The President Calls For Calm In Ferguson Missouri

You got handed a good situation on a silver platter. All luck. What did you do with it? That's what really counts.

My parents moved where they did because there were almost no homegrown college graduates in the area, so the companies had to fill some upper level positions by paying people to move there. My peer group was mostly kids born in Northeastern states.

It was more than shoplifting, because he put his hands on a store employee.

Apparently he drew that one policeman's attention by walking out in the street, rather than on the sidewalk. What was he thinking? Why would he want to do that? Was he drunk? High?

I don't get the whole thing about black people walking in the street. It's common around here. If they see that it's a white driver that has to stop and wait, they'll walk even slower. And when they do walk on sidewalks, they often walk in wide groups that force all the white people to step out into traffic to get around them. Maybe they think they're sending a nonverbal message, "I'm tough." The message I get is "I'm an asshole." Somebody needs to be telling these young guys that asshole behavior is more likely to lead to jail or the cemetery than to a better quality of life.

 

I'm proud to be white, and if anyone has a problem with that.. well.. tough shit.

That said, I think Latin women are some of the sexiest women alive and I have friends of all races. I don't usually like to hang around the blacks that have the constant victim thing going on, though.

 

rumblings of a revolution...

 

i agree. the mistake is that they are not only above the law, but they are allowed and encouraged to break it.

 

There is that choice

 

That's probably about as far as it will go too. Rumblings. I don't think people in this country could pull off any sort of real revolution and the powers that be are quite comfortable with that but also well-prepared to deal with any uprisings. The way I see it, there are only two paths that may result in real change. Americans don't have the stomach for either. The first would be a violent revolution. Not only are people unwilling to pay that price, the gov't is so far ahead of the game in that regard that it would be futile. Sorry rednecks who like to spout off about the 2nd amendment and fending off tyranny....you're too late and will be of almost no use. They would decimate you in no time. They probably already know who you are. The second path would be for everyone to pull their money from the banks and stop spending at the same time. I mean stop spending on everything. That would cause an economic collapse and create conditions where we could redefine wealth and value and fundamentally change how we engage in commerce. But that will never happen either.

Neither of those options will ever work because nobody is willing to die for change. Maybe a few are....maybe a few more say they are....but most people just want to enjoy what they have. By contrast, the powers-that-be are not willing to die for change either but they don't really want anything to change. They want things to stay the same and they are willing and have the capabilities to kill us to ensure that outcome.

Cue: "But.....voting for change?!?!?!" post. Yeah....sure.

 

[SIZE=11pt]We do it to raise the ire of the caucasian community and as protest against their big fancy cars, big houses, and technological marvels we don’t understand nor could ever grasp.[/SIZE]


[SIZE=11pt]Hotwater [/SIZE][SIZE=11pt] [/SIZE]

 

And you think this is going to improve your quality of life in what way?

 

It may not improve the quality life, but it sure feels good


Hotwater

 

And you should be, in just a few hundred years you took over half a continent and transformed it into a great industrial nation.

Ok so maybe you had to kill off a hundred million natives along the way, and import millions of slaves from Africa to clear and farm the land, but for a while you were the greatest and richest nation on earth



Hotwater

 

Just for the record.....some black people were completely complicit in slavery. Not the slaves themselves. But it's not like we went over there with lassos and rounded them up. I'm not saying it was right but when people bring up that history they tend to leave out a few things. Black complicity and cooperation, the fact that 80-90% of slaves actually went to the South American sugar fields (which were considered much worse than the US fields) and google the Barbary Slave Trade. Yes...it was fucked up that we had slaves but every "race" on this planet has probably owned slaves and been enslaved.

The Indian point was pretty spot-on though. We actually tried to get them to work the land before turning to Africans. The Indians showed that they would rather die. The Africans weren't chosen based on white superiority. They were better suited. We would have saved ourselves the effort and just enslaved lower class white people if we thought they could have done the work as well.

Edit...we didn't import "millions" of slaves.

 

You're too old to be that shallow and superficial. Outside of the rap / hip hop communities, you won't find any successful adults who choose to live the angry black man stereotype. Same is true of redneck white supremacists. If they don't dump it by early adulthood, they grow up to be losers.

 

I try not to get caught up in the details but when pressed....

The Atlantic Crossing:

"Some ships lost most of their ‘cargo’. The average losses were between 10 and 20%, through sickness, suicide and even murder at the hands of the slave crew and captains. 10% means over 1,000,000 Africans died on board the ships, 20% represents over 2,000,000 deaths""


Hotwater

 

You seem to be taking this way too seriously – never heard of tongue-in-cheek


Hotwater

 

Thank you for unraveling those

 

Link? And...just so you know....I'm not taking this in a confrontational way. Just discussion. But that quote implies that there were around 10,000,000 slaves. If that number is true, I wonder if it's all slaves brought to the continent or just the ones brought to the US. I would guess it was all brought to the continent. We might be straying a little too far off-topic here though.

 

Regardless a lack of personal affiliation she speaks accurately up to a point, that point being we can always change our mind. Whether or not we have the will is another matter.

 

[SIZE=11pt]I appreciate that and yes, we’re talking about the entire continent[/SIZE]


[SIZE=11pt]Hotwater[/SIZE]

 

On the one hand I agree with what you say. But on the other.. I seem to recall that you live in a midwestern, snowy place. Have you spent any time down south?

We are armed.. heavily. It's a cultural thing. And I am not just talking about the rednecks.

From VA down to FL and west to AZ.

However, I don't think violent revolution is the answer. I think selflessness, community, communication and love for one's neighbor and fellow human is what we need. But if it comes to violence I don't think it will be as cut and dry as those in the less armed regions tend to think.

 

Of which you have enjoyed your privileged, picket fence upbringing. It sounds like you have a lot of misplaced anger, Hot. I will send positive thoughts your way.