Hope
By Mary Hannington
Sung by Native American-Susan Aglukark (Inuit)
Grace.
Amazing Grace.
The song, heard at funerals for friends long gone, always brings tears.
We have all of us felt what it is like to be wretched. Stoned. Maybe Drunk. In so much pain you can’t move.
Can’t function.
Hearts ripped out, but unable to cry.
Numbed. Deadened. Alone, no one to reach out to, no one that understands.
We have all known grace. Peace. Found oneness with the world. Hoped.
I’m a white woman. Can’t help it, that’s how I came out.
Born to a successful Republican father and duty-bound by marriage, a Republican mother. Ms. 91 is an Obamite now and I knew in my heart she saw the world the way I did. I live with a Republican. Slouchy voted for W and an eight-year argument began.
I watched Cheney line his coffers, while the conservatives around me called him smart. Worse, Bush proclaiming that he was sent by God to make war in Iraq.
Really?
Are you so fucking privileged that God picked you, an idiot, fed with silver spoons to save all our asses?
Sorry if there is a God she's smarter than that!
I’m a woman, therefore a minority and because of where I live I’m in a sense a different kind of minority. Detroit is 81% percent African-American, 12% White and 5% Hispanic. When I feel wretched I can take a walk and in 15 minutes I will see and interact with people more wretched than me.
Everyday I am reminded how lucky I am.
Yet, the white conservatives here see the same people, who in using the welfare system to get a leg up are costing them money. Without thinking of the alternative. By all means let’s do away with food stamps and just let these poor folks and their children die of starvation! Of course there is abuse, but there is abuse of any system. Does your accountant find ways for you to get away with paying fewer taxes? You betcha!
The Supreme Court's decision, reversing the one by nominee Sonia Sotomayor, that white firefighters were indeed discriminated against may have a huge impact on Detroit.
A civil rights leader here, Rev. Horace Sheffield had this to say.
"It's not surprising because we've had a growing momentum against race-related redress. It's amazing that people who have had 300 years of advantage at the expense of the brown and black and red people feel that they're the ones who are being discriminated against."
And here we go!
Last month, four EMS workers who are white filed suit against the City of Detroit saying they were discriminated against because of their race.
The New York Times reported that unemployment levels for blacks (14.7%) was increasing at four times the rate of whites in New York city. Hispanics have also been hit hard. Given the percent of the black population in Detroit, the fact that stimulus money is NOT being spent in cities, but in exurban areas, the Supreme Court’s decision is the last thing we need.
Clarence Thomas, who was once an Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Education in 1981 and Chairman of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in 1982 serving for eight years and whose family is descendent from American slaves, who most certainly has benefited by affirmative action has instead been a vocal critic and his decision should come as no surprise.
Though I agree with Bruce Crawley, a Philadelphia suppler of diversity consulting services, who said “Please, somebody, buy Clarence Thomas a mirror.”
To go with the Coke and the pubic hair.
Judge Roberts, who like Thomas, uses the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment to make the point that the constitution is color blind therefore preferential treatment such as affirmative action is wrong, has said "the way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race."
How is that working out?
Then there is Ricci the white firefighter in the case, who feeling vindicated, said to the media "If you work hard, you CAN succeed in America.
And perhaps he should have added, “…if you look like me.”
I’d like Mr. Ricci to see the new crowds of black men fishing the Detroit River 9-5:00PM for their families dinner or Brian, who has made handmade business cards cut from an old box then neatly lettered and is offering transportation services and will give you the price up front.
Brother Michael, who will shovel my walk in winter for 5 dollars when I’m short the ten I usually pay him and always does a little extra like cleaning up the alley snow. He comes by AFTER working 9:00-5:00PM when he can’t scrape up enough money for his family’s dinner.
Or the man I pass on Vernor Road who is out every single day selling chilled bottled water out of a cooler.
They're all trying to survive any way they can and not all of them do.
Unfortunately, to these kids from the suburbs the dead man was just another "bum", like the ones they likely have run across "exploring" other abandoned buildings in the city.
There is another definition of grace and that is "courteous goodwill".
Something that seems to be lacking in conservatives like Slouchy, who no matter how many times I have said it is wrong-headed, pauses before pulling away in the car when a stranger passes and sees only someone who may be out to rob the house.
Giving the latest news with Dr. Gates, these perceptions haven't changed.
Amazing!
Sung by Aaron Neville
