Rita's Spur to Action

It is totally heart breaking to be standing by and watching the Ukraine been decimated by a maniac.  Like Hitler he is repeating the same story .

We The USA cannot once again stand by as we did in 1940 allowing Hitler to killed 6 millions jews and an untold numbers of other people as well.

Here we are again standing by doing nothing to help while the Ukraine is being invaded and decimated by a maniac.

Putin is Hitler all over again! We are facing the same dilemma. 

Do we let our neighbor house burn, or do we get involved in saving our neighbor house and perhaps getting ourselves involve in the fire.


In  this case it may be the start of the WW3. 


A friend of mine Connie Erlanger send me a letter that she posted with The New York Times . I want all of you to read it , so I post it here.

In 1940 President Roosevelt made the analogy of our neighbor’s house being on fire and the urgent choice - either to help put out the fire, or not (at that time it was about providing support to the UK in defense of democracy there and here in our own country.)  Today we are faced with the same circumstance: our neighbor Ukraine’s house is on fire and if we do not take aggressive action to help put out the fire, it will burn down the neighborhood. 

We refer to the men and women who responded in 1940 as The Greatest Generation. The generation that saved the world from tyranny. Today, we observe the unfathomable tragedy unfolding before us - on TV. 24/7. Like a movie. But it is not a movie. This is a real life horror and we, the United States of America, can not stand by as observers and sympathetic commentators. 

Now, as was the case in 1940, the fear of engagement is that it will lead to world war, only this time it will be nuclear war. I am not an expert, but I suggest that we are already in WW3, and it is being waged on the ground, in the air, on the sea, in cyber space, and all the while real human lives are lost and shattered - in the real world.   
The way to avoid more war, nuclear war, is to respond immediately to the urgent pleas of Ukraine, for their sake and our own. 

Our neighbor’s house is on fire. We must rush to provide Ukraine with all the fire hose and water and fire retardant and fire prevention material possible, without limit or hesitation.  

Connie Erlanger

The start of this new year is no less depressing than was the end of the last year.

 In these first days of 2022, this country, the United States of America, the leading democracy in the world is tethering on the brink of 

facing the possible loss of our democracy and becoming a dictatorship.

Never at any time since the civil war has this country faced such imminent danger.

The times seem very much like the end of the Weimar Republic of Germany in the 1930’s.

Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Germany. Between the time of his election and the start of WWII, he and his henchmen managed to imprison and exterminate six million Jews and at least five million other people. 

This period is known as the Holocaust.

It was Hitler and his Nazi party whose intention was to create a pure Arian race. 

If Donald Trump and his ignorant sycophantic followers gain power and  have their way, they would probably exterminate not only Jews, but Asians, Hispanics, and certainly  all black people as well. 

Their goal is to create a pure, blonde haired, blue eyed white skinned America.

Since the schools in America teach history only superficially, few Americans under the age of sixty seem to know anything about Hitler and the causes of WWII. 

Without the understanding of Hitler and his rise to power, Americans do not realize that Donald Trump has modeled  himself and his party after the greatest tyrants of the world, Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Putin, and Kim Jong-un.

Few Americans have participated in public service since the end of The Vietnam war in 1973, when the draft was abolished.

As a consequence the knowledge and interest in what is happening in this country has diminished. 

The generation under the age of 60s seems to have little knowledge or interest in what is happening to their country.    

Since they do not know or understand the rise of Hitler’s Germany, they do not recognized the similarity between Donald Trump and Hitler. 

President Biden is doing everything that he can to address the problems facing this country and the failures in our system. 

Joe Manchin the Senator who were against Biden reconstruction, is standing in the way of progress. He made his money in the Coal business and is protecting his familybusiness and in doing so is preventing Biden from doing exactly what this country needs at this time. 

Biden’s build back America program is exactly what Roosevelt accomplished with “The New Deal “in the 1930s.

It made it possible to rebuild the country with roads, bridges, housing, schools and medical care.

Part of Biden’s policy is the protection of the right of citizens to vote. The only way forward for this country at this time and to save America and our Democracy, is to support Biden.

