KCMO Police and City Hall Need to Maybe See What Chicago is Doing About Gun Violence

Chicago hit the news this week, this new year and in good ways for them. Surprisingly, at least to me, it's pretty big news.

Homicides, shootings decline for 3rd consecutive year in Chicago, Police Department says

Homicides fell below 500 last year in Chicago for the first since 2015, marking the third consecutive year of double-digit decreases, official Police Department statistics show.

Anyone can and no doubt will say what they will about the Windy City but if it, the city and the police, are getting good results, this kind of results, cutting homicides and shootings, with their population and size, it seems we here in Kansas City could likely learn things from them. Someone--the police chief, our new Mayor, someone, ought to maybe get up there, ask some questions and see what they're doing to get good results.

Here's hoping.

Mayor Lucas?  Police Chief Smith?

One of Missouri's Biggest Cities Takes a Hit

An article hit the interwebs early yesterday.

These 5 Cities Have Lost Half or More of Their Populations Since 1950

And sure, I figured Buffalo, New York might be on there.

And Pittsburgh.

And Cleveland.

And very likely Detroit, and maybe it at number one.

But check out what major American city was, in fact, in the number one spot on this list and has lost half or more than half of its population since 1950

What the report had to say--

1. St. Louis

> Decline from 1950 decade peak: -64.7%
> 1950 population: 856,796
> 2018 population: 302,838

With a population of 856,796, St. Louis was the eighth largest city in the country in 1950. The city’s population has steadily declined since then to just over 300,000 in 2018, ranking as only the 64th largest city in the United States. Like other cities with long-term population declines, adverse socioeconomic conditions are prevalent in parts of St. Louis. East St. Louis, for example, is far and away the most dangerous city in Illinois and one of the most dangerous cities in the United States. Also, one in four people living in St. Louis live in poverty, well above the national poverty rate of 14.6%.

While St. Louis may not be booming, certain aspects of the city do show signs of renewed prosperity. Relatively high immigration from Asia has helped offset some of the out-migration. The city’s sports teams, the Cardinals and the Blues, do very well, which can help support population and economic growth. And, plenty of universities and large companies still operate and thrive in the city.

That’s depressing.

And sure, it's not Kansas City but hey, it's Missouri. It still hurts.

Interesting Data On How States Are For and To Women

There's an article out this week that ranks the best and worst states for women.

2018’s Best & Worst States for Women

Let's take a look at the highs and lows.

First up is neighboring Arkansas, next to worst at 50.

Also neighboring Oklahoma down there, too, at 48.

Here's where it gets more local and interesting yet.

Missouri?

37     The bottom, worst half

37. Missouri

Total score: 50.85th
Ranking for women’s economic and social well-being: 36
Ranking for women’s health and safety: 38th

Missouri landed in the mid-30s in other Wallet Hub rankings as well, coming in at 38 out of 51 on the list of best states for working moms and 37 out of 51 for best states to have a baby.

Then there's Kansas.

Still in the bottom, bad half, at 28 but at least they’re more in the middle, than the low, low worst ¼

.
28. Kansas

Total score: 56.21
Ranking for women’s economic and social well-being: 33rd
Ranking for women’s health and safety: 25th

Kansas performs better in the category of women’s health and safety than it does when it comes to women’s economic and social well-being.

Texas, still in the bottom, worst half at 42. Shame on you, Texas.

Neighboring Nebraska, in the far more respectable top half

17. Nebraska

Total score: 64.82
Ranking for women’s economic and social well-being: 19th
Ranking for women’s health and safety: 14th

Nebraska shares the distinction of having the lowest unemployment rate for women with four other states.
Going the other way, next door Illinois ranks far higher and better.

11. Illinois

Total score: 69.07
Ranking for women’s economic and social well-being: 7th
Ranking for women’s health and safety: 20th

Only two states have a lower homicide rate for women than Illinois, which also boasts the fourth-highest median earnings for female workers.

Now, to the North? Iowa In the top 10.

9. Iowa

Total score: 69.11
Ranking for women’s economic and social well-being: 10th
Ranking for women’s health and safety: 9th

Iowa boasts the fifth-highest high-school graduation rate for young women.

No. 1 position??

I’m very proud and happy to say my daughter’s adopted state of Minnesota is number 1! Fantastic!

