Saturday, December 28, 2013

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Poetic Justice. By Eric Smith

Back in March of 1985 during the second semester of my sophomore year at Morehouse College in Atlanta GA, instead of spending Spring Break home in New York like I'd done the previous year I decided, for reasons since forgotten, to spend it with my older brother in Washington DC. Well when I got there I noticed these very large protests taking place in front of the White House and the US Capitol by farmers from the Midwest over something then President Ronald Reagan had done to them (cutting their subsidies?).

Anyway I found the whole scene to be rather surreal because I knew most, if not all, of these very same protesters had voted for President Reagan in overwhelming numbers when he'd won reelection in a landslide the previous November. So I wasn't all that sympathetic to their plight because as far as I was concerned they had all screwed themselves by having voted for him; a sentiment echoed by a disk jockey on some radio show I was listening to as I was driven around DC one of the nights I was there.

I remember this fellow saying "Well America really wanted to elect John Wayne for president but John Wayne wasn't available (he'd died in 1979) so they chose instead Ronald Wilson Reagan!" After doing a piece on the farmers protests taking place this DJ then addressed them directly and said: "Well you (the farmers) wanted Ronnie Baby and now you've got him!" I don't recall what this DJ said afterwards because all of us in that car immediately busted out laughing.

Now I know it's unseemly to laugh about anyone else's misfortune but I can't help but chuckle a bit over the consternation now being felt by those who's unemployment benefits expired today and who had their food stamp subsidies greatly cut earlier by those very Republican members of Congress they themselves voted for. I mean I just don't feel all that sympathetic to those folks. Nor do I feel any real sympathy for the fools who stayed home and chose not to vote during the 2010 Midterm elections either because President Obama was not on the ballot or because they were mad at him for whatever rhyme or reason.

What's happened to these 1.3 million Americans who's unemployment benefits expired today and who's SNAP benefits were earlier cut back is a direct result of people who either vote for those who do not have their best interests at heart or who chose not to vote at all as a form of political protest. To be blunt the people who did either of the above have gotten exactly what they deserved. They are entitled to no sympathy whatsoever from anyone and as such if they want to blame anyone for their current plight they have no reason to blame those Republican politicians in Washington they either voted for or failed to vote against and every reason to blame themselves since it is primarily because of them that these Republican politicians who have screwed them over so royally are in Washington and did what they did.

So if you hear a Republican/Conservative complain about not being able to pay his/her mortgage, car note, utility, food bill, etc; just respond as that DJ in Washington DC did to those farmers way back in March of 1985: "Well you all wanted Boehner Baby (the Republicans) and now you've got em!"

Friday, December 27, 2013

Duck Dynasty: Amos n' Andy for Racist Rednecks. By Eric Smith

To me Duck Dynasty is nothing more than the racist redneck's version of Amos n' Andy; the only difference of course being that instead of trying to make fools of black folks they're really only making even bigger fools of themselves.

The Nazi Network. By Eric Smith

A&E just caved wholesale. Fine. It's gonna lose a whole lot more than it realizes and the Republican Party is going to lose most of all. As far as I'm concerned A&E is the Nazi Network from here on out because that's the crowd it caters to; racist, homophobic, sexist, and anti American as hell!

A Time of Shame. By Eric Smith

If ever there was a political optical illusion it is these polls showing the Republican Party gaining ground on President Obama and the Democrats. Come on people and wake up. Tomorrow 1.3 million Americans are going to be given the shaft by the Republican Party in the form of expired long term unemployment insurance benefits who's extension was blocked by a Republican Party which wanted to protect corporate welfare in the form of tax breaks & loopholes for millionaires and billionaires.

Tomorrow over a million Americans are going to be in danger of losing their homes, their cars, having their utilities cut off, and along with their children and other dependents going hungry all because a rich person will be able to buy an extra Rolls Royce, yacht, mansion, or any other luxury item of their choice. Because of the Republican Party a starving baby, a dead relative who would not die but for a roof over their head & food in their stomachs, and medicines for their ailments, are going to be the sacrificial carcasses laid out on the National Altar of Greed by a blood sucking leach of a political party that preys on the the sick, the most vulnerable, and the weak like a vulture preys on soon to be carrion.

Juxtapose these impending scenes of needless want, human suffering, and deprivation against a political party that publicly takes a perverted pleasure in the torture & humiliation of those Americans it deems as weak and helpless and as these horrifying images come to dominate our TV screens & social media outlets in the coming days and weeks ask yourselves what type of monsters have we ourselves become to permit this horror for make no mistake; every single person who either voted for these political parasites or chose to stay home and did not cast their vote against them in the last elections will be complicit in the unspeakable horror of want that will befall 1.3 million of our fellow Americans & their families in less than twenty four hours.

Tomorrow our national honor will be stained and we will, as a nation, because of greed, prejudice, and willful ignorance of the needless suffering of others, again be the laughingstock of the globe; the holier than thou self righteous "do as I say and not as I do" hyper hypocrites of the world! This country deserves better than this or does it? I personally can't say at this point because there comes a time when one just has to stop making excuses for that which we most love and openly admit to ourselves and to others that that which we cherish most is not all that it says it is and that it is not all that we want to believe it is.

I will therefore come right out and say that I am ashamed of America right now. I feel embarrassed for it because what is happening now is so wrong and so beneath what this country is supposed to be about. We can talk all we want about how this nation measures up to other countries but these are false comparisons for America plays in a higher league than everyone else; a league of its own and therefore the only standards it can be measured by are its own standards and in that regard America is now wanting. It is falling short of living up to those standards. It doesn't matter how we as a nation measure up to other nations; it only matters how we measure up to ourselves, to each other, and therefore come tomorrow morning, America in general and the Republican Party in particular, will have let America down...again.

