Black lives matter : in their own words(really)

[ActionBuddy]

John Lewis: LPSG

Hopefully, this will be a well-placed kick in the groin to Alabama's KKK-er's, to their semi-covert local government enablers, to the racism "apologists", and the otherwise right-wing "wing-nuts" present, here, at LPSG's "Politics Forum":

Governor Ivey says flags to be flown at half-staff to honor Congressman John Lewis

I hope their worn-out, dirty panties get in an excruciatingly tight "bunch", over it!

A/B

 

[slivovic]

How about you start another thread, under whatever heading you deem appropriate, and repost most of the above there? I'll attempt a response. But we've taken this thread off track enough already.

I don't want to be too obscurantist.

 

[b.c.]

The World John Lewis Helped Create - Black leaders pause to reflect on the civil-rights icon and representative from Georgia, who spent decades calling for activism and “good trouble.” - The Atlantic

John Lewis believed in the American project and wanted to perfect it.​

On August 28, 1963, Lewis stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial before hundreds of thousands of people, but his mind was on those who could not be there.

He thought of the Black people in Danville, Virginia, living under the heavy baton of a police state; of the sharecroppers in the Mississippi Delta, working for starvation wages; of the three young men facing the death penalty in Georgia for protesting.

“We will go to jail if this is the price we must pay for love, brotherhood, and true peace,” Lewis told the crowd. “I appeal to all of you to get into this great revolution that is sweeping this nation. Get in the streets and stay in the streets of every city, every village and hamlet of this nation until true freedom comes, until the revolution of 1776 is complete.” ​

Lewis was just 23 years old. Shortly after he said those words, Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech.

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[ActionBuddy]

I don't want to be too obscurantist.

If I were a Moderator here, I would move this post to the "What Made You Laugh, Today?" thread.

A/B

 

[Industrialsize]

I don't want to be too obscurantist.

But you want to be a sesquipedalian

 

[ActionBuddy]

But you want to be a sesquipedalian.

That sounds almost as dirty as: floccinaucinihilipilification!



But, I suppose that is going "off topic"... sorry!

 

[keenobserver]

That sounds almost as dirty as: floccinaucinihilipilification!



But, I suppose that is going "off topic"... sorry!

Actually, hit the topic pretty well. I enjoyed looking that one up.

 

[ActionBuddy]

Actually, hit the topic pretty well. I enjoyed looking that one up.

Don't even get me started on, hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia !

It would be endless!

;-)

 

[b.c.]

Do NOT Call John Lewis a "Hero" IF YOU STOOD IN HIS WAY - Why John Lewis’ life’s work was never finished: Mitch McConnell and his party.

Republicans now lauding John Lewis, like Mitch McConnell and Brian Kemp, are the reason the civil rights icon had to keep fighting until his dying breath.

House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy lauded Lewis as a “patriot in the truest sense” and posted a picture of himself trailing Lewis on a march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in 2015. “One of the greatest honors of my life was to join him for multiple trips to Selma to march across the bridge,” he said.

But McCarthy has never done anything to show that those trips—meant to commemorate the bloody fight to protect and expand the right to vote—were anything other than timely photo opportunities.

When Lewis was co-sponsor of a bill to renew portions of the Voting Rights Act in December, McCarthy and all but one of his Republican members voted against it. As recently as April, McCarthy blasted voting by mail as dangerous for the country and said the system involves “a lot of fraud” while offering no evidence for the claim.

The Cato Institute also sought to align itself with Lewis, calling him a “Libertarian Hero” in a tweet on Saturday morning, linking to a January tribute.

But only seven years ago, the think tank filed a brief asking the U.S. Supreme Court to strike down the preclearance requirement of the Voting Rights Act. The court’s ruling in that case, Shelby v. Holder, allowed nine states, most of them in the South, to change their election laws without advance federal approval.

It’s worth remembering that last month, on the seventh anniversary of the Shelby v. Holder decision, Lewis was still urging the court to reconsider. “It is a shame and a disgrace. I urge you to correct course and take action. Time is of the essence to preserve the integrity and promises of our democracy,” Lewis wrote, by then publicly ailing with the pancreatic cancer that would kill him.

From the state where Lewis settled, raised a family, and launched a political career, Gov. Brian Kemp made his attempt at a testimonial. Lewis “was a Civil Rights hero, freedom fighter, devoted public servant, and beloved Georgian who changed our world in a profound way,” Kemp tweeted Saturday.

