the art of accepting help

 

From the Senior Side

 

The Art of Accepting Help 

 

By

 

Carl Jarvis

 

Mary Williams has been helping others since 1930.  That was the year Mary turned ten years old and her mother was killed by a runaway milk truck.  With six younger brothers and sisters needing care, Mary took over as the house mother, fixing meals, washing the family laundry, making sure Sunday night baths were taken and all prayers were properly said.  Back in those days she was Mary Olsen.  Mary stepped into her mother's shoes and for the next twenty years her life was dedicated to caring for her family.  But Mary had a secret dream.  She wanted to complete her education.  And so, at the age of 30 Mary stood with the class of 1951 and received her diploma. 

Now she dreamed of becoming an English teacher.  After taking a year off to become Missus Robert Williams and bring Robert Williams Junior into the world,  she entered the University of Washington.  After four years Mary graduated tenth in her class and took a job as an English teacher.  This was 1955.  Mary and Bob had planned a large family but they only had the one son.  It didn't stop them.  They took in foster children and Bob became a scout master while Mary taught Sunday school.  Children were the center of their lives. 

Life was busy and sweet for many years, filled with noisy giggly children of all ages.  Then in 1969, Bob Junior joined the Marines and was quickly shipped out for Viet Nam.  He was a Lance Corporal.  "It was November 2," Mary recalled.  "The darkest, longest day of my life."  They told Mary and Bob that Bob Junior had been a real hero, saving several other young men by throwing himself on the explosive device.  Mary said that Bob was never the same after that.  His first heart attack came one year almost to the day that Bob Junior had been killed.  Bob's folks were both living and in very poor health.  They moved his parents into Bob Junior's old room and once again Mary became the house mother, caring for Bob and his parents, while continuing to teach. 

Bob and his parents died within a year of each other.  By 1975 Mary was alone for the first time in her life.  "My work kept my head together," she told us.  And as time passed Mary became active again in her church  doing what she did best.  She looked in on the lonely shut-ins, bringing a pot pie or a big cauldron of soup or some tasty cookies.  She would sit and read folks mail to them, read stories and gossip about things going on at church. 

Mary retired from teaching in 1985, but she continued her visitations for ten more years until Macular Degeneration forced her to quit driving.  Still, Mary never thought of herself as blind or in need of help.  For fifteen years she continued on, keeping her home and yard neat and cheery.  Her life centered around her church.  Mary began holding Bible studies in her home.  She always had a fresh pot of coffee, another of tea and a pile of warm, freshly baked cookies on hand.  Most likely Mary would still be holding class except, for her 90^th birthday she fell and broke her hip.  "I thought I'd just heal up and get right back to my regular routine", she told us.  But the weeks dragged on and the pesky hip did not want to heal properly.  Even then we would have never met Mary.  She had never thought of herself needing help because of her blindness.  "I can still see", she told us after her home nurse had called us in.  "I just can't tell who you are.  Your face is a blur." 

 "The only thing getting me down is not being able to get up", she said with a soft laugh.  "I have my talking books and now my lady friends bring me the containers of soup and cookies."  Her eyes went sad and her voice softened to a whisper.  "You know, it's so very hard having to accept help from others when you've been the helper all your life". 

We reached out and held both of Mary's hands, "You have just put your finger on the greatest challenge confronting older people", we said.  "But perhaps it would help to look at it from a different angle.  Rather than thinking of yourself as needing help, think of yourself as a partner with your care givers.  You have needs to be met.  Work together to find solutions.  Don't become passive and allow others to tell you what they will do for you.  You are your own boss until your last breath.  Because your health has failed, others will think of you as needy and helpless.  You must not allow them to think that.  Tell them you are a team and if they don't want to be a team player they can go somewhere else." 

Mary was quiet for a long time.  Finally she smiled and looked up.  "I gotcha.  I am my own boss." 

When we came to see Mary again we found her sitting in a wheelchair.  "We figured out how I can get myself into this chair and now I can once again wander about my house", she beamed, happily clapping her hands.  "We are a team." 

And her care giver nodded her head, "And you are the play maker, Mary", she said, smiling. 

We never saw Mary again.  Just one month after her 91^st birthday we received a call from her care giver.  "I thought you would want to know," she said, and we could feel it coming, "Mary had a massive stroke and died yesterday."  We whispered, "Thank you for thinking of us", and sat a long time with tears on our cheeks and that choked up feeling in our throats.  It is so very hard.  Losing friends.  But then Mary's laughing voice rang out loud and clear, "I really am my own boss again!" 

 

 

The Real Honest to goodness first class corporate citizens

It's time to take off the satin gloves and get down to bare knuckles. 

There are the true First Class Americans.  If you are not clear as to whether or not you are one, you might check with the Supreme Court.  But if you need to do that, probably you are one of the rest of us. 

We need to recall how the folks originally living around this land were treated by the new self declared "Real First Class Citizens".  The ones who took over and set up their courts to make laws that gave everything to themselves. 

So, have you staked out a place on our reservation?  It's that spot over there in the middle of Death Valley. 

 

Curious Carl

 

Exploiting all workers,

 

The blind are not the only workers being exploited in the sweat shops called Light Houses and Sheltered Work Shops. 

It's the same old game.  I remember when bosses told the women employees that they were fortunate to have a job to help with things like family vacations and color TV's.  The "man of the house" earned the living.  What the bosses did not know, nor did they care, was that most of those women were single moms, and many of them were not only trying to support their kids, but also to pay off bad debts run up by their "man of the house" who had picked up and run off. 

 

Curious Carl

 

 

Regulation Lax as Gas Wells' Tainted Water Hits Rivers

Subject: Re: Regulation Lax as Gas Wells' Tainted Water Hits Rivers

Boy, what this country needs is less government regulations and meddling.  Capitalism will regulate itself.  Only governments harm the environment.  Corporations care for the people, the birds, the fish, and especially the natural recourses like trees, oil, coal, and natural gas.  The goal of Capitalists is to help the people live better lives.  We hear and see this on our TV's every day.  Over and over and over...

Let's all work hard to put an end to governments and turn the world over to the good, caring Capitalists. 

 

Curious Carl

 

Fairy Tales called History

 

Mark Twain's writings will never grow old for me.  He was a pure reporter, reflecting the world about him like a camera.  A camera with a keen sense of humor. 

A reporter who could see below the surface and report on what was really occurring. 

Much real history can be learned from the writings of the likes of Mark Twain and Charles Dickens. 

We would be better placing them in our children's history classes and put the standard history text on the shelf next to Mother Goose. 

 

Curious Carl

 

 

 

----- Original Message -----

From: joe harcz Comcast

To: Blind Democracy Discussion List

Sent: Thursday, March 29, 2012 7:58 AM

Subject: Re: Not so good old time radio shows.

You're biases as you define them aren't off the mark my colleague.

 

They wear the weight of centuries of prejudice and bigotrywhich none of us should bare individually, but, ironically all of us should bare collectively.

 

Back to Mark Twain....

 

He was brilliant and he was the one in the 19th Century who could and did pointus all in the correct direction.

 

 

----- Original Message -----

From: Carl Jarvis

To: Blind Democracy Discussion List

Sent: Thursday, March 29, 2012 10:24 AM

Subject: Re: Not so good old time radio shows.

Agreed.  Rather than debating as to what we should ban, we should be organizing to force a higher quality of education for our citizens so they can have the intellectual tools to sort out fact from fancy.  Huck Finn reflects life as close to reality as Mark Twain could report.  Amos and Andy reflect the stereotype of simple minded Colored Folk of the mid 20th century. 

As for banning Rush the Mush Mouth, I have been boycotting him for as many years as he's been blowing smoke and dangling mirrors. 

When I want to escape reality I turn to Alice in Wonderland, not the likes of Rush in Stupidland. 

But there I go again, hinting at my bias's. 

 

Carl Jarvis

Your 1040 Tax Form Lies to You

Subject: Re: Your 1040 Tax Form Lies to You

What?  My government lies?  How could that be?  Besides, "My country, right or wrong, my country"!  Now excuse me, I must stick my head back in the sand where I'll be safe in the arms of Jesus. 

 

Carl Jarvis

----- Original Message -----

From: S. Kashdan

To: Blind Democracy List

Sent: Thursday, March 29, 2012 4:48 AM

Subject: Your 1040 Tax Form Lies to You

Your 1040 Tax Form Lies to You



By David Swanson



ZNet, April 2011



http://www.zcommunications.org/your-1040-tax-form-lies-to-you-by-david-swanson



If you pick up a copy of a 1040 EZ U.S. income tax form with all the
instructions, particularly pages 36-37 you'll discover that the U.S.
government only spends 22 percent of its money on "National defense,
veterans, and

foreign affairs." The form admits that you could leave out the "foreign
affairs" part and still be at 21 percent.