1. Minnesota

Total score: 78.22
Ranking for women’s economic and social well-being: 1st
Ranking for women’s health and safety: 3rd

Minnesota, hats off to you! The Land of 10,000 Lakes topped the list of best states for women by three points. It’s easy to see why — and tough to find a positive economic marker this state doesn’t possess. Minnesota has the third-highest life expectancy rate for women, the fifth-lowest rate of women without insurance, the fourth-highest women’s high-school graduation rate, the fifth-lowest percentage of women in poverty and the second-highest median earnings for working women. Go, Gophers!

One interesting side note, North Dakota came down at an extremely respectable 4 on the list while neighboring South Dakota was far tougher on women at 24.

The conclusion?

Missouri and these other low-ranking states would do well to look around and see just what, precisely these other, higher-ranking states are doing to get these results. Not only is this for 1/2 of our population but it's for our mothers, daughters, sisters, cousins, all. 

It's not like we have to go far for the answers, after all.

Route 66 Endangered---And What You Can Do

I saw this news just broke yesterday:

U.S. Route 66 on national list of 11 endangered historic places

Seems the National Trust for Historic Preservation just came out with its list of endangered historic places---and Route 66 is on it.

A proposal has been made, to help save it, by making it a National Historic Trail, officially. To do this, to  support Route 66 becoming a National Historic Trail, the trust has set up an online petition. You can go to it here and sign up/sign on:

I Support a National Historic Trail Designation for Route 66!

Thank you in advance for your support, for signing.

Now, let's do this!

On This Day, July 2, 1917---Missouri and National History

Just some of the state and national history our society seems to go out of the way to NOT teach us.

The 1917 East St. Louis race riots

This photo ran in the St. Louis Star on July 3, 1917 with the caption: “Where the charred bodies of eight negroes burned in their homes at Eighth Street and Broadway were found today.” The bodies of some Black victims were buried in a common grave, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Others were thrown into Cahokia Creek which ran between downtown and the riverfront railyards. (Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, Bowen Archives).

Blacks in East St. Louis were beginning to come in from the Southern United States and were taking jobs, yes, at lower wages, from Union members. The white Union members would have nothing of it.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch did a fantastic series of articles on this important time and group of events.

Archive editorial: 'The East St. Louis Murders'

Archive article: 'Several hundred Negroes brought across river'

Editor's Note: East St. Louis riot coverage

Archive article: 'Several hundred Negroes brought across river'

Bell that warned of approaching white mobs 

amid East St. Louis riots

Keep in mind, too, this East St. Louis event, this massacre, this slaughter, was far from the only one in our nation's history. Here are two more, anyway.

The Chicago Race Riot of 1919

Tulsa Race Riot (1921)

Keeping in mind, too, that the national disgrace that was the "Trail of Tears", where we displaced thousands of Native Americans, from East to Oklahoma, also went through Southern Missouri. In fact, it went right through what is now downtown Springfield. 

Trail of Tears - Native American History

I know that, as I went through grade school and high school, at no point during those years was it taught this history, that this abomination went through the Southern part of our state, Missouri.

So yes, let's know our national history.

All of it.

Maybe especially now, this time of year, around our Independence Day when we only remember how good and great we are.

Missouri, Coal and Pollution HIstory

On this day, November 28, 1939, in our own St. Louis, Missouri.

This is how soon, how quickly we forget how dirty, how black and foul our air was here in the US, let alone Missouri before government stepped in, by necessity.

Nov. 28 1939: The day 'Black Tuesday' rolled into St. Louis

A bit from the article:

ST. LOUIS • City dwellers woke up on Nov. 28, 1939, in a thick fog of acrid coal smoke. Suburbanites heading to work saw a low dome of darkness covering neighborhoods east of Kingshighway.

In a streetcar downtown at 8 a.m., a commuter told the driver, "Let me off at 13th and Washington - if you can find it." Motorists drove slowly with headlights on. Streetlights, still on, made ghostly glows.

The day became infamous as Black Tuesday, the worst of many smoke-choked days in what was to be St. Louis' smokiest cold-weather season. The city already was known for the nation's filthiest air, worse even than Pittsburgh's.

