WE NEED TO KNOW; BLOG # 192; FRIDAY, JULY 17, 2015

THE MESSAGE:

Some things to ponder. We truly need to reflect on these concepts that are so prevalent in today's news stories.

1) RACISM IN AMERICA

HOW RED IS YOUR NECK?

HOW BLACK IS YOURS?

Pat Boone speaks out

The former 1950s crooner and an ultra-conservative fundamentalist, is asking President Obama to stop using the 'r-word'. "Mr. President! For God's sake, and America's sake, quit so often calling crimes that involve a black person 'racist'! 

LISTEN TO 'LOVE LETTERS IN THE SAND'

"As the president who came to office, a black man promising to bring people together, a man ideally suited for that job since you were born both black and white, you had a God-given chance to actually proclaim and demonstrate that racial divides and prejudice had greatly diminished and that our society was truly becoming colorblind," 

Boone said Obama has instead portrayed America as a racist nation. "We are not!" Boone exclaimed.  Race, Boone said in his online column, had little or nothing to do with recent killings of unarmed black men by police, including the cases of Trayvon Martin in Florida and Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo.

TRAYVON MARTIN

Bill O’Reilly says racism not ingrained in U.S. during on-air rant

Conservative Fox commentator Bill O'Reilly went on a similar rant Tuesday night when he screamed "Most Americans are not racist. They're not!" In an explosive Fox News rant, Bill O’Reilly argued that only anti-Americans believe the U.S. is suffering from epidemic racism. 

The conservative pundit sounded off on race and racism in a Tuesday night shouting match with Fox News analyst Kirsten Powers on 'The O’Reilly Factor'.  “I don’t think it’s an epidemic of racism. I don’t think it’s ingrained in this society,” the hot-headed host yelled. “The world is being told by anti-American haters that we are a rank, racist society, and that is a lie.”

O’Reilly argued that every country has elements of racism — but it’s not rampant in the U.S.

2) LIBERTY

THE MAGNA CARTA 

(800th ANNIVERSARY 1215 to 2015)

Throughout the 17th century, Magna Carta was regarded as the authority for 'The Rule of Law'. It was generally invoked by the opponents of whoever was in power. Oliver Cromwell famously referred to the document as “Magna Farta”.  In the 18th century, parliament replaced the monarchy as the target, in the struggle against absolutism and in favour of individual rights. 

 IN THE USA, LAND OF THE FREE?

Magna Carta has everything going for it to be venerated in the United States: It is old, it is English and, because not many have actually read the text, it is easy to invoke to fit current needs. The National Environmental Protection Act has been called an “environmental Magna Carta.” Judges, too, cite Magna Carta with increasing frequency, in cases ranging from Paula Jones’s suit against Bill Clinton to the pleas of certain Guantánamo detainees. Tea Party websites regularly invoke it in the battle against Obamacare.

MYTH AROUND THE WORLD?

Americans aren’t alone in revering Magna Carta. Mohandas K. Gandhi cited it in arguing for racial equality in South Africa. Nelson Mandela invoked it at the trial that sent him to prison for 27 years. We are not the only ones, it seems, willing to stretch old legal texts beyond their original meaning. Like the Holy Grail, the myth of Magna Carta seems to matter more than the reality.

THE QUESTION: 

Do Americans hate the colour of skin or the  willful behaviours of people or both?

THE QUOTE:

"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants."

- Thomas Jefferson

THE LEMON:

Derek Bynum, David Lombard and two North Miami Senior High classmates are accused of raping a disabled girl in a school closet, authorities say.The boys, ages 15-18, forced the girl “to perform oral, anal and vaginal sex acts” during the brutal encounter.

THE CLIP: