Liberty, Mississippi: An oxymoron, for many
Posted by Michelle Moquin on April 11th, 2011
I saw this last might on 60 Minutes and it seemed apropos to post it this morning in light of the discussions happening here. For those of you who enjoy reading I posted the text. For those of you who prefer visuals or sound so that you can continue to listen while making your breakfast or lunch, click here for the video.
Cold case: The murder of Louis Allen
Steve Kroft investigates the civil rights era killing of Louis Allen in a Mississippi town
(CBS News) Five years ago, the FBI announced that it was reopening more than 100 unsolved murder cases from the civil rights era of the 1950s and 60s. The goal of the “Cold Case Initiative” was to try and mete out justice in what seemed to be racially motivated killings that were never prosecuted.
Not many 50-year-old cold cases ever get solved – memories fade, evidence is lost, witnesses and suspects die or disappear. But that’s not the case in the death of Louis allen, a mostly forgotten, but historically significant murder that helped bring thousands of white college students to Mississippi in the Freedom Summer of 1964.
Reporting on an unsolved murder
Forty seven years after the murder of Louis Allen, “60 Minutes” goes to Liberty, Miss. in search of his killer.
The murder is still unsolved, but the case has never quite gone away, because the chief suspect is very much alive and walking the streets of a town called Liberty.
Liberty, Miss. is a small rural logging town not far from the Louisiana border. The FBI believes that some people there have been keeping a dark secret for nearly 50 years, from one of the ugliest periods in the state’s history.
It was a time when civil rights activists were beaten and arrested, when state, and local politics were controlled by all-white citizens’ councils, and when people like Louis Allen were murdered in cold blood and without redress.
Cynthia Deitle, a 15-year veteran of the FBI’s civil rights division, was, until a few weeks ago, in charge of the Cold Case Initiative. She keeps a photo of Allen on her desk.
Asked why, she told “60 Minutes” correspondent Steve Kroft, “The case bothers me. I feel like we failed, and not just the FBI, but law enforcement.”
Of the 100 unsolved racially motivated murders she has been charged with investigating, none has been more promising or frustrating than Allen’s.
“Somebody knows something. Some husband came home with bloody clothing. Someone got drunk in a bar and said what he was doing last night. Someone knows something,” Deitle said.
But in the early 1960s, people in and around Liberty knew to keep their mouths shut. A violent chapter of the Ku Klux Klan used cross burnings, abductions and murder to enforce the doctrine of white supremacy and to intimidate the black population, most of which lived in shacks with no electricity or plumbing, and were not allowed to vote.
Civil rights leaders like Robert Moses, who came south to help them register, were frequently the target of violence.
“Liberty was not a place that I liked to go,” Moses remembered.
Asked why, he told Kroft, “Because it was a place where you weren’t safe if you were doing voter registration work.”
It was in Liberty that Moses met Louis Allen, a rough-hewn World War II veteran who walked proud and was not afraid to stand up for himself. He ran a small timber business, was one of the few blacks in Liberty to own his own land, and always wore a hat, which he considered a sign of self-respect.
He was not the type to seek out trouble – Robert Moses says it found him.
“He was at the wrong place at the wrong time. He saw something that happened and he was deeply disturbed and affected by that. And so he had a basic life decision to make,” Moses explained.
On Sept. 25, 1961, Allen was walking past an old cotton gin when he saw something that likely got him killed.
Allen witnessed a powerful state legislator by the name of E.H. Hurst shoot and kill an unarmed black man named Herbert Lee. Allen told his friends and family that he and other eyewitnesses had been pressured into lying about the shooting, and to saying that it was self-defense. Later, Allen decided that he needed to tell the truth.
One of the people Allen told it to was Julian Bond, who was trying to register black voters in Mississippi for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. He would later become a legendary civil rights leader.
“This was not a self-defense action by the state representative. This was out and out murder. That’s all it was. But Louis Allen agreed to lie about that,” Bond said.
Asked why he thinks Allen lied about it, Bond said, “He lied because he was in fear of his life. If he had implicated a powerful white man in a murder of a black man, that he was risking his life.”
“Did you encourage him to tell the truth?” Kroft asked.
“I tried to encourage him to tell the truth, but you know, it was like saying, ‘Why don’t you volunteer to be killed?’” Bond replied.
But Allen’s wife would later testify that “his conscience was clipping him” and he decided to tell FBI agents and the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights what really happened at the cotton gin. A document from FBI files says, “Allen changed his story” and “expressed fear that he might be killed.”
He asked for protection, but none was provided. Almost immediately, word began circulating in Liberty that Allen was prepared to change his testimony.
“He was threatened as a result of the fact that he was going to change his statement and that he did change his statement,” Deitle said.
She said the FBI was notified of those threats.
Asked if the bureau did anything, Deitle said, “Yes. We referred that to local law enforcement authorities.”