Tuesday, December 24, 2013

Political Reality Check. By Eric Smith

We on the Left may not want to accept this but the fact of the matter is this nation will always be just right of center regardless of changing demographics for people, no matter who they are, generally grow more, not less, Conservative with age. It doesn't matter their race, gender, sexual orientation, or even economic class; as people get older they generally see life through an every narrowing band; acquiring more certainties and not less.

In short as people age they generally tend to be less inclined to step out of their comfort zone; to be open to new ideas and new possibilities as they get older. Those on the Far Right in this country have always understood this dynamic far better than those of us on the Far Left and as a result they have repeatedly been able to win elections that even they will admit they should have lost on the merits.

They recognize, as far too few of us on the Left do that when given the choice between two extremes, America will always choose Right Wing Extremism over Left Wing Extremism. So unlike them we do not have the luxury of being holier than thou self righteous moralists. In order to win elections and in order to make public policy we must by political necessity be willing to move to the center. We must be willing to compromise our core principles on more occasions than the Far Right does in order to get things done because let's face it they are at heart more in sync with the core Conservatism that is at the heart of human nature as we age.

This being the case, the Right has the ability to effect great change in this country by running sprints whereas we on the Left we can only do it by running marathons. Therefore if we approach things from a strictly Liberal, Far Left perspective, we're going to lose regardless of the changing demographics. We must, as President Obama does so well, play long ball. We must look down field and plot our path to the end zone one screen pass or short run at a time. Human nature and this nation being what they are, only the Right Wing has the ability to consistently throw long and score. They are the masters of the quick strike and until we recognize it we will continue to be surprised by its ability to deliver the knockout blow when we are the ones who have them on the ropes.

So it all comes down to our seeing things as they really are, rather than as we wish them to be. If our objective is winning elections and making policy then we can neither be moralists nor extremists. We can only be centrists who are slightly to the Left. That is our one and only sure path to victory and if we are truly serious about winning elections and effecting the changes we believe in, we will collectively come to accept this reality and learn to comport ourselves accordingly.

Monday, December 23, 2013

1969 World Series, Game 3 Baltimore Orioles at New York Mets

1978 World Series, Game 6: Yankees @ Dodgers

1952 World Series, Game 6: Yankees @ Dodgers

1952 World Series, Game 7: Yankees @ Dodgers

Cooked. By Eric Smith

One day a fellow took a lobster home with him. Well this lobster had heard all these rumors about how lobsters taken "home" with folks like this fellow never came back and so this lobster was understandably quite apprehensive at first. However to his surprise the fellow who took him home with him treated him awful nice. I mean he was placed in large tank he had all to himself. He ate the best fish he'd had since he'd been in the ocean and what's more this time he didn't have to do any work to capture it. He'd be taken out of his tank and allowed to walk around the house with the dog & the cat; the kiddies loved him; even called him Clarence (what a nice name!).

Finally the lobster looked up at the fellow who brought him home and said. "Man, when you brought me here I thought you were going to do something bad to me. I heard all sorts of nasty rumors about people like you." The man looked down at the lobster and stroked him gently between the eyes. "Now Clarence, don't you believe none of those nasty things you hear about folks like me. I'm you're friend! Trust me." As if the lobster needed any more convincing he was given another large piece of his favorite fish. He tried to flap his tail like he usually did when he was happy but by now he had grown so large and fat he could barely move it.

Well a few days later the lobster saw some steam coming out of the kitchen. The lobster took some deep breaths and said "Hey Boss, whatever you is cookin' in there sho' smells good!" The man said "No Clarence. I'm not cooking anything just yet. All I'm doing is getting ready to give you a nice hot bath!" The lobster was so happy he managed to flap his tail in spite of his being so fat. "Really? Well take me to it Boss!" he hollered. With that Clarence literally leaped into the man's arms, was carried into the kitchen with a smile on his face, and was heard from no more. The moral to this story? Only black people who are as dumb and are as gullible as a lobster vote Republican.

Shark Bait. By Eric Smith

Once upon a time a fellow came across an African American man who's clothes were hanging in a very odd fashion. In some places they seemed to be covering some specific parts of the man's anatomy and other places they appeared to be covering nothing at all; just hanging loosely and such. So finally this dude asked the black man "Hey bro, I've noticed that your clothes are hanging on you in a rather strange way. What's up with that?"

"Oh this?" the black man responded. "Yeah that." The black man puffed out his chest. "Oh, I like to swim naked with sharks." The fellow who asked the question was flabbergasted. "Dude, seriously. You really swim naked with sharks?" 

"Why of course bro. See?" at which point the black man pulled off his shirt revealing that chunks of his arms were missing. Then he rolled up his pants and revealed that large chunks of his legs were missing too. The other fellow gasped. "Man, you must be crazy! Why do you swim with sharks bro?" The black man smiled. "Why not? Sharks are my friends!" The other fellow stepped back and rubbed his chin. "Now don't tell me bro, let me guess." he said. "You're a Republican, right." The black man laughed. "Sho nuff! Yes I am! How'd you know?" The other man smiled. "Well the fact that you're a black man who likes swimming naked with sharks and considers them to be your friend even though they've taken some bites out of you sort of gives it away."

