Confederate Symbols - Bettina Network's Blog

Archive for the ‘Confederate Symbols’ Category

Rummagings About Morality

Tuesday, December 5th, 2017

Isn’t it amazing what it takes for the experiences of your life to come together.

What is it you have wanted more than anything else in life?

For me – since I was little – it was wisdom and understanding.

Funny thing about that – it is exactly what I have received from life.  Not money – success – fame – all of that started to break in at different points along the way, but just as quickly as that breaking in started, all of those things – money, success, fame – were killed.  How and by who I will probably never know.  But wherever there were lessons to be learned I was there and the world seemed to open up to give me its ultimate secrets.  The biggest and most guarded secret is the one which showed me if the world defined money, success, fame had broken in, the wisdom and understanding would have stopped and that which had already broken in would be gone in a very short period of time.

Things that seemed obvious to me were a blank to many of my friends.  If that is not true, they were magnificent in hiding what they saw and understood. And what I understood was what one fears and that which keeps one from stepping out on faith is really who you are.  The fear is of losing those things the world has provided and putting you in a position of want – that seems to be our greatest fear.

So many things come to us for learning and almost all of them we ignore as we look and walk in the opposite direction.  We live on assumptions.  The assumptions we have put into our minds and hearts because that is what we want to believe about life and that is what we want to believe about those around us and that is what we want to believe about the world in which we live.

One grand truth, being presented on a world-wide stage these days is the moral structure needed for the world to maintain its racism, sexism and all the rest.  That moral structure is deep within our souls today and we live by that structure without ever thinking about what that has done to us spiritually.  The sacrifices we have made as human beings over the generations to satisfy our most base needs are horrifying when looked at on a world-wide scale.

How many lies do you have to tell yourself to believe and act and create your world around the incredible belief that you and those like you are “better than” everyone else.  What lies have Alabamians had to tell themselves to support and vote for Roy Moore.  We are living out a morality play each day and it is stark.  There is nothing romanticizing what is being played out on the U. S. Government’s stage.  It is and has drowned out and is quickly removing every good thing we have ever been about – and that is no exaggeration.  How did the ovens in Germany come about?  They were created by those who were born, raised, lived and died in a society which was full of normal human beings trying to survive but gradually taking that need to survive and that fear of failure to incredible heights.  They were not evil people, they were just like us.  They became evil as they became more and more entrenched in the opportunities to achieve untold wealth, great fame, etc. etc.

As human beings we seem to have been born with the need to group together with like minded, like looking, like acting human beings.  We have had our tribes which insured our continued existence.  There is nothing wrong with tribalism,  until the day comes when that tribalism slides into “my tribe is better than your tribe and your tribe must serve my tribe so my tribe can have more of what it wants in this life at the expense of your life and times.”

What do these rummaging have to do with today?  It brings to mind and heart all of the huge sacrifices we have made to create a country in which some are better than others; to have created that country on the backs of slaves who were demeaned and considered less than human; to have used the marriage laws to enslave others; and to have used women in various states to satisfy the most prurient needs of humans – which once satisfied become progressively more enslaving and violent and demeaning.

What price have we paid for that to have happened?  We live in and have created a society in which we have split the human race into sub-races, all described with some inhuman traits and all claimed as less than. The price for that has been our honor – our integrity – our beauty – our grace – our loveliness – our ability to love one another “as I have loved you.”

These times with Donald Trump have been times which have surfaced and brought front and center the sacrifices these United States have made to maintain as “better than”.  We have built what we call a “great country.”  We have built a country we consider better than all others and have never seen the sins we have put into that country’s structure.  We have built a country on a huge flaw and that flaw is today creating a huge earthquake.  What remains when the shaking and spewing up of stuff from the center of the earth stops is anybody’s guess.  We have built a country by condemning Jesus to death and then calling for a bowl of soap and water and a towel with which to wash our hands of the carnage that followed.  We have build a country and then divorced ourselves from its history.  We have built a country and taken no responsibility for the price we demanded others pay for its creation, its wealth,  and its continuation in the same vein which caused many generations to take on a system of moral values which they practice and deny at the same time thinking that others can’t see the lie!