However, if you take a look at the pie chart created by the

War Resisters League you'll see 54 percent of the budget going to the
military. What gives?



Well, the income tax form plays a number of dirty tricks on you. The first
is that it lumps Social Security and Medicare into the budget, even though
they

are not funded with income taxes. Take that out and the 1040EZ now tells us
that the military makes up 32 percent of national public spending. But that's

still a long way from 54 percent.



However, the tax form lumps all interest payments on debt together without
explaining that much of that debt is for past military expenses. The tax
form

also appears to categorize at least some of the military spending that goes
through departments other than "Defense" as something else. And in all
likelihood

the tax form is based on a budget established early in the year and does not
include any estimate of the additional funding that will be appropriated
outside

the budget in "war supplemental" bills. The 1040EZ is also misleading in
claiming to fund defense and veterans, with no mention of the military and
with

only the fine print to explain that only 3 percent is actually spent on
veterans.



Both the 1040 EZ and the War Resisters League use numbers for FY2009. One of
them uses those numbers in a way that better explains where the government
is

choosing to spend our money.



David Swanson is the author of War Is A Lie (warisalie.org ).



_______________________________________________
Blind-Democracy mailing list
Blind-Democracy@octothorp.org
http://www.octothorp.org/mailman/listinfo/blind-democracy

Positions of blindness organizations.

 

My goodness!  What cynicism! 

You got me to thinking.  We blind people can't even build a decent blind ghetto.  If we could, we would own our VR agencies from top to bottom, peopled by nothing but blind men and women.  Our spokes persons would never be sighted people, nor would we ever allow a sighted person to direct any program or agency of or for the blind. 

 

The several sighted directors of the agency I worked for were fond of saying, "We(Services for the Blind) are not the employer of last resort".  Boy that sure was true.  In fact, we were usually not the employer of first resort. 

For years I was the only blind person in Administration.  Today there is none. 

We blind folk love to sit around and bitch about how those mean old sighted people are running our lives, while we do nothing to put more of our own people in key positions within the agencies that are setting our standards.  Why do we merely accept the belief that nearly 70% of us are unemployed?  Shouldn't that have us pawing the ground and frothing at the mouth? 

Without going on and on, I repeat that I believe that we, all people, are victims of the Universal Blind Stereotype. 

Our job as blind folk is to be happy and passive.  Only in our little groups can we do what we do best, whine and bitch. 

 

Curious Carl

 

From someone on the list.

To: 'Blind Democracy Discussion List'

Sent: Wednesday, March 28, 2012 3:45 PM

Subject: RE: Positions of blindness orgs.

Pardon my cynicism. You just need the existence of a blind population and
money allocated for blindness services and blindness advocacy organizations.
These allow for a blindness system which employs blind people at various
levels, from professional to vending machine operators and a few sheltered
workshops. And it permits a few especially lucky or well connected or
especially talented blind people to be the token success stories, blind
people integrated into the sighted working world. In the past, most of those
blind people worked for government agencies of one kind or another or
religious social welfare agencies like Catholic Charities. And then there
were the blind musicians, the 5 or 6 really famous ones. I'd be delighted if
someone can present evidence to disprove the basic patterns I just
described. As far as I'm concerned, though, nothing has changed. Once upon a
time, we had blind dictaphone typists. They metamorphosed into blind social
workers and blind computer technicians and instructors.

 

are Commies really people?

Sorry to burst your bubble Abby, but having hobnobbed with a great gaggle of Commies when I was a young boy, they are about as odd as are any other group of folks.  In fact if I hadn't known better I might have mistaken them for one of our family gatherings.  Everybody talked over everybody else and they bickered and snickered like my aunts and uncles and cousins always did. 

After meetings these "Comrades" would head off in little clumps where they could talk about how strange everybody else was. 

As my dear old mother used to say, "Everybody's a little odd, except Thee and me.  And sometimes I wonder about Thee." 

 

Curious Carl

To: 'Blind Democracy Discussion List'

Sent: Thursday, March 29, 2012 9:31 AM

Subject: RE: Not so good old time radio shows.

I wonder if it's possible to get old time radio broadcasts of the McCarthy hearings, especially the Army ones.  When I was in fifth grade, when the class did long division, that was deemed inappropriate for a partially sighted kid.  I got sent to the library where the librarian listened religiously to the proceedings.  I used to wonder how I could meet a Communist because they must be pretty exciting.

Abby

 

From: blind-democracy-bounces@octothorp.org [mailto:blind-democracy-bounces@octothorp.org] On Behalf Of Mike Edwards
Sent: Thursday, March 29, 2012 8:42 AM
To: Blind Democracy Discussion List
Subject: Re: Not so good old time radio shows.

 

I have an old time radio show called, "I was a communist for the FBI. Sounds very mccarthy influenced. The communists are all very paranoid and suspicious, and the FBI agent pretending to be communist is the selfless marter.

are our children's histry books filled with Fairy Tales?

 

Every history book in K through 12 grades should be forced to begin with, "Once Upon a Time". 

 

Carl Jarvis

 

old time radio shows and that old time religion

Religious broadcasting in the 40's and 50's was quite similar to today's broadcasts.  You had your purists, your radicals and your preachers with hidden agendas...or not so hidden.  Such Right wing fellows as Father Coughlin who embraced the Nazi Empire and preached against Negros and Jews...and indeed, against anyone who was not lily white, male and "right thinking". 

Of course around the radio dial you could find Coughlin's disciples', just as Rush has his mimics today. 

But you also had the Fire and Brimstone preachers.  Many of these were good old boys from the mid west and South, but there was a goodly sprinkling of Negro churches spreading the Gospel to the four corners of the world.  Many of them probably could have just stuck their heads out the window and shouted, they were that loud.  And I loved to hear the rhythm of their enthusiastic singing and preaching. 

Radio ministries built empires for some charismatic preachers. 

Herbart W. Armstrong began a radio ministry which really took off when his son, Garner Ted Armstrong took over the mike.  The World Tomorrow brought millions of dollars' into the coffers and underwrote at least three colleges around America and in Europe.  Hard times befell the ministry when the Armstrong's had a falling out over the direction the church should take, and the book keeper headed South with a huge chunk of the churches money. 

The Seventh Day Adventists had a very classy program.  I wish I could recall the pastor's name but they had a singer whose first name was Della, who had a voice so sweet that it would have converted the Devil...if he'd been up on Sunday mornings.  That always made me chuckle, the Seventh Day Adventists broadcasting to folks on Sunday morning.  You could bet they weren't targeting their own folks.  But everyone was out to convert the Heathen. 

In the 50's my grandma Jarvis would gather about three or four of her Faithful neighbor ladies in her living room and turn on a fellow who could heal you right over the radio.  All you had to do was to send him a donation, whatever the Holy Spirit laid upon your heart to give, and he'd send you his little Miracle Healing cloth.  These dear ladies, all of them in their 80's, would get down on their knees, tip their heads upward and place the cloth over their faces.  Then they would reach out and touch the radio, as he instructed them to do.  With mighty shouts through that little radio speaker, and equally loud shouts by these committed believers, he would call upon "Gwad Amighdy"  to heal his Faithful servants. 

For me, a young teenager, this was better than the Saturday "Shoot 'em up Westerns". 

Straying away from the radio just a moment, I also loved going to the tent revivals.  Now at the time I was neither a Believer nor an Agnostic, but the Spirit and the joy generated in those revivals was genuine and infectious.  I only went inside once.  The large woman I sat next to was so loudand moved back and forth, threatening my life, that I couldn't hear what the preacher was shouting.  She just kept screaming, "Jesus, Jesus, Jesus!" over and over for about an hour without stopping for air.  After that my cousin and I would sit on the hillside listening to the service and drinking beer that he had somehow talked the local grocer into selling him.  We were only in our teens, but my cousin is an Albino and his white hair made him look older. 

Seattle had its share of radio ministries', too. 

Most popular was Brother Ralph.  He broadcast out of some building that he called the temple of the Lord.  He packed them in and put on a real show.  Great Gospel music and lots of shouting and praising.  But the high point was the healing.  When Brother Ralph expanded to TV, you could watch the healing take place.  I saw with my own eyes a little boy come up on crutches and stand before Brother Ralph.  With his hands on the boy's head, Brother Ralph commanded the Lord to heal that poor cripple.  And the Lord actually listened to Brother Ralph and obeyed him.  The boy's little bent head suddenly shot up, his back straightened and he literally threw those crutches away and sprang off the stage, dashing down the aisle shouting, "I'm healed.  Praise the Lord". 

