Where's the Governor of Washington, D.C. on the missing girls? What about their Senator?

As you may have noticed from this headline that these are rhetorical questions. I'm attempting to magnify a larger problem and that's the need for statehood of Washington, D.C. I would not have known
about these missing girls until a friend of mine in Houston, TX posted something about it on Facebook.

I clearly understand the rationale of Congress to continually kick the issue of statehood for D.C. down the road because first of all the majority of the residents there are African-American. Once we have agreed on that fact I would have to remind you that the majority of residents in Iowa and Montana are White so what's your point? Are you saying that they are less important because they are Black? Or, is it just routine that when an African-American teen comes up missing that we just naturally assume that they ran away from home?

The point is this, D.C. has a larger number of residents than several mid-western states. D.C. pays more in federal taxes than several of these states combined. D.C. has no voice on a national level which in essence is taxation without representation.

Yes D.C. has one representative in Congress but she can't vote on any legislation, not even legislation that affects her own district. And therein lies the problem of D.C. not being represented by a national figure that could demand answers about the missing African-American girls in that city.

With twenty-four-hour news coverage coming out of Washington you would think that somewhere in the day some coverage would be devoted to this story. There again I got ahead of myself. It's not a story until some credible person makes it a story. It's amazing that one person could tweet a lie which has since been proven to be a lie and we are still talking about it. Four people were killed in London and we got a tweet about it. As of yet, no tweet about these missing girls.

TMZ spoke with police Chief Peter Newsham who says: "With almost every case, those missing have a history of leaving home. He says the number missing is similar to years before, it's just been brought to the light with the use of social media and other platforms to help locate missing people.Newsham says his department's goal is to get to the root of the problem to determine just what causes these kids to leave their homes."

I'm not a resident of D.C. but I can clearly see the injustice that has been perpetrated upon the residents there because of their inability to function as a chartered state in this union called the United States of America. As a result of this injustice, about twelve African-American girls are missing with no updates at all about where or how citizens can help in the investigation.

To me, this should be used as a rallying cry for statehood for that city. Maybe I shouldn't say this but just think, If Ivanka Trump suddenly came up missing in D.C. do you think it would take this long to get some answers?

The Experiment of Democracy is over and Reality has set in

Winter weather has finally arrived across America. Coats, sweaters, and knitted caps are being dug out of the closets. The birds that puke on my car has flown further south and the cat that sits on my hood has found a warmer place to stalk his prey.  This year is rapidly coming to an end and 2017 promises to be the most challenging in American history.

You may wonder why the New Year will offer more challenges than usual and I will attempt to put that question into a realistic perspective. Perspective is one of those things that are subjective to the viewer and unless you are sleep and not staying woke to the changes in our society you may have missed a few subtle changes that are irrefutable.

We now live in a society where the notion of “Political Correctness” is under attack. Facts are no longer accepted but rather merely offer a springboard for someone to offer an alternative and completely opposite opinion. You know the old adage, “Opinions are like a-holes, everybody has one.” Facts and truth are now relegated to who has the strongest opinion on any given subject.

The founding fathers were no different than the leaders of today but with one advantage that has gone unresolved for over 200 years. They strove to establish a more perfect union without defining exactly what that union would look like. They did not have to grovel with “Political Correctness” because whatever they agreed upon was enacted into the Constitution and thereby giving a basis for what we now know as “The Bill of Rights.” It was true in 1776 and it’s true in 2016. There is no law or privilege governing anyone who would subsequently step foot on the shores of America that would supersede that of a White landowners in this New Found Democracy called America. That was their ideology then and that thread of reality is woven into every law or ordinance that has been placed on the books every since.

Yes, there have been times when Blacks, Mexicans, and Native Americans have had their suffrage eased momentarily, but then some vigilant “Constitutionalist” would rise up and remind America that the Founding Fathers did not intend for it to be that way. Now fast forward to November 4, 2008, and we can begin to see more clearly what has happened to this experiment called Democracy.

