You Think What

“Anyone who trades liberty for security deserves neither liberty nor security” ~ Benjamin Franklin

We recently listed those things about which U.S. citizens are fearful, among them the security process travelers must endure before boarding flights in the United States.

^^"How early do we have to be there for the frisking?"

The following is a recent video of student activist Ashley Jessica, and her mother, recorded as they prepare to board a flight from San Diego to Toronto, to show what more often than not does happen when one of the two non-options is selected in order to travel via air in the United States. (more…)

“Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.” ~ Lao Tzu

Congratulations are in order to journeyman National Basketball Association, (NBA), player Jason Collins. After months of hints from sports reporters, social commentators and others, along with sly suggestions from professional athletes in other sports of the possibility there may be an active professional athlete in the National Football League, (NFL),  Major League Baseball, (MLB), or the NBA who may one day in the near future courageously disclose his sexual preference for other men.

Jason Collins, who is nearly seven feet tall, plays center and made public his choice of lifestyle in the current issue, May 6, 2013, of Sports Illustrated Magazine. He’s the cover story. It’s a very interesting read of how he wishes to be “to be genuine and authentic and truthful.”

“Though I’m coming out to the world, I intend to guard my privacy. I’m making this blanket statement in part to keep rumors and misunderstandings at bay. I hope fans will respect me for raising my hand. And I hope teammates will remember that I’ve never been an in-your-face kind of guy. All you need to know is that I’m single. I see no need to delve into specifics.” ~ Jason Collins, NBA professional player on announcing he’s homosexual.

Personal choices, public discussions…of who and what a person prefers for the most intimate of relationships/acts is somehow to us out of order. We believe what is private should remain private. (more…)

“I saw the Village as a place to escape to in order to express yourself.”  ~ Richie Havens in his 2008 biography.

Richie Havens, the very first musician to perform during the 1969 Woodstock music festival held on Max Yasgur’s dairy farm in the town of Bethel, New York, near White Lake, New York, has died of a sudden heart attack at his home. The beloved American folk singer, songwriter, guitarist, and activist passed away on Earth Day.

“Say not in grief, ‘he is no more’, but live in thankfulness that he was.” ~ Unknown

The event, also known as the Woodstock Music Festival; An Aquarian Exposition: Three Days of Peace and Music, was a turning point in his career.

One of the four festival producers, Michael Lang said in his book  “The Road to Woodstock”, he’d selected Havens to open what would become a historic event, “because of his calm but powerful demeanor.”

Havens sang for several hours due to travel delays affecting the arrival of the next act. He sang for nearly three hours. Basically, Richie Havens had to kill time as the opening act during this seminal event.

“So I’d go back and sing three more. This happened six times. So I sung every song I knew.” ~ Richie Havens in a 2006 interview with NPR.

The most amazing point of his performance was his ability to improvise a song based on the Negro spiritual, “Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child,”; as a consequence the improvisation, known as “Freedom” became an anthem for the times. It is one song for which Havens became famous.

Richie Havens was well known for his versions of tunes made popular by such varied group and artists such as The Beatles, “Here Comes the Sun”; the Bee Gees, “I Started A Joke”; 10cc’s “I’m Not in Love”.  He covered tunes like Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On”;  James Taylor’s “Fire and Rain”;  “Tightrope,” written by Leon Russell;  Van Morrison’s  composition”Tupelo Honey”, as well as  Bob Dylan’s “Lay Lady Lay” and another Dylan creation “Just Like A Woman “.

“I really sing songs that move me. I’m not in show business; I’m in the communications business. That’s what it’s about for me.” ~ Richie Havens, singer, songwriter, activist, humanitarian in an interview with The Denver Post (more…)

Opening day of the 2013 season of Major League Baseball, (MLB), as the entry of the first Negro player, (read that African American or black), Jackie Robinson, into the sport is celebrated, we find there are fewer black minorities, to be precise American blacks of African heritage, than ever before.