During those years many folks were cured of cancer, blindness, Evil Spirits were cast out, but I never saw anyone grow a new leg or hand. 

The program went off the air quite suddenly when Brother Ralph and his young secretary took the church treasury and went seeking some warmer home to the far South.  South America, I think.  But later Brother Ralph returned, begging forgiveness for his wicked ways.  He was forgiven.  I don't know what happened to the money or to his temptress.  I suspect she, like Eve, became the fall guy. 

My grandma Ludwig listened for years to a fellow out of Los Angeles.  I've forgotten his name but he sounded like everybody's grandfather.  Down to earth and kindly, he would explain each day around noon, a verse of the Bible in terms that anyone could understand.  Something like Doctor Narymore.  I came up with a start many years later, somewhere in the early 90's, when I turned on the radio and there he was, still preaching in that fatherly voice.  I couldn't believe it!  He sounded just like he had sounded back in the 50's.  For a moment I thought that God really did exist.  Then the announcer burst my bubble by telling us that these tapes of Doctor Narymore would continue to be rebroadcast through a fund established for just that purpose. 

Well Mike, there were so many more, but my old brain seems to have tucked many of the names and programs in the back corners of my mind. 

 

Carl Jarvis

 

Affordable Care Act

Where we find ourselves now regarding our health care is based on the "Big Lie", laid upon us by greedy, conniving private insurance companies.  We were told that getting rid of wasteful government health care and given over to the "for profit" corporations, we would see such quality management that our rates would go down. 

I recall arguing with some of my co-workers at the time.  They planned to switch and could not understand my decision to stay with my state plan.  The problem was, it didn't matter.  The time came when their services went down and the cost went up.  The rapid rise in the price of medications put an end to my low cost prescriptions.  Other rising costs forced my co-op to lay off nurses and replace them with clerks.  Suddenly, for the first time, I was paying a co-payment and coverage for my family, which had been covered under my monthly payment, was now a new separate charge.  Then the co-payments were raised and one co-payment did not take you through a day of appointments, it was applied to each doctor or service you received, even if it was all related to the same health concern.  Then they no longer called me each year for my Wellness Checkup.  Getting a general physical became a joke. 

Then they began cutting out service areas.  And surprise, surprise, Jefferson County was dropped.  Retired state workers could no longer receive their services.  This drove me straight into the clutches of the "for profit ghouls". 

My payments have risen each year, sometimes as much as $100.  and my co-payments are high.  Fortunately I have Medicare, but my wife is not yet eligible and so we pay a huge price for her coverage.  It's even worse than that, but suffice it to say our health coverage continues to shrink in quality and rise in cost. 

 

Carl Jarvis

 

maybe God created Man, but Man created stereotypes

Just as our American People have been conditioned to respond to the Blind Stereotype, without even thinking, so we Americans have also been exposed to the Black Stereotype. 

Both stereotypes have been created by the public in control.  In the case of the blind it is the sighted majority who have defined Blind People.  In the case of Blacks, it is the White majority who have done so. 

Working for many years in an International neighborhood, I have encountered good and not so good folks of all ages, colors and assorted sizes.  As a blind man, I have started to board a transit bus only to be shoved out of the way by angry Black men, humongously fat and surly women, lippy teenagers and unminded thoughtless people. 

Now, being contaminated in the same pool as all other American fish, I would be lying if I told  you that I respond the same way to each of these rude, pushy folk. 

My initial reaction is based upon who I believe is pushing me and what prejudicial baggage I carry about them.  Haughty, lippy teenagers always get my blood pressure rising.  I push back.  With women, I am more polite because I was raised to be a gentleman.  The weaker sex thing, you know. 

But with Blacks, I am careful.  I don't want to have my face smashed in.  All of those reactions have been put in me by  years of living in our society filled with gurgling, frothing prejudices and stereotypes. 

Why should I feel more threatened when pushed by a big Black man than by a big White man?  I push back on the White man.  But not on the Black man.  Yet the Black man might very well be the local preacher in a rush for a meeting with his church elders.  I'm blocking the bus doorway and he believes he can just squeeze past me.  The White man could look like an upstanding businessman but in reality be hurrying home to murder his wife. 

We are constantly responding mindlessly to one prejudice or another.  Who jostles us in the checkout line, who crowds ahead of us at the bank, which neighbor's dog is howling half the night, each one is weighed by what we have been conditioned to believe about that person. 

Being robbed by three Black men, one of them with a gun, is no fun.  But would I feel differently if I'd been robbed by three gorgeous Blondes, one of them with a gun?  Would I be fearful of blondes the rest of my life?  Of course not.  My blonde stereotype tells me that being robbed by a blonde is the exception.  Most of them are out there having more fun. 

But Blacks.  That's a different stereotype. 

When I was a boy, during the Second World War, it was sneaky Japs that we had to look out for.  And look at how America treated some of our citizens because of our national stereotype. 

It's a fact of life, but it's a fact that we can change.  Not easily, but we need to start pushing back. 

 

Carl Jarvis

 

Obama Clearing Way to Tighten Sanctions Targeting Iranian Oil

Instead of carrying out their duties and representing the American people, Congress has been effectively immobilized.  But it is not a case of the big business block versus the People, it is one big business block versus another big business block.  The Working/Middle Class does not enter into the equation. 

Obama has been set up as the Straw Man.  While he is being blamed for everything from rising gas prices at the pump to the price of gold fish in the pet stores, our First Class Corporate Citizens are having a feeding frenzy. 

While I find Obama too willing to sell out the Working/Middle Class, I don't believe that he has any control over our economy.  Obama is hired, lock stock and oil barrel by the same 1% that own Mitt, Newt and Rick.  When any of them ascends to the White House Throne they will become the new Straw Man and we can all take up our buckets of Doo Doo and sling away.  With the same results. 

 

Carl Jarvis 

Jailed Climate Hero Tim DeChristopher Thrown in the Hole

 

----- Original Message -----

From: Carl Jarvis

To: Blind Democracy Discussion List ; 'S. Kashdan'

Sent: Friday, March 30, 2012 4:09 PM

Subject: Re: Jailed Climate Hero Tim DeChristopher Thrown in the Hole

Tim DeChristopher.  Another Great American Hero of the Working/Middle Class.  Where are Obama and his people, the ones who should be lifting Tim DeChristopher to their shoulders?  Oh yes, they're busy stepping off new pipe lines to Texas. 

 

Carl Jarvis

 

 

----- Original Message -----

From: Miriam Vieni

To: 'S. Kashdan' ; 'Blind Democracy Discussion List'

Sent: Friday, March 30, 2012 3:37 PM

Subject: RE: Jailed Climate Hero Tim DeChristopher Thrown in the Hole

The story about what has been done by our government to this idealistic
young man is a horror. I've heard interviews with him. He had such spirit
and his motivations were of the highest, and they will break him.

Miriam 

-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounces@octothorp.org
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounces@octothorp.org] On Behalf Of S. Kashdan
Sent: Thursday, March 29, 2012 11:35 PM
To: Blind Democracy List
Subject: Jailed Climate Hero Tim DeChristopher Thrown in the Hole

Jailed Climate Hero Tim DeChristopher Thrown in the Hole



Jeff Goodell



Rolling Stone, POSTED:  March 28, 2:20 PM ET | By Jeff Goodell



http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/national-affairs/jailed-climate-h
ero-tim-dechristopher-thrown-in-the-hole-20120328



"Have you ever read Franz Kafka's The Trial?"



That is the first thing that Patrick Shea, a member of jailed climate
activist Tim DeChristopher's legal defense team, says to me when I call him
this morning to ask him about reports that DeChristopher has been pulled out
of his minimum security camp at Herlong federal prison in California and
thrown into isolated confinement in an 8 x 10-foot cell.  His latest crime?
Sending an email to a colleague with a "threat" to give back a $25,000
donation to his legal defense fund because DeChristopher, one of the most
principled people I have ever encountered, discovered that his donor was
exporting U.S. manufacturing jobs.



If you don't know the backstory to DeChristopher's imprisonment, you can
read about it here.  (Short version:  He was sentenced to two years in
prison last July for having nonviolently disrupted a federal auction of oil
and gas leases in 2008.) This case was a sham before it took this latest
turn.  If there were any justice in the world, DeChristopher would have been
pardoned before he ever set foot in jail.  The fact that it is now possible
he will serve out the rest of his sentence in a tiny cell with only one
break a week to go outside is an outrage, and one that should have everyone
who cares about justice and the abuse of political power in America marching
in the streets.



