Voorhees Collective

     It seemed kind of a no brainier this year to ask Michael Phelps to carry the flag for our Olympic representatives during the opening ceremonies in Rio.  He is, after all, our most decorated athlete in modern history.  I was, however, a bit surprised when CNN called for him to stand down and let a little known female fencer carry it for him.  "We should have Ibtihaj Mohamed carry the flag--because diversity."  Mohamed was indeed out in front of the American contingency in all her hijab wearing glory  Much ado was made about Mohamed's courage and record shattering, history making accomplishment of--being the first woman to wear her bed sheets to the Olympics. It was somehow going to bestow magical fencing powers and grant her the---wait, what?  Never mind, I guess she never even made the finals.  But hey, she showed courage and that's what counts right?

Ibtihaj Mohamed

   By contrast, in 1936, Jesse Owens, a Black man from the U.S., went to Nazi Germany to compete at the Summer Olympics.  In front of Adolf Hitler, who had made his distaste of non Aryans quite clear.  Here we have Black man, who has no control over the pigment color of his skin, traveling around the world from his bigoted home nation to the home of bigotry and hate, to compete in front of the most racist man ever documented in modern history.  Not just that, he won four gold medals. Hitler got up and walked out of the stadium just so he would not have to shake the hand of a Black man who had just laid waste to his finest competitors.  THAT, my friends, is courage.

Jesse Owens, 1936

     But I digress. Much ado has been made about how wearing a habib, or jibob, or a handjob, or whatever you call it on your head, makes one courageous.  It symbolizes the fight against adversity and ignorance oppression that Muslims in the U.S. have to face on a daily basis.   History would tend to disagree with that assessment.  The hijab has historically been used by Muslim societies to reinforce the ideology that men are the superior and ruling sex.  It is used as a sign of submission within the Muslim faith and has been used to remind women publicly that they are "lesser people" in their society.  Wearing that thing in public does not display courage, but rather a lack thereof.  But with all this awesome public praise for these women showing their "courage" publicly, it should have probably come as no surprise to me when, while traveling with my friend Nicholas, we encountered a sight at the Charlotte Airport this week.

     There, standing in the TSA security checkpoint line, were two women dressed in full on head to toe, nothing showing but the eyes burka style black Klan attire. They wandered through the checkpoint without having to show their faces-because religion. And off they went to blow up the nearest plane.  Need I remind our good readers, that these people are the very reason that we have TSA checkpoints in the first place?  There was that little ordeal back in 2001 where a bunch of these people stole 4 planes and crashed them into buildings all over the east coast. I should not think that their religious inclinations buy them a pass at security checkpoints, Quite the contrary, I would expect these people to get the advanced package from the scrutiny of TSA. I mean- what purpose does it even serve to show an ID if you are not required to show your face?  But it's Okay because they were showing courage.

Jason Voorhees

     If you really wanted to apply this logic unilaterally, think about it this way:  Based on the "religious" beliefs bullshit, one could, in theory, become a full fledged follower of the Jason Voorhees Collective.  This religion demands full time application of a full face hockey mask.  Also one should have in their possession at all times, sharp and pointy objects with which to dismember and dispatch disagreeable sexually active teenagers.  "No I don't have to take my mask off and no you cant take my sharp pointy objects--because religion."   Conversely, you could join the Jediism movement. (Yes, an actual religion based on the Star Wars franchise)  Lets all don our Darth Vader masks and laser swords and wander through security checkpoints-  When anyone questions you, just respond with: "I find your lack of faith disturbing." Let's see how far that gets anyone. 

     I don't intend to take away from Mohamed or her accomplishments as a world class fencer.  But wearing a hijab around is no more an act of courage than me wandering around with a Vader helmet on. It's a stab at attention grabbing by inciting your so called religious beliefs and the media can't swallow the bullshit fast enough. Your faith does not buy you a pass folks.  Unless you are Muslim-because somehow, we went from "These are the people trying to kill everyone" to "We should be coddling the people trying to kill everyone".  All of this gives me a great idea for a new business.  I am going to open a stand by the airport selling burkas and hijabs to travelers.  That way folks can be assured that they will breeze right through security checkpoints with no undue scrutiny.

