March 29, 2015 · 6:29 PM

OPEN SEASON ON BLACK PEOPLE?

OPEN SEASON ON BLACK PEOPLE?

AUTHOR’S NOTE: When I first started this essay, the most recent death of a black person by a white man was Eric Garner. Since then, Michael Brown was shot and killed by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri; a black teenager was killed by a white man for playing music too loud in his vehicle (I was unaware this is a capital crime), a young black woman was fatally shot in the face by a white man after she knocked on his door at night (she was drunk, had wrecked her car, and was presumable looking for help), a 12-year-old black boy was killed by police in Cleveland, and a black man carrying an unloaded gun in a Wal-Mart was fatally shot by police (he had picked up the gun at the store and someone called the police). I kept putting off updating this essay because it was getting overwhelming keeping up with all the deaths of black people at the hands (and guns) of white people. So I decided to run it as originally written, with this additional note to update readers on the continuing carnage. Below is the original essay. The situation has only gotten worse.

OPEN SEASON ON BLACK PEOPLE?
With the recent choke hold death of Eric Garner, an African-American suspected of illegally selling cigarettes, the “Stand Your Ground” death of Trayvon Martin in 2012, and the odd circumstances in the death of Kendrick Johnson, I am compelled to ask, “Is it open season on black people in America?”

All of these victims were black. Eric Garner was accused of selling cigarettes illegally–cigarettes, mind you, not heroin or cocaine or even marijuana, just plain old tobacco cigarettes–and was put in a choke hold by a police officer and taken to the ground by several New York City law enforcement officers when he resisted arrest. He didn’t fight or try to hit anyone; he just pulled his arms away when they attempted to cuff him. He was a big man, towering over the other people there and outweighing them. The police were probably intimidated. But I suspect Garner was intimidated, too, with several people surrounding him. When he pulled his arms away and told the police not to touch him, one officer put him in a choke hold and the others piled on, pulling him to the ground. As his head was held down to one side, Garner said, “I can’t breathe, I can’t breathe.” Though he was on his abdomen and subdued, his head wasn’t released and no one attempted to help him with his breathing problems. The man died right there on the sidewalk, with EMTs and paramedics standing by. One woman checked his pulse; no one did CPR (http://www.cbsnews.com/news/nypd-chokehold-arrest-of-eric-garner-ruled-homicide-by-medical-examiner/; http://www.latimes.com/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-garner-homicide-20140801-story.html; both accessed Aug. 2, 2014).

Was Eric Garner so dangerous that he deserved the death penalty? No, he was accused of selling cigarettes, not murder. It was announced on the news on August 1 that the coroner has ruled his death a homicide. Good. This didn’t have to happen. I understand that the police are under great pressure, that they are human and make mistakes. I also understand what it’s like to be in physical confrontations. I was a mental health nurse working in locked units for years and I’ve been involved in more “take-downs” of psychiatric patients than I can remember. It’s scary, I know. Sadly, though, a lot of mistakes were made with Garner. Choke holds are prohibited by the New York City Police Department, yet an officer used one. No one paid any heed to Garner’s complaints that he couldn’t breathe. No one tried to resuscitate him (http://www.cbsnews.com/news/nypd-chokehold-arrest-of-eric-garner-ruled-homicide-by-medical-examiner/; http://www.latimes.com/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-garner-homicide-20140801-story.html; both accessed Aug. 2, 2014). If any one of these mistakes weren’t made, Eric Garner might still be alive today.

It’s a tragedy that this happened. But, unfortunately, Garner is just the latest victim. Trayvon Martin was killed because George Zimmerman followed him, thinking he looked “suspicious” in his hoodie. Martin, standing his ground and likely unnerved at being followed, eventually turned and hit Zimmerman, who shot him. Zimmerman was acquitted of Trayvon Martin’s murder.