Slavery – the Trail of Tears – the opening our doors to immigrants from all countries and then labelling them as “less than” by those deemed on top of the heap –  all have prices to pay and today we are paying those prices.

Our value system was shown as bereft when we killed African slaves who ran away, when we lynched Africans who dared to vote.  It didn’t matter whether they were 100% or 5% African, they were not on the same high level as others who were redesigned as – not human and a part of the human race – but “White” and better than those who were not white.  The north ignored the lynchings and claimed the moral high ground.  They had psychic ways to deal with such people.  It was a slow painful death they put out.  The south engaged in incredible violence and so Billie Holiday sang “Strange Fruit” and everyone knew what that meant the lynchings were so wide spread.

For years the “flowers of the South”, the “Southern Ladies”, had a stereotype and pictures which showed them as “beautifully” adorned and having their place on top of the pedestal, that very high mythical column.  They were blinded by the compliments, the supposed lifting them up above ordinary humans, the opening the doors for them by others so their gloved hands didn’t have to touch that which many mortals touched before them.  And so much more.  We bought our own horribleness because it flattered our egos and built up our vanity.  The truth of the degradation, demeaning, violence against were all denied by even – or should I say especially by – the women against whom it was thrown.

Today that has been exposed and is continuing to be exposed on all of its levels.  It has been like peeling the onion.  We are almost down to the core so the fighting and brutalizing has become blinding in its attempt to maintain what has been and move it even further by making it function in spite of the fact that the cover has been removed and we can see all of this in its stark truth.  We have become that corrupt?

Alabama is symbolic of these United States and its historic degradation of those in power.  Drunk with its own strength against others “not like them” it is almost as if retribution is at its door step.

We thought the bottom was reached with the carnage on the Petus Bridge, but that was just a way station on the way to greater evil.

To have seen yourself involved in that kind of sin and to move on to ever greater sin and to then claim god on your side, behind what you do, pushing you to ever larger acts of evil – it is mind-blowing how anyone can see you and not recoil from the evil coming from your very pores.

Today, it is not about African Americans on the Petus bridge – it is about the right of males to brutalize, sexually abuse, tear down, misuse and lots of other adjectives – women.  What will it be about tomorrow.  The same souls are calling the future.

Women in corporations were brought in to serve the men and that happened because the women had been trained to acquiesce and to demean themselves.   It becomes understandable how that could have happened when you own a small corporation where you do a lot of the work and see how you can get behind because you become overwhelmed with only 24 hours of the day.  And you then see how easy it would be to bring in people who have been labeled “less than”, “not as bright as”, not meant for the higher things in life – especially the exercise of power,”  to have them do all of the grunt work and most of the real work while you prance around like a terminally ill peacock taking credit, money, power, success.

The campaign of Roy Moore is a Calling.  It is Roy Moore set up as the bait to call folks to maintain a society which allows women to be used as sex objects and then discarded.  He is bait to call folks to lie, cheat, steal, and yes – murder – because women have been murdered in the name of preserving and passing down to our children a society which has institutionalized and wants to continue in the way it has been going for hundreds of years.  He is bait to have some folks turn away and try to set up the same structure, but less transparent.  For these United States to be racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic and all the rest means these United States has transgressed in gross ways against its citizens and against others around the world needed to maintain a “better than” society where the hard and dirty work is done by those scraping and scratching 24/7 just to put food on the table and a roof over their heads.  It is a society with trap doors for those who go too far and are not among the group designated as “better than”.  Why else would a man become Secretary of the Treasury who has had tens of thousands of people thrown out of their homes onto the street and who lives in a mansion which could house many more than just himself and his wife?  Why else would we have laws to prevent any other than those selected by that society to succeed with enormous road blocks to trip, fell and kill those who are able to get around those road blocks?  but we have standards which are necessary to continue the denial – we have those few to disprove the rule and maintain them vigorously.  Even the KKK had to have a few blacks to maintain their superiority and proclaim their high morality because they accepted those few – the others were not worthy, not human, not equal to.