The reason was the area's reliance on cheap, dirty, high-sulfur "soft" coal dug from the hills and hollows across the Mississippi River in Illinois. St. Louis' first anti-smoke ordinance dated to 1867. But as the city grew in population and industry, the smoke kept getting worse.

In 1936, after years of civic debate, city aldermen required homes and businesses to install mechanical stokers in furnaces or burn "washed" local coal.

Let's learn from the past.

And move forward. Not backward.

Links:  1939 St. Louis smog - Wikipedia

A look back • 1939 'Black Tuesday' - St. Louis Post-Dispatch

1939 St. Louis Smog - Smog and it's Health Effects

November 28, 1939: Black Tuesday In St. Louis

Speaking of Breaking Records and Making History

So the Chicago Cubs win the World Series of baseball after all these years.




What's next? A woman president?

Movie I'd Like To See

I keep thinking of movies I'd like to see. Here's another.

I'd like to see a movie about someone who attended these two events.

Chicago World's Columbian Exposition

and

Saint Louis Exposition

Only 11 years apart---1893 and 1904. Reasonably close to one another, not that far away, and yet both so huge, such big, national and even international events of their day and that time. 

Surely there is, or could be, a story.

Notes on "America's Most Dangerous Cities"

The online blog site, 24/7 came out with their annual list of "America's Most Dangerous Cities" at the end of last month, and it's pretty interesting. Their data is compiled from the FBIs own list. There some interesting points in and on it, worth noting.

Let's start with a bit of their overall data:

24/7 Wall St. reviewed violent crime rates in major U.S. cities from the FBI’s 2015 Uniform Crime Report. Violent crime includes all offenses involving force or threat of force and are broken into four categories: murder and non-negligent manslaughter, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault. For every 100,000 U.S. residents, 372 of these crimes were committed in 2015.
Then, some notes.

First, unfortunately---and no surprise, really---Kansas City is on it. Second thing to note about it, we were in the top ten, too.

10. Kansas City, Missouri
> Violent crimes per 100,000: 1,417.3
> 2015 murders: 109
> Poverty rate: 19.4%
> Unemployment rate: 5.5%

While the nationwide violent crime rate rose by 3.9% in 2015, the increase in Kansas City was far more dramatic. With homicide and aggravated assault rates surging, the city reported a 14.4% spike in violent crime last year. Crime in the city is up even more from five years ago. The city’s violent crime rate increased by 21.2% from 2011 through 2015, even as the nationwide rate declined by 0.7% over that period.

Not good.

In fact, we, Kansas City, were worse on this list than Washington, DC (15), Indianapolis, Indiana (13) and Stockton, California (12).  That hurts.

Next thing to note about the list is that Missouri gets hit pretty hard. We are on the list three different times.

Then on to this note from the list, our own Springfield, Missouri, "Queen City of the Ozarks", followed as close as could be at number 11 on the list.

11. Springfield, Missouri
> Violent crimes per 100,000: 1,355.6
> 2015 murders: 10
> Poverty rate: 26.4%
> Unemployment rate: 4.3%

Crime rates tend to be higher in economically depressed areas where opportunities are scarce. In Springfield, Missouri, more than one-quarter of area residents live in poverty, one of the highest poverty rates in the country. After spiking by 73.2% over the five years through 2015 — the second highest increase of any major U.S. city — Springfield’s violent crime rate is the 11th highest in the country. In 2015, there were 179 rapes for every 100,000 residents, the highest incidence of rape in the country.

In fact, along with Missouri's Springfield, there were two more on the list. Springfields Illinois, at number 23 and Massachussetts at 21. I guess that all comes from it being such a common name in this country, maybe.

Next note, right next door in Arkansas, little old Little Rock comes in at number 9, higher and so, worse than Kansas City. Who'd have guessed?

Which brings us to our last point (points?) and the highest, worst ranking of all the most dangerous cities in America this year, at this time.  It ain't good, Missouri.

1. St. Louis, Missouri
> Violent crimes per 100,000: 1,817.1
> 2015 murders: 188
> Poverty rate: 27.8%
> Unemployment rate: 6.1%

Including 188 homicides, there were 5,762 violent crimes in St. Louis in 2015. Adjusting for population, the city’s murder and violent crime rates, at 59 murders and 1,817 per 100,000 city residents, are each the highest in the country. The number of violent crimes reported in St. Louis increased by 7.7% last year, faster than the national uptick of 3.9%. Over the last five years, however, the incidence of violent crime is down by 3.2%.

