Sebastian Is Eight - and Doing Great!

by Pa Rock
Proud Grandpa

My second oldest grandchild, Sebastian Phoenix Files, is eight-years-old today.  Sebastian, missing the Fourth of July by only one day, was almost a firecracker baby.  He was born in Phoenix, Arizona, which is always hotter than a firecracker in July!

My oldest grandchild, Boone, was only eight-years-old when Sebastian was born.  Boone and his daddy and I rode the train to Arizona that summer to meet Sebastian, and Boone busied himself on part of the trip trying to figure out how old he would be when Sebastian was finally old enough to play with him.  Well Boone, he's old enough now!

Now Sebastian lives in Salem, Oregon with his parents and his brother, Judah, and his sister, Willow.

Have a wonderful birthday, Sebastian.  I hope to be out to see you in a few weeks!

Independence Day on the Road

by Pa Rock
Road Warrior

Nothing says "independence" in America more than getting behind the wheel of an automobile and driving - and driving - and driving.  This morning I climbed into my trusty Saturn Vue at 0730 hours for the long drive south and east.  I was ending my visit to Tim and Erin and Olive in Roeland Park, Kansas and heading back to the little farm in West Plains, Missouri.  The trip is roughly 275 miles, and I managed it with only three brief stops.

The first stop I actually did not even get out of the car.  I pulled through the drive-thru at the Wendy's just down the street from where the Roeland Park Macy's live.  I got a good, healthy breakfast to go and then headed out toward the highway.  Unfortunately for morning people, many Wendy's do not serve breakfast - which is a shame because their breakfasts are really good.  The eggs are cooked fresh while you wait, the biscuits taste like real biscuits - not ones that have been frozen, and the menu has a nice variety of items - many of which are not carried by the other chains.  (The artisan egg sandwich with bacon is my particular favorite!)  I always stop there when I am in the Kansas City area - often multiple times.

From Roeland Park I drove about seventy miles to Clinton, Missouri before stopping a second time.  There I filled the car with gas and stretched my legs a bit.  As I started the next leg of the trip, I came upon the perfect pace car - a shiny little green Camaro with out-of-state plates (Scott County, Kentucky) that was traveling a bit too fast - though not dangerously so.   I slipped in behind the lone male motorist and proceeded to follow him as he leisurely passed most traffic that got in our way.   I wound up following the guy all to way to Springfield, across Springfield on the bypass, and then on east via Highway 60.  We were on the other side of Seymour when I finally broke off our relationship by pulling into a Casey's for a bathroom break and lunch.

For the final leg of the journey, seventy miles or so, I used a Lexus mini-van with a canoe strapped to its roof as my new pace car.   That driver was a bit more reserved than the guy in the Camaro had been, probably fearful of losing the canoe if he got too carried away with his speed.

The trip was basically uneventful, which is the way I prefer my travels to be.  The Highway Patrol was out in force, and I saw them ruining the holiday for several motorists - but fortunately I was not one of them!

I'm not sure what my next outing will be, but I have been invited to head west at the end of the month to attend Aunt Mary's 90th birthday party in San Diego.  I had literally dozens of aunts and uncles as I was growing up, but am now down to just two.   I am going to try to make it out to Mary's party and wish her well as she begins another decade.

(Floyd Sreaves of Seneca, Missouri is the other survivor of my parents' generation.  He was my mother's youngest brother.  Aunt Mary was married to my dad's older brother Wayne.  He died of leukemia in the 1950's.)

For all of you holiday revelers and firecracker fiends, party safe on this Independence Day!

Pippin at the Starlight

by Pa Rock
Culture Vulture

The occasional weekend jaunts to Kansas City serve as welcome diversions to my otherwise mundane and rustic existence.  I enjoy life on the farm, but it is always fun to get away for a few days and dip my toes into some culture.

This week marks the first trip that I've been able to make to Kansas City since my birthday outing last March.  I had told my son, Tim, that one of the things on my KC bucket list was to visit the Starlight Theatre, and this proved to be the trip when that item got checked off.  Last night we went to the Starlight and saw an extremely good production of the musical Pippin.

Both the theatre and the play were new experiences for me.

The Starlight is an enormous outdoor venue located in Kansas City's famous Swope Park.  The theatre, which seats nearly eight thousand people, is owned by Kansas City and operated by a public commission.   Admission is fairly pricey, and there is a fee for parking ($7.00 per car!), but aside from those indignities, an evening at the Starlight is a most positive experience.  Well, positive if it doesn't rain - which it did on us last night, sending many theatre-goers and Tim rushing to the gift shops to buy one-dollar ponchos.  But even the rain, light though it was, added to the charm and authenticity of theatre in the out-of-doors.

(When I phoned for tickets, the box office lady made darned sure that I understood there would be no refunds - regardless of what the weather decided to do.)

Tim and I walked around a bit before the show and even joined in one of the theatre tours.  We listened to a group of talented young people singing the scores from Camelot and Mary Poppins in the outdoor greenery.  One of the theatre workers told me that the kids were part of the "Starlight Stars," a collection of students who work at the theatre and take classes there during the summers.

