"Serve And Protect The Constitution"

The bombing in Boston has caused emotions to run high for everyone.  People have been glued to their seats waiting for the latest news on the fugitive second suspect.  So much so that CNN didn't even bother getting the truth before reporting on it.  But that isn't what I want to talk about here.

Now, the suspect has been caught alive. But even before he was captured, Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) suggested that the suspect be held as an enemy combatant. He released a series of tweets that provided a good view on his mindset.

If captured, I hope Administration will at least consider holding the Boston suspect as enemy combatant for intelligence gathering purposes. 

3:33 PM - 19 Apr 2013 

If the #Boston suspect has ties to overseas terror organizations he could be treasure trove of information.

3:37 PM - 19 Apr 2013 

The last thing we may want to do is read Boston suspect Miranda Rights telling him to "remain silent."

3:40 PM - 19 Apr 2013 

The Obama Administration needs to be contemplating these issues and should not rush into a bad decision.

3:43 PM - 19 Apr 2013

Rushing into a bad decision would certainly be bad. Like not reading Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the bomber, his Miranda Rights. That was a bad decision. Or not trying him in a civilian court, preferably in Boston. That would also be a bad decision.

Like it or not, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is an American citizen and deserves all the protections a citizen gets under the Constitution. We have shown that we can handle prosecuting terrorists at home. We can do it again.

Republicans love to quote the Founding Fathers so here are a few yo should really read, Senator.

"He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself." -- Thomas Paine 1795

"The Habeas Corpus secures every man here, alien or citizen, against everything which is not law, whatever shape it may assume." --Thomas Jefferson to A. H. Rowan, 1798. ME 10:61

"Why suspend the habeas corpus in insurrections and rebellions? The parties who may be arrested may be charged instantly with a well defined crime; of course, the judge will remand them. If the public safety requires that the government should have a man imprisoned on less probable testimony in those than in other emergencies, let him be taken and tried, retaken and retried, while the necessity continues, only giving him redress against the government for damages. Examine the history of England. See how few of the cases of the suspension of the habeas corpus law have been worthy of that suspension. They have been either real treasons, wherein the parties might as well have been charged at once, or sham plots, where it was shameful they should ever have been suspected. Yet for the few cases wherein the suspension of the habeas corpus has done real good, that operation is now become habitual and the minds of the nation almost prepared to live under its constant suspension." --Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 1788. ME 7:97

Georgia Time Warp

In Georgia, four high school student's approached Georgia Governor Nathan Deal to ask him to endorse their proposition to integrate their high school prom.  Rather than be shocked that there is a school in his state that still has a segregated prom and attempt to rectify the situation, he brushed the students off.  He said such an endorsement would amount to a "publicity stunt."

While it may be a publicity stunt, or could easily be one, you endorse this integrated prom, Governor.  This is a no brainer.  Brown vs. Board of Education was 60 years ago and we still have stuff like this going on?  You should be angry that this is happening at all but you should be angrier that it is happening in your state.  Some high school students came and asked for your endorsement probably because they thought you could help their cause.  Really, they served to you a beautiful campaign issue on a silver platter.  You could have been the governor that helped stamp out the last remnants of segregation in your state but instead you have brushed it off as unimportant.

This makes one believe or at least suspect that you don't care if the prom remains segregated.  Worse, it might make one wonder if you think there should be more segregation.  Comments like this, while perhaps having good intentions, are not helping:

We’ve come a long way in the state of Georgia. We don’t need things like this being divisive. We think we have put most of those issues behind us. None of us condone things that would send the wrong message about where we are with regard to race relations. But by the same token, I think that people understand that some of these are just local issues and private issues, and not something that the state government needs to have its finger involved in.

Integration wouldn't have happened in the first place without government intervention.  It's foolish to hide behind that now.  You support things like his because they are the right thing to do, Governor.  I'm sure you'll get the segregationist vote in the next election.  Congratulations.

North Carolina Moves Confederate Flag Display

Not many symbols in history make me as angry as the Confederate flag.  We see it everywhere even today.  Even in states that weren't even states at the time of the Civil War.  

Some say it is a symbol for a rebel spirit and independent thinking.  This thinking has spread to Canada where the flag is even depicted there.  Some say it represents the rights of the states to push back against Federal regulation.  I do not agree.

This flag represents the Confederate States of America.  Technically, it is the Battle Flag but it is the flag most associated with the Confederates.  Let's not get hung up on that.  This flag represents the reason that 750,000 or more Americans were killed.  The South fought for their rights to keep slaves and the North fought to hold the Union together.  Later there was a bit about freeing the slaves, but the initial goal of the North and President Lincoln was to keep the country together.  

