NOTE:
I started this on August 13, 2012 and for some reason never finished
it; it needs to be told now, as all we seem to be lacking are the
snappy jackboots, parades, and apparently, we don't even need someone
who can hold an audience in his thrall for seven hours or chew rugs.
. . yet.
One
of my fascinations has always been history and current events; I've
been wanting to blog about it. Just about any history will do. The
unfortunate fact that I am starting with White Supremacy, American
Style has a LOT to do with Charlottesville three years ago and my own uncomfortable experience several years ago, when
Hartline #2 and #18 took me to the Doctor, while I still lived in Tampa. I was one of the few white
people around, and I found myself looking at the day’s TBT,
Tampa Bay Times**, a rather fine, free bird-cage liner, with that
Wade Page shooter and a Swastika emblazoned on the article itself. Since
I couldn’t very well stuff it in my mouth and didn’t have my
backpack and a only a very small purse, I had to proudly carry it. I hate
that kind of shit. As if, possession of a newspaper with a swastika
implies that I, a fair-haired, blue-eyed person somehow approves of
such goings on. Racial guilt.
**
I recommend reading this
article for a quick who's who, and what's what.
courtesy:nytimes.com
Shooting outside Sikh mosque on August 7, 2012.
Anyway,
my headlong immersion into history began with a bath in the events
leading up to WWII, via my own father, who lived some of them; but he
himself was quite the armchair historian and we didn't make shit up;
we verified. All events, starting with the end of WWI, right on
through Viet Nam (“Robert McNamara, that
son-of-a-bitch!”, I heard my father growl every morning, as he
shaved. I can also attest to the fact that directly after Charlottesville, I climbed up out of a sick bed, after having been in the hospital for a week with bradycardia and a low bp (I was probably dying, but was too stupid and stubborn to realize that), I got up and went on a protest march, were we listened to some very inspired rhetoric given by members of the Islamic-American community, The Tampa Communist Maoist Collective and #BLM, along with the Tampa Police Department. We were all one and we all marched and sat in several downtown intersections, snarling up traffic, while people honked in, what I hope, was solidarity.
I've had quite
an eduma-ca-tion. I would be intellectually deceitful if I said there
wasn’t a powerful fascination in trying to understand why one
group, race, nationality could so coldly, precisely and methodically
shovel another group, race, nationality into ovens like so much coal,
based on a RELIGION(?). I am sad to say, that after 30 years of trying
to figure out from so many different angles, artistically,
culturally, economically and historically I still don’t. But ahh…
there’s that nasty bete noire, religion. God, what nightmares. If
some superior being were ever to show itself, we would be cinders.
Seriously. We would be deemed unfit to continue our existence. But I
went back to study and learn, because the roots of such deviant
behavior don’t just spring up; there is a reason. Turns out I had
to go all the way back to the Diaspora.
This
is not getting to the bus and my embarrassment. I talk to everyone;
and had a good time with the usual folks. I am a rarity here; a white
person. I am very comfortable with this. My parents, being from
Scotland, were completely color-blind. My Grandfather Wallace, with
his kids in the old flivver, saved a man from a lynching during the
Depression. His kids had no idea what was up. The man was on the back
roads of Michigan looking for a job. Grandpa Wallace took him back
for a meal and a helper for a few weeks. My folks never understood
that fuss.
I
worked, went to school and lived in the equivalent of the UN. I had
an Egyptian neighbor. He would be taking his daughter for a walk. I’d
say, “hi, how are you?” He’d say, “We are just only
sleep-walking.” One night, there’s pounding on my door. It’s
the Iranians from across the hall. “Can you come look at this,
please?” they ask. I look. “Is this supposed to be funny?” It’s
the 3 Stooges. “Trust me, it’s hilarious.” I say. The next
morning, I am called to prayers. Well, actually the muezzin blows his
tinny little horn on his portable tape deck. I watch as the men bow
and pray, bow and pray.