Pippin is the fictionalized story of one of Charlemagne's sons, Pippin, who has been to the university and is now struggling to find meaning in life and chart his own future.   The tale of Pippin is being told by a traveling circus, replete with wild animals, actors, and acrobats.  The musical score, while quite good, contains no show-stoppers or tunes that you will find yourself singing in the shower on the morning following the performance, but the physical aspects of the show, the dancing and acrobatics, are quite memorable.  The tale itself meets the criteria of being a good stage production by capturing the attention of the audience and deftly playing upon their emotions.

The only member of the cast who was readily familiar to a large portion of those in attendance was film and television actress Adrienne Barbeau who played Pippin's grandmother.  Ms. Barbeau, perhaps best known for her role as Bea Arthur's sexpot daughter, Carol, in the 1970's sitcom Maude, received a nice round of applause when she stepped out onto the stage.  When the performer, who turned seventy last month, shed her grandmotherly garb to reveal herself in a sparkly one-piece, there were many oohs and aahs from across the packed house.  The sexy senior citizen sang, she danced, and she even performed some aerial acrobatics!  As Ms. Barbeau exited the stage, Pippin piped up proudly, "That's my granny!"

All of that and a cheeseburger from Culver's!   Oh, how I love Kansas City!

Lights! Camera! Decision!

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

There is an editorial in today’s New York Times regarding the rather clouded discourse that goes on in one of America’s three branches of government:  the judicial branch, more commonly referred to as the nation’s court system.  The Times would like to see the proceedings of the U.S.Supreme Court, in particular, televised.    

While lower courts often deal with individuals who have a certain degree of expectation of privacy, the Supreme Court of the United States focuses on defining the law and seeing how things fit within the framework of the Constitution.  Oral arguments before the Big Court are often summarized by reporters for public consumption, and decisions are announced publicly, but only a handful of people actually manage to gain admittance to the Court to watch firsthand when these events, some of which are historically momentous, occur. The justices oppose letting too much daylight enter their hoary old halls - and, in particular, the Supremes are averse to admitting television cameras into their shadowy inner-sanctum.

Congress has permitted the use of cameras in its proceedings since 1979, and the resulting coverage has ranged from highly educational - to downright entertaining - to unqualified big yawns.   Bringing in the cameras did not hamper or destroy the capacity of lawyers and car dealers to grapple for pork or serve the needs of their big donors. 

Surely the U.S. Supreme Court, an organization of individuals who do not have to rely on a steady flow of contributions to maintain their grandiose positions, could make do with the eye-that-never-blinks watching them while they work.

The basic argument of the resistant justices, at least according to the Times, seems to be that having cameras in their workspace would lead to grandstanding by the members of the Court.   Who actually believes that Antonin Scalia would need a camera in his face in order to grandstand?    The other argument is that Joe Public might be too dumb to understand what is being discussed.    Agreed – and Joe can always grab the remote as he reaches for another beer – but those who have an interest in the big show should have the opportunity to watch.

With a little forethought, Chief Justice Roberts could make this work.  Probably all it would take would be to assign someone to wake Clarence Thomas each time the light on the camera goes from red to green.  Ruth Bader Ginsburg would probably enjoy slapping the old fart every now and then!

The Hereditary Presidency

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

I had an email the other day from a group calling itself Roots Action.  It's aim was squarely focused on stopping the proliferation of America's two main political dynasties - the Bushes and the Clintons.  The email message pointed out that America was founded by people who were tired of the hereditary rule of the British royalty, yet here we are more than two hundred years later allowing the establishment of hereditary rule in our modern nation.

And that is a valid point.  Hillary will almost certainly be the Democratic nominee in 2016 - unless Bill gets caught trying to scale the wall of a high school cheerleader camp, and all of the major polls seem to have Jeb Bush among the top three Republican contenders.   They are lofty political animals who feel an entitlement to lead us.

George H.W. Bush was in the scramble for the Republican presidential nomination way back in 1980 before losing out to Ronald Reagan.  The Gipper chose Bush as his running mate, thus placing the former one-term Congressman on the national ticket - and on political easy street for himself and all of his progeny.  The elder Bush was on the national ticket again in 1984 as Reagan's running mate, and in 1988 he was elected President in his own right.

Bush ran for re-election as President in 1992, but thanks to a strong third-party effort by Ross Perot, he managed to lose the Oval Office to Bill Clinton.  Clinton was re-elected in 1996.  George W. Bush was elected President in a very close and bitter election in 2000, and he was re-elected in 2004.   Hillary Clinton tried to win the Democratic nomination for President in 2008, but she was edged out by a young political upstart by the name of Barack Obama.

The election of 2008 and the one which followed in 2012 represent the only two since 1980 in which a Bush or a Clinton has not been on a national ticket - and in 1992 both families were represented on the ballot.   Now 2016 is roaring down on us - and another Bush and another Clinton are waiting in the wings to receive their scepter and crown.