Yes sir, good ol' St. Lou.  

Not Detroit. Heck, not even Chicago.  In fact, check out the list, folks. Chicago isn't even on the list (it's too large a city for this study).

It's not looking good for us, danger-wise, Missourians. Heck, remember this study, that came out in 2012?

Missouri: 

Ranked one of the "Most Depressing States"

We have to work on our safety and image, folks. These are some pretty awful lists.

You Didn't Make the List, Kansas City!

Congratulations, Kansas City!  You didn't make the list!

America's Most Segregated Cities

I thought sure we'd be on here but we're not, thank goodness. Segregated and separated as we are, and by law, at the time, we aren't one of the worst.

As it turns out, however, St. Louis is, so Missouri didn't get left out. And the statistics are pretty brutal.

6. St. Louis, MO-IL
> Black ppl. in black neighborhoods: 42.2%
> Black population: 18.2%
> Black poverty rate: 29.7%
> White poverty rate: 9.0%

The St. Louis region earned a national spotlight in the summer of 2015 when Michael Brown, a black teenager, was shot and killed by police in Ferguson, sparking protests across the nation. Ferguson is a predominantly black neighborhood — and Brown’s death is inseparable from racial segregation in the area. One of the most damaging effects of residential segregation is funding disparities between neighboring school districts. Because property taxes play such a large role in school funding, well-off communities often
have an interest in keeping poor areas separate.

Instead of one, St. Louis has 24, quite disparate school districts. This August, water fountains in 30 predominantly black St. Louis public schools were shut down due to lead contamination. Some of the area’s wealthiest communities with some of the best-funded schools are less than 20 miles away, and with state-of-art facilities, have reliable clean water.

As is common in large metro areas — not just the most segregated — the poverty rate among black St. Louis residents, at nearly 30%, is approximately three times the poverty rate among the area’s white residents.

The St. Louis region earned a national spotlight in the summer of 2015 when Michael Brown, a black teenager, was shot and killed by police in Ferguson, sparking protests across the nation. Ferguson is a predominantly black neighborhood — and Brown’s death is inseparable from racial segregation in the area. One of the most damaging effects of residential segregation is funding disparities between neighboring school districts. Because property taxes play such a large role in school funding, well-off communities often have an interest in keeping poor areas separate.

Instead of one, St. Louis has 24, quite disparate school districts. This August, water fountains in 30 predominantly black St. Louis public schools were shut down due to lead contamination. Some of the area’s wealthiest communities with some of the best funded schools are less than 20 miles away, and with state-of-art facilities, have reliable clean water.

As is common in large metro areas — not just the most segregated — the poverty rate among black St. Louis residents, at nearly 30%, is approximately three times the poverty rate among the area’s white residents.

So you see, it's not just about people of different colors being separated. It's about opportunities and jobs and education, right on down to wealth, certainly. Segregation becomes about perpetuating both wealth and poverty.

And that's just wrong. 

Links:

How segregation creates chronic unemployment, 

poverty traps, and crime

The Effect of Segregation on Crime Rates

Poverty and Crime: Breaking a Vicious Cycle of Discrimination

Lead In Water: What Are The Health Effects And Dangers?

Why lead is so dangerous for children

Chicago's--and Mayor Emanuel's--Continued Troubles

So Chicago's Mayor Rahm Emanuel fired the Police Superintendent today due to the shooting and killing last year of Laquan McDonald.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel Fires Chicago Police Superintendent

And that's all well and good, at least something is being done about the public slaughter of Mr. McDonald but it certainly also raises questions.

The biggest issue, to me and to a lot of people,

I think, is that it took more than a year for anything to be even examined about this killing. The police had the video. They knew what was on it. They knew it might be a problem, at least. Not only did the police department and the city, in fact, know there were problems with the killing of Laquan McDonald but the city knew so well there were problems, they gave the McDonald family 5 million dollars.

Five million dollars.

The McDonald family hadn't sued at all.

Oh, yeah. The city of Chicago and the Chicago Police Department knew. They also knew the video was a problem and that it was incriminating.

