TheBanyanTree: Hoodies **gentle political commentary**

[paul]

Margaret,

I've read this several times since you posted it.  I still don't have 
the words I want to use to reply with something that means anything.

I don't have any answers......  I just don't.

I do want you to know I read everything you post to the Tree.  And 
it's, to me, all good stuff.

paul


Margaret R. Kramer said the following on 3/31/2012 4:13 PM:
> Our great spring has slowed down for a few days.  It's nasty out there this
> afternoon.  The sun is hidden behind thick mean looking clouds and even
> though the wind is from the south, the warm air is just not getting here.
> 
>  
> 
> It's a good afternoon for laziness, so Joe and I are sitting in the kitchen,
> each of us with our laptops open, with our heads buried into the screens.
> 
>  
> 
> I shot around the house this morning, doing laundry, watering plants, and
> paying bills.  I have a couple of closets that are asking to be cleaned out.
> Even though I'm not a hoarder, I feel like I have way too much stuff.  It's
> amazing how much crap I have crammed into little odd corners of the house.
> A cool spring afternoon is probably a good time to do a little decluttering.
> 
>  
> 
> Joe and I didn't win the MegaMillions.  He hasn't checked his ticket yet, so
> he doesn't know if he might have won one of the $250,000 prizes or not.  I
> checked my ticket and I know I didn't win anything and I shredded my ticket.
> 
>  
> 
> If I would have won, about 90% of that money would have been set up as some
> sort of charitable foundation.  I don't need a lot of money nor do I want a
> lot of money.  But it's nice to dream about a new car or unlimited travel or
> going back to school.  That's one thing I would do if I won a lot of money,
> go back to school and get my master's degree in library science.  It doesn't
> make sense because there are not many librarian jobs, but that's what I'd
> like to do. 
> 
>  
> 
> I haven't had a cold for years, but I got one last weekend.  I'm not sure if
> it was the cashier at Target, who, when ringing up my items last Friday
> night, was continually sneezing, although not on my stuff, but turning her
> head and letting loose with a few good ones.  I'm sure those germs found
> their way to me, and slithered into my body, and infected me with a nasty
> cold.
> 
>  
> 
> I called in sick to work on Monday, and did something I so rarely do, spent
> most of the day on our new sectional reading, sneezing, wiping the snot from
> my nose, and drinking juice.  I finished Anne Rice's new novel, The Wolf
> Gift.  
> 
>  
> 
> It's one of my Kindle Fire books.  And the neat thing about my Kindle Fire
> is that I can read books in the dark with it.  No need to turn on a light.
> 
>  
> 
> And if I order a book, I can get it right away.  I don't have to go to a
> bookstore or wait for it to be delivered in a package.  I only have three
> books on my Kindle, but I'm sure my virtual library will grow.  
> 
>  
> 
> Currently, I sell my "real" books on amazon.com, so with the virtual
> library, I won't be able to sell books any longer.  I usually made about
> $100 a year or so selling books, and now that income will be cut off from
> me.  So sad.   
> 
>  
> 
> The Kindle Fire is kind of like a poor man's iPad.  I can check email,
> Facebook, Twitter, download music and videos, plus read books.  I'm still
> getting used to reading a book that isn't a book.  There is something
> special about being to crack open a new book and letting the pages settle
> back as I turn them.
> 
>  
> 
> My oldest grandson was on the A honor roll for this semester.  He's almost
> 13 years old and in 7th grade.  He's a little math whiz.  I use him as my
> human calculator for about anything.  He just does the problem in his head
> and within seconds, he has the answer.  He's been a competitor at Math
> Masters in grade school and will sub in on the junior high math team when
> needed.  He didn't join the math team, because he wanted to be on the
> basketball team.  Go figure.
> 
>  
> 
> And he wears a hoodie.  So do I.  I've worn hoodies for years.  I love the
> zipper, the pockets, and being able to pull up the hood when it's cold or
> rainy.  I'm sure as middle aged white woman, if I have the hood pulled up, I
> won't be thought of as a gang member.  And I'm sure George Zimmerman
> wouldn't have followed me and shot me.
> 
>  
> 
> Obviously, I don't know what happened on that rainy night, but the events
> that unfolded are so similar to many other rainy nights in the past.
> Someone is identified as a threat, gets killed, and the person or person(s)
> who killed are not charged.  Think of lynching for example.
> 
>  
> 
> Remember those photos from the 1960s when black children were trying to
> integrate southern schools and surrounding them were white men and women
> with faces so full of hate that you could barely look at them without
> cringing.
> 
>  
> 
> Think of Rodney King.  Stopped by the LAPD for speeding, resisted arrest,
> and was cuffed and beaten and beaten and beaten.  If someone had not
> videotaped that event, do you think the police officers involved would have
> ever been charged?
> 
>  
> 
> A few years ago, in Wisconsin, a Hmong hunter was hunting on someone else's
> land.  Several white men jumped on their ATVs with guns at the ready, and
> surrounded that young hunter.  That hunter opened fire and killed several
> people.  Not to justify the killing, but can you imagine how frightened that
> hunter was?  He lashed out before he would have been killed.  Of course, he
> was charged and sent to prison for life.  
> 
>  
> 
> But if the situation would have been reversed, would the white people who
> might have killed the Hmong hunter, been charged with his death, or would it
> have been justifiable homicide?
> 
>  
> 
> It's difficult for us, as white people, who have always been the dominant
> race, to understand what it's like to be on someone's radar just because of
> our color.  My son, who is mixed, was followed around in stores, and
> probably still is, just because he is black.  
> 
>  
> 
> I had to give him "the talk" when he was going through driver's education,
> and so did his instructor.  My son is stopped often by the police, not for
> doing anything wrong, but just because he is black.  And in many white
> minds, when you're black, and especially young and male, you're up to no
> good.
> 
>  
> 
> Joe grew up in the 40s and 50s.  He was in the Air Force.  If he was
> stationed in the south, he was unable to ride in the same cab as his white
> fellow soldiers.  Or stay in the same hotel.  Or go to the same restaurants.
> 
>  
> 
> The "Jim Crow" laws have changed, but the attitudes have not.
> 
>  
> 
> Joe is a black man, and he has a permit to conceal and carry a gun.  Some
> white people can't handle that.  In their minds, blacks should not be armed.
> 
>  
> 
> Except maybe with Skittles.
> 
>  
> 
> Trayvon's parents are right to demand answers.  Just from the few things
> that have been released, especially the police surveillance video, show that
> Zimmerman was more than likely the aggressor.  Because his father is a
> retired judge, I suspect there were some "favors" done behind the scenes
> that let Zimmerman go.
> 
>  
> 
> And the police, or perhaps the prosecutor who told them not to press
> charges, probably thought the whole thing would be swept under the rug and
> forgotten.
> 
>  
> 
> But this incident and so many incidents like this one should be not be swept
> up and forgotten.  This is our country's legacy and it's time we start
> taking steps to change the "master hunting down the wayward slave"
> mentality.
> 
>  
> 
> I'll continue to wear my black hoodie, hood up or hood down.  Maybe I'll
> start carrying packets of Skittles.  I'm going to do my part to help change
> my country's incredible racist attitudes.
> 
>  
> 
> Margaret R. Kramer
> 
> margaretkramer at comcast.net <mailto:mmargaretkramer at comcast.net> 
> 
> www.linkedin.com/in/margaretkramer
> 
>  
> 
> Corpse pose restores life. Dead parts of your being fall away, the ghosts
> are released.      
> 
> - Terri Guillemets
> 
>  
> 
> 


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