THE AGE OF FAIRNESS AND JUSTICE – by Gary Smolker

← A MODEST PROPOSAL FOR IMPROVING POLICE CONDUCT IN THE FIELD – by Gary Smolker

LOVE DOES NOT JUDGE

Jun 13

 

 

WE ARE LIVING IN THE AGE OF FAIRNESS

We are living in an AGE OF FAIRNESS, in an age of creativity, social fairness, racial fairness, inclusiveness, diversity, etc. etc.  It is a RENAISSANCE.

We have left the Stone Age.  We have left the DARK AGES.  We have left the ENLIGHTENMENT and the renaissance which followed the Age of Enlightenment and we have left the Age of Secularization which followed the Age of Enlightenment.

We have entered an age of rational compassionate fairness and religious ferocity.

Some people now realize (1) Black people are just people; (2) they are not an inferior race or a violent race of people; (3) they have suffered many grave injustices, including slavery, systematic anti-Blackness, and inequality of opportunity (a) for an education, (b) for employment, (c) for housing, and for health care.

Some people now realize (1) doing the right thing is just, is justice in action; (2) everybody wants justice; (3) justice is eternal; (4) evil is only temporary, evil doesn’t last; its not the light at the end of the tunnel that counts, it is the light within that counts.

WE ARE EXPERIENCING A TIPPING POINT OF SOCIAL CHANGE

Nearly 95% of the counties that have had protests in the past few weeks are majority white, 75% are more than 75% white.  The age group with the largest share of protestors was people under 35 and the income group with the largest share of protestors were those earning more than $150,000.00

THE AMOUNT OF CHANGE PROTESTS HAVE PRODUCED IN THE PAST FEW WEEKS

• In Minneapolis the City Council pledged to dismantle its police department.
• In New York, lawmakers repealed a law that kept police disciplinary records secret.
• Cities and states across the country have passed laws banning choke holds.
• Mississippi law makers voted to retire their state flag, which prominently includes a Confederate Battle emblem.

According to a poll from the Washington Post and the Kaiser Family Foundation, one in five Americans said they had participated in a protest since the beginning of the Trump administration.

THE LARGER NUMBER OF PEOPLE PARTICIPATING IN THESE PROTEST MARCHES

In recent weeks, 15 million to 26 million people in the United States have participated in demonstrations over the death of GEORGE FLOYD and others.

The Women’s March in March 2017 had a turn out of about 3 million to 5 million on a single day.

The civil rights marches in the 1960s all together had hundreds of thousands of participants, not millions

Across the United States there have been more than 4,700 demonstrations, or an average of 140 per day, since the first protest began in Minneapolis on May 26, 2020. Turn out has ranged from dozens to tens of thousands in about 2,500 small towns and large cities.

On June 6, 2020, half a million people turned out in 550 places across the United States to protest against police brutality and for racial justice.

THE BIGGER PICTURE

According to a poll from the Washington Post and the Kaiser Family Foundation, one in five Americans said they have participated in a protest since the start of the Trump Administration, and 19% said they were new to protesting.

[This post has been revised four times.  I began typing this post in May, 2020.  The above sections of this post were typed and added to this post on July 13, 2020.]

PRELIMINARY INTRODUCTION

This post is still a work in progress.

I have rewritten this post three times and I am now revising it for the fourth time.

This is the fourth revision of this post.

This post is still a work in progress.

I am still writing, editing, and revising this post because I believe it is vital to be pushing the conversation on the important social issues of (a) racial injustice,(b) racism, (c) protests against racial injustice, (d) law enforcement reform, (e) the shut down of the economy in the Unites States and other countries to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, and (e) Russia’s and China’s efforts to dominate the world and to destabilize and to destroy American society and the American economy.

People are feeling the pain of the coronavirus pandemic.

The pandemic effects (a) people’s health, (b) the health of the economy, and (c) how safe things are. and how safe it is to do things.

The pandemic exposed big problems of our time that connect [(a) health care, (b) race, (c) inequality, (d) racial injustice] and foundational personality traits [(a) empathy, (b) dignity, and (c) human decency] each of which have now become political issues

People are working tirelessly to advance civilization.

The Black protestor in the photograph above is carrying a sign which reads:

“Telling me that I’m obsessed with talking about racism in America is like telling me I’m obsessed with swimming when I am drowning.”

On July 4, 2020, at protests and counter-protests, in Richmond, Virginia, White Supremacists, Black Lives Matter people, and armed Black Men sang “God Bless America” together at the same time, at the same place.

TODAY: The citizens of the United States are intensely engaged in a propaganda thought control war – an ideology war about racism.

Getting history right is of great importance in present thought control wars.

INTRODUCTION

In the last two months, people living in the United States have lived through a series of convulsive events.

Before GEORGE FLOYD was murdered on May 25, 2020 the world, including the United States, was being battered by the Coronavirus pandemic.

One part of the world economy after another was shut down: people were literally locked down; people were ordered to shelter-in-place; businesses were ordered to close; businesses closed; schools were ordered to close; schools closed.

People’s lives and the business world was turned upside down in an attempt to prevent the spread of the Coronavirus.

This caused people to become extremely stressed out.

Forty million Americans had lost their jobs as a result of the lock-down before GEORGE FLOYD was murdered.

Then GEORGE FLOYD was murdered.

Then a video of the murder of GEORGE FLOYD was broadcast on social media.

Then the same video was broadcast on conventional media and news outlets.

The murder of GEORGE FLOYD, the callousness of the police officers responsible for his murder – their belief that they would suffer no consequences from the authorities – the man crushing GEORGE FLOYD’S neck for almost nine minutes staring straight into the cameras of bystanders who were taking videos and taking pictures of what he was doing – and the lack of an immediate response to GEORGE FLOYD’S murder by the Minneapolis police department was more than the world could take.

Then the local district attorney for the City of Minneapolis decided no crime was committed – that was more than the world could take.

People went into the streets to protest police brutality, social injustice and systemic social injustice.  They went into the streets to protest for racial justice.

After watching videos of GEORGE FLOYD being murdered, and hearing about and seeing additional videos of other black men being murdered while in police custody, it was universally believed – and universally agreed – that police treated black people as if black persons’ lives did not matter.

Intense protests and discussion of policing, racial injustice, racism, and white supremacy followed.

NBA superstar Michael Jordan treated:

“We must never turn our backs on senseless brutality. We need to continue peaceful expressions against injustice and demand accountability.”

People became sensitized to the words “racism” and “protest.”

Currently, the most searched words on Google are “racism” and “protest.”

Currently, the best selling book is Ibram X. Kendi’s book HOW TO BE AN ANTIRACIST.

People received videos that showed black and brown men and women being killed by a one white policeman or by a group of white policemen, people received videos showing the use of excessive force by police, and people received videos of events that took place at protests that followed.

HISTORY OF PROTESTS IN THE UNITED STATES

The United States has a history of protests – remember the Boston Tea Party.

Before the 13 British Colonies declared their independence from Britain, White Americans dressed as Indians stormed a British ship in Boston and threw its cargo of tea into Boston Harbor as way of protesting “taxation without representation” – taxes imposed on the American Colonials by the British government.

There were massive citizen protests against the Vietnam War during the Vietnam War.

HISTORY OF BEING LIED TO BY THEIR GOVERNMENT

Americans know their government lies to them.

That is what the Pentagon Papers [published by the New York Times and the Washington Post] lawsuit was about.

The American government lied to the American people about the Vietnam War.

The Pentagon papers exposed the governments’ lies.

The Nixon administration tried to stop publication of the Pentagon Papers.

The Nixon administration was unable to stop publication of the Pentagon Papers.

IT IS A TRADITION IN AMERICA FOR  PEOPLE WHO BELIEVE IN JUSTICE TO SPEAK OUT

While the Vietnam War was raging, people of all ages protested against the war at protest rallies.

Song writers wrote songs protesting the war.

Popular singers like Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Simon and Garfunkel, Crosby Stills Nash and Young (CSNY), and many other leading song-writers-singers wrote and sang songs protesting the Viet Nam War.

In “Teach Your Children” CSNY warned we’re bound to repeat mistakes of the past if we don’t do our best to “teach our children well.”

“Teach YOUR children/ To believe and

“Make a world that/ We can live in.”

That song asks parents to teach their children to be kind … and to understand the why’s of our values.

“Four Dead in Ohio”, a CSNY song penned by Neil Young, is heralded as the the ‘ultimate protest song’ of the turbulent 1970s.

The lyrics evoke the utter shock and moral outrage felt by the Nation following the shootings of college students protesting against the Vietnam War on the Kent State College campus.

The chorus chant “Four Dead in Ohio,” coupled with the lyric line “Tin Soldiers and Nixon coming” refer to the Ohio National Guardsmen who shot and killed four students during the campus protest.

“Four Dead in Ohio” was banned from some AM radio stations because of the challenge to the Nixon Administration in the lyrics but received airplay on underground FM stations in larger cities and college towns.

WAKE UP AMERICA

In 1833 free black people were banned by the State of Alabama by law from living in Alabama.

Jim Crow laws have been common in the South – separate bathrooms for white people and black people, etc. – even after Sputnik was launched by the Soviet Union.

Lynching of Black People was common at the time Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated.

From 1915 to 1970, almost six million black people fled the Jim Crow South for northern and western states

People in power – such as President Donald Trump – are trying to deny Black People and Brown People and Native American Indians the opportunity to vote by impeding the use of mail-in ballots.

THINGS ARE HAPPENING

LeBron James, NBA team owners, and stadiums are stepping in to make sure that BLACK people will get to vote in the upcoming elections.

Stadiums in which NBA games are usually played will be turned into polling places before elections take place later this year.

Lyft has committed to offering free rides or discounted rides to people who need transportation to get to voting places.

White People, Black People. and Latino People are demanding that police departments be defunded; that police conduct be changed; and even that police departments be disbanded.

People are demanding that police procedures be changed – that when police are deployed what they are allowed to do be tightly regulated.

Law enforcement reform has become a hotly discussed topic.

The City of Los Angeles’ city budget has been changed – the amount in the City budget previously proposed be allocated to the police department was reduced in the current city budget – as a result of these demands.

The County of Los Angeles’ budget has been put on hold while the County Supervisors study what is to be done with respect to the amount of money in the County’s budget that is to be allocated to the Sheriff’s Department.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has cut $1 Billion from New York City’s $6 Billion budget for the police department.

The Democrats in the House of Representatives have passed a reform bill which (a) restricts the use of choke holds, (b) bans no-knock police raids, (c) will create a police officer misconduct registry, (d) lowers the threshold to prosecute a police officer to “if they show ‘reckless disregard for someone’s life.'”

ASIDE: Police Officer Derek Chavin – the police officer who killed GEORGE FLOYD – already had 18 complaints lodged against him before he killed GEORGE FLOYD by kneeling on GEORGE FLOYD’S neck for almost nine minutes.

WHITE PEOPLE WERE SHOCKED TO LEARN BLACK PEOPLE FEARED FOR THEIR LIVES WHENEVER THEY SAW POLICE OFFICERS

A majority of Americans have come to believe that what happened to GEORGE FLOYD is part of a broader pattern of excessive police brutality towards African-Americans.

Information supporting that thesis keeps coming in.

White people have heard from multiple black sources that black mothers tell their children what to do when they see a police officer in order to stay alive.

White people have seen unarmed black men being killed by while police officers – either shot or strangled.

On June 29, 2020, the New York Times reported finding at least 70 people who had died while in police custody over the last decade, after saying [like GEORGE FLOYD said before he died] “I can’t breathe.”

WHITE SUPREMACY

Many people are fed up wit the concept of White Supremacy, the existence of White Supremacy, and the existence of monuments that celebrate White Supremacy.

People have started tearing down and defacing monuments which they feel glorify white supremacy.

People have successfully demanded that many statues honoring white supremacists be removed from public places.

STATUE HONORING THEODORE ROOSEVELT

The most famous statue to be removed is a statue of President Theodore Roosevelt.

Theodore Roosevelt was a eugenicist – a person who believed in the superiority of the white race.

People demanded that the statue honoring Theodore Roosevelt (statue pictured above) of Theodore Roosevelt on a horse and a Black Man and an American Indian beneath him  at the entrance of the American Museum of Natural History in Manhattan be removed.

The American Museum of Natural History announced that it is going to remove the statute.

PROMOTING RACIAL INFERIORITY AND PROMOTING WHITE SUPREMACY

An intense discussion of the impact of what statues and names represent is on-going – which is a discussion of what constitutes promotion of white supremacy – what promotes the idea that the white race is superior to the black race, and/or what promotes the idea that people who belong to white race are superior to Native American Indians.

People have demanded that statues that celebrate Confederate Generals who fought to maintain slavery be torn down or removed because they glorify and honor the idea that black people are inferior to white people.

Native American People and other people have demanded that the name of the Washington Redskins NFL football team and the name of the Atlanta Braves MLB team be changed.

TREATMENT OF BLACK PEOPLE IN THE UNITED STATES

Above is a photo of the June 26, 1970 magazine cover of A Midwest Newspaper of Women’s Liberation.

The  quote (1851) in the photo above (copy below) was written by Sojourner Truth:

“The man over there says women need to be helped into carriages and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages or over puddles, or gives me the best place — and ain’t I a woman?

“Look at my arm!  I have plowed and planted and gathered into barns, and no man could head me — and ain’t I a woman.  I could work as much and eat as much as a man – when I could get it – and bear the lash as well? and ain’t I a woman?

“I have born thirteen children and seen most of them sold into slavery and when I cried out with my mother’s grief none but Jesus heard me – and ain’t I a woman?

On January 26, 2020 the New York Times published a op ed piece written by Caroline Randall Williams’ arguing that that statues of Confederate Generals ought to be torn down.

Her op ed piece begins:

” I have a rape color skin,

“My immediate white male ancestors were all rapists.

“I am the descendant of black women who were domestic servants and white men who raped their help.

“I am more than half white and none of it was consensual.

“White Southern men – my ancestors – took what they wanted from the women they did not love, over whom they had extraordinary power and then failed to claim their children.”

Ms Williams’ op ed piece was widely read.

BLACK PEOPLE DID NOT LIKE BEING SLAVES

 

The discipline of art history, with its deeply European roots, framework and model, is the most powerful and enduring apparatus of imperialism and colonization.

