Are They Cops or Military?

This was a timely article to me: Open thread for night owls: America's police are looking more and more like the military

I'm reading Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America's Police Forces by Radley Balko and this is definitely something that worries me. Even as a UMC White woman, I'm aware of just how wrong a police encounter can go and it's worse for minorities, especially African-American men and boys. So why are we OK with giving police even more power and arming them like soldiers? Are we really so afraid of terrorists and other boogeymen that we'll allow the police to arm themselves to the teeth? Balko makes a good point when he says allowing the police to arm themselves like soldiers just increased their "us versus them" mentality. As the saying goes, if all you have is a hammer then everything starts to look like a nail. I think there are good cops out there but they're immersed in a culture that expects, and finds, violence.

Anyone who's watched prime time  TV has seen countless arrests. Complete fiction! If arrested or even questioned, get a lawyer and don't say a thing until you have counsel.

More Non-Essential Government.

No NTSB investigators for deadly bus crash because of government shutdown
So investigators for the NTSB are considered non-essential. Words just fail me. I really hope I don't start writing about kids dying of cancer or people sickened by food-born illness next.

Daily Reads October 3, 2013- Insanity Edition Day 3

Even Hastert Doesn’t Think Boehner Needs To Follow Arbitrary ‘Hastert Rule’
So we're holding the government and the people of this country hostage because a few uber-right Republicans don't like Obamacare? Makes perfect sense to me.

Poll: Tea party approves Republican shutdown, everyone else disapproves

Fully 72 percent of Americans disapprove of shutting down the federal government over differences on the Affordable Care Act; just 25 percent approve of this action. Republicans are divided: 48 percent approve, while 49 percent disapprove. Most tea party supporters approve of the government shutdown - 57 percent of them do.

I'm so glad the Tea Party is getting their jollies. Now can they please go sit back down at the children's table and let the grown-ups run the country now?

Troops could still lose special pay during shutdown
Plus with the civilians who support the military on furlough, even the benefits they do get may be on hold depending on who's in charge of authorizing them.

This does NOT address the issue of medical or disability benefits being cut or death benefits being denied to surviving spouses. Good thing we support our Troops!

Everything the Republicans Need To Know My Dog Learned in Obedience School
I love Margaret and Helen:

Michele Bachmann and friends can pose in front of a war memorial all they want pretending their not the ones who closed it. Clearly, they take us for fools. Well as the wife of a WWII veteran, I’d like to introduce my rather large foot to their sorry asses. I can promise you my late husband is rolling over in his grave knowing that affordable healthcare for 40 million people has shut down the very government he fought to defend.

 Yes, by all means. Let's shutdown the country we supposedly love in order to make a political point on a subject that the majority of Americans agree with. And we call these the patriotic people? Patriotism isn't slapping a Made in China "Support our Troops" bumper sticker on your car and call it done. It's making sure that our Government represents ALL the people and that the business of governing gets done.

Government shutdown: VA backlog at risk
For those who've given enough, please give a little more.

Non-essential Government

Yes, it's been a while. You can blame a lot of factors, work, grad school, life in general. But in the interest of household tranquility (in other words, so I stop yelling at the TV), I'm back to blogging.

There's a lot already said about the government shutdown, which is a blazing display of congressional stupidity, but the two things that jump out at me are non-essential workers and use of the word partial.

Here are a few jobs that are considered non-essential:

The National Guard

contractors supporting the military

Researchers at the CDC and NIH

technical staff who run the various governmental databases like e-verify (used to verifiy people for employment), PubMed (medical publication database that relies on government imput), FBI background checks (hope you didn't want that conceled cary license).

Pretty much any agency that uses government funds or people for scientific research like NOAA.

Food safety inspectors at the FDA

OSHA inspectors

and the list goes on. Each one of those people have families that rely on them, they rely on those jobs to pay bills, save for college or retirement, buy groceries, everything that people do in order to live. Not only are those people out of luck, the people who support them are also in jepardy. Food service workers who don't have a cafeteria to work in. The hot dog cart vendor on the street who doesn't have tourists or workers to buy his food. Cleaning crews who aren't needed to clean office buildings. 

Non-essential means the job can be put on hold for the short term but that will have repercussions which will only get worse the longer this shutdown goes on.

Which brings me to the word 'partial' to describe the shutdown. This isn't 'partial'. There is nothing about this that's 'partial'. Just because some aspects of the government are stil functioning (with the exception of Congress), that doesn't mean everything is hunky-dory, nothing to see here, lalalala, let's get on with life.  Partial makes it seem like this isn't really a big deal, like we're all over-reacting, which couldn't be further from the truth. This has a major impact on everyone, whether they realize it or not. 

