‘Black Lives Matter’ an outrage only to people who are offensive themselves

“Black Lives Matter” is one of those slogans that has the potential to become so overused that it will lose its significance.

Offensive rant? Or incredibly obvious!

Yet it also has the ability to bring out the worst in people who usually don’t take too much to get themselves all worked up into a lather.

THE SLOGAN IS one that was adopted by the activist types who are upset with what they perceive as excess force and violence used by police and other allegedly law-and-order mentality types against black people.

On the surface, it is an incredibly obvious statement – life does matter. One’s significance to our society shouldn’t depend on one’s race (and I don’t want to hear that we’re all a part of the “human” race, because if we’re honest, we don’t behave like that).

But the conservative ideologues, particularly those who are motivated by race, detest such a thought. They complain that “Black Lives Matter” somehow is disrespectful – perhaps they think that attention paid to black people is attention diverted from themselves.

Which, to me, sounds like it’s their own hang-up that is the problem, and not the slogan.

ANYWAY, “BLACK LIVES Matter” is gaining public attention for the number of outbursts. Most recently, a Unitarian church in the Beverly neighborhood was forced to remove the slogan from a sign outside their building.

The DNAInfo.com web site reported that many people were using the Internet to anonymously (of course) rant and rage about the church because of what they wanted to consider as a subversive concept.

Scary that Archie Bunker image still fits

Which sounds as ridiculous now as those old “All in the Family” episodes of four decades ago when actor Carroll O’Connor’s “Archie Bunker” character would refer to provisions of the U.S. Constitution about personal freedom and liberty as “Commie crapola.”

I find it ridiculous that some people seriously have objections to thinking that police brutality is a problem – or that anybody somehow deserves such treatment.

THEN AGAIN, THEY’RE probably the ones who don’t have a problem with Sarah Palin – who on Wednesday in Washington, D.C., said that protesters who organize around “Black Lives Matter” are really nothing but “dogs.”

Not the attention Beverly Unitarian usually seeks

Or as the Washington Post reported, they were dogs whom President Barack Obama won’t call off.

Palin, by comparison, says she wants to offer her support to police officers in departments all across the nation. As though the woman whom John McCain considered fit to be president “just in case” thinks it’s an all-or-none proposition.

Any respect paid to black people somehow detracts from law enforcement, and that somehow racial concerns (or the fears of certain segments of our society) warrant hostile treatment toward those whose racial origins trace back to the African continent.

YES, I THOUGHT that Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly (just after offending the ideologues by being less-than-reverential toward Donald Trump’s presidential fantasies) made herself sound ridiculous when she implied that “Black Lives Matter” protesters were somehow, in and of themselves, a “hate” group racially biased against white people.

That is the same mentality that put the Beverly Unitarian Church on notice that it didn’t want the church offering support to the “Black Lives Matter” concept. Or anything else it probably thinks of as “pinko” or “n----r-loving” or whatever other narrow-minded term they use to express their ignorance.

I’m not about to call for our society to express equality for all, or any other high-minded talk. I’m enough of a realist to know that bigoted thought is always going to prevail amongst some people.

But it is when our government starts reinforcing the hang-ups (like that goofy rural Kentucky county clerk wants to be able to do for those who can’t handle the concept of gay marriage) of that segment of society, that is when we become as morally bankrupt as the ideologues think we already are.

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Trump brings bad name to people who want to lambast ‘politically correct’

I have always had my problems with people who want to complain that our society is too politically correct, or that politically correct is an abhorrent concept.

TRUMP: Won't listen to Mark Twain!

They try to make it seem like their viewpoints are somehow being censored; their attitudes are being silenced as part of some agenda that singles out people like themselves for abuse.

WHICH IS NONSENSE! As ought to be evidenced by the recent days of activity involving New York real estate developer Donald Trump’s fantasies about becoming U.S. president in next year’s election cycle.

If anything, Trump is giving us the classic example of what is wrong with people who want to complain about “political correctness” run amok. And I’ll be the first to admit I can be the most blunt of speakers at times.

Because Trump has tried claiming that the concept of political correctness is what is behind the people who want to criticize his attitudes toward women and the fact that Fox News Channel anchor Megyn Kelly (whom I’ve had my own objections to at times) used the recent Republican presidential debate to call him out on it.