Its a brilliant fabrication, it is ethnocentric.

It has an ethnocentric theme, with a perverse hierarchy of objects drawn along a regimental axis which has astonishing implications.

Such objects and their styles are manifest the tastes of the elite and ruling classes.

It is a totalizing scheme in which all human made objects must find their appropriate place and the view of the elite classes becomes what one art historian has called the “brain of the earth’s body: the most thoroughgoing and effective imperialistic gesture imaginable.”

What is configured is an articulation of colonization and imperialism that allows colonization to subsist despite the end of direct colonization.

Hierarchies of race, gender and class are imposed, and the message is that so called natives, indigenous, inferior, subordinate, subaltern, and nonwhite people are to be conquered, catechized, dominated, variously exterminated, variously dislodged.

The question to ask yourself is: “How can we provide, discover and assess histories that are more plural, inclusive, multiple, diverse?

CORONAVIRUS

While the present on-going intense discussion of police brutality, use of extremely excess force in policing, reform law enforcement, and removal of statues of racists has been in progress, a relaxation of steps taken to prevent the spread of coronavirus has recently taken place in many states..

As result of recent relaxation of orders designed to prevent the spread of coronavirus — relaxation of stay in place orders, relaxation of wear mask orders, relaxation of limitations on business operation there has been an unprecedented climb in the number of coronavirus infections in the United States.

The number of coronavirus infections in the United States in the past two weeks surged 65 % – 41,000 cases nationwide, including one day records in Nevada, South Carolina, and Florida.

On Monday, June 29, 2020, Dr. Anne Schuchat, M.D. Principal Deputy Director of the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention said, “The coronavirus is spreading too broadly and too rapidly for the United States to get it under control.”

As a result of the coronavirus millions of American who work for state and local governments will be layed off.

State governments, county governments, and city governments will be forced to further cut their payrolls in an attempt to balance government budgets in a time of decreased revenues and increased spending.

Hundreds of thousands of Americans who work for colleges and universities have already been layed off due to the absence of students on campus.

Those who depend on the spending of college students in college towns who have not already lost their jobs will lose their jobs if students due not return.

In rural college towns, such as Ithaca, New York, one out of two people’s jobs is dependent upon college student attendance at Cornell University and Ithaca College.

Recently, Cornell University announced in a 97 page reopening report that it plans to reopen.

When college campuses shut down, college student spending stops,

When college campuses shut down, it is a major economic disaster in cities that depend on college student spending.

When college campuses shut down it is a catastrophe for colleges and universities which depend on college enrollment fees and depend on revenue from collage dormitories.

Colleges and Universities which depend on revenue from college football, and other college sports will take a big hit..

The number of Americans who lost their jobs due to steps taken to prevent spread of coronavirus prevention climbed from 40 million at the time of GEORGE FLOYD’S murder (May 25, 2020) to 48 million today (June 29, 2020).

AS CORONAVIRUS RISES THE ECONOMY SINKS

We are no longer in charge of the economy, the coronavirus is.

The coronavirus and the murder of GEORGE FLOYD now govern how we look at things and how may of us act.

On June 30, 2020 the Wall Street Journal reported:

In Los Angeles officials estimate one in 140 residents is infected with COVID 19; a week ago the estimate was one in 400. Christian Ghaly, Director for Los Angeles County Department of Health Services, said the county could begin running out of hospital beds in the next few weeks.

Los Angeles officials have banned all July 4 fireworks displays and ordered beaches closed over the coming holiday weekend.

As Covid 19 rises the economy sinks.

Governors have no choice but to close more businesses as the infections spread.

Florida, Texas and California have reversed reopening measures in recent days, as Covid 19 infection rates and hospitalizations rise.

The State of New York has now imposed a 14 day quarantine on all passengers arriving from California.

SAUDI ARABIA

Out of concern for the spread of coronavirus, Saudi officials effectively cancelled this year’s hajj.

Only about 1,000 people will be permitted to make the pilgrimage to Mecca, compared with 2.5 million who did so last year.

EVERYONE SHOULD HAVE RESPECT FOR THE PEOPLE WHO PROTECT THEM.

Everyone agrees that they should have respect for the people who protect them.

Last week the Tucson Police Department released a video showing Carlos Ingram Lopez, a 27 year-old Latino man, being restrained face down for for 12 minutes by police officers in April.  He died shortly after.

Many Latinos across the United States are calling out police brutality against their communities, echoing similar calls by African-Americans.

Everyone in the United States is now asking:

1. Who protects them?
2. Do the police protect them?
3. How must police act in performing their duties?
4. What should be done to rid police departments of the scourge of racism?
5. What should be done to rid policemen, policewomen, and police departments from using excessive force?
6. How must we, the people and our government, act to protect the police and to protect citizens from the police
7. How must we and our government act to protect us from the spread of Covid 19>
8. How must government act to protect people and businesses from loss of income and other impacts of mass unemployment caused by business shut downs ordered by the government?
9. What restrictions should be imposed on businesses, social and religious gatherings, and protest rallies to prevent the spread of Covid 19?
10. What steps, in any, should be taken to promote (a) equality, and to promote (b) racial equality?

Currently, the Federal Aviation Agency does not require airline passengers to wear masks to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

Currently, the United States federal government does not require anyone to wear a mask to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

United States President Trump refuses to wear a mask to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

People question the leadership, intellectual integrity, vanity and immaturity of the top infectious disease expert in the United States, Dr. Anthony Fauci.

It is widely understood worldwide that the U.S. federal government failed and continues to fail in controlling the spread of the coronavirus.

Forty of the fifty eight states are currently seeing an increase in the rate of coronavirus infections.

The rate of new coronavirus infections in the United States is currently out of control.

IDOLS

The people tearing down statues, attempting to tear down statues, and demanding removal of statues are forcing us to ask ourselves:

1. Who are our idols?
2. Who should be our idols?
3. What does a statue represent?

The majority of American voters support demonstrators against police brutality.

Many Americans see President Trump as being out of touch with the concept of racial justice.

Many Americans see President Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell as not understanding the difference between rewriting history and adding a new perspective to history by adding the experience of nonwhite people in the historical narrative.

The people in favor or tearing down or removing statues see statues as a standing memory which supports and honors white supremacy ideas and ideals.

They say the monuments must be torn down to strip the people honored of their laurels.

They say the statues are an emotional investment white people have in a legacy of hate.

The people who tear down and/or ask for monuments to be removed, mantra is:

“Do you mean to honor the oppressors at the expense of the oppressed ?

“If so, you have an emotional investment in a legacy of hate.”

People have been awakened through protests, and efforts to tear down or remove statues, to complaints about police brutality, racial injustice and systemic racism.

Protests in the United States have had a significant impact on our psyche.

On July 1, 2020, the Fort Lauderdale Police Department released nine minutes of body cam footage showing police officers laughing and celebrating after shooting protestors with rubber bullets during a May 31, 2020 protest against police brutality after the killing of GEORGE FLOYD in Minneapolis.

Fort Lauderdale Police Chief Rick Maglione said, “our officers were dealing with the chaos of a developing situation.”

The cover of the June 22/June 29, 2020 TIME Magazine bears the headline: “THE OVERDUE AWAKENING.”

The cover of the July 6/July 13, 2020 TIME Magazine bears the headline: “AMERICA MUST CHANGE.”

THE MEANING OF LIFE

Before the events described above took place one out of three Americans were suffering from being in an extreme state of stress and anxiety.

They still are.

At least one out of three Americans are suffering from the trauma of fear of the unknown.

At least one in three Americans are in a state of  clinical depression.

Almost all Americans today cannot tolerate differences of opinion.

Their “nerves have been frayed.”

They are in a highly emotional state.

They are maxed out mentally.

The meaning of their life has been turned upside down by recent events.

Many forces are at play.

The amount and type of trauma being suffered by each individual depends upon such factors as:

• the color of their skin;
• their political beliefs;
• their social beliefs;
• where they are physically located – whether their local businesses have been burned down or looted and/or whether their local businesses are boarded up;
• whether they have personally been victimized by prejudice or bias;
• whether or not they are an immigrant, and if so their status as an immigrant;
• whether or not their parent is an immigrant
• their level of education,
• their social status,
• their income and their wealth;
• their age and whether they are retired or working; and
• whether they are employed or not.

IMPACT OF RACE PREJUDICE

The energy, momentum and motives of the people responsible for the current uproar about social justice differs from person to person.

The reactions to the uproar about social justice also differ from person to person.

If you are a Japanese American it might rub you the wrong way and it might be extremely irritating to you that Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s (FDR’s) picture is on all dimes in the United States.

FDR was the President who guided the United States through the Great Depression and World War II.

While FDR was president the U.S. government forced the relocation and internment of thousands of Japanese-Americans to detention camps during World War II.

The interment of Japanese-Americans was the culmination of the federal government’s long history of racist and discriminatory treatment of Asian immigrants and their descendants which had begun with restrictive immigration policies in the late 1800s.

At the time of internment, only three percent of Japanese-Americans were considered direct threats to U.S. security.

Two-thirds of the prisoners in the camps were native-born American citizens.

WAR RELOCATION AUTHORITY

On March 18, 1942, the federal War Relocation Authority was established to “take all people of Japanese descent into custody, surround them with troops, prevent them from buying land, and return them to their former homes at the close of war.”

John J. McCloy, Assistant Secretary of War, remarked if it came to a choice between national security and the guarantee of civil liberties expressed in the Constitution, he considered the Constitution just a scrap of paper.

HUMAN IMPACT

In the immediate aftermath of the Pearl Harbor attack, more than 1,200 Japanese community leaders were arrested, and the assets of all accounts in the U.S. branches of Japanese banks were frozen.

On March 31, 1942 Japanese Americans along the West Coast were ordered to report to control stations and to register the names of all family members.

They were told when and where they should report for removal to an internment camp.

Japanese Americans were given from four days to about two weeks to settle their affairs and gather as many belongings as they could carry.

In may cases, individuals and families were forced to sell some or all of their property, including businesses within that period of time.

Nearly 2,00 Japanese Americans were told that their cars would be safely stored until they returned.

However. the U.S. Army soon offered to buy the vehicles at cut-rate prices and Japanese who refused were told that the vehicles were being requisitioned for the war.

Between 1942 and 1945 a total of ten internment camps were opened, holding approximately  120,000 Japanese Americans for varying periods of time, in California, Arizona, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah and Arkansas.

INTERNMENT CAMP SHUT DOWN

On  December 18, 1944, the government announced that all relocations centers (internment camps) would be closed by the end of 1945.

The last of the camps was closed in March 1946.

With the end of internment, Japanese Americans began reclaiming or rebuilding their lives.

RACIAL PREJUDICE

A presidential commission in 1982 identified race prejudice, war hysteria, and a failure of political leadership as the underlying causes of the government’s interment program.

Above information about internment camps obtained/taken from Encyclopedia Britannica.

ACA – 5

Many Japanese-Americans fear that allowing affirmative action (to achieve racial justice) will adversely effect their children.

An amendment to the Constitution of the State of California (ACA – 5) is set to go on the ballot in November, 2020.

The purpose of the amendment is to void a law that makes it illegal to use race as a grounds for admission to state universities.

Japanese American parents have signed a petition against enactment because they fear if admission to UCLA and UC Berkeley is not based on the academic excellence of the applicant, their highly academically successful children will be discriminated against – they fear their children will have a lower chance of gaining admission to a public university in the University of California system.

ACTIVATING REAL CHANGE

While Black Lives Matter leaders and followers are working tirelessly to advance civil society, let’s protect ourselves from doing stupid things because of mindless anger.

Let’s not throw the baby out with the bath water.

Although it is important to put an end to use of excessive force by police it is at least as important to to be protected from violent crimes committed by thugs and for firemen and police to be able to respond to emergencies and to not live in fear..

My research assistant has reported to me:

Before the murder of GEORGE FLOYD, a black police officer Mohamed Noor in the Minnesota police department MURDERED a white woman, Gustine Damond.

Her family was awarded $20 million in damages for her wrongful death in 2018.

Mr. Noor was sentenced in 2019.

A grave danger of being beat up and robbed by black thugs in Minneapolis was well known before Frye (the mayor of Minneapolis before GEORGE FLOYD was murdered by four Minneapolis) was elected mayor of Minneapolis.

While I was writing this post, my research assistant sent me videos of black thugs beating up and robbing white people on a street corner in Minneapolis before GEORGE FLOYD.

EASY CHANGES TO MAKE IN POLICING

It has been reported to me that up to 20% of many cities’ annual city budgets come from revenue generated by fines related to traffic violations written by policemen.

Someone other than an official policeman can write up a ticket for being parked in a parking space after expiration of time paid for at a parking meter.

There is no need for policemen to write up parking meter expiration of time violations.

Running traffic lights — going through a red light — can be monitored and “caught” with cameras located at intersections instead of by a policeman stationed near a stop sign or traffic signal.

Traffic stops routinely made by policemen and policewoman riding in patrol cars need to be regulated.

Traffic stops by a police officer should not be allowed to escalate into a police officer killing an occupant in the vehicle stopped.

But they do so often that black parents instruct their children what to do if they are stopped by a policeman while they are driving a car in order to avoid being killed by that police officer.

People should not be afraid when they see a policeman in a police vehicle.

Do you know anyone who is not frightened when they see a police car near their own car while they are driving their automobile?

All police officers should be required to attend a six hour course, at least once a year, in which “racism” is defined, in which it is explained in no uncertain terms that racism is bad, in which it is made abundantly clear that racial profiling is not permitted, and in which it is made clear that police are supposed to treat people in as friendly manner as they would like to be treated by their neighbors..

AMOUNT OF TRAFFIC FINE

The amount of the traffic fine assessed for a traffic citation should fit the crime.

Poor people should not be required to pay a fine beyond their means.

Fines should be related to means.

THE BURDEN OF PROOF

The burden of proof to obtain a conviction in a criminal trial is “it must be beyond a reasonable doubt. that the accused committed the crime charged.”

The burden of proof required for a plaintiff to prevail – to obtain a judgment – in a civil trial is “that it is more likely than not the defendant caused damage suffered by plaintiff.”

The burden of proof to obtain a finding of police misconduct against a police officer involved in traffic-stop shooting ought to be “it was unreasonable for the police officer who shot the victim to believe his LIFE was in jeopardy.”