The CDC will not be monitoring flu season, which means the flu vaccine may or may not be effective. The NTSB will not be monitoring safety standards for cars and trucks, which could halt production. The NIH isn't doing research or accepting new pations, which means people will die. The Head Start progams nationwise will start to close, which means children will lose access to early education and parents will have to scramble for childcare. The WIC and SNAP programs will lose funds which means low income women and children won't be able to eat. 

National parks and monuments and muesums are closed and that's lost income for the people who work there and maintain them (and for the people who enjoy them) but the impact is far, far greater than the little inconvienece the word 'partial' implies. These are people's lives that are being destoyed in the name of political ideology and that is just disgusting. Our congressional leaders have the lives of the American people in their hands and they're treating us with such breathtaking disrespect, it's beyond shameful.

Reading List July 15, 2013

The "Hell Yes I'm Furious about the Acquittal and I Intend to Remain So" Edition

I'm glad Rick Perry thinks our justice system is color-blind but but that man wouldn't know justice if it bit him in the ass. That would give us a better understanding of karma, however.

Our real problem is white rage:

The day before a jury delivered an acquittal in the murder trial of George Zimmerman, Seminole County Sheriff Don Eslinger and Sanford Police Chief Cecil Smith gave a national press conference to appeal for a peaceful reaction to the verdict — regardless of its outcome. 

Eslinger, who is white, said “We will not tolerate anyone who uses this verdict as an excuse to violate the law.” 

The veiled threat of an aggressive police response to imaginary civil unrest belies the very logic that led to Trayvon Martin’s death to begin with. For, you see, African-Americans are never protected or served by the law enforcement apparatus — yet they are always subject to its military might. 

Sanford police coyly “tolerated” the actual killing of an unarmed black child, but yet refuse to “tolerate” any anger expressed for the acquittal of his murderer. 

This is the new Jim Crow realized.

Right because you can be angry enough to shoot a child but you're not allowed to be angry over a child being shot.

We Are Not Trayvon Martin but we sure as hell stand by his side.

Crackers

No, not the snack food, of which I'm a little too fond. The word "cracker" and the attempt to make it equivalent to the n-word (hell no, I'm not going to use that word).

Give. It. Up.

There is simply no way to make it equivalent. Cracker may be a pejorative in some cases but it doesn't have the history or weight of injustice that the n-word has and still has to this day. I can't even think of any time I've ever heard Cracker used outside of my grandparents' house and that was my Grandpa prompting me to call myself a Georgia Cracker.

This scene repeated countless times:
I'm sitting on Grandpa's lap, with strawberry blond hair in curls and big blue eyes wearing a t-shirt that says "My Granddaddy is a Shriner" and he asks me "Are you my Georgia Peach?" he'd ask me and I'd giggle and say "No! I'm a Georgia Cracker!"

If someone said it to me now, I'd probably just laugh. Somehow I fail to see the equivalency there.

Acquittals and Privilege and Race and The Damned Unfairness Of It All

I sound like a whiny child on the playground, the World is Unfair! Yes, it is but in this case it isn't the other kid who gets the lollipop that I want, it's a mater of life and death and treatment by the law.

One of the reports on NPR this morning was how the outcome of the Zimmerman trial would effect The Talk:  The Talk: What Did You Tell Your Kids After The Zimmerman Verdict? The talk wasn't a part of my life, being an UMC White girl. The closest thing I came to The Talk was "be respectful and if you get a ticket for speeding, we're taking your car." One of my coworkers told me years ago how closely he policed his son's closet and behavior and it never dawned on me that it was a matter of self-defense. I feel like an idiot that I never thought of that and I'm sure my co-worker was just shaking his head and sighing.



I was driving this weekend with my boyfriend to visit his parents when I cop pulled in behind me. Now I will confess, I'm the reason super-speeder laws were invented. The aforementioned coworker actually got out of my car once and threatened to kiss the ground after a short trip to dinner. So when Mr. Officer pulled in behind me, I checked my speed and I mentally verified my license and insurance were on me. Just in case. I've been pulled over before, usually for lights out or (thank god rarely) for speeding. Privilege comes in to play because I didn't once think about driving a good car in rural Georgia and whether or not I'd be pulled over because of the color of my skin. I didn't have to think about what to do to be less threatening, I didn't have to worry about being arrested because I was "mouthy". I can be assured if I'm pulled over, I probably deserve it. So today I think about my friends and co-workers who are rightfully afraid for their children and I wish desperately this world were different and that I could do more to change it. Because it's just not fair.

