Profiled...

Yeah, I know.  First world Caucasian problems.  As insignificant as it may be, it is really the only way I am able to relate in being typecast. 

Last week I went in to renew my ID.  I fully expected to stand in a couple of DMV lines for hours.  To my surprise, the place was nearly empty.  Cool, no wait, no muss, no fuss.  In and out in record time.  Groovy.  Awesome, right until I handed the clerk my renewal notice and the first words out of the young man's mouth, and I kid you not; "Is this for a Concealed Carry Permit?"

I think I've been profiled...

Seriously, is the a photo of a man looking for a CCW permit?   What is with this world?  An innocent, peace-loving, old, almost hippy is automatically assumed to be packing heat.

What's next?  Law Enforcement officials targeting people based on the color of their skin, or bathroom police demanding to see your junk before allowing you to pee?  I suppose religion, sexuality, gender and gender identification are on the list too.  Punk rockers, Emo-kids, Goths, Renaissance fair junkies, Anyone who wears mis-matched socks because it's cool?  Fat kids, Skinny kids, kids who climb on rocks.  Tough kids, sissy kids, even kids with chickenpox.

It isn't much, but I'm still an ally...


Thanks for coming.

See you on Monday.  Peace.

Saddened, Frightened and Sickened.

I sit here just hours before the last GOP presidential debate of 2015. Will I tune in for the spectacle? No, probably not. It's frozen-rubber-disk sports thingy night. Aside that fact there is absolutely nothing, not-a-thing, nada, zilch, el zippo that any one of these clowns delusional and possibly psychotic, sociopaths and wannabe despots can say that would make me surrender my precious vote to them.

Yesterday at a rally for the aspiring Führer and amid shouts of sieg heil a #blacklivesmatter protester was roughed up and forcibly removed, one orange toupee supporter even shouting;
"Light the motherfucker on fire."

I don't want to be part of this America. This America saddens me. This America frightens me. This America sickens me. This America needs to be ground into dust and scattered to the wind.

Merriam-Webster just announced its word of the year isn't a word, but a suffix instead; -ism. When did we become so afraid? Why is the color of a person's skin, their religion, their gender identification or sexual orientation so terrifying? Why are everyone except white men still considered second-class?

To all the persons of the Americas and of the World who are oppressed, discriminated against and persecuted by members of my Caucasian race, I am sorry. I know I am privileged, I'm a white middle-aged male. That privilege makes me a racist, but I try so very hard, every single day to overcome that, to understand, and not to succumb to the ignorance, bigotry and hate.

So, before an angry Murican yells;

"IF YOU DON'T LIKE MY COUNTRY YOU CAN GET THE FUCK OUT!"

Let me enlighten the angry Murican's a little. Much of my ancestral lines were in this country before it became a country. At least three branches of the family tree were here before it had been discovered by the white Europeans. Do not tell me it's not my country.      

It's not much, but I am an ally and I will do what I can.

Thanks for sticking around, It's dinner time, I need a cup of coffee, and if I still indulged, a cigarette or two.  Peace.

See you tomorrow.

Still Offended, and now tired too.

As a middle aged white man I'm tired of this. Another senseless death as a direct result of a power hungry, misogynistic, racist cop with a power hungry, misogynistic, racist cop attitude.

I'm tired of being concerned for the safety of my niece, concerned for the safety of my friends and the safety of the children of my friends. I'm tired of hearing that this shit continues to happen, every fucking goddamn day.

I'm tired of Caucasians who can't see that a particular flag doesn't represent "Heritage". I'm tired of being offended by the attitudes of persons of my Race. I'm tired of the people who can't or won't see their own racism, hatred and bigotry. I'm tired of having to write a post like this, every fucking day...
#BlackLIvesMatter

Still Offended.

Today in Oklahoma, a National Fraternity, Sigma Alpha Epsilon had it's chapter closed because the members got busted in their racism. Good for OU. 

Fifty years into the Civil Rights act of 1964 people still spit with vengeance the word nigger, people still see color, people are still afraid of people, Black, White, Brown, Yellow, Red, Olive.  He's a different color, he must be different.  She must be a threat because she's different.  He has a funny name, he must be a Muslim, and therefore a terrorist.  She believes in science and must be a heretic.  She's a Lesbian, he's gay, that one is transgender they're all going to burn in hell because they offend another person's religious views.  I read it on the internet, vaccines cause autism, Global climate change is a myth, we're just going through a minor climatological adjustment, mankind had nothing to do with it.   Self-proclaimed food experts with no qualifications are fear-mongering in order to sell books.   I get all my news from Fox news, Rush Limbaugh is the greatest voice of the people.

Today, America looks less like the 21st century and more like the 18th.  I grow ever more weary of the country I volunteered to defend.  I'm tired of 13 years of war, perpetrated by mythical weapons of mass destruction.  I'm tired of the hate, the greed, the ignorance.

I know I am privileged, I'm a Caucasian male in his mid-fifties.

I truly hope we can right this ship and become America the Beautiful again.  We (the collective WE) need to get our shit together.  We, again in the Collective, are all in the same proverbial boat.  We will all sink or swim together.  Many predictions put Caucasian adults as a minority in America by 2043. Many in "white" America are afraid of that.  We should be.  The Northern European Whites conquered the aboriginal and indigenous people of the Americas, enslaved the peoples of Africa, persecuted other white Northern Europeans who came to these shores later. Forced the Chinese into indentured servitude/slavery. Imprisoned Japanese-Americans because they were "a Threat".   Burned mosques, churches and synagogues all in the name of religion and religious intolerance.  Lynched for color, killed for sexuality,

High and low points can be measured in one word:
Tuskegee.

The Tuskegee Airmen,
and the Tuskegee syphilis experiment.

I hope that when the dust settles, the new majorities do a better job of running this Country than mine has...

Today. I am Offended.

Today, many things offend me, five of them are listed on the sign.

Today, and for the last two weeks what offends me most is that my home state has been the top story in the news.  It offends me that parts of St. Louis, St. Louis and Jefferson counties as well parts of the entire state of Missouri still have the attitudes towards race that reflect the attitudes of the deep south 100 years ago.

I'm deeply offended by the actions of some Law Enforcement officers and their respective Police departments.  Their chosen tactics used against peaceful protesters and journalists alike are reminiscent of the tactics used by those governments that I chose to serve with the U.S. Navy to defend this country against. 

I'm offended, that in this, the 21st century people still use the word nigger.  I'm offended by people with the "He's black he must be a thug and therefore he deserved what he got" mentality.

I'm equally offended by a criminal element that has decided that peaceful protests are a good excuse for rioting and looting.

I'm offended that 50 years after The Civil Rights Act of 1964 we still have primitive, Dark Ages philosophy such as recently expressed by Kevin Sorbo;
     "Ferguson riots have very little to do with the shooting of the young man, It is an excuse to be the losers these animals truly are. It is a tipping point to frustration built up over years of not trying, but blaming everyone else, The Man, for their failures. It's always someone else's fault when you give up. Hopefully this is a reminder to the African Americans ( I always thought we [are] just Americans. Oh, well.) that their President the voted in has only made things worse for them, not better."  

Note those last two sentences, "I thought we [are] just Americans" and "  ...their president."

Many things do offend me, this are just the ones that offend me most today...