Don't Poor Brown Lives Matter Too?

Man Is Charged With Smuggling in Crash That Killed 13 Migrants in California

More than two dozen people were crowded into an S.U.V. that collided with a tractor-trailer near the border. Jose Cruz Noguez was accused of coordinating the smuggling attempt.

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1h ago

---------------- Personally, I believe All Lives Matter. Life is Precious; Protect It... I don't do identity politics, because I don't self identify by my skin color. There is so much more to me than that -- I wish others thought themselves as rich. But honestly, why do we accept the deaths of these poor Brown people in this way? Were these truckloads of Jews, or African American Blacks continually turning up suffocated and dead -- or, ie/ killed en masse in crashed pickups with many migrant laborers in the bed overturning into Florida canals on foggy mornings heading out to work fields... We Would: Not. Accept. It. We'd likely put Law Enforcement on it, not to catch these criminals post-crime, but to prevent such deaths. Does our hatred for Former President Trump -- and our silent acceptance of generations worth of poor brown laborers, with no citizenship protections or realistic knowledge of their worker rights* override our moral sense that our country should have secure borders, knowing every person entering and exiting, and not packing them like unseen animals into deadly vehicles? You rant against mass gun killings. I will rant against the deaths of poor immigrants being brought in with no citizenship or labor protections to work cheaply to benefit so many here with their unseen labor... *Aside: imagine if the immigrant store owner of CUP Foods in Minneapolis had been following labor laws instead of permitting counterfeit bills in his store to be taken out of employee pay... Private security, not cops, should be "protecting" places like that that make their own private labor-law rules instide their businesses. Wonder too how the situation might have turned out had the owner's 14-year-old not been one of those manning the counter, and confronting George Floyd over the $20 bill, that day. We'll not see the owner's kid testify, of course. Traumatized lad, owner's son, and all...)

Happy...

Passover

Holi

Speaking of Sports, Art and Beauty...

 

"The Dunk" 

Anthony Edwards, Feb. 19, 2021, captured by @CodySharrett and @ShahbazMKhan 

 

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More recently... 

Loyola !?!

 Do not be afraid, for I am with you. Do not be discouraged, for I am your God. Isaiah 41:14

 #NeverForget.

Green Fields.

 

Winter in the Heart

 by Edward M. Moersfelder

Just a precious week ago

That first spring storm blew through

Aroused the pond below the hill,

And wedded green to blue.

Today my phone says eight below

The fertile water gone.

And last night's snow erased the grass

That grew until the storm.

 

Three days ago the chorus frogs

Trilled pocket comb love sighs.

Beyond, the sandhills called and etched

Wide circles in the skies.

 

Today the frogs' blood crystallized

Limbs dormant as the trees.

The cranes have fled to Mexico

Inside their brown RVs.

 

It was just yesterday it seems--

I knew spring morning dew

I dreamed of what is possible

When summer sun is new. 

Today the air was bitter, chill

A sun dog chased its tail.

The drifts outside banked cold on cold--

And I saw summer fail.

Not Pleased. Not Appeased.

 Nevermind the equity distribution last night at the Grammys that saw Billie Eilish and Beyonce and Taylor Swift and Megan Thee Stallion (and Jay-z's little girl Blue Ivy too!) sharing equally in the prizes, the real news story today is what is still happening on the streets of America:  the protests and activities activists have planned and where it goes from there in response to perceived racial injustices.

A new return to establishment policies and politics in the nation's Capitol, a massive federal financial relief bill and vaccination program that cannot get up and rolling fast enough, payouts to victims and surviving relatives... will it be enough to maintain peace on the streets of America this summer?

Sing a new song unto the Lord...

Let your song be sung from mountains high!

Sing a new song unto the Lord

Singing Alleluia!

Yahweh's people dance for joy

Oh come before the Lord...

and play for him on glad tambourines

and let your song ring out... 

The Minnesota Daily -- student paper...

Editorial Cartoon: I just love the weather right now, don’t you? Been practicing enjoying the little things. Natalia Poteryakhin

 

Glory and Praise to Our God...