I Was George Zimmerman

Let me go through the similarities:

• White or passing as White: Check
• In my 30's: Check
• Lived in a gated community: Check
• Condo complex effected by economic downturn: Check
• Uptick in crime with little resolution: Check

Lot's of similarities, the difference is I never shot and killed anyone.

I lived in a condo complex for 13 years, the housing crash put the nail in the coffin of a condo complex that was slowing deteriorating. My building of 10 units emptied out until there were 5 occupied units, none of which were on my floor. My storage bins on the property were broken into. We had assaults in the laundry room and vagrants caught sleeping in the basement. My car was broken into.

As a single woman, I was concerned for my safety so I took what I thought were reasonable measures. I had the door jambs in my front and side doors reinforced. I had a monitored security system installed. I bought a safe to keep my valuables in. I did not buy a gun.

On a rainy night in November 2011, I left my home to go to the grocery store. I pulled up to the light a quarter mile from my house when a car pulled up behind me, it's lights shining in my eyes. I saw movement and looked around to see a man approaching my driver's side window. It was pure instinct, my foot was on the gas and I was already rolling towards the intersection when I saw him. He ran back to his car and took off around me as soon as the light changed. By the time I got to the store, my adrenaline wore off and I was scared and shaky so I called a friend of mine to confirm yes, that really was an attempted car-jacking. Taking my friend's advice, I removed the bumpers tickers from my car, made sure my personal items were locked up and out of view and I changed how I carried my purse and my actions at intersections. No more playing with my cell phone at red lights! I did not buy a gun.

Last summer, I finally decided it was time to leave my home. There were too many issues to deal with living there, safety being one of them. I borrowed my boyfriend's truck one afternoon to drop off boxes and I pulled into a parking space in front of my building. I was just debating on whether or not to lug my backpack up the stairs when I saw a man weaving his way around the corner of my building. My first thought was he looked like some of the old beach bums I see in the Florida Keys, probably pickled from drinking. My second thought was what was he doing here? The man made a beeline for the truck and next thing I knew, he was asking for money and he opened the driver's side door of the truck. Luckily I still had my hand on the door so I pulled it shut and yelled at him to leave me alone. He turned around and left, wandering up the hill. I wasn't going to call the police, I figured there was nothing to be done about him, but when I saw him trying to get through the gate to the pool to harass some teenage girls, I decided to make a call. The police came and took a statement, apparently he was well known to them and he lived in the building next to mine. He was taken to jail on assault charges, I dropped off my boxes and I made sure I was never alone in that condo again. I did not buy a gun.

So what was the difference between George Zimmerman and me? For one thing, I didn't racially profile anyone. I never looked at people in my neighborhood and decided they didn't belong based on the color of their skin. Did I decide a man was a threat? In both cases, looking at their behavior, yes I did and I took appropriate action. When my neighbor speculated on who was breaking into cars and that speculation centered around two black boys in our complex, I asked if his suspicion was based on any sort of facts or just because they were black teens. As far as I know the culprits were never caught and the family of those kids left our complex and rented elsewhere. I also never got a good answer to my question. Sure, the demographics of my neighborhood changed so I got used to looking at different faces. Life goes on. That's the difference between George Zimmerman and me, the ability to adapt to a changing world.

For another thing, I wasn't able to shoot anyone because I made the decision not to buy and carry a gun. Georgia is a Stand Your Ground state and I have the right to shoot if I feel threatened but that's not a responsibility I wanted. I don't want to take someone else's life, it's not "him or me", this is not the Wild West. Nor would carrying a gun give me some awesome ability to judge at a split second whether someone deserves to live or die. The only thing a gun does is escalate the situation until someone is dead on the ground in the pouring rain. I have since inherited a gun that belonged to a family member and I still have no plans to carry. I don't live in Baghdad or Belfast, I have no compelling reason to walk around armed. That's the difference between George Zimmerman and me, the ability to see that a gun only adds to the problem, it doesn't resolve it.

I wish to god Zimmerman wasn't found not guilty because he is guilty, he has blood on his hands. He set himself as a cowboy looking to save a world that didn't need to be saved and a poor teenage boy is dead. He may have gone out to Target to shop like any other person on other night but when he came back, he found a Scary Black Man, one of those who "always got away", and not a kid walking back home from a trip to the store chatting on the phone with a friend. Unfortunately the child died but the "Scary Black Man" lives on.

