I’m writing for tomorrow, day 26. It’s been a slow day for news and excessively cold for here, with most of the day below freezing with high wind. I overslept, and I’m writing during Holy Halftime.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 3:52 (average 5:08). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Religious Ecstasy:
Short Take:
From Think Progress: Presenting reams of evidence that could benefit the defense of Ferguson officer Darren Wilson wasn’t the only thing St. Louis County prosecutors did to bolster Wilson’s case for escaping trial.
Prosecutors also made a mistake in the grand jury instructions that gave jurors a false impression about the law and provided Wilson with significantly more legal cover for the deadly shooting of Michael Brown than the law actually provides, according to a review of the transcript by MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell.
Assistant District Attorney Kathi Alizadeh instructed grand jurors on how to decide the case based on a statute that was invalidated by the U.S. Supreme Court two decades ago. As O’Donnell points out, that statute had not been valid for the entirety of Alizadeh’s legal career. That statute said that officers can use any force they deem necessary to achieve the arrest of a fleeing suspect. It does not preclude deadly force ,saying only that officers are “justified in the use of such physical force as he or she reasonably believes is immediately necessary to effect the arrest or to prevent the escape from custody.”
Calling this "mistake" a "mistake" is a huge mistake. I have no doubt that it was completely intentional.
Cartoon:
13 Responses to “Open Thread–12/1/2014”
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3:08 What a colorful flower for a dreary Meteorological winter day.
3:30 I stopped to smell the flowers.
3:06 Pretty flower but I doubt it would last even in our temperate rain forest.
FF ~ Woo-Hoo! I won again. Monster Mashers (me) 91.20 vs. Purple Demon 68.54
Think Progress ~ The deck was stacked for Wilson from the start. This was no "mistake".
Cartoon ~ The little progress that was achieved is rapidly being eroded.
Think Progress – shouldn't Assistant District Attorney Kathi Alizadeh be up in front of the Bar Council (or whatever they have there) for either lying her **** off or misrepresenting the law?! Not to mention conduct likely to cause a breach of the peace (and how!) . How on earth could this be any shape, form or type of a mistake – making the Grand Jury follow an outdated piece of law has got to be illegal hasn't it – or isn't it now in Republican areas – that could account for it.
Sorry TC – lots of computer problems at present – typing difficult.
Accidentally erased my time but it was four-something. Average up to 5:18. We had lantana when I was growing up and I don't remember the florets changing color, or size to that extent. They were just red with yellow accents. Probably a different subspecies.
Think Progress – No one thinks it was a mistake really. The only mistake would be thinking it wouldn't get found out and become nationally known. A few more details at http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/11/28/1348023/-Sheila-Whirley-Alizadeh-Ferguson-prosecution-team-your-thoughts
Cartoon – Being denies seating on public transportation was a huge thing because it involved the only means African Americans had to get to work or reach any of life's other necessities. Republicans won't touch that. It's too much of an icon. They will focus on other rights, such as the right to breathe while black. As Lona (Care2) said.
Since disbelief can interfere with speech, I provide someone else's words that say alot (hopefully even to nonbelievers) that I received in an email:
Ferguson: A Pastoral Response
Isaiah 64:1-9
O that you would tear open the heavens and come down, so that the mountains would quake at your presence— as when fire kindles brushwood and the fire causes water to boil— to make your name known to your adversaries, so that the nations might tremble at your presence! When you did awesome deeds that we did not expect, you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence. From ages past no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who works for those who wait for him. You meet those who gladly do right, those who remember you in your ways. But you were angry, and we sinned; because you hid yourself we transgressed.
We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy cloth. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away. There is no one who calls on your name, or attempts to take hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us, and have delivered us into the hand of our iniquity. Yet, O God, you are our Creator; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand. Do not be exceedingly angry, O God, and do not remember iniquity forever. Now consider, we are all your people.
In times like these, when marginalized communities sense the threat of violence for their own livelihood and well-being, words fail. Words fail because the injustice seems insurmountable. Words fail because the system that is supposed to bring justice feels irreconcilably broken. Words fail because we can’t fully articulate the profound anger, sadness, and frustration that this decision engenders in us. But, as Audre Lorde so importantly reminds us, our silence will not protect us.