“It’s certainly possible to conclude that local law enforcement people were the ones behind the threats?” Kroft asked.
“There is a theory out there that that speaks to that. Yes,” she replied.
In fact, it has been the prevailing theory for some time, although the FBI cannot officially confirm it. There is a 1961 reference in the FBI file to a report that “Allen was to be killed and the local sheriff was involved in the plot to kill him.”
And “60 Minutes” found a 1962 letter from Robert Moses to Assistant Attorney General John Doar, alleging the same thing: “They’re after him in Amite [County],” it says, and makes reference to “a plot by the sheriff and seven other men.”
“He was afraid of the sheriff’s department,” Kroft remarked.
“I think he was, yes,” Deitle said.
“And I think he was afraid of the Klan, although they seemed to be sort of the same thing in Liberty at this time,” Kroft remarked.
“I’m not sure I can say that,” she replied.
Julian Bond was less circumspect: “The law enforcement, you suspected they were members. If you wanted to be a mayor, a city councilman, a county commissioner, the sheriff, if you wanted to be on the legislature, you had to have some connection with the Klan.”
And in the Amite County Sheriff’s Department, the person with the best connection was Deputy Sheriff Daniel Jones. His father was the “Exalted Cyclops” of the local Klan, and Jones himself, according to an FBI document “60 Minutes” found, was suspected of being a Klan member.
Jones, who is alive and still resides in Liberty, was recently visited by FBI agents who wanted him to take a lie detector test.
“What was he like?” Kroft asked Louis Allen’s son, Hank.
“Well, mean,” he replied.
Hank Allen was 17 years old when his father was killed and he remembers Jones as his main tormentor. He says he watched Jones harass and repeatedly arrest his father on trumped-up charges, and one night beat him outside their home.
“And he had handcuffed him, told him he was under arrest. So Daddy asked for his hat. Told Daddy, ‘No, you can’t go get your hat.’ Daddy said, ‘Well, my son is on the porch, can he bring me my hat?’ He drawed back, he took a flashlight, and he struck my daddy, and broke his jawbone. Handcuffed,” Hank Allen told Kroft.
When he got out of jail, Louis Allen did something that was unheard of for a black man in Mississippi: he went to the FBI and lodged a complaint against Deputy Sheriff Jones and testified before a federal grand jury.
The case was thrown out, and the situation in Liberty continued to deteriorate.
“They stopped sellin’ Daddy gas in the town. They stopped buyin’ his logs. They just more or less just tried to black ball him,” Hank Allen remembered.
“It got to the point, the harassment and just him not being able to survive in Liberty that he decided to leave and to go work in another state. And it’s the night before he is due to leave that he is killed,” Cynthia Deitle explained.
Allen was ambushed on a cold night in January 1964, after getting out of his truck to open the cattle gate that led to his property. His son, Hank, was the one who found him.
“I didn’t know why he would park the truck in the middle of the driveway and leave it like that. And I climbed up in the truck. The headlights was real dim. And when I went to step down out the truck, I stepped on something. And that’s when I stepped on my daddy’s hand. He was lying up under the truck,” Hank Allen remembered.
He was killed with two blasts of deer shot to the head. The investigating officer was none other than the newly-elected sheriff, Daniel Jones, who Hank said made it clear to the family, why his father had been murdered.
“He told my mom that if Louis had just shut his mouth, that he wouldn’t be layin’ there on the ground. He wouldn’t be dead,” Hank Allen said.
Asked if he thinks Sheriff Jones did it, Hank Allen told Kroft, “Yes, indeed. By all means. If he didn’t do it, he was the entrepreneur of it.”
Jones told the newspapers he was unable to find a single clue.
“How would you characterize the investigation that Sheriff Jones conducted?” Kroft asked Deitle.
“He did not develop any fingerprints, any physical evidence and he never developed any suspects,” she replied.
“Not a great investigation,” Kroft remarked.
“Probably could have done more,” she replied.
And the same might be said about the FBI at the time: it had limited jurisdiction over civil rights murders and little inclination to investigate them. In fact, it’s not clear that anyone investigated Allen’s murder until 1994, when Plater Robinson, a historian at the Southern Institute at Tulane University, began digging into it.
“From day one in Liberty, people told me that Daniel Jones and a colored man killed Louis Allen,” Robinson said.
Robinson has spent 17 years combing through archives and tracking down people to interview. One of them was an elderly preacher named Alfred Knox. Knox told Robinson in a 1998 tape-recorded conversation that his son-in-law, Archie Weatherspoon, was with Sheriff Daniel Jones when Allen was murdered.
“My son-in-law went with him,” Knox said in the recorded interview.
“To kill Louis Allen?” Robinson asked.