Dan Schutte

Glory and praise to our God
Who alone gives light to our days
Many are the blessings He bears
To those who trust in His ways

We the daughters and sons of Him
Who built the valleys and plains
Praise the wonders our God has done
In every heart that sings

Glory and praise to our God
Who alone gives light to our days
Many are the blessings He bears
To those who trust in His ways

In His wisdom He strengthens us
Like gold that's tested in fire
Though the power of sin prevails
Our God is there to save

Artificial Insemination Kills Young Female Tiger.

Scientists and researchers in Colorado were breeding her in an attempt to continue the species in an allegedly safer manner* than tiger-on-tiger natural insemination.  Lousy move.

“In the moments after she passed, I approached Savelii’s side to touch her as she slipped from this world to the next. I thought to myself: ‘This is a tiger.’ ‘This is a tiger lying here,'” Bob Chastain, president and CEO of Cheyenne Mountain Zoo wrote.

“I looked at her long and amazing body, her huge 2-inch-long white teeth, and her pie-plate-sized paws. I saw her hair was shaved for the surgery site. There, on her skin, were the stripes that were once hair. The same stripes you see on their fur translate all the way through the skin. They read in tones for black and a blush pink. I don’t know why that mattered in that moment, except that animals and nature are amazing and magical.”

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*  “Natural breeding for tigers can be precarious, because the breeding behaviors are often aggressive, including the male biting the back of the female’s neck,” Chastain explained. “[W]e decided on artificial insemination as the safest way to safeguard this amazing species of Amur tiger from extinction.”

Point... CounterPoint, with beatitudes.

Letters to the Editor: Peace be with you! Sunday morning while I perused the Pioneer Press, as usual I read my old classmate from St. Jude’s of the Lake in Mahtomedi and two years at Hill High School (boys only), Joe Soucheray or Sooch! Being in our 70s now, I think Joe and I have become a little too negative or cynical in our surveying of our world, and in this case, the city of Minneapolis. The article on Minneapolis and its politics, policing, and upcoming Derek Chauvin trial resonated with me in a profound way. The killing of George Floyd, and the cell phone video that showed it, put Minneapolis as the pinnacle of police brutality and racial injustice and was followed by worldwide anger and violent protests for months on end. Minneapolis Mayor Frey is in a no-win position as he tries to protect the public against rioting while allowing protesters (freedom of speech) to vent their frustrations with centuries of racial injustice and police brutality. Joe Soucheray and I have one huge thing in common: We have no idea what it is like to be Black and presumed to be possibly dangerous by our white brothers and sisters. In Joe’s closing sentence berating Minneapolis’s mishandling of protests and lack of support of its police force, Joe asks God to help Minneapolis through the trial and down the resulting road. I would like to add a couple of beatitudes: Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled, and Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called children of God. Jim Brunzell Jr., Vadnais Heights

ForYouAre Beautiful and I have loved you dearly...

More dearly than the spoken word could tell...*

RIP Buddy. 

x - 2021

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* I don't know though, Roger did a pretty good storytelling job with his words here.  You know the tune, right? March: it's almost singing season, so there's that...

There's a ship lies rigged and ready in the harbor
Tomorrow for old England she sails
Far away from your land of endless sunshine
To my land full of rainy skies and gales
And I shall be aboard that ship tomorrow
Though my heart is full of tears at this farewell

For you are beautiful and I have loved you dearly
More dearly than the spoken word can tell.

I've heard there's a wicked war a-blazing...
and the taste of war I know so very well
Even now I see the foreign flag a-raising
Their guns on fire as we sail into hell
I have no fear of death, it brings no sorrow
But how bitter will be this last farewell

For you are beautiful, I have loved you dearly
More dearly than the spoken word can tell
For you are beautiful, I have loved you dearly
More dearly than the spoken word can tell

Though death and darkness gather all about me
My ship be torn apart upon the seas
I shall smell again the fragrance of these islands
And the heaving waves that brought me once to thee
And should I return home safe again to England
I shall watch the English mist roll through the dale

For you are beautiful, I have loved you dearly
More dearly than the spoken word can tell
For you are beautiful, I have loved you dearly
More dearly than the spoken word can tell

~Roger Whitaker, The Last Farewell.

