Category: Protests

We Share A Dream

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Honor MLK today by doing something for someone else. Make today a day of service.

We Share A Dream

By Anna & Wes Hessel

Thank You, Dr. King…

We celebrate the birthday of one of the greatest and most humble human beings to ever live, Dr. Martin Luther King, a Godly man of peace and gentle warrior.  He selflessly championed for civil rights and worked to change the world into a better place.  Many hard won civil rights from that time have been attacked during the Trump administration but now with the inauguration of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, Dr. King’s legacy will continue to live on.  The Biden-Harris inaugural team has instituted a day of service to honor the remarkable Martin Luther King, Jr.

 The Son of a King

Born the son of a preacher man, Michael King, Jr., entered life in 1929 on January 15th in Atlanta.  His father, Michael, Sr., was himself the scion of a pastor.  Junior joined senior in 1934 on a sojourn through  Rome, Tunisia, Egypt, Jerusalem, and Bethlehem, commissioned by the church the elder King pastored.  The final stop was in Berlin for the Baptist World Alliance’s international conference.

The Fight for Reform

There both Kings saw firsthand the spread of Nazi influence.  The BWA issued an official policy statement, saying, “This Congress deplores and condemns as a violation of the law of God the Heavenly Father, all racial animosity, and every form of oppression or unfair discrimination toward the Jews, toward coloured people, or toward subject races in any part of the world.”  Having visited sites in the German capital which were involved with the Reformation movement started by Martin Luther, Michael Sr. began to call himself, “Martin Luther King, Sr.” and renamed his son accordingly, making it official on junior’s birth certificate in 1957.

Growing Up Black

Junior had befriended a Caucasian boy before they both entered first grade, but because of their skin color difference, they went to separate (segregated) schools.  The white child’s parents a short time later then cut off contact between the two, citing race as the deciding factor.  When the younger Martin Luther went to his parents about the break, they sat him down to detail the slavery of blacks and resultant racism.  When confronted with all that had been perpetrated against people of color, MLK said later he became, “determined to hate every white person”.  His father and mother, though, taught junior that Jesus called for the love of everyone.

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David Shadrick “Protest Problem”

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David Shadrick “Protest Problem”

 

David Shadrick “Protest Problem”

Calamity News and Politics is happy to welcome Dave Shadrick back with some valuable information if you intend to join a protest demonstration. Stay tuned, stay informed.

 

Editorial: The Tyranny Of Trump

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EDITORIAL: The Tyranny Of Trump

By Trevor K. McNeil

That Old Tyme Religion

Generally speaking, there is a difference between old gods and what could be considered new gods. The god(s) of monotheism being firmly of the new school. The God of the Judeo-Christian Bible has gone through quite a transformation. He’s gone from a flaming-sword-angel-sending, flood killing-everything-on-earth, city destroying God of the Old Testament, to a Messenger of hope. Apparently, the Father felt he needed a new approach.

Police Violence

Loud, mostly non-violent demonstrations have filled the streets of America, again.  Four police officers in Minneapolis, Minnesota have murdered another handcuffed black man.  Nothing new about that either. It seems a common event in this country. A large crowd was hanging out in front of the White House. AG, Bill Barr suddenly appeared, surrounded by a cadre of secret service personnel. He appeared to be surveying the situation. Minutes later, without warning, National Guard troops using tear gas, pepper spray and rubber bullets alongside horse mounted riot police violently cleared peaceful protesters from Lafayette Square and surrounding streets. The brutality was fast, savage and done without warning against passively demonstrating American citizens.

Brutal Passage

We would soon see the violence was done in order to create a path for Trump and his entourage to walk from the White House to St. John’s Episcopal Church.  Once in front of the Priory House Trump awkwardly held up a Bible, turning it around, and around, in a bizarre manner, finally turning it upside down for a memorial photo. The newly proclaimed “law and order” president stood surrounded by his cabinet members posing for the media event. The self-proclaimed King-god of America now known as “Tyrannical Trump,” had used a militarized police force so he could shame the Bible, debase a church, and humiliate Christianity.  An action of sacrilege that, in the good old days, that would have gotten him a lighting bolt right between the eyes. Thor must have been off that afternoon.

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Sam The Sham And The Pharoahs “Wooly Bully”

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Sam the Sham And The Pharoahs

“Wooly Bully”

By D. S. Mitchell

Watching The Mailbox

My husband and I were married in 1965. My husband and I waited nervously every day expecting to find a draft notice in the mailbox at any time. He was in his junior year in college and did not want to disrupt his education. In those days there was a military draft and young men all over the country were being drafted. My husband and I were mentally preparing ourselves for that day we knew would come, and he would be sent to Vietnam. The United States had “advisors” in the country for at least a decade by that time. The Vietnam War was escalating in SE Asia, and the Cold War was growing hotter by the day.

Deployment

The rhetoric of the politicians described Vietnam as a domino piece and if it fell so would the rest of Asia. LBJ was president and he had been increasing the American presence in SE Asia dramatically. By the end of 1966 we had a young son, and my husband had finished his bachelor’s degree. After many long and tortured conversations he volunteered for the Air Force and deployed to the huge air base at Da Nang, South Vietnam. The year that he went to Vietnam “Wooly Bully” was screaming from every radio in America, and the American soldier took it to South Vietnam.

Protests Increase

There were major protests across the United States by 1968. LBJ sensing the country had turned against his conduct of the war announced he would not seek re-election. Richard Nixon said he had a plan to end the war. As Americans would see that was all a lie. And the anti-war protests grew. Seeing the people fill the streets outside the White House brought back those days vividly. Americans protest when American politics do not meet the needs and desires of the American people. When Trevor K. McNeil suggested “Wooly Bully” as the Calamity Politic’s Jukebox choice of the day, I said, “hell, yeah”. Here it comes, ready or not, Sam the Sham and the Pharoahs, in the long version of “Wooly Bully”.

“Wooly Bully” by novelty rock ‘n’ roll band Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs came out in 1965. “Wooly Bully” was written by the band’s frontman, Domingo “Sam” Samudio.” It’s all about the beat.

COVID-19 And Murder In Minneapolis

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Police form ranks to break up protests in Portland, Or

COVID & Murder In Minneapolis

By D. S. Mitchell

Grasping At Sanity

I hadn’t known, until I stayed home that the mailman stopped at my mailbox everyday at 11:30, like clockwork. Never before did I start planning dinner at breakfast time, but, I do now. I wash my hands at least twelve times a day, once for every hour I’m awake, unless I have to go out, or I get a delivery, then I hand wash compulsively every five minutes for at least an hour. Sometimes, I wonder how long I can hold onto my sanity.

Vacant Streets

The strange thing about the COVID-19 pandemic has been the quietness of the streets. The 24 hour buzz of the busy freeways is gone. The roads have been  almost vacant. Not in a post-apocalyptic sense, but certainly a sense of disturbing, quiet unfamiliarity. There is, however, an awareness of danger. A danger lurking on every surface and every person. The danger, although  invisible, has been scary enough to have people locked down in their homes, until Monday, May 25th.

Silent Killer

Someone called it, a “willing paralysis.” I’m not sure what to call it. Physical contact with another person could be a death sentence. The bullet, nothing more than a cough. As we have social distanced, we have heard new sounds. The sound of chirping birds. The sound of a singular child bouncing a ball against a wall. A neighbor, whom I’ve never met, playing his acoustic guitar, like a resurrected Michael Hedges. Not all killers are silent, or invisible. Some are intentionally visible and they kill with impunity for the camera. And now our country hears a new sound. A cry, a great and powerful cry.

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