“To kill Louis Allen,” Knox said. “He didn’t know where he was goin’ till he got in the car. And he said ‘Would you pull the trigger? Would you shoot him?’ He said, ‘No, I ain’t gonna do it.’ That what my son-in-law said. ‘I ain’t gonna shoot him. You come out here to kill him, you kill him.’ So he killed him.”
Both Knox and his son-in-law took their stories to the grave. But Robinson says the answer to who killed Allen can still be found in Liberty. “A lot of people are dead. But there are still a number of significant people still alive,” he told Kroft.
“Like who, besides Sheriff Jones?” Kroft asked.
“Well, Charles Ravencraft, he lives down the road. And he’s quite healthy,” Robinson said.
We found Ravencraft at the Liberty Drug Store presiding over a coffee klatch of old-timers, some of whom were around when Allen was murdered.
“People in this area, they just don’t do much talking,” Ravencraft told Kroft.
For years, Ravencraft was sergeant-at-arms of the Mississippi legislature. And at the time of Allen’s murder, he was vice president of the “Americans for the Preservation of the White Race” in Liberty, a front group for the Ku Klux Klan.
Asked if the Klan was present in the area, Ravencraft told Kroft, “Sure. They were here.”
“Were any of you guys in it?” Kroft asked.
‘It wouldn’t have been a Klan if you don’t tell everybody what your business was,” Ravencraft said.
Ravencraft indicated that he hadn’t lost much sleep over Allen’s murder, and told us he had no idea who killed him. “No I don’t. He lived a lot longer than I thought he’d a lived. That’s the kinda fella he was, he was a little overbearing. I don’t think that civil rights had anything to do with it,” he told Kroft.
Winbourne Sullivan wasn’t around when Allen was killed, but he ran the Liberty Drug Store for 36 years. “I think there are people who know what happened and who did it, but they’re not willin’ to talk about it. And they won’t talk about it. You’ll never find out,” he said.
They told us they don’t see much of former Sheriff Daniel Jones these days. He spends most of his time on his property, just off the state highway.
We decided to approach him with our cameras concealed, on the off-chance he might give something up. After waiting for a half-an-hour on the porch, he rolled up in an all-terrain vehicle with his wife.
“My name is Steve Kroft. We’re from ’60 Minutes’ in New York. We’re down here working on a story, on an old case of yours, and was wondering if you’d have some time to talk to us about?” Kroft asked.
“No, sir, I don’t believe so,” Jones replied.
“You don’t think so?” Kroft asked.
“No, sir,” Jones said.
“The Louis Allen case?” Kroft asked.
“Yeah, I know what you’re talking about,” Jones replied.
ones was polite and cordial, said he didn’t want to talk, but he kept on talking.
“There was some bad blood between you and Louis, right?” Kroft asked.
“There was not no bad blood between us. Apparently, I’m talking more than I need to, but the truth sometimes has a way of slipping out if you try to keep it covered up,” Jones said.
When asked if he was in the Klan, Jones told Kroft, “Well, I won’t answer that. I take the Fifth on that. “
Jones confirmed that the FBI had already been there asking some of the same questions.
“I told you I don’t care to discuss it, and you just keep coming with your educated approach,” Jones told Kroft.
“No, it’s not my educated approach. Look, you haven’t told me to get off your property. Just answer me one last question,” Kroft said.
“Okay, be sure it’s the last one,” Jones said.
“Can you look me in the eye and say you weren’t involved in it?” Kroft asked.
“No sir, I wasn’t involved in it,” Jones said.
“Well, you know, sheriff, you could clear this up with a lie detector test,” Kroft pointed out.
“Well, then it ain’t gonna get cleared up,” Jones said.
“The theory that Sheriff Jones killed Louis Allen has been in the public domain for quite some time. The FBI would be remiss in our duties if we did not pursue that theory,” Cynthia Deitle told Kroft.
And it’s still just a theory – a circumstantial case based on motive, suspicions, hearsay and the words of dead people. There’s no forensic evidence, no murder weapon, no eyewitnesses and only one FBI agent working the case, part-time.
At a town hall meeting in nearby Baton Rouge, Deitle tried to shake out some new leads and enlist journalists, activists and students to help the FBI solve the murder. But there were some in the audience who still mistrust the FBI and think the “Cold Case Initiative” is little more than public relations.
“There’s been nothin’ did. There’s been not one arrest, there’s been all kind of investigations made. And I hate to say things like this. Because the FBI is the only help I got,” Hank Allen told the crowd.
Asked if the FBI should be doing more, Julian Bond told Kroft, “Of course they should be doing more. You know, thank God for these people who are doing it. But we can’t turn law enforcement over to journalists. We can’t turn it over to academics. We can’t depend on some guy at Tulane to tell us who’s killing people in Mississippi. Come on!”
“Why are you relying on reporters and professors? This is the most powerful law enforcement agency in the country. You have subpoena power,” Kroft pointed out.
“We do. We have resources that we could bring to bear on any case,” Deitle said.