But it is Kemp who is perhaps the best example of the resistance Lewis faced in trying to change the world.

As Georgia’s secretary of state, Kemp was at the forefront of a national GOP-led movement to make voting more difficult, from championing photo ID laws to prosecuting residents on specious claims of voter fraud. Kemp directed the removal of 1.5 million voters from the state rolls from 2012 to 2016, according to an analysis by the Brennan Center for Justice.

While running for governor in 2018 but still serving as secretary of state, Kemp purged the state’s voter rolls in a move that mostly affected Black voters.

Lewis found the conflict of interest so egregious that he called on Kemp to resign. “Brian Kemp is actively abusing the power of his office to make it more difficult for Georgians to vote,” Lewis said then. “His actions make it impossible for voters to trust that this election will be administered in a fair and impartial way.”

But most notable among those paying respects Saturday morning was Sen. Mitch McConnell. “He endured hatred and violence,” McConnell said of Lewis in a press release. “But he kept working, because he was convinced that our nation had to be better.”

McConnell... in August 1965... was invited to a ceremony to witness then-President Lyndon B. Johnson sign the Voting Rights Act. For McConnell, the legislative accomplishment was most impressive not for guaranteeing the franchise for Black Americans but for its bipartisan support. A New York Times profile in July 2015 referred to his “longstanding commitment to civil rights legislation.”

But by 2007, McConnell did not appear very committed to the fight that continued to fuel Lewis and his work.

That year McConnell proposed an amendment to a Senate immigration bill that would have changed the Voting Rights Act to require that all voters show photo identification. From then on, McConnell was stubbornly against any measures to restore any pieces of the legislation that he’d witnessed signed into law a half-century before.

Lewis... was in the Supreme Court chamber during the challenge to the Voting Rights Act, later telling Ari Berman of Mother Jones that “he almost cried when Justice Antonin Scalia compared the VRA to a ‘racial entitlement.’ ”

In many ways, McConnell’s betrayal was what kept Lewis working in his final years.

“In December 2019, Lewis presided over the House as it passed legislation to restore and modernize the Voting Rights Act, requiring states with a long history of voting discrimination to once again get federal approval for any changes to voting procedures,” Berman writes.

“In a primary season marred by voting problems, like six-hour lines in Lewis’ home state of Georgia, it’s been sitting on Mitch McConnell’s desk for 225 days.”


A bunch of fkng hypocrites.
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[ActionBuddy]

The Late Show's Stephen Colbert, and his incredibly talented collaborator, Jon Batiste, have helped to keep me, somewhat, relatively sane, since Donald Trump's election to the U.S.A.'s presidency by the bogus, outdated "Electoral College" system.

I love both of their intellects, and really have appreciated their interviews with, and their tributes to, the life and accomplishments of American politician and civil rights leader, Representative John Robert Lewis, before his recent death, and afterwords.

I love some of the things in this recent video, because it shows that Mr. Lewis was not only a force to be reckoned with, but also, despite many of his own life's hardships, he knew how to enjoy life, and have a good time!

A/B

 

[slivovic]

But you want to be a sesquipedalian

No. I might be a tad prolix, a tad loquacious, but not sesquipedalian.

 

[slivovic]

Actually, hit the topic pretty well. I enjoyed looking that one up.

Ironic that you think that somehow fits this topic. I wonder if you typed that prestidigitally

 

[slivovic]

https://twitter.com/i/status/1282258068999245825

 

[deleted15807]

Beautiful

Major League Baseball returns with kneeling and ‘Black Lives Matter’ front and center​

 

[deleted15807]

The Late Show's Stephen Colbert, and his incredibly talented collaborator, Jon Batiste, have helped to keep me, somewhat, relatively sane, since Donald Trump's election to the U.S.A.'s presidency by the bogus, outdated "Electoral College" system.

I love both of their intellects, and really have appreciated their interviews with, and their tributes to, the life and accomplishments of American politician and civil rights leader, Representative John Robert Lewis, before his recent death, and afterwords.

I love some of the things in this recent video, because it shows that Mr. Lewis was not only a force to be reckoned with, but also, despite many of his own life's hardships, he knew how to enjoy life, and have a good time!

A/B

Great great piece by Colbert.