Trump wants us (the electorate) to think that he’s the victim. Because the fact that someone would criticize his demeaning thoughts about women (and they are truly demeaning). When he followed up with the comments that many interpreted to be about Kelly’s menstruation cycle (he now says he meant it was blood from her nose), he responded by claiming offense that anyone would think he was a “deviant” capable of being so crude and boorish.

THAT MAY BE the biggest laugh of this whole situation – that Trump would be amazed to learn that people don’t associate class and sophistication when they hear his name. As if all those gaudy structures he built throughout the years wasn’t enough evidence.

Scouring the used book stores for original PC

Now, Trump would like to turn this talk into a political correctness debate – claiming that his attitudes are being censored by that segment of the Republican Party that sees his campaigning as an embarrassment and a distraction to the remainder of the GOPers who have desires to run for president.

Except that he comes across the way too many people come off when they use the phrase “politically correct” as an epithet – it always seems like what bothers them is they can’t use words like “n----r” or “f----t” (as in the racial and homosexually-oriented slurs) without having other people around them crack down upon them for expressing their ignorance so clearly.

Proving the truth behind the old adage from author Mark Twain, “It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.”

EXCEPT THAT TRUMP seems determined every day to prove how much more foolish he can be – and how absurd it is that anybody takes his presidential talk seriously.

Is this really the face of a threat to our society?

It all reminds me of when I originally heard the “political correctness” phrase – some three decades ago when I was in college and the latest trend was to eliminate disparaging talk by replacing them with phrases that no person would use in natural speech.

People aren’t short, they’re height-challenged. They’re not bald, they’re follicle-challenged. Those phrases come across as nonsense-talk; they’re not a linguistic change I’m about to fight for. It was a fad that withered away quickly enough.

But that phrase has become the epithet that too many people use when they want to cut off opposition debate – the tyrants who think the whole world is supposed to shut up and do what they tell them to do.

BECAUSE THAT NOTION (which is one that I find to be as un-American as possible) better fits the Trump campaign mentality than any idea that he’s being picked on by women.

Which makes me think we’d all be better off if the Trump campaign were to go the way of other fads such as the pet rock, beanie babies or those people who used to dance the Macarena.

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Why Trump ain't fit for president

I didn't watch any of the would-be Republican presidential dreamers debate as it occurred Thursday, and I'm glad.


For if I had, I suspect I would still be repulsed. As it turns out, reading the wrap-ups and reports that came from Cleveland pretty much confirmed what I suspected.


DONALD TRUMP IS a dink, and anybody who takes his campaign (whether as a Republican or a political independent) seriously is in need of serious mental help,


Much of the public attention is going toward Megyn Kelly, the blonde Fox News anchor who presided over the debate and tried to call out Trump on some of his more misogynistic quips of recent past -- only to have him tell her basically she (and all other women) need to get over it.


Personally, I was amazed by his comments about the intelligence level of the U.S. government, which he seems to think is being conned by the Mexico government into accepting people into this country whom Mexico would just as soon be rid of.


I'm sure he'll try to defend his nonsense talk by saying he was actually praising Mexico; but in such a back-handed manner that it came across as the ultimate of insults to my ethnic brethren.


ALTHOUGH I'LL ADMIT it was totally in line with the kind of rhetoric he has been spewing about immigration and Mexico. I'm glad he didn't try to do some sort of back-talk that tried to apologize (but not really) for his past comments.


It seems that Donald Trump, the New York real estate developer who has had a hand in erecting so many ugly structures upon our society, is determined to be the 21st Century equivalent of Pat Buchanan.


Back when Buchanan tried running for president, he tried appealing for votes to those xenophobes amongst us who are determined to vilify Mexico as the root of all evil. Trump seems to want those voters now.


I don't dispute that those kind of people exist, and that they will vote. But Trump has now established himself as the loudmouth with the foreign-bashing spiel -- and the guy who probably thinks all people from Latin American nations are really "Mexicans" who "ought to be illegal" within the boundaries of the United States.


HE MAY GET some votes from older-generation Cuban exiles who have always resented the fact that they do not dominate the image of Latinos in this nation. Maybe even a stray Puerto Rican or Dominican.