“Why don’t you bring ‘em?” Kroft asked.
“They have been. But I’ve learned in these cases that a witness, a family member may be more comfortable talking to you then she would be talking to me,” she replied.
For Hank Allen, the time to solve his father’s killing was 47 years ago.
He believes the people who know what happened – black and white – would rather forget it now and that the wall of silence and the passage of time have granted immunity to those he thinks are responsible.
“Here’s a guy, goes on livin’ his normal life, enjoyin’ life. But they feel as though we’re doin’ somethin’ wrong by sayin’ somethin’ about the murder. In other words, ‘You should be quiet about that. That was in the past.’ Well, it’s still in my present, and in my future. I have to look at this every day,” he told Kroft.
Got a tip or information about the Louis Allen case or any other civil rights era cold case? Send us an e-mail at 60m@cbsnews.com.
**********
Readers: As I read this story all can think is this is just a day in the life of a black person living in Liberty, Mississippi at a time when a black person had no rights. Liberty, Mississippi – so much for being free.
This particular man feared for his life, just because he saw someone kill a man and wanted to do the right thing, when everyone else wanted him to shut up and forget it.
And when it was known that he was planning on doing the right thing, he feared for his life; and no one protected him. There was even a plot to kill him…to silence him, all for wanting to tell the truth.
He was harrassed, arrested on trumped-up charges, and beaten. And when he went to the FBI and lodged a complaint against the perpetrator and testified before a federal grand jury, they threw the case out. It got so bad that he even had to leave the town he lived in to get work to support his family.
This is just one story of one black man. Murder or not, many others could tell a similar story of their lives being threatened, harassed and living in fear on a daily basis. And it is probably more typical for that time than we’d like to think, or for some, than they’d like to remember.
And for some, as noted in the story, they simply have the privilege to live their lives, as if nothing happened, as if they did nothing wrong.
The last paragraph says it all and is so worth repeating:
“Here’s a guy, goes on livin’ his normal life, enjoyin’ life. But they feel as though we’re doin’ somethin’ wrong by sayin’ somethin’ about the murder. In other words, ‘You should be quiet about that. That was in the past.’ Well, it’s still in my present, and in my future. I have to look at this every day,” he told Kroft.
No, many of us didn’t commit the atrocities that our ancestors did, but that is no excuse. Racism is still in the present, and sitting around on this present day and doing nothing about it, “looking the other way” as Paula pointed out, ignoring the racist remarks, and racist actions, and racist rules, and refusing to see how “justice” is really for “Just us”, is just as bad when you know it isn’t right.
Speaking of…
Paula: Wow. I wish that book had been introduced to me 20 years ago. I look forward to getting it. I would love to see the real portrait of AH. I have seen a few portraits of Alexander Dumas and there was only one that I found where he looked even close to being represented as the a black man that he is.
With respect to the rest of your write, I enjoyed your “two cents”. Keep it coming.
Lisa: Click here to buy the book.
Robert: Thanks for your addition to the topic. With respect to the “supreme court’: Noted and I agree. :)
Out of time. – the time is now yours. Blog me.
Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.
Gratefully your blog host,
michelle
Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)
If you love my blog and my writes, please make a donation via PayPal, credit card, or e-check, please click the “Donate” button below. (Please only donations from those readers within the United States. – International readers please see my “Donate” page)
April 11th, 2011 at 11:27 am
THE QUESTION IS…
Do you really love me?
Or I am merely a Sun to your earth?
You, a prisoner of your planet’s gravity.
I was here 2,000 years before your birth.
When we came together I discovered Love.
You, I fear discovered a mystery man from above.
Do you really love me?
Or am I just your magic man?
Someone who didn’t come from your land or sea.
Or is it because I am an alien, a wandering spaceman?
What makes me special to you?
I would really like to know.
What is my value?
Shall I stay or go?
April 11th, 2011 at 12:04 pm
Indulge Your Way to a Long Life
Sara Mednick, PhD
If you’re like most Americans, you probably consider napping an indulgence.
What you may not realize: Napping is widely known to sharpen mental fitness (including memory), and it also confers significant overall health benefits.
Important finding: When researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health and the University of Athens Medical School recently followed about 23,000 healthy Greek adults (average age 53), they found that study participants who napped at least 30 minutes three times a week or more were 37% less likely to die from heart disease and stroke over a six-year period.
How to get the greatest health benefits from napping…
IT’S TIME TO NAP!
Humans are biologically programmed to nap. Our bodies experience a slight drop in physiological processes such as body temperature, blood pressure and the secretion of digestive juices (at around 2 pm for people who awaken at 8 am) — similar to the larger dips that occur at night. These drops signal the body that it’s time to sleep.
There’s strong scientific evidence showing that people who nap are more alert, make better decisions, score significantly higher on creativity and memory tests and have better motor function after napping compared with people who don’t nap.