DEFUNDING THE POLICE WOULD BE A TRAGEDY FOR BLACK PEOPLE

According to FBI Crime Statistics, Black People are responsible for 50% of all murders and 50% of all strong armed robberies.

The vast majority of violent crimes (murder and armed robbery) are black on black crimes.

Black victims are most often the victims of violent crimes committed by black people.

Black people need to be protected by policemen and policewomen from violent crimes perpetrated by black criminals on them in their neighborhoods.

Police departments shouldn’t be de-funded unless necessary to implement a viable alternative system.

FBI VIOLENT CRIME STATISTICS

There are 500,000 violent crimes between people of different races per year.

In approximately 450,000 of those 500,000 violent crimes the victim is white and the perpetrator is black.

In approximately 50,000 of those violent crimes the victim is black and the perpetrator is white.

Although the black population is only 13% of the population, the black population is responsible for 50% of all murders, and 60% of all strong arm robberies.  The vast majority of these are black on black crimes.

Although 13% percent of the population of the United States is black, black people are responsible for between 24-26% of all hate crimes according to FBI statistics.

Information from FBI Statistics.

Information provided by my research assistant.

BLACK PRISON POPULATION

The number of young black men being arrested is going down.

Compared to 20 years ago, there are now half as many black men under the age 25 in prison.

Prison numbers come from Department of Justice.

Information from my research assistant.

WHAT EVERYONE TAKES FOR GRANTED IS OFTEN FALSE

Although almost everyone takes it for granted that there is systemic bigotry in America.

That is not true.

The fact that two and a half times as many black men are killed by police while in police custody than the number of white men killed while in police custody does not mean there is systemic bigotry in America.

It is inflammatory and self-destructive to claim that the majority of people in America are bigoted.

The majority of people in America are not bigots.

America is a county where capitalism flourishes.

That is one of the reasons immigrants immigrate to America.

America is a nation of immigrants.

Most people in the United States are highly ambitious.

All the people I know personally are highly ambitious individuals.

People can go from rags to riches in America.

For example consider Steve Jobs.

He was an orphan.

He had to drop out of college because he did not have the means to pay tuition.

Today the stock of the company he founded, Apple, is worth more than the entire net worth of the entire oil and gas industry,

Minorities are highly successful in America.

I personally know a number of spectacularly successful minorities.

I personally know that a high numbers and a high percentages of the graduates from the most elite universities in America are minority students.

Myself and my daughters attended elite universities in America.

When I was an undergraduate at UC Berkeley in 1964 – 1967, over 75% of the students in my chemical engineering classes were students who were – immigrants or foreign nationals – not born in the United States.

When I attended the graduation ceremony of my daughter at Cornell University, an Ivy League University in Ithaca, New York, about 25 years ago, it seemed to me that over 80% of the students receiving MS and PhD graduate degrees in scientific disciplines and in engineering fields had Asian names.

When I worked on a graduate degree (MS degree in biochemical engineering) in the Olin Hall School of Chemical Engineering at Cornell University in 1967 and 1968 the Dean of the School was a White man.  Today, the Dean of that School is a Black man.

A high percentage of the people earning the the most money working for tech companies in Silicon Valley are minorities; a high number and a high percentage of the most successful start-up companies in Silicon Valley and their founders are minorities-immigrants.

A high percentage of the managers of high tech companies in Silicon Valley, and elsewhere, are minorities.

Recently, the United States has had a Black President and a Black Attorney General.

Mayors and Chiefs of Police throughout the United States are Black.

In a big city like Los Angeles, more than 50% of the residents are either an immigrant or the child of an immigrant.

More that 200 languages are spoken in the City of Los Angeles.

POLICING NEEDS TO BE HUMANIZED

Recent events shown on social media show unnecessary brutality and excessive use of force by policemen.

Policing needs to be humanized.

JOHN GRISHAM’S DESCRIPTION OF POLICE

In John Grisham’s latest novel “Camino Winds”, as three characters are approaching a bridge to get back on an island that has been pounded by a hurricane, the following discussion takes place:

BRUCE “You are not going to believe this. The cops have the road blocked this side of the bridge and they’re searching each car with dogs.  Can you please tell me why?

BOB: “Because they can.”

BRUCE: I mean, these people just had their homes and businesses blown away, so why would they want to sneak explosives onto the island? These cops are out of control.”

BOB:  “For the same reason they send SWAT teams to arrest people for bad checks. Because they can and it’s far more dramatic. These guys think they are as tough as Navy Seals and they have to prove it.  Look at all the military gear they wear. Why does every Podunk police department have a tank these days?  Because the Pentagon has too much stuff and sells it cheap.  Why do they send canine dogs units to sniff around the country fair? Because they have the damn dogs and need to use them. Don’t get me started.

BOB: “Why does every fender bender need three cop cars and four fire trucks?  Because these guys are bored, sitting around the station and they get their jollies racing up and down the streets with sirens screaming.  Tough boys in action.  They like to block traffic in all directions, makes ’em feel powerful.  They control the situation. Sniffing dogs.  Unbelievable. It’ll be midnight before we get there.”

NEWS MEDIA

There are many ways to weave together facts to tell a story.

News media compete with other news media for eyeballs.

Media sell a product (advertising) to advertisers based on the number of viewers that view what they broadcast, who those viewers are, and how much and what type of attention their viewers give them.

In July, 2020 over 100 brands that used to advertise on FACEBOOK will not be advertising on FACEBOOK as their protest against FACEBOOK for FACEBOOK disseminating misinformation and hate on its platform.

On Friday, June 26, 2020, Honda of America announced it will not advertising on FACEBOOK and INSTAGRAM because it has “chosen to stand with people united against hate and racism.”

Levi Straus & Co., said it will suspend advertising on FACEBOOK through the end of July because of FACEBOOK’S failure to stop the spread of misinformation and hate speech on its platform.

The North Face said, We’re in. We’re out.” — will stop posting content and advertisements on FACEBOOK through July.

Coca-Cola, Starbucks and others have temporarily stopped advertising o FACEBOOK in protest of FACEBOOK spreading misinformation and hate speech.

THE SAME INFORMATION IS REPORTED DIFFERENTLY BY DIFFERENT NEWS MEDIA

News is reported in a way that supports the views and desires of specific audiences.

That is why news/information is reported differently by different news media.

Each news outlet broadcasts information that supports the particular set of political/religious views/values of its audience and its advertisers.

POINTS OF VIEW PROPAGANDA

People in social organizations, business organizations, religious organizations, political organizations, political parties, politicians, and highly specialized special interest groups, as well as governments, use social media such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to provide propaganda – information and disinformation.

So called “educational institutions” [Kindergarten through high school, colleges, universities, and specialized schools] provide information [which they call education] which fits the agenda of the people in charge.

Like the picture below of two wolves fighting to the death, social media and the so called news media and educational institutions tell stories (report information) differently.

HISTORY

Mary Beard reports in her book ‘HOW DO WE LOOK” that people have been engaged in wars and fights to the death about how to think, in which each side claims it is on the side of God and claims the other side is the devil.

THE MEANING OF SYMBOLS

People write history (and the news of current events reported by the media is) slanted to favor the values of a particular audience.

We have reached a place in human social evolution where you may now purchase your choice of color of Band-Aid from Johnson & Johnson.

INTELLECTUAL VALUE LANDSCAPE

Today, the most searched words on Google are “protest” and “racism.”

   

HOW WE LOOK AT THINGS

Saturday morning, June 13, 2929), I was sent a video titled ALL BOARDED UP.

The video consisted of a man talking as he is taking a video as he is driving on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan.

The video showed one boarded up high end retail store after another.

In the video the narrator says, “The media doesn’t show us this.”

The narrator went on to say that the media does not want us to know that all the high end stores on Fifth Avenue were looted during the “protest rally” in Manhattan; the media does not want to wee all those broken windows, or that all the expensive merchandise in those high end stores was stolen.

That doesn’t fit with the narrative the media is selling.

The media is selling the narrative that the protests were all about injustice, the protests were all about the tragic violation of a black man’s (George Floyd’s) civil liberties.

Q: WHERE ARE WE NOW? A: WE ARE NOW LIVING IN GEORGE FLOYD’S AMERICA!

For the past two weeks,  whether we like it or not, we have been living in GEORGE FLOYD’S AMERICA.

WHERE ARE WE GOING?

Will there be a statue of GEORGE FLOYD erected in Lafayette Park across the street from the White House?

Will there be a statute of George Floyd erected in parks in every city in the United States?

Will the will of the people expressed in who they vote for as next president of the United States be based on what has been happening with respect to COVID 19 pandemic and what has been happening as a result of the murder of George Floyd?

DO WE WANT TO VENERATE GEORGE FLOYD?

THE PROTESTORS HAVE LEVERAGE

Who do we want to venerate?

Do we want to venerate George Floyd?

Will the protestors force us to venerate George Floyd?

Nobody’s back ground is perfect.

I’ve been told George Floyd spent years in prison for armed robbery.

I’ve been told George Floyd was sent to prison for having pointed a loaded gun at a pregnant woman’s stomach, then robbing her.

I’ve also been told that George Floyd served his time and went to Minneapolis got a job as a night security guard and wanted to turn his life around and to redeem himself.

ITS A REVOLUTIONARY TIME

People are tearing down statues, removing statues and defacing statues which they consider to be emblems of white supremacy – which they consider to be powerful and hurtful symbols of systemic racism.

Police have been using tear gas on protestors protesting police brutality and systemic racial injustice.  Police have shot rubber bullets at protestors and have senselessly roughed up protestors.

People not associated with the cause of racial justice have joined protest marches. Those people have set fires which burned buildings, and burned police cars; they have been looting and destroying stores, generally causing mayhem.

Let’s hope we don’t go to the next thing.

VISUAL IMAGES SHAPE OUR ENVIRONMENT

RACIAL SENSITIVITY, CAPITALISM, BAND-AID/Johnson & Johnson, AND CRAYONS/Crayola Company

When I grew up Band-Aids came in only flesh color.  See photos below.

    

Now Band-Aids come in many flesh colors.

Band-Aids now come in many tones of color so that once a person puts one on it is the same color as that person’s skin.

Many years ago, 30 years back, the Crayola Company in an act of racial sensitivity, pulled the flesh colored crayon out.

Many years ago the Frito Lay Company did away with the Frito Bandito.

These acts of racially sensitivity came about without the enactment of any laws or the filing of any lawsuits.

About that band-aid, why not just make it clear so everyone’s true color shows through…because isn’t that what it is all about.

We are all unique.

Embrace the beauty of that.

A HISPANIC WOMAN’S IDENTITY CRISIS

I know a Hispanic woman who had an identity crisis when she transferred from a community college to UCLA.

When she arrive at UCLA, as a minority student, she was told she “had to join” a Chicano Club.

She attended one meeting.  At that meeting she was told her skin tone wasn’t dark enough; that she could pass as being “white” and therefore she wasn’t wanted, she wouldn’t be welcome as a member in the club.

When she told people she wanted to be a corporate lawyer, she was told not to do that.

Instead, she was told to get a PhD in Chicano studies, and learn in her PhD studies how oppressed an victimized Mexicans and other Latin people are in the United States of America.

They told her she would be selling out her “people/her race” if she went to law school and became a corporate lawyer.

She had an identity crisis. She had never thought she would be selling out her “people” if she went to law school to be a corporate lawyer.

She couldn’t relate.

Her parents are immigrants from Central America.

She had never in her entire life felt underprivileged or oppressed or victimized.

She had always felt privileged and still feels privileged to be living in America.

She had always thought, and still thinks, it is wonderful that in America she could/can borrow money to go to UCLA, then borrow more money to go to law school.

A WHITE SUPREMACIST’S IDENTITY CRISIS

Consider the fact that Jesus Christ was not a White Man.

The divine body of Jesus was not white.

There were no white men in the Middle East when Jesus was born, or when Jesus was alive.

Jesus did not have blond hair, or blue eyes, or white skin.

Jesus was either black or an Arab with dark hair and darker skin.

Photo below is a mummy portrait from Roman Egypt.

Mummy portraits were painted in late first – early second century CE.

Photo above is taken from the coffin of a young man called Artemidoros, who died in the early second century CE, excavated at Hawara in Central Egypt.

His mummy is a wonderful combination of the traditions of Egypt, Greece and Rome, and a brilliant example of the cultural mix of the ancient Mediterranean.

His name is Greek and is written in Greek across his front.  “Artemidoros, farewell’ it reads. His face is a Roman portrait.

What will happen if and when White Supremacists realize that Jesus was black, that Jesus was not a while man?

What would happen to the psyche of all Americans if all the Jesus’ in all the churches in America were black or a shade of black?

What would happen to the the collective psyche of Americans if all the crucifixes in the United States of America had a black Jesus?

Would things be calmer or more peaceful in America?

Black is celebrated as being being beautiful in the Torah.

The Torah tells us Moses’ wife was black.

The Queen of Sheba, also, was black.

ANOTHER POINT OF VIEW

Jesus was a Jew and would have looked like the Jews of 1st century Judea at that time.

How Jews looked is not abundantly clear as Jews tended not to paint pictures of themselves and there was no photography.

At or about the 1st century — there were two main locations where Jews were located: Judea/Galilee and Babylonia.

There were also thriving diaspora communities in Byzantium (Istanbul), Alexandria (Egypt) and, of course, Rome.

Following the two failed Judean revolts against the Roman Empire of 65 and 135 most of the Judean Jews were dispersed in the diaspora.

The conventional wisdom is that the majority of Judean Jews stayed within the confines of the Roman Empire and ultimately were the forebears of the Ashkenazi diaspora.

Therefore it is most likely (an another point of view is) that Ashkenazi Jews with the more traditional Semitic features – such as Adam Sandler, Jeff Goldblum, or Jerry Stiller – are probably closer in appearance to Jesus than is a blond haired, blue eyed white man.

FURTHER REFLECTION ON THAT OTHER POINT OF VIEW

The only people who drew a lot of pictures were the Egyptians.

When drawing themselves they usually colored themselves in medium reddish-brown tones.

When drawing Semitic people — they would typically draw them as bearded with black and often curly hair, almond eyes, and either tanned or olive skin.