It's getting old, folks.  It's getting old.  Maybe the country should have two Presidents and then the families wouldn't have to be bothered with taking turns.

Huck Bucks after being Spurred by the Imperial Court

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

There was a lot of big news across the nation last week - the continuing rage against official displays of the Confederate flag, for example, or President Obama's beautiful eulogy for the Charleston shooting victims.   And the Supreme Court helped to insure medical care for millions with its second affirmative decision on Obamacare.

But there was also another decision from the Supreme Court last week that overshadowed the momentous one on Obamacare, and it has stirred the emotions of people from coast to coast - making some jubilant while inflaming others.   That decision was the one which essentially made gay marriage the law of the land.   It is proving to be a bitter, bitter pill for some people to swallow, and many influence peddlers and public officials seem determined to either ignore or openly violate the Court's decision.

The United States Supreme Court was an extremely popular institution in right-wing circles back in 2000 when five of the nine justices got together, probably over bourbon and branch water, and made George W. Bush the President of the United States.  Now, even though the membership of the Court is more conservative than it was then, it is viewed by some of those on the right fringe as "imperial."  After the Obamacare vote and the gay marriage decision, more than a few conservatives are openly talking about changing to Constitution to limit the powers of the Court - perhaps even having the justices stand for a public vote of renewal every few years.

Others, though, have gone even further and have declared that they will not abide by the Court's decision on gay marriage.   Ken Paxton, the GOP attorney general of Texas, quickly declared that state workers in his state do not have to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples if doing so runs counter to their religious beliefs.  Paxton also said that judges may refuse to marry same-sex couples on the same religious grounds.  The Texas attorney general isn't going to take the legal heat for it, though.  He said that those same workers and judges could be sued for their actions - or lack of action - but he felt that many good Texas lawyers would quickly step forward and defend those God-fearing patriots for free.  So basically Ken was encouraging Texas officials to break the law and wishing them well in their efforts to do so - while keeping himself safely above the fray - barely.

A wall along the Texas border sounds like a good idea - its northern border!

But it was former Arkansas GOP governor (and 2016 presidential candidate) Mike Huckabee who yelled the loudest.  Huckabee, a former Baptist minister and Fox News television personality, decried the decision from the "imperial" Court and gave his opinion that county officials did not have to issue marriage licenses to gay folk because to do so would countermand the will of God.  Huck apparently has no issue at all with the wall between church and state - to him it just simply does not exist.  (He also said this week that if he is elected President, he would be setting up a nativity scene on the White House lawn at Christmastime.  One has to wonder if he will opt for the historically correct black baby Jesus.)

Wiggle like a stick, waddle like a duck
That's what you do when you do the Hucklebuck.

(I recently changed a key member of my medical care team because the doctor in question ran an ad on the front page of our little "trader" newspaper, a free rag that prints only advertisements and personals.  He was going to be conducting a study group on Biblical healthy living practices.  When it comes to physicians, I want mine deeply and firmly rooted in science.  And when it comes to elected officials, especially ones who will be responsible for tackling environmental issues like global warming and other things that could ultimately end life on the planet, I prefer those be steeped in science as well.)

Some are moaning that with last week's decisions, God has forsaken America.  It is just as likely, I suspect, that God has suddenly returned from Her holiday on Pluto to check in on Her people farm here on Earth - and She has made some much needed adjustments.  Maybe She will ultimately be able to save us all from the hate-mongering Christians.

Pray for peace, fight for justice.

Monday's Poetry: "Ballad of Birmingham"

by Pa Rock
Poetry Appreciator

The past two weeks have witnessed monumental and fundamental change in America, with the precipitating event to much of that change being a bloody hate crime in the American south.   An ignorant and confused young white man walked into a prayer meeting at a historic black church in Charleston, South Carolina, where he apparently spent some time in fellowship with the congregation before opening fire and killing nine of them.

A couple of days ago President Obama went to Charleston where he gave the eulogy for the church's minister, Clementa Pinckney, who was murdered in the attack.  Some said that the eulogy represented the high-water mark of Obama's oratory skills - and he followed his remarks by leading those gathered at the funeral in what was reportedly an amazing rendition of "Amazing Grace."  Many in the press felt that Obama had gotten his groove back.

The shooter in South Carolina was a twenty-one-year-old named Dylann Roof.  He had apparently come under the influence of several on-line hate groups who filled his head with stories of black criminals running amok in society and raping white women.  Mr. Roof also had a fixation on the Confederate flag and dreamed of instigating a race war.

The race war didn't happen, but at least five black churches across the south have been burned since the mass murder in Charleston - just cowardly acts of nighttime terror.   The shooter did, however, probably much to his own shock and horror, precipitate a war of sorts on his beloved Confederate flag.  Nikki Haley, the governor of South Carolina, is asking her state's legislature to remove it from the state capitol grounds - and another young woman in the state, Bree Newsome, didn't wait for the legislature to act - she climbed the flagpole and removed the symbol of bigotry and slavery herself.  Ms. Newsome, an African-American, was promptly arrested - it is still the American south, after all.