Corporations in the Untied States when asked to tabulate minority numbers, especially when it comes to black  people of African descent, tend to wash over and count everyone, even Latin Americans of dark complexion as blacks. That’s why there are disputed figures on the number/percentage of black African Americans, not of Hispanic heritage, when it comes to who plays professional baseball.

Most inner city black kids today seek scholarships and professional contracts from what they consider to be more exciting sports, like football and basketball. There aren’t many black youths playing baseball in the public schools or on the streets, nor are there nearly as many scholarships for college being awarded to blacks for baseball as there are big dollars for football and basketball at the major colleges and universities. (more…)

We have received news of at least one judge in Florida who is handling the adjudication of cases involving banks and home owners with the use of common sense  as well as the law.

In the matter of Dimitri Jansen, a local schoolteacher whose former home in North Port is in foreclosure a circuit court judge found one of the largest banks in the country in contempt of court on Friday over a foreclosure case that has dragged through the system for several years.

Attorneys who represent the Sarasota educator say the contempt order against Minneapolis-based U.S. Bank, is “unprecedented.”

Jansen says his mother’s name was mistakenly added to the mortgage he obtained in 2006, that the bank has ignored requests to remove her name from the foreclosure documents and thus wrecked her credit history, and that the bank held up a pending short sale.

Another Sarasota judge, apparently frustrated with U.S. Bank, had ordered the bank’s president to be present in court on Friday. The bank instead sent a senior representative. (more…)

How fortuitous…following a memorial service commemorating what would have been the eighteenth birthday of the murdered unarmed black Florida teen, Trayvon Martin, a Florida judge today denied a motion by the confessed shooter to delay his June trial for a murder which took place  one year ago this month…February 2012.

Seminole County Circuit Court Judge Debra Nelson, who lives in the city of Sanford where the fatal shooting took place, denied a motion by Zimmerman’s lawyer, Mark O’Mara, for a continuance in the racially charged trial.
This means the trial is to go forward as scheduled on Monday, June 10, 2013. (more…)

The following poem was created in remembrance of the unarmed Florida teen fatally shot one year ago this month.
Today, February 5, 2013, would have been his eighteenth birthday…may he forever rest in peace as we continue to pray for justice in this case.

My tears still flow, I wonder why,
it had to be, that I should die?
He followed me, I ran away,
What did I do? What did I say?
(more…)

“Character is doing the right thing when nobody’s looking.
There are too many people who think that the only thing that’s right is to get by, and the only thing that’s wrong is to get caught.” ~ J.C. Watts, Jr.,  former Republican congressional representative from Oklahoma’s 4th congressional district in south-central Oklahoma and Baptist minister.

The following video shows the generous actions of one NYPD officer; it is the exception that proves the rule.

We’ve been told by unnamed sources close to beleaguered New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly he will be issuing a news release announcing a new, improved policy to be implemented immediately, rendering the previous video unexceptional:

All homeless persons found by members of the world’s largest urban police force will be provided, and forced to accept, appropriate covering,(including sleeping bags rated to minus 25 below freezing). The policy is specifically designed for those persons living on the street when the temperatures fall below 50 degrees during the the first day of October through May 1st of the following year. (more…)

Springfield, Missouri is the third largest city in the state of Missouri; it is the county seat of Green County. According to the most recent census data, the population is about 160,000. The Springfield Metropolitan Area, population of nearly a half million includes the counties of Christian, Dallas, Greene, Polk and Webster. Springfield’s nickname is the Queen City of the Ozarks and is known as the Birthplace of Route 66 as well as the home of several universities including Missouri State University.

The proposed law now includes protections for homosexuals, as well as other citizens who lodge complaints with the city regarding “…racial, religious and ethnic group tensions, prejudice, intolerance, bigotry
and discrimination, and any breach of the peace… ” To which I say big whooping deal.

In the following video recorded last August at one of the Springfield, Missouri City Council meetings, the speaker Reverend Phil Snider, of the Brentwood Christian Church, waits until 2 and one half excruciatingly long minutes into a 2 minute 50 second speech to reveal he  supports gay rights as stated in the outset of his presentation.

Prior to providing clarification he torments us for 2 minutes 30 seconds repeating the arguments (more…)