They also depicted black skinned Nubians as blond haired slaves.

The Egyptians artists were sensitive to skin tone when drawing subjects.

The Songs of Songs

A description of a Jew is found in the “Song of Songs” as follows:

“10. My lover is radiant and ruddy.

“11.  His head is gold, pure gold, his hair like palm fronds, as black as a raven.

“14. His arms are rods of gold adorned with gems; His loins, a work of ivory covered with sapphires.

“15. His legs, pillars of alabaster resting on golden pedestals.”

Alabaster and ivory are typically white.

Gold and ruddy could describe tanned or olive skin.

Black as a raven is black as a raven

Hair like palm fronds — in an imaginative person’s imagination could be a colorful simile for a Jewfro.

While this is not conclusive it is not consistent with a person that looked African or Southern Arabian.

MORE MUSINGS

The Bible doesn’t pay much attention to skin color, but there are inferences here and there.

So we have “Simeon who was called Niger,” (Acts 13:1) who may have been black, or else just a nickname, paired with “Lucius of Cyrene,” who may or may not have been black, being from Cyrene.

THE BIBLICAL PERSPECTIVE

The Bible is much more interested in cultural differences, which to some is more fundamental and pertinent than race or skin color.

We’re all one human race, after all, but many cultures that overlap across races and skin colors.

All of us are the “skin colored people,” whichever color that might be.

SACRILEGIOUS

One person (BEN) I spoke to told me:

“I think he was probably the exact same shade as Barack Obama. Apparently, there is something about that shad that can convince Jews to follow any idiocy.”

Another person (JOE)) I spoke to told me:

“If it’s sunny and bright in heaven – perhaps one’s spirit would get sunburned and be darker?  If it’s dark and no natural light in hell, one should be as white as snow.

“But no matter what color you are or skin tone if you figure out you are either in heaven or hell.”

EXPRESSIONS OF AN OPPOSITE POINT OF VIEW

Veronica:

Who cares? Race is an invention of the industrial era to divide and conquer people.  It is being used as such now to distract the populace and keep our minds enslaved.  Let’s not play their game.  I’d rather talk about Jesus’ philosophy of how to treat others than the color of his skin. If they want to paint him black, let them. If they want to make him into a cartoon, sure! Let’s just keep the conversation about what matters and let go of division.  Let’s elevate!

Richard:

The image of God is a concept and theological doctrine in Judaism, Christianity, and Sufism of Islam, which asserts that human beings are created in the image and likeness of God.  If you believe in the Word of God, then you believe that we all can find something of ourselves in Jesus; so Veronica is correct.  There are no true images of Jesus because it is irrelevant because the artist would have only have chosen to place emphasis on the things important to the artist.  The Word of God therefore forbids us to make those images; yet we persist because like Sinatra, we all want to do it “my way.” As Veronica said we should be emphasizing the Words of Jesus, which I personally consider to be of great importance, rather than His appearance. God bless all of you. You might even consider reading the Bible to learn  what it says about this subject and many other things that affect our lives, I do each day!

Dan:

Veronica you are absolutely right.  The importance is the philosophical and moral teachings not his complexion.

In many ways this is an angels on the head of a pin type argument.

But, its one relevance is that for centuries the image of Jesus was Europeanized in order to disconnect him from his Judaic roots.

I think this was psychologically necessary in order to justify the persecution of his religious and ethnic kin, along with so many other non-Europeans.

The Europeanizing of Jesus was not merely a means of better identifying with him and his teachings, but to claim him for yourself in much the same way that so many people claim God to be on their side hence, any opposition to our way of thinking is not merely a difference of opinion but also an affront to God and God’s will — thereby justifying my resorting to violence against those who would blaspheme.

To Africanize or Arabize Jesus would be doing the same thing.

Keeping him a Jew puts EVERYONE on exactly the same footing – he is no more European than African, Arab, Indian or East Indian.

You can partake of his philosophy and teachings but not on YOUR terms, but on his.

My gut instinct is that the rejection of Jesus’ Judaic roots is one of the reasons why Christians around the world for so many centuries have such an inglorious record of acting in every way but Christian.

Some people think the only thing that matters about a person – or the most important thing about a person – is the color of a person’s skin.

The more important thing is Jesus’ philosophy of how to treat others, which has nothing to do with the color of their skin.

In this time of civil unrest in the United States let’s be much better than wolves.

LET’S BE BETTER THAN WOLVES

Wolves are intelligent, adaptable, fierce, and playful.

 

When strangers meet it usually results in a fight to the death.

Although a model of animal cooperation a wolf pack is not wholly harmonious.

Members are constantly being tested by more lowly wolves trying to rise up the ranks and such subordination must be dealt with quickly.

A wolf pack must defend its territory.

Without it, the pack cannot find food, cannot produce young, and will be forced to disband.

The pack patrols its borders regularly; if it encounters outsiders then its members have no choice but to attack.

Up to one fifth of all wolf deaths occur during these inter-pack bottles.

In this time of civil unrest, and new political realities, many persons are mustering the moral courage necessary to confront and solve problems with effective, honest and emphatic dialogue that seeks solutions rather than sowing seeds of division and disunity.

LIEUTENANT GENERAL U.S. ARMY DARRYL A. WILLIAMS

In connection with President Donald Trump giving the graduation address to the cadets at West Point, General Williams wrote a letter staking out the U.S. Army’s position on sowing seeds of division and disunity, a copy of which is set forth below.

The cadets who had been quarantined at home were ordered to come back for a graduation ceremony once President Trump informed the Army he would be giving the graduation address.

They sat six feet apart during the graduation ceremony.

 

  

President Trump caused an uproar of concern in the media and on social media about his health when he was photographed having difficulty walking down the ramp from the podium after having just given his graduation address to the graduating cadets.

 

  

WE DO NOT HAVE EQUAL OPPORTUNITY IN CALIFORNIA!

WE DO NOT HAVE EQUAL OPPORTUNITY ANYWHERE IN THE UNITED STATES!

THE COLOR OF A PERSON’S SKIN MATTERS IN CALIFORNIA, IN THE UNITED STATES AND IN THE ENTIRE REAL WORLD!

An Assembly Constitutional Amendment relating to governmental preferences is pending in the California Legislature.

It states that Equal Opportunity is deeply rooted in the American ideals of fairness, justice, and equality.  It states that as a result of the passage of Proposition 209,  women and people of color continue to  face discrimination and disparity in opportunities to participate in numerous forms of association and work that are crucial to the development of talents and capabilities that enable people to contribute meaningfully to, an benefit from the collective possibilities of national life.

It states that disparity still exists, particularly for Asian Americans, Pacific Islanders, Black Americans, Latino Americans, Native Americans, and women, which should be rectified.

You should read the full text of ACA 5.

Here are some of the statistics cited in ACA 5:

• Women, particularly women of color, continue to face unequal pay for equal work.  White women are paid 80 cents to every dollar paid to white men doing the same work.
• Black women are paid 60 cents for every dollar paid to white men doing the same work and would theoretically have to work an extra seven months every year to overcome that differential.
• Since the passage of Proposition 209 underrepresented groups at the Berkeley and Los Angeles campuses of the University of California immediately fell by 60 percent and system wide enrollment fell by at least 12 percent.

In this bill state, is stated, “Underrepresented group high school graduates faced substantial long-term declines in educational and employment outcomes as a result of those changes.

The California Legislature has forcibly stated that the color of a person’s skin matters in the real world.

IN SOLIDARITY, STRENGTH – AND ALWAYS, LOVE:

TIMOTHY LAW SNYDER, PH.D., PRESIDENT LOYOLA MARYMOUNT UNIVERSITY

MAKES THE DIVINE VISIBLE IN THE HUMAN WORLD THROUGH WORDS AND DEEDS

In a letter, dated June 16, 2020, to the LMU Community, President Snyder stated up front, “The killings of Black people – Rayshard Brooks, Tony McDade, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Tamir Rice and many others – resulted from anti-Black racism.”

He dedicated himself and LMU “…to eradicating systemic racism at LMU and addressing the histories and systems of injustice perpetrated against people of color, while also taking responsibility for LMU’s institutional complicity in the perpetuation of white supremacy.”

In his letter, President Snyder, listed ongoing and imminent actions at LMU including a review and change of the art and images in the University Hall:

“We will change the art and images in University Hall as part of a broader effort to ensure that LMU reflects more inclusive and diverse representations of our shared history and community, under the guidance of the Committee of Public Art and Images.”

In the last paragraph of President Snyder’s letter, President Snyder states:

  “As is so with all of America society and culture, our pathway to justice, and its clear goals, will require renewed and reformed reflection conversation, commitment and action.  We must be sure that each of us holds each entity of our community – person, organization, program – accountable.  We need to be open to calling out what needs to be called out and accepting what others witness in our behaviors and actions as loci for revision.  As actors within our larger society, we must do the same.  Let us champion dignity.  Let us champion justice. Let’s get to work.”

In his letter he mentioned participating in a “Black Lives Matter” demonstration organized by LMU students.

“On June 6, while participating in a Black Lives Matters demonstration organized by LMU students, I was reminded that the police violence and systemic racism that infects our society by killing Black people is a system in which I, as a white person of privilege, am complicit.”

He went on to say:

“I am grateful and humbled by our Black community’s leadership and willingness to impart its experiences, pain and anger; I am not in a position to understand fully how exhausting and burdensome it must be, especially given the persistent nature of experience in a racist society. Amidst this understanding, LMU’s duty to our Black students, faculty, and staff is, and will remain, steadfast.  We are committed to a process of institutional transformation that addresses systemic racism and oppression.

EUGENICS

Eugenics is a science that deals with improvement (as by control of human mating) of hereditary qualities of a race or breed.

Famous people in recent history were eugenicist – advocates of eugenics.

WINSTON CHURCHILL

Winston Churchill – the Prime Minister of Great Britain in World War II – and Adolf Hitler – Fuhrer and Reich Chancellor of Germany, Leader of the Nazi Party – the leader of Germany in World War II – were eugenicists – advocates of eugenics.

Winston Churchill had great energy and pugnacity.

Not everyone appreciated Churchill’s energy or brilliance.

Lord Halifax – the man the King of England wanted to be Prime Minister, but who refused the position – was skeptical of the wild energy Churchill seemed likely to bring to office of Prime Minister.

The office of the Prime Minister was at 10 Downing, which was both the Prime Minister’s residence and official office.

Halifax grumbled that  Churchill’s new cabinet appointees lacked intellectual heft. Halifax likened them to “gangsters,” the chief gangster in his view, being Churchill.

On Saturday, May 11, 1940, the day after Churchill was appointed Prime Minister by King George V, Lord Halifax wrote in his diary, “I have seldom met anyone with stranger gaps of knowledge, or whose mind worked in greater jerks.”

One staff member at 10 Downing said Churchill was a lackluster student at Harrow (AN ELITE HIGH SCHOOL FOR BRITAIN’S UPPER CRUST) who exhibited “phenomenal slovenliness.”

Many in Whitehall considered Churchill to be capricious and meddlesome, inclined toward dynamic action in every direction at once.

Churchill’s appointment enraged the wife of one member of Parliament, who likened him to Herman Goring, the obese, brutal chief of the German Air Fore, the Luftwaffe, and the second most powerful man in the Third Reich. “W.C. is really the counterpart of Goring in England,”  she wrote “full of the desire for blood, Blitzkrieg,’ and bloated with ego and over-feeding, the same treachery running through his veins, punctuated by heroics and hot air.” – information excerpts from pages 22 and 23 of “The Splendid and the Vile” by Erik Larson.

But ordinary people loved Churchill.  One diarist wrote, “If I had to spend my whole life with a man, I’d chose Chamberlain, but I think I would sooner have Mr. Churchill if there were a storm and I was shipwrecked.” – quote from page 23, of “The Splendid and the Vile” by Erik Larson.

“My wish is realized,” wrote Violet Bonham Carter, daughter of H.H. Asquith, the former Prime Minister, who died in 1928. “I can now face all that is to come with faith & Confidence. I know as you do that the wind has been sown, & that, we must all reap the whirlwind. But you will ride it — instead of being driven before it — Thank Heaven that you are there & at the helm of our destiny — & may the nation’s spirit be kindled by your own.” – quote from page 23 of “The Vile and the Splendid” by Erik Larson.

May 1940 Onward

“Everywhere I went in London people admired [Churchill’s] energy, his courage, his singleness of purpose. People said they didn’t know what Britain would do without him. He was obviously respected.  But no one felt he would be Prime Minister after the war.  He was simply the right man in the right job at the the right time.  The time being the time of a desperate war with Britain’s enemies.” – Ralph McAllister Ingersoll.

“The responsibilities which are his now must be greater than those carried by any other human being on earth. One would think such a weight would have a crushing effect upon him.  Not at all.  The last time I saw him, while the Battle of Britain was still raging, he looked years younger than before the war began… His uplifted spirit is transmitted to the people.” – Hubert Knickerbocker

The people of Great Britain loved Winston Churchill during World War II because they thought he sincerely loved them.

He demonstrated in word and deed that he sincerely cared about them.

He was flamboyant and electric and had an indomitable spirit.

When he gave his first speech before the House of Commons, on May 13, he said “I have nothing to offer, but blood, toil, tears, and sweat.” and vowed to achieve victory.

On Tuesday, June 18, he addressed the House of Commons to address the French debacle, France had just been overrun by the Nazis.

“The “Battle of France” was over” he said, adding, “I expect the Battle of Britain is about to begin.” At stake was not only the British Empire but all of Christian civilization. “The whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned on us.  Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this island or lose the war.”  He then said:

“If we can stand up to him, all of Europe may be free, and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands; but if we fail the the whole world, including the United States, and all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new dark age made more sinister, and perhaps more prolonged, by the lights of a perverted science.

“Therefore let us brace ourselves that if the British Commonwealth and Empire lasts for a thousand years, men will still say, ‘This was their finest hour.'”

INFO ABOUT CHURCHILL – PROVIDED BY DANIEL J. CHEREN

As a young politician, Churchill was staunchly against votes for women.

While Home Secretary, there was an incident where politically motivated burglars holed up in a house that subsequently caught fire – Churchill ordered the Fire Department NOT to put out the blaze preferring that they die than water be needlessly wasted on them.