If it hadn't been for one reporter, pushing for release of the video, we wouldn't know to this day how the officer ran up and shot down Laquan McDonald with 16 rapid shots.

Then there's the question of what other shootings and killings by the Chicago police have maybe been covered up?  The fact is, the city of Chicago has more police shootings than any other major US city, according to PBS Newshour. What else don't we know? Who else was needlessly shot down? 1? 5? 20? 100? How do we know? How can we be sure? How can Chicagoans trust their police and police department?

Finally, how long now until Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel has to step down, if, in fact, he needs to? What did the Mayor know and when did he know it? And if he didn't truly know anything further about the shooting and killing of Laquan McDonald, didn't he owe it to this citizen of the city and to his family and friends---heck, owe it to all the citizens of Chicago--to be certain this case and this person was handled properly? Doesn't he owe it to every Chicagoan to make sure no one is ever needlessly, unnecessarily and tragically, even criminally gunned down on their own streets by the police?

Is Rahm Emanuel done for?

The shooting and killing of Laquan McDonald is America's problem and troubles, too, let's never forget.

Link:  Chicago Mayor Fires Police Chief in Wake of Video Release

The Latest: Illinois Attorney General Asks for Federal Probe

How Chicago's Police Chief Lost His Job - Video - NYTimes

Cover-Up in Chicago 

Just Before We Celebrate Our Own Independence Day

On this day in American history:


The city of East St. Louis, Illinois was the scene of one of the bloodiest race riots in the 20th century.  Racial tensions began to increase in February, 1917 when 470 African American workers were hired to replace white workers who had gone on strike against the Aluminum Ore Company.

The violence started on May 28th, 1917, shortly after a city council meeting was called.  Angry white workers lodged formal complaints against black migrations to the Mayor of East St. Louis.  After the meeting had ended, news of an attempted robbery of a white man by an armed black man began to circulate through the city.  As a result of this news, white mobs formed and rampaged through downtown, beating all African Americans who were found.  The mobs also stopped trolleys and streetcars, pulling black passengers out and beating them on the streets and sidewalks.  Illinois Governor Frank O. Lowden eventually called in the National Guard to quell the violence, and the mobs slowly dispersed.  The May 28th disturbances were only a prelude to the violence that erupted on July 2, 1917.

After the May 28th riots, little was done to prevent any further problems.  No precautions were taken to ensure white job security or to grant union recognition.  This further increased the already-high level of hostilities towards African Americans.  No reforms were made in police force which did little to quell the violence in May.  Governor Lowden ordered the National Guard out of the city on June 10th, leaving residents of East St. Louis in an uneasy state of high racial tension.

On July 2, 1917, the violence resumed.  Men, women, and children were beaten and shot to death.  Around six o’ clock that evening, white mobs began to set fire to the homes of black residents.  Residents had to choose between burning alive in their homes, or run out of the burning houses, only to be met by gunfire.  In other parts of the city, white mobs began to lynch African Americans against the backdrop of burning buildings.  As darkness came and the National Guard returned, the violence began to wane, but did not come to a complete stop.

In response to the rioting, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) sent W.E.B. DuBois and Martha Gruening to investigate the incident.  They compiled a report entitled “Massacre at East St. Louis,” which was published in the NAACP’s magazine, The Crisis.  The NAACP also staged a silent protest march in New York City in response to the violence.  Thousands of well-dressed African Americans marched down Fifth Avenue, showing their concern about the events in East St. Louis.

The Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) also responded to the violence.  On July 8th, 1917, the UNIA’s President, Marcus Garvey said “This is a crime against the laws of humanity; it is a crime against the laws of the nation, it is a crime against Nature, and a crime against the God of all mankind.”  He also believed that the entire riot was part of a larger conspiracy against African Americans who migrated North in search of a better life: “The whole thing, my friends, is a bloody farce, and that the police and soldiers did nothing to stem the murder thirst of the mob is a conspiracy on the part of the civil authorities to condone the acts of the white mob against Negroes.”

A year after the riot, a Special Committee formed by the United States House of Representatives launched an investigation into police actions during the East St. Louis Riot.  Investigators found that the National Guard and also the East St. Louis police force had not acted adequately during the riots, revealing that the police often fled from the scenes of murder and arson.  Some even fled from stationhouses and refused to answer calls for help.  The investigation resulted in the indictment of several members of the East St. Louis police force.

