ofthisandthat
Weekly Letter to President Obama
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Copyright © 2010
ofthisandthat.org. All rights
reserved.
INAUGURATION, January 20, 2009
Drunk in its stale air
For two hundred years.
Fettered in mind and body,
The soul, the safe escape
To let me breathe the cries
Of my heart singing
Tears of mel-an-choly.
The tears flow free today
Washing the stains of blood
And sweat in brotherhood.
Raise the curtain then an'
Let the world look in
On this promised land --
We breathe free today.... almost.
--- Arshad M. Khan
We will be known forever by the tracks we leave.
--- Native American proverb
July 24, 2015
Mr. President: Congratulations on the reunion with your father's family in Kenya
yesterday. Clearly bursting with pride, they embraced you with warmth and dignity.
Meanwhile back home, the omniscient Franklin Graham labels all Muslims terrorists,
wants all immigration of the same banned and suggests at internment camps evoking
the shameful and racist treatment of Japanese-American citizens during WWII. In our
present anti-Muslim hysteria, the elephant in the room (studiously ignored by the
press) as you dined with your father's family was the Muslim religion -- almost
everyone in the room was a Muslim.
A few hours later, evening in Lafayette, Louisiana, a certain John Houser, aged 59,
stood up calmly in a theater during a movie, and started shooting -- leaving three
dead, including himself, and nine wounded. The frequency of these mass killings in
the U.S. is astonishing. He had problems but why must people with problems here
express their anger in killing strangers? Why, if not because our politicians have
become uncaring of the public, catering instead to their elite funders, so much so the
distressed blame everyone in their frustration.
Must democracy be trampled by excessive greed? Most people agree the problem at
its root is election funding. We have a choice: abolish all funding regulations, so the
excuse 'I am following the law' is no longer a shield; or have elections funded only by
public funds. If anyone wanted a legacy remembered a century hence, this would be
it. Of course it is a gargantuan task, yet possible if some one can raise public ire.
The other story making the headlines is the tragedy of Sandra Bland. A traffic stop
escalated; she was arrested and committed suicide in her jail cell three days later.
Investigating the issue of police killings yields some surprises: On average the police
kill three people a day; the majority killed are non-black.
It poses several questions: Why are police so prone to use lethal force: Does
someone running away after, say, a traffic stop deserve to be shot and killed? The
policeman is not in danger; the infraction is minor. So why is the policeman not
charged with manslaughter, as a homeowner might well be if he shot and killed a
fleeing burglar posing no danger.
Why are not incident diffusing techniques a greater focus in training? Just today on
NBC evening news was a video of a suspect, arms in the air, surrendering to one
policeman when a second one attacks the suspect with violent force, punching him,
then pins his arms back hard to handcuff him -- clearly gratuitous violence which was
why NBC showed the clip.
Enough is enough. It is high time the police returned to community policing and
stopped being a paramilitary force. The rare terrorist attacks can be handled, should
military force be required, by the national guard.
Going by the numbers, one is much more
July 24, 2015
Mr. President: Congratulations on the reunion with your father's family in Kenya
yesterday. Clearly bursting with pride, they embraced you with warmth and dignity.
Meanwhile back home, the omniscient Franklin Graham labels all Muslims terrorists,
wants all immigration of the same banned and suggests at internment camps evoking
the shameful and racist treatment of Japanese-American citizens during WWII. In our
present anti-Muslim hysteria, the elephant in the room (studiously ignored by the
press) as you dined with your father's family was the Muslim religion -- almost
everyone in the room was a Muslim.
A few hours later, evening in Lafayette, Louisiana, a certain John Houser, aged 59,
stood up calmly in a theater during a movie, and started shooting -- leaving three
dead, including himself, and nine wounded. The frequency of these mass killings in
the U.S. is astonishing. He had problems but why must people with problems here
express their anger in killing strangers? Why, if not because our politicians have
become uncaring of the public, catering instead to their elite funders, so much so the
distressed blame everyone in their frustration.
Must democracy be trampled by excessive greed? Most people agree the problem at
its root is election funding. We have a choice: abolish all funding regulations, so the
excuse 'I am following the law' is no longer a shield; or have elections funded only by
public funds. If anyone wanted a legacy remembered a century hence, this would be
it. Of course it is a gargantuan task, yet possible if some one can raise public ire.
The other story making the headlines is the tragedy of Sandra Bland. A traffic stop
escalated; she was arrested and committed suicide in her jail cell three days later.
Investigating the issue of police killings yields some surprises: On average the police
kill three people a day; the majority killed are non-black.
It poses several questions: Why are police so prone to use lethal force: Does
someone running away after, say, a traffic stop deserve to be shot and killed? The
policeman is not in danger; the infraction is minor. So why is the policeman not
charged with manslaughter, as a homeowner might well be if he shot and killed a
fleeing burglar posing no danger.
Why are not incident diffusing techniques a greater focus in training? Just today on
NBC evening news was a video of a suspect, arms in the air, surrendering to one
policeman when a second one attacks the suspect with violent force, punching him,
then pins his arms back hard to handcuff him -- clearly gratuitous violence which was
why NBC showed the clip.
Enough is enough. It is high time the police returned to community policing and
stopped being a paramilitary force. The rare terrorist attacks can be handled, should
military force be required, by the national guard.
Going by the numbers, one is much more likely these days to be killed by the police
than a terrorist.