Sunday, December 22, 2013

The Real Power Behind Nonviolence. By Eric Smith

As I've said numerous times, Dr. Lawrence Carter, Dean of the King Chapel at Morehouse College in the 1980's and a disciple of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. told me more than once that Dr. King believed that "that one cannot be nonviolent without the capacity for violence." Now what does this mean? It means that pure pacifism; the kind of pacifism without the threat of violence looming in the background is suicide. What ultimately turned the tables in Mohatma Ghandi's favor in India, in Dr. King's favor in the United States, and Nelson Mandela's favor in South Africa was not so much a moral awakening on the part of their oppressors as to the evil they were perpetrating but rather a belated recognition on their part that nonviolent resistance offered their final lifeline; their last chance to avoid being annihilated by those they oppressed.

This was what ultimately spurred these changes; a recognition that the oppressed were not going to be oppressed forever; that as Dr. King said "those who make nonviolent resistance impossible make violent revolution inevitable." It doesn't matter how committed to nonviolence each of these men were they were smart enough to recognize & accept that human nature being what it is, that the oppressed were sooner or later going to do whatever they had to do to liberate themselves. Therefore those pure pacifists who believe that violence is never the answer and should always be disavowed under any and all circumstances are not living in the real world; they are divorced from reality and fundamentally ignorant of human nature and human history.

The genius behind the use of nonviolence on the part of Ghandi, Dr. King, and Mandela was that they used nonviolence as a weapon; as a means to literally beat some sense into their adversaries. Nonviolent resistance met violent retaliation largely because those who were being assailed by it knew it was being used as a weapon; they knew they were being attacked and they came to know with time that this was merely a prelude to the physical violence that would inevitably be visited upon them if they did not ultimately yield. Again it was a fear of physical annihilation rather than a moral awakening as to their evil conduct which finally caused the oppressors in India, the United States, and South Africa to give way.

So long as they felt that they were immune from violent retaliation they continued their oppressive ways. It was the use of nonviolence in the manner that it was used; as a weapon and as a final warning to the oppressors to get their act together before it was too late for them, that finally got things to change. In other words it all comes down to what Dr. Carter told me in the beginning that "one cannot be nonviolent without the capacity for violence." In other words nonviolence without the threat of violence behind it is suicide; pure & simple and something that Ghandi, Dr. King , and Mandela knew all too well.

Saturday, December 21, 2013

Doing the right thing. By Eric Smith

If A&E was really about doing the right thing instead of doing the politically correct thing, it wouldn't have just suspended the patriarch of "Duck Dynasty"; it would have cancelled the show on the spot and it would have been willing to sacrifice the huge amount of advertising dollars it stands to make by airing the already nine completed episodes featuring the patriarch and in the next few months airing not one but two, seven hour "Duck Dynasty" marathons.

So while we can all be pleased that it did suspend this show's patriarch with the dispatch that it did, in truth A&E could care less whether or not the stars of "Duck Dynasty" hate gay people, black people, or anybody for that matter. With them it's about money, not morality. So despite what its executives say about their having been be offended by what this patriarch said about gays & African Americans understand that this so called "offense" in no way, shape, or form, entered into their decision to suspend this person. Their only consideration was mitigating the damage to a potential boycott of those businesses which advertise on that show and truth be told these businesses should be boycotted regardless.

Why? Because there is simply no reason to knowingly patronize any establishment whose advertising dollars makes the continued airing of such hate speech possible. We have plenty, plenty of choices out there to choose from. While these folks have the right to free speech; to speak & say whatever they want, we in turn have the freedom and the right not to use our funds to help pay for their forum; to give them a public platform by which to spread their hate speech far and wide. We don't have to do this and what's more by boycotting the businesses that advertise on their show we are not infringing on anyone's right to free speech; we are merely exercising our equally valid right of free choice.

No one owes these people anything so just turn them off, tune them out, and get on with your lives. If they want to "apologize" just shrug your shoulders, say "fine, whatever", turn your back to them, and go on about your business. These kind of people are not worth your time and they sure as hell aren't worth your dollars so again stop patronizing those who patronize them and as I said before move on. The rest will take care of itself.

Friday, December 20, 2013

Our Moral Duty. By Eric Smith

If you're an African American in this country you've got no business whatsoever supporting anyone and any policy that discriminates against another person because of their gender, religion, sexual orientation, or economic class for those who think along these lines share the identical mindset of those who felt that it was okay for people who look like you to have once been held as slaves, segregated, denied the right to vote, and lynched. To laugh along with those who make sexist & homophobic jokes is to laugh along with those same individuals who behind your back will call you the "n" word, make racist stereotypical "jokes" about black people having nappy hair, big feet, and flapping lips.

You people of color who laugh along with your so called "white" friends who mock people who are gay & female may think they are laughing with you but in truth they are laughing at you for friend or not these people think as little of you as of those you mutually mock. Demeaning a person because of their sexual orientation, gender, economic status, or religious beliefs is no more a laughing matter than mocking & demeaning someone because of the color of their skin.

Such attitudes are all cut from the same dehumanizing, bigoted, and cruel cloth of intolerance and we people of color in these United States, who ourselves have long been the victims of the worst kinds of intolerance imaginable, should ourselves be among the most intolerant of all forms of discrimination for as I said before we have been discriminated ourselves and therefore know as well as anyone what discrimination feels like and how wrong it is.

So when I hear people of color make homophobic references about people they don't like, I don't find these kind of jokes funny because I don't find anything wrong with a person being into members of their own sex. It's none of my business and I therefore I find it morally repugnant for someone to demean someone else because of who they are; be they of a different sexual orientation, gender, religion, or economic class. It's just not right that's all.