In January 2009, the 44^th President of the United States Barack Obama tried to fulfill a promise he had made on the campaign trail to put internet connections in every school and every rural community in America. You would think on the surface that such a proposal would go over well in a society that invented the internet and was embarking vigilantly into the 21^st century. To show the importance of internet access and to involve the millennials and get the youth involved, Obama planned a “Live Stream” broadcast to schools across America  and the racist society which was hidden just beneath the surface of Democracy went nuts. I’m assuming you are aware that Barack Obama is identified as being a Black man.

“Political Correctness” tried aggressively to convince us that we were now living in a “Post-Racial” society because after all, “We just elected a Black man as president.” You know how that went. For eight years Obama was obstructed even to the point that in his final year in office his opposition refused to fill a vacancy on the Supreme Court. That decision by Mitch McConnell more than anything else the Republican Party had done or not done up until that point solidified the Constitutionalist that, “There is no right that a Black man has that a White man is bound to respect. When you hear the phrases, “Take Our Country Back” and, “Make America Great Again,” don’t be confused about exactly what these people are advocating. Yes, America has made great strides in race relations. Yes, America elected its first Black president. But, the idea of following that up by electing the first woman president was too much for this fragile Democracy to endure.

Rather than to embrace the creed inscribed on the Statue of Liberty, America resorted to its default position on bigotry, racism, sexism and pride. You may ask “PRIDE?” Yes, pride. Remember, the founding fathers intended for wealthy land owners to have control of this Democracy. Who more represented the image of a wealthy land owner vying for control of the hearts and minds of a gullible society who would believe a lie faster than they would the truth?  America’s Constitution which is a living breathing document is solely responsible for
producing and giving us Donald J. Trump.

We are missing a clear motive in the "San Bernardino Massacre"

After watching the extended coverage of the horrific shooting in San Bernardino, California, It has become apparent that we are missing a very clear motive.

We are so quick to attribute any violence in this country to either being gang related or a result of some terroristic plot. The only exception to this pattern is when the perpetrator is a caucasian and we simply dismiss their heinous actions as being the result of a lone mentally deranged individual.

Few facts are known in this incident but what we do know is that all the victims were attending a "Christmas Celebration." A celebration that many companies or governmental organization have on a yearly basis because as you know, "We are a Christian Nation."

If you listened to the rhetoric that was aired before we even knew who the shooters were, it was questioning whether this was an act of terrorism or simply a workplace tragedy. Now that we know that the shooters were Muslin, the attack on the entire religion has escalated. We have presidential candidates whose only claim to fame is that they would require Muslins to register as immigrants and even monitor their mosques.

I am not claiming to have any more information than that which has already been made public. The initial report was that Syed Rizwon Farook had an altercation with a coworker during a Christmas celebration. He left the party, returned with his wife and killed 14 people while injuring 21 others.

Our focus should be on the altercation as the triggering mechanism rather than running all over the world looking for some I.S.I.S connection. We know many people who sympathize with the Confederate flag who never attended a KKK rally. We also know people who would never consider themselves as being racist, but they would support candidates with racist policies. They would spit in your face and tell you it's raining just as easily as they would tell you that we are a Christian nation.

The truth is we are not a Christian nation nor were we founded on Christian principals. We keep perpetuating this myth despite the fact that immigrants are a large segment of our society today. They live in our neighborhoods. Their kids go to our schools. They work where we work and yes the buy guns where we buy guns.

Continually ignoring and demonizing the Muslin community is a dangerous recipe for peace in this country. Just as a single caucasian can enter a church and kill 9 people and as of today we know nothing about his life, his parents, his brothers nor his sisters, a single Muslin can pull off a similar act. The difference is, we are determined to attribute a motive to their actions. But, as a casual observer of all the madness going on in this country today, the hypocrisy is sickening.

Prayer alone will not stop the next mass shooting

Less than twenty-four hours after the worst mass shooting on American soil since the shooting at the Sandy Hook Elementary School, President Obama sat down with members of his national security team today and addressed the nation. 

The president was flanked by Vice-President Joe Biden, Attorney General Loretta Lynch, FBI Director James Comey and National Security Advisor Susan Rice.

