hi5 - Joseph's Journal

hi5 - Joseph's Journal

PEACE.LOVE.HAPPINESS

TAXES.........UNKNOWN AUTHOR

President Bush said each one of us would get a $1200.00 tax rebate. It was previously slated to be $1400.00, but they dropped it to a $1200.00 tax rebate because of various budget problems.

Now, if we spend that money at Wal-Mart, all the money will go to China, if we spend it on computers, most of the money will go to Korea or India. If we spend it on gasoline it will all go to the Arabs. None of these scenarios will help the American economy.

We need to keep that money here in America....so the only way to keep that money here at home is to go bowling, drink beer, gamble, golf or spend it on prostitution. Currently it seems that these are the only businesses still left in the U.S.


PEACE.LOVE.HAPPINESS

WHO WE ARE

I have been trying to understand the controversy surrounding Barack Obabma's minister. At first I thought it was just another double-standard that white people have so many of. But then I realized that after 400 years white people don't have a clue as to who we are. Which sort of illuminates something I've been wondering about. Which is why do black people try so hard to make white people like them or accept them. It's because we know subconsciously that they don't have a clue as to what we're about. So we do everything we can to make ourselves as acceptable as possible to them. We fry our hair, we bleach our skin, we force integration on them, which really didn't work. We do everything that they do, create everything in their image, like the Black Greek Societies. We did not come from Greece. Although their are a lot of Greeks that are our cousins, like most everyone from the Mediterranean area. But our ancestors are not from there.
We've tried so hard to be acceptable, over 400 years, and it has not worked. White people know as much about us now than they did 400 years ago.

PEACE.LOVE.HAPPINESS

FRIENDSHIP, A PERSONAL OBSERVATION

IT SEEMS THAT NOTHING HAS CHANGED VERY MUCH IN CYBERSPACE, FROM THE OLD DAYS OF BLACK PLANET. PEOPLE STILL COLLECT FRIENDS LIKE OTHER PEOPLE COLLECT SPOONS. THEY ACQUIRE THEM AND STICK THEM IN A CHINA CLOSET LIKE TROPHYS AND FORGET ABOUT THEM.
OR THEY ACQUIRE THEM WITH AN AGENDA OTHER THAN JUST SPREADING SOME LOVE.

PEACE.LOVE.HAPPINESS

TODAY I CRIED, UNKNOWN AUTHOR

Today, I cried..... I voted for a black man and, I cried.I cried for my father and my grandfather and all grandfathers beforehim.
I cried for my uncles, my four brothers, my seventeen nephews,
my two sons, my six grandsons and one great-grand son.
I cried for the blacks I have loved and those that have loved me.I cried for the millions of little black boys (not forgetting the girls)over the centuries that did not, in their wildest dreams, imagine...
that they could run for Office.
I cried for their despair...I cried for all the men and boys incarcerated
who lost hope in themselves and took the low road.
I cried, I cried and I cried...I know that this was "just the primary." But whatever the end result maybe, today I voted in the United States of America for a black man,
and... I cried.
If I should die before the presidential election it will be OK, Becausetoday I voted.
I voted for a black man and I cried.

PEACE।LOVE।HAPPINESS

BROWN v. BOARD OF EDUCATION

BROWN v. BOARD OF EDUCATION
AN OPINION
BY JOSEPH D. BOONE
Circa 1994

THE BROWN v. BOARD OF EDUCATION LAWSUIT, BROUGHT BY THE NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE FUND, WAS A WORTHWHILE ENDEAVOR. BUT IT WAS THE WRONG LAWSUIT TO BRING BEFORE THE U.S. SUPREME COURT.

THE INTENT OF THE NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE FUND WAS TO INTEGRATE THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM SO THAT NEGROES WOULD RECEIVE AN EQUAL CHANCE TO EDUCATION. THIS WAS A NOBLE IDEA, A GOOD IDEA, AN IDEA WHO’S TIME HAD LONG BEEN COMING. BUT IT WAS A MISGUIDED IDEA. TO END “JIM CROW”, SEGREGATION, BY DESEGREGATING THE SCHOOL SYSTEM MIGHT HAVE LOOKED GOOD AT THE TIME BUT UNDER CLOSER SCRUTINY AND HINDSIGHT LOOKS LIKE THE WRONG PATH WAS TAKEN.