It should be an imprisonable crime for anyone under any circumstances to attempt to suppress the vote in any city or state in the United States of America.

Everyone who can vote must support the access and the freedom to vote for all.

The democracy can only survive  at this time by supporting President Biden and the democrats against a totally corrupt Republican Party.

Rise up and support president Biden, the right to vote and the build back American program.

The time is now.

Beginning with the attack on the Capitol of the USA on Jan 6 2021 by an unruly and violent group of Americans, it has been clear that the Democratic base of the US is in serious jeopardy.

Our freedom is at stake by those very people who are attacking the government in the name of freedom.

Their absolute freedom is absolute chaos.

Laws are made to protect every citizen and it is only when the law is there and observed as an umbrella that we, as individuals, have freedom.

We are free to walk on the streets when laws are provided and observed.

For instance traffic lights: the law requires that cars stop at traffic lights. As long as the law is observed it provides us with the freedom to cross the street without fear of being run down.

Often when the law is broken, cars turn against the light and someone may be hurt or even killed.

Of course some people brake the law and when they do we are less safe and less free as a consequence.

It is the concept of the total right to total freedom that explains the thinking behind the violent lunatics who attacked the Capitol and sought to kill members of congress.

This is no longer freedom.
This is chaos and chaos only leads to destruction. The social order and the very society from whence they have sprung are endangered by them.

Freedom to be sure seems not much to lose to some members of our society but some of us still think it is a battle that must be fought and won.

It seems totally clear that freedom exists only within certain limitations.

The militia organizations gaining support and followers across the country are a clear and eminent danger to freedom.

The stem from a total misunderstanding and misconception as to what freedom is, what it is and who shall have it.

Individual groups of people bearing arms and joining forces to attack the government of the USA or the Capitol of the USA is not an expression of freedom.

Although the second Amendment to the constitution provides individuals with the right to bear arms, it does not provide the freedom to attack the government of the USA. It only vaguely provides the right of citizens to form militia only to protect the government of the USA.

An organized militia, recognized by the government, made up of volunteer citizens, often called the Home Guard, stands ready to protect the government of the USA.

If the pro Nazi militias and anti-government militias proliferating around the USA today are free to attack the government of the USA to break those laws protecting all the citizens of America, then none of us will be free any longer.

We will all be living in a world of total chaos.

We must be fiercely vigilant both of people desirous of breaking the law and also that the law is fair and provides us all with the protection that enables us to be free and to live in a free society.

We the people must all take action to save our democracy now or we will lose it and we shall descend into the the abyss of chaos, tyranny and the ensuing dictatorship.

Looking at America today is absolutely amazing, astounding to see the incredible divisions within the country. 

Try as one may to rationalize and find reasons for  these divisions more and more it seems that it is a combination of the power of social media and the incredibly low level of education that prevails in this country. 

The lack of education alone makes it impossible for people to be able to recognize truth from fiction. 

These divisions also seem to have aided in the sudden deterioration of values in this country: family values, the value of education, responsibility of social media and respect for the law.

When an ignorant and stupid man like governor Abbott of Texas can take the law into his own hands, can suppress the vote so that he can win and can deny women their legal right under the law to make decisions about their own bodies, we are faced with a society in disrepair. 

What possible right does this idiot have to control the rights of women? 

A man who is so stupid that he does not even understand the menstrual cycle of a woman. A man so stupid as to believe and state that he is going to rid the streets of rapists. What is he going to do? Is he going to walk the streets, approach every man on the street and ask him if he is a rapist? The only way to counter an idiot like Abbott and all the other people around the country who support him is to pass a law that every boy over 12 must undergo a vasectomy. 

If men can not take the responsibility of the sperm that they so easily release they should pay the price by not being able to reproduce without government accountability. They would have to get certificate from the government that would enable them to go and have a reversal of their vasectomy. 

In this manner maybe we could prevent sexual crimes, unwanted pregnancies and reduce the need for abortions.

