Five years ago

I’ve been reading through some of my blog entries from summer 2010.  Great memories, but most of the specifics of the programs and events I don’t recall—like Civil War week lectures, and Health week lectures on types of cancer. And then some things never change, like irresponsible dog owners, and the mess people make over July 4 celebration, or the delicious goodies from the Farmer’s Market.  Or my observations about poverty.

“Today is Tuesday and should be the first Farmer's Market.  There are two major seminar themes this week, "Race in America" and "American writers."  This morning's offering is "I am a promise" a film made in 1994. I'm sure it will not be noted that all our biggest poverty/education problems in this country are in urban areas controlled for generations by the Democratic machine which continues to create a sense of powerlessness, anger and hopelessness in people while buying their votes.  I don't want to hear how little has changed in 16 years and how if we just threw more money at it, everything would be OK.”

This week I’ve been thinking about the outrage over the racist, vacant eyed, young man, Dylann Roof, who  killed 9 black Christians in a church in Charleston, SC.  Many stories began popping up on the internet about homegrown terrorists in the U.S. and confederate flags contributing to the problem. That grew to demands to also remove the American flag as racist, stories of white privilege, etc.  If that brand of terrorism is worse (as some say) than ISIS homegrown cells, and the very obvious Confederate flag was flying in many communities for years, why isn’t Obama being blamed for their hate growth?  If it were Bush, he certainly would be bearing the brunt of the responsibility.

Daily Beast writer blames “white culture” for the Charleston tragedy

One white man equals a national need to have a conversation on white culture, but when a black man kills, it's poverty or poor self esteem or lack of fathers or a failing school system? Why do the deaths of blacks only matter when the killer is white? Write about Chicago and Baltimore's crime rates going up under this administration's blaming everyone but the perpetrator. This is simply ridiculous. In 1963 I was blamed for JFK's death and I'm not speaking for the nation or all white women, but I am very, very tired of these smears. Charleston has shown the whole country how to come together in the face of tragedy, and I just hope they can keep the Holders and Sharptons out of town. And the writers for the Beast. The author of this piece primarily wanted to talk about his own experience--he's very close to Obama's making his speech about himself instead of the victims. I suppose I could generalize about 2 black guys who think everything is about them, but I won’t.

Twaddle followed up with drivel here: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/06/19/we-need-to-talk-about-white-culture.html?