Governors in other southern states are either removing, or seriously talking of removing, Confederate flags that are on display in their own states - all changes being brought about by a young man who wanted to instigate change.  Thank you, Dylann Roof, for helping to speed the demise of that emblem you so dearly love.

Back in the first hundred years following the Civil War, racial hate crimes, if they were even reported at all, were often just local news.  That began to change in the 1960's when activists from the north and national television crews started arriving in the South to see what was going on and to make changes.  Several crimes occurred during that time that truly shocked the nation.  One of those was the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church (a black church) in Birmingham, Alabama, a blast which killed four beautiful young black girls.

Today's poem, "Ballad of Birmingham," by the late African American poet and publisher, Dudley Randall, pays homage to that awful event.   Maybe things are not much better than they were fifty years ago when this crime at a black southern church shocked a nation - or maybe real winds of change are starting to stir.  This time there was a black American President to go to the site of the carnage and lead all Americans in prayer and song.  This time there was a young black female able to scale a flagpole and bring down a symbol of hatred without being set upon by police dogs or shot.  This time there was a promise of actual change wafting through the magnolias of the Old South.

The 16th Street Street Baptist Church wasn't the first black house of worship destroyed by racial hatred, and sadly the African Methodist Episcopal Church of Charleston hasn't been the last, but if we all hold hands and vow to overcome, someday America will see the absolute end of racial intolerance.  It's those who hate who are slowly fading from view - along with their beloved flag.

Please join me in remembering Birmingham and all of the other racial injustice that has wracked our nation and world over the centuries.  It is time to put that strife to rest - in a museum somewhere along with the Confederate flag - and get on with the process of achieving the liberty and happiness that every human - everywhere - deserves.

Ballad of Birmingham
by Dudley Randall

“Mother dear, may I go downtown

Instead of out to play,

And march the streets of Birmingham

In a Freedom March today?”

“No, baby, no, you may not go,

For the dogs are fierce and wild,

And clubs and hoses, guns and jails

Aren’t good for a little child.”

“But, mother, I won’t be alone.

Other children will go with me,

And march the streets of Birmingham

To make our country free.”

“No, baby, no, you may not go,

For I fear those guns will fire.

But you may go to church instead

And sing in the children’s choir.”

She has combed and brushed her night-dark hair,

And bathed rose petal sweet,

And drawn white gloves on her small brown hands,

And white shoes on her feet.

The mother smiled to know her child

Was in the sacred place,

But that smile was the last smile

To come upon her face.

For when she heard the explosion,

Her eyes grew wet and wild.

She raced through the streets of Birmingham

Calling for her child.

She clawed through bits of glass and brick,

Then lifted out a shoe.

“O, here’s the shoe my baby wore,

But, baby, where are you?”

"You're Invited!" A Review of a New Novel

by Pa Rock
Reader

You’re Invited!  is a work of fiction that grew out of a very real and tragic event:  the 2011 massive tornado that wiped out a good portion of Joplin, Missouri.  The setting for the story is Neosho, a small Ozark community located twenty miles south of Joplin.   The novel’s author is Tim Macy, a young writer of promise who grew up in southwest Missouri and spent several years of his boyhood in Neosho.

Tim Macy is also my son, a successful screenwriter who has one feature film to his credit, The Brass Teapot, a second scheduled for production beginning next month, and a third in an early phase of pre-production.  In Tim’s “spare” time he is a devoted husband and father as well as a part-time college instructor.  He has also completed one other novel which has yet to be published.

You’re Invited!  tells the story of Barry Mayhew, a former member of the Neosho City Council who is about to begin serving a prison term for stealing money from a fund set up to benefit victims of the Joplin tornado.  As Barry tries to come to terms with his rapidly approaching incarceration and the impending long-term separation from his young son, an event from his past suddenly re-emerges that begins to play even more havoc with his life.

This book will stir memories for anyone who has lived in or around Neosho.   The author has captured the town’s authenticity replete with the hard edges and sharp corners of life in a small community, yet as with all things based in memory, it has been air-brushed with just a hint of nostalgia.    All in all, the book presents a startlingly good composite of the town Tim knew as a boy. 

But it is psychological distress of Barry Mayhew that is the true and necessary focus of this book.  The plot is highly original, exerting a force that destabilizes that main character’s once successful life and sets it spinning out onto the darkening horizon, much like the murderous twister that spawned the tale.

You’re Invited! is being published electronically by Amazon.com.   To read it free, or to order a copy for your Kindle for just $2.99, please visit the following link.

http://www.amazon.com/YOURE-INVITED-Tim-Macy-ebook/dp/B0106TCKFC/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1435420229&sr=8-4&keywords=you%27re+invited

I wouldn’t recommend it if I didn’t like it – regardless of who the author is.

Great work, Tim!

