13th Amendment, American Reality, and What's Wrong is. . .

“[I urge you to] think about the historical system of slavery and… the institution of the prison together. And specifically I want us to think about the extent to which the vast global apparatus of imprisonment, and particularly corporate involvement in the business of punishment, that these developments are related to what I would call the sedimented history of slavery we are living out today. In other words, slavery has not yet been completely abolished.” ~ Angela Davis, Sept 19, 2003

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQ2cC7LHMxA&feature=context&context=G29325faRVAAAAAAAABQ

Deep story

Between One and the Other

Saloni Aswani is an Indian actress, who has appeared in the Hindi, Kannada, Tamil and Telugu film industries.

On the surface women in flowing cloth are sexually stimulating. What defines them as ladies is dependent upon adherence to sacred laws. - Dawn Wolf, Keeper of Stories 8/14/17 

Penny Pax, a porn star, in the mountains pale against the morning light...

There Is Much To Being A MAN!

tattoos of a Black woman

In the study of being a man this topic is important. The aspect of manhood that is the warrior is required to examine this subject. Its meanings and affect on the psyche of children, and social conditioning affect the outcome of the substance of Life, and the lives of our children. That being said, and there is more to be said, I don't believe there is enough courage amongst many to broach this subject online, or in the open out of fear of the political power and structure of the Gay Movement. Meanwhile, in the real world there is a darker side to homosexuality that many parents, teachers and healers have to deal with in the shadow of coached public opinion. 

You raise a powerful and disturbing question, Kumwaga Ra-Nu Kiganja KemPtah, asking if white people have the right to define heterosexuality for Black people! That is a hard question to ask a people whose intellectual and spiritual and cultural structures are formed and fashioned by whites and their relationship with white people spurns their onward progress in American society. - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 6.22.14





"See the law of identity (crisis) is a Western cultural core filter which nurtures homosexuality. In algebra we learn that the equal sign is a balancing sign. And the law of identity states that Man=Man (Man can only balance Man) and Woman=Woman (Woman balances with Woman) and they abhor Man=Woman (Man balance Woman and vice versa). They call the unity of the great diversity "Contradictions" which undermines Western faulty thought and practice. Western thought and practice is circular thought for nothing." - Kumwaga Ra-Nu Kiganja KemPtah 6.21.14 

Taylor naked outdoors !!!!

PRACTICE 35

Look At Weed 

I have to defend the legalization of Mary Jane, not because I am a user, but because it logically makes sense. The War on Drugs was a means to increase deaths among targeted populations, and as money makers without taxation a few of the many profiteers profited beyond belief, and tens of thousands died violently as casualties of undisciplined lives, and uncaring governments, and corporations did illegal drug business without consequence. Holding a standard against the legalization of marijuana has brought nothing of value to the populations of any country. It has been a long protracted war upon people who were only cannon fodder in the estimation of the profiteers.

Now the discipline of usage is squarely upon users, and their parents, and the communities they come from. No longer can people rely on outside forces to spiritually discipline a weed smoker. It has never worked out for the benefit of all concerned about the quality of life to develop one's maturity from a distance. If there is anything to be upset about let it be the lack of skill in self-control, and the impeccability of a Priest-Warrior not taught to our young people! - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 1.3.14

Good Morning to Think

Two things are important today: an insight and a revelation. First, the insight.

"The hearts of little children are pure, and therefore, the Great Spirit may show to them many things which older people miss."

--Black Elk (Hehaka Sapa) OGLALA LAKOTA


Sometimes adults think they know more than the children. But the children are closer to the truth. Have you ever noticed how quickly they can let go of resentments? Have you ever noticed how free they are of prejudice? Have you ever noticed how well the children listen to their bodies? Maybe adults need to be m...ore like children. They are so innocent. The children pray to the Creator and trust that He will take care of them.

Grandfather, today let the children be my teacher.



meditation blue water

Second the revelation:

Justice Antonin Scalia Questions Logic Behind Gay Rights Protections

By ADAM LIPTAK
The New York Times

The Supreme Court’s decisions protecting gay rights were not rooted in the Constitution, and their logic could as easily apply to child molesters, Justice Antonin Scalia told a room filled with first-year law students at Georgetown University on Monday.

 

“What minorities deserve protection?” he asked. “What? It’s up to me to identify deserving minorities?”

He said those decisions should generally be made by the democratic process rather than by judges.

 

He also allowed that the First Amendment protects political and religious minorities but suggested that there was no principled way for courts to make further distinctions based on the text of the Constitution. “What about pederasts?” he asked. “What about child abusers?”

 

“This is a deserving minority,” he said sarcastically. “Nobody loves them.”

 

He said he took special pride in his dissents, aiming them at law students.

 

“I write the dissents for you guys,” he said, to appreciative laughter. “I write my dissents and try to make them not only clear but interesting and even fun.”

 

Justice Scalia expressed frustration with how little debate goes on when the justices meet in private to discuss and vote on cases.