Obama opened his remarks my stating, “Our first order of business is to send our thoughts and prayers to the victims’ families.” He went on to say that he hope the injured would have a speedy recovery and be reunited with their loved ones.

The president stressed that the motives and plans of the couple are unknown at this time but that authorities will get to the bottom of it. He stated that the investigation is now in the hands of the FBI.

The San Bernardino Police Department released the names of the couple that were killed in the black SUV on last evening as Syed Rizwan Farook 28 years-of-age and his wife Tashfeen Malik 27 years-of-age.

Obama was hesitant to label this incident as being motivated by terror by adding that it could simply be a workplace incident. Either way he asserts that it is too easy for individuals to get access to guns and that the number of incidents in this country is unparalleled anywhere else in the world.

The opened-ended question that Obama left us with is actually what did he mean when he said, “We’re going to have to search ourselves as individuals.” Of course, we can pray for the victims as we always do, or was he alluding to the possibility of a public outcry to change gun laws in this country?

Only time will tell if this incident will be the spark that generates a public outcry. The world’s news outlets are reporting this as just another day in American life. Searching ourselves would have to imply that we must decide if we want to live in a society where everyone is armed to protect themselves or will legislators enact laws that will promote “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” for its citizens.

If only the Pope could really forgive sins

President Barack Obama made a visit to the Vatican on Thursday and his visit with Pope Francis lasted longer than was expected. After all the pomp and fanfare of a visiting dignitary, the scheduled five minute face to face meeting between the two world leaders lasted eight minutes shy of being one hour. Obama has been criticized for bowing while greeting leaders of various countries but the press has given him a pass for bowing as his shook hands with the pope. Even though most of the attention has been devoted to Russia’s annexation of Crimea during this European trip, getting an audience with the pope offered a welcomed change of pace for those who follow and listen to every word and watch every action of President Obama.

Unfortunately, with cameras flashing and no one being allowed to get within hearing distance as the pope and the president conversed for 52 minutes, we can only speculate about the content of the conversation that captured the world's attention for nearly one hour. Reading the commentaries of several news organizations you would get the impression that the meeting was merely a publicity stunt to boost Obama’s popularity among Catholic voters.

Despite the professionalism in which this notion was propagated, it must be dismissed due to the fact that Obama has no plans to run for public office and doesn't need to court the votes of any constituency. What would have been a better analogy would have been the thought that he was confessing the sins of a nation and hoping that the pope could actually grant forgiveness for them.
One such instance of this need for forgiveness was the speech Obama gave in Amsterdam on Wednesday. In that speech the president poked fun at the Russian President Vladimir Putin and referred to that nation as a regional power. Obama then went into a dialog in which a rational thinking person would think that it came out of a fictional novel.

Here’s what President Obama said:

“We did not claim or annex Iraq’s territory, nor did we grab its resources for our own gain,” he said. “Instead, we ended our war and left Iraq to its people and a fully sovereign Iraqi state could make decisions about its own future.”

I fully realize that only days after Obama took the oath of office in his first term he announced that his administration was going to look forward and not look backwards. In essence he was saying that the sins committed by the Bush administration were going to go unpunished.  That was then and this is now.
But to go on a European tour amidst the conflicts going on in the world today and deny the reason for invading Iraq is absurd. It would take an enormous amount of time to rehash the facts that are common knowledge precluding our invasion of Iraq, but liberating the Iraqi people was not one of them.

Obama could have better served his people in America by pointing out one simple fact. That being the fact that after Bush and Cheney set up an oversight commission in Iraq to divide up the oil fields and establish a new constitution, that constitution included government health coverage for all Iraqi citizens.

Many have speculated that Obama and Pope Francis were discussing ways to help the poor and the income disparities persistent in the world today. This may be true but again, who knows?  One thing we do know is that upon meeting and greeting the pope, Obama said: "It is a great honor. I'm a great admirer. Thank you so much for receiving me. I bring greetings from my family. The last time I came here to meet your predecessor I was able to bring my wife and children."
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