Congratulations!

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

My very best wishes to the happy couple

Reading List June 28, 2013

Wow, way to put yourself out on the line, Wal-Mart!

NC jobless losing federal compensation Sunday: 'They are really putting the gun to your head now.'
So what are the long-term unemployed supposed to do? If you don't have money, you can't go to school to learn new ones. You can't eat or have a place to live. What kind of future are you supposed to have?

This is wonderful and may it be be only the first in a never-ending series of celebrations.

Who's On Trial Again?

The trial of Trayvon Martin is just sick and disgusting. At what point will we stop putting Martin and his girlfriend Rachel Jeantel on trial and start prosecuting the man who actually shot him?

Ms. Jeantel is not a pretty, blond white girl. She's not UMC, educated and eloquent. And you know what? That doesn't mean a damned thing. She's a witness, the very last person who spoke to Trayvon Martin except for the man who killed him. Think about that. A 19 year old girl talking to her friend/boyfriend on the phone as he was chased down through his neighborhood and killed. The fact that she's even able to testify shows her strength of character. And who defines what a "perfect" witness is, anyway? This is not an episode of Law and Order. This is a real, human trial involving real people. People who aren't polished, who haven't been groomed for the media.

Personally, I've very impressed with how well Jeantel has done. She's obviously a strong character who is trying to do the best she can for her friend in an extremely hostile environment. Why don't we stop putting her on trial and instead start the trial of George Zimmerman. He's the one who needs to defend his actions.

Glad That Whole Racism Thing Is Over

That is, according to Justice Roberts. 

Here's a visual of the impact of the VRA:

Buried deep in Roberts' opinion, on page 15, is this remarkable chart comparing voter registration numbers from 1965 to 2004. The influence of the VRA in increasing black registration percentages appears extraordinary and undeniable.

But that's all history, racism is dead and over with. And Paula Deen is allowed to use the N-word with no repercussions. It's not like she's a racist or anything.

YES YES YES

Gay marriage ruling: Supreme Court finds DOMA unconstitutional

I know we have a ways to go for the full equality for our LGBT citizens but I am celebrating this victory.

Reading List June 26, 2013

Who needs those pesky worker protections anyway? There's little focus on this but it certainly makes work life that much harder now, especially in Right To Work states (HA!).

From the Better Late Than Never Department:
This is a huge load off of my mind. I was so worried about the sexual assault epidemic in the military but apparently, it's not so bad and it's easily explained.

This is the reality of the SCOTUS decision on voter registration. I first voted in 1992 in my college town of Rome, GA. Fast forward a decade (plus)  and this certainly would have been my story.

#IStandWithWendy What an amazing act of courage! And what an amazing display of asshattery for the Texas Legislature to try to sneak #SB5 through after midnight. Of course Texas has been trying to turn back the clock for years... to 1850.

And speaking of screwing American workers, let's look at Hostess to see how it's done.

• Unionized Hostess workers made major concessions, taking pay and benefits cuts. That money was supposed to be reinvested into the company. It wasn't.
• As the company was struggling, its CEO pay skyrocketed, and as it was going into bankruptcy, Hostess pushed to give $1.75 million in bonuses to top executives.
• Hostess claimed it had to close plants because workers went on strike, but in fact, the company was already planning to close nine bakeries and wasn't telling which ones.
• Hostess stole its workers' pension money to fund itself and still went bankrupt.
• And, as Media Matters points out, "while the AP story claims that "workers" are blaming the company's woes on mismanagement and a failure to adapt to evolving consumer tastes, this has actually been the opinion of informed and objective third parties."

People Explain Things To Me

This is a good piece on the issue of Mansplaining, the history behind it,  how universal it is and hopefully a solution.

Last summer, bits of the internet found a new word: Mansplained. You know when someone explains something to you, but you already know about it, and you feel a bit patronised? Maybe because you are even wearing a giant flashing badge with “I KNOW LOADS ABOUT THIS I HAVE SIX ZILLION NOBEL PRIZES IN IT” which they somehow manage not to see, too caught up in their own knowledge. That’s mansplaining. The word is a mix of the words explaining and man because it’s seen as something men are especially guilty of when it comes to their interactions with women’s expertise.