So I would like to see a day when every African American, before demeaning a person because of their sexual orientation, gender, religion, and economic class, to first look in the mirror and after taking a long hard look at themselves, take a moment to examine to examine their own conscience. I would like to know how they as a black person in these United States, knowing how black people in this country have been treated since before the dawning days of the republic, can honestly say that it is okay for a human being to be discriminated against & mistreated because that person happens to be gay, female, of a different economic class, or follow a different religious Faith or no religion at all. I would like that person to explain to themselves how the universal evil that is discrimination is no longer an evil because at that particular moment it is being applied to someone other than themselves.

As African Americans these are questions we must ask ourselves but more to the point we must recognize that because of our unique place in this country's history we are charged with a special obligation to speak out against discrimination in all its forms. We must be at the forefront of this fight and use our own personal history here in this country as an example of how wrong it is to discriminate; of how morally bankrupt it is to pass arbitrary judgment on another human being for any reason other than the content of their character.

This is our duty as black people in these United States and in fulfilling it we will be consecrating the suffering & sacrifices of our own people who suffered the sting of the master's lash, who died by the rope, and who marched, were beaten, and made to perish because they endeavored to make a better nation; not only a better nation for black people but for all people; regardless of who they loved, their gender, their economic class, or religious Faith.

Thursday, December 19, 2013

The Cult of Conservatism. By Eric Smith


There has been a lot of talk lately about John Podesta's having referred to today's Republican Party as a modern day "Jonestown Cult." and his recent retraction of that statement once he became a part of the Obama Administration is under the current circumstances quite understandable. However the fact that he apologized for that statement and retracted it doesn't change the fact that what he said was right and here's how.

Webster's New World Dictionary defines the word cult as the following: "1, a system of religious worship. 2. devoted attachment to a person, principle, etc. 3. a sect." Clearly the first definition does not apply to today's Republican Party and modern day Conservatism but it is just as clear that the latter two definitions do apply; especially as it relates to the word sect which Webster's defines as follows in its second definition of this word: "2. a group of people having a common philosophy, set of beliefs, etc."

Now of course on the surface these definitions of cult & sect can also apply to those of us who are on the Left, who are not Conservative insofar as our being devoted to a person, a principle, a group of people having a common philosophy, set of beliefs, etc., is not exclusive to the Republican Party and Conservatives. Where Podesta's comparison of the Republican Party and Conservatism to the Jonestown is proven accurate is by the following; namely that today's Republican Party and Conservative Movement are as much personality as they are policy driven. In the place of a Reverend Jim Jones we have a Ted Cruz, a Sarah Palin, a Rush Limbaugh, a Glenn Beck, a Sean Hannitty, and a Michele Bachmann.

Like Jim Jones these personalities which are the driving force behind today's Republican Party and Conservative Movement are possessed by a demagogic spirit which has given these self anointed leaders of the GOP & the Far Right a Messiah Complex and like Jim Jones they prey on peoples fears, prejudices, and insecurities; imbuing them a dangerous siege mentality bordering on paranoia where they regard those their leaders define as s different as being their mortal enemies; as posing a clear and present danger to their freedoms and their liberties.

As was the case with Reverend Jim Jones and his followers this state of affairs can only have one result for the Republican Party & the Far Right; suicide; not suicide in the sense of 900 dead at Jonestown in the Fall of 1978 but suicide in the form of the political self destruction of Conservatism in general and the Republican Party in particular. As Jim Jones led his cult to self annihilation so too is this modern Cult of Conservatism driving the Republican Party to oblivion and that in turn will leave a destructive vacuum in this country where the Democratic Party and the Far Left will have no real checks and balances on their power & influence and that my friends will be horrible for the nation for we do not have a monopoly on truth; we make mistakes, we get things wrong, and as such we Democrats in general and America in particular needs a strong and viable Republican Party for as the old saying goes "power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely."

So whenever possible we must be willing to reach out to those moderate voices in the Republican Party who are genuinely wiling to reach out to us who do not consider themselves to be a part of this Cult of Conservatism but rather feel trapped by it like many of those doomed followers of Jim Jones in 1978. We must be willing to save the Republican Party from itself if it is in any way possible to do so. We need each other. We need each other if for no other reason than that we are Americans, we are human beings, and in the words of President Kennedy "we are all mortal."

Wednesday, December 18, 2013

The Real American Communist Party. By Eric Smith

People tend to forget that in Communist countries there are elections. The problem is the only people the citizens get to vote for are Communists; much like the Republican Party wants to see happen here. That's why they're red because the Republican Party is really the CPA (Communist Party of America) with a heavy dose of Fascism thrown in.

Why I am a Progressive. By Eric Smith

If I am Progressive in any way it is because I have long since learned the limits of and morally corrosive nature of Conservative thinking. If you think Conservative, as Conservatism is now defined, you ultimately see the world through your eyes only; that what works for you should works for everybody else; that if you can overcome hardships and achieve something then everyone can do it, and if you have been able to get yours with limited help then that others should be able to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps and get theirs.

I would be dishonest if I said that I have always been as I am now. I would be lying if I said that I have never been anti white people, sexist, chauvinistic, and homophobic. I have been all of these things at various times in my past. I have lived within that bubble of bigotry so I know what it is and I know just how corrosive a cancer these attitudes are on one's soul.

To face up to these horrible aspects of my personality were a painful process of self analysis & self discovery; that is true, but each one was absolutely necessary for in the end I recognized that our biases and our bigotries ultimately victimize us. Thus the reason we should abandon our prejudices is not only because doing so is right but because abandoning them ultimately becomes a matter of self preservation for like all cancers these cancers of intolerance ultimately kills; if not our physical bodies then certainly our souls.