In the case of Kendrick Johnson, we don’t even know who the killer is. In fact, it appears that the (white) local authorities tried to cover up his murder with the creative, but improbable, story that 17-year-old Johnson became stuck in a rolled-up wrestling mat while trying to retrieve a fallen shoe and accidentally suffocated in January 2013. However, that doesn’t explain how his organs were removed and replaced with newspapers. Kind of hard for that to accidentally happen. A federal prosecutor investigated, and now so is the FBI (http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/13/justice/kendrick-johnson-schoolmates-subpoena/; http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/10/31/kendrick-johnson-prosecutor/3324923; both accessed Aug. 2, 2014). Johnson’s parents have sued officials at the Georgia high school where their son died and have also sued the funeral home that handled his body (http://cbsnews.com/news/wrongful-death-suit-against-school-system-in-gym-mat-death/; accessed Aug. 2, 2014).

It does seem that black people’s lives don’t matter as much as white people’s lives. Would the police or medical personnel have treated Eric Garner differently if he was white? Would George Zimmerman have been acquitted if Trayvon Martin was white? Would Kendrick Johnson still be alive or would the police have handled the case differently if he was white? Race relations have improved considerably over the past 50 years, but we obviously have a long way to go. Maybe in another 50 years these sorts of questions won’t be necessary.

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September 19, 2014 · 11:32 PM

NON-INTERFERENCE IS THE BEST FOREIGN POLICY

Remember Star Trek and its motto, “Noninterference is the Prime Directive?” All Starfleet personnel vowed to uphold the Prime Directives with their lives (though they often didn’t, or the show would have been pretty dull.)  The idea behind the Prime Directive was that civilizations are the best ones to solve their own problems and that interference from outside cultures usually makes things worse, even when the efforts are done with the best of intentions.

This may be an idea worth trying in our own international affairs. We are now bombing ISIS and have military advisers on the ground. But let’s look at our history in the Middle East. How well did our interference go in Iraq and Afghanistan? Things are falling apart pretty quickly in Iraq and the state of democracy is shaky at best in Afghanistan. What about our interference in the internal affairs of Iran in 1953, when America and Great Britain helped overthrow a legitimately elected prime minister and installed the Shah of Iran (www.cnn.com/2013/08/19/politics/cia-iran-1953-coup/; accessed July 27, 2014?) The Iranians paid us back with the Iran Hostage Crisis, when university students held American embassy personnel hostage after the Iranian people overthrew the Shah and put the Ayatollah Khomeini in power.

Of course, we haven’t confined our interference to the Middle East. How did our Asian excursions go? Viet Nam didn’t go so well. We lost, though we don’t admit it. How about Korea? It began as a nation divided after World War II and it is still divided (www.gwu.edu/~erpapers/teachinger/glossary/korean-war.cfm; accessed July 20, 2014.)

And let’s take a look at Latin America. Though our interference there was covert, for the most part, the fallout is still being felt by the people in those nations. The US military and CIA provided weapons and training to the El Salvadoran military, which subsequently killed 60,000 people and tortured countless others (www.franksmyth.com/the-village-voice/secret-warriors-u-s-advisers-have-taken-up-arms-in-el-salvador/; http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/US_ThirdWorld/deathsquads_ElSal.html; both accessed July 20, 2014.) The CIA helped overthrow the president of Guatemala in 1954 and the Guatemalan army, after training by the US military in the 1960s, slaughtered 20,000 Guatemalans (www.knowmore.washingtonpost.com/2014/02/11/half-a-century-of-u-s-interventions-in-latin-america-in-one-map/; http://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/nov/27/us-honduras-coup http://www.zompist.com/latam.html; both accessed July 31, 2014). In 2009, the democratically elected president of Honduras was overthrown by the Honduran Congress and a new president, Porfirio Lobo, was installed. Despite President Lobo’s atrocious human rights record, which include killing opposition figures, the Obama administration has increased foreign aid to Honduras (www.latimes.com/2013/feb/12/opinion/la-oe-frank-honduras-drug-war-20130212; accessed July 31, 2014.) Many of the recent influx of Central American children immigrating illegally into the United States are from nations where America has interfered. We may have contributed to some of the conditions from which they are fleeing.

Of course, sometimes America’s interference has been helpful, even vital, to international stability. The most shining example is World War II. Without American intervention, we all would be wearing swastikas now and I would not be free to write this column.

Okay, so maybe noninterference isn’t always the right policy. But we have interfered with other nations’ affairs far too often, and usually for selfish ends (for oil in Iraq, and to fight communism or socialism in Latin America and protect American businesses in Latin America.) And now we have the civil wars in Ukraine and Syria, and the flare-up (again!) of the conflict between Israel and Palestine.