According to Shea, a veteran lawyer and director of the federal Bureau of
Land Management during the Clinton administration, this is what happened to
DeChristopher:  On March 5, he wrote an email to Dylan Schneider, the
treasurer and volunteer coordinator at Peaceful Uprising, a climate activism
group co-founded by DeChristopher.  In the email (you can read the whole
thing below), DeChristopher discusses the fact that an unnamed corporate
donor who contributed to his legal defense fund is exporting U.S.
manufacturing jobs and laying off workers.  DeChristopher is not happy:  "I
feel like I have some influence and hence some responsibility to do
something," he writes.  "If they are saving money by screwing their workers,

I can't in good conscience accept some of that money."   He then says that
he plans to send a letter to the owner of the company that made the
donation, explaining why it bothers him.  He writes, "This letter will
include a threat to wage a campaign against them if they don't reverse
course and keep the plants open."



Let's be clear about what DeChristopher is doing here:  He's threatening to
give back a $25,000 donation because the donor's company is exporting jobs,
thus tainting the donation in his eyes.  Is this the action of a dangerous
criminal?



According to Shea, five days later, on March 9th, DeChristopher was pulled
out of his minimum-security camp and told he was being moved to a cell in
Herlong's Special Housing Unit (SHU).  "When Tim asked why," Shea explains,
"he was told that a U.S. Congressman had called and told prison officials
that he was threatening people outside of prison."  With that, he hauled off
to the SHU, where he has been ever since.  He shares his 8 x 10 cell with
another man and, according to Shea, has been allowed outside the tiny cell
only four times for brief periods of exercise in what Shea describes as "a
dog kennel."



I asked Shea how a letter to a colleague threatening to give back a donation
could have caused DeChristopher this kind of trouble.  "Prison officials
have special software they use to scan emails," Shea says.  "They picked up
on the word 'threat.' If I had to guess what happened next, the content of
the email was described by someone in the Bureau of Prisons to someone else,
probably someone who had worked for the Bureau in Washington D.C., and the
congressman was asked to call the Bureau and demand an investigation.
Shortly thereafter, the congressional staff called back on behalf of a
congressman and requested an investigation, and that was it.  Tim was hauled
off to the SHU."



I asked Shea if he knew the name of the congressman who called.  "I do not,"

he says.  "I only know this because the prison official who hauled Tim out
of the camp told him a congressman had called."



How is it that a call from a congressman--some oil-funded hack, no
doubt--can get DeChristopher thrown in the hole?  How can giving money
back--money donated to your legal defense fund, no less!--be considered a
threat?  "Under federal rules, you are not allowed to organize political
action from within the prison," Shea explains.  Of course, all DeChristopher

did was write a letter discussing the idea, but when you're deemed an enemy
of Big Oil and their cronies in D.C., that is enough.  It's the 21st century

equivalent of being a Cold War Soviet spy.



The worst of it, Shea says, is that because DeChristopher is being held
under investigation, he is in a Kafka-esque limbo--there are no time limits
for when the investigation must start or end, and no appeals to his case are

allowed until the investigation concludes.



"He is essentially a political prisoner," says Shea.



Moral outrage aside, DeChristopher's treatment also brings up First
Amendment issues:  If you go to jail, do you lose the right of free speech?
"Under these rules," Shea asks, "Would Martin Luther King's 'Letter from a
Birmingham Jail' have been allowed?  I think the answer is an obvious 'no.'
And what does that say about the kind of country we've become?"



As for how DeChristopher is handling isolation, Shea sounds worried.  "I saw

Tim last Sunday," he says.  "He's sullen and angry."  DeChristopher is
allowed very little exercise or fresh air, Shea says, and his cell mate
talks all the time and is driving him nuts.  He is allowed five books--among

them is a history of liberal religion in America.  When he is released, he
told Shea, he wants to attend Harvard Divinity School and become a Unitarian

minister.  But right now, that's still a long way off.  "I've been visiting
prisoners for more than 30 years, and I get concerned when they get that
beady-eyed look," Shea says.  "And Tim has it."

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Racially-Motivated Killing the Media Missed? NY Police Called Out on Medical Alert Shoot Dead 68 Year Old Black Veteran