Rock and a Hard Place

     The two party system is broken.  For decades now, we have been handed a menu every four years that reads something along the lines of: 
"Today's menu offering consists of a shit sandwich, or you can have the bread shit-wich.  Both come with extra onions, a Diet Coke and a side of freedom fries." 
 On they bright side, they have been including napkins made out of little shredded bits of the Constitution for you to wipe your mouth. Most Americans agree that the "lesser of two evils" approach has been strangling our political system for way too long now. The whole thing is facilitated and pushed along by the propagandist media and manipulated by people behind the scenes. This year is no exception, as we find ourselves staring down the option of selecting a leftist crook or a right wing narcissist. 

     It is in that spirit, that I turned my attention to the Libertarian party for a look.  For the last several years, I have been leaning with the Libertarians in their viewpoints about how this country should be run.   On the (L) platform this year, I found Gary Johnson and Bill Weld.  On the surface, they seemed like a breath of fresh air. Rational thoughts and good ideas about how to handle some of the nations biggest problems. The Johnson for Prez website even lays out their platform in a pretty easy to read and sensible fashion.  Now, most of you who know me, also know that I am adamant about the protection of our Bill of Rights.  I firmly believe that the assault on the 2nd Amendment is a key battleground in protecting all of our rights.  So I was pleased to discover this statement on the Johnson Weld platform:

"Gary Johnson believes that people, not politicians, should make choices in their personal lives. Responsible adults should be free to marry whom they want, arm themselves if they want, and lead their personal lives as they see fit — as long as they aren’t harming anyone else in doing so."

     This falls right in line with the platform laid out on the official Libertarian website:

"We oppose all laws at any level of government restricting, registering, or monitoring the ownership, manufacture, or transfer of firearms or ammunition."

 Packaged with some of the other things, I was just about sold on the (L) ticket this year.   Then I was pointed to an interview that Libertarian Vice Presidential Candidate Bill Weld did with Revolt at the DNC.  I was going good, until about 16:35 into the interview. If you want to see what I am talking about- the link is below:  Skip to 16:30 to save time if you want-

Revolt Interview

 with Bill Weld.

  When asked about the banning of assault weapons, Weld gave some responses that displayed a profound sense of ignorance.   Here is an outline of what he said:

"The five shot rifle, that's a standard military rifle.  The problem is that you can attach a clip to so that it fires more shells and if you remove the pin so that it becomes an automatic weapon. .....That's when they essentially become a weapon of mass destruction. "

   This is where I would like my liberal friends to really pay attention because every single thing about that statement was not only incorrect, it was just plain stupid.  Let me break this down a bit and show you why:  The last standard 5 shot rifle issued by the US Military was the 1903 Springfield.  It was phased out entirely in 1936 with it was replaced with the last clip fed rifle we issued our soldiers: the M1 Garand- which held 8 rounds, not 5. The last of the Garand rifles were taken out of service during the Vietnam war.  No modern rifles are clip fed.  Just about all semi-auto rifles today use magazines.   

     Let's come to the last element of Weld's statement:  Weld asserts that by pulling some kind of pin out of any rifle, it suddenly becomes a fully automatic weapon of mass destruction.  That notion is not only absurd, it's illegal.  It is entirely possible to convert some rifles to a full auto mode, but it takes a lot more work that "pulling a pin" and again-it's illegal. 

   So, lets put this all together and take a look at Welds statement as I read it.  Weld claims that if you take a rifle like this:

Attach one of these to it:

Pull on one of these:

The result is this:

     Now while I am sure that most rational people understand the basic idea that Mr Weld was trying to get across, that is not what I am looking for in a man who claims to be about protecting my freedom.  The debate over guns and the regulation thereof is a very hot one right now.  Most gun owners have been ready to listen to logical, well prepared arguments and debate about it- the problem is that for far too long, we have stood here with our well prepared arguments and all we hear is "We need to ban the bad thingies and the doohickeys that make  death thingies and make sure you include all the doo-dads that make the world blow up"  We are asking for something very simple:  If you want to discuss firearm regulation, at least take some time to bother to educate yourself on the subject matter. 

    In this particular application, not only has Weld displayed a profound lack of information about one of the most important issues of this election cycle, he has shown that in reality, he does not agree with the party platform, or even the statements outlined on his own website.   Gentlemen, you lost me on this one.  Maybe that shit sammich is worth a second look.