THIS OPINION OF MINE STEMS FROM THE FACT THAT RACISM OF ANY KIND IS A NATURAL INSTINCT IN HUMAN BEINGS. RACISM WAS A WELL ESTABLISHED INSTITUTION FROM THE INCEPTION OF THIS NATION. AND TO END RACISM BY PASSING A LAW SEEMED LIKE A GOOD IDEA, AMERICANS BEING A FAIR MINDED PEOPLE, TO THE PARTICIPANTS IN THE PLANNING AND STRATEGY OF THE LAW SUITS BEING FILED IN THE 1930s AND 1940s AND 1950s. BUT WHAT THEY FAILED TO UNDERSTAND, ACCEPT OR ACKNOWLEDGE WAS THE DEPTH OF WHICH RACISM WAS INGRAINED IN THE AMERICAN PSYCHE. THIS DEPTH IS SHOWN IN OTHER ACTIONS BY THE U.S. SUPREME COURT AND BY THE U.S. CONSTITUTION ITSELF.

THE U.S. CONSTITUTION CONTAINS A NUMBER OF SPECIFIC PROVISIONS, MOST NOTABLY THE FUGITIVE SLAVE CLAUSE, THE SLAVE TRADE CLAUSE, AND THE THREE-FIFTHS COMPROMISE, WHICH PLAINLY RECOGNIZES THE EXISTENCE OF THE INSTITUTION OF SLAVERY. THERE ARE SEVERAL SUPREME COURT CASES THAT UPHELD THE IDEA OF RACISM IN THIS COUNTRY, FROM PRIGG v. PENNSYLVANIA(1842) TO PLESSY v. FERGUSON(1896) OF WHICH I WILL SPEAK MORE ABOUT LATER ON.

EVEN THE COURT ITSELF DID NOT REALIZE THE DEPTH OF RACISM IN THIS COUNTRY. AFTER THE FIRST BROWN v. BOARD OF EDUCATION(1954) THE COURT ASKED FOR BRIEFS AND ARGUMENTS ON HOW THIS DESEGREGATION WOULD COME ABOUT. THE FOLLOWING YEAR IN THE SECOND BROWN v BOARD OF EDUCATION(1955) THE COURT REALIZED THAT LOCAL OFFICIALS WOULD HAVE TO FORMULATE POLICY TO HANDLE THE DESEGREGATION SO THEY DIRECTED DISTRICT COURTS TO ENSURE THAT THE TRANSITION TO A UNITARY SCHOOL SYSTEM WAS ACCOMPLISHED “WITH ALL DELIBERATE SPEED”. THEY OBVIOUSLY HOPED FOR COOPERATION FROM LOCAL AUTHORITIES IN THE DESEGREGATION PROCESS. SUCH COOPERATION WAS NOT FORTHCOMING. “THE JUDICIARY WAS FACED WITH SOUTHERN SCHOOL BOARDS AND STATE GOVERNMENTS THAT WERE TYPICALLY COMMITTED TO THE PHILOSOPHY OF “MASSIVE RESISTANCE” TO DESEGREGATION.

SO WITH ALL THIS OPPOSITION AND INGRAINED RACISM, EVEN HATRED, WHY DID THE NAACP FIGHT FOR INTEGRATION INSTEAD OF ENFORCING PLESSY v. FERGUSON? IN PLESSY v. FERGUSON (1896) THE COURT HELD, 7 TO 1, THAT STATE IMPOSED RACIAL SEGREGATION IN PUBLIC FACILITIES WAS NOT “UNREASONABLE” AND THEREFORE DID NOT VIOLATE THE EQUAL PROTECTION CLAUSE OF THE FOURTEENTH AMENDMENT. I KNOW THAT AS A NEGRO I SHOULD FIND THIS ABHORRENT. HOWEVER, I AM FORMING MY OPINION BASED ON HINDSIGHT. I, WE, KNOW TODAY THAT A PRIMARY CAUSE FOR THE STATE OF NEGROES TODAY IS THE BREAK-DOWN OF THE FAMILY AND THE “FLIGHT” OF THE MIDDLE-CLASS NEGROES TO THE SUBURBS AND MOST DAMAGING IS THE DISASSOCIATION OR DISOWNMENT OF MIDDLE-CLASS NEGROES OF THEIR ROOTS AND THEIR CONSTANT DESIRE TO LIVE THE “AMERICAN DREAM”. AS WE KNOW THERE IS NO REAL AMERICAN DREAM FOR NEGROES BECAUSE RACISM IS STILL ALIVE AND WELL GOING INTO THE 21st CENTURY.

