A Walk With MLK

One bright morning when I was a 12 year old boy living in Sandy Springs GA, my mother June announced to my younger brother and sister and me that we weren't going to school that day. She told us to dress nice and get in the car. We only found out as we were leaving the house that we were going to march in Martin Luther King's funeral procession.

It was a short quiet drive. I don't care for crowds and I was worried that this was going to be a long hard sermon to listen to, but I knew we were doing the right thing. We had mostly grown up in the poorer parts of various southern towns and we were used to both colors of people sharing the streets, but this was an amazing feeling to be the only people of one color we saw in such a large crowd. I wasn't surprised at how warm and comfortable it felt. And I realized immediately what a good idea Momma had to come there.
[Since I last posted this story my sister Audrey has reminded me that on the way in to Atlanta our Momma saw an elderly AfrAmerican woman alone at a bus stop. June said "Make room we're going to give her a ride" and Audrey replied, "How do you know where she's going?" Momma answered "I know where she's going".]

The entire walk and service seem like a beautiful, if melancholy dream. Never had we felt such an outpouring of peace and goodwill through such sadness. All of us have shared our memories over the years, many times. The whole event passed like a song, but midway through my younger brother, only 8, began fidgeting, being so short he was staring at people's stomachs and bored. Then slowly and quietly, without a word, a tall strong AfrAmerican gentleman standing behind Steve reached down and picked him up over his head and gently placed him on his shoulders so he could see. Steve was quietly mesmerized and still says it was the most amazing experience he ever had to be lifted up over the crowd and to watch the whole panorama from his private box. [Another addition since I last posted this memory. Steve, my little brother writes me "I was hot, hot, hot! The black man was really skinny but strong and when he picked me up the breeze hit me and I could breathe again.]

It was a small piece of heaven on earth that the reverend brought to all of us there that day. My mother and sister and brother and I all agree that it was our proudest day. Not for anything we've done to help with Dr. King's cause, but for what we did for ourselves by being there. It changed us. It was a religious experience.

When I see pictures of the good doctor and his statue on the mall, he is very real to me. He is still alive, I'm sure of it.

And I wouldn't be at all surprised if he did come back, one bright morning.

from-http://ChipShirley.Com/

THE GREATEST USA

A Better Bargain For The Middle Class

http://www.whitehouse.gov/a-better-bargain#education

AMERICA CAN PROSPER AGAIN

The greatest moment in the history of our country.

I'm White and I was born in Greenville SC in 1955.
I was introduced formally to the issue of racism in America when I was 8 years old. As I sat in the back of the all-white school bus on the way home one afternoon, I heard a chant coming from a group of kids gathered at the front of the bus around the driver. It was a haunting sing song refrain and I distinctly remember thinking (a few seconds before I could make out the words) that whatever those kids were singing was scary. Then the words became clear to me. They were repeating over and over "Then***** lover's dead, the n***** lover's dead." When I got home I found my mother had come home early from work and she and our black baby sitter Mariah were huddled together on the couch crying hysterically. They just looked at me and shook their heads and went back to crying. By the time I was 12 my family had moved to the Atlanta area. My younger siblings, Steve and Audrey, and I were surprised to be told one morning by our mother June that we weren't going to school that day. She dressed us up and we went to walk in the funeral procession of Martin Luther King. During the eulogy a large black man reached down and picked up my little blond-haired 8-year-old brother without a word and put him on his shoulders so he could see the proceedings. Although most white people I knew growing up in the South weren't racist, I had more than enough evidence to realize that "it was out there," and I thought I had left that all behind when I moved to Boston in 1990. Then one day as I walked down Commonwealth Avenue , in the shadow of the giant CITGO sign, I passed an elderly black man walking the opposite way on the sidewalk. As I nodded, a car full of young white men drove past us and shouted "n*****" in unison. As I barked "F*** you!" they retorted "n***** lover!" and sped away. I looked back at the gentleman and said, "I'm sorry about that." He just smiled a sad smile and said, "That's OK," and kept on walking. Ironically, that's the only time anyone ever called me that to my face - not far from JFKs birthplace. I don't think America is worse than other nations in terms of racism. In some ways you can argue that the United States is the only place racially diverse enough to be considered a true test of a society's ability to peacefully integrate different races. Barack Obama being elected president surely doesn't mean the end of racism in America, but in my opinion - and I think that of my mother June, who passed on some years back - I believe that it is the greatest moment in the history of our country.
 http://ChipShirley.Com/

MAKE COLLEGE AFFORDABLE!