Surprising fact: Despite the popular notion that lunch makes people sleepy due to the digestion process, research shows that it’s actually the body’s temperature drop that is responsible. This temperature drop occurs whether or not you eat lunch.
Why napping provides so many benefits: Napping just 20 minutes is enough time for restorative processes that occur during sleep to take place.
THE RIGHT — AND WRONG — WAY TO NAP
Here are my five secrets for getting the most from your naps — and some common mistakes to avoid…
SECRET 1. Make a 20-minute nap part of your daily routine, like exercising and brushing your teeth.
Common mistake: Squeezing in a nap whenever you can.
My recommendation: Take a nap at the same time every day (even if you don’t feel sleepy) so that your body adjusts to falling asleep then. Because most Americans have trained themselves to not nap, the instinct needs to be relearned.
The ideal time to take a nap from a biorhythm standpoint is six hours after awakening for the day.
Example: If you usually wake up at 7 am, your best napping time will be around 1 pm.
Of course, your exact nap time may depend on your daily activities. Just don’t nap within three hours of your bedtime.
SECRET 2. Choose a comfortable, quiet place where you won’t be disturbed.
Common mistake: Napping in your living area at home or in an office at work. Even if you’re not disturbed by noise or other interruptions, you will still feel the emotional tug of your daily activities.
My recommendation: Go to a place unrelated to daytime tasks, such as your bedroom, an empty conference room, a park or your car with the seat reclined and the window slightly cracked so that you get some fresh air.
Also, try earplugs if you have trouble drifting off to sleep. Or consider using a white-noise machine to block out distracting sounds.
New option: The Apple iPhone White Noise App is very effective at blocking out noise.
SECRET 3. Cover yourself with a light blanket or jacket, if possible. This will make you more comfortable because your body temperature is lower than usual while napping.
Common mistake: Many people think that they need to be in a darkened room to nap. This may not be true. Research being conducted at the University of California, San Diego’s sleep laboratory has found no effect from different levels of light on a person’s ability to nap.
Possible reason: Since napping appears to be programmed into us, we may have evolved to fall asleep for brief periods during daylight without a need for melatonin, the sleep hormone that the body produces only in darkness.
SECRET 4. Set an alarm to go off after 20 minutes. Use whatever is most convenient — an alarm on your watch or cell phone, for example. The Nap App on the Apple iPod functions as an alarm that awakens nappers with a tone or vibration.
Using an alarm will prevent you from napping too long. It also allows you to relax, because you won’t have to worry about the clock.
Interesting fact: Even when nappers thought they were awake throughout their nap times, researchers’ anecdotal observations have shown that the nappers usually did dip into light sleep, which can help with alertness and motor performance.
Common mistake: Napping for more than 30 minutes. These longer naps take you from light “Stage 2″ sleep into deeper “Stage 3″ and “Stage 4″ sleep, which are harder to wake up from and will leave you groggy.
My recommendation: If you would like to take a longer nap, make sure that it lasts for 60 to 90 minutes. That’s long enough to move through the deeper sleep stages and return to lighter Stage 2 and rapid-eye movement (REM) sleep — also known as “dreaming sleep.”
This type of longer nap has the added benefit of stimulating the brain regions that integrate newly learned information into your long-term memory.
New finding: In a recent study conducted at the University of California, Berkeley, 39 healthy adults were given a rigorous learning exercise at noon. Half of them then took a 90-minute nap at 2 pm, while the other half didn’t. When doing new exercises at 6 pm, the group that had napped did significantly better than those who did not nap.
SECRET 5. Go back to sleep for five minutes if you feel groggy from over-napping. If you’re groggy, this means that you have moved into the deeper stages of sleep. Going back to sleep for five minutes will allow you to move further out of those sleep stages.
If you find that you’re groggy after a 20-minute nap: Shorten your nap to 10 minutes to avoid progressing into deeper sleep.
WHEN NAPPING MAY MEAN TROUBLE
Even though the bulk of research has found that napping is a healthful practice, one widely publicized study found the opposite — specifically, that older women who take excessive daily naps are more likely to die.
The study subjects (age 69 and older) who died napped the longest (more than three hours daily). They were 44% more likely to die from any cause and 58% more likely to die from cardiovascular causes than those who did not report taking naps.
The details of the research results suggest that the study participants had underlying sleep disorders, such as obstructive sleep apnea (temporary cessation of breathing during sleep) or an illness such as depression or heart disease.
Key fact not widely reported: The same study found that women who napped three hours or less per week had no increased mortality.
In addition, those who slept nine to 10 hours per 24-hour period (overnight sleep plus naps) were at greater risk of dying than those who slept eight to nine hours total in the same time period. Researchers are unsure whether these findings would also apply to men.
My advice: If you’re sleeping excessively at night, consult a sleep doctor, who will place you on a strict sleep schedule that will not include napping.