Hate is such a needless burden to carry around and the making of needless enemies because our biases blind us to the humanity of those we are biased against is a profoundly wasteful and ultimately self destructive use of our limited time here on Earth. If we can reach the point in our lives where we can see ourselves reflected in the faces of all those we see; if we can move past tolerance to unconditional acceptance of those of different races, colors, creeds, sexual orientation, gender, and economic classes we will not only be affirming the humanity of our fellow human beings, we will be reaffirming our own.

Judge a person on their merits as a person and nothing else for nothing else about them matters and remember that in the end it matters not who you were but what you've become; if indeed your change of heart & attitudes have been sincere.

Where do you stand? By Eric Smith

Things in this country have gone way past party or ideology. They have gone way past the point where it is correct and logical to assign equal blame in determining the level of fault for our nation's ills. It is no longer about Democrat or Republican, Liberal or Conservative, Left Wing or Right Wing. The issues that define our times has come down to a simple question of what we as individuals define as right or wrong.

We are as President John F. Kennedy said about the question of Civil Rights on the night of June 11, 1963 "confronted with a moral issue; as old as the Scriptures and as clear as the Constitution." This issue gets to the heart of who you are as an individual and what you want us to be as a nation. To answer these questions you must ask yourself the following:

1) Do you think it is acceptable for American citizens to their right to to vote impeded, infringed upon, or denied outright because of the color of their skin or because one major political party thinks they vote the "wrong way" and recognizes that they can no longer win elections on the issues and thus feel that the only way to win future elections is to prevent those who vote against them because of the issues and policies they support from voting at all?

2) Do you regard a woman as a full & equal human being in relation to a man and if so how can you support policies which diminish her humanity by supporting policies which deny her the final say in matters pertaining to her personal health, her reproductive rights, her earning equal pay for equal work, and requiring her to buy what amounts to rape insurance (Ohio) so she can pay to abort an unwanted pregnancy caused by rape?

3) Do you think the hungry should be able to eat and if so how can you support policies which deny the most needy & vulnerable among us the means to acquire life sustaining food?

4) Do you believe that people have a right to good health and if so why do we seek to deny those who are most sick & vulnerable easier access to healthcare?

5) Do you believe in fairness and if so why do you consistently support policies which force the have nots to sacrifice so as to prevent the haves from having to pay more? In other words do you think it is fair to have a system that defines the words handout & welfare as ones that means giving to those in need rather than to those who need not?

These are questions that only you as an individual can answer but how you answer them will determine how you are remembered as an individual far more than your words alone for they will define for future generations who and what you were as a person. Again this is ultimately neither about party nor politics; it is about principles; yours. It is about the type of human being you are today and it is also about the kind of person you would like to be remembered as. No one can answer these questions but you for in the end it is you and you alone who must decide just what type of human being you are.

Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Why I Refuse to Let Go. By Eric Smith

My light complexion is a direct result of an ancestral rape. It is a result of a German immigrant who came to these shores in the first decade of the 19th century to escape political oppression in his native land. Yet what did this German/Prussian ancestor of mine do once he came here? After acquiring the freedom he sought for himself did he seek to make all of his new countrymen free as well? No, he did not. What he did do, as soon as he was financially able, was purchase slaves; slaves who's ancestors had been brought to these shores more than a century earlier from Africa in chains.

Now what did he do after acquiring these slaves? Well, he went into the slave quarters one day and raped one of them and she in turn bore him a son. Hence my light complexion. So I am the product of racism, sexism, and rape. I exist and appear as I do because one of my ancestors thought of people of color and women as his property and so what the Republican Party is doing in regards to denying people of color their basic right to vote & of their humanity; what it is doing in seeking to deny women full control of their own bodies; what it is doing through its abuse of and cruelty towards the weak and the least fortunate, strikes me to my very core because I am the product of all of these things and I refuse to refrain from raging against these evils for fear of possibly offending others, of sounding unreasonable, or even sounding hateful because I know that if I do not speak out against these injustices in the manner that I do, that I am betraying the spirit of my raped ancestor who was born, lived, and died a slave; who was brutalized & viciously violated for no other reason than the color of her skin, her gender, and because someone else unjustly regarded her as his property to do with as he wished.

You don't ever, ever, allow anyone to tell you to tone it down, to let bygones be bygones, in the face of something like this. Thus whenever I see the hateful mindset behind these atrocities germinating in the twisted perverted minds of those in this time, I go to war. I owe it to myself, to my ancestors, to who and what I am to go to war. I call it out for the evil that it is & I pull no punches and I make no apologies for any of this whatsoever.

When I think of today's Republican Party and what it is doing to people of color and women, I see my German ancestor. In today's Republican Party I see that long dead immigrant from across the sea who came to this country in search of freedom for himself; only to own his fellow Americans as slaves and to rape one of them to assert his dominance and satisfy his primal urges not for any other reason other than that he could; because he felt he had a right to do what he did. Thus, when I go after the Republican Party I am in effect spitting at his spirit and saying to him and today's Republican Party which which shares the same racist, sexist, domineering possessiveness he felt towards his human property "Hell no, I won't forget and triple hell no your descendants ain't taking us back!"

Monday, December 16, 2013

The Pig Party. By Eric Smith

Today the Republican Party is dominated by human swine; so much so that one can fairly call it the Pig Party for like these porkers of George Orwell's "Animal Farm" they squeal loudest about Liberty but once in power brutally seek to deny that very Liberty to all but themselves. These swine are the faces of greed, avarice, adultery, and Fascism. They are the Filth of Freedom; defecating on our flag and our Constitution with their false claims of patriotism and love of America. They lack compassion for the poor & unfortunate; are racist towards people of color, sexist towards women, homophobic towards gays & lesbians, and totally intolerant of any religious Faith not their own.