A Better Country

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

In what will surely become one of the most commented upon and controversial decisions in its history, the United States Supreme Court yesterday struck a blow for individual freedom and dignity when it lifted all of the remaining state bans on gay marriage.  Adult citizens of the United States are now free to marry whomever they please - regardless of gender.

The vote was five to four, with the usual suspects dissenting:  Chief Justice Roberts, Justice Scalia, Justice Thomas, and Justice Alito.

That judicial decision will even take effect in Missouri, one of the final thirteen states to ban gay marriage.  Governor Jay Nixon of the "show-me" state, a Democrat presiding over a predominantly red state and overwhelmingly red legislature, had this to say:

"Today's decision in Obergefell v. Hodges is a major victory for equality and an important step toward a fairer and more just society for all Americans.  No one should be discriminated against because of who they are or who they love.  In the coming days I will be taking all necessary and appropriate actions to ensure this decision is implemented throughout the state of Missouri."

And, one must assume, even in Howl County.

Sharon Trowbridge, our Recorder of Deeds (and issuer of marriage licenses) said that she has had several calls on the matter over the last few weeks, and she had one call yesterday seeking information.  She is waiting to hear from the attorney for Missouri's Recorders' Association - and expects to be issuing licenses within the next few weeks.

Predictably, every major Republican candidate for President felt obligated to speak out against the Supreme Court decision, with former Arkansas governor and Fox television personality Mike Huckabee being the most bellicose.    Huckabee exploded with so much force that he rendered the air nearly unbreathable in several southern states.  Republicans are in a box on this one, and it is one of their own construction.  They feel the need to kiss up to the evangelical conservatives during primary season by embracing their rampant insanity, but then come time for the general election where some commonsense would be of benefit, they are tasked with the unenviable chore of suddenly and drastically changing positions.  (A process the Romney people in 2012 referred to as "shaking the Etch-a-Sketch.")

Poll after poll shows that Americans support gay marriage, and young Americans, in particular, are enthusiastic on the subject.  Republican candidates know that, but they can't break free of the lunatic fringe of their party and still win primaries.  The clown car is still racing around the track at ninety-to-nothing -  headed in the wrong direction!

And while the clowns zoom on, the rest of America can sit back and relax and enjoy the burgeoning equality.  The Supreme Court has just made us a better country.

Supreme Court Acts Humanely

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

The United States Supreme Court has, for the second time in three years, stepped in and saved the Affordable Care Act from destruction by its political opponents.  Yesterday's 6-3 vote prevented what would have been a sudden loss of insurance for millions of struggling Americans.

The Court has upheld the constitutionality of the law not once, but twice, and Congress, though attempting to repeal the law more than fifty times, has been unable to do so.  Somewhere, somehow, somebody ought to be getting the message that this is a good law, one which is meant to survive.

But there is a strong conservative element in our country which opposes what many term the "nanny state."  Those folks, all white and powerful, made their money the old fashioned way, by working for it, and by God anybody else should be able to do the same in this great land of opportunity.    Of course, many of the entrenched wealthy who spout that drivel inherited far more money than they ever earned, and some, like the Bush family for instance, are living off of money and entitlement that goes back multiple generations.

In America just a handful of people control most of the wealth, so while it may be easy to point the finger and lecture others on the work ethic, most of the available jobs pay minimum wage or less and have no health insurance component.  A great many people in our country work multiple jobs and are still unable to make ends meet - much less be able to afford luxuries like health insurance.   So if the super-rich won't share their wealth through paying livable wages and behaving in a socially responsible manner, government is morally obligated to fill the gap.

Those squawking the loudest about the abuses of the nanny state are the ones ultimately responsible for its necessity.  It would be nice if we lived in a land where everyone was born with some measure of equal opportunity, but race and the unequal distribution of wealth seem to have put that noble concept on hold.

Having health insurance is a basic human right.  Many thanks to the six justices of the U.S. Supreme Court who adhered to that principal and voted their humanity.

The Racist Reality of America's Gun Laws

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

Walmart has no policy on guns.  Just about anything that is legal in your state is perfectly acceptable at your local Walmart, and sadly, when it comes to guns, most things are now legal in most states.  That is why Leonard Papania, the Chief of Police in Gulfport, Mississippi, went on such a rampage a couple of days ago.  No, Chief Papania did not pull his personal sidearm and start firing, but he instead held a press conference where he lambasted Mississippi lawmakers over the "open carry" law that had been passed by the legislature.

The thing that got Chief Papania so riled up was a very scary incident at a Gulfport Walmart. Two men had entered the store carrying a shotgun.  Once inside the store, the one holding the weapon stopped to "load and rack" it, an event which scared the living crap out of many shoppers and caused a flood of 911 calls to the local police department.  By the time deputies responded, the men had taken their shotgun and left the store.  The police reviewed a tape of the incident and then telephoned the culprits who quickly informed them that they were exercising their lawful right to carry a gun in public and had broken no laws - and the police could, presumably, shove their interest in the matter up where the sun doesn't shine.