 

“I thrash out the cases with my law clerks much more than with my colleagues,” he said.

 

“They write the first drafts of my opinions,” Justice Scalia said of his clerks, “but I tell them how it comes out.”

symbol of love.

 

Execution For All Involved !

'Am I being executed?' Brazilian killed by Indonesia unaware until end, says priest

The Guardian
by Michael Safi
April 30, 2015


A Brazilian man executed by firing squad along with seven other prisoners in Indonesia on Wednesday had no idea he was about to be killed until his final minutes, the priest who counselled him has said.

He also revealed that Mary Jane Veloso, a Filipino woman who won a dramatic reprieve, had been aware a new suspect in her case had surrendered to police but was only removed from the prison about an hour before the killings.

Rodrigo Gularte, 42, was shot dead alongside seven others, including four Nigerians, two Australians and an Indonesian, for smuggling cocaine into Indonesia in 2004.

Doctors had diagnosed the Brazilian with paranoid schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. A second diagnosis, commissioned by Indonesia’s attorney general, has not been made public.

Father Charlie Burrows, a priest who ministers to prisoners in Cilacap, said he had tried in vain to explain to Gularte for three days that he was about to be killed.

“He was hearing voices all the time,” Burrows told Irish radio. “I talked to him for about an hour and a half, trying to prepare him for the execution. I said to him, ‘I’m 72 years old, I’ll be heading to heaven in the near future, so you find out where my house is and prepare a garden for me.’

“But when they took [the prisoners] out of the cells … and when they put these bloody chains on them, he said to me, ‘Am I being executed?’ ” Burrows said.

“I said, ‘Yes, I thought I explained that you.’ He didn’t get excited – he’s a quiet sort of a guy – but he said,

‘This is not right.’

“He’s lost because he’s a schizophrenic. He asked if there was a sniper outside ready to shoot him, and I said no, and whether somebody would shoot him in the car, and I said no,” Burrows said.

After Gularte was strapped to a wooden plank, Burrows was permitted to see him again: “He said, ‘This is not right, I made one small mistake, and I shouldn’t have to die for it.’ So he was annoyed more than anything else, because he’s a soft-spoken, quiet and sensitive man.”

Burrows told Guardian Australia that guards on Nusa Kambangan, the prison island where Indonesia executes convicts, had broken down crying when 30-year-old Mary Jane Veloso said goodbye to her two children for what was thought to be the final time.

He said Veloso had shown “a false sense of joy” during her final visit with her family and sons, aged 12 and six, but broke down at 2pm on Tuesday when told it was time to say goodbye. “She begged for more time,

"Will I not get longer with my children? They’ll never see me again, I’ll never see them again,’” Burrows said.

“The whole place broke down in tears. The warden and attorneys felt real bad about it. They said to me they didn’t agree with the thing, they just had to do their job, that there should be a moratorium.”

He said some of the guards had asked him: “Are we responsible for the suffering of this poor woman and the families?”

Veloso, sentenced to death after arriving in Yogyakarta in 2010 with 2.6kg of heroin in her suitcase, has claimed she was set up by a human trafficker. She was granted a reprieve late on Tuesday after the suspected trafficker surrendered to Philippine police. Veloso was told of the development on Tuesday afternoon, Burrows said, but her fate seemed sealed.

It was between 10pm and 11pm, when the prisoners were locked in their cells for the final time, that she was taken away. “We were in the cells, just the time they give to the spiritual companions, and they took her out,” Burrows said.

“In the last minute she was actually in the cell with the police, there was three police, and they took her out back to Yogyakarta.”

Just after 11pm the prisoners were taken individually from the cells and driven to the execution site. They would not have been aware Veloso had been spared until they assembled at the firing range, he said.

He said the two Australians, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, led hymns among the prisoners as they waited to be killed, joined by their spiritual advisers 30 metres away. “They were all trying to be strong because it was uppermost in their minds that they had made a mistake and that mistake has had a devastating effect on their families,” he said.

Nigerians Raheem Agbaje Salami (also known as Jamiu Owolabi Abashin), Silvester Obiekwe Nwolise, Martin Anderson and Okwuduli Oyatanze were also executed on Wednesday morning, along with an Indonesian, Zainal Abidin.

The Indonesian attorney general, HM Prasetyo, said on Wednesday the eight men, all drug offenders, had been executed simultaneously at 12.35am local time. They were declared dead three minutes later.

“The result of the second execution was better, more orderly and more perfect than the last,” he said, referring to executions carried out in January and noting the bodies were treated more “humanely” this time.

“Out of the eight executed, four, according to their last requests, are to be buried in their home countries,” Prasetyo said. “Two in Australia, one in Brazil, and one in Nigeria.”

Abidin, the only Indonesian among the eight, was buried in Cilacap, near Nusa Kambangan, on Wednesday morning. Salami was to be buried in Madiun, East Java, and Anderson in Bekasi, West Java, he said.
The bodies of Chan and Sukumarun were expected to arrive back in Australia for burial on Friday.