 

[Industrialsize]

Here in Massachusetts our Governor just signed legislation adding Juneteenth as a State Holiday.
Massachusetts Officially Makes Juneteenth A State Holiday
Massachusetts Officially Makes Juneteenth A State Holiday

And a major Police Reform Bill passed its first house of our legislature:

Massachusetts House passes sweeping police reform bill; lawmakers still face opposition on qualified immunity
Updated Jul 25, 2020; Posted Jul 24, 2020
A massive police reform bill that would create a police certification process with civilian oversight, ban choke holds and restrict “no-knock” warrants is a step closer to becoming law in Massachusetts.
Massachusetts House narrowly passes sweeping police reform bill

https://malegislature.gov/Bills/191/S2800/GeneralCourtNumber

I am proud to live in Massachusetts.

 

[ActionBuddy]

Portland’s protests were supposed to be about black lives. Now, they’re white spectacle.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opin...about-black-lives-now-theyre-white-spectacle/

"Early in his activism, Malcolm X was asked by a young white woman what she could do to help the cause of civil rights. He famously replied, “Nothing.” Years later, he regretted dismissing her so abruptly, because he came to believe there was much she could do to advance the cause of justice for black people in the United States. But, I am quite certain that striking yoga poses nude on the streets of Portland, OR, was not on his list of actionable items."

- E.D. Mondainé, president of the Portland, OR, branch of the NAACP.

A/B

 

[b.c.]

Portland’s protests were supposed to be about black lives. Now, they’re white spectacle.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opin...about-black-lives-now-theyre-white-spectacle/

"Early in his activism, Malcolm X was asked by a young white woman what she could do to help the cause of civil rights. He famously replied, “Nothing.” Years later, he regretted dismissing her so abruptly, because he came to believe there was much she could do to advance the cause of justice for black people in the United States. But, I am quite certain that striking yoga poses nude on the streets of Portland, OR, was not on his list of actionable items."

- E.D. Mondainé, president of the Portland, OR, branch of the NAACP.

A/B

lol. No, perhaps NOT.

There are undoubtedly some elements mixed into the largely PEACEFUL movement who may have somewhat varying agendas,, including lady Godiva there, and anarchists, some reportedly with a right winged, boogaloo agenda, and MAYBE (it'd come as no surprise to me) actors/plants by certain administrative entities (who shall remain nameless) whose mission is to stir up enough shit so that a certain entity who shall remain nameless can have an excuse to do what he's always TALKED about doing from day ONE. (wink wink nod nod say no more).

However I'm OTHERWISE personally heartened to see a mix of people from varying races and socio-economic strata involved in this movement. In part because their involvement disarms the usual racist stereotyping and dismissals from Trump, the right, and their crony propagandists over at FUX News.

When you have a wall of VETERANS and MOMS standing the front line between protesters and Trump's GESTAPO, the USUAL sorts can't exactly REsort to their DOG-WHISTLE bullshit, like calling them "BLM thugs" or "Antifa," CAN they???

But hey, give fu-QAnon time. They'll work up some batshitery-gate explanation for their disciples to devour.

 

[Industrialsize]

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View attachment g8bhKNn8got582CC.mp4

 

[b.c.]

Police Would Treat John Lewis Today the Same Way They Treated Him in 1965

In May, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said a group of protesters who’d been intentionally run over by police officers had “created” the situation in which they were injured by blocking the officers’ car.

In June, the NYPD cited the general threat of looting to justify repeated violent attacks against protesters who were charged with loitering-level “crimes” like unlawful assembly and violating curfew.

In the District of Columbia, federal park police argued that they were justified in tear-gassing protesters near the White House because the protesters had ignored orders to move so Trump could have a photo-op at a church.

In Buffalo, officers enforcing a curfew shoved over a 75-year-old man, causing a severe brain injury.

In Philadelphia bombarded a group of protesters who were trapped against a hill with tear gas, the city’s mayor explained, because they had threatened public safety by walking on a highway.

. . .​

On Friday, July 17, Georgia Congressman John Lewis died.

Lewis is perhaps most famous for having been smashed in the skull with a baton by a highway patrol officer after crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, during a 1965 voting rights march.

But he was also beaten and arrested during a number of other critical civil rights actions. Many contemporary Americans have taken the occasion of his death to retell a familiar story about his righteous cause, one that ends with everyone in today’s United States—Republican and Democrat, Black and white—on the right side of history.

Yet history continues around us on terms that would have been familiar to a young John Lewis.

Just as it has been made clear since the Shelby v. Holder ruling that the United States’ journey toward fulfilling its ideals of democratic equality did not end in the 1960s,
​

[as in, the struggle for Civil Rights is FAR from over....]

it is being made clear this year that the country’s belief in itself as a place that honors free speech and dissent has never been fully justified either.

.​