IT'S THE ONLY WAY TO RUN A MODERN COUNTRY!

This is What's Wrong With America

Our incarceration rate PER CAPITA is the highest in the world and that RATE has increased over 350% since 1972, from 100 people in prison per 100k population to more than 900 people per 100k! Prior to 1972 the rate had remained roughly the same (100 per 100k) for 50 years (since these records were first kept by the Bureau of Justice Statistics in 1925).

I was born in 1955 and I saw and felt America progress socially until around 1972 and I've seen us regress since. We spend almost 100 Billion dollars a year on incarcerating well over 2 million people. But it's not just the money that burdens us, it's the broken homes and fatherless children and the chaos and violence that reflect these increased rates that have made our society so sad and cynical.

There is just one other time in recorded US history where we have seen such an increase in incarceration and that came at the end of the Prohibition of alcohol. Then we saw a 25% increase in incarceration over just 5 years! Prohibition was ended, not because Scientists and Dr.s decided alcohol didn't cause health and social problems, but because America and our political leaders had realized that the ramifications of Prohibition, the vast illegal industry that rose up to sell alcohol, with its inherent violence and corrupting influence over our justice system was in fact far worse for our society than the problem we set out to fix.

That is the conclusion we must come to today. Our Drug Enforcement Agency and Food and Drug Administration must reflect the facts on the ground. People do die of alcoholism and it does ruin many lives and that is true for illegal drugs today too. But whatever we do to ameliorate the bad effects from the use of alcohol and illegal drugs, we must first learn the lesson of Prohibition and make certain that our efforts do not spawn a gigantic criminal industry that threatens our society far more than the negative aspects of drug and alcohol use.

I hope and pray that president Obama will address this issue, after all, if he had been held accountable to these prohibitory drug laws when he was young, he likely would have never run for president.
from-http://ChipShirley.Com/

Aussie Dies For Zimmerman's Crime

The tragic and senseless murder of Chris Lane, the Australian student who was killed while jogging in Oklahoma is a sad reflection on the fact that the American justice system is failing African Americans first and all Americans in the end.

The fabric of our nation has been horribly torn by 40 years of an insane and brutally hopeless war on drugs, substances that mankind had lived with in peace for thousands of years, but which, once banned, seeded an evil underworld surpassing that of the prohibition of alcohol. These impossible laws have been enforced primarily in a racist manner leaving young African American men lost in a revolving gate of prison and drug crimes.

This tragic situation has led to a demonization of young Black men by white society and robbed them of justice in our system. The consequences of this tragic domino effect have left desperate White people to support immoral laws like 'stop and frisk' and to see an innocent young man like Trayvon Martin as suspect, even when he was truly a victim of murderous paranoia by George Zimmerman.

Is it any surprise that we see this kind of reverse racism in this violent unjust world we have created? Is it a surprise to see youth culture create music that promotes violence and 'war of the jungle' as a way of life?

Will it be surprising when more of these horrid events happen...? No, but we'll pretend it is.
from-http://ChipShirley.Com/

Chelsea Manning

Poor troubled person is Manning. Now it's much easier to see how the likes of Assange and Greenwald manipulated him. He was clearly reaching out for help and looking for meaning. He was a true believer, not a carpetbagger like those two.
from-http://ChipShirley.Com/

To Save Our Nation

Southern Conservatives saved our nation during the Civil War by accepting ideas that were better for the country and humanity than those they had in place.

Southern Liberals helped humanity by leading to bring down the mafioso tendency that had developed in America's Worker's Unions. Saving us from Mob Rule.

Today the Unions are a good force again and we have Civil Rights for all races. Both imperfect still, and both took giant steps forward for humanity and the USA.

Southern Conservatives today can save our nation again by shedding the yolk of the Union for the Rich! That union speaks only on behalf of profits for Billionaires of all interests and nationalities, but not HUMANITY AS A WHOLE!

We built our nation on CAPITALISM! And Capitalism means borrowing and betting on the future when you know you have a good idea! That's how people get rich and that's how a nation gets strong, when we know that we need to have a good national rail system and broadband, WE SHOULD DO IT!