Racially-Motivated Killing the Media Missed? NY Police Called Out on Medical
Alert Shoot Dead 68 Year Old Black Veteran
By Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez, Democracy Now!
Posted on March 29, 2012, Printed on March 30, 2012
http://www.alternet.org/story/154757/racially-motivated_killing_the_media_mi
ssed_ny_police_called_out_on_medical_alert_shoot_dead_68_year_old_black_vete
ran
JUAN GONZALEZ: As the shooting death of Trayvon Martin continues to draw
national attention, today we look at another controversial shooting of an
African-American male that has received far less scrutiny. On the morning of
November 19th, a 68-year-old former marine named Kenneth Chamberlain with a
heart condition accidentally pressed the button on his medical alert system
while sleeping. Responding to the alert, police officers from the city of
White Plains, New York, arrived at Chamberlain?s apartment in a public
housing complex shortly after 5 a.m. By the time the police left the
apartment, Kenneth Chamberlain was dead, shot twice in the chest by a police
officer inside his home. Police gained entry to Chamberlain?s apartment only
after they took his front door off its hinges. Officers first shot him with
a taser, then a beanbag shotgun, and then with live ammunition.
AMY GOODMAN: Police have insisted the use of force was warranted. They said
Kenneth Chamberlain was emotionally disturbed and had pulled a knife on the
officers. This is David Chong, public safety commissioner in White Plains.
DAVID CHONG: The officers first used an electronic taser, which was
discharged, hit the victim, and had no effect. While the officers were
retreating, the officers then used a shotgun, a beanbag shotgun.
AMY GOODMAN: Relatives of Kenneth Chamberlain have questioned the police
portrayal of events that led to his death, and they say audio and video
recorded at the scene back up their case. According to the family, Kenneth
Chamberlain can be heard on an audio recording of his call to the medical
alert system operator saying, quote, "Please leave me alone. I?m 68 with a
heart condition. Why are you doing this to me? Can you please leave me
alone?" Officers allegedly responded by calling Chamberlain a racial slur
while urging him to open the door. The audio recording of the incident has
not been made public and remains in the possession of the Westchester
District Attorney?s office.
In early December, Kenneth Chamberlain, a retired marine, was buried with
military honors. The family posted video of part of the ceremony.
Several months after his death, the name of the officer who killed Kenneth
Chamberlain has yet to be released. The DA has vowed to convene a grand jury
to determine if any of the officers should face charges.
We invited the White Plains Police Department and the Westchester DA?s
office on to the program, but they declined to join us or issue a comment.
But we are joined by Kenneth Chamberlain, Jr., the son of Kenneth
Chamberlain, Sr., the victim, and by two of the family?s attorneys. Mayo
Bartlett is the former chief of the Bias Crimes Unit of the Westchester
County District Attorney?s office and the former chair of the Westchester
County Human Rights Commission. Randolph McLaughlin is a longtime civil
rights attorney. He teaches at Pace Law School.
We welcome you all to Democracy Now! Our condolences to your family, Kenneth
Chamberlain, on the death of your father.
KENNETH CHAMBERLAIN, JR.: Thank you.
AMY GOODMAN: Tell us what you understand happened early in the morning of
November 19th.
KENNETH CHAMBERLAIN, JR.: Well, it?s my understanding that, from what I?ve
gathered right now, that my father accidentally pushed his medical pendant
around his neck. He could have possibly turned over on it. We don?t know. We
can only speculate about that.
AMY GOODMAN: Why did he wear it?
KENNETH CHAMBERLAIN, JR.: He has a heart condition, and he also suffered
from COPD. And when he?the pendant was triggered?
AMY GOODMAN: You?re holding that in?
KENNETH CHAMBERLAIN, JR.: Yes.
AMY GOODMAN: ?his hand.
KENNETH CHAMBERLAIN, JR.: This is his pendant right here. It was triggered,
and the medical company?there?s a box inside his home. The medical company
asked him if he was all right. They didn?t get a response. So,
automatically, if you don?t get a response, they send medical services to
your house. They informed the police that they are responding to a medical
emergency, not a crime. And once they arrived at my father?s home, my father
did tell them that he was OK. But for some reason, they wanted to gain entry
into my father?s home. I don?t know why. And in the audio, you hear my
father telling them that he?s fine, he?s OK.
JUAN GONZALEZ: Now, this is an important point, that there was audio going
on throughout this between the firm and your father.
KENNETH CHAMBERLAIN, JR.: Correct.
JUAN GONZALEZ: And so, much of the activity of the police was caught on this
audio.
KENNETH CHAMBERLAIN, JR.: Yes, it was.
AMY GOODMAN: So the box on the wall records everything that?s?
KENNETH CHAMBERLAIN, JR.: It?s actually a box that just sat on his table in
the?in his dining room area. It just sat there. And it?s connected to the
phone company. So if he does trigger it, as I said, you hear a loud beeping
noise. And then the operator, from their central station, will come on, and
they say, "Mr. Chamberlain, are you OK? You triggered your alarm. Is
everything all right?" And, of course, if they don?t get a response, they
then contact the officials.
JUAN GONZALEZ: Now you were able to hear this audio because the DA?s office
allowed you to hear it? How did you?
KENNETH CHAMBERLAIN, JR.: Yes.
JUAN GONZALEZ: But it has not yet been released.
KENNETH CHAMBERLAIN, JR.: No, it hasn?t.
AMY GOODMAN: So, continue. You hear your father through the door telling the
police he?s OK. This is about 5:00 in the morning?
KENNETH CHAMBERLAIN, JR.: Yes. He?s saying that he?s OK. He?s saying that he
did not call for them. But they were very insistent. They were banging on
the door, banging on the door, banging on the door. So you hear one of the
officers say to him, "Well, you pushed your?you triggered your alarm now."
He said, "That?s because I want you to leave me alone." And they just kept
telling him, "Open the door. Open the door. Let us see that you?re all
right." At some point, the door was cracked open, because the police
officers have a taser that has a camera on it, and it also has audio. So you
could see where the door was cracked open. So, once you?ve gotten a visual,
and you?ve seen that my father is OK, and he?s telling you that he?s OK, why
would you still insist on getting into the apartment? Which is the question
that I have. And they weren?t responding to a crime. He was sleeping and
accidentally triggered his alarm.
JUAN GONZALEZ: And the officers then did what?
KENNETH CHAMBERLAIN, JR.: Ultimately, after using expletives and racial
slurs, they broke down the door. You can see on the video from the taser
that they fired a taser at him. And I?m assuming that both prongs didn?t go
in. He stood about maybe eight to 10 feet away from them with his hands down
to his side. And at one point, you hear one of the officers say, "Cut it
off." And it was at that point they shot and killed my father.
AMY GOODMAN: They shot him with beanbag also?
KENNETH CHAMBERLAIN, JR.: Well, we didn?t see that. So I can?t?I can?t
confirm or deny that.
AMY GOODMAN: Did you hear what the police officers were saying, were
shouting to him before they?did they take the door off the hinges?
KENNETH CHAMBERLAIN, JR.: They took it completely off the hinges.
AMY GOODMAN: To get in.
KENNETH CHAMBERLAIN, JR.: Yes. There were no orders given to him once they
knocked the door down, though, which you would have expected, that they
would have given some type of verbal command and said, "Get down on the
floor. Put your hands up. Get against the wall." None of those things were
said.
JUAN GONZALEZ: And the allegation that he tried to attack them with a weapon
first through the crack in the door and then once they got in the house?
KENNETH CHAMBERLAIN, JR.: I didn?t see that. I can?t say that it didn?t
happen, but from the video that I?ve seen and from what I gathered from the
audio, I didn?t see where my father attacked them. And he was inside his
home, so where was the immediate threat?
AMY GOODMAN: What exactly did you hear your father say? He was inside the
house as the police are coming inside, and the medical pendant company is
recording all of this.
KENNETH CHAMBERLAIN, JR.: I?ve heard?I heard several things on there. One
thing you hear is my father pleading with them to leave him alone. Excuse
me. You hear him asking them why are they doing this to him. He says, "I?m a
68-year-old man with a heart condition. Why are you doing this to me? I know
what you?re going to do: you?re going to come in here, and you?re going to
kill me." You also hear him pleading with the officers again, over and over.
And at one point, that?s when the expletive is used by one of the police
officers.
AMY GOODMAN: What did they say?
KENNETH CHAMBERLAIN, JR.: Where they say, "I don?t give a F." And then they
use the N-word. And then, as I said, ultimately, they bust down the door.
And it hurts because, as I said, it didn?t have to go to that point. You
also hear the operators from the LifeAid company call the police station and
say that they want to cancel the call, Mr. Chamberlain is OK. And at one
point you hear the officer there at their central office say, "We?re not
canceling anything." They say, "Call his son. Contact his son." And they
say, "We?re not contacting anyone. We don?t need any mediators."
JUAN GONZALEZ: I?d like to bring in Mayo Bartlett, because you?re not only
an attorney for the family in this case, but you are also a former
prosecutor?
MAYO BARTLETT: Yes.
JUAN GONZALEZ: ?in Westchester County, so you?re familiar with police
procedures in cases like this. I?m struck by the fact that the identity of
the police officer involved has not yet been revealed. That?s something
that?s pretty routine in cases like this, certainly by this time, because
we?re talking about an event that happened in November.
MAYO BARTLETT: Absolutely. I think that anybody who lives in the city of
White Plains has to ask themselves whether this individual is working right
now. And if so, in what capacity? And I think that it?s just?it?s atrocious
that that name has not been released and that the officers involved are not
at least on desk duty, some type of modified duty.
Looking at it as a former prosecutor, whenever you talk about a use of
force, you always look at a use of force continuum, and it?s an escalation
of force. And generally, police departments have rules and protocols which
suggest that you should first start out with a verbal command, if in fact
there?s even a need to do that and if that?s the least intrusive manner that
you can address an issue. And after that, it goes generally to a light hands
application, and it goes up from there to possibly a baton, pepper spray,
possibly a taser. And you use deadly force only when it?s necessary to
prevent deadly force from being used.
And in this case, Mr. Chamberlain didn?t have a gun. Mr. Chamberlain, when I
saw the videotape, did not have a knife when he was in his apartment. You
see a 68-year-old man with no shirt on and boxer shorts and his hands down
at his sides. And I didn?t see any weapon in his hands there.
And the other thing that?s troubling to me is the fact that a taser was used
at all, because you?re there for a medical response. You?re not there
investigating a criminal act. You are there with the understanding that
there may be a person who needs medical assistance.
AMY GOODMAN: For a man with a heart condition, no less.
MAYO BARTLETT: Absolutely. And so, if you understand that, to use a taser,
which is going to send significant electricity through that person?s body,
would be, at best, reckless. And that alone could cause his death. And the
thing that?s extremely troubling to me is that, again, the police were not
there to respond to criminal activity. They went to the gentleman?s house at
5:00 in the morning to give him assistance. The only reason that he had the
LifeAid pendant to begin with was so that his family and that he would be
comfortable that if something was to occur, he would be able to get
assistance.
AMY GOODMAN: I want to read part of the initial news coverage around the
killing of Kenneth Chamberlain, Sr. The headline on the News 12 website
read, quote, "Officer fatally shoots hatchet-wielding man."
TheDailyWhitePlains.com website posted an article titled "Police Fatally
Shoot Disturbed Man Carrying Knife." The story begins, quote, "White Plains
police say an officer discharged two rounds, fatally shooting an emotionally
disturbed White Plains man who attempted to bar officers from entering his
apartment with a hatchet and then turned towards police with a butcher?s
knife." Randy McLaughlin, would you respond to this?
RANDOLPH McLAUGHLIN: Well, first, one of the problems in a wrongful death
case like this is, you?ve got a decedent, the person who?s dead, and the
police initially put out their spin. And that?s a spin. That?s clearly a
spin. The videotape had?there?s also a videotape of what happened in that
hallway. There?s an audio tape. There?s a videotape of Mr. Chamberlain when
they come at him with the taser. This is a clear violation of criminal law
and of constitutional rights. In our country, we have a Fourth Amendment
that says we?re supposed to be secure in our own homes. Mr. Chamberlain
wasn?t attacking anyone. He was in his home. This idea that they?he attacked
anyone with a hatchet is, frankly, a lie. That?s what it is. It?s a cover
story to cover up what they?ve done here. And we?re meeting with the
district attorney this afternoon, of Westchester County, to press for a full
prosecution of the highest crimes in this state. There?s a petition, and
online petition, that Mr. Chamberlain has put out, and we?re presenting that
petition to her today, as well.
JUAN GONZALEZ: It would seem to me that given the fact that they have the