Amazingly, my life has escaped the anger that should come from living in such a place, but it has.  Why?  Because that anger is generated in those who share the moral values of those doing the bigotry.  To see how far we have gone off the road is to understand the story of Adam and Eve on a level most ignore and just quote the Bible as a very literal book.  To demand the you read and understand the Christian and Jewish Scriptures literally is to totally miss what it is saying.  The story of Adam and Eve is the story of what could have been.  Where we started from and how far into sin, degradation and evil we have fallen.  Adam and Eve turned their naked bodies into horrible sinfulness and ugliness they had to hide.  Evil crept into their lives, which they cultivated and still today cultivate.

Many of us hoped and thought the horribleness in Alabama would give way to something more beautiful.    After witnessing that period of American history in Alabama and in other places around these United States – that example should have brought many to their knees asking forgiveness.  Instead it seems to have generated a hard hearted response – a determination to continue on the path of violence towards women as not only justified but able to give one entry into the hallowed halls of government.

So much more could be said – however – the one relevant thing is “How long, O Lord, how long!”

__________________________________________________

Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!

[give_form id=”3763″]

________________________________________________

Everything talked about in this blog and in any other blog in the Bettina Network, inc. is the opinion of the person who wrote the blog and does not necessarily represent the opinions of Bettina Network, inc. It is the property of Bettina Network, inc. and/or the person who wrote the original blog.Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you. Please also tell us if you want your name as your byline or if you want your article to appear without your name.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

 

 

Back to the Edmund Petus Bridge

Saturday, November 18th, 2017

by Marceline Donaldson

Something is oddly familiar in this “stand-off: now going on amongst our government officials, politicians, hopefuls and a very oppressed group which Alabama and others are trying desperately to contain and keep in their oppressed state.  Even the current Governor of Alabama has come public and done a modernized version of Governor George Wallace’s stand to keep African Americans from voting and therefore from their civil rights guaranteed by the United States Constitution.

When I heard Governor Kay Ivey on television taking her incredibly historical stance, I could not see her face for the imposition of George Wallace’s face over her face and figure on television.

Nothing hurts more than one of your own, standing up in the most self-righteous and arrogant way, selling you into slavery and she did that beautifully.  She did not lose her very southern lady-like composure in the process of spouting and spewing evil.  Clearly, the Republican Party has maintained its position as “Keepers of the Bigotry” which has long characterized Alabama.  Have you thought about or read the story of what happened on the Edmund Petus Bridge?  Do you see the parallels?  We’ve had the slaughter of the women.  It should now be time for the healing oil and who will do the pouring of that oil to heal our sins?

True – other states and areas do the same, but somehow the theatrics in Alabama and its connecting its maintenance of bigotry to a religion with its own theology is unique.  We know well this heretical religion.  The one which has been developing since slavery and which was used to justify and maintain slavery.  We have lived with it in many places across these United States and still are living with its remnants. You know the religion.  The one where you went into one of its churches and found you could only sit in the back pews, if you were African American – or you could only sit in the balcony – or you were taken out of the church by the ushers if you were African American because you were not allowed into those particular churches.

They still exist today and you can tell them almost upon entering into their ‘holy’ places.  You look on their altar and you see those officiating are almost uniformly white.  Maybe a child of color or two, but the adults of color are missing.  You hear their sermons and they lack that something you hear in other churches.  Their ‘leaders’ are ‘leading’ to gain a foot up in their jobs or chosen vocations.  They are doing everything they can to help those like them maintain their facade of being ‘better than’.  Those more enlightened heretical churches are doing some of the most foolish things you can imagine, but as you watch, they call those things their ‘holy rituals.’  And it becomes clear after a short time that they are keeping the bigotry and maintaining the image of superiority of the white males of Northern European ancestry – those in their midst and the others spread around the globe. You have to leave that space because what you also see and experience is their meanness when pushed to see and remove the bigotry and heresy they practice.  It is time, however, for them and us to do just that!