However, very much unlike Trump, Churchill knew how to be tactful. Indeed, Churchill defined tact as “the ability to tell someone to go to hell in such a way, that they look forward to the trip.”

Despite being lauded during WW II as the right many for the job and the right time, he was promptly voted out of office in 1945.

ADOLF HITLER

The Nazis persecuted those they considered to be racially inferior. Nazi racial ideology primarily vilified Jews, but also propagated hatred for Gypsies and blacks. The Nazis viewed Poles and other Slavs as inferior, and stated them for subjugation, forced labor, and sometimes death.

The Nazis viewed Jews as racial enemies and subjected them to arbitrary arrest, internment, and murder. Jewish prisoners received the most brutal treatment in Nazi concentration camps.

Among the first victims of persecution in Nazi Germany were political opponents – primarily Communists, Social Democrats, and trade unionists.  Jehovah’s Witnesses refused to serve in the German army or to take an oath of obedience to Adolf Hitler and were also persecuted.

Prisoners in concentration camps were identified by a colored inverted triangle sown onto their prison uniform. Political prisoners wore a badge consisting of an inverted red triangle.

ATTEMPT TO USE NAZI SYMBOLS ON FACEBOOK

On Thursday, June 18, 2020, Facebook removed 88 ads that had using an Nazi symbol – an upside down red triangle – posted by Trump, the Trump campaign and Vice President Mike Pence that Facebook said were “violating our policy against organized hate.”

The red triangle is a symbol that Nazis used to identify Communists and other political prisoners in concentration camps.

The removed ads warned “dangerous MOBS of far-left groups are running through our streets and causing absolute mayhem.”

The ads began running on Wednesday.

Before their removal they gained more than one million impressions on the Facebook pages of President Donal Trump  and Vice President Mike Pence.

QUESTION RAISED: Is it difficult to criticize a political opponent without using Nazi era imagery?

The red triangle was “the most common category of prisoners registered at the German Nazi Auschwitz camp.

Mr. Bark Bray, a historian at Rutgers and the author of “Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook,” said: “This is a symbol that represented the extermination of leftists.  It is a death threat against leftists.

ATTEMPT TO USE MANIPULATED MEDIA ON TWITTER

On Thursday, Twitter added a “manipulated media” warning to one of Mr. Trump’s tweets that featured  a video about a supposed “racist baby” that had been altered to appear as if CNN had broadcast it.

FAILURE OF CHURCHILL’S AND HITLER’S PRACTICE OF EUGENICS

BECAUSE YOU ARE WHITE DOESN’T MEAN YOU ARE SUPERIOR

WINSTON CHURCHILL

Winston Churchill’s attempt to practice eugenics was a failure.

Winston Churchill’s son, was a failed effort at breeding a super race person.

Winston Churchill’s son Randolph Churchill was a complete failure and screw up.

He was a gambler. His ineptitude at gambling was legendary.  He was always awash in debt.

He was loud, lacked tack, drank too much, spent beyond his income and gambled with particular ineptitude.

He was a drunkard. Once drunk he had a propensity for making horrible embarrassing scenes.

His father once wrote to him, “Your idle and lazy life is [very[ offensive to me. You appear to be leading a completely perfectly useless existence.”

There was no way his marriage was going to work.

To Randolph, fidelity was a fungible  condition.  He loved sexual conquest, whether his target was married or not. He once bragged that he would enter the rooms of women without invitation, just in case his presence might be welcomed.  He told this to a female friend, who quipped sardonically “You must get a lot of rebuffs.”  He said, laughingly, “I do, but I get a lot of fucking too.”

ADOLF HITLER

Hitlers attempt to practice eugenics – to create a master-race, was a failure as well.

When Germany lost World War II, Hitler committed suicide.

Hitler’s effort to kill all the “impure people” in the world, and to have the Aryan Race, with himself as its leader, rule the world ended up being a failed effort as well.

THEODORE ROOSEVELT

Statues of famous people are being taken down, torn down and defaced all over the United States.

On June 22, 2020, The American Museum of Natural History decided the bronze statue of Theodore Roosevelt on a horse flanked by a Native American Indian and a Black Man on foot (photo above), that had presided over entrance to the museum since 1940, was coming down.  Currently it is being protected by police in two police cars.

Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th President of the Unites States, was a racist and eugenicist who thought African Americans to be inferior to white citizens.

His election in 1904 marked one of the first Presidential  administrations opened opposed to civil rights and suffrage for blacks.

He believed in racial hierarchy, and endorsed sterilization of the poor and intellectually disabled.

That was the common thinking of the elites in the United States at that time.

in the early 20th century American eugenicists used forced sterilization to “breed out” traits considered undesirable.

They believed in “survival of the fittest” and thought they could help nature along by planning who reproduced and who didn’t.

They were frightened that unintelligent people were taking over, reproducing more quickly than intelligent people.

SUPREME COURT JUSTICE OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES, JR.

Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. was raised to believe that he and his “well-born” wealthy neighbors in Boston were the best people in the country, or the world.

He believed in eugenics, and wrote about eugenics, which he supported.

He wrote the majority opinion in a case [Bell v. Buck, 274 U.S. 208 (1927] in which the majority upheld a state’s right to forcibly sterilize a person considered to be unfit to reproduce – unfit because they were mentally deficient.

In his opinion, Justice Holmes, urged America to do more eugenic sterilizations.

He wrote that it is better for the world if instead of waiting to execute degenerate offspring for crimes or to let them starve for their imbecility, society can prevent those who are manifestly unfit for continuing their kind.

A FEEBLE MINDED HEARING

It was very hard to prove at a feeble minded hearing that you were not feeble minded.

Feeble minded was a broad term used to define large categories of people that were disliked by someone in charge of the decision making position.

AN ARIAN THEORY

Only Nordic types were considered good.

Jews from East Europe and Italians and Asians were considered to be mentally deficient and were discriminated against.

This was the belief of those who enacted the IMMIGRATION LAW OF 1924.

The Immigration Act of 1924 created quotas for the number of different groups that could immigrate and required that immigrants pass a mental feebleness test.

BUCK V. BELL

Buck v. Bell upheld eugenic sterilization.

It is still good law,.

It has never been overturned.

The decision in Buck v. Bell led to 70,000 forced sterilizations.

The woman in Buck v. Bell was not feeble minded.

She was set up to protect her foster parents son who had raped her and to get a court ruling that forced sterilizations are legal.

Her appointed lawyer believed that forced sterilizations should be legal.

He wrote arguments in his briefs that supported forced sterilizations.

THE EXISTENCE OF A SUPER RACE

The Nazis adopted American eugenic theory.

The Nazis took American eugenic theory – that there exists a racial hierarchy that requires breeding a super race – and ran with it.

THE CODE OF HAMMURABI

The guiding objective of the 3,500 year old Babylonian Code of Hammurabi is to protect the weak from the strong to create a rule of RIGHTEOUS JUSTICE.

DOES NOT PLAY WELL WITH OTHERS

While writing this post I couldn’t help comparing U.S. President Donald Trump’s thinking to Nazi ideology.

POST ON INSTAGRAM @garyspassion

Earlier today (Tuesday, June 23, 2020) I post on Instagram @garyspassion the picture above “DOES NOT PLAY WELL WITH OTHERS.”

In my post I compare President Trump to the little boy (the major star) in the movie JoJo Rabbit.

JoJo Rabbit is a farce about Nazi thinking, Nazi ideology, Nazi conduct, and worship of Adolph Hitler.

THE RULE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS

 

The wild popularity, even today, of the 1862 French novel ‘LES MISERABLES’, shows us something.

LES MISERABLES is the story of Jean Valjean, a handsome young woodcutter, who is cruelly sentenced to nine years in jail for stealing a loaf of bread he took to feed his starving family.

Javert, an ice-cold Inspector of Prisons, relentlessly persecutes Valjean, determined to keep him in prison for life.

It is tear-jerking feel good story, that has been made into a movie several times.

I strongly recommend seeing the movie.

That movie should help even the most rabid law and order person understand the outrage after watching the video of a police officer murdering George Floyd by putting his knee on George Floyd’s neck for almost nine minutes while George Floyd was handcuffed and pinned down by two other police officers while a fourth police officer directed members of the public away.

George Floyd was suspected of having used a counterfeit $20 bill. Nobody knows if the $20 bill was counterfeit or how George Floyd came to have it.

George Floyd lost his life because four police officers thought nobody would mind if they took his life.

Nothing happened to any of the police officers until AFTER world wide street protests erupted.

ONLY after protests against the police brutally murdering George Floyd erupted in 150 cities in the USA did the police officers involved get charged and arrested for breaking the law.

THEODORE ROOSEVELT IV’S, age 77, great grandson of 26th President of the United States Theodore Roosevelt, PLACE IN THE MOVEMENT FOR RACIAL JUSTICE

The grandson of President Roosevelt felt it necessary to remove the statue of his great grandfather from the entrance to the American Museum of Natural History.

He recognized that statue was a powerful and hurtful emblem of “patriarchy, white supremacy, and settler-colonialism.”

That statue was a symbol of systemic racism; that statue was a narrative of white racial superiority and domination.

Theodore Roosevelt IV said, “The world doesn’t need statues, relics of another age, that reflect neither the values of the person they intend to honor nor the values of equality and justice.”

The image of that statue is too offensive to stand as a monument to American History.

That statue is clearly a narrative of white racial superiority and domination.

That statue implicitly depicts Black and Indigenous people as subjugated and racially inferior.

JOE BIDEN’S, PRESUMPTIVE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE, PLACE IN THE MOVEMENT FOR RACIAL JUSTICE

At a meeting on Monday, June 21, 2020, Joe Biden said,

“Hate just hides. It doesn’t go away, and when you have someone in power who breathes oxygen into the hate under the rocks it comes outs from under the rocks

“I really do believe that the binders have been taken off.  I think the tidal wave is moving.  I realize we’ve got to do something big, we can do it, and everyone will benefit from it.

Information taken/obtained from AOL news.

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP’S PLACE IN THE MOVEMENT FOR RACIAL JUSTICE

On the same Monday evening (June 21, 2020), President Donald Trump declared himself, “the president of law and order” from the White House as military police and law enforcement fired tear gas and cleared protestors from nearby La Fayette Park.  La Fayette Park is located directly across the street from the White House.

After President Trump’s speech, one mayor complained, “President Trump has offered us military support to address violent protestors while denying mayors federal support to address the coronavirus fall-out.

During the protest on Monday (June 22, 2020) protestors attempted to topple a statue of President Andrew Jackson in La Fayette Park.

President Jackson has a record of owning slaves and oppressing Native Americans.

The next morning, President Trump tweeted that he had ordered the arrest of anyone tearing down a statue on federal land.and threatened such protestors with a long prison term and a large fine – imprisonment of up to ten years and a fine of up to $250,000.00.

Information taken/obtained from AOL news.

 

MAKING THE DIVINE VISIBLE IN THE HUMAN WORLD THROUGH ART

                   

Art symbolizes and instructs what it means to be a civilized human being.

Art challenges our senses and provokes our senses.

Just imagine the effect having a black or brown Jesus in every church and on every crucifix in America would have today.

Above photos taken by me while I was viewing the art in one church after another and viewing the interior design and exterior design of one church after another while spending a summer vacation in Sicily.

All the paintings, all the statues, and all the decorations in the churches were of and about white people.

In “HOW DO WE LOOK” Mary Beard shows how making the divine visible in the human world has never been easy.

In her book HOW DO WE LOOK” she points out all religions have destroyed art as well as creating it.

“Iconoclasm” comes from the Greek word meaning “image breaking.”

Below is my recap of Mary Beard’s many poignant stories of destruction of religious art in the name of religion.

CHRISTIANITY

Throughout the history of Christianity there have been violent and sustained clashes between ‘image-lovers’ and ‘image-breakers” – the destruction of religious art has gone almost hand and hand with the appreciating and adoration of it.

In the past lurid stories were spread about the evil of the iconoclasts, which went so far as to suggest that the wickedness of those who destroyed images of Jesus was second only to those who crucified Jesus in the first place.

One of the first examples occurred in 726 in the capital of the Byzantine empire (modern Istanbul) when – so it is said – the emperor ordered the image of Jesus be removed from the facade of his imperial palace.

Whatever the reasons, the removal of that one painting has come to represent the beginning of an official ban on all kinds of images of the divine – painting, sculpture, mosaic – that lasted on and off for more than a hundred years.

Almost a thousand years later, thousands of miles away, during the fight between Protestant Christians and Catholic Christians fought out in England in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries ‘idolatrous icons’ and other ‘excesses’ associated with Catholicism were destroyed or removed by ascendant Protestants.

During the religious schism, the splendor of Ely Cathedral – a jewel of Gothic architecture of the Middle Ages – fell victim to one of England’s most determined Protestant reformers.

On January 9 1644, Oliver Cromwell, who was then governor of Ely, marched into the Ely Cathedral in what is one of the most mythologized and probably highly embellished incidents of those English religious wars.

The story goes that Cromwell went up to the priest who was conducting evening services, told him to put away his (Catholic) version of the prayer book and to stop the choir singing ( a ‘turn off the music’ moment).  On the following days, it is said, he actively encouraged – or at least did nothing to stop – his troops turning on the fabric of the building, on the images and on the glass.  As they made their way through the vestry and the cloisters, they smashed the place.

Above photo is a photo of Ely Cathedral, looking up into the great ‘lantern’ and down the nave (whose colored ceiling is part of the nineteenth-century restoration).

Decades before Cromwell, in the Lady Chapel (the chapel dedicated to the Virgin Mary), remains evidence of widespread destruction wreaked on another occasion decades before Cromwell.

The iconoclasts also attacked the sculpted figures of saints, kings, and prophets, and scenes from the life of the Virgin. Sometimes the whole sculpture was removed, but often only the head and hands, leaving the body in place. Above is a photo of one of the sculptures.

This was not just a series of random acts of vandalism but destruction that was targeted, even thoughtful, and set against a background of debates about the power and potential dangers of religious images.

HINDU IMAGES

In the late 1100s Muslim armies from Afghanistan invaded northern India. By all accounts, they were horrified by what they found. This was home to the Hindu religion, whose people worshiped not one god but, on some counts, millions.

Muslim writers as far back as the tenth century CE often presented India as a place of image worship gone mad.