As an organization that works for the full inclusion of all persons, the injustice of the events surrounding the murder of Michael Brown, an unarmed Black teenager, and a decision not to indict Darren Wilson, the police officer who committed the murder rings out as a clear cry that "injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” We as More Light Presbyterians cannot stay silent, and we also recognize that we can not say enough. We must step forward, not back, to stay in relationship with those who are counted as other, marginalized, and disconnected from systems that help them to flourish. The violence that has been perpetuated against Mike Brown and the Ferguson community by the non-indictment of Darren Wilson not only minimizes the violence against black bodies, but also affirms a sense of dominance over marginalized communities. We need to affirm, as the hashtag did that emerged after Mike Brown's shooting, that #blacklivesmatter. We have a role to play in dismantling the racism that allows for such violence to go unchecked by our legal system.
However, we also need to recognize that Ferguson goes beyond race to bigger questions that demand our solidarity and personal ownership of our own privileges. (see this link) Yet, what Ferguson exposes most clearly is that the black / African American community continues to be threatened due to the militarization of the police. Just a few days ago a 12 year old boy was shot by a police officer in Cleveland. In the face of this injustice we cannot stay silent. As followers of Jesus, we must name the racism inherent in the culture that led to the death of Mike Brown, and we also name that a racist system privileging whiteness does harm to all of us, regardless of the color of our skin. We know that no one is fully free until we are all free. In the midst of this, we also see the need to join together with our black sisters and brothers to help usher in lasting peace and justice.
Today is the first Sunday in Advent, beginning a season where we wait expectantly, hopefully, watchfully for the impossible, for the heavens to open up and God to descend down upon us. As the prophet Isaiah proclaims in today’s lectionary text, when God did deeds the people did not expect, that was precisely the moment when God was with us. As those who work for racial justice and peace, it can feel like waiting and working for the impossible, especially when injustice is so clearly perpetrated against our brothers and sisters. As Isaiah reminds us, it can be tempting to too easily only identify as those who are righteous and ignore our own iniquities. In this season of Advent, we can watch and wait for the mountains to move and the impossible to be made possible and dwell among us, but we cannot stay silent in the face of injustice.
We must respond to the events in Ferguson from a critical and pastoral place—a place that demands attention to the particularities of difference that threaten our collective flourishing; we call this an intersectional place, despite recognizing the reality that words fail in this very moment. It is the recognition of our shared kinship that demands this intersectional response from MLP. The LGBTIQ movement demands justice for all persons, remembering that it was Martin Luther King, Jr. who modeled for us a way to be peacefully resistant to politics and policies that only serve self and bring calamity to the marginalized. When words fail us, perhaps it is the moment to turn to the God of Love, whose passion for the flourishing of all humankind is beyond the capacity of our words to contain. We can rely on the Spirit who "intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words" (Romans 8:26). By crying out to the divine who is beyond words, we can be heard into voice, so that we might find the words to speak God's love into the depths of human pain. This moment in Ferguson calls all of us to remember those that have struggled for justice (whatever the injustice has been) that in their work is rooted a collective memory and imagination for a better world. Now consider, we are ALL God’s people.
Yours on the journey,
Alex Patchin McNeill
Executive Director
&
Robyn Henderson-Espinoza
Director of Communications
Puzzle — 3:06 Pretty flower but I doubt it would last even in our temperate rain forest.
Think Progress — I can`t remember where I read it, certainly not Faux Noise related!) here or elsewhere, but apparently Robert McCulloch has had 5 or 6 police officers face a grand jury but not one indictment resulted. I smell rotting herring!
You know it is said ¨that sometimes a mistake is just a mistake¨? This is NOT one of those times!
Cartoon — The ¨burden of skin¨ in 1955. Whether 1955 or 2014, the injustice of the ¨burden of skin¨ is so palpable, so disgusting . . . only a Republicanus/Teabagger would think it acceptable.
SORRY –
I've been remiss in not congratulating the Broncos on their victory last night.
It was deserved … but disappointing!
Think Progress: I don't believe there was a mistake, they intended for Wilson to go free.
Cartoon: Sadly, Rosa would get little support from Congress today. I thought after the Civil Rights act and the protests and fights of the sixties that we would leave racism behind, Sadly, we have not.
I hope you get warmer weather soon. We seem to follow Oregon's path here. It was a balmy seventy here on Saturday and now is in the low thirties with some snow expected.
Balmy would be nice here too! The temperature here tonight is expected to be -8 C or about 17 F with some winds but no new snow. My furnace (new last April) is sherking it's responsibilities. I should have someone in on thursday but until then, I even wear a sweater to bed over my PJs. I like cold weather but I also like heat in the house. If Portland is like Vancouver, then it should warm up on Friday, comparatively balmy by todayès standard.
Fell asleep in chair and just woke up. 🙁
Fell asleep in my chair and just woke up. 🙁