audio and the video, and they hear their own officers using racial epithets,
would immediately say to the brass of the police department, "We have a
problem here," because that?s going to be in court before a grand jury at
some point, and that they had a responsibility at that point to begin doing
their own investigation of what?s going on here.
RANDOLPH McLAUGHLIN: They have so many problems here. Mr. Chamberlain?s
niece was in the hallway right at the time when they were banging on the
door. She said to them, "I?m his niece." They pushed her away.
AMY GOODMAN: She lived upstairs?
KENNETH CHAMBERLAIN, JR.: Yes.
RANDOLPH McLAUGHLIN: On the fifth floor. Another officer who was present had
a full head-to-toe body shield that could stop bullets. And rather than
secure the situation?let?s assume for the sake of this discussion that they
had a right to see him to make sure he was OK. OK, so the door is open. You
see him there. Why are you entering his apartment? It?s kind of like
Zimmerman. You provoke a situation, then you respond to it, "Oh, I had to
use deadly force to protect myself." No, you provoked the situation. You had
no right to cross that man?s threshold in his home. That?s what led to the
problem.
AMY GOODMAN: Last week, New York State Senator Suzi Oppenheimer wrote a
letter to Westchester County District Attorney voicing support for an
investigation into the killing. She wrote, quote, "I ask that you do
everything in your power to ensure that there is a full and fair
investigation of this incident and that all relevant information is
presented to the grand jury for its consideration." She has so far been the
only state legislator to speak out, is this right, Mayo?
MAYO BARTLETT: Yeah, that?s correct. And the thing is, I want to follow on
what Randy just said in terms of Mr. Zimmerman. I think that this?and I
don?t?I?m not comparing the two tragedies. I don?t like to do that. But what
I do think is this. Mr. Zimmerman is a private citizen. This is individuals
who are acting under color of law. These are people who are employed by the
government to give you assistance. So I think that that?s even more
egregious than an individual who may exercise terrible judgment or have bias
in their heart.
And I think that it also is?it is a travesty that we don?t have any reaction
from public officials. And if you simply reverse the roles here, if Mr.
Chamberlain had shot at a police officer or harmed a police officer, even if
it wasn?t with deadly force, if an officer ended up having a bloody nose, in
all likelihood Mr. Chamberlain, 68-year-old 20-year retired corrections
officer and a gentleman who served this country in the Marines for six
years, would have been charged with a felony assault. And we would have
heard from all of our elected officials. They would have talked about him
probably in disparaging ways. They would have possibly called him an animal,
as sometimes people who are alleged to have committed these crimes are
referred to.
JUAN GONZALEZ: I?d like to ask you about this issue, that they?re talking
about bringing this case to a grand jury in April. This happened in
November. We?re talking now five or six months later that they?re empaneling
even a grand jury to discuss the facts, not necessarily to charge?possibly
to charge someone. But it seems to me a long time to wait for?even for a
grand jury on this.
MAYO BARTLETT: Well, it is a good amount of time. And part of it is an
investigatory process, but it is a long time. And the biggest concern I have
with respect to the grand jury is that we do not have an opportunity to
present information to a grand jury in New York state. The only person who
does that is the district attorney?s office. So we can?t even determine
whether they?re going to play the audio tape at all. if there will play the
audio tape, or, if so, whether it?s going to be redacted. So we?re really
stuck with a good faith offering from the district attorney that it?s going
to be fully presented.
AMY GOODMAN: Kenneth Chamberlain, Jr., tell us about your dad, Kenneth
Chamberlain, Sr.
KENNETH CHAMBERLAIN, JR.: When people ask me about that, I tell people he
was a father like anyone else. I mean, he agreed with some things that you
did, and he disagreed with others. But my father would never hurt anyone
intentionally. He wouldn?t go after anyone. I mean, he was law enforcement
himself. He was a marine. I?m sure whatever he?s seen when he served, that
that was enough violence for him. And for them to look at my father that
way, without?I mean, no regard for his life, every morning I think about it,
just the circumstances, because I guess maybe around 5:00 in the morning I
tend to think about all of this. And it disturbs me about the fact that it
hasn?t been presented yet, because I do know, as my attorney said, that if
the roles had been reversed, this would already be in a grand jury.
AMY GOODMAN: When did you hear your father had been killed?
KENNETH CHAMBERLAIN, JR.: I found out from a friend of mine that Saturday
morning. I was up, and my phone rang. And a friend of mine called me, and he
said?who also lives in the building?he said, "You need to get out to White
Plains right away." And I asked him why. He said, "Something is going on
with your father. I don?t know what it is." And I asked him, I said, "Well,
what?s going on?" And as he was getting ready to tell me, he just yelled
out, "Oh, my god!" And I asked him what happened.
AMY GOODMAN: I?m really sorry to put you through this again, to make you
relive it.
KENNETH CHAMBERLAIN, JR.: I apologize.
AMY GOODMAN: You?re holding your father?s ID card, as well?
KENNETH CHAMBERLAIN, JR.: Yes. I have his Marine ring and his veteran?s
card. My father was?
AMY GOODMAN: We?re talking to Kenneth Chamberlain, Jr., the son of Kenneth
Chamberlain, Sr., who was killed by police on November 19th, 2011, in his
home. His medical alert pendant went off, and the company called the police
to check on him.
KENNETH CHAMBERLAIN, JR.: I?m sorry.
AMY GOODMAN: Go ahead, Ken. It?s fine.
KENNETH CHAMBERLAIN, JR.: Yes, I have his Marine ring, his veteran?s card.
He was proud to be a marine. And even on the audio, you hear the police
officers making fun of the fact that he was a marine. And?
AMY GOODMAN: What do you mean?
KENNETH CHAMBERLAIN, JR.: They asked my father to open the door. He refused.
He said, "I?m not opening my door." They said something to the effect that
they were going to knock it down. He said, "I won?t let you in." And he said
"Semper Fi." So they said, "Oh, you?re a marine. Hoo-rah. Hoo-rah." And this
is somebody that served this country. Why would you even say that to him?
And my father always said, "Once a marine, always a marine," if he was ever
in trouble and couldn?t get help from anybody else, to call on a marine. And
a lot of those things come back now, where things that I had?just I thought
went in one ear and right out the other, but in light of these things, when
you hear the audio, when you look at the video, all of these things come
back.
And in 45 years of me being on this earth, that was the very first time that
I ever heard my father where he was pleading and begging for his life,
someone who I looked at as being extremely strong, to hear him beg for his
life, to say that this was his sworn testimony on the audio, which the
police did not know that was being recorded. He said, "My name is Kenneth
Chamberlain. This is my sworn testimony. White Plains police are going to
come in here and kill me."
JUAN GONZALEZ: Well, and the amazing thing about this is that they were
supposed to come there to assist him?
KENNETH CHAMBERLAIN, JR.: Yes.
JUAN GONZALEZ: ?that there was no indication of any kind of a crime?
KENNETH CHAMBERLAIN, JR.: Exactly.
JUAN GONZALEZ: ?and that he would have depended on them for help, and
instead this happens.
RANDOLPH McLAUGHLIN: I think it?s important?you know, we?re lawyers. This is
what we do. But I think it?s important to always remember and look at this
case not as a case, but as a human being who lost his life over a needless
situation, and look at the impact that this kind of senseless killing has on
his family. This man lost his father. He gets a call at 5 a.m. "My father is
in?having a difficult" ? why didn?t they call him? He could have been there
in five minutes. I mean, the lack of professionalism in this department is
shocking. The fact that they?that no public official in the city of White
Plains has come and said to this man, "I?m sorry over the loss of your
father." I mean, Mayor Bloomberg has done that in New York. Whether I agree
with everything he?s done, at least he has the decency to do that. No one
has reached out to this man at all.
So, we have prepared to take this case to the fullest extent. We filed a
notice of claim on behalf of the family, and we?re waiting a little time to
give the DA a chance to do what she has to do. But if they don?t do the
right thing in White Plains, we?re coming to Manhattan to seek justice in
the Department of Justice with the U.S. attorney?s office.
MAYO BARTLETT: Randy, if I can just follow on what you?re saying also, it?s
interesting that the very first coverage of this comes from the White Plains
Police Department. And the White Plains Police Department neglects to
mention that they were there for a medical emergency. They don?t state that.
They lead you to believe that they were there to deal with a person who was
out of control, who was a threat to the community, who was somehow out there
and required their assistance. And I remember watching it as it occurred,
and I?m sitting down with my friend and his sons, who are in high school.
And it had a picture of the White Plains police car and a target on the
police vehicle, as if the police had been targeted. And there was a
statement immediately made that it was a justified shooting. And that
statement had to have been made before they were aware that there was audio
and that perhaps some of the video contradicts that. And it?s very similar
to Mr. Zimmerman suggesting that he had a bloody nose, and now you look at
the video, and it doesn?t appear to be the case. And that really makes you
question what we?re being told sometimes by government with respect to these
types of matters.
And to any degree that Mr. Chamberlain was emotional, it was because he was
taunted. They created the situation. They escalated a situation. And police
are trained. They?re trained to deal with people who are emotionally
disturbed. They?re not trained to kill those individuals, and certainly not
an individual who?s 68 years old when you have a ballistic shield and a
dozen officers and firefighters that are present who could have simply gone
in. But there was a suggestion that Mr. Chamberlain had left his home and
that the officers were retreating. That never occurred. The minute they got
into the house, they didn?t even give him one command. They never mentioned,
"Put your hand up." They never told him to lay down on the bed. They never
did any of that. The first thing they did, as soon as that door was finally
broken off the hinges, you could see the taser light up, and it was charged,
and you could see it going directly toward him. Now that was 100 percent
unnecessary.
And when you see that video, which I wish was public, because I think that
the grand jury is used as a shield, and it shouldn?t be. It?s a shield for
people who have committed crimes and generally a shield for law enforcement,
because, again, these same videos are made public, very public, when they
involve civilians who are charged. And I think that the shielding provision
of the grand jury, the secrecy provision, is to prevent people from
organized?being threatened by organized crime figures, not to protect you
from your own police department.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, I want to thank you all for being with us and end on a
final question to Kenneth Chamberlain, Jr. When you heard of the killing of
Trayvon Martin, your thoughts, as you?re going through what you?re going?
They?re saying they, too, in Florida, will be convening a grand jury,
apparently at about the same time as the grand jury will be convened in the
case of the death of your father that occurred months earlier.
KENNETH CHAMBERLAIN, JR.: My heart definitely goes out to that family,
because I know exactly what it is that they?re feeling right now. And it
took me a while before I actually listened to the released 911 tapes of that
day with that young man. And when I finally got up the nerve to listen to
it, to hear him in the background yelling for help?and I think it was about
maybe three times?and then you hear a gunshot, and you don?t hear him
anymore, it brought tears to my eyes immediately. And it?of course, it also
made me think about my own father, because I hear him pleading for his life,
too. And it?s the same thing that happened with this young man. So I would
just encourage that family to just keep up the fight and don?t give up, the
same as I?m doing.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, Kenneth Chamberlain, I want to thank you very much for
being with us. You have a petition online right now?
KENNETH CHAMBERLAIN, JR.: I just took the petition down, but I also have a
Facebook page that says "Justice for Kenneth Chamberlain, Sr." that a lot of
people have gone on and requested to be a part of, where I just keep people
updated about the events that are taking place. Very recently, I just posted
that I was going to be here. And before that, I spoke about the fact that no
elected officials in White Plains have spoken to my family, and why haven?t
they? They haven?t commented. And you would think that they would. But I
guess that?s another question for another day.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, we certainly will continue to follow this case.
Amy Goodman is the host of the nationally syndicated radio news program,
Democracy Now!.
Juan Gonzalez is the co-host of the nationally syndicated radio news
program, Democracy Now!.
? 2012 Democracy Now! All rights reserved.
View this story online at: http://www.alternet.org/story/154757/