 The End !

Profit killing by Law

fashion blogger Elizabeth Keene by Jonny Villanueva wearing Darling Clothing
 Sunnies: Zero UV, Earrings: H&M, Bracelets: Forever 21, 
Watch: Michael Kors, Small Necklace: Tiffany & Co., 
Big Necklace: Call It Spring, Bag: Lulu's, Shoes: Love Culture (similar)

Lawmakers vote to become only state to allow firing squad

By KELLY CATALFAMO and MICHELLE L. PRICE, Associated Press


SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Lawmakers have passed a bill that would make Utah the only state to allow firing squads for carrying out a death penalty if there is a shortage of execution drugs.

The passage of the bill by the state Senate on Tuesday comes as states struggle to obtain lethal injection drugs amid a nationwide shortage.

The bill's sponsor, Republican Rep. Paul Ray of Clearfield, touted the measure as being a more humane form of execution. Ray argued that a team of trained marksmen is faster and more humane than the drawn-out deaths that have occurred in botched lethal injections.

The bill gives Utah options, he said. "We would love to get the lethal injection worked out so we can continue with that but if not, now we have a backup plan," Ray told The Associated Press.

Opponents, however, said firing squads are a cruel holdover from the state's wild West days and will earn the state international condemnation.

"I think Utah took a giant step backward," said Ralph Dellapiana, director of Utahns for Alternatives to the Death Penalty. He called firing squads "a relic of a more barbaric past."

Dellapiana said the legislature should be discussing whether, not how, to execute citizens. Whether Ray's proposal will become law in the conservative Western state is unclear: Utah Gov. Gary Herbert, a Republican, won't say if he'll sign the measure. His spokesman, Marty Carpenter, did issue a statement this week acknowledging that the method would give Utah a legitimate backup method if execution drugs are unavailable.Utah American Civil Liberties Union representative Anna Brower said the organization is still holding out hope that Herbert will not sign the bill. The legislation would make Utah "look backwards and backwoods," she said.

The measure narrowly passed the House in February, where additional lawmakers had to be called in to break a tie vote. But it made it through the Senate on an 18-10 vote with no debate on Tuesday. Four Republicans joined Democrats in opposing the bill. Salt Lake City Democrat Gene Davis was the only one to speak. He said he was voting against the bill because it "only puts another alternative on the table" instead of doing away with executions altogether.

Ray said he didn't expect much debate on the proposal because it seemed many lawmakers had made up their mind about the idea from the start. A few were persuaded to support it once they learned Utah law already calls for the state to revert to the firing squad if a court ever declares lethal injection unconstitutional, he said.

The legislation would reinstate the use of firing squads more than a decade after the state abandoned the practice.

Utah is one of several states to seek out new forms of capital punishment after a botched Oklahoma lethal injection last year and one in Arizona that took nearly two hours for the condemned man to die. Legislation to allow firing squads has been introduced in Arkansas this year. In Wyoming, a measure to allow firing squads if the lethal drugs aren't available died. In Oklahoma, lawmakers are considering legislation that would allow the state to use nitrogen gas to execute inmates.

Utah's proposal keeps lethal injection as the primary method of execution, but it allows for the state to use firing squads if the state cannot obtain lethal injection drugs.
States across the country have struggled to keep up their drug inventories as European manufacturers have refused to sell the lethal concoctions to prisons and corrections departments because of their opposition to the death penalty.

Texas' supply will be used up if the state goes forward with two lethal injections in the next two weeks. The Texas deadline is the most imminent, but other states are struggling, as well.
The head of Utah's prison system has said the state does not have any lethal injection drugs on hand and would have to obtain some in the years ahead if an execution were to be scheduled.
States turning to alternative drugs have been faced with legal challenges from inmates, something Ray has said Utah could sidestep if it has a backup execution plan in place.

Utah lawmakers, concerned about intense media attention, stopped offering inmates the choice of a death by firing squad in 2004. A handful of inmates on Utah's death row were sentenced before the law changed and still have the option of going before a firing squad after their court appeals are exhausted.

Utah's last execution was by a firing squad in 2010, when Ronnie Lee Gardner was executed by five police officers with .30-caliber Winchester rifles. The state has carried out three executions by firing squad since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976.
The first U.S. inmate executed after that ruling was Gary Gilmore, who was killed by firing squad in early 1977.

The Washington, D.C.-based Death Penalty Information Center, which opposes capital punishment, says a firing squad is not a foolproof execution method because the inmate could move or shooters could miss the heart, causing a slower, more painful death.

One such case appears to have happened in Utah's territorial days back in 1879, when a firing squad missed Wallace Wilkerson's heart and it took him 27 minutes to die, according to newspaper accounts.

in the Tradition of Judgment: Eva Braun, Sharia Law & Iranian women

Hitler & Eva Braun, photo AP

In Hitler's lifetime he was evil by all estimations. Most historically accounts divorce him from the intimate pleasures of sex, and vulnerability. The pictures of him with Eva Braun I never saw until I was well into my adult years. Schools in my era did not fancy depicting anything remotely attuned to sentimentality in relationship to Adolph Hitler. But, he like other men had women. There was a niece of his he obsessed over whom he allegedly liked to defecate and vomit upon, and there was Eva Braun, his love and lover, the only two I know of.