TODAY THERE ARE ALL MANNER OF SCHOOLS AND CURRICULUMS BEING DEVELOPED THAT ARE PURPOSELY “SEPARATE BUT EQUAL”. NOT ONLY RACIALLY BUT GENDER-WISE ALSO. IT HAS FINALLY DAWNED ON NEGROES THAT THEY DON’T NEED TO BE LIKE “WHITE FOLKS” IN ORDER TO LIVE “AN AMERICAN DREAM”. THAT IT IS NOT ONLY GOOD FOR NEGROES TO KNOW WHO THEY ARE BUT IT IS ESSENTIAL FOR THEIR COLLECTIVE PSYCHE. AND ONE OF THE WAYS NOW BEING LOOKED AT IS SEPARATE CLASSES, EVEN SCHOOLS FOR YOUNG NEGRO MALES. AND KNOWING THEIR CULTURAL HERITAGE EVEN PRACTICING SOME OF IT, FOR INSTANCE KWANZA.

SO MY THEORY IS THAT IF THE LEGAL DEFENSE ARM OF THE NAACP HAD FOCUSED ON MAKING THE “SEPARATE BUT EQUAL” CLAUSE WORK, THE COLLECTIVE PSYCHE OF NEGROES WOULD BE BETTER OFF TODAY. WE HAVE HISTORY TO SHOW US THAT GIVEN THE OPPORTUNITY OR LEFT TO OUR OWN INGENUITY WE CAN SURVIVE QUITE WELL, WITHOUT THE AIDE OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT, LIKE URBAN RENEWAL. THE QUESTION NOW IS IF WE HAD TAKEN THE COURSE I SUGGEST HERE, WOULD THE WHITE COMMUNITY HAVE LEFT US ALONE TO LIVE OUR OWN LIVES OR WOULD THEY HAVE RESORTED TO WHAT THEY DID TO BLACK COMMUNITIES IN OKLAHOMA AND FLORIDA THAT WERE MAKING IT ON THEIR OWN. AND THAT IS ERADICATE THEM. I GUESS WE WILL FOREVER BE ARGUING THIS SCENARIO. BUT I DON’T BELIEVE THAT NEGROES WOULD BE ANY WORSE OFF IF THEY, NAACP, HAD CHOSEN THE PATH I SUGGEST HERE. IN FACT THERE IS MUCH TO BELIEVE THAT WE WOULD BE A LOT BETTER OFF. WITH INTACT COMMUNITIES, FAMILIES AND PRIDE. WITH A GOOD, HEALTHY SELF-ESTEEM.


PEACE.LOVE.HAPPINESS

INTERVIEW WITH THURGOOD MARSHALL: A SCENARIO

AN INTERVIEW WITH THURGOOD MARSHALL
By JOSEPH D. BOONE
Circa 1994

JDB: JUSTICE MARSHALL, THIS INTERVIEW IS BASED MAINLY ON YOUR INVOLVEMENT IN BROWN v. BOARD OF EDUCATION. BUT I WOULD LIKE TO ASK A FEW BACKGROUND QUESTIONS IF YOU DON’T MIND. SIR, WHEN AND WHERE WERE YOU BORN?

JTM: I WAS BORN IN THE EARLY PART OF THIS CENTURY, IN 1908 TO BE EXACT, IN BALTIMORE, MD.

JDB: WHAT DID YOUR PARENTS DO FOR A LIVING AND WHAT WERE THEY LIKE AS PARENTS?

JTM: BOTH OF MY PARENTS WORKED. MY MOTHER WAS A SCHOOLTEACHER AND MY FATHER WAS A PULLMAN PORTER WHO LATER BECAME HEAD STEWARD AT A WEALTHY COUNTRY CLUB ON THE SHORES OF CHESAPEAKE BAY. MY PARENTS WERE HARDWORKING MIDDLE-CLASS, FOR THAT TIME, AMERICANS. THEY, LIKE OTHERS, WANTED THE BEST FOR ME AND WANTED ME TO DO MY BEST. I HOPE I ACHIEVED THAT GOAL.