But Chief Papania would not go quietly into that dark hole.  He instead chose to attack the problem head-on by calling attention to the people who had done so much to create the dangerous situation in the first place:  the dumb asses who serve in the Mississippi state legislature.

The problem, unfortunately, goes well beyond the borders of Mississippi.  Most states now have versions of "concealed carry" and "open carry" laws, legislation pushed upon them by the profit-driven nabobs from gun lobbies like the National Rifle Association and the Gun Owners of America.   Most states have also passed what are commonly referred to as "stand your ground" laws which give people the right to start firing if they "feel" threatened.

It is now a risky business to enter many retail establishments - or even to go to church to pray.

What makes these laws even more troubling is the fact that they appear to be based in race.   A white man "standing his ground" and shooting a black man is likely to go free, even if he is a known racist vigilante, while a black man pulling a gun on a white, under any circumstances, will more than likely end his day wearing a toe tag in the morgue.

And the racial disparity is even more obvious in the "open carry" cases.  Those two yahoos down in Mississippi walked out of that Walmart as free men possessing gun rights, but last September at another Walmart a young black man by the name of John Crawford was shot and killed by police while only playing with a toy gun.

What would happen if young black men across the nation suddenly decided to do their Walmart, Target, or Home Depot shopping while openly carrying guns?  Sadly, we all know the answer to that one.   The rights to carry weapons, concealed or openly, and to stand one's ground were drafted for the benefit of white Americans - with the intent of keeping "others" in their places.

(On June 7, 2015, I wrote a similar piece in this space entitled "Jim Crow Is Alive and Packing Heat."  It discussed a YouTube video showing how police reacted very differently to two individuals openly carrying - one white and the other black.)

America's gun laws have been crafted and utilized with racist intent.   Any non-white citizen who ventures into a local Walmart with a shotgun in hand - and particularly if he stops to load that shotgun once he is in the store - will more than likely be lethally stopped by a patriotic goober who is standing his ground.  A couple of whites, however, doing the same thing are able to walk out of the store, free and healthy men, and go home and taunt the police.

It's time for all people to truly be treated as equals - and it's well past time for Walmart and other national retailers to develop gun policies designed to protect shoppers.  If the nation's legislators abdicate their responsibility for the public safety, then retailers need to begin filling that void.

More guns mean more crime, more death, and more entrenched racism.

Hey Bubba, Obama's Coming to Take Your Confederate Flag!

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

As a direct result of the racist killings that occurred in Charleston, South Carolina a week ago, major retailers Walmart and Sears announced that they were going to quit selling Confederate flags and merchandise bearing Confederate flag logos.  Public pressure immediately coalesced onto Amazon and eBay to follow suit - which they did yesterday.  But before Amazon announced the shift in policy, they made a pile of money off of stupid people who feared the worst - that Obama was going to come and take away their Confederate flags.

The people rushing to stockpile the Stars and Bars and driving Amazon sales of the flags up more than 8,800 percent were, of course, basically the same segment of the buying public that the NRA routinely whips into a frenzy in order to help their real clients, the American gun lobby, sell more guns. They aren't smart, but by God they will not fall victim to that black socialist who stole the White House from real Americans!

The gun and flag hoarders are buoyed in their belief system by the Bible, which few have read and even fewer understand or practice, and Fox News, where other stupid people yell at them and tell them what to believe.

(Shameful admissions:  I had a Confederate flag hanging on the wall of my apartment for awhile when I was in college.  It was a statement, I suppose, though now I am non-plussed as to what I had been trying to say.  That was nearly a half-century ago and times have changed - and thankfully I have changed with them.  Over the course of my life I have also owned two guns - both shot BB's and neither was necessary for my personal security- they just made me feel bigger than I actually was.)  

I'm glad to see the Confederate flag coming down from public buildings, and I suspect that other southern states may soon remove the symbol from their official state flags.  When international corporations like Walmart speak, two-bit state politicians tend to shake and quake.  But I am also realistic enough to know that the old symbol of enslavement of other human beings will not disappear altogether.

As mass distribution sources dry up, the flags will begin proliferating at craft and gun shows.    Making the flags by hand is one more thing that the tattooed women of the hills can do for an income while their menfolk sit on the couch watching television, drinking beer, and trying to figure out how to cook meth.

Keep flying those flags, Bubba.  They will help Obama figure out where you domestic terrorists are holed up.  And keep an eye on the sky - those black helicopters and drones are everywhere!

The Spreading Rage from Charleston

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

The blood had not yet dried on the church floor when my inbox began filling with petitions and appeals related to the horrific tragedy in Charleston.  Bernie Sanders, the independent senator from Vermont and Democratic presidential candidate  reached out to his followers with an email the morning following the shooting.  Sanders said, in part:

"What transpired in Charleston, South Carolina last night was not just a tragedy, it was an act of terror. 

"Nine of our fellow Americans were murdered while praying in a historic church because of the color of their skin.  This senseless violence fills me with outrage, disgust, and a deep, deep sadness. 

"This hateful killing is a horrific reminder that, while we have made important progress in civil rights for all our people, we are far from eradicating racism."