The Muslim invaders smashed the idols and destroyed the Hindu temples.

The first mosque to be erected in Delhi, the Quwwat-ul-Islam Mosque, constructed in the 1190s, was once known as the most imposing mosque in the world.

But in this mosque various elements of earlier Hindu structures and images have been reused and incorporated into the fabric of the mosque the human figures often defaced. It is striking that, even when they have been defaced some aspect of the humanity of those figures have been preserved.

The simple fact that the builders of the new mosque have chosen fairly consistently to place the reused figures the right way up suggests a respect for the human form and itrs image.

It betrays a certain appreciation for the very images that Islam condemned.

THE HAGIA SOPHIA

Does God dwell in hand-made temples? The correct answer is that he does not, but men have always been inclined to believe whereas He is present everywhere, He is nevertheless more fully present in some places than in others.

I have been to the Hagia Sophia.

It is magnificent.

God is obviously more fully present in the Hagia Sophia than in other places.

It has such grandeur.

      

The historian Procopius said about the Hagia Sophia:

“Whenever anyone enters to pray, he understands at once that it is not by human power and skill but by God’s will that his work has been so finely finished.  His mind is lifted up to God and floats on the air, feeling that God cannot be far away, but must especially love to dwell in this place, which He has chosen.”

The present Hagia Sophia is the third church built on the same site.

The present church was built by Justinian between 532 and 537.

Justinian was a military expansionist and ambitious civil reformer (his law code still lies at the foundation of many modern legal systems).

The second church was built by Theodosius and consecrated in 415.

But who built the first and why? Constantine according to legend and Constantius II (337-361) according to historical evidence.

Constantine was the first Roman emperor to have become a Christian.

With the exception of of the short-lived Julian (361-363), all Roman emperors after Constantine were Christians.

Like wise, Constantinople continued to be an imperial city for the next eleven centuries, before becoming the seat of another, Muslim, empire.

To describe all the events that took place within the Hagia Sophia would almost be tantamount to writing a history of the Byzantine Empire.

The name Hagia Sophia means Holy Wisdom or God’s Wisdom, a designation which by the fourth century was applied to the second person of the Trinity, i.e. Christ.

Early Christians believed – and perhaps Christians today believe – that Wisdom was a separate entity created or engendered by God before the beginning of time, an entity that guided or informed the act of creation.

The Ottoman Turks converted the Hagia Sophia into a mosque in 1453.

The Muslim, Ottoman Turks, retained that name.

They did not considerate the Hagia Sophia as an alien entity, the temple of a hostile if conquered religion.

They took steps to incorporate it mythically into the Islamic tradition.

The very word Ayasofya was interpreted to mean ‘house of worship’ (ibadetgah).

As strange as it might seem, in light of Muslim usage, the figural mosaics representing Christian personages and Byzantine emperors were not systematically covered up as soon as Hagia Sophia was converted to into a mosque.

       

The Ottoman conquest ensured not only the Hagia Sophia’s preservation but also its continuing maintenance and repair because it became the chief imperial mosque, amply endowed and often visited by the sultan.

FIRST CONCLUSION

What is going on – the Pandemic, the new George Floyd World, marginalized groups and women getting the short end of the stick in money earned for the same work etc. etc. etc., police brutality, stay-in-place orders, mass unemployment, the economy in shambles, extreme income inequality, extreme wealth inequality, climate change, mass protests, unequal opportunity, rioting in the streets, wide scale looting,- is scary.

You can’t solve a problem if you don’t know what the problem is.

SECOND CONCLUSION

People love art.

Art conquers all.

What we see depends on how we look.

Gary Smolker, Social Commentator, Values Critic

 

 

 

Copyright © 2020 by Gary Smolker, All Rights Reserved

 

Shopping – by Gary Smolker

     

The Shopping Experience

All Women and some Men like to shop.

Many men who like to shop do not want to or like to shop with a woman.

Each of the photographs above were taken by me in June, 2017, while I was in different shopping venues.

The purses shown above were photographed by me while I was in the South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa, California, USA.

The eatable chocolate shoes shown above were photographed by me while I was in an Alitalia terminal in the Leonardo da Vinci Airport in Rome, Italy.

The bottom set of pictures are photographs I took near the Merry-Go-Round in the South Coast Plaza.

The set of photographs are of  a “carrel” full of “animal shaped balloons.”

Parents purchase those animal shaped balloons for their children to “walk” and/or play with while their parents are shopping.

Useful Practical Knowledge

If you need to buy something, a very important question is: “Where is the best place to buy it, where is the best place to shop for it.”

Of course, the answer to that question depends upon what you are shopping for.

Where Is The Best Place in the World to Shop?

MEN, TAKE NOTE: WOMEN LIKE TO SHOP!

Women have a larger variety – a multitude – of good reasons to shop and to go shopping then men do.

In the modern world we live in, sometimes shopping is not solely/exclusively about trading money for goods.

My goal in writing this article is to spread understanding of the multitude of factors that women and men consider before they decide where to “go shopping” when their sole goal is not to buy a “generic” something for the best price.

MEN:

• It is a good idea to get along with women.
• If you understand why women go shopping you will have a better chance of getting along with them.
• Women do things for a reason.
• Do not ignore something staring you right in the face.
• That women like shopping is staring you right in the face.
• If you make a noticeable effort to understand why women in your life like to go shopping those women will more strongly believe it is a pleasure to know you.

MY ADVICE TO MEN: Think of shopping with a woman at a gorgeous venue that has eye opening mind stimulating merchandise for sale as being equivalent to going with a date to a top rate museum full or magnificent works of art and stunning artifacts.

Best of all: You get to enter this museum and experience one or more hours of enjoyable mind expanding learning and mental stimulation without paying an admission charge.

THE BEST PLACE IN THE WORLD TO SHOP

The issue discussed in this article is, “Where is the best place in the world to shop?

My criteria/parameters for choosing the best place in the world to shop are:

• I ask myself: (1) Where will you see the most interesting things in a span of one or two hours?
• I assume you will not be spending more than one or two hours in the shopping venue that is the best place in the world to shop.
• I also ask myself: (2) Which shopping venue has the highest percentage of the highest quality top-tier shops/stores/departments to go into or window shop?

In my opinion the best place in the world to shop, under those criteria, is in the terminals at the Aeroporto Leonardo Da Vicini Fiumicino… the best place to shop is in the airline terminals located in Leonardo da Vinci International Airport in Rome.

I flew on Alitalia Airlines from Los Angeles International (LAX) to Rome Fiumicino (FCO) on May 20, 2017; during a stopover – before flying on to Sicily – I stayed in the Alitalia terminal which I found myself in after my plane landed for an approximately one hour thirty minute during a stopover before catching my connecting Alitalia flight to Catania Fontanarossa (CTA).

There are no direct flights from Los Angeles to Sicily.  To get to Sicily by commercial plane, one must first fly to Rome then catch another flight to Sicily.  Catania is a city in Sicily which has the airport I landed in when I first got to Sicily.

I was dazzled by the stores I saw as I walked through the Alitalia terminal(s) from the gate I deplaned at when I arrived in Rome from Los Angeles to the gate in the terminal from which my connecting flight to Catania Sicily boarded.

On my way back home, I flew from Rome Fiumicino (FCO) to Los Angeles International (LAX) on June 4, 2017 after a two hour forty minute stopover stay in the Alitalia terminal after my flight from Catania landed before boarding my direct Alitalia flight from Rome to Los Angeles.

During my two hour four minute stopover on  June 4, 2017 I visited several of the stores/shops located in the Alitalia terminal.

Based on comparing my recent first hand (window) shopping experiences in the Leonardo da Vinci International Airport on May 20 and June 4, 2017 with my shopping experiences in other major airports throughout the world, with my shopping experiences in major shopping centers/malls, and in world famous shopping venues throughout the world, it is my conclusion that if you have one or two hours to spend shopping the Alitalia terminals in the Leonardo da Vinci International Airport in Rome are the place to be.

Rolling Through My Head

Rolling through my head are memories of recent outstandingly pleasant shopping experiences, including many I had during the two weeks I was in Sicily from May 20 through June 4, 2017, and many I had while visiting the South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa, California a few days ago.

• On Monday, June 13, 2017, I spent four exceedingly pleasant hours window shopping, and also meeting with and talking to sales personnel in the South Coast Plaza (SCP) in Costa Mesa, California, and ultimately I purchased a gorgeous necklace for my daughter Judi.
• Just 11 days before that, on June 2, 2017, I was shopping in the Ortigia Sicilia shop in Noto Sicily.  I spent about 15 very pleasant minutes in that shop and purchased a puzzle depicting Noto [which I had the store send/ship to my daughter Terra in Massachusetts] and during that 15 minutes I also purchased oil perfume that I had shipped from the Ortigia Sicilia store to my office in Encino California to give to several women I work with.
• Below is a picture I took of the Noto Puzzle I sent to my daughter Terra.  Next to the picture of the Noto Puzzle I sent to my daughter are photographs of distinctive packaging used in that store – photographs of paper bags in which purchased merchandise is put in then carried out of the store. Next to the photographs of two paper bag packages are photographs of descriptive labels in the Ortigia Sicilia store which describe the perfumes displayed on shelves in that store. All the products purchased in that store can be directly taken out of the store by the purchaser or can be shipped worldwide.
•        
• I love chocolate.  Modica is known as the City of Chocolate in Sicily.  I spent several days in Modica.  I spent about 30 minutes in a Museum of Chocolate in Modica.  Below are photographs I took of posters posted in the Museum of Chocolate. Almost every other store on the main street in Modica sells a variety of chocolates. The most famous Chocolate manufacturer in Sicily is the Dolceria Bonajuto which is located on the main street in Modica Sicily at street address Corso Umberto I, N. 159, Modica.  I visited the Dolceria Bonajuto on May 29, 2017 and returned on May 30 and May 31.  Below are photographs I took of people outside the Dolceria Bonajuto taking samples of chocolate being served on a platter by the Bonajuto store.  While in the Dolceria Bonajuto I bought Chocolate Cardamom to give to women I work with in my office in Encino, California.  I spent about 10 minutes or less each time I visited the Dolceria Bonajuto. On May 29, 2017, just down the street from the Dolceria Bonajuto, at Corso Umberto I, 133, I discovered the most charming book store, Libreria Mondadori.  While in the Mondadori book store I purchased two books: “Le Ricette di ieri e di oggi” [“Recipes of yesterday and today”] and “Sweet Sicily.”  I love books and I love bookstores.  I spent about 30 or 45 minutes in the Libreria Mondadori book store the first time I was there and about 30 minutes each of the next two times I was in that book store. Below are photographs I took while I was inside the Libreria Mondadori.  The Libreria Mondadori is a great place to hang, a great place for browsing books written about many topics.  I find reading books “addictive” but don’t assume that people who read books are more tolerant or open minded than people who don’t.  The bottom photographs are a series of photographs I took in Libreria Mondadori.  The first photograph was taken by me after I had entered Libreria Mondadori while I was looking at a staircase leading up to the second floor. The second photograph was taken by me while looking up at one side of the second floor of Libreria Mondadori.  The third fourth fifth and sixth photographs were taken by me while I was on the second floor of Libreria Mondadori while looking towards the front door to Libreria Mondadori from the second floor.  On the second floor of Libreria Mondadori, in addition to books to browse or purchase, there are chairs and couches for one to sit on and tables for one to work on.
  
• 
  

The Best in the World

I am a firm believer in the value of personally seeing the best in the world of anything and of everything.

The pictures at the beginning of this article are the best in the world in different categories.

The Two Purses

Those purses are beautiful, but wrapping a stunning scarf around the handle of a purse is the work of genius.

The ladies working in the Sam Edelman store in South Coast Plaza on their own initiative chose scarves and wrapped the scarves they chose around the handles of those purses.

Eatable Chocolate Shoes

The eternal triangle is “women, chocolate and shoes.”

Whomever thought of making eatable chocolate shoes is a genius.

Animal Shaped Balloons

Children become impatient while shopping with their parents.

Whoever thought of “making” animals out of balloons that could be given to children while their parents are shopping is a genius.

Why Are the Alitalia Airline Terminals in the Leonardo Da Vinci International Airport in Rome the Best Place in the World to Shop?

Below is a photograph of a ceramic bowl and a series of photographs of a container of cookies I took while “window shopping” in an airline terminal waiting to catch a connecting flight from Rome to Los Angeles after having flown on Alitalia from Catania Sicily to Rome Italy.

Photos taken by me in the Alitalia Airline Terminal in the Leonardo Da Vinci International Airport Rome on June 4, 2017.

I rest my case.

 

Gary S. Smolker, Fashion Blogger, Social Commentator, Movie Reviewer, Book Reviewer and Idea Exchanger
Gary S. Smolker Idea Exchange Blog
www.garysmolker.wordpress.com

Gary Smolker, Fashion Blogger and Social Commentator
Dude's Guide to Women's Shoes
www.dudesguidetowomensshoes.com

 

Copyright © Gary Smolker, 2017 All Rights Reserved

Follow Me on Instagram @garyspassion

How To Have A Realistic View of What Is Happening in the World Today — by Gary S. Smolker

Thomas Jefferson once said that if you expect a people to be ignorant and free you expect what never was and never will be.

A Penetrating Question to Ask Yourself

Once you stop trying to learn, what else is there, have you become mentally dead?

Is It True That You Can’t Underestimate How Misinformed, Uninformed and Dumb People Are?

I believe it is important to have a realistic view of what is going on in the world and that most people don’t.

In a recent “Playboy Interview”, which can be found in the May 2015 issue of Playboy Magazine, Bill Maher said, “You cannot underestimate how dumb people are in this country….It’s why politicians get away with so much bullshit.”

Personally, I rarely watch news programs because of how stupid the reporting is.

Listening to recent CNN commentators and their experts talk about what ISIS is doing [beheading Christians, etc.], Syria, Libya, Yemen, Africa, the Middle East and migrants drowning in the Mediterranean Sea while being smuggled from Libya and Syria to Italy made me cringe.

In his interview in the May 2015 issue of Playboy Magazine, Maher indicates most people are not getting helpful accurate information.

Maher says: “People are either in a bubble, getting only the information they want to see, or they’re on porn or playing Angry Birds or whatever else they are doing.  They’re not getting information.”