Sources:

Allen D. Grimshaw, “Actions of Police and the Military in American Race Riots,” Phylon 24:3 (3rd Qtr, 1963); Robert A. Hill, ed., The Marcus Garvey and Universal Negro Improvement Association Papers, Vol. I, (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1983); Elliot M. Rudwick, Race Riot at East St. Louis: July 2, 1917 (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1964).

Contributor:

• Wang, Tabitha C.

University of Washington, Seattle

- See more at: http://www.blackpast.org/aah/east-st-louis-race-riot-july-2-1917#sthash.NGnusI9f.dpuf

On This Day, 1866

American history.

History they don't teach us.

Memphis riots of 1866

The Memphis riots of 1866 were the violent events that occurred from May 1 to 3 in Memphis, Tennessee. The racial violence was ignited by political, social and racial tensions following the American Civil War, in the early stages of Reconstruction.[1] After a shooting altercation between white policemen and black soldiers recently mustered out of the Union Army, mobs of white civilians and policemen rampaged through black neighborhoods and the houses of freedmen, attacking and killing men, women and children.

Federal troops were sent to quell the violence and peace was restored on the third day. A subsequent report by a joint Congressional Committee detailed the carnage, with blacks suffering most of the injuries and deaths: 46 blacks and 2 whites were killed, 75 blacks injured, over 100 black persons robbed, 5 black women raped, and 91 homes, 4 churches and 8 schools burned in the black community.

Modern estimates place property losses at over $100,000, also suffered mostly by blacks. Many blacks fled the city permanently; by 1870, their population had fallen by one quarter compared to 1865.

Public attention following the riots and reports of the atrocities, together with the New Orleans riot in July, strengthened the case made by Radical Republicans in U.S. Congress. The events influenced passage of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution to grant full citizenship to freedmen, as well as passage of the Reconstruction Act to establish military districts and oversight in certain states.

Investigation of the riot suggested specific causes related to competition for housing, work and social space between Irish immigrants and their descendants, and the freedmen. The white gentry also sought to drive freedpeople out of Memphis and back onto plantations where their labor could be exploited. Through violent terrorism, the white community at large sought to force blacks to respect white supremacy as the time of fully legal slavery was nearing its end.

Note there.

This wasn't the only time or place in American history this took place, either. It was, by no means, an isolated incident. It also took place in New Orleans.  And Tulsa. And Chicago. And I don't know where all. Again, it's history we don't like to teach, we Americans. It's history we don't really want to know. Or acknowledge. Or take responsibility for.

Why, if we took responsibility for all the things Americans have done to blacks in our nation, we couldn't blame them for being poor. And under-educated. And in poor jobs. And poor housing. And for having bad health. And for being in prison. Or for rioting.

Now could we?

More Screaming Hypocrisy From the "Small Government" Republicans

Republicans always scream about how they want "small government!" and lower government spending and less debt and deficit.

Sure they are.

But guess what states get the most money from Uncle Sugar.

Republican States Are More Dependent On Government

It's all based on this study:

2015's States Most & Least Dependent on the Federal Government

Seems the "red" states suck up most of the Federal dollar, hands down.  Or hands out, anyway:

And Kansas is number 5, out of 50, of course, for taking the most Federal money:

Rank(1 = least dependent)	State Name	Return on Taxpayer Investment(Category Rank)	Federal Funding as % of State Revenue(Category Rank)	Federal Employees Per Capita(Category Rank)	Number of Civilian Non-Defense Federal Employees per Capita(Category Rank)
1	New Jersey	$0.48 (4)	26.87% (10)	0.00382 (5)	0.00178 (2)
2	Delaware	$0.31 (1)	25.61% (7)	0.00768 (17)	0.00194 (3)
3	Illinois	$0.45 (3)	26.41% (8)	0.00550 (14)	0.00272 (11)
4	Minnesota	$0.54 (7)	26.88% (11)	0.00353 (4)	0.00295 (16)
5	Kansas	$0.54 (6)	25.22% (6)	0.01460 (37)	0.00342 (25)

It's bad enough they want to take money in the form of tax breaks and unemployment payments, etc., etc., away from the middle-, lower- and working-classes, that's bad.