JDB: WHAT WAS YOUR EDUCATION LIKE AND WERE DID YOU GO TO COLLEGE?

JTM: I ATTENDED ALL NEGRO SCHOOLS IN BALTIMORE; MOTHER, WHO WAS, AS I SAID A SCHOOLTEACHER, SUPPLEMENTED MY EDUCATION. I WENT TO AND GRADUATED FROM LINCOLN UNIVERSITY, A SMALL NEGRO SCHOOL IN PENNSYLVANIA. I WANTED TO GO TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND LAW SCHOOL BUT THEY WOULD NOT ADMIT NEGROES. SO I WENT TO AND GRADUATED FROM THE HOWARD UNIVERSITY LAW SCHOOL.

JDB: IS THE REASON WHY YOU FOUGHT FOR DESEGREGATION OF THE SCHOOL SYSTEM BECAUSE YOU COULD NOT GET INTO THE UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND LAW SCHOOL?

JTM: PARTLY, BUT THE MAIN REASON WAS AND STILL IS BECAUSE IT WAS AND IS THE RIGHT THING TO DO. YOU MUST REMEMBER THAT WE WERE AND STILL ARE TALKING ABOUT BASIC HUMAN RIGHTS. AND NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS, GOOD, BAD OR INDIFFERENT, IT IS THE RIGHT THING TO DO. BASIC HUMAN RIGHTS IS JUST THAT BASIC, FUNDAMENTAL, NEVER CHANGING, HUMAN RIGHTS. WHILE IT MAY BE TRUE THAT LAWS AND CONSTITUTIONS DO NOT ACT TO RIGHT WRONG AND OVERTURN ESTABLISHED FOLKWAYS OVERNIGHT, IT IS ALSO TRUE THAT THE REAFFIRMATION OF THESE PRINCIPLES OF DEMOCRACY BUILDS A BODY OF PUBLIC OPINION IN WHICH RIGHTS AND PRIVILEGES OF CITIZENSHIP MAY BE ENJOYED.

JDB: OK, BUT WHY DIDN’T YOUR TRY FIGHTING FOR THE “EQUAL” PART OF “SEPARATE BUT EQUAL”?

JTM: BECAUSE WHEN I JOINED THE NAACP's LEGAL TEAM IN 1936 THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT THEY WERE DOING. ATTEMPTING TO INDUCE OR FORCE IMPROVEMENTS IN COLORED-ONLY FACILITIES. IN ADDITION, AS YOU KNOW TO NO AVAIL. RESISTANCE TO “EQUAL” WAS JUST AS BAD AS OUR RESISTANCE TO “SEPARATE”.

JDB: OK, SO HOW DID YOUR GO ABOUT FIGHTING THE “SEPARATE” INSTEAD OF THE “EQUAL”?

JTM: WE DEVISED THE STRATEGY OF FIRST PERSUADING A PATRONIZING WHITE JUDICIARY TO GRANT FAIR TREATMENT TO A SMALL AND UNTHREATENING CLASS OF COLORED PEOPLE: EXEMPLARY, EMINENTLY QUALIFIED APPLICANTS TO PUBLICLY FUNDED GRADUATE AND PROFESSIONAL SCHOOLS. WE FOLLOWED THESE EARLY VICTORIES BY BROADENING OUR SCOPE UNTIL THEY FINALLY CULMINATED IN BROWN v. BOARD OF EDUCATION, WHICH MANDATED AN END TO SEGREGATION IN ALL PUBLIC SCHOOLS AND, FOR THE COURT AS AN INSTITUTION, EXPUNGED THE SHAME OF DRED SCOTT AND PLESSY v. FERGUSON.

JDB: LET ME GRANT YOU THAT WHAT YOU AND YOUR TEAM DID WAS THE RIGHT THING TO DO. BUT IT, DESEGREGATION, STILL LEAVES US, NEGROES AS A WHOLE, WITH LITTLE TO BE THANKFUL FOR IN TERMS OF RESPECT AND BEING LOOKED UPON AS HUMAN BEINGS EQUAL TO ALL. WHAT HAPPENED?