The other thing that is happening to this country is that we have a supreme court that seems to be driven more by religious affiliations than by intellectual questioning and investigation. Maybe we have to change the constitution so that people appointed to the supreme court by half witted lying presidents should be forced to retire. 

It is totally appalling that this country has been taken over by racists, by religious fanatics, by liars and by thieves with absolutely no oversight as to the character of the members of our governing body. 

More effort is put into the character check for a prospective buyer of an apartment in a New York co-op than it is to run for any elected office, including the Congress.

It is astounding that one year after the election of our current president of the USA the ex president who is a known thief, a known lier, a known cheater, a known ignoramus, a known woman abuser still has an enormous following.

There is something fundamentally wrong with this country. It is totally demoralizing to watch the demise of our democracy. 

Social media must be controlled. It is hard to know whether controlling social media impinges upon freedom of speech or freedom of the press but it is imperative that we find a solution before it is too late. Even with the corona virus pandemic, tremendous amounts of misinformation and changing information, reached the ears of people who were unable to distinguish truth from fiction.

The consistent misinformation being disseminated by these groups including the voter suppression in many states and the constant diminution of individual rights is undermining confidence in government, in values and destroying America democracy and the USA. 

This country is on the brink and could easily fall into the hands of tyrants and dictators. It is more important now than it has ever been before to seek out the truth and expel from government those whose intent is to destroy our democracy and our country. 

Mitch McConnell and his Republican party are truly not representatives of the check and balance system that was envisioned in the constitution of the USA. Perhaps the only solution would be in the creation of a 3rd party which would represent conservative democrats and liberal republicans.

We must look at the causes and the weaknesses in our system that have enabled people such as Trump and Abbott and DeSantis and McConnell and religious fanatics- weakness that have confused issues regarding the governing of the USA and have ultimately compromised our constitution.

The four years of the Trump Administration has accelerated the diminution of America. It has been supported by Mitch McConnell and his followers in the republican party.

Their only interest is in self preservation and in retaining their seats in the house and in the senate.

Their lifetime salaries are paid by the American taxpayers, the citizens of the United States.

Under one administration after another, they have held power over the congress and over the senate with no regard for the benefit of the country, nor for the people who inhabit it.

They seek to repress the vote of the citizens of the United Sates in order to maintain power in their States, and in the congress.

America is on the brink. We no longer have time to waste on racism, antisemitism or whether the virus originated in China.

The only thing that matters at this time is whether America can regain the respect of the world and can we again redevelop American exceptionalism.

Exceptionalism is not defined by race, creed, religion, or gender.

Finally at least some true Republicans, regardless of political party, have joined together in support of Biden’s effort toward the reconstruction of the United States.

 We must build back the roads, the tunnels, the bridges, and the highways. The railroads must be updated or replaced if necessary. Japan’s railways are eons ahead of our antiquated systems.

Yes we will have to pay higher taxes to rebuild America!

It is important to note that under President Dwight D. Eisenhower, the super rich paid 90% in taxes and the rest of the population paid 70% tax.

With those additional funds, we rebuilt America after World War II, and with the Marshall Plan (the European Recovery Program), the U.S. provided aid to the recovery of Western Europe following the devastation of the second world war.

America generated enough money in taxes to launch and complete the labyrinth of interstate highways, roads and bridges across the U.S. , the largest projects that America had ever seen.

It is now once again needed.

Compare Biden’s proposed tax plan to Dwight D. Eisenhower’s. Biden’s proposed tax plan is to increase the corporate tax rate from 21% to 28% and the top individual income tax rate from 37% to 39.6%. Far less than Eisenhower’s.

We must look to the future. American exceptionalism means investing in people, in the best possible education for everyone, in new ideas and new technologies.

It means investing in schools, better training of teachers and according them the salaries and the respect that they deserve. It means providing the best possible education for everybody in America.

We need to invest in our future to maintain our prominence in the fields of technology and science, and we need to continue to support of our universities to be the best in the world. Instead we are falling way behind.
We also need to invest in our communities, providing new schools and affordable housing.