Some would argue that the Civil War was fought over "state's rights."  Yeah, sure, I can agree with that, but can you tell me what specific right they wanted the states to have power over?  The right to own slaves.

U.S. History is not as comforting as you are led to believe from the nice survey history textbooks you read in grade school.  It is a harsh story with many players that have good and bad parts to their individual tales.  The Alamo, for example, was not this bastion of freedom that some people like to claim.  This battle was fought over the rights of the Texans to keep their slaves.  Texas was part of Mexico at the time and Mexico had just abolished slavery.  They fought for Texan freedom, yes, but not for all.  

So when I see this flag on trucks, barns, shirts, and hats all over the country I cannot help but think the owner/wearer is either ignorant to its meaning or is a racist.  I really don't think it's a stretch to think that since the KKK has used the flag and the KKK was founded by former Confederate officers after the Civil War.  “The [revival of the] flag is a sign that the south is trying to relive their glory days,” and  they are “holding onto a glorified identity that never existed.”

North Carolina decided to hang the flag in their Capitol building as part of an exhibit commemorating the Civil War.  The exhibit, with the flag, was set to remain until April 2015 to mark the 150th anniversary of Federal troops arriving in Raleigh.  Once it was known that the Governor was going to use that part of the Capitol as a work space, the exhibit was set to be moved. State Historic Sites Director Keith Hardison had said Thursday the flag should be viewed in what he called the proper historical context.

“Our goal is not to create issues.  Our goal is to help people understand issues of the past. … If you refuse to put something that someone might object to or have a concern with in the exhibit, then you are basically censoring history.”

North Carolina NAACP president Rev. William Barber did not share Hardison's thoughts on the matter.

“He is right that it has a historical context,” Barber said. “But what is that history? The history of racism. The history of lynchings. The history of death. The history of slavery. If you say that shouldn’t be offensive, then either you don’t know the history, or you are denying the history.”

The exhibit is remaining up, but across the street in another building.

I actually don't oppose the exhibit itself because of the historical context.  I do think that it was inappropriate to have it in a working part of the Capitol building.  I think it is a neat idea to have the flag flying in the proper context of representing the 150 year anniversary of the Civil War.  I think there should be some sort of ceremony in 2015 to represent Union troops entering Raleigh and bringing the flag down.  That could be very interesting but I don't know if they have something like that planned.

Limbaugh Proves The Fight Isn't Over

Earlier this week, Rush Limbaugh went on a rant that seemed to imply that he didn't think civil rights are very important.  He said: "Young People Have This Almost Romantic Attachment To Civil Rights, Civil Liberties"

Have a listen:

Why shouldn't young people support civil rights and equality?  Oh, here's a better question: Why isn't everyone in support of these ideals?

Why do we need laws protecting these groups?

On June 7, 1998, James Byrd Jr., a black man, was attacked by three men with ties to a white supremacist gang.  A fight broke out and the outnumbered Byrd was tied to the truck bumper with a 24½-foot logging chain. Three miles later, what was left of his shredded remains was dumped between a black church and cemetery where the pavement ended on the remote road.

In 2008, Brandon McClelland was killed by two men with ties to a white supremacist group. McClelland died after going with two white acquaintances on a late-night beer run across the state line to Oklahoma, investigators said. Authorities said he was run over and dragged as much as 70 feet beneath the truck. His torn-apart body was discovered along a bloodstained rural road on Sept. 16. His mother said pieces of his skull could still be found three days later.

After being severely bullied for being gay, both in person and online, Jadin Bell, a 15-year-old Oregon high school student climbed on a playground structure and attempted to hang himself.  This happened this year.  2013.

Marco McMillian, the first openly gay candidate for public office in Mississippi was beaten, dragged, and set on fire.  This happened this month.  March 2013.

This is why we still fight.

Clearly Rush doesn't have any notion of history of facts of any kind really.  He spouts his bigotry and revisionist history every day on the airwaves and millions of people eat it up.  The man at CPAC that thinks segregation is a good thing is the kind of crowd Rush caters to.

If people could relax and see past their own prejudice, they would see a person.  A person that bleeds the same as you.  Laughs the same as you.  Loves and cries the same as you.  Sadly, this takes a lot of time, but we are making progress.  And have made progress.  And will continue to make progress.

50 years ago, Martin Luther King Jr. stood in Washington and said these words that are just as applicable to LGBT issues as it was to end segregation:

I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today.

We're trying, Reverend, we're trying.