Until about 50 years ago, Crimea was part of Russia. Then Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev gave it to Ukraine (www.voanews.com/content/khrushchevs-son-giving-crimea-back-to-russia-not-an-option/1865752.html.) If Michigan, for example, was given to Canada and 50 years later there was a chance to return to the United States, don’t you think many of the people would want to?

And then there is the Israel/Palestine situation. The Palestinian people were basically kicked off their land to form the state of Israel in 1948 after World War II and the Holocaust. The Germans killed one-third of the Jews living in the world during the war, but they didn’t have to give them any land. The Palestinians did. The United Nations, backed by the United States, divided Palestine into Jewish and Palestinian areas (https://history.state.gov/milestones/1945-1952/creation-israel; accessed July 30, 2014.)  After the Holocaust and with rampant anti-Semitism, the Jews probably needed a sovereign state if they were to survive as a people, but so do the Palestinians. If the Native Americans/American Indians were given the states of Kentucky and most of Ohio, might the Ohioans and Kentuckians object to being crammed into Cincinnati to make room for the Native Americans?  Kind of puts things in a different perspective, doesn’t it?

So with these complex situations complicated by old rivalries and disputed land ownership, what should we do? Arm the government in Ukraine and the rebels in Syria? Send in American troops? Try to broker a peace agreement (again!) between Israel and Palestine? The truth is, I don’t know the answers to these questions. But I do know that our interference has often brought untoward consequences and caused resentment against America around the world. America is a big player on the world stage, but we must realize that we aren’t the only player and that other nations’ interests are just as valid as our own. We must also realize that we don’t understand the history behind many of these problems and that many of these cultures have worldviews very different from ours. We should let the people directly involved solved their own conflicts. ISIS will only become stronger if we continue our military actions, as radical Muslims will use this as a recruiting tool and as another excuse to attack our country. America will become less safe if we continue our current path.  Arab nations, not America, are the ones who are most imperiled by ISIS and they are the ones who should handle them.

America should focus on humanitarian assistance while nations try to resolve their own problems, and use diplomacy and economic sanctions in coordination with other nations when we must interfere. But when it comes to military force, we should follow the Prime Directive.

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September 7, 2014 · 6:33 AM

WATER THE WORLD, NOT THE LANDFILLS!

Come on, you know you do it. We’ve all done it. We don’t think twice about it. But now it’s time to think, and to stop watering the landfills.

“What are you babbling on about now?,” you ask. I’m pointing out that every time you throw away a half-full water bottle, a cup of ice, or an unfinished can of Coke, you’re taking that water out of the water cycle. It ends up in landfills, huge lined trash graveyards where the liquids can’t escape into the ground or evaporate into the air. They are removed from the water cycle that has sustained our planet and all the living things on it since life began here. For a simplified illustration of the water cycle, please visit the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency website at http://www.epa.gov/safewater/kids/flash/flash_watercycle.html.

Think about how many times you yourself have thrown away a bottle with water or pop still left in inside. Take a look in a public trashcan and notice how many bottles, cans, and disposable cups are there with fluids still inside. It all adds up.

What can you do to help? Simple: Put liquids back in the water cycle. Empty bottles, cups, and cans into the sink or outside so the fluids go back into the water cycle. The liquids you pour into the sink will go into the municipal water treatment system; those you pour onto the ground will get absorbed into the soil (and eventually into the groundwater) or it will be evaporated into the sky and eventually come down as rain.

The drought in California and the recent problems with water contamination in West Virginia and in Toledo, Ohio serve to remind us how much we rely on water. It is essential to our very lives. It is time to start treating water as the precious commodity it is and to stop watering the landfills. Instead, water the world by putting water back into the water cycle so we can use it again and again.

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September 1, 2014 · 10:01 PM

TODAY’S TV PROGRAMS: CRASS-NOT CLASS

Cable and satellite television are wonderful ways to view shows from different decades in American television history. What I’ve discovered is that there were a lot more wholesome shows on in the past than there are today.