Hitler has been called a 'sick fucker' by a lot of people over the decades. It is a deserved moniker. But I am not here to denounce his life. I am thinking about him oddly in relationship to the hanging of an Iranian woman who allegedly killed Morteza Abdolali Sarbandi, a former intelligence officer, for trying to rape her seven (7) years ago. The courts did not believe her statement.

Columnist, David Blair for the Telegraph reported: "... Miss Jabbari was sentenced to death in 2009 after what Amnesty called a “deeply flawed investigation”. She admitted stabbing Morteza Abdolali Sarbandi, a former intelligence ministry official, but pleaded self-defence. On her account, she stabbed Sarbandi in the back as he was trying to rape her – but the victim was actually killed by another named person, who was never the focus of inquiry.

Amnesty said these claims “if proven” could have exonerated Miss Jabari. But they were never “properly investigated, raising many questions about the circumstances of the killing”.

Amnesty added that the judiciary had “pressured” Miss Jabbari to “replace her lawyer, Mohammad Ali Jedari Foroughi, for a more inexperienced one, in an apparent attempt to prevent an investigation of her claims”...

According to 2009 testimony Miss Jabbari purchased a knife two days prior to the stabbing. That can be read as a woman, or an American, or as a man. It was read and judged by men.

Her execution could have been avoided in the end had the victim's family accepted the offering of 'blood money'. They didn't, or couldn't or wouldn't forgive her. Probably in the spirit of deep grieving, and a need for retaliation they couldn't accept the chance to be merciful. What is troubling is that any of the women in the victim's family could easily have been in the same situation, or have acid thrown in their faces by a husband for reasons that are always judging and accessing the value of women's actions against the honor of a man and/or his family. This reality is integral to Iranian life, it seems, and its interpretation of the Holy Qu'ran.

The Tehran prosecution office rejected the claim of rape.  The evidence showed otherwise. I don't know the evidence the prosecution looked at, but with the name of the man who actually killed Mr. Sarbani the courts rejected following that line of evidence and bent itself into prosecuting Miss Jabbari to her death! That leads to a question: Who is this man she killed? Another logical question follows good reasoning: What is being protected in a severe male-dominated country like Iran? Is it the right to power over women's destiny and their bodies?

I was asked to participate in the Women's Federation For World Peace USA yesterday in Washington DC in a ceremonial capacity. As I shared before the assembly of mostly women from around the globe the deep feeling of honesty settled within me. In my words I shared several things, a story, and the drum. The first thing I noticed in the eyes of a few of the women when my wife and I entered the lobby was women just learning how to look in a man's eyes and smile. Sharing that insight in front of a room of women deeply involved in the many issues of world peace, inner strength and beauty of spirit and women's issues at the international level provided an elder's insight into the depth of what is treated, often, with trepidation and a fear of boldness in other circles.

But in the Islamic world ideas of women's freedom are measured differently by men, and regarded fearfully (I imagine) by women in those Islamic run countries! The fundamentalist group literally scare the shit out me, and out of reason when you get right down to it and also create a growing desire to do something concrete in either the physical or the intangible worlds of power to disintegrate their power. But, this process starts with study and research into the belief systems and laws at work here. If you are not willing to do this and war seems to be the only option then these bloody wars will continue to add nausea to life. - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 10.26.14

Iranian Reyhaneh Jabbari takes the stand at her trail in 2008

ISIS Points to Sharia Law to Justify Slavery of Women

While 126 contemporary Islamist leaders, including the executive director of CAIR, signed a letter denouncing the actions of the Islamic State, the letter also endorses sharia law.

BY MEIRA SVIRSKY

Mon, October 13, 2014

In the latest edition of Dabiq, the Islamic State’s slick, English magazine, the group offers a theological justification for capturing "infidel" women to be used as sex slaves. The brutal group is holding thousands of Yazidi women and girls and subjecting them to horrific violent, sexual abuse.

In an article titled, “The Revival of Slavery Before the Hour” (“Hour” referring to “Judgment Day”), the magazine concludes that since the Yazidi religion pre-dates Islam, its followers are to be dealt with according to the laws of the mushrik (polytheists). The article explains:

“Accordingly, the Islamic State dealt with this group as the majority of fuqaha [experts in Islamic jurisprudence] have indicated … Unlike the Jews and Christians, there was no room for the jizyah payment. Also, their women could be enslaved unlike female apostates who the majority of fuqaha say cannot be enslaved and can only be given an ultimatum to repent or face the sword.”

The magazine goes on to explain what happened when Islamic State fighters captured the Sinjar region of Iraq, which was inhabited by the ancient population of the Yazidis:

“After capture, the Yazidi women and children were then divided according to the Shari’ah amongst the fighters of the Islamic State who participated in the Sinjar operations, after one fifth of the slaves were transferred to the Islamic State’s authority to be divided as khums [the obligatory tithe of one-fifth of all war spoils that jihadi fighters must pay to the caliph].”

The article proudly announces the revival of the sharia institution of slavery of infidels, saying, “This large-scale enslavement of mushrik families is probably the first since the abandonment of this Sharia’ah law. The only other known case – albeit much smaller – is that of the enslavement of Christian women and children in the Philippines and Nigeria by the mujahidin [jihadis] there.”

The article reminds its readers that the legality of slavery is established in sharia (Islamic) law, saying, “Before Shaytan [Satan] reveals his doubts to the weak-minded and weak hearted, one should remember that enslaving the families of the kuffar [infidels] and taking their women as concubines is a firmly established aspect of the Shari’ah that if one were to deny or mock, he would be denying or mocking the verses of the Qur’an and the narration of the Prophet … and thereby apostatizing from Islam.”

Indeed, the Quran condones and justifies slavery in a number of verses, specifically in the context of war booty and concubines. Hundreds of the Hadiths (saying of the Islamic prophet Mohammed) deal with the jurisprudence of Islamic slaves. Both indicate the institution's clear sanction by sharia law.

Although 126 contemporary Islamist leaders and scholars recently signed a letter denouncing the actions of the Islamic State, the letter unfortunately endorses the Islamic State’s goals of rebuilding the caliphate, establishing sharia law and instituting the brutal hudud [punishments for the most severe crimes].

The letter, which was addressed to the self-declared caliph of the Islamic State, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, was signed and presented in Washington by Nihad Awad, executive director and founder of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR).

The criticism of the Islamic State by the scholars that signed the letter is that the terrorist group is not “following the correct procedures that ensure justice and mercy.”

However, endorsing sharia law, point 5 of the letter states, “What is meant by ‘practical jurisprudence’ is the process of applying Shari’ah rulings and dealing with them according to the realities and circumstances that people are living under.”

The letter continues, “Practical jurisprudence [fiqh al-waq’i] considers the texts that are applicable to peoples realities at a particular time, and the obligations that can be postponed until they are able to be met or delayed based on their capabilities.”

Far from distancing themselves from the implementation of sharia law by the Islamic State, the above statements are an endorsement of the Islamist doctrine of "gradualism." This is an incremental strategy for establishing sharia governance, supporting jihad and advancing the Islamist cause.

Point 16 of the letter states, “Hudud punishments are fixed in the Qu’ran and Hadith and are unquestionably obligatory in Islamic Law.”

Point 22 of the letter states, “There is agreement (ittifaq) among scholars that a caliphate is an obligation upon the Ummah. The Ummah has lacked a caliphate since 1924 CE. However, a new caliphate requires consensus from Muslims and not just from those in a small corner of the world.”

Thus, it is clear that the signatories of the letter, while purporting to be “moderate,” endorse the principles of the Islamic State and other jihadists but criticize their implementation.

Just as the West has been firm in rejecting the objectives of the Islamic State, it should not be swayed by the Islamic State’s contemporary counterparts who equally endorse Islamic extremism through the implementation of sharia law -- however gradual.

If we were sons in these cultures where would our hearts be, how would our states of mind be in what is unavoidably a clusterfuck of ideals and delusions?

Iranian Reyhaneh Jabbari is 967th person to be executed since Hassan Rouhani became Iran's president in August last year 2013

"Stealthy Freedoms of Iranian women" showing hundreds of women without the hijab 

IRANIAN DEATH SONG

Iranian Women Shed Headscarves in #MystealthyFreedom Online Protest

Iranian Reyhaneh Jabbari is 967th person to be executed since Hassan Rouhani became Iran's president in August last year 2013

Iranian women are posting pictures of themselves online without headscarves and racking up thousands of Facebook likes in the process, the latest challenge to Tehran's strict morality laws mandating that women keep their hair covered in public.

A Facebook page called "Stealthy Freedoms of Iranian women" showing hundreds of women without the hijab -- a veil that covers a person's head -- has garnered more 142,000 likes. Women have used the hashtag #mystealthyfreedom to post pictures of themselves without headscarves riding bikes, dancing, or even sitting in flower beds, flouting rules that have been in force since the 1979 Revolution.

The page was started by journalist Masih Alinejad, who explained her reasoning in a May 3 post:

"This page is not only for women who are against the hijab, this is also for religious women who wear the hijab but don’t believe it should be enforced on people and think it should be a choice. So you if you are a religious woman who wears a headscarf but doesn't think it should be enforced, please send in a picture of your friend, family member or daughter not wearing a hijab."

Since the revolution, there have been crackdowns on women who protest laws that forbid them to reveal anything more than their face, feet and hands almost every summer.

And while President Hassan Rouhani has been quoted as saying that he does not believe men and women should be punished for flouting the dress code, it is not clear whether the country's morality police will take the same view.