We need to grow and not cower in the shadows of the cost of 9-11 and the Iraq war. We must go forward and invest in this nation the way we would if 9-11 never happened!

That's how we fight for freedom! That's THE AMERICAN WAY!

Glenn Greenwald Dumped by Boy Toy?

NSA FIASCO LEADS TO LOVER'S QUARREL-
A picture is worth a thousand words, so I'll keep this short...

While I offer only this poignant photo as evidence, I think it clearly shows that the 'new car smell' is gone from the relationship between Glenn Greenwald and this Brazilian Bombshell!
No one could blame Mr. Miranda for scowling as he marched passed his [ex?] lover as if GG were a TSA agent who had...over-reached.

After-all, nothing cools a flame like winding up in custody amidst an international incident because your partner asked you to do his dirty-work for him. Greenwald apparently thought his romantic partner, Mr. Miranda, would raise no undue concern at all while traveling from Brazil to Germany and back, to drop off some computer data tied to the illegal Greenwald-Snowden-Assange-NSA-Wikileaks mega-story which has dominated global headlines for months.

Surely Julian Assange' good friend in the Senate, Rand Paul, will step in and put an end to this moral outrage!

FACEBOOK HACKED

With the news of Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg having his own FB page hacked I re-post this...

NSA Spying is Good

Here's why...
CORPORATIONS ALREADY HAVE THIS INFO'!

We are already trusting various corporate entities (Banks Facebook, Internet Providers, Telecom etc) with ALL this personal information AND MORE!
Little bitty low payed clerical workers can already spy on us and use the info' to potentially blackmail us etc.
The only thing that saves us from that is GOVERNMENT OVERSIGHT!

So, if the government uses this info' to stop terrorism and the wars that such things as 9-11 may lead to (even wrongheaded wars like Iraq II) THEN SO BE IT! GREAT!
 from-http://ChipShirley.Com/

Assange Loves Rand Paul?

The Daily KOS reports-

[It's always good to know where people really stand-what their core beliefs are. Well, for those who may not have been sure about Julian Assange, he gave us a peek during a forum hosted by Campus Reform and OurSay.org. :

[I] am a big admirer of Ron Paul and Rand Paul for their very principled positions in the U.S. Congress on a number of issues, * * * * They have been the strongest supporters of the fight against the U.S. attack on WikiLeaks and on me in the U.S. Congress. Similarly, they have been the strongest opponents of drone warfare and extrajudicial executions.

Assange concluded by saying

The only hope as far as electoral politics presently, is the Libertarian section of the Republican party.

He is also an admirer of Matt Drudge. As reported by Raw Story he said Drudge made his name

publishing information that the establishment media would not. It is as a result of the self-censorship of the establishment press in the United States that gave Matt Drudge such a platform and so of course he should be applauded for breaking a lot of that censorship.]

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
But where are Assange and Paul on 'Stop and Frisk'...This policy embodies the very worst of police state tactics, where innocent people are stopped and physically groped based on no valid evidence at all. It is even worse than if the NSA had spied on them and found some reason to detain them. These 'minority males' are being repeatedly detained by police based on the fact that they fit 'the description' of a wanted criminal IE 'Hispanic or Black male'. 
Though I admire Mayor Bloomberg for many things this law, since its inception has been the most brutally unfair law in America and thank God it may be coming to an end! Can you imagine the vast number of unnecessary arrests that have occurred because an innocent 'victim' of this unfair stop and frisk law was unable to control themselves and cursed out the police or resisted frisking?! A sickeningly unfair law indeed.  But it's not even on Assange and Paul's radar. Values anyone?

 http://ChipShirley.Com/

Unemployment Requests Hit Six Year Low! Wall Street Journal

WSJ-Thursday's data boosted sentiment over the global economic outlook in areas key to the Federal Reserve's plans for its stimulus program, in particular. In the U.S., the number of people filing for unemployment benefits dropped to the lowest level since October 2007. Retail sales from the U.K. rose at a faster pace than economists' forecasts.

"Rising yields are a sign that the bond market believes the economic recovery to be self-sustaining,'' said Anthony Cronin, a Treasury bond trader at Société Générale. That, he said, adds to "nervousness" about the Fed starting to pull back on its bond purchases.-
 WSJ-http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324823804579014511380799136.html

Don't Give Up On Egypt

As horrid as the violence in Egypt is we cannot suspend aid to Egypt, for our sakes and the Egyptians. 

