THE MESSAGE:

Wait, I don't seem to have many answers to the systemic problems that exist in today's societies. The answers that I do have seem simple to me but they never seem to stop the insanity.

Putin, stop bombing and killing children. Also end your new cold war.
Jihadists, stop the cowardice. Allah never told you to kill anyone.
Hey Suzuki, Get lost, preferably in the Australian outback!
Hillary, big mouths are a distraction to the persona, CLOSE IT.
Police forces, stop shooting unarmed citizens and those mentally challenged.
Governments get smaller, much much smaller.
Power mongers, lose the ego.
Religious zealots, find some common ground.
Hey people stop having children that you can't care for.
Rapists, sexists and thieves, get an education and a conscience.
United Nations, Seriously???
Hey imperialists, stay home.
World, feed the people.

Why are we so worried about Global Warming and its effect on our children's children? This world is in dire straits weather we are warm or cold. I dare say that the evils we tolerate today will continue well into the next few centuries.

Why can't modern societies make it possible for all community members to live productive lives?

Are subsidized housing, government handouts or food stamps the answer to help those who are jobless?

Does it make sense to sit by and watch sections of a city or country deteriorate into crime ridden ghettoes or reserves with terrible schools, gang wars, incarcerations, riots, a lack of decent jobs and fatherless or abusive families?

What can Blacks, Hispanics and, Aboriginals do for themselves that would improve their apparent hopeless situations?

To what extent are people required to take responsibility for their own development, welfare and survival?

Do realities such as loss of cultural identity, traditions, racism, poverty, alcohol and drug abuse, gangs, children lacking fathers, incarceration provide excuses for heinous behaviours? Is it necessary for a society to tolerate anti-social behaviours, disrespect of laws, violence and rioting?

Was the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri justified or were the protesters correct in blaming the police officer?

Does the answer lie in protest groups like Black Lives Matter, Chief Spence of Attawapiskat, rioters in South Carolina, etc.?

THE BLURB:

IS THERE SUCH A THING AS POLICE BRUTALITY?

“(Expletive) this guy,” the officer says before aiming his police cruiser at the mentally ill homeless man that he and his partner had been sent out to confront. “I'm going to hit him.”

“Okay, go for it. Go for it,” his partner responds, his voice recorded on the Sacramento police cruiser’s dash cam. Twice, the man dodges their accelerating cruiser. In the second attempt, he leaps into a median, barely avoiding the vehicle.

But Joseph Mann, 51, could not escape the volley of bullets that followed moments later. Mann died in the street shortly after that July 11 shooting. Mann’s family has accused officers Randy Lozoya and John Tennis of escalating the situation and showing no regard for his life, even before they jumped out of the car, fired 18 bullets and shot Mann 14 times.

“They are officers that shouldn’t be in uniform,” Robert Mann, Joseph Mann’s brother, told the newspaper. “If this is their state of mind when they go to work, this doesn’t serve anyone well.”

WHY ARE SO MANY BLACK WOMEN DYING OF AIDS?

Although African-Americans represent about 12 percent of the United States’ population, they account for roughly half of all new infections and deaths from H.I.V./AIDS. The HIV. infection rate among black women is 20 times higher than for white women.

Some believe that higher incarceration rates among black males explain the lion’s share of the black-white disparity in AIDS infection rates among both men and women.

Disease Control and Prevention reports that the majority of prisoners with H.I.V. are exposed to the virus before they are incarcerated. Yet some researchers have concluded that incarceration is a risk factor for H.I.V. infection. They claim

There are higher than average rates of sexual assault and coercive sex among men in prison.
Inmates have little access to condoms.
Injectable drugs and tattooing are risk factors that also occur in prisons.
When people are released from prison they typically have inadequate access to health care and treatment because of unemployment and poverty.
In addition, high incarceration rates substantially reduce the number of men in black communities and rupture social relationships, which may increase the number of sex partners that each man has.

HERE IS THEIR QUESTIONABLE CONCLUSION:

With a better understanding of the compounded injustices that may contribute to the spike in H.I.V./AIDS rates among African-Americans, let’s hope there will soon be an 'outraged outcry' about the unnecessary loss of black lives from both H.I.V./AIDS and mass incarceration.

WHY ARE MILWAUKEE’S BLACK BABIES DYING?

About 15 per cent of the city’s black infant deaths are the result of unsafe sleeping conditions: placing the baby stomach down, using loose blankets rather than a secure sheet, and letting the baby share a bed with his or her parents.

Two thirds of the deaths are the result of premature birth. Prematurity is linked to obesity, teen pregnancy, sexually transmitted infections and a lack of prenatal health care, all of which are linked to social conditions, all of which, in Milwaukee, are bad. The city’s black poverty rate, black unemployment rate and black incarceration rate are among the highest in the country.

Across the U.S., the black infant mortality rate is nearly double the white rate. The gap can’t be explained in full by poverty or risky decisions: even high-income, college-educated black women are more likely to give birth prematurely than the average white woman. Some researchers, and many of Milwaukee’s experts, believe that stress related racism is part of the explanation.

HERE IS THEIR QUESTIONABLE CONCLUSION:

There have been generations of people who have been unfairly treated and discriminated against and who possess increased levels of stress hormones in their body. However. what part do joblessness and domestic abuse play in the stress equation.

THE GLADUE REPORT,

IS IT A VIABLE OR EFFECTIVE DOCUMENT?

Before the sentencing of criminals in Canada, the 'Gladue Report' requires that the courts consider all reasonable alternatives to incarcerations, with particular attention to Aboriginal offenders.

Wallace Piercey is facing a hefty sentence after pleading guilty to robbery, assault causing bodily harm and forcible confinement for the robbery at B & L Jewelry in St. Thomas, Ont. At the last minute he delayed his sentencing by telling the court his mother is Cherokee. Should this make any difference to the consequences of the committed crimes?

Jamie Tanis Gladue was a young Métis woman charged with second-degree murder after stabbing her common-law husband during an altercation over his infidelity. Gladue was the first case to challenge her sentencing before the courts. The accused's Aboriginal background was not considered in her sentencing. The trial judge noted that both Gladue and the victim were not living in an Aboriginal community at the time of the incident and therefore had no special circumstances arising from their Métis status.

JUSTIFICATION ???

Aboriginal peoples are the most over-represented population in Canada’s criminal justice system. As a group, they have been placed at a serious disadvantage in society due to a number of socio-economic factors that stem from the generational effects of colonization, including displacement and the residential school system. The experiences within the Canadian justice system are interwoven with many social, economic and political issues such as drug and alcohol abuse, poverty, unemployment and the loss of cultural identity.

THE QUESTION:

SEE THE POSERS ABOVE

THE LEMON:

To all those biological fathers who abandon their children.

THE QUOTE:

"I don't think of myself as a poor deprived ghetto girl who made good. I think of myself as somebody who from an early age knew I was responsible for myself, and I had to make good."

-Oprah Winfrey