It is also unclear what sort of reach the #mystealthyfreedom campaign has in Iran, where residents have to find ways around government Internet filters that block out Facebook, Twitter and many foreign news outlets.

- F. Brinley Bruton

First published May 13th 2014, 4:27 am

A HOOKER?

I won't say who it was but when one of the men in my family married a white woman he gave his then fiance profound insights into what was to become part of her life. Of the things he told her the words didn't click and make sense until after they were married. She told me his words were, "...if you marry me you will lose the luxury of a first impression". 

She came to understand the first impression always belongs to white people. The impression Black people work for is the second one. That is the one that counts. That is the one that settles in dispelling the first and unoriginal one! That is where the real selling comes in to play with perception. I should start a series of stories on this, but I think there are more than enough circulating in memory to do the job of surfacing the deep seated prejudices that stir the proverbial pot whites and Blacks like to piss in to keep the dramas going. 

- Gregory E. Woods 

the Story of of freedom fighting!


Danièle Watts, star of Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained, wrote on her Facebook page: “I remembered the countless times my father came home frustrated or humiliated by the cops when he had done nothing wrong, ” she wrote. ” I felt his shame, his anger, and my own feelings of frustration for existing in a world where I have allowed myself to believe that “authority figures” could control my BEING… my ability to BE!!!!!!!” But, that wasn't enough to use better judgement when the police approached her like she was a whore making out with a trick in public, who was actually her white boyfriend! If I read the story right she walked away from the first approach talking to her father on her cell phone. The second approach by two officers she refused to, or didn't show I.D. to the officers, which in their minds was justification for arresting her. Vagrancy is just enough of a charge to mark a spotless record. All 'they' want is one opportunity to blemish a name, and a vagrancy charge can, and countless times has been a reason to deny opportunities to Black Americans for well over a century or two.

With those memories and stories of her father deep within her what was her thinking process at that moment? Was she feeling the white girl vibe in Hollywood? Were the voices of her ancestors and her father's angst fueling the strong fight she owns? Or was simply being accused of being a whore worth fighting for; worth fighting against a superior attitude, and the assumption the surrounding area conceivably could have of her because she is Black and with a white man? It is fair to assume the area she was in was a white area. No other community would entertain the idea of the actress being a whore. There might be some Black men ticked off at the white boyfriend, and certainly the sisters would be giving her looks, but any disrespect beyond that would not involve the police! Calling the police because you don't like seeing someone kissing one of your own? That's a white people thing!

Should she be upset enough to level the thrust of her outrage to the surrounding community? After all, police reflect the attitudes, cultural bias, and assumptions of the community they serve. My last question is simple. Should she have just complied without complaint and found another way to voice the injustice of the officer's approach to their faces? There are questions about the legitimacy of women's rights to expression and interracial dating/marriage at work here. How we internally deal with the above raised questions are determinate factors of our nation's cup of perception!

- Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 9.14.14


Stop & Identify Laws


P I N K

GET AWAY WITH MURDER!

 Kardashian Khaos Manager Amber dressed head-to-toe in Kardashian Kollection at her rehearsal dinner

As the world of high fashion and gossip turns around and around in small minds turmoil outside of those perimeters are terrifying women in other parts of the world. Yesterday in a Black suburban Missouri community a grandmother saw her 18 year old grandson running down the street. Not long afterwards he was lying dead on the pavement two blocks away from the relative safety of her home with two cartridges in his body. The police shot him. Within minutes a crowd of 600 had gathered shocked, angered and shouting, "Kill the Police!" To date there is no explanation of the boy's death, or the policemen's probable cause. The questions asked will lead them to the answers.

In Syria a woman was stoned to death for adultery in front of a crowd. I cannot tell this story without being overwhelmed by grief. I couldn't tell this story better than Bassem Mroue, the Associate Press reporter who wrote:


"A cleric read the verdict before the truck came and dumped a large pile of stones near the municipal garden. Jihadi fighters then brought in the woman, clad head to toe in black, and put her in a small hole in the ground. When residents gathered, the fighters told them to carry out the sentence: Stoning to death for the alleged adulteress.

None in the crowd stepped forward, said a witness to the event in a northern Syrian city. So the jihadi fighters, mostly foreign extremists, did it themselves, pelting Faddah Ahmad with stones until her body was dragged away.

"Even when she was hit with stones she did not scream or move," said an opposition activist who said he witnessed the stoning near the football stadium and the Bajaa garden in the city of Raqqa, the main Syrian stronghold of the Islamic State group.

The July 18 stoning was the second in a span of 24 hours. A day earlier, 26-year-old Shamseh Abdullah was killed in a similar way in the nearby town of Tabqa by Islamic State fighters. Both were accused of having sex outside marriage.

