Politics: When a Shoe is Not Just a Shoe

Nikita Khrushchev allegedly pounded his shoe on the podium at the UN General Assembly meeting October 12, 1950 in protest. His outrage at the Phillipine's President's accusation that the Soviet Union was trying to dominate  Eastern European Countries prompted Khrushchev to push aside a speaker, pound his fists and allegedly pound his shoe.
What is with the shoes? In the middle east, throwing shoes is an ultimate insult. The Arabs hated George Bush. Posters of Bush with shoes was the ultimate insult. When they couldn't stand his rhetoric any longer a protester took off his shoe and threw it at him.
This morning I read of another shoe throwing protest and thought I would make my own list of protests in which I would like to throw a shoe-feel free to add your own!
1. Big Banks and Wall Street .Here's a big, heavy clog for your greedy self indulgent ways. Throw it into the Bull Ring! We bailed you out and this is what we get? Slippery policies, high fees, and discriminant rule over those who feed you. Eat your young, why don't you!

2. Education-Here's a dump truck full of Air Jordan's for screwing up our education so badly all kids from age 5 up do is test their little hearts out. What a joke. Accountability is one thing. Cheating children out of educational time in order to make pie charts is a joke. Get back to the basics.

3. Politicians-Let's all throw our shoes at the system that no longer works. Don't make it your best shoes -with the polarization of our country;s banana republic congressmen, we got nothing-baby. Nothin-except a group of rich old white men on the take.

4. Here's a shoe for the grocery industry with their game of jacking up prices until no one can afford a product and then dropping them drastically. What a waste of meat and produce. I'd really like to know how much the grocery stores throw out at the end of the day to keep prices up.

5. Oil Companies-How long do we subsidize them? What a joke!! Here's a thousand steel toed work boots for your greed. Can't wait till you run out of product.

6. Throw a shoe in Las Vegas for the new level of carny game come ons used to lure people to gambling machines with little or no payouts.

7. My own personal 10 inch pointy toed high heels with dagger like spikes gleefully thrown at Mitt Romney for his headline making news that bullies, too, can run for President.

8. Here's some payless shoes to a society which promotes sex, lust and greed over caring, honor and love.

9.

Americans fascinated with all things trashy

Sometimes I wonder if the American psyche is so fascinated with Sarah Palin because she's trash. C'mon, people, admit it. Her track record for intellect, class, and reflective thinking is zero. Americans would have voted her in to the Presidency so they could have another reality show called, "The Wrecking of America"
Rick Santorum would run a close second with his ignorant comments and sexist rhetoric.
But then, Americans love all things trashy. They avidly follow the downfalls of politicians and actors. Kim Kardashian's wedding was a hit. Her divorce proceedings and misfortunes are a maniacal hit. Americans love nothing more than a sinner, the worse the better the entertainment factor.
Class went out with Fox. Married with Children was so popular it continues reruns. My Name is Earl is another favorite of the male gender.
The lower the bar, the more Americans eat it up.
Why is that? When did we become a country so proud of it's baseness we are willing to sell out our neighbors?
A country of citizens  once proud of our heritage, our culture of democracy and the rights of citizens now roots around in the lowest common denominator and calls this phenomena "the average joe."
The American collective psyche believes in the power of forgiveness. There must be some kind of power in that fallacy. Believing one has the right to forgive atrocious and or destructive behaviors. Kind of like the American females fascination with and following of serial killers. Some thrill in writing to them in prison and marrying one on reality tv. Oh, don't laugh. It will happen.
I think the fascination with the Hunger Games is it is the ultimate reality television. Americans would like nothing more than to send their children (with big bucks pending) in to win the glory of the media exposure.
I sometimes wonder what European countries really think of us? Many with thousand year old cultures, what do they think of this brutal, dense, judgmental rhetoric citizens accept without questioning?
Wait for the echo you will soon hear,
"Let the games begin!!"

Rush Limbaugh Nothing to see here....move along

Rush Limbaugh has occupied his space long enough. His shock value is nothing compared to the Republican Presidential candidates farcical displays of low intellect. Fox News and Rush Limbaugh have played their parts in  the dumbing down of America. Give him his Wikipedia place in history and let us move on-to even dumber downed horizons.