In that interview Maher states:

• “The vast, vast, vast majority of Muslims are not terrorists.  But here’s the point people don’t bring up: They’re not terrorists, but they share some very bad ideas with terrorists, and bad ideas lead to bad behavior.
• “You couldn’t put the Muslim equivalent of The Book of Mormon on Broadway.
• “You can’t write a book like The Satanic Verses without millions going jihadi on you.
• “Hundreds of millions of Muslims believe if you leave the religion you should get killed for that.
• “Islam is absolutely the problem.  Oc course it is.  It’s on every page of the Koran to despise the unbeliever.
• “Try walking down the street in Muslim areas – even in more tolerant places like Amman, Jordan – wearing shorty shorts or a T-shirt that says HEY, I AM Gay.
• “…the long-term solution to radical Islam is to let them have the civil war they need to have between themselves. Let the people who want to walk into the 21st century stand up against the people who want to stay in the seventh century.
• “...as long as we are droning them, it gives everybody an excuse to hate us as the common enemy.
• “As long as our armed forces are in their countries and in their lives and killing them with drones, they don’t get to have this internecine warfare that intelligent observers agree they need to have.”

With tongue in cheek Maher explains/claims/says, The only thing he doesn’t have tolerance for is intolerance.

For a broader perspective on what is happening in the world today and why it is happening, I recommend that you read the entire Bill Maher interview in the May 2015 issue of Playboy Magazine.

To better understand what is going on in the world today, and what to expect to happen next, I further recommend that you read (i) “Supreme City” by Donald L. Miller which is a history of New York City in the first part of 1900s and also read (ii) “The Greater Journey” by David McCullough which is a history of Paris in the 1800s, and I also recommend (iii) that you watch the recently released movie “Woman in Gold” which is about the treatment of the Jews by the Nazis in Vienna shortly before the start of World War II, one woman’s successful 10 year attempt to reclaim valuable artwork belonging to her family from the Republic of Austria.  It is one hell of an adventure story about an upstart risk taking underdog who won against enormous odds.

In deciding how to spend my time, I ask myself: [A] Are the prominent news commentators I listen to thoughtful? [B] Are they on a quest to find out why things that are relevant to me are happening?  [C] Are they practical, do they think about or research what can realistically and practically be done to make the world a better place? [D] Are the movies I watch about real life? Do they teach me something worth knowing or make me see the world differently?  [E] Are the books I read informative and thought-provoking?  [F] What is the best way to spend my time?

In an attempt to live an intelligent life,

1. I begin each day with my life as I find it and make it better.
2. I make every moment count.
3. I set higher and tougher targets for myself.
4. I set goals for myself from the time I get up until the time I go to bed.

I strongly believe, the measure of who we are is measured by what we do with what we have.

I have the following recommendation for major news broadcasters.

My recommendation to major “news” broadcasters is : Hire Donald L. Miller (author of “Supreme City”), David McCullough (author of “The Greater Journey”) and Bill Maher (political commentator) (a) to comment on “breaking news” and (b) to ask questions to so-called experts on the most pressing topics of the day.

I am sick and tired of hearing all the negative news that I hear.  I would like to hear news reports which give a broader perspective on life than who is killing who and/or who is being shot or killed or how sad and unfortunate it is to be “poor.”

By the way, I find it shocking and disgusting that many Americans, who have some money and who live in this world of plenty, spend more of their money at restaurants than at grocery stores.

I would like to hear or read an analytical thoughtful news report on that happenstance.

I know that many people (perhaps myself as well) live a life of excess.  I would like to hear news reports and read about that.

I believe the reason things seem to be so miserable for so many people is because of the way news reporters and commentators choose to report on and comment on what they talk about.

I know a picture changes depending on how you frame it.  The same holds true with the news and when news reporters and commentators discuss the “news.”

Here is what St. Augustine’s had to say about my point of view: “If we live good lives, the times are good.  As we are, such are the times.” – St. Augustine

In other words: an intelligent life is not lived by chance, but by choice.

The Working of the Human Brain

Your brain is wired for prediction.

It is a predictive organ.

Your ideas and actions come from information already in your brain.

Every moment you are awake your brain is consulting your vast store of information and knowledge in your brain and from that information and knowledge creating the ideas and feelings you have at every moment.

Actions that you take are the result of your brain’s predictions.

What you do is the result of predictions made by your brain based on your own experiences.

Everyone understands what is going on because of what they have read, because of who they have talked to, because of who they have listened to, what they have seen and because of what they had “made” of what they have experienced in the past.

What you “read” is very important because what you read is a marker which reflects

• who you are,
• what you are,
• what you know, and also
• reflects your ability to understand what is going on.

What you have read, what you have heard, what you have seen and what you have experienced is a good predictor of your capacity to anticipate what will happen next.

I Recommend That You Seek To See How Deep the Place Is From which Your Life Flows

I believe Robin Williams had it right: “You’re only given a little spark of madness.  You mustn’t lose it.” – Robin Williams

Many people live in a constant “survival mode” doing what they need to do or what they think they need to do without really deeply thinking about actually putting into action what they personally enjoy doing and who they want to be.

Those people need to go through an awakening.

Those people need to come up with a few things they want to start working on, but need to prioritize their schedule to ensure that they can make that happen.

Those people need to find something else to long for besides mere survival.

I don’t agree with Thornton Wilder’s be satisfied with the status quo advice, “My advice to you is not to inquire why or whether, but just enjoy your ice cream while it’s on your plate.” – Thornton Wilder

I believe in taking risks.

I believe if you risk nothing, you are risking a lot. Have an adventure: Explore. Dream. Discover.

Consider points made in the Viet Nam War speech Robert Kennedy gave on February 19, 1966:

“Democracy is no easy form of government.  Few nations have been able to sustain it.  For it requires that we take the chances of freedom; that the liberating play of reason be brought to bear on events filled with passion; that dissent be allowed to make its appeal for acceptance; that men chance error in their search for truth.”

Reflect upon the reaction of the all-white student body at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska, when Bobby Kennedy delivered the following speech to them on May 13, 1968:

“Look around you.  How many black faces do you see here?  How many American Indians?  The fact is, if you look at any regiment or division of paratroopers in Vietnam, forty-five percent of them are black.  How can you accept that?

They booed.

I keep in mind that:

1. The sharpest criticism often goes hand in hand with the deepest idealism.
2. There is no such thing as half-trying.

Ancient man survived the more powerful beasts about him because his wisdom, his strategies and his policies – overcame his lack of power.

Dare we to attempt less?

We Are What We Read

Some people never stop learning.

Below is a slightly edited copy of recent email correspondence among three of my men friends.

Each of these friends have been on a quest their entire life [asking questions] to understand the world they live in.

Recently their questions have been focused on how live as intelligently as possible with a focus on understanding human health, as well as understanding human nature and the way things work.

Their correspondence with me (copy below) illustrates the point that people are the product of what they read.

Hopefully reading the correspondence below will help you put the need to be continually learning, continually reading books, in perspective — because once you stop trying to learn, what else is there….

The first correspondent (Jorge) is an extremely well-read attentive person who relaxes by reading a scholarly book, listening to good music, going to a play, going to a symphony and/or going to a lecture at Cal Tech or going to a lecture at the Huntington Hartford Museum/Library/Gardens.

Jorge listens with the intent to understand.

Jorge has frequently been in dangerous high pressure situations.

On one of Jorge’s business trips to a foreign country (a country which at the time was on the U.S. State Department’s watch list) Jorge asked his taxi cab driver – as Jorge was being taken to a meeting – if it would be okay for Jorge to roll up the window of the driver’s cab.

The taxi cab driver [who was the owner of the taxi-cab] replied: “Only if you pay to replace the window if someone throws a rock through it.”

Jorge has gone to places where most of us will never go and has done and does things on a regular basis that most of us will never do.

1. More than once, Jorge has negotiated business deals with armed dictators in rooms full of a dictator’s armed men.
2. When Jorge is “in town” (Los Angeles), Jorge dresses formally for dinner with his wife.
3. Jorge and his wife have candle lit dinners when they dine together at home.

Jorge loves words and seems to have a photographic memory.

If I remember correctly, Jorge speaks seven languages fluently.

 

Original Correspondence – Email from Jorge Plus Follow-Up Correction

Gary:

In a book that I recently began to read, and which I will recommend to you if it proves to be as fascinating as the first twenty-five pages would suggest, I read:

“We are verbibores, a species that lives on words, and the meaning and use of language are bound to be among the major things we ponder, share and dispute.”

Jorge

 

——————

FOLLOW-UP CORRECTION:

 

Gary:

 

Anent my recent e-mail about verbivores, I remembered Hamlet:

 

(Polonius)

—What do you read, my Lord?

(Hamlet)

Words, words, words.

 

II.ii.197-198

 

Incidentally, I have only this morning noted the spelling error of verbibore rather than verbivore.  But I now think the “bore” just as amusing—and probably more useful—than the vore.

 

Jorge

Second Email (my response to first email from Jorge)

Verbibores is a great word.  So is verbivores.

I enjoy the company of people, such as yourself, who have a vibrant interest in life and conversation and good books.

Yesterday, I went to the Barnes & Noble Bookstore in Calabasas — with the concrete intention and a strong resolve to not buy any books.

As you might guess, I did buy some books.

In fact, I purchased four books.

I will send you the correct titles later and a longer description of each book.

1. The title of one of the four books I purchased is something like “Bon Attempt.” [The actual title is “Bon Appetempt – A Coming of Age Story (with Recipes!)” – it celebrates people who try things that don’t quite work out as planned.]
2. The title of another one of the books I purchased is something like “How to Become An Adult in 428 Easy Steps.” [The actual title is “Adulting – How to Become a Grown-Up in 468 Easy(ish) Steps” – this is a self-help book for people whose actions do not always reflect the fact that chronologically, they are absolutely, completely and undeniably an adult.  Here is a piece of the author’s advice: “Intentions are nice, but ultimately intentions don’t really matter because they only exist inside you.  Meaning to send a thank-you note but then not doing it is exactly the same as never thinking to send one – the person is still receiving zero thank-you notes.  So, yes. Actions are greater than intentions.”]  By the way, it’s the author’s position that being adult is something you do.  In that sense, adult is a verb, not a noun, and you can act like an adult even if you don’t feel like doing so.
3. The title of another book I purchased yesterday is “My Grandfather’s Gallery.”  This book is about a famous gallery in Paris in the 1920s and 1930s (Galerie Rosenberg) that was looted by the Nazis.  It is about Paul Rosenberg’s elegant skylit gallery at 21 rue La Boetie – which was arguably the epicenter of the Parisian avant-garde – a place where painters such as Picasso, Braque, Matisse, and Leger were routinely exhibited and the personal and economic circumstances that compelled such painters to join Rosenberg’s exclusive stable and the Rosenberg family’s ongoing efforts to recover his paintings.
4. Rosenberg and his family managed to flee Paris just ahead of the deportation of the French Jews by the Nazis during World War II.  In his absence, his beloved paintings were looted and scattered across the continent.
5. The author, Anne Sinclair, is Paul Rosenberg’s granddaughter and one of France’s best known journalists.
6. I was attracted to that book because I had recently seen the movie “Woman in Gold.”
7. “Woman in Gold” powerfully teaches us about the core of human nature.
8. Anyone who doesn’t understand what ISIS is doing or why ISIS is doing what ISIS is currently doing ought to watch “Woman in Gold.”

9. “Woman in Gold”

10. “Woman in Gold” is the story of the late Maria Altman’s almost ten-year legal struggle against the government of the Republic of Austria to reclaim Gustav Klimt’s iconic painting of her aunt, Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I” which was confiscated from her relatives by Nazis in Vienna just prior to World War II.  Scenes in this movie dramatically portray how the Jews were unable to escape Vienna after the Nazi invasion of Vienna shortly before the start of World War II.  In addition to being  a story about looted art, this movie is a story about how badly/terrifically the Jews were treated by both the Nazis and the Austrians in Vienna and throughout Austria.
11. This movie tells the story of Altman’s quest to obtain the return of her family’s looted artwork.
12. This movie tells the story of what happened as Altman and her “contingency fee attorney” E. Randol Schoenberg took her case all the way to the United States Supreme Court.
13. The government of the United States was on the side of the Republic of Austria and filed a brief in which it urged the United States Supreme Court to rule in favor of the Republic of Austria.
14. The United States Supreme Court ruled in her favor in Republic of Austria v. Altman (2004).
15. “Woman in Gold” is a fantastically well done “should see” movie.
16. Other movie critic reviewers have given “Woman in Gold” mixed reviews varying from 5.8/10 to 52/100.
17. I give “Woman in Gold” a 94/100.
18. I give “Woman in Gold” a rating of 94/100 because “Woman in Gold” teaches (a) how unvarnished intolerance creates a cadre of despicable people and  (b) that contingency fee attorneys are essential components of the American legal system in their role of seeking to “make” the American legal system work for just causes.  “Woman and Gold” portrays contingency fee attorneys in a good light.
19. This movie shows the courage and singular achievement against all odds achieved by Ms. Altman’s upstart risk taking underdog contingency fee attorney through his individual effort.
20. The despicable actions portrayed in “Woman in Gold” are tastefully portrayed.
21. Austrians are shown greeting the invading Nazis by throwing flowers at them, welcoming them with open arms and cheerfully looking on as Orthodox Jews are being disgraced by having their hair cut by Nazis and being forced to scrub sidewalks.
22. The modern Austrian government charged with reviewing claims to stolen art work by their Jewish owners acted just as despicably as the Austrians who had thrown flowers at the Nazis when the Nazis invaded Austria just before the beginning of World War II.
23. Little did the government of the Republic of Australia or the Agency/Committee in charge of reviewing claims to art work stolen by the Nazis realize in their dealings with elderly octogenarian refugee Ms. Altman in her attempt to recover artwork she believes/believed rightfully belongs/belonged to her family they were dealing with a woman who was fighting for justice with the strength of a volcano.
24. Go see “Woman in Gold” if you think ISIS is doing or has done anything new.
25. “Woman in Gold” teaches that modern-day European people should/can be expected to do horrible things as a matter of course.
26. If you think what ISIS is doing currently is conduct characteristic of the seventh century and not conduct characteristic of the nineteenth century, read the description of the battles between the government troops of the French government at Versailles and the mobs of the Communards in 1871 in “The Greater Journey – Americans in Paris” by David McCullough.
27. If you think current conditions in Libya, Yemen, Iraq, or in Syria are conditions that can only be prevalent in failed states read about conditions in the roaring 20s in Hell’s Kitchen section of the City of New York in “Supreme City” by Donald Miller.