The killings were the first of their kind in rebel-held northern Syria, where jihadis from the Islamic State group have seized large swaths of territory, terrorizing residents with their strict interpretation of Islamic law, including beheadings and cutting off the hands of thieves. The jihadis recently tied a 14-year-old boy to a cross-like structure and left him for several hours in the scorching summer sun before bringing him down -- punishment for not fasting during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan..." [the Story]


The way judgment functions in the extremities of rigid social and religious structures kills the nature and spirit of youth and femininity. Youth and the feminine energies are two fundamental elements of the creative process of continuing life on Earth, and sustaining Creation as a form as matter that came from the invisible worlds. The unseen makes us and within the fabric of women's sensuality their wombs bring life into the regions of the universe that give us the children who continue the species and promise us the futures. Kill them, or stomp the vibrancy of their life-forces by rigid laws that see no lights in souls and death will replace vibrant participation and whole cultures will die in their souls. Perhaps the rigid conservatism of Islamic states are the reason the creative spark the Arab world once knew no longer vibrates and shines in the world!

- Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 8.10.14

Child Killers Child Prisoners

This is a probing piece, Sinclair, but I don't want to dominate the conversation. I know Christians are generally uninvolved socially, and act passively waiting for the Messiah while wringing their hands about prophecies. They seem inarticulate, but so many of their children wind up in the penal system as killers. In fact the children I know personally incarcerated now for murder are from Christian homes. It is so prevalent I didn't realize I see it as the norm until just now thinking about all those boys.

Good God! That scared me! It just hit me hard in the chest! - Gregory E. Woods, 1.23.14 

Is it Right to Give Kids Life in Prison with No Chance for Parole?

By Dr. Sinclair Grey III

Is it fair to sentence youth to life behind bars with no chance of parole? Let me ask it another way. Should a child who made a mistake while young have a chance of gaining his/her freedom after serving time? These are some questions to ponder as you read this article.

Let’s look at Addolfo Davis. He began his career in crime at the age of 8-years-old. Two years later at the age of 10, he was charged with armed robbery. Four years later, he took part in a crime that was viewed as so heinous that he was sentenced to life without the chance of parole.

This was over 20 years ago during the crack era in Chicago. Davis joined two other boys in a home invasion and robbery that led to a double homicide. It was a time when the court system was aiming at punishing young offenders harshly for their actions.

According to reports, ‘Davis was the product of a badly broken family. His mother was a drug addict. His grandmother tried to fill that role, but was consumed with work and the responsibilities of a disabled husband and mentally handicapped son. Davis began robbing people to get money for food. He fell in with a gang that gave him more attention than he could find at home. And getting locked up, he said in a 2008 interview, offered him three meals a day and a roof over his head. Everything that I did was basically to get money so I can take care myself, he said.’

Davis is now 37 years old and still in prison in Illinois. His case is one that is being considered as to whether hundreds of children should spend their life behind bars for committing crimes as a child.

“The Illinois Supreme Court on Wednesday heard oral arguments in Davis’ case, following the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in 2012 in Miller v. Alabama that ruled mandatory life sentences for juveniles without the chance of parole constitute cruel and unusual punishment.” It’s important to note that the Supreme Court determined that youth ‘cannot with reliability be classified among the worst offenders because they are more capable of change than are adults, and their actions are less likely to be evidence of irretrievably depraved character.’

Human Rights Watch has noted that there are over 2,500 inmates in the U.S. serving life sentences for crimes they committed as children. Many activists are looking at how states will view and apply the Supreme Court’s decision to do away with life without parole for children.

“There were 37 states when Miller came down that had these types of laws on the books, and following the decision all of them have taken two paths: a litigation path and a legislation path,” said Jobi Cates, Chicago Director of Human Rights Watch. “We’ve been watching state after state come to terms with this. We are sort of looking for a tipping point as we believe most legislatures and most courts that are looking at this say if something is wrong on Tuesday it’s wrong on Wednesday too. That means they have to apply [the U.S. Supreme Court’s Miller ruling] retroactively.”

“We hope that Illinois will become one of the many states that have taken this very seriously and that the court will do the right thing,” Cates said.

“Youth advocates say that juvenile offenders sentenced to life often face harsher treatment than adults. Among the states with the highest number of prisoners serving life without parole terms (who were sentenced as juveniles) are Pennsylvania (475), Michigan (358), Florida (355), California (301) and Louisiana (238), according to a recent report by the ACLU’s Juvenile Life Without Parole Initiative.”

Now, you have to decide for yourself whether it’s fair and/or reasonable for youth who commit crimes while young to spend their life behind bars. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled according to law. However, you have to decide with your conscious on whether it’s right or wrong.

Source: MSNBC                                                               

Dr. Sinclair Grey III is an inspirational speaker, motivator, author, organizer and liberator of persons from all intellectual, social and cultural walks of life. He is a committed advocate for communal change. Email: drgrey@sinclairgrey.org. Follow on Twitter @drsinclairgrey

DC Gravy Train

For those outside of the Washington DC area WALMART is being stalled in its development of six stores. The council wants the company to pay its workers a minimum wage of $12.50 (I think that is the right amount). The company is balking threatening to put up less stores than originally planned. Right now the mayor is deciding whether to veto the measure or not. I am hoping the measure stands. Walmart stores suck up small and medium size businesses in every community they overwhelm. The narrow view is how low their prices are, and how brilliant their format is, but the wider picture of their ability to undermine local economies, and how it is done is not a hidden secret. It is in the open, but 'consumers' seem to be a dumb lot without peripheral vision. I don't see the value of buckling under the wants and the pressure of large corporations with the adoration reserved for a Pope. Gregory E. Woods

My man, Guy Thrift, has some thoughts on the subject.

