Same Old Same Old
After listening to certain Senators this week try to eviscerate Judge Jackson with irrelevant questions, I found myself wondering where's the rebuttal from the media. The problem was, I found the lies made from whole cloth so disturbing, I just stopped listening to the Senate hearing. It turns out, the hearing is not a venue for truth. 
The questions by Hawley, Cruz and Graham were deliberately misleading. They tried to portray Judge Jackson as the embodiment of racist fears about woke education, conspiracy theories labeling democrats as child molesters, anti-American views, anti-law enforcement, and as a proponent of Critical Race Theory. None of that is true.
I stumbled upon the quote below from Emma Gonzalez. Then the line from Stevie Wonder's Higher Ground came to mind. Then, the realization that nothing much has changed since the 60's and 70's, and that's the way those Senators want it.
The Kerner Commission found there are two Americas. “Our Nation Is Moving Toward Two Societies, One Black, One White—Separate and Unequal” The report was released in 1968, after seven months of investigation. It attributed the riots to lack of economic opportunity for African Americans and Latinos, failed social service programs, police brutality, racism, and the orientation of national media to white perspectives.
White response to the Kerner Commission helped to lay the foundation for the law-and-order campaign that elected Richard Nixon to the presidency later that year. Instead of considering the full weight of white prejudice, Americans endorsed rhetoric that called for arming police officers like soldiers and cracking down on crime in inner cities.
Both the Kerner Commission Report and the Newsweek package called for massive government spending.
III. THE WELFARE SYSTEM
1) Provide more adequate levels of assistance based upon uniform national standards
2) Extension of AFDC-UP
3) Reduce the burden on state and local government by financing the cost of assistance almost entirely with federal funds.
4) Work Incentives and training –
5) Removal of Freeze on Recipients [a temporary budget decision]
6) Remove Restrictions on Eligibility
7) Develop a national system of income supplementation to provide a basic floor of economic and social security for all Americans.
IV. HOUSING
1) The Supply of housing suitable for low-income families should be expanded on a massive basis
2) Areas Outside of ghetto neighborhoods should be opened up to occupancy by racial minorities
V. POLICE AND THE COMMUNITY
1) The Need for change in police operations in the ghetto to ensure proper conduct by individual officers and to eliminate abrasive practices.
2) The need for more adequate police protection of ghetto residents, to eliminate the high sense of insecurity to person and property.
3) The need for effective mechanisms for resolving citizens’ grievances against the police.
4) The need for policy guidelines to assist police in areas where police conduct can create tension.
We are grieving, we are furious, and we are using our words fiercely and desperately because that’s the only thing standing between us and this happening again.
- Emma González
Powers keep on lying
While your people keep on dying
World keep on turning
'Cause it won't be too long.
- Stevie Wonder
Politicians Do This All The Time
A comprehensive study about the causes of the riots in many of America's largest cities in the 1960's is another example. The Johnson Administration sought answers after the riots of the 60's. They wanted to know what were the causes of the riots that swept major cities in America. The answers were all there in the report put together by the Kerner Commission. The book, 426 pages long, became a best seller.
The Smithsonian offers their article, The 1968 Kerner Commission Got It Right, But Nobody Listened
Bad policing practices, a flawed justice system, unscrupulous consumer credit practices, poor or inadequate housing, high unemployment, voter suppression, and other culturally embedded forms of racial discrimination all converged to propel violent upheaval on the streets of African-American neighborhoods in American cities, north and south, east and west. And as black unrest arose, inadequately trained police officers and National Guard troops entered affected neighborhoods, often worsening the violence.
The report was controversial. In conservative circles it was considered flawed. Ultimately it was ignored. The mistakes made then are happening all over again.
The article in Smithsonian points out, "Backlash was immediate. Polls showed that 53 percent of white Americans condemned the claim that racism had caused the riots, while 58 percent of black Americans agreed with the findings. Even before the report, white support for civil rights was waning. In 1964, most Northern whites had backed Johnson’s civil rights initiatives, but just two years later, polls showed that most Northern whites believed Johnson was pushing too aggressively."
Johnson, ever the politician, refused to endorse the report and failed to acknowledge investigative reporting from Newsweek that in many ways supported the Kerner Commission report.
White response to the Kerner Commission helped to lay the foundation for the law-and-order campaign that elected Richard Nixon to the presidency later that year. Instead of considering the full weight of white prejudice, Americans endorsed rhetoric that called for arming police officers like soldiers and cracking down on crime in inner cities.
Both the Kerner Commission Report and the Newsweek package called for massive government spending.
Kerner Recommendations belonging.berkley.edu
I. EMPLOYMENT
1) Consolidating and concentrating employment efforts.
2) Open the existing job structure
3) Creating 1 million new jobs in the public sector in 3 years.
4) Creating 1 million new jobs in the private sector in 3 years.
5) Developing urban and rural poverty areas.
6) Encouraging Business Ownership in the Ghetto
II. EDUCATION
1) Increasing Efforts to eliminate de facto segregation: Substantially increase aid to school systems seeking to eliminate de facto segregation either within the system or in cooperation with neighboring school systems.
2) Provide Quality Education in Ghetto Schools
3) Improving Community-School Relations
4) Expanding Opportunities for Higher Education
5) Expanding Opportunities for Vocational Education
1) Provide more adequate levels of assistance based upon uniform national standards
2) Extension of AFDC-UP
3) Reduce the burden on state and local government by financing the cost of assistance almost entirely with federal funds.
4) Work Incentives and training –
5) Removal of Freeze on Recipients [a temporary budget decision]
6) Remove Restrictions on Eligibility
7) Develop a national system of income supplementation to provide a basic floor of economic and social security for all Americans.
IV. HOUSING
1) The Supply of housing suitable for low-income families should be expanded on a massive basis
2) Areas Outside of ghetto neighborhoods should be opened up to occupancy by racial minorities
V. POLICE AND THE COMMUNITY
1) The Need for change in police operations in the ghetto to ensure proper conduct by individual officers and to eliminate abrasive practices.
2) The need for more adequate police protection of ghetto residents, to eliminate the high sense of insecurity to person and property.
3) The need for effective mechanisms for resolving citizens’ grievances against the police.
4) The need for policy guidelines to assist police in areas where police conduct can create tension.
The consequences of inaction are all around us in urban and rural communities. As the wealth gap increases, the American Dream becomes more elusive. As the frustrations grow, the more divided we become, and the more likely our democracy will decay into autocracy.