The blanket has been ripped off.  The psychic violence and physical and emotional destructive confrontation on the Edmund Petus Bridge has happened as the current Governor has let the rest of us see and hear her ‘religious’ beliefs, which are indicative of the many in Alabama who she represents – male, female of all stripes and colors.  She has made a very clear statement that she prefers her political party with all of its shame and sin to anything else because she knows they will continue in the ways of the vile past and they will continue holding her and others like her up in their belief that they are ‘better than’ everyone in the world not like them.  Her very words, however, show clearly that she is not free and equal, she is the governor, but she clearly neither respects her gender nor others around her who are neither white nor of Northern European ancestry.

Governor Ivey today – as did Governor Wallace in yesteryear – has given the green light to the worst kind of evil.  She has called her state to shame themselves.  She has declared her bigotry and the fact that she is conscious of her bigotry and will continue to practice it because that is what she sees her position as governor calling her to do.   She has called her state to let the world know that the citizens of Alabama prefer their bigotry and will maintain it defending themselves against positive change even while exposing their children to the sin of pedophilia, psychic and physical sexual abuse, lying, cheating,  which she has depicted as just fine and good and righteous choices if made defending their ‘white is better than’ status and their declared right to dishonor – disrespect – and so much more – those with whom they share this earth if those people are neither ‘white’ nor ‘male with Northern European ancestry’.  What lessons those children are learning from their parents.

We are back on the Edmund Petus Bridge.   Because of the lessons this current generation learned, while children watching their parents as they cheered for George Wallace and his friends  on the bridge using it as their bully pulpit.   They watched as some of their adult neighbors brutalized, beat and tried to slaughter African Americans and those supporting them on that Edmund Petus Bridge.

The children were present and silently watching that entire drama and so today we have that generation, all grown up, doing their best to follow in the footsteps of their parents, their friends, their government figures, their politicians.  They are going where this evil is leading and, in the end, they will pay the price.

Many of those children have adopted the religion of their parents – who themselves adopted and adapted the religion of the slaveholders and slave owners before them.  They have seen their parents and grandparents erect memorials to those who did their best to keep human beings enslaved because they wanted ‘free’ labor and wanted that ‘better than’, ‘white is superior’, white supremacy identity.  They saw the KKK in their white sheets and pointy caps circling those lit crosses.  They saw African Americans turned away at their city halls in brutal ways when they tried to vote; these children knew the U. S. Constitution was being violated in the process; and they were present in the home where their mothers and aunts and female cousins were treated as second class citizens; they were present in the rest of society to see those same relatives, all dressed up and play acting to avoid their reality as they were treated as the household servants.  They understood who they were and the positions they would take before they reached voting age and they are now taking those positions.

When you sow the wind – you reap the whirlwind.

Alabama is and has been reaping the beginnings of that whirlwind when you look closely and you see it is one of the poorest states in the Union; when you see jobs scarce; when you see children going without; when you see the low level of education throughout the state; when you see the priorities of the politicians and government officials who are absorbed in maintaining their ‘better than’ status at a very high cost to everyone in the state; when you see the corruption overlooked because the ‘official’ is guarding your ‘better than’ identity; when you see all that has been wrought against Alabamians through their keeping their slaveowners religion above all else and crafting a political party which does the actual work the theology of that religion leads them to do.

It is one of the great tragedies of these United States.  AND – not to be overlooked is the fact that our current president – Donald J. Trump – is very popular in this state which condones and gives him positive feedback on all of his evil deeds.  When you see this state raising up politicians who follow his footsteps as he has followed in the footsteps of Roy Cohn, Joseph McCarthy, Adolph Hitler, Stalin and today Vladimir Putin, as well as the leaders of the mafia organizations around the world.

Sieg Heil Kay Ivey!  There were also Jews who sold out other Jews in Nazi Germany and even today there are African Americans selling out other African Americans for what they think will raise them up to the status of ‘almost, but not quite equal to’ – ‘at least not like them’ – ‘different from those others’ – etc.

“Man’s inhumanity to man” – needs a political correctness overlay “We all die and move on out of this earthly sphere – yet we act as though some are better than and their human bodies will not rot.  The color of their skin and the kind of genitals they have will preserve them”.  Folly of follies are these humans, especially when they try to be ‘better than’. – At that point, the evil starts pouring out of them and their actions conform and are uniformly sinful no matter their money, status, history, education…….