Waterfoul

 

  This week Michael Phelps jumped into a pool In Rio and shattered records that have stood for millennia, and became one of the most decorated athletes in Olympic history.  Hell, it's easy to see how this happened.  The man has a wingspan like an albatross.  To put this into perspective, Phelps' outstretched arms measure six feet, four inches across.  To put THAT into perspective, 96.1% of Americans are shorter than 6',4" standing up.  If the man weren't so damn tall, I am sure his knuckles would drag on the ground behind him as he walked.  Using those meat hooks to push himself around the pool, it's easy to see how he leaves everyone in his wake.

     So it probably comes as no surprise to anyone really that Phepls has dominated his chosen sport. He is also dominating the media coverage of the Olympics.  What did surprise me, was some of the reactions that I have been reading this morning. I am suddenly seeing a lot of people questioning the "lack of ethnic diversity" in our swimming team. I have read several stories and posts from the likes of NPR and the BBC about how and why there are so few minorities in the pool.  My favorite by far was an analogy that went back to the 1920's and examined how segregation made it impossible for black children have access to public swimming pools and hence today, none of the black folks in the US know how to swim.  They even pointed out that swimming is financially out of reach of minority groups.  So there it is.  The media has managed to take one of our finest and proudest moments and turn it into a race baiting circus. Nice job.

      I want to take this opportunity to point out a few things real quick. Seventy one percent of the earths surface is covered by--water.  Access to water is not only a basic fundamental human right, it's essential to stay alive. Water is our most abundant resource on the entire planet. Almost the entirety of our population centers are built on, or near fresh water sources.  Every human being in this country has a supply of water within walking distance of where they are currently at- because if they didn't, they would die.  A pretty large portion of those people are within a short travel distance to a body of water. 

     Now for the shocker: I'm white and I know how to swim; because white privilege. NO! Bullshit!  I know how to swim because I found a place to get in the damn water and figured out how to do it.  By and large, most of the time when I am swimming, (which admittedly is not all that often) it's not in a Government sanctioned swimming pool.  Actually, the closer probability is that I am swimming in a pond or a lake or even a river. I know how to swim because I chose to learn how to do it.  It's the same reason I can walk the dog with my Yo-Yo or replace the brakes on my truck- I chose to learn how to do these things.  Now access to Yo-Yo's or brake shoes may be limited to some, but we have established that if you want to find water, you really don't have to look very far to do it. That's the way it has been done since- well since the beginning of time.

     70% of Black children and 60% of Hispanic children don't know how to swim.  Okay, well how many of them know how to send text messages or operate that X-Box or laptop? How many of these people know how to drive by 18?  All of which are easily measured as more expensive endeavors than finding a swimming hole and spending the afternoon escaping the summer heat. Hell, I am pretty sure that even paying to get into a public pool is just about one of the most affordable things you can do for an afternoon.  Swimming requires absolutely no equipment.  By my math, you don't even need a uniform to participate in swimming if you find the right location....  Which would seem to make swimming one of the most affordable sports to participate in.  Just because your parents failed to instruct you, and you never sought out information on your own, does not make your ignorance someone else's fault. I am not a racist because someone chooses the path of their own life. 

     I have another shocking revaluation for y'all too: You can't Affirmative Action your way onto the medal stand.  That's something you have to earn.  You can't demand that every trio of medal winners include a minority because that's not how it works.  Should we use Phelps' current wave of popularity to encourage participation in swimming?  YES! Absolutely! Should we use our national swimming teams success to encourage more people, including minorities to learn to swim?  Yep!   Should we do our best to provide access to facilities for children, including minorities who show promise in the sport? I totally agree with that. But I don't think we need to start breaking ground on every Martin Luther King Drive in the country for Olympic swimming facilities just because 100 years ago people were denied access to a local pool-- Not today.  There are plenty of places to go get your feet wet and plenty of folk who can show you how to wave your arms around so you don't drown.  Hell, for that matter, go look it up on youtube.  Now stop pointing your race-baiting ass finger at me, and go put on your swimming britches and get in the water.

