Bits and Pieces

Political National Anthem: We have encountered and survived many periods of social history in America where symbols of our national pride are used as political totems. The flag and the national anthem are most often the symbols used.

Sporting events in America usually begin with the national anthem and the waving of the flag. I’m not sure why this is so but it is the norm throughout the nation in high school, college and professional sports.

So it is an ever present symbol that can be honored or disrespected for effect by anyone who wishes to make the political statement. The latest incident is in pro football with Colin Kaepernik’s refusal to stand during the playing of the national anthem while black citizens are being killed by police throughout the nation. This is a serious issue the country faces. The why’s and where for’s are not fully understood. But making this a political issue involving the national anthem is most likely not an effective method of registering a complaint.

It is true there are too many black American deaths at the hands of police. But is it intentional? Or is it related to the statistical function of crime occurring at much higher incidence within black communities and neighborhoods? Or is it some other cause? At this point in time we don’t truly know the answers to those questions. I would be shocked to learn this is intentional on the part of the police. But I’ve been shocked before.

I doubt police are the culprits of this tragic statistic among black Americans. I do believe, however, that the communities most affected have lost their own control over their own communities and neighborhoods. I think they know this is the root cause. But what to do about it is not theirs alone to struggle with. Nor is it the lone struggle of the police either.

This is a community issue that the leaders throughout the communities must focus on to control and eliminate. Black gangs exist and do their dirty work in their own communities. It is where their power and angst is best understood. And thus the crime exists there. So too in Hispanic areas; gangs and internal political and cultural unrest exist there. So crime and violence follows in the wake.

Police are required to respond to calls for help. Some of these cries are legitimate; increasingly we learn that many are not; they are in fact entrapment of police personnel so they may be picked off one by one by snipers or violence prone gangs to get back at police for whatever it is they feel upset about.

The uncomfortable truth is this: police are losing this battle for balance and the public is making that happen by believing police are the cause. They are not. They are the answer and the saving grace in so many ways.

But they cannot act alone. Community leaders must step forward to lead the cultural soul searching necessary to find the answers within the communities that will lessen the cause of gang formation and violence in the first place.

The larger society must also find means and ways to solve the cultural problems that lead to unrest in the first place: lack of education and job skills development; poverty; crime that follows poverty; unequal pay for women and men of color and culture. The list is longer than this, but we have to start somewhere.

And this cause relates to both the black and Hispanic communities. Do not forget either in our quest for peace and tranquility.

Putin’s Denials: We know before he opens his mouth that he will say something opposite the facts. Westerners are conditioned to this. Russian premiers do not have credentials of truth when they speak to the press inside or outside of their Mother Russia. We know them to be purveyors of what they want us to think and believe, not what the facts support.

The latest proof of this is Putin’s denial that anybody in Russia or connected to Russia had anything to do with the hacking of Western data bases especially the Democratic National Committee. But for several months that’s what the press has been reporting from reliable sources throughout the global computing industry. Hackers have been trained for espionage of information culturally, politically and militarily. The process is actually one and the same. Why not hack all data bases and learn what you can.

My hunch is that Russian intelligence already knows a lot about western life (mostly American) because ours is an incredibly open society. We say what we think and believe. We are open and honest about how we live and why we live the way we do. Ours is the path of freedom. It is not always pretty. It is not always productive. But it is honest.

Telling it like it is is something we do here in the USA. Not always politic or diplomatic, but it is truthful. We hide very little. And what little we do hide socially and culturally, we talk about in Twitter and Facebook accounts and in email traffic. Gobs of email traffic.

The wonder is why any freedom loving person in Russia remains there when American lifestyles are open for all to see and experience! But then there are people who love, and I mean adore, cold, brisk snowy weather! We live in Chicago and don’t like the weather in winter. But we like most everything else about Chicago so we have learned to survive the winters. But Russian winters? I can’t imagine learning how to survive them!

September 7, 2016