JTM: YOU MUST REMEMBER THAT WE ARE DEALING WITH PEOPLE, HUMAN BEINGS, A NOT SO PERFECT SPECIMEN OF LIFE. AND AS LONG AS PEOPLE ARE STILL FEELING THEIR ANIMAL ANCESTRY OF FEAR, MISTRUST, AGGRESSION WILL DETERMINE A GOOD PART OF OUR BEHAVIOR. BUT WE ARE MOVING FORWARD, AT A SNAILS PACE PERHAPS, BUT FOREVER FORWARD. SOMETIMES TAKING A STEP BACKWARDS BUT ALWAYS MOVING FORWARD.

JDB: I WISH TO THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME AND INSIGHT INTO WHAT WENT INTO BROWN v. BOARD OF EDUCATION. AND I WISH TO SAY THAT I THINK YOU ARE ONE OF THIS CENTURIES GREATEST HUMAN BEINGS.

JTM: AND THANK YOU.


PEACE.LOVE.HAPPINESS

FIRST ANNIVERSARY OF NINE ELEVEN

NINE ELEVEN
Wednesday, September 11, 2002

THIS MORNING THIS COUNTRY REMEMBERS 9/11 AND VOWS NEVER TO FORGET. AS A NATIVE NEW YORKER I FEEL ANGRY AND HURT AT THE ATTACK ON THE TWIN TOWERS I ADMIRED AS A SYMBOL OF NEW YORK’S GREATNESS. AS A HUMAN BEING I ALSO FEEL THE PAIN OF ALL THOSE PEOPLE WHO LOST LOVED ONES ON THAT DAY. I WILL NEVER FORGET, AS WE ALL SHOULD NOT.
BUT AS A AFRICAN AMERICAN I FEEL A SENSE OF SHAME THAT THIS COUNTRY CHOOSES TO FORGET THE TENS OF THOUSANDS OF MY ANCESTORS AND BRETHREN THAT DIED, PACKED LIKE SARDINES, ON SLAVE SHIPS. THE THOUSANDS THAT DIED WHILE SLAVING IN THE COTTON AND SUGAR CANE FIELDS OF THE SOUTH AND THE CARIBBEAN. THE HUNDREDS THAT WERE MURDERED BY HANGING, WHIPPING AND TORTURE AT THE HANDS OF SLAVERS.
WHY DON’T WE REMEMBER THEM?
THE PAIN I FEEL FOR THOSE WHO DIED ON 9/11 DOES NOT EQUAL THE PAIN I FEEL EVERYDAY FOR THOSE WHO HAVE DIED AND CONTINUE TO DIE FROM THE CHEMICAL WARFARE THAT HAS BEEN WAGED AGAINST THIS COUNTRY FOR OVER HALF A CENTURY. A WAR THAT HAS KILLED TENS OF THOUSANDS OF AMERICANS: BLACKS, CAUCASIANS, HISPANICS AND OTHERS.
THIS WAR THAT WE KNOW WHICH COUNTRIES ARE WAGING IT: AFGHANISTAN, TURKEY, FRANCE, ITALY, COLOMBIA, PERU AND MEXICO. AND THE CHEMICALS THAT THEY ARE USING: HEROIN, COCAINE AND HANNIBIS. BUT THIS COUNTRY CHOOSES NOT TO ATTACK THESE COUNTRIES THAT ARE WAGING CHEMICAL WARFARE BUT CHOOSES INSTEAD TO TALK TO THEM AND GIVE THEM AID.
THIS COUNTRY IS WORRIED THAT SADDAM HUSSIEN WILL ATTACK HIS NEIGHBORS, OUR “FRIENDS AND ALLIES”, WITH CHEMICAL WEAPONS. YET WE HAVE BEEN UNDER ATTACK FOR DECADES FROM CHEMICALS JUST AS DEADLY AS ANTHRAX OR SMALLPOX.
I WISH THIS COUNTRY COULD FEE THE PAIN THAT I FEEL FOR THOSE DYING EVERY DAY FROM THE CHEMICALS OF HEROIN, COCAINE AND OTHER EXOTIC DRUGS AND FOR THE LOVED ONES THAT WATCH THEM SLOWLY DIE.
JOSEPH D. BOONE, CITIZEN

PEACE.LOVE.HAPPINESS

STANDING FOR JUSTICE: MISSISSIPPI and the TILL CASE

Standing For Justice
Mississippi and the Till Case

"Before Emmett Till's murder, I had known the fear of hunger, hell and the Devil. But now there was a new fear known to me - the fear of being killed just because I was black." From Coming of Age in Mississippi, Anne Moody's autobiography.