The Walmart in DC 

Vincent Orange (DC Council Member), says DC has huge surpluses, we don't need Walmart. I should think we should have surpluses! Huge attractions (Air & Space Museum, National Archives, monuments, numerous small and large parks), all paid for by the rest of the country. The huge federal payment to DC from the US Treasury. The influx of the salaries and wages of Senators, Congressmen, their staffs, along with a steady stream of income through the federal payroll system. Even this dwarfs the army of local federal contractors receiving cash through the US Treasury. One more thing councilman, "Don't surpluses indicate taxes are too high?"

Indian woman's perfect neckline ...

TODAY A DEEP LOVER

“Her neckline caught in the soft light is perfectly drawn to connect the lines, the contours of her shoulders, and her round breasts casting shadow into the shadows of our darkened room. It was a rare sight for sure. One to treasure and remember for the time, the days I need to remember passion and beauty in the dimness of business affairs, dim prospects of finding work, making a good living, taking care of aging parents and fighting traffic to get there.

The timeless quality of stillness around and within her, and the full scope of what she means to me now in the light of a culture that values beauty, and within the blink of an eye will raise up itself in arms against women once cherished who violated some code, some cryptic code of honor, and take her life. If I could but remember who I am in this moment maybe it would be enough when she is older, and I am older to remember why I cherished, and lover her so…” - © Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 12.19.12

https://www.facebook.com/nisha.renji.5?sk=wall  

ASSISTANCE

Nadya Suleman on the pole.

Nadya Suleman, apparently is under investigation because someone tipped the LA County Department of Welfare Fraud Prevention and Investigation off that she was making more money than they allowed her to make while collecting welfare. They call that fraud.


Leave her alone. The government stance against so-called welfare fraud is laughable. It is offensive to be stern against little people trying to make it, to survive, and apologetic towards the major players whose illegal actions affect the economies of the world. The rules of the welfare system have long been divisive, intrusive, and purposefully makes it difficult to advance if you attempt to step off it...

 I've been there. I know what it is like stepping away from what feels like the bondage of share cropping. I say leave her alone.


There are people, like Stacey, who say, if they had 14 kids they'd beg to be locked up. That is a lazy attitude, Stacey. Either way your approach leaves the state taking care of your children, and to add to the burden of the state you'd become a dependent of the state, and this would be a different discussion as the cost of care builds over the duration of your incarceration, and your children's personal hell believing they are not worthy of you.

Leave the Octomom alone. ~ Gregory E. Woods

June 11, 2013
Celebrity Platter

Suffering in Black Africa
Muhumud Surow grieves after burying his 12 month old daughter , Lin Muhumud Surowlays.
photo: Jerome Delay/AP

The Surprising Cause of Africa's Worst Drought turns out to have come from Northern Hemisphere. Tiny particles of sulfate, called aerosols, cooled the Northern Hemisphere shifting tropical rain patterns southward away from Central Africa from the 1970's until the 1990's!

Science, again has proved, or shown what the ancients knew, and many today intuit, and Jesus, an example amongst many, espoused that a stone creates ripples in water, and action here ripples there. It is disturbing to me how many Americans scoff at the notion of global warming, and its affect upon the less fortunate. - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 6.12.13

READ the story

BLOOD GOD

Fundamentalists are to be taken seriously. Their faith, historically, leads to blood baths. What is inherent within the blood religions: Christianity, Islam and Judaism? What is within Jesus of Nazareth that coldly dispenses judgement and death to non-believers? And Moses and the other patriarchs? What of them? We have a lot of questions to ask of ourselves and each other, if we are to live on the planet. We run the risk if a superior race of people land upon Earth from other planets, or galaxies, and perceiving the spirit of the atmosphere treats us as Whites treated the rest of the world and subjugates us all? - Gregory E. Woods 2.19.13

Pitit Neg Ahier

This is what Nigerians have adopted as religion; Death and destruction of each other.

Vodun/vodou practioners have never been on a quest to conquer or save souls, nor have they deliberately raging war against people who have different views. However, the Abrahamic faith based religion is definitely the soundtrack for violence..

In this image taken from TV showing the bodies of victims of inter-faith violence as a crowd gathers around, in the town of Dogo Nahawa, Nigeria, about three miles (five kilometers) south of the city of Jos, Sunday March 7, 2010. Rioters armed with machetes slaughtered more than 200 people on Sunday, many of them women and children, which are being collected from where they lay, in the streets of this central Nigerian town.
(AP Photo/NTA TV)