To find a sleep clinic near you that is accredited by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, go to http://www.SleepCenters.org.
Health interviewed Sara Mednick, PhD, assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego. In addition to authoring numerous published studies on napping,
she is coauthor of Take a Nap! Change Your Life (Workman) and the recipient of a National Institute of Mental Health Mentored Research Career Scientist Award. http://www.SaraMednick.com
April 11th, 2011 at 12:49 pm
Hi Mischa, Lots of good points being tossed around. Personally I still view the south as a place of arrested development in regard to racism. You could argue that the whole country is and yes, we all know many. I just have no answer other than to live my life and deal with each individual as I encounter them. BC I have noticed one thing, everyone has some percieved issue with another ‘group’ I won’t say ‘race’ – I have friends who are (just one for instance here) Jewish who often slip in criticism of Asians (yes, I say something about cultural differences and point out theirs, in this example – these are women who all agreed with the others’ original derogatory statement about Asians), I could give many other examples but I won’t bc a lot of it seems to be cultural bias as well as other more personal calls (a few things were woman to woman digs, hoo boy…).
I would agree with Robert in that if you are a racist, just say it so we all know, but don’t pretend not to be. In the cases above I asked these women if they’d ever voiced their opinions to the Asians in question, ‘of course not, they’d deny it’ (or wouldn’t see that behavior in themselves) and the other question: how about if you walked in on them talking about Jewish women and ‘how they all act’ – how would respond to that?? Hmmm, they didn’t like that. then one jokingly said ‘see the shit you get away with asking?’ – hahaha…yes, I do. Bc I’m willing to hear the answer. (or is it bc I’m tall blond and an ass kicker?)
Do you think I haven’t seen the look of disdain on an OTW woman’s face just bc I am who I am and look like what I look like? A let’s see…a tall fairly attractive blond with long legs, a rack and cool jewels and name it…), yeah, you’d have to be a serious ditzy blond to miss the (reverse and somewhat misplaced) ‘prejudice’ on that face, do they change tehir minds after speaking to me, yes if I make the effort, no if I don’t and they’re left to their own devices…so why do I have to be made to ‘work’ to overcome their prejudices? Don’t know, don’t care and sometimes I do it and sometimes I ignore the look completely. Sometimes, Robert, just being white is enough for a fight from someone who wants one, or just wants to hate based on color/other outward criteria. You can make claims about laws underdogging OTW’s but women and the races are on equal territory there and I didn’t vote for any of this, nor did I want Scalia or Thomas on the supreme court (and don’t get me going about their life sentence there either). So, I’ll ask in deference to Carolina, what’s your best suggestion on handling day to day living bc this blowharding and ranting between you and Al (or anyone else) is a redo, redo, redo (check the archives) or give me/us your best shot at how to make changes that are noteworthy. the troops already spoke at mid-terms, Dems sat it out bc they chose to not engage with the crappy discourse of the GOP and the GOP won siomply bc they showed up. What now?
On another note, it seems aliens have the same love questions we humans do, I think it’s sweet : )
Check out http://www.getyourlifebalanced.com over the weekend there was exercise, eating, a poem, and today – women’s day – a mock ad by Bella Abzug for amex (and more eating/exercise/zen approach to weight loss/life), video is working, enter a fake email if you’d like to comment and I’ll catch you here and there later.
Luv, Zen Lill
April 11th, 2011 at 1:56 pm
Al:
Nice cop-out Al. Your race is the “human race” all right until they want to be treated better than the OTWs.. I suppose it was your “human race” that murdered 12 million American Indians. And that same “human race” that gassed 6 million Jews. It is that same “human race” that imprisons and executes tens of thousands of OTWs every year?
Your race is the “human race” when your race wants others to participate in their evil, schemes, revenge, or wars. But when it comes to benefiting equally from the opportunities in this country, Your “human race” separates itself from the dangerous immigrants, “the criminal element” and any derogatory stereotype your “human race” can introduce into the main stream media.
I guess it is the human race, stereotyping the OTWs in Arizona. Only the “illegals” there are not part of their “human race.
What is your problem with OTWs reminding your race that we are indeed human beings too and deserve to be treated equally. As for your discomfort with my bringing up your race’s illustrious past, have you ever head the adage “if you forget history, you are doomed to repeat it.” Think of me reminding your race so that they don’t try that shit again. Or probably more accurate reminding us OTWs less we slip and they try to resurrect some of their old sick racist shit.
You are awfully belligerent about something. Am I dredging up some old demons? I think you have more of a drug history than just an occasional marijuana cigarette. Your reactions hint to a much more interesting history. One that may be rearing its ugly head as we speak.
You say “Do you hate us all?” Why is it your race over reacts that way when they are reminded that it is YOUR race that other races ask that very question when YOUR race is attempting genocidal murder of their race. Can’t you just hear members of the Native American tribes asking those of your race “Do you hate us all? as they were being put into concentration camps(reversions), shot, scalped, and murdered. Can’t you hear each one of those 6 million jews asking the german people “Do you hate us all? as they were being beaten, experimented on, and herded into ovens?