We have to remember that the Mubarek administration was so ruthless that no one dared to protest in the streets or even dream of democracy and endless immoral acts of torture and murder were a daily occurrence, though unreported. And it is a fact that the same people, the vast majority of Egyptians, who wanted rid of Mubarek also wanted rid of Morsi.

Societal transition from centuries of monarchy, colonialism, dictatorship and police state, to democracy, is inevitably a dysfunctional and brutally tortuous thing. We must do all we can to help the Egyptian people and right now, sadly, the military is the only social organizing mechanism in place.
http://ChipShirley.Com/

St. Petersburg College Dumps Professors Over ObamaCare- WHY?

 In an MSNBC.COM story Dr. Bill Law, president of St. Petersburg College explains why ObamaCare will force him to decrease the work hours of the majority of his professors so as to avoid the need to help them pay for health care and forcing many of them to quit.

Like many public colleges, the faculty at SPC are mostly part-time workers with no benefits!
The president of St. Petersburg College makes over $400,000 a year plus free healthcare plus a free car and he says they can't afford the $777,000 it would cost to give their 250 part-time professors health insurance!? How can any professor do a good job of teaching without health insurance and other benefits while working part-time? They are forced to spend more time and energy looking for better jobs than preparing to teach their students! 

This terrible trend in American higher education comes at a time when tuition prices nationwide are skyrocketing and federal funding for public colleges is increasing. Many states have also steadily increased funding to their public colleges, often allowed by dedicated funds from the booming state lottery industry. Also, many public colleges are slanting their admissions towards foreign students for the higher out of state tuition they pay .

The administrative bureaucracy in American academia today are working against the best interests of public education. From astronomical six and seven figure salaries for college presidents and assistants to the millionaires club of college football coaches (the 24 highest paid college football coaches all make between 2.5 and 5.5 MILLION dollars per year!) priorities at US colleges have flipped in the last 40 years from 'students and quality education' to shiny new buildings, football programs and astronomical salaries for the fat cats at the top.

This is a dirty rotten shame that begs for more and better federal oversight of our public universities.
http://ChipShirley.Com/ 

'STOP STOP AND FRISK!' Federal Judge Says!

Though I admire Mayor Bloomberg for many things this law has always been the most brutally unfair law in America and thank God it may be coming to an end! Can you imagine the vast number of unnecessary arrests that have occurred because an innocent 'victim' of this unfair stop and frisk law was unable to control themselves and cursed out the police or resisted frisking?! A sickeningly unfair law indeed. Now if we could just shut down these insane 'right to carry' laws that are plaguing our nation. If you have a right to carry a gun you should at least be required to carry pepper spray too and use that as a first resort.  http://ChipShirley.Com/

-----------------------------------

Reuters-

N.Y. police's 'stop-and-frisk' tactics violates rights, judge rules

11:09am EDT

By Bernard Vaughan
NEW YORK (Reuters) - In a stinging rebuke to the Bloomberg administration, a federal judge ruled on Monday that the New York City Police's "stop and frisk" crime-fighting tactics violate the constitutional rights of minorities, despite claims by the mayor and police commissioner that it has driven down rates of violent crime.
U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin ruled that the police adopted a policy of "indirect racial profiling" by targeting racially defined groups for stops, resulting in the disproportionate, discriminatory stopping of tens of thousands of blacks and Hispanics, and that the city's highest officials "turned a blind eye" toward this result, she said.
"No one should live in fear of being stopped whenever he leaves his home to go about the activities of daily life," Scheindlin wrote in her opinion.
Police personnel felt or were aware of pressure to increase the number of stops when Mayor Michael Bloomberg took office in 2002 and brought in Raymond Kelly to be NYPD Commissioner, the judge wrote.
As a result, officers often frisked young minority men for weapons or searched their pockets for contraband before letting them go, in a violation of the Constitution's Fourth Amendment that protects against unreasonable searches and seizures, the judge said in a 195-page decision.
A 2012 New York Civil Liberties Union report showed a sharp, steady increase in police stops over the course of Bloomberg's three terms in office - to 685,724 in 2011 from 160,851 stops in 2003, with about half of the 2011 stops resulting in physical searches.
Bloomberg and Kelly countered that the practice has driven down violent crime and limited the number of illegal guns being carried on the streets on New York.
Scheindlin's major decision follows an exhaustive nine-week trial that ended in May that pitted the NYPD's interest in keeping New York's crime rate down against black and Latino plaintiffs who felt discriminated against. Scheindlin presided over the trial without a jury.
The NYPD did not immediately comment on the decision.
As part of her ruling, Scheindlin ordered the appointment of an independent monitor to oversee compliance with other remedies she ordered.
The other remedies include the NYPD adopting a written policy specifying circumstances where stops are authorized; adopt a trial program requiring the use of body-worn cameras in one precinct in each of the city's five boroughs; and to set up a community-based remedial process under a court-appointed facilitator.
(Reporting by Bernard Vaughan, Chris Francescani, Jonathan Stempel; Editing by Philip Barbara)