People need to have a roof over their heads, and they need to have jobs and decent remuneration.

This is neither Socialism, nor Communism. It is clearly the way back to American exceptionalism.

People who have made vast fortunes in coal and oil, in fracking and mining, now should invest in future fortunes to be made from new forms of energy and in the technology of the future.

The energy sources of the future should prove to be less destructive and more protective of our planet.

As America has become more isolationist and more bigoted, we have fallen behind China, Japan, and Germany, they have developed more advanced systems than we have.

We have been diminished, and influenced by the abusive power of money in our politics, in our government, in our social system, and in our democracy.

America has been diminished by a political system that has allowed the former President of the U.S. to be a cheat, a liar, a crook, a woman abuser and possibly a traitor.

The Republicans are sitting on their brains, refusing even to discuss these issues so relevant for the survival and the future of our democracy and our nation.

Remember, once again, for this they are being paid for the rest of their lives by the American tax payer.

We are losing influence all over the world.China has been building the railroad system in Africa since the 1960’s.The same system that will allow African countries ultimately to send their wealth to China.Chinese state-owned enterprises are still the largest investors in Africa.

Meanwhile America is worrying about the color of skin, creed, religion, and gender, and failing to support exceptionalism.

Wake up America! Forget petty party politics.

Imagine a revival of the American Spirit. Where exceptionalism knows no limits and no boundaries.

We the people of the USA have abrogated our rights. We can be Democrats or we can be Republicans. 

We do not have to be black, white, Asian or any other racial religious or ethnic group. 

All we need to be is “We the people” of the United States of America standing together to take military weapons off the streets of our nation. 

This does not mean depriving people of the right to own a legally registered gun, a sporting rifle or whatever anyone legally wants to have. 

It simply means that military weapons, repetitive rifles and glock pistols would simply not be so easily available to demented or angry people. 

It would mean that you and I, whoever we are, wherever we live, no matter rich or poor, no matter what race or religion, we could feel safer on our own streets. We the people can live safely together.

We the people are the only ones , only we together can end the proliferation of guns on the streets of the United States.

In one week in the month of April, in just that week there were 40 shootings on the streets of New York city, 8 of them were fatal.

This represented a 30 percent of a surge over shootings in 2020.

This is the only country in the world that i know of where anyone who wants a gun can go to a Walmart and buy themselves a gun. 

Apparently anyone who wants one can buy a glock  pistol  which is a repetitive pistol, or a repetitive rifle. These are a military type of weapon. There is absolutely no reason for any private citizen to own one.

It is easier to buy a gun in this country than to buy a car or get a driver’s license or even to get a bus or a subway pass. 

At times it is easier to buy a gun than it is get a doctor’s appointment.

Last week tourist were shot and killed on 42nd street in the middle of the day. 

It is an outrage. 

The NRA has basically been protected by the government, Wall Street, investors, civilians and a gun toting public. 

This must stop now. 

50 people who were shot in 46 incidents over a 7 day period. 8 of them were fatal. 

That is a more than 300 % surge in gun related incidence of the same week in 2020. 

It is easy to blame the covid. It is easy to say that people feel cooped up and angry and possibly demented due to the demands of the covid and the effort to curtail the pandemic. 

The facts do not support this theory.

The NRA has been largely responsible for fostering the use of guns and making rifles accessible to the general public. The NRA should simply be shut down.

There is no earthly reason for anyone to own a repetitive rifle.

It is a military weapon and it should be clearly and absolutely illegal to own one. There is no earthly reason for it to be in anyone’s private home.

The same thing is true of the glock pistol , also a military weapon. It should not be available to any member of the general public.

If somebody want to have a gun with which to go hunting there is no reason on earth that they can not have that gun as long as it is legally registered. 

That seems altogether normal and necessary. That alone would probably go a long way towards reducing gun crime on the streets and in the homes. 

America wake up.

People wake up! It is up to us to “We the people” to pressure our congressmen and our senators to put through gun control legislation. Once again it is up to our senators to get on their stick and act on behalf of their constituents. 