See in these pigs the faces of John Beohner, Eric Cantor, and Paul Ryan. See in these swine the faces of Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and Donald Trump. See in these pigs the bleating faces of the political parasites of our time and see in them the faces of those who seek to destroy our cherished land and the freedoms and compassion for others that has made it so great.

If we truly love this country then we can no longer permit one of its two major political parties to be the living embodiment of these swine. If we really love America we will dedicate ourselves to consigning this Pig Party to the slaughterhouse of history. If we cherish our children and our children's future; if we want them to grow up really free, then we will do no less!

Indifference. By Eric Smith

Maybe it's a sign of my getting old but whenever I hear of something derogatory about black people in general and President Obama in particular by the likes of the New York Post, Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, Fox News etc. my first reaction is like "Yeah, whatever." As a person of color in this country I have long since learned to take the existence of racism and racist people as a given. Oh I don't like it of course but I'm not as bothered by it as my writings sometimes indicate because I know it's not my problem, it's theirs. Time combined with changing demographics are eradicating these kind of people and their outdated way of thinking.

It is not a question of if this country will be free of these putrid people but when and the when will be far sooner than we think. So yeah, I battle these folks whenever I have to but I'm not phased by them because I don't respect them; I don't think they're relevant. I do my thing and when they're stupid enough to get in my way I flatten them and knock them out of my way and go on about my business as before. No big deal. I know that my side is going to prevail and they know that I know it and that I am right. So again, whenever I hear this racist craziness coming from these Right Wingers I'm like "Yeah. Whatever. That's their problem, not mine" and after doing what I have to do I move on. It's as simple as that.

Saturday, December 14, 2013

The Miracle of Mandela. By Eric Smith

Let's understand something and that is Conservatives in this country did not hate Nelson Mandela because he was allegedly a Communist. That's merely a smokescreen; a thinly veiled and ultimately failed means to cover up the real reason they hated him; namely that like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. he was opposed to and fought against white supremacy. Now of course they will counter this by claimingthat Dr. King was for non violence and that Mr. Mandela did not disavow violence in seeking to achieve his goals. That is a false analogy and shows a complete ignorance of the history of our two respective nations; namely that the United States was founded on the principle of liberty and full equality whereas South Africa was not.

Yet more to the point, here people of color are a minority and as such Dr. King rightly concluded that based on numbers alone a violent attempt to overthrow the apartheid system in the United States would have amounted to racial suicide and as such chose a path that he felt that was more likely to succeed. In South Africa what you had was a situation where some six million white people who were the descendants of invading white European colonists violently subjugated under the yoke of racial apartheid a native population of color of well over twenty million people and once Mr. Mandela concluded that the Ghandian methods of nonviolence would be ineffectual in overthrowing apartheid he logically and justifiably decided that violence was the answer because those white Afrikaners had no business being in South Africa in the first place, let alone suppressing the native population in the manner that they did.

The African National Congress would have been well within its rights to galvanize the majority black population to physically exterminate every white person in South Africa if that was what it would ultimately take to overthrow apartheid and it was the Miracle of Mandela that in the end prevented just such a fate from befalling them because it was inevitable. Those nations, including people those in this country, who smartly recognized this impending genocide of the Afrikaners in South Africa, wisely concluded that the only way to prevent that impending bloodbath was to force the apartheid regime's hand by imposing crippling economic sanctions to hasten its end and which frankly were imposed by this country over President Reagan's damnable veto of such sanctions (don't believe for a minute the revisionist claptrap that he later regretted that veto for he most certainly did not and any claim to the contrary is a self serving, blatant, ball faced lie!).

Reagan and his fellow Conservatives thought they were preserving that white supremacy they so held dear by opposing those sanctions but what they were really doing was condemning the white population of South Africa to a very violent and bloody end for make no mistake the native African population of South Africa was eventually going to reclaim their homeland by hook or by crook. They were going to win that fight; no doubt about it whatsoever.

So if we want to know what the real Miracle of Mandela is that was it. He spared the righteous fury of a long oppressed people who were rightly concluding that the only way to overthrow the violent, racist, blood thirsty, brutal regime that oppressed them in their own homeland by the descendants of that country's invaders was to physically wipe them off the face of the Earth. He stayed the Hand of Vengeance and he didn't have to for so great was the evil imposed upon his people that he and every person of color would have been more than justified in doing anything to overthrow that evil; no ifs, ands, or buts.

Thursday, December 12, 2013

Let go your filthy hands! By Eric Smith

The Republican Party preaches the virtues of smaller government; of government that is less invasive and respects the individual liberties of the American people. Yet there are few forms of government that are less invasive and less respectful of individual liberties that those state governments dominated by white male Republicans who are pushing through draconian pieces of legislation that literally allows the state to shove its proverbial male hand up a woman's uterus and determine for her all the important decisions affecting her physical, mental, and reproductive health. 

The proverbial white male hand of the Republican Party has placed its hand where it doesn't belong and in state after state is using that hand as the rapist uses his; to bend women to their will by force of law and violating her humanity and most basic human rights; rendering the efficacy of her humanity moot and reducing her to the level of chattel at best and a piece of raw meat at worst.