________________________________________________________

Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!

[give_form id=”3763″]

________________________________________________________

Everything talked about in this blog and in any other blog in the Bettina Network, inc. is the opinion of the person who wrote the blog and does not necessarily represent the opinions of Bettina Network, inc. It is the property of Bettina Network, inc. and/or the person who wrote the original blog.Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

 

 

 

USA – DACA – IMMIGRATION

Tuesday, September 5th, 2017

by Marceline Donaldson

We are once again in the cross hairs.

Donald Trump announced he would give an opinion on DACA on Tuesday (today).  And, as of last night what has been given to the media is the announcement that he will end DACA with a six month time frame for folks to get ready for it – which means to get ready to be moved or to move out of the U. S. A.

When Trump announced he was thinking of ending this program from Obama’s time as president, it was clear his decision would  end the program and it would be done in such a way as to attempt to obscure the facts of what he was announcing and give those who engage in denial of bigotry the opportunity to keep others from seeing what was actually about to happen until it was upon them.  That fits with Trump’s history of such announcements and of his trying to wipe Obama’s presidency off the record and to continue and give another chapter to the “Birther Movement” which Trump carried on, funded and promoted for some eight plus years.

To know more about this lie and others Donald Trump has carried on see https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/06/23/opinion/trumps-lies.html?mcubz=1&_r=0

In addition to the “Birther” lies Donald Trump claimed ISIS was founded under Obama when in fact it was formed in 2004 – Obama was elected president in 2008. And the list goes on………..most recently the FBI came out with the findings from its latest investigation into Trump’s lies.  Trump claimed Obama had his wires tapped in Trump Tower during, what Trump called, “the very sacred election process”.   The FBI on Friday came out to say there was no evidence to back that up after their extensive investigation into what Trump claimed was a felony that Obama committed.  And the list goes on…..

Most people are asking “why”?  Those who have to ask such a question are some of the people who have internalized bigotry and have a response to and justification of bigotry, which is denial – white, black, green, yellow, pink people.  Denial is one of the strongest tools which got Trump elected.  How else does this United States elect a man who promoted the “birther lie” for so many years and which everyone knew he promoted – yet still voted for him.

We have had a long history of bigotry in the United States, which we deny.  In fact, we have gone overseas and lectured to other countries about their violation of the human rights of their citizens when the record in the United States could equal if not top some of the human rights offenses found in the countries to whom we were lecturing and demanding that they change their ways of treating their minority groups.

Our record in these United States is so bad that we – in 2017 – have elected a KuKluxKlan Legatee as president of these United States.  Donald J. Trump the son of Frank Trump who was arrested at  a KKK rally – was he marching, clothed in white?  He clearly had an ugly civil rights record as shown from the law suit filed against both Donald and Frank Trump for not allowing black families to live in their apartment buildings.

And now we have DACA – entering this KKK Legatee’s history as a part of the anti-immigration stances and decisions made by Donald Trump.

What is wrong with DACA?  All the rationalizations put out by Trump and all of the counter rationalizations put out by others to attempt to show that the young people in DACA are gainfully employed and contributing members of this society – they all need to be put aside because the reason Trump wants to end DACA lies in the reason he does everything else as president.  There are 1.7% whites in DACA.  The rest are minorities – the “brown” people.  Given that fact, there is no way those backing Trump and Trump himself are going to allow the DACA program to continue.  Their goal, showing clearly from their actions, is to make these United States a whites only country.  That is the base from which they come.  Throw out as many “browns” as they can using immigration laws to move that goal to fruition and then move on to other ways to eliminate the rest.

Trump didn’t come lately to the bigotry he now displays.  He has been a bigot generationally.  He comes by his foulness legitimately from his father and probably way beyond that.  Why else would he hide his German roots calling himself and his family Swedish?  Well, today all of those lies are gone and they have been replaced by the Nazi flags; the recreation of Kristallnacht in Virginia and much more.  Don’t know about Kristallnacht you can read about it here –  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kristallnacht and much more.  Kristallnacht was the beginning of the Final Solution and the Holocaust in Germany.

