photo by enpen  

Perhaps it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging dark of segregation to say, "Wait." But when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim; when you have seen hate-filled policemen curse, kick and even kill your black brothers and sisters; when you see the vast majority of your twenty million Negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society; when you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six-year-old daughter why she can't go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see ominous clouds of inferiority beginning to form in her little mental sky, and see her beginning to distort her personality by developing an unconscious bitterness toward white people; when you have to concoct an answer for a five-year-old son who is asking: "Daddy, why do white people treat colored people so mean?"; when you take a cross-county drive and find it necessary to sleep night after night in the uncomfortable corners of your automobile because no motel will accept you; when you are humiliated day in and day out by nagging signs reading "white" and "colored"; when your first name becomes "nigger," your middle name becomes "boy" (however old you are) and your last name becomes "John," and your wife and mother are never given the respected title "Mrs."; when you are harried by day and haunted by night by the fact that you are a Negro, living constantly at tiptoe stance, never quite knowing what to expect next, and are plagued with inner fears and outer resentments; when you are forever fighting a degenerating sense of "nobodiness" then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait. There comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over, and men are no longer willing to be plunged into the abyss of despair. I hope, sirs, you can understand our legitimate and unavoidable impatience.

WARNING: DISTURBING STORY

Did anyone read this ? What gets a person that far? I'm not sure why I ever read the news anymore.

From The Left Coaster and thank you to Mary:

NOAA just released their 2006 weather summary for the United States and it is quite something to compare the average yearly temperature map to that from last year.

2005	2006
Courtesy of NOAA

I think there are a couple of things going on to produce that startling red graphic of the USA on the right. Apparently El Nino and the global warming trends are both contributing. But the graphic comparison of 2005 on the left, which was a warm year, looks chilly compared to 2006 on the right. Anybody else seeing a red flag with the weather in 2006?

I suggest that a move toward sustainable economies is an absolute imperative. Time to stop fighting over the oil in the Middle East. The environment is going to punish us if we insist on burning fossil fuels. Time for a change. You connect the dots, kemosabe.

What can you do? Switch your lightbulbs first to compact fluorescents. Park your car. If you are buying a car, buy a “green” car. A hybrid that gets great gas mileage also reduces greenhouse gas emissions. Do the planet and your pocketbook a favor, park the Hummers, the Expeditions, the Durango’s, the Escalades. These vehicles and their ilk are symptomatic of the mindset that could destroy the inhability of this small blue planet.

I would like to know your opinion on the Pedestrian interference ordinance 9.16.48. Did think that it was an infringment on your Rights?

Did you think that it is somthing we need to control the homeless, and the kids.

I need some for and againsts, please.