But he can forget about the nonsense-talk he has spewed about winning the Latino vote. It's not going to happen!


What Trump is is an un-apologetic buffoon who wants to be able to spew insults upon everyone not like himself, then dump further trash-talk upon them when they try to defend themselves.


Just like the way he dealt with Kelly when she mentioned some of the insulting comments he had made about women in the past. It's her problem, he said. While probably believing that the Miss USA pageant that he owns will be great source material to provide the future first lady of a Trump administration.


HE CERTAINLY DOESN'T think it is his problem, even though anyone with sense would realize this is just a trash-talker who's a bully and who wants to believe that he's being bullied by everyone who refuses to give in to him.


Which is why I expect the Republican operatives and their voters ultimately will dump Trump. Although I also think he will run as an independent because he won't want anyone else telling him what to do during a campaign season.


And when he ultimately loses, he may well top Richard Nixon's 1962 concession speech for California governor -- the one where he said we, "won't have Dick Nixon to kick around any longer."


Let's just hope that a Trump political defeat some time next year won't result in a political comeback some six years later!


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Everybody wants to believe everyone ought to be just like themselves

Megyn Kelly, the blonde babe news anchor for Fox News Channel, is getting more than her share of ridicule on the Internet these days for her statement on air this week that both Santa Claus and Jesus Christ were white.

Believe it or not, I’m not about to join in the abuse. Yes, it’s a nonsense-thought to have when you think about it.

YET I DON’T doubt that many a person just perceives things this way. It’s that instinct amongst us that everybody has to be just like us. Otherwise, maybe it means there’s something wrong with themselves.

That is what makes the modern-day reality of the 21^st Century in our society so scary for some – we’re not all alike. Nor should we have to be.

We’re at a point where we ought to quit thinking of the concept of a “Black Santa” as some sort of joke, and maybe a recognition of what we all are. Besides, we all ought to realize that Santa Claus is a Latino, flying around the skies in a sleigh pulled by reindeer fueled with “Magic Dust” (or so said Cheech Marin of the Cheech & Chong comedy team).

For Kelly to want to perceive Santa as a fat old white man is just a realization of who she is. Anybody who’s surprised that she’d think that way is the one I would want to question.

WHAT ELSE WOULD you expect from her?

Actually, my initial reaction when I learned of Kelly’s comments (which were in response to a commentary published at the Slate.com website and written by a black woman who wrote about being confused as a child because Santa in her house was black, while he was white everywhere else) was to recall a moment from my own college days.

One day in a class where we were engaged in a conversation either about Aristotle or Plato (I’m not sure exactly which one), somebody made a comment in support of the philosopher and referred to his “Christian” values.

 

To which the professor tried to hold back a laugh when he explained that the philosopher in question was not of any religious faith that could be called “Christian.”

THAT STATEMENT PROVOKED a debate amongst the students that took up the entire rest of the class session.

“Of course he’s Christian,” some students said. “We wouldn’t study him if he weren’t Christian,” others wanted to believe. “He’s a good person, so he has to be Christian,” was also heard.

There were some students who were not in agreement, and even tried arguing back that the words “Christian” and “good” and “moral” were not necessarily synonymous with each other.

Not that any of the initial group wanted to hear of it.

PERSONALLY, I RECALL that day in class as one of the most humorous moments of my academic life. Although I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that others probably viewed it as some sort of moment when they were exposed to subversive thought.

Just like I’m sure that some people probably want to view the idea of a non-White Santa Claus as violating everything they want to believe about our society.

I ultimately came to realize that “Santa Claus” is about a concept – one of sharing and giving, which is what the upcoming Christmas holiday can be at its finest. (At its worst, it’s nothing more than a greedy gift grab – but that’s a commentary for another day).

If some people feel the need to believe that “sharing” and “giving” are concepts only relevant to themselves, then perhaps they’re saying more about their own hang-ups, and we should pity them for being so close-minded.

BESIDES, DIDN’T THE whole concept of Santa Claus and Jesus being either “white” or “black” get resolved all those decades ago by the “Archie Bunker” and “Henry Jefferson” characters on “All in the Family.”

 

At least when actor Carroll O’Connor’s Bunker character persisted in claiming that both Jesus and Santa were white, he was just going for a cheap laugh!

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