That was a clear message that night in Charlottesville, – the White Nationalists message that this was the beginning of their Final Solution and the beginning of the holocaust for the minorities in these United States, but no one seems to have either made the connection or had the guts to report on the two as parallel events. Maybe the real message of Charlottesville was blurred by the ridiculousness of making such a statement with one of the props being the “tiki torches”.

And after the “Tiki Torch” parade anouncing the beginnings of the United States version of the holocaust comes the announcement by Trump about DACA.  Cancel DACA and you get rid of lots of “brown peoples” in one fell swoop.

The anti-Semitism is now showing increasingly.  It seems to have become public when one of Trump’s supporters loudly asked why he “gave” his daughter to a Jew.  From then on we are seeing an increasing amount of anti-Semitism around Trump.

General Kelly – the Chief of Staff – over whom many are raving about how he has ‘cleaned out’ the White House and what great things he can do – was head of Homeland Security.  What did he do as Head?  He quickly and very efficiently brought in the Muslim travel ban which the courts in this country closed down and stopped him and his boss Trump from removing tens of thousands of people and from denying those who could enter these United States from doing so – almost 100% “brown peoples”.  He quickly and efficiently rounded up tens of thousands already in this country and had them ready to be deported until, once again, Kelly and his boss Trump were stopped by the courts.

Another lie being told is that Trump has accomplished nothing during his seven months in office.

Trump is right when he says he has accomplished an enormous amount.  Not the traditional accomplishments through Congress, but he has changed this country in ways that show we are probably no longer a democracy or republic, but he and his White Supremacist his KKK his neo-Nazi’s are putting in place, structuring and institutionalizing, a fascist government which can be controlled and moved along to become a whites only country where the minorities are slaughtered – deported – generally destroyed.  Those left over whites who are still fighting the Confederate war against the United States also join this group.  Those whose ancestors, real and/or spiritual, used tax payer money to build statues and memorials to their heroes – “heroes”  guilty of major treason against the United States, but for the pardon they received at the end of the war.

Robert E. Lee is the one they seem to most revere.  He was also found guilty of treason against the United States.  That is who they want to honor with all of those statues, even changing the name of an Episcopal Church, among others to remember the events and honor what took place during that war.  Continuing the fight and continually looking for ways to destroy, demean, turn the “brown peoples” into a modern day replica of slaves – all of that has been going on in this country for decades.  It has finally reached and is using the power of the Office of the president of the United States.  That is success.  After some 50 plus years as a Republican, I am no longer a part of this political group.  I resigned when Trump as elected President.  It was clear that there was no hope for change; that the history of Republicanism which helped free the slaves and which fought the Democrats when they were deep into the KKK and lyncings, and etc.  was now the Political Party composed of those KKK, neo-Nazi’s, White Supremacists and more like them reaching into the office of the president to achieve their goals.  I moved to declare myself an Independent hoping that, as my grandmother would say – this too shall pass.

It was said that President’s Trump’s decree against transgender people in these United States was just to deflect attention away from negatives about him in the press.  He did nothing to back up his decree – until weeks later when he ordered the armed forces to investigate ways and to bring about the elimination of transgender people in the armed forces.  Trump deflected ugly headlines away from himself with the announcement – as he has done continuously.  Others deflected by claiming he was crazy and made such announcements with nothing in back of them.  We get to see that both are working together to bring this country back to a time Germany has rejected and so have others in their countries.  We are moving incredibly quickly to establish such an institutionalization of extreme bigotry in these United States.  Our country today – after only seven months – is barely recognizable as “free”, working to move in the direction of equality and justice, etc.

What are you doing?  Who was it that said “Evil survives because good people do nothing!” That is still just as true today.  This is a time when you are either out there risking or sitting in your home tending your home fires until the knock comes on your door and you are ushered out into the middle of that holocaust being planned for all of us by the White Supremacists, the KKK, the neo-Nazi’s and all of their supporters either vocal or silently.

May God have mercy on all our souls!

__________________________________________________

Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!

[give_form id=”3763″]

_________________________________________________

Everything talked about in this blog and in any other blog in the Bettina Network, inc. is the opinion of the person who wrote the blog and does not necessarily represent the opinions of Bettina Network, inc. It is the property of Bettina Network, inc. and/or the person who wrote the original blog.Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

 

 

An Open Letter to Our Leaders!