Miriam Vieni
516-333-5104
242 Maple Avenue #202
Westbury, N.Y. 11590

Trayvon Martin and the Sad History of Sanford, Florida

Subject: Trayvon Martin and the Sad History of Sanford, Florida

Where, my Christian friends, is that promised day when the Lion shall lie down by the Lamb?  ,

Actually the Bible verse from which this condensed phrase comes from is:

Isaiah 11:6 The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child
will lead them.
So perhaps the real question is, Where is that little child? 

The world is not going to simply change and one day we will all wake up smiling and living and loving together.  Some little child must take that first step in Love.  And we must follow.  We have tried violence and war and hatred long enough. 

But of course we on this and other "blind lists" can't even accept one another's differences, much less those of the "Sighted World".  It has to begin somewhere.  It could begin right here.  Think of the power we, "The Blind" could have.  We could be the beginning of the end of violence, and prevent future racial hatred and murders. 

Ah me, time to drink my coffee and wake up. 

 

Carl Jarvis    

 

 

Dear Friends,
Three weeks ago, 17-year old Trayvon Martin was gunned down by
self-appointed neighborhood watch captain George Zimmerman. Despite
Zimmerman admitting to following, confronting, and killing Trayvon, he has
yet to be arrested or charged with any crime.1

Just minutes before Trayvon was killed, Zimmerman had called police stating
that Trayvon looked "suspicious." Trayvon was unarmed and walking back to
his father's home in Sanford, Florida when Zimmerman accosted him.

At the crime scene, Sanford police botched their questioning of Zimmerman,
refused to take the full statements of witnesses, and pressured neighbors to
side with the shooter's claim of self-defense.2 As it turns out, Sanford's
police department has a history of failing to hold perpetrators accountable
for violent acts against Black victims, and the police misconduct in
Trayvon's case exemplifies the department's systemic mishandling of such
investigations.3 And now, the State Attorney's office has rubber-stamped the
Sanford police's non-investigation, claiming that there is not enough
evidence to support even a manslaughter conviction.4

Trayvon's family and hundreds of thousands of people around the country are
demanding justice.5 Please join us in calling on the Department of Justice
to take over the case, arrest Trayvon's killer, and launch an independent
investigation into the Sanford police department's unwillingness to protect
Trayvon's civil rights. It takes just a moment:

http://act.colorofchange.org/sign/Trayvon

Walking home from the store shouldn't cost you your life, but when Black
youth are routinely assumed to be violent criminals, being randomly killed
is a constant danger.6 Before Zimmerman decided to get out of his parked car
- gun in tow - to pursue Trayvon on foot that night, he called the police to
identify Trayvon as a "suspicious person" - apparently because he was
wearing a hoodie and walking too slowly in the rain for Zimmerman's liking.
Despite being instructed not to follow Trayvon, Zimmerman proceeded to
confront and fatally shoot the boy in the chest within a matter of minutes.7


The case has been compromised from the beginning. When Sanford police
arrived on the scene, Zimmerman was first approached by a narcotics
detective - not a homicide investigator - who "peppered him with questions"
rather than allowing him to tell his story without prompting. Another
officer "corrected" a witness giving a statement that she'd heard Trayvon
cry for help before he was shot, telling her she had heard Zimmerman
instead.8 And beyond the questions of professional competence or even the
police's disregard for the facts, Florida's notorious "Shoot First" law
takes a shooter's self-defense claim at face value - incentivizing law
enforcement not to make arrests in shooting deaths that would lead to murder
charges in other states.9

Sanford has a history of not prosecuting when the victim is Black. In 2010,
the white son of a Sanford police lieutenant was let go by police after
assaulting a homeless Black man outside a downtown bar. And, in 2005, a
Black teenager was killed by two white security guards, one the son of a
Sanford Police officer. The pair was arrested and charged, but a judge later
cited lack of evidence and dismissed both cases.10

Please join us in calling on the Department of Justice to arrest Trayvon's
killer and launch an investigation into the Sanford police department's
mishandling of the case and when you do, ask your friends and family to do
the same:

http://act.colorofchange.org/sign/Trayvon

No good choices

To my dear daughter Renae,

 

Well, there are days when I say the same thing.  "Throw the bums out".  And then I think, "Hey, that's how we got them bums in the first place.  We threw the last batch out". 

In fact, we have two pretty decent U.S. Senators, and Norm Dicks, despite his love of the defense contractors, has held the line and battled for the working folks.  Bernie Sanders of Vermont is a champion for All American Working/Middle Class people. 

But there are some rotten apples on both sides of the aisle in congress.  I think that until we remove the control that the corporations now have, we will continue to have our needs ignored in favor of theirs. 

The corporations are not people friendly.  Their bottom line, and the only reason they exist, is to make a profit...at all costs. 

They are now seen by our Supreme Court as First Class Citizens.  They have all the rights and privileges of you and me, and more.  They have the billions of dollars to pump into any election they wish to influence.  They have first access into any office in congress including the White House and the Supreme Court.  The cannot be tried and sent to prison when they violate the law, they simply pay a few millions or even billions and go about their business. 