Bernie is right.  It was an act of terrorism, and it was the result of racism.  Republicans in general had trouble admitting either of those truths.

Bernie Sanders, always a classy guy, ended his email like so many politicians do - with an appeal for money.  But Bernie asked his followers to send money not to him, but to the historic church in South Carolina that had been the scene of the carnage.  His communication contained a link to assist in making that donation.

Hillary Clinton wrote a few days later, and her email, though not as timely as Bernie's and minus any request for donations, was a bit more eloquent.  She said, in part:

"Once again, bodies are being carried out of a black church.   Once again, racist rhetoric has metastasized into racist violence.  

"This is a history we wanted so desperately to leave behind, but we can't hide from the hard truths about race and justice in America.  We have to name them, own them, and ultimately change them."

Challenge noted and accepted.

Republicans predictably struggled with how to respond.  No politician in his right mind would openly support an act of violence like that which unfurled itself on Charleston, yet a big part of the base of the Republican party are white conservatives - and a goodly number of those have racist leanings.  That reality left GOP politicians scrambling to find a way to register their indignation as human beings without pissing off those what brung them to the dance.  It was a line that was much too fine for the average elephant to navigate.

And there were other types of comments as well.  Charles Cotton, a Texan who sits on the governing board of the National Rifle Association, decided to blame the victim.   He noted that the minister who was killed, Reverend Clementa Pinckney, was also a state senator in South Carolina.  Pinckney had voted against a "concealed carry" bill in his capacity as a state senator, and that legislation ultimately failed.  Cotton reasoned that if not for the political opposition of Senator Pinckney, the other eight victims might have been carrying guns that night and survived the shooting.

That logic is, of course, so flawed as to defy a logical response.  The reason the United States has the highest murder rate of any major industrialized nation is that too many people are armed - not too few.  If Mr. Cotton had been educated in any state other than Texas, he might know that.

Dylann Roof, the young thug who murdered nine people as they were praying, was a racist and proud of it.  Several photos of Roof holding a Confederate flag have surfaced, along with at least one of him burning an American flag.  The shooter's avowed intent with his bloody crime was to start a revolution - or a race war.

Some of the enraged voices emanating from Charleston seem to be focused on the Confederate flag which defiantly flies above the South Carolina state capitol.  Up until yesterday only one Republican of note, non-candidate Mitt Romney, had the cajones to openly and clearly call for its removal.  But now the state's tea-bagger Republican governor, Nikki Haley, has also come on board saying it should be taken down. That puts the GOP presidential contenders into an uncomfortable box - should they do the right thing and call for the flag's removal - or  keep their mouths shut out of fear of alienating conservative white voters in next year's South Carolina presidential primary - the first in the south?  What's a political panderer to do?

Today I saw on the internet that both Walmart and Sears have said they will remove all merchandise bearing the Confederate flag from their on-line and store sites.  Public pressure is being applied to Amazon and eBay to do the same.

It looks like instead of inciting a race war and proliferating the waving of the Confederate flag, young Mr. Roof may have triggered a chain reaction that will ultimately lead to the flag's complete removal from public view.

The tragedy in Charleston has whipped up a maelstrom of emotion -  a wrath which seems to be growing more powerful as it spreads across the land.   Let us all hope - and pray - that the deaths of those nine people in the old church in Charleston will ultimately have significant meaning and help lead America into a more tolerant and peaceful future.

And I, for one, hope - and pray - that Dylann Roof lives long enough to witness that change.

Monday's Poetry: "A Revolver"

by Pa Rock
Poetry Appreciator

This week witnessed the racially motivated terrorist attack at a historic black church in Charleston, South Carolina, an act that was committed by a young madman with a gun, an act which killed nine individuals who had gathered at the church simply to pray.  And while politicians, particularly Republican politicians, have stumbled all over themselves trying to condemn the act without offending any of their white conservative followers - and trying to paint the mass murder as something other than a racial attack, an act of terrorism, or a gun crime - it is what it is.

While digging through the internet trying to find a poem that might bear some relevance to the church shooting, I came across a unique a little known poem by one of America's premier poets, Carl Sandburg.   It is unclear when Sandburg wrote A Revolver.  The poem was unknown at the time of his death and only surfaced two years ago when a retired social work professor, Ernie Gullerud, age 83, discovered it while working as a volunteer in the rare books section of the library at the Urbana-Champaign campus of the University of Illinois.

Sandburg, in just a few lines, had quite a bit to say about guns and the power they bestow upon people.    Dylann Roof, the twenty-one-year-old shooter in Charleston, was a relative nobody harboring a head full of hate - but then he got his gun, and now we all know who he is.

A Revolver explores a dark topic, one that sadly concerns us all.


A Revolver
by Carl Sandburg

Here is a revolver.

It has an amazing language all its own.

It delivers unmistakable ultimatums.

It has the last word.

A simple, little human forefinger can tell a terrible story with it.

Hunger, fear, revenge, robbery hide behind it.