Sunday, August 20th, 2017

From:  Harold E. Doley, Jr.

To:  President Donald J. Trump:

Vice President Michael R. Pence:

U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell:

Speaker of the House Paul Ryan:
Congressman Cedric Richmond:

 
“Robert E. Lee stated that he would not be buried in his Confederate States of America (CSA) uniform because that act would be seditious.  At Lee’s funeral in 1870, no former soldiers or participants marching in his funeral cortege were allowed to wear CSA uniforms. 
 
There is a simple remedy for our present state of affairs regarding monuments to former Confederate generals and the Battle Flag of the Army of Northern Virginia, it is to go to the U.S. Constitution. 
 
Section 110 of Article III addresses treason and sedition.  Treason and sedition are federal law/Constitution violations.  To support the Confederacy and its symbols is to be a traitor of the United States in fact and in spirit.  
 
Section 110 of Article III states: “Treason against the United States shall consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort. No person shall be convicted of treason unless on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on confession in open Court. The Congress shall have power to declare the punishment of treason.”  Thatpower of punishing the crime of treason is exclusive in Congress; and the trail of the offense belongs exclusively to the Federal tribunals.
 
In 1790, the Congress of the United States enacted that: “If any person or persons, owing allegiance to the United States of America, shall levy war against them, or shall adhere to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort within the United States, or elsewhere, and shall be thereof convicted on confession in open Court, or on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act of treason…”
 
Our history books have incorrectly labeled the war between the states as a Civil War, which is a misnomer.  What occurred was a group of states succeeding from the Union and creating the Confederate States of America and attacking the United States of America.  This was a war of secession.  If it were a civil war, which is an attempt to change the government, that would have been a revolution. 
 
We laud Mayor Mitch Landrieu of New Orleans and we thank Wynton Marsalis for initiating the removal of the monuments in New Orleans.  It is ironic that the erection of statues and the naming of boulevards and schools for Confederate soldiers and cabinet members of the CSA is a romantic notion.  There was not one bullet fired or cannonball shot in New Orleans during the Civil War.  In 1862, Admiral Farragut disembarked from the USS Hartford at the Port of New Orleans, walked to City Hall and told Mayor John T. Monroe of New Orleans, either you surrender or we will level the French Quarter.  Confederate General Mansfield Lovell advised Mayor John Monroe that opposing the Union would be futile.  New Orleans, the largest Confederate city, was captured without conflict.  Therefore, the monuments and other namings in New Orleans do not have any historic relevance whatsoever.  Again, just romanticization.  Likewise, members of the white supremacy groups, Neo-Nazis and KKK, are overwhelmingly not descendants of those Southerners that fought in the army of the Confederate States of America.  For those to state that they have a kindred spirit with the Confederacy is a fantasy.  Those Americans aligned with these groups which are not based in historical connections should just be bold enough to state that they are racist, anti-Semites, and white supremacists, rather than attempt to distort that which motivates them.
 
America’s history is complicated.  My great-great-great Aunt Sarah Knox Taylor, was married to Jefferson Davis.  As an American of African ancestry and a descendent of the Mayflower (even though I cannot become a member the Mayflower Society because I fail to have one or two documents that would complete the link) my DNA confirms that lineage.   Last August, when David Duke was running for the U.S. Senate from the State of Louisiana, I challenged him publicly to take a DNA test to which he did respond on his web site.  I do not think, after looking at David Duke’s history, that he is part African-American, but I do think that he may be part Jewish.  
 
We, as Americans and our elected officials, must embrace the Constitution of the United States that was penned by our Founding Fathers, who themselves were flawed just as is our Constitution. However, the document  addresses the issues that are tearing us apart today and it gives us the solution.
 
The President and Congress should focus on the economy, tax reform, the budget, foreign affairs, infrastructure, and running the government for the benefit of all Americans whom they were duly elected to serve.
 