The International Corporations have become more powerful than our government.  This is why we are spending our money to fight wars that the corporations have dubbed War on Terror.  As if any nation as small as Iran could mount a serious attack on us.  We invaded Iraq claiming that they had weapons of mass destruction...only to find out that George Bush and his corporate buddies had lied to us.  And none of them have ever been taken to court over that.  In fact, Obama...also a corporate patsy...said he would not consider bringing any charges against Bush and his team members.  Of course not!  Obama would not want to be held accountable for some of the stuff he is doing right now. 

But until we force the Supreme Court to reverse their decision regarding the first class status of corporations, and until corporations are once again controlled by the government instead of the other way around, only then can we begin to force politicians to care about our needs.  As long as the money is tucked into their pockets, we will be ignored. 

Mitt, Rick, Ron, Newt, Barack...all of them are owned by the millions of dollars that are pumped into their election campaigns.  And remember, many of these huge corporations pump money into all of their campaigns because they can afford to do it, and they will have a strong control over the winner, whoever it is. 

The America we grew up in has become the American Empire, and is fast becoming an International Corporate Empire.  Fighting over whether we have Mitt or Barak in the White House is like spitting into a hurricane.  I strongly support the Occupy Wall Street movement.  It may become the mass resistance against Corporate control that will bring America back to the people. 

 

Dad

 

Setting Examples As People Who Are Blind

 

Hi Bonnie and all Blind Parents, Sighted Parents, and anyone who was Ever a Child: 

 

Bonnie, your experiences as a parent parallel my own, and it illustrates the point I was trying to make. 

No matter what we do, or how hard we try, or how much we want, we cannot control how others respond to us.  We can not spend too much energy worrying about how we are viewed.  We do what we do because it is what we believe is right for us.  And that is the only person we really have any control over. 

You and I, as blind parents, gave our best to our children.  We set the best example that is possible for mere mortals, and we passed along the best information that we had to give.  And that was as far as our control of the situation could go. 

Despite my wish to keep my children safe and to see that they did not suffer the hurt and wrong choices that I had gone through, they had to do it their own way.  and that included some very hard times for them.  But all three came through their experiences as strong, reasonably happy and contributing people. 

Anyway, the bottom line is this, my parenting was only one part of all that went into my children's experience and present behavior and thinking. 

And this is true of our own impact as blind people, upon our world.  We are only  one small piece of what society thinks about blindness.  I am not going to change much.  But I am committed to trying, just for my own needs.  And so, it would seem very foolish of me to claim that another blind person's behavior is more detrimental to the blind stereotype just because it does not conform with my concept of what is proper blind behavior. 

 

Carl Jarvis

**********

 

My story and Bonnie's response:

 

Down the street from where I used to live were two families.  Each family had a mother, a father and four children.  The one consisted of three girls and a boy, while the other was two boys and two girls. 

The family with the three girls discovered that one of their daughters was a genius.  She had an IQ of over 160 and by her Freshman year in high school she was placed in the twelfth grade.  She completed college by the time she was 17 and had a Master's degree in some sort of complicated math by the time she was 19.  She had two PhD's before she was old enough to drink. 

The second family had pretty normal children, until it was discovered that their older son was molesting all three of his younger siblings.  By the time he was 17, he was doing time in the Juvenile Center for attempted rape of a neighbor girl.  She was only four years old. 

By 19 he was in prison for multiple attempted rapes.  But he was released before he was 21 and after appearing to settle down he killed his girl friend, tucked her in the trunk of his car and headed down the coast, committing many violent crimes. 

He was sought in at least five rape murders.  But when they spotted him and tried to arrest him, he shot it out with the police, killing one of them and then leaping off a cliff to his death. 

So here's the reason for telling you this.  The first family, the ones with the genius, were never seen as different from the families around them.  No one thought that there might be some secret parenting skill that would have caused their one daughter to grow up to be so smart. 

But the second family?  All of their neighbors came to believe that some how they had raised that boy to become the killer that he became.  The family was shunned and the other children were never invited to associate with children of their own age. 

Finally the family sold their home and moved far away. 

What is it that causes us to believe that the one family did not have that much to do with their child's great success, while we crucify the other family for their son's criminal behavior? 

 

Carl Jarvis

 

 

From Bonnie Blose:

 

This is precisely why it is important not to make judgments about
other people. Often. when we do, we judge a family instead of an
individual. If three of the four children in the family  of the boy
who grew up to rape and then later murder his girl friend were so
called normal kids,  can't find the parents at fault. How they must
have asked themselves what they had done wrong  and reviewed    past
choices    in relation to their children. I would think they must
have worried about the rest. Most of all, how sad that the entire
family was ostracized by the community at a time when they needed
support which would have helped so much with this terrible series of
horrific events.

It has been my experience in thinking I know all I need to know that
there are sometimes elements unknown which, if known would alter my
point of view. Even then, it is not my place to judge.

My son has been on probation and had an expulsion held in abeyance
while in high school. He used to compare his behavior to other kids
who were in trouble and ask  for reassurance that he wasn't in as
much or serious trouble or as often as they were. I always told him
being in trouble was in the end being in trouble and that although he
hadn't committed murder, being in trouble and on probation was
still  serious and could get much worse if he  continued doing the
same kinds of things  he had begun. In desperation one day, I told
him  I would see him in prison if he didn't wake up and change the
things he was doing. He was amazed I could think such a thing and
said he couldn't believe I would say it because he was my son. I
reminded him I had always told him the truth and I wasn't going to
start lying now  and that, in my view, that was the future he was
headed for. After some thought, he asked if he did something really
terrible if I would call the police. He was informed  I would in a
heartbeat and that what I had said I would do in the past I had done.
He knew I would. I told him if a person knows they can count on being
told the truth from someone they will know that truth is something
they can count on. I never wavered in sharing what I perceived the
truth to be. I told him I would tell him if my view changed or if I
decided I was mistaken about a situation, and I have always done so.

I explained my interest in him was not just for today or tomorrow or
in what he was doing over the weekend but that my care about him
included the kind of person he would be in ten years.
Some parents, no matter how hard they try end up with a child who
grows up and commits horrific crimes. We should never cancel out
their efforts. We all know lousy parents who have great kids. If your
children reach adulthood and conduct themselves responsibly, breathe
a sigh of relief, for it could be otherwise and is for many.

During one of my son's ten day  suspensions in high school, I
volunteered his services to people at my church as he was going to
have free time. I found jobs for him to do around the house, insisted
he get up every morning to complete the homework I went to school to
get for him so he could do it during   his  absence. I made him get
up each morning at the time he would have had to if school were in
the picture, and he moaned a good deal about how boring it was. To
his comments about boredom, I suggested he do homework or the jobs I
had assigned. It involved much vigilance on my part and was way
harder than just letting him serve the suspension with nothing to do.
My point was that I wanted to make this time not just memorable but
boring. He got the point. I told him when he complained that yes, I
knew it was all a bore, but he could be where he was supposed to be
if he hadn't done what he did resulting in his being stuck at home
with boring old mom and work.

The teachers weren't particularly happy to get all of his work
together for completion during his suspension, but I just told them I
was a parent who cared and wanted him to have it. I am sure it was
inconvenient for them, but special circumstances require special
measures. I can handle some dissatisfaction and grumbling from anyone
if there is a purpose being achieved which has a greater value.

For those who are wondering, my son, despite all these efforts did
not graduate from high school. He did eventually see the value of
getting his GED thanks to a girl friend's encouragement at the time.
Like many parents, I didn't need his choice to come because of
anything I said or did but was happy he did it. He holds down a
steady job and has for several years. Did I down size my hopes and
dreams for him? Without a doubt. Like all parents, I wanted more for
him than it turned out he wanted for himself. I am fine with that. It
is his life he has to live, not mine. My place is to be his mom and a
loving presence in his life, something at present he does not want.
He still has some growing up to do. Whether he will do all he can or
when he will come back in to my life are answers I don't have, but it
is my hope he will someday. I expect it will be when he needs me.
When that time comes, I will be there, but I will remind him once
more that separation and lack of involvement erodes relationships and
that lack of involvement solves nothing and can do great harm. I know
other parents who do not see their children and have had great
support from them in this. I know many others who can't imagine not
seeing their children. I understand that too and am glad they do. One
very close friend says every once in a while that she hopes the
closeness she has with her son and his loving concern and expression
of interest in her life doesn't hurt me since I don't have the same.
I tell her it does, because all relationships are different. I'm
happy she has such a great relationship with her son. As a friend,
how could I possibly think otherwise in relation to a person I love
and whose friendship I cherish? 

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