At
the teaching hospital, where I pretended to work, but just asked a lot of
questions, because the docs there love to teach, Indian Dr. Das, the
Head of Cardiology stopped me. “”You are good with sounds, you play
viola.” Since when, but okay. He’s babbling at Dr. Stepniewski,
who’s Polish; another Cardiologist. I’m like, “you guys need a
translator, you're going to kill a patient”. I ended up translating
their conversation; the patient survived; I just hope she didn't end
up with two left arms, or something.
This
is all leading up to this: the "otherness" and how white supremacists play to that. There are approximately 100 to 150 active
to semi-active bands, such as Panzerfaust
Records(now defunct, but follow the link; those assholes need to
be put out of business too) that promote hate music. They will
actively try to recruit junior and senior high kids as they are the
easiest of targets. The thing I found interesting is that they are
using music to inculcate these hate values into people, particularly
the young. Death metal particularly. I love music, the harder, the
more metal the better. Despite the fact I am a classically trained
violist means nothing. Beethoven is my god. Were he alive today, he’d
be writing and playing metal. Beethoven also believed in the
brotherhood of man. Think very carefully about that.
There
are other groups of skinheads who are diametrically opposed to these
ideals and should be promoted. They refer to themselves as SHARPs,
or Skinheads Against Racial Prejudice.
I love music. The fact that it is being used by people like Wayne
Page, now deceased and his ilk is anathema to me. Peter
Simi, who is associate professor of criminology at the University
of Nebraska met Page in 2001 in California. Professor Simi’s
specialty is hate crime and hate groups and I’m paraphrasing.
What
is most alarming is the rising rate of proponents of white supremacy
in the military. Because of lower recruitment rates, standards were
lowered and white supremacists were allowed to join. Evil begets
evil. I know from several people who have been in prison, done hard
time that white supremacy abounds there. It should also be stated in
the interest if fairness that an equal number of Latino and Gang
Bangers reside there as well.
Here
the original post ends, but I think that the gangs in prisons, by and
large, exist as protection (see the wonderful “OZ” if you have
not done so. It fully explores this subject.) and once out, most
people who are NOT career criminals – and I can speak with
authority -- having been housed with felons, leave that life behind. They return to normalcy.
Yet,
today, we have one of the most anti-semitic, and if not yet, we will
see, jew-baiting, hating Presidents as a Leader of the Free World. We
might expect something like this from someone like Vladimir Putin,
but guess what? Putin is above all, a statesman and he will not stoop
to this sort of rhetoric. I am NOT a Putin apologist, by any means,
but, BUT, when you have a Holocaust Memorial Day and do NOT mention
the Jews, you are not far from calling out the the SS, the SA, and
getting the ovens ready. I am inflammatory and I mean to be. Bring
your shit on, Trump. 306 electoral votes my ass! YOU are our American
Nazi!
God Bless anyone who has read this far, and I truly hope you have, because what I have to say next is said out of fear and hope. I'm going to provide two links that talk about the recent RNC and the events in Kenosha, WI. I see a country running dangerously close to the tipping point of madness. If, IF we wish to have an election come November 3rd, and a fair one, which seems to be less and less likely for a myriad of reasons -- USPS being sabotaged; Trump deciding he will not accept the terms; Law Enforcement, not including Military, stupidly getting involved; Barr's gang of ne'er-do-wells showing up uninvited and shooting random people; any number of any other things, not to mention Dems deciding "we've got this; may as well stay home!", we ALL really need to collect ourselves, be calm and do ... NOTHING! Stay home! Don't protest. Don't go out and do something that will provoke the authorities.
I admit, there's much to be changed, up and down the line, but RIGHT NOW, sixty-four days prior to the election, we need to NOT give Trump an excuse to declare some bloviation of an excuse to declare Martial Law and keep his fat ass in the White House. We need for an orderly (as much as possible) election, and as fair as one as possible to occur, so we can get him OUT. The damage he's already caused is immense, and we need no more! I'm going to stop talking now; I think you're all smart enough to understand the danger our Republic is in and that we ALL need to unite and take a deep breath. Let's worry about fixing messes and addressing wrongs, after this election. If we don't settle down, 2016, may have been our last Presidential election. Have a great #IWSG! Here come the links!
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