28. “THE GREATER JOURNEY – Americans in Paris”

29. Anyone who thinks what ISIS did or is doing in Syria — i.e., destroying priceless antiquities, beheading people, etc. – is beyond imagination should read about “La Semaine Sanglante,” the Bloody Week in Paris during the fights between the French government at Versailles and the mobs of the Communards in 1871 –  described in “THE GREATER JOURNEY – Americans in Paris” by David McCullough.

    McCullough quotes the journal and diary of American Foreign Minister Elihu Washburne, who was posted in Paris at that time.  According to Minister Washburne: every day seemed worse than the one before.

    “There has been nothing but general butchery.”

    Elihu Washburne (the American Foreign Minister [Ambassador] in Paris) wrote in his diary:

    “The rage of the soldiers and the people knows no bounds.  No punishment is too great, or too speedy, for the guilty, but there is no discrimination.  Let a person utter a word of sympathy, or even let a man be pointed out to a crowd as a sympathizer and his life is gone…. A well-dressed respectable looking man was torn into a hundred pieces…for expressing a word of sympathy who was a prisoner being beaten almost to death.

     

    “The vandalism of the dark ages pales into insignificance before the monstrous crimes perpetrated in this great center of civilization.

     

    “The incredible enormities of the Commune, their massacre of the Archbishop of Paris and other hostages, their countless murders of other persons who refused to join them in their fiendish work, their horrid and well-organized plans of incendiary intended to destroy almost the entire city…. are crimes which will never die.  I regret to say that to these unparalleled atrocities of the Commune are to be joined the awful vengeances inflicted by the Versailles troops…The killing, tearing to pieces, stabbing, beating, and burning of men, women, and children, innocent and guilty alike, by the government troop[s] will stain to the last ages the history of France, and the execrations of mankind will be heaped upon the names who shall be found responsible for acts which disgrace human nature.”

     

    According to McCullough, at one point the Seine literally ran red with blood.

    The value of the architectural landmarks and other treasures destroyed was inestimable.
    It seemed the culmination of every horror to Washburne.
    It seems apt to me to make the comparison of ISIS and the barbarity of the French in the French Commune. That type of barbarity could happen anywhere, even here, if restraints were removed or fell away.

    Consider the history of violence in the “modern” United States from 1900 to today.

    “Supreme City” 

    According to Donald L. Miller: In the early 1900s, the mostly second generation German and Irish residents of Hell’s Kitchen – whose eastern border was a few blocks from the Fifth Avenue mansions of the Vanderbilts – had been so beaten down by misfortunes they had “forgotten to be dissatisfied with their poverty.”

    However, Hell’s Kitchen’s  outstanding characteristic was its anarchic lawlessness, not its poverty induced lethargy.

    “In West Side Studies, a sociological report published in 1914 by the philanthropic Russell Sage Foundation, the authors described the neighborhood boys as ‘incredibly vicious.’ Stabbings, assaults, and drunken street brawls were daily occurrences; ‘every crime, every villainy, every form of sexual indulgence and perversion is practiced in the district.’

    Hell’s Kitchen was a whirlpool of crime and mayhem.

    Gang life offered energy, excitement, and the prospect of advancement, if only by theft and thuggery.

    Joining a gang was irresistibly attractive to young folk eager to escape their constricting surroundings.

    In “Supreme City”, Donald L. Miller tells the following story:

    “On November 6, 1912….Owney Madden nearly met his creator.  That evening he attended a ‘racket’ at the Arbor Dance Hall on Fifty-second Street and Seventh Avenue….He made a reckless public entrance, striding to the middle of the dance floor, calling for the music to be stopped, and announcing with arms folded, that he had come in peace and wouldn’t “bump anyone off.’  He then retired to a table on the balcony, where he had a commanding view of the women on the dance floor. Sitting alone, sipping a whiskey, he was soon surrounded by eleven members of a rival gang.  Rising to the challenge, Madden dared them to shoot.  All eleven opened fire.  Madden was rushed to Flower Hospital, where surgeons removed six slugs from his stomach; another five were buried too deep to be removed.  At Madden’s bedside, a detective asked him who had shot him, but the Gopher headman remained true to the code of the street. ‘The boys ‘ll get ’em,’ he whispered.  ‘It’s nobody’s business but mine who put these slugs into me.’  Within days, three of the eleven assailants were in the municipal morgue.

    In “Supreme City”, Miller tells stories about methods used by the U.S. government to put liquor smugglers out of business in New York during Prohibition under the direction of U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Emory Roy Buckner, special investigator A. Bruce Bielaski, Assistant Prohibition Administrator for the New York region Augustus Heise, and his supervisor Major Chester P. Mill, Prohibition Administrator of the New York region, and General Lincoln Andrews, the national “Dry Czar” since 1925.

    According to Miller:

    Bruckner was charged with bringing to justice citizens who had broken a law he considered idiotic and unenforceable. “The zealots who created prohibition think the mere writing of the law on the statute books makes it a fait accompli….They decline to know the truth.

    When Special Investigator A. Bruce Bielaski set up covert operations in the summer of 1925, Bielaski’s methods were emphatically straightforward: track down suspects and get them to talk, using cash and legal immunity as inducements.  If this failed, torture them.

    In June of 1927 the issue of torturing suspects came to a head “when Augustus Heise, Assistant Prohibition Administrator for the New York region, casually admitted in federal court that he had resorted to what he called a ‘Chinese method of torture’ to obtain a confession from a Harlem bootlegger, winding a towel around his head and twisting it tighter and tighter, painfully reducing the flow of blood to the brain.  Heise also admitted that his agents had ‘accidentally’ shoved another suspect through an upper story window at Prohibition headquarters in downtown Manhattan.

    “Two days later, Heise and his superior, Major Chester P. Mills, Prohibition Administrator of the New York region, were forces to resign.  Later than summer, the axe fell on General Lincoln Andrews, the national ‘Dry Czar’ since 1925.  His replacement former New York lieutenant governor Seymour Lowman, announce that his office would no longer countenance torture as a means of eliciting confessions.  ‘Enforcement fanaticism’ must cease, declared Secretary of the Treasury Andrew Mellon.

    “As part of the purge, Mellon fired A. Bruce Bielaski and disbanded his undercover service.  Bielaski joined nearly one thousand other Prohibition enforcement agents, nationwide, that had been dismissed from the federal service since 1920 for, among other things, bribery, extortion, embezzlement, perjury, and robbery.”
30. The fourth book, and last book, I purchased yesterday is titled “The Last Lecture.”  It is a lecture given by Randy Pausch, a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon, who gave his “last lecture” shortly after he had recently been diagnosed with terminal cancer.
31. “The Last Lecture” is a book  about the lecture Professor Pausch gave, titled “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams”, the last lecture he gave.
32. Professor Pausch’s lecture wasn’t about dying.  It was about the importance of overcoming obstacles, of enabling the dreams of others.  It was about seizing every moment – because time is all you have and you may find one day that you have less than you think.

Third Email

[BOOK] To Engineer Is Human: The Role of Failure in Successful Design by H. Petroski.

Perhaps the ironic (or iconic) jewel of this book on engineering failures is the one that should have failed but didn’t: the Crystal Palace.  The moral, of this book as well, is that the object of engineering design is to obviate failure, but the truly fail-proof design is chimerical.

Mayer

Fourth Email

I’m reading “Liar’s Ball,” which is about an insider’s view of top-level real estate in New York, mostly a short walk from my apartment.  I recommend this book as entertaining and informative and not too long.

JF

Fifth Email

Some say: “A man is what he eats.”

I say: “A man is what he reads.”

I recently had the delightful experience of having dinner at a candle lit table in a small chic restaurant with a charming and beautiful woman with whom I was going to see a musical (NEWSIES) at the Pantages Theatre, in Hollywood, California.

Because our dinner table conversation was so enjoyable we stayed in the restaurant too long and had to literally run to the Pantages Theatre, located a few blocks away, in order to see NEWSIES before the performance was over.

As much as I enjoyed the food and atmosphere of the restaurant, and as much as I enjoyed watching the Tony Award wining musical NEWSIES,  I relished the sublimity of talking with that woman even more.

She was the most stunning woman in the entire Pantages Theatre that evening. L’Oreal would do well to hire her as a beauty model.

Like all truly beautiful women, she seems to be totally oblivious to the fact that she is gorgeous to look at and the most agreeable companion.

It was a magical evening.

We were both in the frame of mind best suited for intellectual and social pleasure.

I like the idea of being better off when things don’t work out as planned.

I once read that the only people who have fun are people who get lost.

I had “the joys of getting lost” in mind when I purchased “Bon Appetempt – A Coming of Age Story (with recipes!)”

According to its book cover, “Bon Appetempt – A Coming of Age Story (with recipes!)”, is full of hilarious observations about food, family, unemployment, and the extremes of modern day-LA, and features recipes as basic as Toasted Cheerios and as advanced as Gateau de Crepes.

Looking at the book cover of Bon Appetempt reminded me of the day (my birthday) when I tried to make a chocolate souffle with my [former] wife Susan.

What a disaster that was.

About Those Correspondents

I met Jorge over forty years ago when Jorge was a trial lawyer representing First Pennsylvania Trust in a foreclosure action brought against my clients who had borrowed money to purchase a high-rise office building on Wilshire Blvd. in Beverly Hills, CA.

Currently, as a private citizen and as a member of the Board of Directors of the foundation that owns and runs a private high school and as a person active in the admission process of an Ivy League school, Jorge is worried about the disappearance of the intelligentsia.

I met JF over forty-five years ago (in 1967) when both of us were riding together in an elevator in an apartment in Ithaca, New York.

I saw JF’s career progress (rise up) from the first old house he purchased and turned into a boarding house in Ithaca, New York, to his purchase and development of property in Manhattan, Harlem and Toronto.

JF is a boldly imaginative risk-taken, who has cxperienced tremendous business success because he deeply understands how the worlds of commerce and real estate development work and is imaginative enough to turn other people’s neccesities and his necessities into opportunity.

Currently, JF is an owner-builder building a 47 story mixed use high-rise residential building in the nicest part of Toronto, Canada, also dynamically managing buildings in three cities and also building/developing several buildings in Manhattan.

I met Mayer through JF, who Meyer has known for almost 60 years.

JF and Mayer met each other in 1959 when they were both students of civil engineering at Cooper Union School of Engineering in New York City.

Mayer is a transportation engineer who has been involved in the design, planning and operation of airports, railroads, subways, buses and ports, which are the essential arteries through which commerce and the  goods bought and sold which produce prosperity and the good life flow.

Keep in mind that commence is mainly about movement.  Mayer is an expert in the physical “movement” of people and gooods.

Among other things, Mayer acts as my newspaper and magazine article clipping service.  Mayer sends me articles which he thinks should interest me, including articles about health.

Why I Bought Those Four Books

I am motivated by the same thing that motivates people like Carl Sagan, “curiosity.”

I firmly belief that, “Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.” – Carl Sagan

I bought those books to “open my mind.”

I hope by reading each one of these books I would find something “incredible” waiting to be known.

I want to increase my knowledge and understanding of how people think, why people think the way they do, why people do the things they do.  I believe reading those books will help me do that.

I want to better understand human nature, the human condition, and to seize the day by enjoying the joy of living, by increasing the magnitude and degree by which I savor life and the harmony of life.

I believe reading each of those books will help me do that to.

Moving Forward: Be Positive – Listen to Your Heart – Create Memories – Read Well and Live Well

Below are written (as quotes) some ideas to think about which have been expressed by famous people which I recommend you read as “good character building” reading material.

I say that because in my own personal life I have personally experienced the truth contained in the following statements.

“I call architecture frozen truth.” – Goethe

“Nothing ever becomes real till it is experienced.” – John Keats

“Architecture makes people happy.  It is a unique art form where the viewer can appreciate both the beauty of the work and the engineering involved with it.  I also enjoy thinking of the amount of capital it took to build it, the vision to plan it, the securing of the property right and the origanization of the labor.  I also consider many hotels to be modern masterpieces.” – Leah Smolker

“The world of reality has its limits; the world of the imagination is boundless.” – Jean-Jacques Rousseau

“The mind determines what’s possible. The heart surpasses it.” – Pilar Coolinta

“If people never did silly things, nothing intelligent would ever get done.” – Ludwig Wittgenstein

“Idealists,  foolish enough to throw caution to the winds, have advanced mankind and have enriched the world.” – Emma Goldman

“Problems can become opportunities when the right people come together.” – Robert Redford

“No pessimists ever discovered the secret of the stars, or sailed to an uncharted land, or opened a new heaven to the human spirit.” – Helen Keller

“Let nothing dim the light that shines from within.” – Maya Angelou

“We know what we are, but know not what we may be.” – William Shakespeare

“Right now a moment of time is passing by!  We must become that moment.” – Paul Cezanne

“If you want to keep your memories, you first have to live them.” – Bob Dylan

“Life is not a matter of holding good cards but sometimes playing a poor hand well.” – Jack London

“The problems of the world cannot possibly be solved by skeptics or cynics whose horizons are limited by the obvious realities.  We need men who can dream of things that never were….” – John Fitzgerald Kennedy

I believe it is important to understand the reality of how the world works.

Asked by a young boy how he got to be a war hero, JFK replied: “It was absolutely involuntary.  They sank my boat.”

It is incredibly important to be a thinker, a dreamer, an idealist, a humorous and a realist.

End Note

I am reminded of the story of the great French Marshal Lyautey, who once asked his gardener to plant a tree.

The gardener objected that the tree was slow-growing and would not reach maturity for a hundred years.

The Marshal replied, “in that case, there is no time to lose, plant it this afternoon.”

Call to Action

Books and libraries and the will to use them are among the most important tools we have to develop our powers of creative wisdom.

You have no time to lose.

Don’t delay:

1. Read a good book.
2. See a great movie.
3. Plant a tree immediately.

 

GSS

 

Copyright  © 2015 by Gary S. Smolker