The World's Societies Have Gone Off The Rails !!!

Today's Blog is limited to the recent, excellent and insightful writings of Mark Mallett entitled The Now World Reflections of Our Times.

MARK MALLETT, is a Roman Catholic singer/songwriter and missionary. He has performed and preached throughout North America and abroad.

It is a long read but a most comprehensive one and if you like the bent of my writing, you are going to find his most interesting indeed.

https://www.markmallett.com/blog/black-and-white/


As I Read It....

'K.D. Bell'

JOGGING WHILE BLACK

We are seeing today riots occurring throughout America and indeed across the world because of the recent killing of George Floyd ...a black man...at the hands or should I say foot of a white policeman in Minnesota.

To me this is a result of a buildup in resentment on the part of blacks and indeed on the part of concerned citizens regardless of colour or creed.

I need not review what happened in the case of Mr. Floyd since it is fresh in all of our minds but I would like to review a few similar others that have occurred in recent history.

But before I get into that, I would like to take you back to 1939 with the courageous and yet star-crossed Billie Holiday's and her most famous signing of Strange Fruit:

Southern trees bear a strange fruit
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root
Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees

Holiday was vilified for her temerity in the American South, where Blacks could not eat at white only restaurants, drink at white only water fountains,  use white only toilets, their transportation and schools and neighbourhoods were similarly segregated.

And of course Justice was meted out to Blacks in the exception as opposed to the rule.

It was simply awful and difficult for us in the year 2020 to even imagine how bad things were for these poor people.  Things since then have improved but George Floyd's indiscriminate killing and the cases I am about to focus on - show that we in society have a long way to go to ensure everyone is treated equally.

So let's begin with a look at the 2012 Florida murder of 17 year old Trayvon Martin who was murdered by self-appointed vigilante George Zimmerman.  Trayvon's offence was in wearing a hoodie and walking through his neighbourhood at the ungodly hour of 7 p.m. in the early evening.

Zimmerman was found Not Guilty !!

2014 saw 18 year old Michael Brown killed by a Missouri Ferguson Police Officer who had fired 14 shots at Brown ...6 hitting their target.  Witnesses say Brown had his hands up in a surrender position.

2014 also saw Dontre Hamilton, 31, fatally shot 14 times by a police officer in a Milwaukee park. The officer was responding to a call from employees at a nearby Starbucks alleging that Hamilton, who had been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, was disturbing the peace. In my readings there is no indication that Hamilton was armed.  No charges were laid against the police officer. 

There are just too many for me to even begin to itemize but for now ...one more.

And that pertains to the murder of Ahmaud Arbery who made the mistake of Jogging While Black in Georgia.  We have all heard of the offence of Driving While Black . but this is a first for me though I doubt in the annals of Racism against Blacks that this is by any means the first.

Anyway a former cop and his son, their pick-up, took it upon themselves to see that this fellow paid the ultimate price for his jogging.   Too bad for them, they were caught on tape doing it.

Surprisingly the Georgia Authorities for a month turned a blind eye to what had occurred.  It was only when the video became public that heads rolled and charges against these two pieces of white trash were laid. 

I would like to go on and on here with countless other such cases but for want of time now - I will leave it at this.  Over the course though I will continue to add more such cases at the top ....in honour of those mentioned above and in honour of those yet to be mentioned and hopefully not forgotten.

As I See It....

'K.D. Bell'

DURING COVID 19 WHAT IS MOST LIKE A HOSPITAL STAY?....

Why a Term in the Slammer ....aka Prison.

And don't just take my word for it...take my hospital room-mate's, a former Crown Attourney of over 30 years.  He was called to the Bar of Ontario in 1975 one year after me.

One night during my recent 10 day stay in hospital he said to me - you know when I was sending offenders off to jail during my career I often wondered what it would be like to have to go there myself.  "Having now stayed several days in hospital, during Covid, I believe I have some idea".

I told him it was funny that he had said that since the idea had also gone through my mind too as a retired lawyer who did some defence work during my career.

We both agreed too that it might have proven helpful if  part of our training had included a stay in a crowbar hotel.

Our conversation then went on to list what we saw as the similarities:

• Close confined quarters;
• Meer curtains to provide a semblance of privacy.  You quickly learned everyone's diagnosis including whether they had a successful bowel movement withing the last 24 hrs;
• We could not leave the floor;
• There were no telephones nor t.v. nor radios permitted;
• There was lights out; 
• And no visitors...even inmates are allowed visitors;
• No choice in meals - you got what was sent - for instance, I was served room temp tea 2x per day irrespective of the fact that I do not like tea...coffee is my weakness.  One patient mentioned that he knew for a fact that prisoners in provincial jails were being served the same food as us and here I thought all they got was bread and water....in thinking about it, maybe that would have been preferable;
• Lights came on a 6 am.   so no sleeping in. Good thing we were put to bed early.; 
• You were powerless - constantly told what to do and how to it;
• Beds were seldom made...you did it yourself and sponge baths ever given.  You had to ask for a towel to shave and wash yourself....I could go on but you get the idea.

Anyway I guess with my recent hospital stay I can now truly say I do have some idea of what it would be like to have spent some time in jail.  

So, dear reader, I can now mark that off my Bucket List !

As I See It...

'K.D. Bell'