{"id":237,"date":"2006-03-15T05:23:58","date_gmt":"2006-03-15T12:23:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.afterhell.com\/news\/?p=237"},"modified":"2017-09-13T20:43:54","modified_gmt":"2017-09-14T03:43:54","slug":"hang-together","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.afterhell.com\/news\/?p=237","title":{"rendered":"Hang Together"},"content":{"rendered":"

Recently Jamie posted a humble lament for the current state of modern America and humanity in general.\u00c2\u00a0 I was going to post a comment on her blog<\/a> to show some solidarity, but the comments window wouldn’t be enough to contain the things that had come to mind for me.
\nLet me end the suspense for ya.\u00c2\u00a0 I agree with her.<\/p>\n

Re the first item<\/a>…no, the government doesn’t give a flying f*** about us.\u00c2\u00a0 This administration never did.\u00c2\u00a0 How else can we explain a government that would sooner side with big business than keep rat poison out of the mouths of children<\/a>?\u00c2\u00a0 A government that would sooner teach kids that contraceptives cause mental health problems<\/a>?\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 A government that lets a city drown<\/a> and still hasn’t cleaned up the mess<\/a>?<\/p>\n

Oh dear, was that arrogant of me?\u00c2\u00a0 Ask yourself:\u00c2\u00a0 What is more arrogant, to speak one’s mind in good conscience or to shout down those who do?\u00c2\u00a0 Or maybe death threats<\/a> beat either one.<\/p>\n

And frankly, to let all this corruption and cruelty and incompetance hide in the skirts of Lady Liberty…that is nothing short of cowardice<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Re the second item…it’s one of the more disturbing news stories I’ve seen in a while, for more reasons than you might think.\u00c2\u00a0 Orange County Assistant District Attorney Susan Kang Schroeder said in the article,<\/a> “It shows how a group mentality can breed disgusting behavior.”\u00c2\u00a0 And that’s true, as far as it goes.\u00c2\u00a0 The problem is that it doesn’t go far enough.<\/p>\n

Youth gangs and the violence they perpetrate has its roots in racism and economic injustice that has taken place over generations.\u00c2\u00a0 And before your eyes roll up into your head, I’m not blaming America.\u00c2\u00a0 Minority communities carry as much of the burden as anyone else, but racist violence made these gangs a necessity in the early 20th Century.\u00c2\u00a0 Zoot Suit Riots<\/a> were more than just a cool song.\u00c2\u00a0 They were set off by acts of terror — men beaten with baseball bats into a bloody pulp, chicanas raped in the streets, cops that arrested the hispanics and let the white guys walk.\u00c2\u00a0 Criminal gangs form in communities that feel oppressed.\u00c2\u00a0 Until the cycle is broken from within or without, we face the tragic prospect of writing off entire families simply because they were the wrong color.\u00c2\u00a0 Genocide can happen slowly as well as with modern efficiency.<\/p>\n

So we’re left with one chestnut of wisdom that I’ve heard recently and often, from many, many voices:\u00c2\u00a0 ” We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.”<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Recently Jamie posted a humble lament for the current state of modern America and humanity in general.\u00c2\u00a0 I was going to post a comment on her blog to show some solidarity, but the comments window wouldn’t be enough to contain the things that had come to mind for me. Let me end the suspense for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33,6,27],"tags":[35,69,26],"class_list":["post-237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-livejournal-postings","category-offtopic","category-personal","tag-livejournal","tag-personal","tag-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.afterhell.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.afterhell.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.afterhell.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.afterhell.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.afterhell.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=237"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.afterhell.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":243,"href":"http:\/\/www.afterhell.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237\/revisions\/243"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.afterhell.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.afterhell.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.afterhell.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}