It is up to “We the people” to pressure to unseat any member of the congress who does not support gun registration and who does not support the abolition of military weapons being sold into the hand of the general public.

Wake up America, it is your lives that are at stake. Act now!

The constitution of the USA clearly provides for the removal from office of a President who is deemed no longer fit to serve in the office as President of the USA. 

This President has already done irreparable damage to the US. Who would come to support ourforeign-policy. He affect the politic system, to the justice department, to the supreme court , and to the moral fiber of the nation, by exasperating inherent problems.
 His withdraw from all the traditional world organizations puts us at risk. It will take years and years before our former friends and allies will ever trust us again.

He has succeeded with the support of a corrupt Republican Party made up of senators who are embracing Trump, so that they can remain in his club.
This is not a matter of Republican or Democratic preference. This is a question of who, we the people of this Nation are, and what our values are, at home, and how we want to present ourselves to the world.

Who we are at home, is how the world sees us abroad. We have lost our world leadership position over the past four years.

Donald Trump is only dedicated to himself and his own personal and family fortune. He measures the financial success of the country by his own personal success in the stock market .     

The people and organizations invested in the stock market have done well, they’ve made money. 

However, this money that has a crude to the wealthiest people in the country whose taxes simultaneously, have been reduced, are of course satisfied with Trump’s regime. 

This wealth however has not reflect itself throughout the society. A very large portion of the nation population is worth off than they have been since the depression of 1933. 

This is not due just to the layoffs caused by covid-19. It was caused by the total lack of attention or investment  or attention to the suffering and needs of the middle and lower class population. 
No investment has been made in health, education, welfare or affordable housing under Trump.

It is not socialism for a wealthy nation to take care of its poorest members. 
No matter how loudly he trumpets his successes, Trump has done nothing but to double the national debt, spend tax money to benefit himself, he has divide the country by exacerbating the anger and divisiveness that already existed in the country. 

This is the portrait of America today under Trump. Who would want to claim us as an ally? A nation divided and in a state of chaos, with disease, poverty, and crime on the rise. 

He has succeeded in destroying every agreement that has been made whether with Iran, Mexico, Canada, or China. 

Possibly those commitments were not totally advantageous to America, but now they have been annihilated .They were better than nothing. At least they provided the grounds for further discussion, and at the same time a certain amount of protection,whether from exploding nuclear bombs or developing nuclear power. If they weren’t perfect there surely was room for further negotiation. 

None of these treaties have been renegotiated and the cost has been born by the American people ,by agriculturalists, by farmers and by general population. 

There has been a substantial rise of the cost of living in America as a consequence. 

If isolation, alienation, divisiveness, anger and violence is what this country wants to be today, then this President has succeeded. 
America under Trump is becoming a Banana Republic.

Vote! Hit the Streets , Vote! This is your last chance to save this nation.PS : If you agree with this blog, please send on to your contact list.

America has never had a proper comprehensive immigration policy. America has become a hostile and dangerous country to refugees who seek asylum. 

Nonetheless, people will try to enter whether legally or illegally but these people still need to be treated as human beings and not brutalized and tortured. 

This is no longer a matter of republican vs democrat. This is a clarion call to all decent people of all parties: Republican, Democrat, liberal, conservative, moderate or any other.

Women are now arriving at our border only to be imprisoned, abused and forced to undergo unnecessary hysterectomies. That is sterilization. This is torture by any other name.

Mr Trump and the so called  “Republican Party” that he has constructed with his acolyte Mitch McConnell, and the lemmings who cow tow to them both, have totally lost credibility for the right to govern. 

These people no longer represent the majority of the people of the United States and should not be allowed to participate in overseeing the check and balance system of the US government in which they are suppose to serve. 

If we ever get rid of these criminals, this country must demand some constitutional amendments. 

The first would be to get the money out of politics. 

The second is to limit the term that any elected official can serve, making it less likely for anyone of these criminals to care more about their lifetime job in a governing position than what is right and good for the country. 