This state sanctioned rape of American women by the white male hand of the Republican Party should be roundly condemned by all Americans regardless of race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, or economic class. Let us as a nation say as one to these sick, perverted, sexist, chauvinistic rape crazy white Republican men to pull their filthy hands out of women's uterus, to stop figuratively squeezing their breasts and their posteriors like they are a piece of fruit, their property, and existing only to satisfy their primitive prehistoric urges to assert male dominance! Let us do all that we can to break their grip and if necessary break their hand as well!

If you as a man truly love your mother, grandmother, sister, daughter, niece, girlfriend, or wife, then you cannot for any rhyme or reason not speak out and fight against what this male Republican hand is doing now for if the rights of one woman is violated then the rights of all women are equally violated. To tolerate these restrictive laws, to allow the Republican white male hand to remain within a woman's uterus is to proverbially countenance the metaphorical rape of you own mother, your own grandmother, your own sister, your own daughter, your own niece, girlfriend, and wife. You are nothing less than an accessory to the rapist if you do not speak out against and fight to repeal these laws for you are saying in effect that a woman has no rights that any man is bound to respect.

It takes a real man to respect a woman's rights for only a weak man fears a woman who is his equal. Only a lesser man seeks to substitute his lack of manhood by asserting a false sense of male dominance over a woman for in the end it is only the weak and the cowardly of males who think that the only way they can feel whole and strong is to denigrate, oppress, and weaken others. In the end these repressive laws stripping away a woman's right to make her own decisions regarding her mental, physical, and reproductive health are not a reflection of the weakness of the women they seek to subjugate. Rather they are a reflection of the weakness and moral depravity of those white Republican males who seek to subjugate them.

They are the ultimate losers here for make no mistake these laws will be repealed. Their dirty hands will be pulled from within the uterus of American women, and will, far sooner than later, bring us to that day when a woman's rights are respected; when gender discrimination, state sanctioned rape, pay inequality, and second class treatment, are a permanent part of the past. We will not lose this fight for to lose is to betray every woman who ever lived; to say in effect that she, whoever she is and was, made a mistake in bringing us into this world; in raising us, nurturing us, and teaching us. Better for the world itself that the entire male gender dies off and humanity becomes extinct than to allow this injustice to continue for such is its profound evil that our failure to end it will forfeit our very right to exist on this Earth.

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

The Proper Perspective. By Eric Smith

To put the Black Conservative of today in his/her proper perspective just remember that during the American Civil War there were enslaved black Rebels fighting for the Confederacy who killed white Yankees fighting for the Union for the express purpose of making those very black Rebels free. So what we're seeing now in today's black Conservative is nothing new; it is merely a modern manifestation of what happened in the War between the States some 150 years ago.

Saturday, December 7, 2013

Cowards. By Eric Smith

Here's the deal with people like Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Louis Gohmert, Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, and Donald Trump who go on the air and call women sluts, black people whatever, the poor moochers, welfare queens, etc.; if any one of them, any one, thought for evena minute that they'd be subjected to a thorough butt whipping by those (or their family members and close friends) they publicly call out, denigrate, and demean, they would shut right up. Every last one of them would shut right up and speak no more.

They say the things they do because they feel insulated from physical retaliation by those they defame. They hide behind their microphones & paid lackeys and have zero fear of ever physically encountering those they verbally attack over the air. Insulation makes brave the most cowardly of cowards and make no mistake that the aforementioned as well as those who speak along similar lines are as cowardly as they come.

That is why their words, however hateful, can only inflict injury with their intended target's consent. It doesn't matter what they say. It only matters what we feel about ourselves, what we feel about the causes we believe in,and the people we fight for. A coward has no opinion that anyone is honor bound to listen to or respect. The potency of their words is not a reflection of their power (the have none) but rather on the willful weakness of those who give their words credence; who reach the false conclusion that what these people have to say is relevant not because what they are saying has any merit (it does not) but because they happen to have a much bigger megaphone than most.

The power rests with us for we have the power to both ignore them and we have the power to boycott those establishments who's advertising dollars pay their salaries and pays for their megaphones. If we turn our backs to them, if we stop patronizing the businesses that feed them the advertising dollars necessary for their public survival they will, sooner than later, go away. If they are forced to air their viewpoints absent the security of a studio and run the real risk of encountering those they now assail from hiding, the Limbaughs, the Becks, the Gohmerts, the O'Reillys, and Trumps will clam up mighty quick because that is what cowards do when denied an audience and face the real time prospect of physical retaliation by those they attack.

The Party of Slavery. By Eric Smith

I find it amusing and not in a good way, whenever I hear these Republicans refer to Obamacare and other social programs designed to help the most needy and most vulnerable as slavery. I find it annoyingly amusing because by being staunchly opposed to raising the minimum wage, for being anti Union, and opposing all efforts to eliminate pay inequality based on gender, it has firmly established itself as being the Party of Slavery. Why, because when people are unable to earn a living wage to meet their basic needs of earning enough money to pay for housing, food, clothing, healthcare, utilities, and even commuting to and from work, they are in effect working for nothing which is the very essence of slavery itself.

Yet unlike the slaves of America's bitter past, these modern slaves who work two and three jobs and yet earn so little that even though they are working these multiple jobs and these back breaking hours & are yet unable to earn enough to meet even their most basic needs to such an extent that they need some form of public assistance in order to survive, are in effect not only working for free; they are actually paying to work. The money they are receiving from public assistance is in effect money they are spending so as to be able to hold onto their jobs.

The people who work at such places as Walmart and the fast food establishments are in effect not only working for free; they are in many ways paying for the privilege of actually working. This is a new kind of slavery; the likes of which not even this country has even seen for never have I heard of a situation where the slave actually pays to work as a slave but that is exactly how this is playing out here in this country.