It is the class of the jungle made quick and powerful.

It is the club of the savage turned to magnificent precision.

It is more rapid than any judge or court of law.

It is less subtle and treacherous than any lawyer or ten.

When it has spoken, the case can not be appealed to the supreme court, nor any mandamus nor any injunction nor any stay of execution in and interfere with the original purpose.

And nothing in human philosophy persists more strangely than the cold belief that God is always on the side of those who have the most revolvers.

Being Jesus

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

The Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church has withstood numerous acts of violence over its two hundred year history, and yet survived.   Today its doors are open for Sunday services.  Some of those in the pews today are relatives of the people who were murdered on Wednesday - and many of them have already offered their forgiveness to the confused racist thug who killed their loved ones.  They aren't just parroting Jesus or singing to Jesus, they are being Jesus.

May the very good people at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston become a light in the darkness for the entire nation.  It's time for the Civil War to end.

The Tao of Cher

by Pa Rock
Disciple of Cher

Having come of age in the sixties, I have seen more than my fair share of concerts and live performances - from college fare to Branson to Vegas to Broadway - but of all of the hundreds of shows that I have seen and enjoyed, one stands out clearly from the rest.  On May 31st, 2014, I had a great seat at the Sprint Center in Kansas City where I enjoyed the singing and theatrics of Cyndi Lauper followed by an astounding performance by Cher.

Cher entered that performance standing atop a thirty-foot pillar - the high priestess of the age.

It was one hell of an evening!  Both ladies pulled out all of the stops as they led the audience on a nostalgic musical road trip.   They worked hard to see that everyone left feeling that they had gotten more than their money's worth - and there wasn't a cheap seat in the house!

So I am a Cher fan - unashamedly.

Yesterday there was a political Cher story on the internet.  The iconic entertainer had tweeted her opinion of GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump, to wit:

"Donald Trump's ego is so inflated, he might as well be the Hindenberg.  In dictionary next to 'Obnoxious Asshole' see photo of 'The Donald.'"

I quickly pulled my dictionary off of the shelf, and there was Trump's picture - right where Cher said it would be!  The woman is amazing!

One of Cher's other fans (a lesser fan than me) responded back to her tweet by asking her to choose between Trump and Senator Ted Cruz, another Republican presidential candidate and troglodyte.  Cher's response:

"That's like saying 'would you rather have a migraine or throw up?'"

Yet another fan asked if she would ever agree to have her picture taken with Trump, to which Cher replied that she would rather stick needles in her own eyes.

Hard to believe that Cher's musical other half, Sonny Bono, went on to become a conservative Republican congressman before being felled by a tree.

Cher, however, remains true to the spirit and tao of the sixties.   The world is her stage, and Donald Trump is her doormat!

The Road to Jefferson City

by Pa Rock
Missourian

There was a time back in the late 1990's when I was a familiar figure in Jefferson City, Missouri's capital.  At that time I was a graduate student at the University of Missouri, just up the road in Columbia where I was working on the degree of Master of Social Work.   One of the ways that I filled in my non-school time during those years was as an operator/counselor at the state's child abuse and neglect hotline which is located in a rather nondescript building in Jefferson City.

But that was then.

After graduating from MU, I had very little  contact with the central part of the state - that is until yesterday when I left my farm at 3:30 a.m. to ensure that I could make the road trip north to the capital safely and without having to rush.  Most of the drive was in the rain.

It was my first trip to Jefferson City from West Plains, and I seriously misjudged the amount of time it would take to get there.  The class that I was attending (continuing education for renewal of my social work license) did not begin until 8:00 a.m., and I was in town and at the parking garage a little before six.   I also misjudged the city traffic.  Jeff City is little more than an overgrown cowtown of offices and watering holes for politicians.  Traffic is almost a bigger problem in West Plains than it is in downtown Jefferson City.

Oh, well, my early arrival gave me plenty of time to look around - I suppose.

The first thing I learned on my capital city walkabout is that the place is a mecca for lobbyists.  Just about every building was inhabited by lawyers or representatives of some trade or labor group.  I spied the offices of the Missouri School Boards Association and teachers groups near the capitol building, as well as groups representing convenience stores and elk growers.  Anyone with any interest in government has an office in Jefferson City where they can readily buy some of it.

I also discovered that almost all of the downtown cafes don't open until eleven.  I guess that must be when our esteemed legislators crawl out of their lobbyist-funded beds and begin stumbling into work.  (Did I just use the terms "legislators" and "work" in the same sentence?  Missouri legislators, at that!)

After a morning in the most boring class that I have endured in recent memory, I had lunch with an old friend whom I hadn't seen for several years.  The visit was great - even if the lunch was not.  It was followed by the afternoon class session, which was somehow even worse that what we had to sit through that morning.

Most of the ride home was in a downpour, and I got back to Rock's Roost just in time to put the chickens - and then myself - to bed.  Today I am on the road to Springfield (two hours each way) for a doctor's appointment - and it is raining again!.

Living in the country makes for a fair amount of driving!