photo above: The quote is from The Talmud.
WN: The above from The Talmud echoes Micah 6:8, seen to the left. It in turn is picked up in Matthew 23:23, featuring Jesus’ indictment of the religious establishment of the day:
Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness1. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.
The line below: “Failure to do so will stand as a moral indictment down through the ages.” draws attention to “Our Uncle Sam of Perpetual Indictment“–for the Original Sins of Slavery and Genocide . . .
While much of the rest of the Western world–so tied in economically to American Militarized Capitalism–watches and is beneficiary.
Ranky Tanky’s “Freedom” song is hopeful and powerful!
excerpts:
Another day — another Mother’s child dead, another mass shooting. Just another day in America — no longer the “land of the free and home of the brave.”
But then it never was.
Oh, there has been courage a plenty. We see just that in those who have fought for equality and justice down through the years. And we ‘ve seen the cowardice, selfishness, willful ignorance and cruelty of those who fight back against what this Nation claims as its ideals — freedom and justice for all.
Freedom is impossible without justice and far too many of us seem to be ok with that. We make constant excuses for the inexcusable, including blaming the victim.
“What was that child doing out at 3am with a gun?”
Oh, really?
…
Former police officer Derek Chauvin had use of force complaints before killing George Floyd, including shooting one suspect, involved in the fatal shooting of another, and receiving at least 17 complaints during his nearly two decades with the Minneapolis PD.
The police officer who murdered Tamir Rice had been found “unfit to serve” and dismissed from the Independence Police Department in Ohio, before he was hired by the Cleveland Police Department.
All of that was not enough to prevent another Ohio police department from hiring him.
…
A piece by Issac Bailey in Greg’s APR (Abbreviated Pundit Roundup) this morning should be mandatory reading.
Why should a cop’s blue fear matter more than my Black life?
…We’ve bathed our culture in so many guns that it is reasonable to wonder who is carrying one and what they plan to do with it. It’s not crazy for cops to assume a gun is present in every vehicle they stop, just as it’s not crazy for Black men to think they might become the next hashtag during a traffic stop because a cop was having a bad day or can’t tell the difference between a Taser and Glock.We’ve sprung a trap on ourselves and can’t see our way out. Or maybe we don’t want to. But each side isn’t equally at fault. Any death is a tragedy, but police officers are rarely harmed or killed in traffic stops. Yet they have been told time and again to always be on guard, to always be afraid because they might — might — be a split second away from an event that will mean they won’t make it home that night. Never mind what Washington Post criminal justice reporter Radley Balko recently pointed out, that maybe 5 to 10 traffic stops end in an officer being killed — out of about 30 million annually.While I understand a cop’s fear, it’s not the same as wondering if your kid might be killed after a cop decides to pull him over or because he was selling loose cigarettes on a street corner. Random violence is the scariest crime because there’s nothing you can do to avoid it, because you can’t anticipate it. We understand that when a young man shoots up a school or mall or movie theater. That’s what police violence has done to me. It’s why even though I’ve never been harmed by police, I can’t help but wonder if that’s gonna change by tomorrow….Why indeed.
The piece, “Confessions of a Former Bastard Cop” does a good job explaining just what happens in police departments. “Fear” is only part of it. Racism is another. Protecting the system at all costs, even human life — the fundamental guiding principle.
…
What has become blatantly apparent is that the police department motto of “To Protect and Serve” only serves itself, not the communities law enforcement claims to work for.
It’s not a few “bad apples” in law enforcement. It’s the system that enables and protects them.
…
No one should have to spend their days wondering if a loved one will die. No one should have to wonder if they are going to be next. There is no excuse for this. None. And yet this country has done just that to our Black fellow citizens for centuries. It must stop.
The white citizenry of this country has a collective responsibility to do just that. Only we can end this country’s long history of injustice and cruelty. Failure to do so will stand as a moral indictment down through the ages.
Please click on: Dear White America
Footnotes:- πίστιν (pistin)
Noun – Accusative Feminine Singular
Strong’s 4102: Faith, belief, trust, confidence; fidelity, faithfulness.[↩]