HANNITY FIRED FROM FOX! UPDATE

SUNDAY 5:47 PM-HANNITY IS STILL FIRED!
-------------------------------------------------------------------
HAPPY DAYS ARE HERE AGAIN THIS RACIST TWIT WON'T SNEER AGAIN!

Sean Hannity was the dumbest man on cable, now he's just the dumbest man!

Also, his replacement, Megan Kelly, is the most Liberal person on Fox and now she's anchoring their prime time! WHEEEEEEE!

I only wish he'd hung around long enough for me to spike that little nerf football down his throat!
BYE BYE SEAN SEAN! 
http://ChipShirley.Com/

Limbaugh Racist Low

12:37 EST 8-9-13

Limbaugh plays a clip of Oprah Winfrey on the Today Show telling a story about visiting Switzerland and being denied service at a women's apparel store. She asked the clerk to allow her to see a purse that was on a shelf behind the counter. The clerk said 'no it's too expensive for you' and repeatedly refused Ms Winfrey service. Then Limbaugh commented...

Limbaugh-'What is she complaining about?! This is insane, I would give anything to be able to go, places in public and not be recognized. She has no idea how lucky she is.'

Today Show Link-
http://www.today.com/entertainment/oprah-winfrey-swiss-store-employee-denied-me-service-because-im-6C10883523

NSA Spying is Good

Here's why...
CORPORATIONS ALREADY HAVE THIS INFO'!

We are already trusting various corporate entities (Banks Facebook, Internet Providers, Telecom etc) with ALL this personal information AND MORE!
Little bitty low payed clerical workers can already spy on us and use the info' to potentially blackmail us etc.
The only thing that saves us from that is GOVERNMENT OVERSIGHT!

So, if the government uses this info' to stop terrorism and the wars that such things as 9-11 may lead to (even wrongheaded wars like Iraq II) THEN SO BE IT! GREAT!
 from-http://ChipShirley.Com/

Will GOP Go Far Right in 2016?

Ted Cruz...Rand Paul...?

NO-the moderate 'powers that be' will see to it that a more moderate candidate is picked...BUT that may result in Rand Paul and Ted Cruz going 3rd Party! If they don't I think RON PAUL (still kicking) is setting himself up to run independent with his new TV channel.

Marco Rubio (despite his gov shutdown threats over OB-Care) is a far more moderate option that Cruz and Rand Paul because of his liberal views on immigration. Rubio is my current favorite for the nomination.

REPUBLICAN 2016 FRONTRUNNERS (my odds)
1. Marco Rubio 27%
2. Jeb Bush 20%
3. Mark Sanford 15% [SURPRISE HE'S BAACK]
from-http://ChipShirley.Com/

Is Russia Spying on Snowden?

GEE, DUH, D'YA THINK?

Hell yeah they're spying on Snowden and monitoring all his calls and communications!

And as long as Snowdumb is in Russia/'the home of the free and the brave' this should be a great opportunity for him to show some solidarity with his comrades in the band Pussy Riot! Yeah Snowdumb, why don't you speak out in support of Pussy Riot and see how freedom loving Russia treats you for that.

And why are you in an undisclosed location? You love the press attention...are you sure it's not an 'undisclosed jail cell'?

You just try speaking out on behalf of any Russians who support freedom of speech, gay rights etc. and that will be the last we hear from you.

You could have stayed here in the USA and protested the NSA and President Obama, or whatever you want, if you had just not knowingly released classified material. But if you say the same things about Putin and Russia that you and Greenwald and Assange say about President Obama and our government, YOU ARE TOAST.
http://ChipShirley.Com/