics, the Asians, the native people, the disenfranchised. As glad as I am that we are beginning to get some things right, when the other jack boot falls, it always seems to be on the neck of those who have been treated the worst. I truly hope that when our ancestors look back on this time in history they will say, "There were those who stood up for what is right." I also hope that they will see the evil and unjust procedures that are being used to foist what is wrong on those least able to defend themselves against it.

I beg everyone to confront these issues truthfully, honestly and compassionately. Only love can triumph over fear. The only thing we have to lose is our humanity. We will only lose that if we turn our backs on our fellow human beings.