Harold E. Doley, Jr.
U.S. Citizen”
____________________________________
[give_form id=”3763″]
___________________________________
Everything talked about in this blog and in any other blog in the Bettina Network, inc. is the opinion of the person who wrote the blog and does not necessarily represent the opinions of Bettina Network, inc. It is the property of Bettina Network, inc. and/or the person who wrote the original blog.Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

 

BREE! – You Go Girl!

Sunday, June 28th, 2015

It was very exciting and joyous to read about Bree’s climbing up the flag pole to take down the Confederate Flag and what a breakfast conversation that generated.

It is clear South Carolina was not going to remove their confederate flag.  When you have been in politics for awhile you understand that when you lose –  there are standard responses to that loss – punt! procrastinate! lie! postpone! acknowledge your loss and talk about how you are going to do the right thing, but tomorrow!  And that is what South Carolina has done and is doing.  No one should have to wait nor should there have to be a fight for that flag to be removed.  It could have been removed years ago, but is still flying.

If they had any intention of taking down the Confederate Flag, it would have been down before Bree went up that flagpole.  The people who need to be arrested are those responsible for continuing the presence of such a racist symbol.  The principles for which the confederate flag stands were the losers and are the losers in present day America.

We talked about how great it was to know that all of that police brutality has not had the affect of putting fear into this young generation fighting racism and sexism.  It was really fantastic to know we are not alone – there are others across the country taking action to make sure our United States changes and follows its own principles and beliefs – and to know there are still United States citizens willing to risk their freedom to secure freedoms for the rest of us.

We talked about those whose constant response is “Sorry, but I can’t be involved”.  Yet, those saying those words have no problems accepting and using the freedoms they can now experience because of the involvement of the rest of us.

It is time for the leaders of these Civil Rights Movements to be those who climbed the flag poles and not those who begged off because of their non-involvement policy.  Those ‘not going to be involved’ folks are standing apart and aside from the activists so they will be ready and free of “taint” to become leaders and take advantage of what the activists have wrought?  We hope that, this time, that ancient way of doing things and allowing for the continuation of racism and sexism as usual is violated.

In South Carolina, we cannot fault those who say the confederate flag is their history and the history of their ancestors.  If that is their claim – it is.  However that is not true of all the folks in South Carolina nor of anyplace else in this United States of America.  Some folks from South Carolina and elsewhere have another history.  They do not honor and hold up the history and ancestor worship of the kkk, nor of the white citizens councils, nor of the survivalists nor of other groups trying to maintain the Jim Crow which was the traditional way life was lived.

To fight to keep the confederate flag, which didn’t fly over the South Carolina capitol until 1962 and which began to fly there as a reminder that South Carolina’s  folks were promoting a way of life which pre-dated the Civil Rights Movement needs to be acknowledged.   To allow the confederate flag to fly over the state capitol to remind South Carolina’s citizens of the fact that the freedoms for which the Civil Rights Movement was fighting and promoting need to be constantly kept at bay was and is wrong, immoral, sinful and evil.  It was an act of defiance against Brown vs the Board of Education and other changes happening.  They wanted life to remain in the place where “White” meant privileges which others didn’t experience and “Blacks” meant you couldn’t vote nor take part in anything other than the menial service to the “Whites” in the state and the maintenance of White Privilege.

If that confederate flag is replaced and flies again after Bree’s action, I think it is clear South Carolina has no intention of taking it down.  They have simply put up mid-August as the date for a vote to remove the flag in the hopes that things would quiet down and they would be able to vote against the removal of the flag and only a few would notice and not take action.

Isn’t that the traditional way those “White Privileges” have been maintained.  Removing the flag means a commitment by South Carolina to end  “White Supremacy”.  It is past the time for that to go and past the time for states to maintain a prominent place on the State Capitol’s grounds for the confederate flag or for anything else that maintains that belief, goal and principle.

Thank you Bree from the bottom of our hearts!

_______________________________________

Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!

[give_form id=”3763″]

______________________________________________________________

Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE try www.bettina-network.com


Bettina's Lifestyle Commnity!

Join us!

Bettina’s Lifestyle Community

Making a difference in this very difficult and changeable world.

Bettina's Lifestyle Commnity!

Join us!