Three Years As A Punching Bag. Race And Violence

     A white boy went to an integrated junior high school where he was in a classroom with the most aggressive black kids in that grade. He was a small, skinny underdeveloped kid that was quiet and made an easy target. For three years, ages 11, 12 and 13, he was beat, punched, and used as a punching bag. By the time he left the 8th grade, having experienced three years of getting beat, he had become an insomniac riddled with anxiety and a nervous blinking habit. The constant anxiety took away his ability to concentrate and he lost thereafter his ability to relax, like or do well in school.

       Whatever dreams and high hopes he imagined for himself were gone. School was a nightmare that existed only to get through.

        The motives for why adults did not intervene, including his parents, the parents of other kids that were bullied and beaten, teachers, coaches and others, have to do with weakness and cowardice. Fear for some, indifference for others. Perhaps the desire to be liked by the black aggressors. Perhaps enjoyment in knowing torment was reserved for someone other than themselves, even if it was a child.

        There are people that throw their weight around to take advantage and harm others. No race has a monopoly on bad behavior and the capacity for being a bully. Plenty of vulnerable black and white kids get abused by other black or white students that are stronger, violent and aggressive. Bullies and the bullied come from all races and ethnicities. Bullies target who they perceive to be vulnerable and weaker. 

         One man, who ended up as an adult immersing himself in religion, and who was the victim of childhood bullying, explained why his parents, who were not mentally ill and that had good jobs, did nothing to stop his bullying. His parents refused to believe black kids were capable of violence and bad behavior. In their minds, black people can only be victims, not victimizers.

          We live in a world that fails to contain violence. Many people live in privileged little worlds that allows them the luxury of seeing black people and those they consider oppressed in an idealized way. Black people to them are idealized victims. They infantilize blacks and other groups they consider oppressed. They do not see, blinded as they are by self righteousness, the harm in pandering and infantilizing.

            Their pandering, infantilizing and failure to hold all people accountable for their actions, for their behavior, for how they parent, is just as ignorant and toxic as overt racism. Refusing to hold people responsible for how they act and parent does no favor to anyone, and only contributes to violence.

            The underbelly of America is violent. It is violence that few want to face. Many people make excuses for violence, and offer nothing but self righteous narratives regarding victimhood, oppression and the right of victims to be violent and destructive. Left or right narratives of infantilization or sub humanness always have, and always will produce nothing positive. Many from the left infantilize, while many from the right subhumanize. Both are toxic.

               People need law and order, but people also need opportunity and hope for the future. Generations of poor parenting and violent, gang infested communities perpetuate a vicious cycle that is difficult to change. Infantilization, not just overt racism, is a poison that prevents change for the better.

                Meanwhile, the victims of bullying that are being beaten, black, white and everything in between, need adults, not cowards, to intervene. Childhood trauma is something that even resiliency cannot overcome. 

     

      

White Kids Bullied And Abused By Black Kids

      There are white kids that are the victims of black bullies, no matter how the politically correct crowd wants to believe it can only go the other way. Bullying, especially when it is physical or sexual abuse, is never acceptable. The politics of race when it comes to harming children and teenagers only makes matters worse. Bullying is completely unacceptable, regardless of who is doing the bullying.

        

Bullied Kids Cannot Stop The Abuse Without Adult Intervention

     There are kids that are aggressive, and will bully any target that they perceive as weaker. We are referring here to bullying that is physical; kids that are being beaten, punched, physically battered. If adults keep a blind eye to the bullying, it only makes the bullying worse. Bullies will not contain their aggression if there is no one that stands up to them. The idea that physically abused bullied kids can stop the bullying if they implement certain strategies is naive. Bullying will not stop unless there are adults with the strength and decency to ensure it stops. Kids that are physically weaker than their bullies cannot realistically stop the physical abuse if there is no adult intervention.
 

Hurricane Irma, Watching A Nightmare Unfold

     Hurricane Irma sweeps through the Caribbean, on its way towards the Florida Keys and then mainland Florida. Hopefully the loss to lives, health and well being will be at a minimum. The hurricane has already caused the loss of lives of people on Caribbean islands that it has hit, and massive damage to property. This is a powerful hurricane. It is a reminder of how frail we are, and how powerful are the forces of nature. It will require a massive effort to help the Caribbean islands that have been devastated, and the places in Florida and elsewhere that will be affected.

Plastic Contaminated Water; No One Cares

    A leaflet considered defamatory to Islam was enough to inspire outrage and for one person to blow himself up at an American base in Afghanistan, wounding many.

     Print one article about Jews or Israel, and the Jew hating crybabies will come out by the thousands leaping at the opportunity to spew their cowardly hate.