       

Eye For an Eye

  For the better part of my adult life, I have loved a public servant.   That means sacrifice.  It means risk.  It means sharing your best friend and lover with the rest of the community.   Over the years, we have missed plenty of holidays, birthdays, planned events and family functions…  Community first don’t you know?  I have watched, and helped while Melissa has taken her own time and spent her own money to clean out the home of someone who was hospitalized.  Just in the hopes that the person returning home would have a clean, safe place to stay—because the person had no other family to help-so we do it.  She and her peers have spent dollar after dollar out of their own pockets to feed people, to set people up in hotel rooms, to arrange travel for people.  They never asked for anything back, or anything in return because it’s what they do. 

     Settling domestic squabbles, answering calls about barking dogs, dodging gunfire from criminals wielding stolen guns, getting hurt breaking up bar fights, standing for hours in the heat directing traffic because of an accident.  Broken bones and broken homes are the rewards for their sacrifices.  I can count on my fingers, with both thumbs and a couple of fingers left over, the number of times that people have gone out of their way to point out and thank these people for the personal things they do to serve their community.  But that’s okay.  They don’t do it for the thanks or the recognition.  They do it because they feel a sense of duty and commitment to their community.

     This week, the worst kind of nightmarish accident happened here in our community.  A police officer is accused of shooting and killing a civilian during a training exercise at the Police Department.  I will not go into details about this event here.  It is not my place to do so at this time.  Chief Tom Lewis promptly stepped up and publicly accepted responsibility for the accident.  There is nothing positive about what happened.  There is nothing happy about it.  The whole scenario is terrible for the family of Mary Knowlton as well as every member of the Police Department that intended to educate her and several dozen other people about how Police do their job.  The whole thing is, and remains, a terrible tragedy and accident.  The inevitable news coverage was no surprise to me, but something else caught me completely off guard.

Chief Tom Lewis

     The response from social justice warriors was to be expected, but even I was not prepared for the vitriol that followed. The posts, tweets and endless stream of phone calls to members of our law enforcement community laden with outright acrid hatred.   I have seen people calling for the ouster of the entire command staff, people calling for the death of police officers, I know for a fact that my wife and her peers have had to endure hours of phone calls from people who are not even members of the community that they serve.  They listen patiently and politely as these people, you people spew rancorous antagonistic bile into their day and respond with a smile.   I watch as these people, the ones who sacrifice their lives to make yours better, are demonized and berated to the point of being terrified to do their own jobs.  All because of a stupid and costly mistake.  A mistake that most of these people are not responsible for, and had no claim to.

     In no way am I trying to lessen the terrible tragedy that has befallen our community this week.  We will get through this.  It will be resolved.  It will probably be a costly ordeal in terms of money, lives and careers lost.  However, I trust, and we need to trust that it WILL be resolved in proper fashion.  What escapes so many people, is that nearly the entire command staff were witness to, and participants at this event.  An event that is currently under investigation by several agencies.  What that means, is that it is unethical and illegal for any of these people to talk to you, or each other about what happened until those investigations are concluded- THAT’S THE LAW! You “DEMAND” answers.  It is illegal for any of these people to provide them, even to each other.   You will get your answers when it is the proper time, and the legally appropriate time to provide them.

Mary Knowlton

     Our family wishes to send out our deepest condolences to the Knowlton family.  I know that nothing I can say will ease the pain of what has happened.  Our heart is with you, and also very much with our law enforcement brothers and sisters who tangled up in this entire event. These people have spent their whole lives believing that they were working to make ours better.  They collectively watched all of that effort seemingly disappear in a heartbeat this week.  You can bet that they are just as devastated as the rest of our community.  I am particularly moved by the courage of Chief Tom Lewis for stepping up quickly and owning this tragedy.    My heart also goes out to Lee Coel. I can not begin to imagine the terrible anguish that must be turning itself over in his mind as I write this.

      

     For the rest of you:  Keep slinging your venom.  I’m watching.  I’m reading.  I’m listening and I am heartbroken. I have seen so little effort to applaud the sacrifices these people make on a daily basis.  Yet, aren’t y’all the first ones to step up to the podium and demand an eye for an eye when something goes wrong?  If you people spent half as much energy holding politicians to task for their bullshit as you do sharpening your pitchforks for a tragic accident, this country would be a much better place to live.

I hate you people.  I really do.