Black Monday. that was what southern segregationists came to call the day the Supreme Court ruled on Brown v. Board of Education. "On May 17, 1954, the Constitution of the United States was destroyed because of the Supreme Court's decision," said Mississippi senator James Eastland. "You are not obliged to obey the decisions of any court which are plainly fraudulent [and based on] sociological considerations."
In Linden, Alabama, state senator Walter C. Givhan railed against the NAACP campaign to end school segregation. What, he asked his white audience, is the real purpose of the campaign? "To open the bedroom doors of our white women to Negro men."
When the Supreme Court handed down its decision, it did not include instructions on how the order was to be implemented. Desegregation began almost immediately in Washington, D.C., and Baltimore, bout most of the nation waited for the Court to provide specific instructions on how to end school segregation.
A year later, the Court still had not acted. Instead, the justices asked the lower federal courts, closer to the local school districts, to ensure that those districts "admit to public schools on racially nondiscriminatory basis with all deliberate speed the [black children]."
To many blacks, the Court's delay and the vague wording of its eventual decree were a bitter disappointment. "I remember the great elation that I had-how wonderful I felt the country was and the Constitution [after the 1954 ruling]...," said one civil rights attorney. "I felt and equally strong sense of depression and bitterness a year later when the Court came out with the "all deliberate speed' formulation. I had the feeling that we'd won a hollow victory."
President Eisenhower distanced himself from the Court's actions. "It makes no difference whether or not I endorse it," he said. "The Constitution is as the Supreme Court interprets it and I must conform to that and do my very best to see that it is carried out in this country." But later he commented that his appointment of Earl warren was "the biggest damn-fool mistake I ever made." He told one of his aides in the White House, "I am convinced that the Supreme Court decision set back progress in the South at least fifteen years."In Mississippi, unarguable the most supremacist and segregated state in the country, whites' anger over the ruling fueled violent segregationist backlash. Gangs of whites committed beatings, burnings, and lynchings-murder by mob. The Supreme Court decision also spurred the formation of a new kind of white hate group, composed of urban, middle-class whites determined to fight desegregation. They called themselves the Citizens' Council, and civil rights activists dubbed them the "white-collar Klan," after the Ku Klux Klan.

PEACE.LOVE.HAPPINESS

Friendship Is A Strange Thing......Marcie Simpson

Friendship is a strange thing .
We find ourselves telling each other the deepest details of our lives... things we don't
even share with our families.
But what is a friend? A confidant? A lover? A shoulder to cry on? An ear to listen? A
heart to feel?
A friend is all of these things and more. No matter where we met, no matter how long
we've been together... I call you a friend.
A word so small, yet so large in feeling, a word filled with emotion, a word overflowing
with LOVE.
Truly great things come in small packages. Once the package of friendship has been
opened, it can never be closed.
It is a constant book always waiting... waiting to be read... and enjoyed. We may have our
disagreements... we may have our disappointments... we may argue... we may concern
one another.
Friendship is a unique bond that lasts through all tribulations and part of each of us goes
into our friendships... our humor... our experiences... our tears.
Friendships are foundations... necessary for life... and love.
Women are like Apples
Women are like apples on trees. The best ones are at the top of the tree. Most men don't
want to reach for the good ones because they are afraid of falling and getting hurt.
Instead, they just take the rotten apples from the ground that aren't as good, but easy.......
The apples at the top think something is wrong with them, when in reality, they're
amazing.
They just have to wait for the right man to come along, the one who's brave enough to
climb all the way to the top of the tree.
Share this with other women who are good apples, even those who have already been
picked!

Now Men....
Men are like a fine wine. They begin as grapes, and it's up to women to stomp the shit out of them until they turn into something acceptable to have dinner with.

Doesn't that just warm your heart....????


PEACE.LOVE.HAPPINESS