The really meaningful thing about you asking that question is the answer. My answer is in my actions, I am addressing you on a blog. I am NOT out deporting members of your race as “illegals.” I am not gassing members of your race because the derogatory name I used to described them was a precursor to me attempting to exterminate them as a race(evidently NOT that “human race” you are now claiming to be a part of).
I am so glad that you say you like black people, but that is not what OTWs are asking from the white race. We are not asking to be liked by your race. We are simply asking to be treated equally. You may not like it but I plan to continue to remind you or rather those members of your race or any race who degrade others because of their race.
It is not the individual actions i am discussing. As individuals we are all part of the human race and no one is better or less than the other. What I am addressing is the actions of a group of individuals who act as the representatives of their race to discriminate against another race. I don’t think you can name a time in history when another race took it upon their race as a whole to exterminate the white race.
And yes, OTWs owe a tremendous debt to individuals of the white race for their sacrifice, courage, and commitment to trying to prevent their race from waging institutional evil against them. But excuse me for speaking up for the 10s of millions of aborigines who were murdered so that a few whites could be the sole occupants of a nation twice as large as the continental USA. What evil must be in the hearts of a race to commit to exterminating a race when there is that much land to share?
I don’t know the answer to that question, but I do know that that act was not an isolated incident done by the white race. If you doubt it, then take a pacific cruise from Australia to the US and you will discover that that act was repeated among almost all the pacific island nations. Until you get to the USA. And we both know how generously your race shared the continental USA with its native inhabitants.
So Al, I plan to continue to remind your race and others if their shit stinks. If you continue to feel that you have to defend your race against my terrible accusations, then you are in the right place. That is exactly what this blog provides, a forum for all to voice their opinions. So, white boy, speak up my good man.
I call it tomato, you call it reverse racism
Robert
April 11th, 2011 at 1:59 pm
Love the poem “Alien.” But why did you seduce a human? I don’t believe in aliens and certainly not one who would want to have sex with a human.
Sounds like a great line.
April 11th, 2011 at 2:03 pm
Al,
Don’t respond let it go. You can’t win with this guy. He believes in what he is saying as much as you do.
Neither one of you will convince the other to change. I like the energy, but as Zen Lill said enough is enough.
Larry
April 11th, 2011 at 2:31 pm
Michelle, sorry to tell you but the only thing different about living in that part of the south is the time. The white hatred is still the same.
They work harder now trying to keep us from voting always checking the rolls to see if we are ex cons or something.
They never stop trying to put my babies behind bars. I tell my babies to get out of this town as soon as they graduate. Study I tell them and make a place for yourself somewhere else. Whites here will kill you as easy as spitting on you.
Nothings changed, Honey, nothing
Katie
April 11th, 2011 at 2:33 pm
I’m not sure I believe in aliens either. But I’m open. They can’t be worse that humans I’ve had to put up with.
April 11th, 2011 at 2:34 pm
Robert; All I can say is you must be retarded mentally to continue to deny that “white boy” is not a racial slur. All that terrible shit committed by the white race or any other has NOTHING to do with me.
Al
April 11th, 2011 at 2:43 pm
Robert, this is your resident bigot telling you to kiss his ass. You niggers are always complaining about one thing or another. White men made this country. Not niggers, slopes, jews, spicks, fucking indians or you nagging cunts.
WHITE MEN, and only WHITE MEN made this country.
Get over it.
George,
White Nations
April 11th, 2011 at 2:59 pm
Michelle;
Why do the bigots always belong to something called the Preservation of the White race? Who’s attacking their race? I used to hate the Japanese because they killed thousands of Chinese where I was born. I still feel uneasy around them but I’m getting over it.
I recently sent money to Japan to help the disaster victims. Reading your blog, especially Social Butterfly helps me a lot. Coming to America is my dream. When I have saved enough money I will visit America. When it is time to leave I will toss my passport and adopt America as my country.
Pei
April 11th, 2011 at 4:20 pm
Hi George,
I was wondering when you were going to pipe in and now that you have, all I want to say is that your laughable. Listen, jerk, you would not be here if it weren’t for women, at least one woman, so shut up with that noise.
In fact, none of those groups you mentioned would be here without women, you stupid ass.
As far as I know that ‘split and divide the organism’ method isn’t yet used on humans, don’t care what race, so take your stupid argument about everybody is less than white males and stick it where the sun don shine.
Oh and seriously dude, meds – take the meds, that is if you find time between swinging from vine to vine and beating your chest screaming about how superior you and your WHITE MEN are.
