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There might be much for which to be thankful, but there are many more examples of things that need fixing. In any case, hope you’re all having a good tofu turkey day with your friends and family.
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How cute, yer baby pictures!
A friend of mine went to Alcatraz to commemorate the AIM occupation of 1969-1971. I would have gone but I am not within a reasonable radius to have done os.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/verbmynoun/sets/72157603265163478/
Next year I suggest a trip to Manzanar where Japanese-Americans were interned and prior to that you can go to Pete’s Cafe which is around the area that the US military came up with the idea to go to East LA and bother Mexican-Americans (wonder why no one gives the exact location of where the military was hanging out, it was around Main Street in dowtown,) for some added nostalgia you can swing by southcentral and look at the 105 freeway that took people’s homes, so people from various parts of LA wouldn’t have to get off at Century and see ethnic people on the way to fly out of the city.
Though I guess you could just go to Riverside and watch people get their cars impounded (that was yesterday,) because they didn’t have valid driver’s licenses.
No the 167 people weren’t drunk, didn’t do anything wrong, they simply were stopping people on Thanksgiving to see if they had driver’s licenses.
What was the probable cause for that…profiling is illegal…oh yeah, but this country didn’t exist until Europeans discovered it, so what does and does not exist or is and is not legal can change depending on who gets impacted.
I don’t know how thankful I should be right now. Thanksgiving confuses me. Obviously this gov’t doesn’t really view Thanksgiving as a time to be decent and nice either, since it uses it as a time to financially break people.
Browne
How about a look at the East LA interchange, Vernon, or Commerce to see just how much damn pollution is put on communities of color.
I’ll only be thankful for something on Thanksgiving if East LA becomes its own city.
It might not be appropriate for this post, but lolgrims.com is about the best I’ve seen in a while. A little tongue-in-cheek is always biting but true.
Now, to start a storm o’crap, the timing in Riverside was just wrong. What difference would it have made it they did it on a Wednesday morning while all were trying to get to work. But answer this question, of the 167 people watching their transportation evaporate, how many decided, enough–go back home? I’d venture a guess, not many. Why? Because we must give them something here they can’t find in their country. As paltry as it seems to us, it keeps people coming here. How many of us would risk being separated from our families, backbreaking inhumane work, and possible incarceration, to give our children a better life. They must come for something and I don’t think it’s for the sunshine.
And for a system that stops people on Thanksgiving, which I feel is a slow news day so it’s sure to get lots of coverage, they should be ashamed of themselves. Our rights, everyone’s, are being eroded in this country, that’s what we should be standing up for. Vote the bastards out and take back the first amendment.
Luna it doesn’t make a difference, it’s simply that to arrest people on Thanksgiving for bs, shows a high level of disrespect. It’s something that you would only do to a group of people that you think aren’t really people.
That right there is a powerful message. The US gov’t thinks certain people are less of people than other people and a Thanksgiving round up is a memo to everyone. Proof that it’s not just about not having a driver’s license. It’s about something much bigger.
“But answer this question, of the 167 people watching their transportation evaporate, how many decided, enough–go back home? I’d venture a guess, not many. Why?” luna
Just because someone is getting some benefits from being in a certain location it doesn’t make it ok that they get treated like crap. I know you’re not exactly saying that, but for people who think you might be I want to explain in my opinion what that mindset says:
What kind of human being thinks treating another human being like crap is ok, because at least the jerks here pay more than the jerks in another country. Human rights aren’t relative.
Never, ever think it’s ok for someone to treat you like crap even a little just because they pay you a little more or give you a little more. A guy that slaps you is just as bad as a guy that kicks you. No one should be hitting anyone, even a little.
Was slavery ok? Is anti-semitism is ok? Is sexism is ok? Because with that reasoning slavery can be viewed as ok if in your village you were already a slave. Anti-semitism is ok, becaues at least you aren’t in a concentration camp. Sexism is ok, because at least in the US they don’t cut off your clitoris.
Browne
Geeze, Browne, I never said it was OK to treat them that way. How the hell did you get that? But if they put up with it, they keep coming back, there has to be a reason none of us here in the states understands. How could we understand?
I’m just trying to comprehend how people put up with it. Where is the limit to their inhumanity. As for the people at the top, they’ll always try to squeeze every last drop from any section of the population they can exploit. Burger King refuses to add an additional penny to the pickers pot and their CEOs get fat on the profits. Boycott Burger King.
If it were all that simple, No one would ever say slavery is ok but would you stop buying jeans if you knew the workers were being locked in the factory until orders were met? Boycott Walmart.
We need to vote; both in the booth and with your purse. It’s all about money and until someone stands up and is counted situations will not change.
Luna
Luna,
Forgive me if you think I was attacking you, I’m not. It was simply an idea that your posting hinted around. Anyone could have said it, most people do. Most people think, “Well if they put up with this, then it’s not so bad.” But it is so bad. You just can’t think about how bad it is though, because when you are poor you can’t think of terms of bad and good. You think of terms of alive and dead.
“If it were all that simple, No one would ever say slavery is ok but would you stop buying jeans if you knew the workers were being locked in the factory until orders were met? Boycott Walmart.” Luna
Yes. While I make jokes about being part an active member of consumerism I don’t buy new stuff. I don’t go to Walmart. I don’t go to Target. I don’t buy anything that I don’t need that contributes to the suffering of someone else, because I know.
The way people care about their darn little freakin piece of crap useless dogs, well I care about 100 times that for my fellow humans that I share the planet with. And no if I knew someone was a slave so I could buy some jeans I wouldn’t buy them. In fact I know that big box stores contribute to suffering which is why I don’t shop at them.
If you have kids and you’re poor and you go to Walmart I am not judging you. I know you don’t have a choice, but I do, but I didn’t always.
Not opening up my wallet is not hard. I will not contribute to slavery now or in the future, regardless of what fancy new name they come up with i.e. guest worker, day laborer, sweatshop worker…
“We need to vote; both in the booth and with your purse. It’s all about money and until someone stands up and is counted situations will not change. ” Luna
Voting I guess, but it seems to me the US gov’t doesn’t understand reason. I could be wrong, but I haven’t seen where voting has gotten anyone anywhere. The new super poor in the ghettos of the United States, the new super poor in the urban ghettos of all the western countries points to a new kind of carelessness and people need to stop trying to understand why people are this way and stop people from acting this way and voting isn’t going to do it.
Not being a consumer junkie and encouraging everyone else to stop is probably the most important thing you can do. Throwing away your TV is probably the second most important think you can do.
The reason people put up with things like a jerk gov’t seaching their cars, harassing their family is because they need to eat.
Thinking about life and not putting up with things, morals, dignity is a luxury that only people who are at least middle class people, the rest of society just has to survive.
Browne