Take “Bonanza,” for example. It was a 1960s era show about a wealthy widowed rancher, Ben Cartwright, and his three adult sons, Adam, Hoss, and Little Joe, in the old West. Ben was an honest, generous man who raised his sons to be honorable men. It was a western, so of course Ben and the boys would get into fights with bad guys and they would often have to shoot someone in self-defense. They weren’t perfect; Little Joe was quick-tempered and prone to fighting and Hoss was sweet but naïve and would get fooled. But Ben made his sons face the consequences of their actions; these weren’t spoiled brats with entitlement issues. When someone would accuse Little Joe of murder (which happened a lot), the whole Cartwright clan would forgive the accuser once he or she discovered that Little Joe was innocent and apologized. The Cartwrights were the kind of family that everyone would’ve liked to grow up in or to have as neighbors. The plots were interesting, there was a lot of action, and dashes of humor were thrown in here and there to keep things from getting too heavy.

Compare today’s “Hawaii Five-O” with “Bonanza.” Like “Bonanza,” “Hawaii Five-0” has interesting plots, lots of action, and humor. The interactions is fun to watch. I often enjoy “Hawaii Five-0,” but sometimes the heroes go too far. That bothers me. I want my heroes to be heroic, not to be unethical bullies. In one episode, Five-0 leader Steve McGarrett uses a gravely injured criminal as a human shield in a shootout, and then shoots through the man to kill the shooter. Let me say that again: He holds up an injured criminal in front of him and shoots him in the back in order to shoot another man. The injured (and untried) man was unarmed and was at McGarrett’s mercy, and legally was under McGarrett’s protection. It was a brutal scene. How can I cheer for a thug who would do something like that? In another episode, Chin, a member of Five-0, shoots an unarmed man on a roof (they had a history between them) and then lied about it. He was never caught.

Sitcoms today don’t fare any better. Take “Two Broke Girls,” for example. The show features Caroline, an heiress whose father lost their fortune after he was convicted of fraud, and streetwise Max, who grew up with a drug-using neglectful mother. They become best friends and roommates, and I really like the chemistry and affection between them. The problem I have with the show, though, is its over-emphasis on sex and drugs. Caroline and Max are waitresses with a small cupcake business on the side. In one episode, Caroline describes Max’s cupcakes as “ho-made, cause she’s a ho.” In another episode, Max advises Caroline on how to act slutty so Caroline’s new boyfriend won’t be intimidated by her previous social status. Drug use is frequently mentioned in the show, with most of the regular characters using marijuana or popping pills as if it were a normal thing to do. The show is on at prime time, at 8:00 or 8:30 pm. What kinds of messages does this show send to kids? At least have it on later at night. The sad thing is that the show could be really good without the sex and drugs. The chemistry between Caroline and Max is wonderful, and the show has writers that come up with witty lines. It could be a cleaner show and still be funny. And don’t even get me started on “Two and a Half Men”! Suffice it to say, the above observations apply to this show, too.

Compare “Two Broke Girls” and “Two and a Half Men” with the 1960s classic, “The Andy Griffith Show.” It was a sweet show about a widowed small town sheriff, Andy Taylor, who lives with his young son, Opie, and Andy’s aunt, Aunt Bea. Nary a swear word was spoken and the humor and life lessons were delivered with a Southern drawl and old-fashioned charm. “The Brady Bunch” and “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” are other classic shows with class, not crass.

The television shows of the past weren’t perfect, though. The plots were often simplistic, and men and women were usually portrayed in gender-stereotyped roles. To their credit, today’s shows often have more intricate plotting, and men and women are portrayed in more diverse roles. And speaking of diversity, there was precious little of it in the shows of yesteryear, whereas people of various races and sexual orientations are seen today. In fact, some of today’s shows are wonderful. For instance, “The Big Bang Theory” is clever, funny, and relatively wholesome. Sex is a part of the show, but it is not the primary focus, and most of the sexual interactions are within established relationships. So TV shows today are not without their merits. But today’s shows could take hints from the family-friendly shows of past decades. I would like to watch “Two Broke Girls” without cringing and “Hawaii Five-0” without hoping the good guys get busted for being such abusive thugs. Is it too much to ask that television programs are less crass and have more class?

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