     People will kill and riot over their God or Gods, over their perceived superiority based on the color of their skin, ethnicity or religion, or any number of things where they can demonstrate their willingness to be mindless, bloodthirsty sheep.

     People will empty their pocketbooks over a dog, cat, religion, leader, or from the propaganda of some money grubbing charity. 

     But inform people that their planet is dying, and there is barely a stir. 

     Every day thousands upon thousands of tons of plastics and other non biodegradable waste enters into the oceans. Plastic particles are virtually indestructible contaminants. No one cares. No one lifts a finger to try and stop this assault to the oceans by plastic, almost all of it coming from land based sources. Plastics in enormous amounts, including microplastics and fibers, are daily entering into lands and waters by a number of different sources.

     Plastic is already harming and killing seabirds, marine turtles, whales, dolphins, manta rays, fish and other wildlife. Plastic is in the fish and marine life that people eat. Plastic microparticles and fibers are now in the air. They are found in "honey, sugar, beer" and other foods people eat and drink.

     A study just released informs the public that billions of people are drinking tap water that contains plastic fibers. The U.S. has a tap water plastic contamination rate of 94.4 per cent. Lebanon is at 93.8, India at 82.4 per cent. Microplastic has also been found in bottled water. 

    What will be the response? Is humanity capable of mobilizing itself to save and protect the world in which we live, or is humanity only capable of mobilizing around narrow, parochial, often hate filled interests?

      

       

Opiods, The American Work Ethic And Illegal Immigrants

     In response to an article about the high level of opioid use in the United States that is keeping up to 20 per cent of men out of the labor force, a contractor made a comment that if not for hard working illegal immigrants, the United States would be in trouble. He added that illegal immigrants that are criminals should be deported, but not honest, hard working people.
      Ronald Reagan gave a pathway to legitimacy for illegal immigrants that were hardworking and honest. People nowadays want to demonize and punish this population. One thing that continues to change for the worse is a decline in a strong work ethic. Drug addiction, from both prescription and street drugs, also continues to be an enormous problem.  A strong work ethic is common in the population of illegal immigrants - the people willing to do the hard jobs that few Americans are willing or able to do. Meanwhile, the drug habits of Americans destabilizes neighborhoods, communities, and entire countries. American drug habits have made criminals, gangs and terrorists rich and powerful. And there is no end in sight. It is just easier, and apparently politically palatable, to simply go after hard working, honest illegal immigrants.
   
     

The Source Of Lawlessness And Crime In The U.S.; DACA And Illegal Immigrants?

      If Jeff Sessions wants to end lawlessness, corruption, terrorism and crime, then stop using illegal immigrants as the scapegoat and face the reality of where terrorism, crime and lawlessness really comes from.

       Let us use as an example one law enforcement career, much of it spent in what was one of the most violent, high crime communities in the United States. There was a huge drug trade, powerful gangs, and plenty of lawlessness. Homicide rates in Chicago were much higher in the early 1990's than they are now. Gangs were killing each other over control of territory, essential to running the crack cocaine market that had exploded in Chicago.

       There were rampant shootings, stabbings, beatings, domestic violence, gang violence, dogfighting and animal cruelty. Drug dealers and drug addicts were everywhere. The gangs controlled the streets and housing projects. 

       The housing projects in that area are gone. The gangs have not disappeared. They moved to other areas, as did most of the drug dealers and drug addicts. 

       The housing projects included the Robert Taylor Homes, Stateway Gardens, Ida B. Wells, Washington Park Courts, and more. It can easily be found how exceptional high were the homicide and violent crime rates.

        All of that lawlessness, gang violence, murders, robberies, batteries, and dogfighting moved to other areas, where crime rates have spiked. Not one single illegal immigrant that the United States attorney general and president want to blame for crime was involved.

        Illegal immigrants have long been working hard, difficult jobs that few Americans want to do. No one minds taking their labor while giving them few or no benefits or rights. Many pay taxes, for which they receive nothing in return. Sure, a few are criminals. That is the reality of any population. But to incorrectly assert that this population has a higher number of criminals than American citizens is plain wrong. If anything, it is far less because the average illegal immigrant wants only to help their family by working hard at a legitimate job and to avoid trouble. Almost all want nothing to do with the violent American gang culture that poisons low income neighborhoods all over the United States. (Regarding terrorism, it is the furthest thing from the minds of this hardworking, law abiding population. There are American born citizens, and people here legally in the United States, that have already committed acts of terror or that are more than willing to commit an act of terror if given the chance.) Most illegal immigrants have a strong work ethic and love and respect this country.

        Can the same be said for the huge number of Americans that are in American gangs, American hate militias and in religious hate and racial organizations?  Do you think they love the United States and respect its laws?