It's annoying, it's frustrating and it happens all the time. I wish I could count the number of times I've had it done to me. My latest "favorite" was a friend of a friend explaining to me what a computer virus is. After 15 years of IT experience, an almost completed Master's degree and a job at one of the top InfoSec companies in the US, I'm pretty sure I have a handle on it. However if one of our investigators at work tells me about a new virus seen in the "wild" you can be damned sure I'll listen to him. So what's the difference between the two conversations? The level of expertise involved.

And that's where it gets interesting. It's impossible to know everything, there will always be someone who knows more about a subject than you do, just as you know more about a subject than someone else. As she puts it:

The tensions around mansplaining also reflect hang-ups we have dealing with expertise in this world of specialisms we’ve made for ourselves. I think one of the reasons it’s sparked recently, especially around social media, is because we increasingly bump into expertise without much context, and as a result see our prejudices laid out quite clearly. We can be shocked to see someone we didn’t know holding a confident opinion in 140 characters or a simple independent blog. WHAT DO THEY KNOW ANYWAY? Oh, quite a lot actually. I didn’t realise that. Whoops. Or, more often maybe, we discover that this new person knows about the world in a slightly different way from us, one we might disagree with but can still learn from.

I'm guilty of "mansplaining" even though I'm by no means male but hopefully I'm aware enough of it to ensure I'm not talking down to people who know less about a subject than I do. I hope I can answer questions in a way that encourages learning and discourse rather than shutting it down. It's certainly something I try to be aware of just as I'm aware of my tendency to talk fast and to rapid fire information at people. And that right there is the solution, be aware of how you're communicating and try not to erect more barriers to communication. Benefit of the doubt, trust and a lack of contempt (conscious or unconscious) for the people around you.

We Should Never Forget

I'm sad to say I didn't know about this but yesterday marked the 40th anniversary of the arson attack at the UpStairs Lounge in New Orleans. This was the worst attack on LGBT people in the United States but has been largely forgotten by the public.

While we're waiting for a SCOTUS decision on DOMA, let's remember the sacrifices of the people who came before us and what they went through. The Stonewall Riots, the UpStairs Lounge, the ignorance about AIDS in the early '80s. I wish I could say the world has changed, that these are no longer concerns but I'd be lying. As long as suicide is the number one killer of LGBT youth, as long as protesters still carry signs saying AIDS Cures Fags and as long as LGBT are denied the respect they deserve as citizens of this country, the world has not changed. It may have improved in some ways but there is still a long ways to go.

Men, Women and Higher Education

Growing up, going to college was a given. There would be no such thing as a choice about whether or not to go (although there were a few battles over where to go). Both my parents have Bachelor's degrees and both went on to get Master's degrees, as have I. I had a liberal arts degree but I went on to work in IT.

I think everyone can agree IT is a male dominated industry,  I've been listening with interest to our interns and new hires talk about how a degree is unnecessary and then I read this: As court prepares affirmative-action decision, softer standards for men go unnoticed. It's interesting to me how the rate of women in higher education has increased while the rate of men has decreased but rather than hearing how the men need to step it up, higher education is being devalued instead. So what happens when women with higher education outnumber men? Will we get equal pay or will formal higher education become devalued entirely?

Reading List June 24, 2013

An honest look at the history of eugenics in the United States and the rise of the concept of White Trash.

Texas Republican finds cure for rape! So have I, it's called teaching men not to rape women in the first place and ensuring women are able to get justice and treatment afterwards. Wait, I was wrong. It's not a cure. Maybe it was an abortion instead?

12-Year-Old Girl Kicked Off Football Team Because Boys Had ‘Impure Thoughts’ About Her
And this is her problem how? Let her play!

Reading List June 20, 2013

A good look at how racism looks today versus what it looked like in 1865. It may look different but I'd have to wonder if it would feel any different?

I can't imagine drinking meals on a regular basis but Rob Rhinehart did and started a Kickstarter program to fund and develop it. It's definitely an engineer's solution to meals:

Rhinehart envisions Soylent as part of a future utopia in which no one has to grocery shop or scrub dishes, people spend less money and time on food, and everyone is healthy, having slurped down exactly the nutrients they need.

but I can't really say I'm up for it. To me, food is a communal thing and I enjoy the time I spend with my friends and family cooking and enjoying meals. 

No Posts Over The Weekend

Taking the weekend off has become a trend. Between some medical stuff on Friday and adopting a new puppy Saturday, I was in a complete news outage. Which, to be honest, is pretty nice. It's so easy to get caught up in everything going on in the world and forget to spend time on the important stuff like family and friends.