Suggesting that YOU get over it, Zen Lill (not very Zen but too bad)
April 11th, 2011 at 4:44 pm
THE ANSWER IS
You are much more than a Burning Sun in whose rays I yearn to bask
Never should You question Love; I’m at fault if You need to ask.
I know You know I Love You, not for Your magic or Your ship
You were just a guy at first, who left a very big tip.
What makes You valuable to Me would take an earthling’s life to tell
Of all the things You do for Me to make sure I am well.
You’re the One who showed respect when I had none for Me
You taught Me to accept what is and just let everything be
You stayed with Me through thick and thin and several difficult years
You always set aside time for Me and You guide Me through My tears.
Your faithful heart has shown to Me how committed True Love can be
I’ll never regret taking the step where You and I became a We.
When We joined and became One, I too discovered Love that day
But the real discovery of Love for Me was when You went away.
Our physical Love had ceased but my Heart’s Love just increased.
I’m thankful We yet Love and laugh, in My dreams at least.
If You still question My Love for You, just remember this-
I’d give up all the World for You, for just a single kiss
And if You’re still uncertain and think its all a myth
Know that if You choose to leave again, I insist that I go with.
April 11th, 2011 at 5:13 pm
Gwen, there are aliens who have agreements to exist in human form and are limited by some of the physical plane of same; it varies with the being. Not every alien is here on vacation. Some are doing actual work. There are also a lot of “humans” who don’t know their alien selves. I help some of them come into being so this I know first hand.
April 11th, 2011 at 7:50 pm
Anon 14 – can you elaborate more on the statements ‘Not every alien is here on vacation. Some are doing actual work. There are also a lot of “humans” who don’t know their alien selves. I help some of them come into being so this I know first hand.’ please? And the aliens that are limited within this plane, are they frustrated by those limitations or are they aware of the limits or…?? Would love to hear more about this, thank you, ZL
April 11th, 2011 at 8:44 pm
I just saw this online. Anyone surprised? Rest assured its much worse than what is being reported whatever the level is.
TOKYO, Japan (AP) –
News reports say Japan has decided to raise the severity level of the crisis at its tsunami-stricken nuclear power plant to 7 _ the highest level and equal to the 1986 disaster at Chernobyl in the former Soviet Union.
Quoting sources at Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, Kyodo News agency and public broadcaster NHK both said Tuesday that NISA would raise the severity level of the nuclear radiation disaster at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant to 7 from the current 5.
NISA spokesman Minoru Oogoda declined to confirm the reports.
April 11th, 2011 at 8:53 pm
Zen Lill there is every scenario you could (n)ever imagine.
April 11th, 2011 at 9:19 pm
Zen Lill I wish to answer your questions but I am getting messages of displeasure for writing about the beings of alien human connections. Ok. Yes, I’m definitely going now.
April 12th, 2011 at 7:13 am
Anonymous 14:
I wish you would take a name. It would make it easier for me, and I’m sure many others who wish to communicate with you.
I like this blog because it gives me an opening to the thoughts of the world unabridged. Whether you love or hate the topic they pick to discuss or the attitude they bring to it, you get the pulse of the world without censorship from its participants.
This blog may not be as sophisticated as Huffington Post, but it’s comment section is far superior because it is not censored to project the blog’s moral position on what should be in a comment.
But I am interested in aliens, I may not believe they exist on earth, but the topic is definitely of interest to me, hence your contribution is engrossing to me. How can we or others start up a conversation with you if you only use the moniker “anonymous” when you write in. How about “Shiva” or “RA” or something that tells us who are interested in aliens that we can come in and comment or ask questions?
Please use a title of some sort.
Gwen
April 12th, 2011 at 7:24 am
Michelle:
My friends who in the field that is helping my country clean up this disaster says they don’t believe that they can stop what is coming. They say that they are now only trying to minimize the coming disaster.
I am afraid of nuclear power plants now, but they are all over Japan. What have we done?
Nori
April 12th, 2011 at 7:25 am
Gwen that’s why read it too. It’s raw, but honest. Sometimes one can feel the emotion spewing from the person who is posting his/her angst.
Gary
April 12th, 2011 at 7:27 am
Ruben, Ditto Gwen and Gary, that’s why I can’t understand why Al(one of my favorite regulars is so up-set with the term “white boy.”
Let it go Al. We don’t have a history of that term being derogatory. You are making more much more out of it than is there. That was Robert’s point when he mentioned the firemen. When we as a race feel that we are being deprived of a thing, we tend to over react or we demand more attention than we give to the minorities when a similar event happens to them.
Often the racist’s agitators or politicians who depend on racism for votes use situations like the one Robert presents to stir up imagined hatreds against our race. Al, if you don’t tone it down you could be seen as heading in that direction.
Brad
April 12th, 2011 at 7:35 am
RA, sounds good to me, how about you Anon#14?” Since you help aliens adjust to their bodies, the name sounds appropriate.
Shall we call you “RA?”
Lenny