The Republican Party, of all parties, has managed to do the hitherto unthinkable; it has created a society where people not only in effect work for free; they pay to work. It is slavery of a different name and every last one of us, whether we are Republican or not, should be ashamed for this state of affairs is a national disgrace.

Thus the raising of the minimum wage and the eliminating of pay inequality is not only sound public & fiscal policy; it is a moral necessity for slavery in whatever its form, and whatever it is called, is the essence of evil. By fighting to maintain the current state of affairs, the Republican Party, this Party of Slavery, is committing a crime against humanity itself. It is waging an illegal, unjust, and immoral war against the poorest, the weakest, and most vulnerable among us and any failure on anyone's part to speak out against this depraved indifference to basic decency and common fairness, is to make that person complicit in this, the crime of all crimes; the crime that will define our era and a crime which will forever drape the Republican Party, the Party of Slavery, in the Satanic Cloth of Infamy for all future times.

The Party of Slavery. By Eric Smith

I find it amusing and not in a good way, whenever I hear these Republicans refer to Obamacare and other social programs designed to help the most needy and most vulnerable as slavery. I find it annoyingly amusing because by being staunchly opposed to raising the minimum wage, for being anti Union, and opposing all efforts to eliminate pay inequality based on gender, it has firmly established itself as being the Party of Slavery. Why, because when people are unable to earn a living wage to meet their basic needs of earning enough money to pay for housing, food, clothing, healthcare, utilities, and even commuting to and from work, they are in effect working for nothing which is the very essence of slavery itself.

Yet unlike the slaves of America's bitter past, these modern slaves who work two and three jobs and yet earn so little that even though they are working these multiple jobs and these back breaking hours & are yet unable to earn enough to meet even their most basic needs to such an extent that they need some form of public assistance in order to survive, are in effect not only working for free; they are actually paying to work. The money they are receiving from public assistance is in effect money they are spending so as to be able to hold onto their jobs.

The people who work at such places as Walmart and the fast food establishments are in effect not only working for free; they are in many ways paying for the privilege of actually working. This is a new kind of slavery; the likes of which not even this country has even seen for never have I heard of a situation where the slave actually pays to work as a slave but that is exactly how this is playing out here in this country.

The Republican Party, of all parties, has managed to do the hitherto unthinkable; it has created a society where people not only in effect work for free; they pay to work. It is slavery of a different name and every last one of us, whether we are Republican or not, should be ashamed for this state of affairs is a national disgrace.

Thus the raising of the minimum wage and the eliminating of pay inequality is not only sound public & fiscal policy; it is a moral necessity for slavery in whatever its form, and whatever it is called, is the essence of evil. By fighting to maintain the current state of affairs, the Republican Party, this Party of Slavery, is committing a crime against humanity itself. It is waging an illegal, unjust, and immoral war against the poorest, the weakest, and most vulnerable among us and any failure on anyone's part to speak out against this depraved indifference to basic decency and common fairness, is to make that person complicit in this, the crime of all crimes; the crime that will define our era and a crime which will forever drape the Republican Party, the Party of Slavery, in the Satanic Cloth of Infamy for all future times.

Friday, December 6, 2013

The Jurassic Party. By Eric Smith

In the Republican Party of today we have the Jurassic Park of American politics for it represents a prehistoric way of thinking, long since fossilized by changing demographics and an ever more enlightened, progressive view of the world. This Republican Party of two legged dinosaurs is of course dominated by such Big Beasties as T-Rush (Limbaugh), Weepyraptor (Boehner), Brontoboobs (Bachman), and Birdbrainsaurus (Palin). They romp and they roar across our political landscape casting huge shadows while trampling everything in their path but are yet they are condemned to join their reptilian ancestors in extinction for they, like them, are dumb as dirt and thus constitutionally incapable of making the adjustments necessary to survive in an ever evolving world. They are as out of place in our times as would be a real Jurassic Park.

So watch with amusement as this Jurassic Park of the Big Beasties perform their final acts on the national & world stage. Understand that when today's grandchildren reach the age of their grandparents that their grandchildren will exist in a world as free of the Republican Party as we exist in a world free of real dinosaurs. The T-Rushes, the Weepyraptors, the Brontoboobs, and the Birdbrainsauruses will be the stuff of study.

They will exist only in the memory of those of us who will be fortunate enough to witness their long overdue extinction and the Lost World they tried so hard to resurrect will finally and irrevocably be consigned to the trash heap of history; the putrid, pestilent stink they are now leaving behind in the nostrils of the nation little imagined by those who are yet unborn and who will be Blessed to live in an America and a world where these two legged dinosaurs no longer exist and are forever extinct.

Thursday, December 5, 2013

A Hero For All Times. By Eric Smith

If ever there was a human being who deserved to live a long, long life, and die a restful, peaceful death, it was Nelson Mandela (1918-2013). Of course too many years of his were robbed; a theft that can never be repaid but at least Fate was kind enough not to consign him to martyrdom as it it has so many others and it allowed him to live long enough to hear the cheers, and rightly proclaimed not only as a legend in our time, but for all time. We who are old enough to remember him in life will pass on his living memory to those yet unborn and in their hearts, their hopes, and their dreams, the Flame of Liberty that burned in the bosom of Nelson Mandela for all of his life, will burn anew in lives for whom he himself will be but a distant memory. He gave the world the most precious gift that he could possibly give; himself, and history will rightly record that humanity as a whole was made all the richer for it. Rest in Peace Mr. Nelson Mandela. Though now forever gone, forever shall you'll be remembered.