 

 

Minneapolis Columnist Joe Soucheray: the State of the City -- God Help Us All.

 The eyes of the nation were on Minneapolis as recently as Feb. 4, 2018, when Philadelphia beat New England 41-33 in the Super Bowl. The game was played in the spanking new U.S. Bank Stadium, Super Bowl 52, or as the NFL so officiously likes to see it in print, LII.

A year later, the 2019 NCAA Final Four was played in the same building. Virginia beat Texas Tech 85-77 in the title game.

If the city was a joint, it was jumping. The streets were crowded. The cafe society was a triumph. Public transportation was humming. There was tremendous optimism and joie de vivre. Lights, cameras, action!

It all went in the tank quickly, didn’t it? On the eve of the trial of Derek Chauvin, accused of killing George Floyd, the city is a boarded-up fortress. Businesses that haven’t gone out of business — a pandemic hasn’t helped — have been told that they are on their own. The ineffective city leadership actually told business owners to check on their insurance coverages; you’re on your own to survive.

Law enforcement, including the National Guard, is on high alert. The Chauvin trial, wrongly, has been anticipated almost theatrically, but the theater is fated to be destructive and damning. Who knows how many people will arrive in town to throw bricks at windows. Why, the way the trial has been billed in the media, calligraphed invitations might as well have been sent to every malcontent from Philadelphia to Portland.

The trial could very well be the end of Minneapolis as a functioning city. It’s barely hanging on now.

Minneapolis cannot even summon the political will to reopen the intersection of 38th and Chicago, closed to traffic since the death of Floyd, almost a year ago. The intersection is controlled by unelected and self-appointed sheriffs, like some gang of highwaymen deep in a medieval forest.

Minneapolis is run by 13 unqualified activists on the city council and a mayor whose position is fundamentally weakened by the structure of the city’s charter. And that council, in less than a year’s time, has brought about ruin and increased crime as a result of their vocal contempt of their own police force. They have tried to “defund” the police. They have tried to diminish the number of sworn officers. They have even questioned the need for so much law enforcement present for the trial.

Yes, the trial, and the attendant protests, could be the end of Minneapolis. There is no political strength in place to save it. The council even exudes a vibe that suggests they are more concerned about the safety and convenience of protesters than their own citizenry.

The council cannot open an intersection because of their apparent fealty to those who occupy it. What are they going to do if rioters decide that they are going to take over six or seven square blocks of downtown, maybe the Nicollet Mall? This city let a police station burn. This is a city that called for help too late back in May 2020.

And now these same characters are in place to govern a city during a trial that will have worldwide attention and bring to town legions of the aggrieved. It isn’t even so much that they are in over their heads. That’s a given. It’s more to the point that they simply haven’t been interested in supporting the law enforcement that keeps a city safe and functioning.

Minneapolis will have to go to the top for intervention, the very top. God help Minneapolis in the months to come, God help them.

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God help us.

Please...

It's a Little Too Little...

It's a Little Too Late...

Maureen Dowd: When I went to the Vanity Fair Oscar party with A.G. Sulzberger in 2017, movie stars rushed up to thank him for fighting President Trump. Over and over again, he explained that it was not the mission of The New York Times to be part of the resistance. Rather, he said, the paper would be straight and combat lies with the truth. {But a}s the Trump years went on and the outrages piled up, with the renegade president making it clear that he would not be bound by decency or legality, the left declared it a national emergency and acted as though all journalistic objectivity should be suspended. Some thought that the media should ignore Trump’s news conferences and tweets and that the only legitimate interview with Trump was one where you stabbed him in the eye with a salad fork. Many reporters offered sharp opinions, the kind not seen before in covering a president. The tango between Trump and the media — his most passionate relationship — was as poisonous as it was profitable. For reporters, who hadn’t been this chic since Ben Bradlee battled Richard Nixon, fat cable, book and movie contracts flooded in. ... {T}he press, bathed in constant adulation and better remuneration, will have a tough adjustment.