Muslim Killer and Muslim Innocents

Many soldiers killed by an insane psychologist. Insane? He would have to be to do something like that. Oh, and he was a Muslim too. So now crazies all over the country are threatening mosques and individuals. Question: if he had been a Baptist would the crazies bomb churches? Of course not. We would never consider blaming innocent members of a group like that because of one sick stupid act by a Christian. So why blame every Muslim in the world for this sick stupid act? People seem to be hard-wired to hate anyone different from us. Different race, different religion, different language, different sexuality and even different sex. How the hell we ever got this far is beyond me. Probably extinction will be the ultimate answer for the “human” problem.

Photo: http://media.www.trumanindex.com/media/storage/paper607/news/2005/01/27/Indepth/Muslims.Jews.Hindus.Find.Ways.To.Pray.In.Kirksville-842625.shtml

Being Black is Dangerous

This is a comment on the death penalty. I started out years ago supporting it believing in the safety of the criminal justice system. Over the years I have seen over and over innocent men, almost all black, being incarcerated and then years later exonerated. We don't know how many innocent people have been executed or how many remain behind bars. We do know that hundreds have been railroaded and victimized because they were black and therefore easier to convict. What a travesty.

Imagine being innocent of a murder and being convicted and incarcerated. I have to call that torture. In America. Torture. Legal.

Would it be better to be innocent and executed? Ahh. That I don't know. In this country executions often take 15, 2o or more years to be carried out. That surely is torture as well.

America has the highest rate of incarceration (1) in the world and the US is currently fifth in the world for executions (2). What the hell is going on here? Blacks are far more likely to get the death penalty than whites. Why? I think I know the answer to that but my opinion is informed by emotion and many but diffuse sources.

What to do? Get rid of the death penalty. Period. It costs more to execute people than incarcerate them. And a fringe benefit would be the survival of innocents and hopefully the ultimate exoneration of them. Better yet why not a system that doesn't allow the conviction of innocents. Currently prosecutors cannot be themselves prosecuted for wrongful prosecution. Now don't go off half-cocked here. If honest mistakes are made in the prosecution of an innocent there should be no penalty for the prosecutor. That tastes bad but I can understand it. Today a case was discussed on NPR that outlined the purposeful framing of, you got it, black men. Police and prosecutors were in on the frame, got convictions and moved on with their lives. Two men spent 25 years in prison before being exonerated by the "discovery"of evidence hidden by the police and prosecutor that absolutely showed that they were framed. The supreme court is now going to decide if the prosecutors and police can be sued for this. Sued? Charge the bastards and jail them. Immunity for framing? Crap.

1 http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0818/p02s01-usju.html
2 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_punishment
3 http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/race-death-row-inmates-executed-1976
4 http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120069519
Photo: www.deadanarchists.org/Pentecost/murder.html

Iroquois Brothers?

Probably. They claimed Iroquois ancestry and have features that are consistent with this claim. Their eyes are typical of some groups of Native Americans and they along with their sisters have the "look" of native Americans. There are some stories told by these brothers that ring true. They told that the family had a deep association with the Owl, and that Owl was their spirit guide. In fact when the older brother was dying in a rural hospital a great horned owl sat for 2 days in a tree outside his window, and the morning after he died an owl visited his brother's house and his sisters house, both many blocks from the hospital. Owl sat outside the houses for a time, and then left. This had never happened before, and never happened again.
The younger brother told the tale of Bird. Bird favors those that honor him by leaving a feather directly in their path. To honor Bird one must pick up the feather and wear it somewhere prominent so it can be seen and admired by any who looks at it. This in turn pleases Bird and brings his good luck to the wearer.
Their father was a healer with special skills using certain plants. He could cure some conditions easily, but died without passing on any of his knowledge, gained he said, from his father.
The brothers had three sisters, two with distinctive Native American traits and one without them. The middle sister claimed that she could hear "the high winds" and very accurately predict the weather by hearing how fast they blew and by what directions they moved. Now we know that the high winds she heard are the upper atmosphere steering currents that move much of the weather around the globe. She heard them as a child and throughout her life. Experts will tell you that humans cannot hear the jet stream, but she could. Another clue to her aboriginal roots. She is on the right in the photo below the brothers picture.
These siblings are my ancestors. The oldest, the man with the cowboy hat was my father and the rest my aunts and uncle. Their names in order of age from oldest to youngest are Hal, Ray, Greta, YuYu and Effie. They are all dead now, hopefully joined in some place peaceful and quiet. But if not, they at least lead good lives and kept true to their roots.