The third would be surely to make it impossible to bring their fake religious fanaticism into governing as they are now doing even though it is in opposition to the US Constitution under which they serve which clearly separates church and state.

What in their Bible, or in the Bible that Trump so virtuously held up in front of St John’s Church in Washington DC, gives them the right to think that they can make judgements over the bodies of women in America?

”Republicans”  will rush to confirm a new Justice of the Supreme Court so they can totally reverse the prior Supreme Court ruling of Roe v. Wade, which entitles women to the legal right to choose what is best for their lives and for their bodies. This will reverse the progress that it has taken women over 100 years to gain in the United States of America. 

Before Roe v. Wade, women used wire hangers to abort unwanted pregnancy. Legal abortion enables women to have safe and medically sound care. Women generally do not choose abortion lightly or easily.

This senate, these Anti- Christs, have set themselves up as judge and jury over the lives of women. These senators who have sold their souls to their Devil, Trump, should be swept out of the Senate, out of the government and even out of the country. 

If women are not to be permitted to have control over their own bodies then all men should not have control either. They should all be rounded up and forced to have vasectomies- that would solve the problem for everyone of all persuasions. 

Trump and his sycophants are afraid of losing their lifetime jobs. They only worry about keeping their seat in the Senate. They do not have any regard for the people of this nation for whom they have been elected to serve. 

Women of America (and all of those who care about them), hit the streets and go to the polls. Vote for your right to choose what is best for you.

My friend Sally Timpson forwarded me this letter and I thought I would pass it along to all of you for your pleasure and enjoyment.

DEAR RED STATES; WE’RE LEAVING.

 We’ve decided we’re leaving. We intend to form our own country, and we’re taking the other Blue States with us. 

In case you aren’t aware, that includes Hawaii, Oregon, California, New Mexico, Washington, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois and all the Northeast. 

We believe this split will be beneficial to the nation, and especially to the people of the new country that includes Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam and Washington D.C. 

We also get the vast majority of the major shipping ports. So good luck with getting goods in or out of the country affordably. 

We also get Costco, Starbucks and Boeing. You get Texas, Oklahoma and all the slave states. 

We get stem cell research and the best beaches. 

We get the Statue of Liberty. You get Branson, Missouri. 

We get Intel, Apple and Microsoft. You get WorldCom. 

We get 85 percent of America’s venture capital and entrepreneurs. You get Mississippi. 

We get two-thirds of the tax revenue; you get to make the red states pay their fair share. 

Since our aggregate divorce rate is 22 percent lower than the Christian Coalition’s, we get a bunch of happier, intact families. 

Please be aware that we will be pro-choice and anti-war, and we’re going to want all our citizens back from Iraq at once. If you need people to fight, ask your evangelicals. They have kids they’re apparently willing to send to their deaths for no purpose, and they don’t care if you don’t show pictures of their children’s caskets coming home. 

With the Blue States unified, we will have firm control of 80 percent of the country’s fresh water, more than 90 percent of the pineapple and lettuce, 92 percent of the nation’s fresh fruit, 95 percent of America’s quality wines (you can serve French wines at your state dinners) 90 percent of all cheese, 90 percent of the high tech industry, most of the U.S. low-sulfur coal, all living redwoods, sequoias and condors, all the Ivy and Seven Sister schools — Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, the Penn, Princeton, and Yale; and Mount Holyoke, Vassar, Smith, Wellesley, Bryn Mawr, Barnard, and Radcliffe colleges; plus UCLA, UCB, Stanford, Cal Tech and MIT. 

With the Red States, on the other hand, you will have to cope with 88 percent of all obese Americans (and their projected health care costs), 92 percent of all U.S. mosquitoes, nearly 100 percent of the tornadoes, 90 percent of the hurricanes, 99 percent of all Southern Baptists, virtually 100 percent of all televangelists, Rush Limbaugh, Alex Jones and Rand Paul. 

We get Hollywood and Yosemite, thank you. 