Closeted Racists, The Most dangerous of all

I am in my fifties. A quiet looking old lady, I suppose. I must be harmless looking because I can't believe the things people tell me. I just sit quietly and listen. Until I can't take it anymore. Then I call the person out on their racism.
A closet racist gets along in the world. Why? They have black or Hispanic bosses. They know how to play the game. You won't hear a word from them about the race of important people in their quest for a living wage. But I sometimes wonder how destructive this kind of dishonesty will play out in our nation. Don't be so worried about the blatant racists. I have more respect for them. At least their rants and hatred give you a pretty good heads up . The closet racist could be sitting next to you at work and you wouldn't have a clue. They come to me thinking because I am older I must be too. It amazes me what I hear. About how blacks have become more uppity since Obama was elected. How Treyvon shouldn't have worn a hoodie. About how our country has changed since a black man was elected into office.
Men and women spew racial hatred. These are supposedly educated people, those with enough exposure to the world to know our country is fast becoming caramel colored.
I don't even want to understand how seemingly educated people come up with these ideas. The closet racist is dangerous because that kind of ignorant hatred doesn't just go away. It permeates our airways, digs into the psyches of their children and spews hatred in a much more passive aggressive manner.
I understand that whites are fast becoming the minority in our country. The fact we have old white men running for office in a desperate attempt to maintain a losing status quo will place us right up there with South Africa and apartheid.
Our jails are full of young black men. Our profiling police forces are a testament to our continued national racism.
I was asked recently why I was not "so racist" coming from the era I was born into (the 1950's).
I asked, "What difference does the era make?" We choose our paths in how we think and what we believe. Oh, sure, we can be influenced by our experiences, but we don't need to be owned by them.
Understand our horrific history of racism to not just blacks, but Japanese, (internment camps, Chinese (indentured servants) the annihilation of the Native American population, the underpaid and horribly treated migrant population and maybe an understanding of the nature of the American citizen will emerge.
Closeted racists are dangerous. They are dishonest, politically correct cowards.
There are too many of them in our country and no one calls them out.
Our global world will not tolerate racism. Our country needs to grow up. We are thousands of years behind other countries in terms of maturity but we need to expand our view of the world and its multicolor or we will be seen as uncivilized, dangerous and barbaric. Rightly so.

Blue shorts and shirt will get you shot

I am flummoxed. That is the only word I can think of when people tell me "what's he doing wear a hoodie?" An "educated" friend of mine vomited that statement yesterday and I looked at her and said, "So if you are wearing those blue shorts and blue top someone has the right to shoot you if they are perceived as "granny gang" colors?" (We are both over fifty.)
She backtracked on her comment but I know her. She is as racist as you can get. Her comments about President Obama and his race astound me. Her job surrounds her with black and Hispanic children every day. She is well loved at her place of employment even though her boss is black and Hispanic. They don't have a clue. I hear others I would never have believed make racist comments.
I wonder how many closeted racists there really are out there in the United States?
The thought makes me queasy.

When Life Hits Hard

Two months ago a  young couple went to check on their 6 month old daughter.

She wasn't breathing. A friend of mine who was visiting gave her mouth to mouth resuscitation which tragically was not successful. The little girl died of SIDS. My friend was devastated. He described the feelings of helplessness and frustration at not being able to do anything to save the baby. SIDS remains a mystery and every parents deepest fear. The parents have since split, trying to understand this senseless death is overwhelming and for a young couple beyond the limits of comprehension. At the time of the incident the police were called. They investigated my friend although the situation was apparent.

A month later this friend drove a visiting buddy back to his hotel room on the strip. It was late in the evening when the police pulled him over. Not that this should matter but he drives a red car with tinted windows. He was told he turned right at the wrong time and the Las Vegas police did a registration check, handcuffed him, threw him on the car, told him he was drunk, refused to do a breathalyzer and requested a blood draw instead, They then charged him with a DUI, driving without his license, some kind of thing about lane change and threw him in jail on a Friday night. They held him until late Monday night , releasing him after dropping all the charges.

Did you know the police can accuse you of DUI and hold you in jail for 72 hours awaiting the results of a blood test, without bail?

We all know and fear the Las Vegas Police department. It is corrupt and random. We have citizen shootings frequently and the police are not held accountable. It is a frightening place to live for many.

Most rational people will excuse this police activity away. "Well, if he wasn't doing anything wrong he wouldn't have been noticed.

I don't know about you  but I am beginning to feel a LOT of uneasiness with the way law enforcement in many parts of the country are doing the job.

My friend moved here from California in September. His parents live in an upscale neighborhood in the southwest side of the city. He holds a Masters Degree from UCLA. Since he moved back he has been pulled over four times in his own neighborhood when returning late at night. Each time he is treated with disrespect and literally baited. This last time was pretty frightening. 

I worry about him. He is young. He drives a red car with tinted windows.

The police profile is not good for him. He is a responsible, caring individual who moved back to Las Vegas so he could help his elderly parents.

Oh, did I tell you he is also black?

It's an Ugly Place For My Grandson

I worry about his future. Not yet two, his wonder about the moon and the stars, the darkness of night, the sun, how trees grow and why he can't move big rocks delights me. He wakes up in joy and expresses every emotion known to man and woman.
Over time he will become socialized. He will learn to control his impulses, to stifle his emotions and become a citizen of this anal repressed country.
How sad is that?
Not only will he lose that wonder in the schools we are now shaping as testing factories, identifying his talents as deficits because they don't fit the mold, by kindergarten testing, he will be labeled as either competent or "emerging" and discussion will begin about retention.
He will face pollution, water shortages, extreme weather as a product of global warming, racial profiling, dishonesty in product safety, and sadly, less opportunity in a country which once prided itself on opportunity. His chances to succeed financially in this world will be limited. Our income, as a school teacher, will limit his mobility. I see his mother struggle and I wonder, will he have the opportunities I had, to get an education? My family was very poor. I still had the opportunity to attend college without placing myself into  enormous debt.
I wonder if he will be part of a generation which pulls it together. Stops the selfish, greedy capitalistic raping of our world, puts the brakes on the uberrich and corporations which set policy for our country? Will he be able to help stop the sucking of our world resources to benefit the bottom land and save our world for generations of the future? Will he even be able to have a family and raise it in a safe world?
I won't be here to see it but my spirit will be floating over him each day with hope and love for our earth and his life.