Additionally, 62 percent of you believe life is sacred unless we’re discussing the death penalty or gun laws, 44 percent say that evolution is only a theory, 53 percent that Saddam was involved in 9/11 and 61 percent of you crazy bastards believe you are people with higher morals then we lefties. (See that part about divorces. …) 

Oh, and you can have all the new COVID-19 cases since you’re too dumb and self-centered to wear masks. 

Peace out. 

We are the people of the Blue States

The Black Lives Matter Movement is doomed to failure unless it remains a totally peaceful movement. All movements have followers who feel that it is their right to use violent means to express their personal feelings. It takes a great deal of discipline to keep a large group of people from becoming a mob no matter how just the cause may be. It only takes one or two people to cause chaos. 

Martin Luther King Jr, John Lewis, and Ghandi understood that no matter what the temptation, the only way to win was to refuse to respond with hostility. Throwing bottles, bricks, and bats at the police is by any standard or definition an expression of hostility and therefore a threat to a peaceful movement. The probability is that in order to have a peaceful movement or maintain it over time, the protesters need to have their own guards to protect themselves from within and also from outside perpetrators of violence. 

The younger generations today are not necessarily a disciplined group of people. Few of them have served the country in any capacity. Ever since the Vietnam War there has been no draft and no public service requirement of any kind. The Gen X, Millennial and Gen Z Generations are the first generations who have not  benefitted from military training. 

To be successful, Black Lives Matter must organize and protect themselves from dissidents within their own ranks, otherwise they will destroy the movement. If the movement is peaceful it is less likely that the police will use rubber bullets, tear gas, and tasers to stop a peaceful gathering of people. With a normal Democratic government, the police are not ordered or allowed to forcibly break up peaceful protests. This is why it is so important for the survival of any peaceful movement to protect its members from such as the 17 year old boy who picked up a gun from God knows where and went out to shoot peaceful protestors. This is exactly why it is imperative for any peaceful movement to protect themselves. 

The Black Lives Matter Movement is a very important protest against brutality on the part of the police forces of this nation but it is also an important movement to help this country to rise up against discrimination within our society. This is not just racial discrimination, this is the failure of our society to provide a proper education for every member of the society. Education provides people with the means and the tools to rise economically and integrate into the job market. In this, America has failed abysmally. Since the 1930s, at least one third of this country has suffered from all of the following and more- poor education, poor job opportunity, poor housing, poor health care. The value of a democratic society is that it is supposed to offer these basics to all of its citizens. 

Over the nearly 350 years of existence, America has made an attempt at these but has never succeeded at an overall fulfillment of the society’s needs. Our public school system manages to graduate people who can barely read or write. We have a poor trade school system. We underpay our teachers. Classrooms are overcrowded. Little attention is paid to mental health in early childhood development. These are some of the obligations of a democracy.

This is not socialism or communism as it is being touted by today’s Republicans who are stealing our democracy and fast turning it into a fascist dictatorship. Capitalism and democracy can and have gone hand in hand in America. That has been what made America exceptional. However, increasingly over the years and most recently, the wealthiest people in the nation have been relieved of their social and financial obligations. The measure of economic viability has come to only represent people who invest in the stock market, while most people do not have the means to invest. 

These are some of the issues that have divided this country. It is this division that has created the conditions under which a police officer can act as judge, jury and executioner in the life of a citizen. 

Crime exists in our society, even amongst the peaceful and civil. Violent crime exists more in poorer communities than wealthier communities. Once again, peaceful movements will be overtaken if they do not take steps to protect their own communities, their own movements, their own peaceful protests. This does not mean that communities take the law into their own hands. It means that the communities and the law enforcement have to work together more closely than ever before. 

The Black Lives Matter statement as opposed to All Lives Matter statement innately separates people from one another. The point is that everyone should be treated fairly under the law. If you commit a crime, you should be treated the same no matter the color of your skin and, likewise, if you are the victim of a crime you should be given the same treatment and opportunity for justice against your assailant just the same as anyone else. All lives matter. All lives should be equally treated under the law.