On top of that, they have to keep working to give more and more money in the form of tax credits and deductions to the already-wealthy and corporations. 

Sure, that's all horrible and wicked and devious enough.

But to, on top of all that ugliness, scream and cry and complain about government spending and debt and deficit and then be the ones that suck up the most money, overall, out of all of us?

It would be funny if it weren't insulting.

And even immoral.

Adding even more irony--and hypocrisy--they're also the "Christians" of the bunch, too. Or say they insist.

It's painful.  Just painful.

This Week in American History

From the Facebook page of Isabel Wilkerson

On this day, Nov. 12, 1940, the Supreme Court ruled on a case that would inspire one of the seminal plays of the 20th Century, “A Raisin in the Sun.” The parents of Lorraine Hansberry, Carl and Nannie, a real estate broker and a schoolteacher, had left the Jim Crow South only to discover hostility in the North. 

It was in 1937 that they tried to move into the all-white Washington Park section of Chicago. Neighbors filed a lawsuit forcing the family out on the basis of restrictive covenants. Lorraine, the youngest of the couple’s four children, was eight years old at the time and witnessed violence against her family as her parents tried to stand their ground. The Hansberrys went to court to challenge the restrictive covenants and to return to the house they bought.

The case, Hansberry v. Lee, culminated in a 1940 Supreme Court decision that helped strike a blow against segregation, though the hostility continued. Neighbors surrounded their house at one point, throwing bricks and broken concrete, narrowly missing Lorraine’s head, and neighborhood children ganged up and attacked her at school.

The experience would plant the seed for the 1959 play and later the film, “A Raisin in the Sun,” starring Sidney Poitier, Claudia McNeil and Ruby Dee. It would not be until 1968 that the landmark Fair Housing Act would officially prohibit housing discrimination in the United States.

Her father would not live to see that day nor his daughter's Broadway triumph. Carl Hansberry, a Mississippian who had journeyed to Chicago during the Great Migration, never recovered from the family's housing ordeal. He died at age 50 in 1946 of a cerebral hemorrhage in Mexico, where he was planning to move his family out of disillusionment. Their house at 6140 South Rhodes is now a Chicago landmark and the beloved play their family's legacy.

-- The Warmth of Other Suns

For more on the family's ordeal:

"To Be Young, Gifted and Black" by Lorraine Hansberry
http://www.chipublib.org/lorraine-hansberry-biography/
http://www.theroot.com/…/cu…/2009/03/not_in_my_backyard.html

Timeline of the struggle for fair housing in the US:http://www.howardfairhousing.org/case_law/34/

On this day.... Recent American history

Recent history, at that.  And not far away.

On the evening of July 11, 1951, one of the biggest riots in U.S. history began after a young black couple moved into an apartment in all-white Cicero, IL, west of Chicago. The husband, Harvey Clark, was a World War II veteran who migrated to Chicago from Mississippi and was working as a bus driver. He and his wife Johnetta had been crammed with their two children in a two-room tenement with a family of five on the city's overcrowded South Side.

The couple found more space and cheaper rents in Cicero, closer to his work, but the sheriff turned them away when they first tried to move in. With a court order in hand, the couple finally moved their belongings into the apartment on July 11, as a mob formed around them, heckling and throwing rocks. The mob, many of them eastern European immigrants, grew to as many as 4,000 by nightfall. The couple fled, unable to stay overnight in their new apartment. 

That night, the mob stormed the apartment and hurled the family's belongings out of a third floor window: the sofa, the chairs, the clothes, the baby pictures. The mob tore out the fixtures: the stove, the radiators, the sinks. They smashed the piano, overturned the refrigerator, bashed in the toilet. They set the family's belongings on fire and then firebombed the building, leaving even the white tenants homeless. The rioters overturned police cars and threw stones at firefighters who tried to put out the fire. 

The Illinois Governor, Adlai Stevenson, had to call in the National Guard for the first time since the 1919 race riots in Chicago. It took more than 600 guardsmen, police officers and sheriff's deputies to beat back the mob that night and three more days for the rioting over the Clarks to subside. 

The Clarks were prevented from spending a single night in Cicero. A total of 118 men were arrested in the rioting but none were indicted. Instead, the rental agent and the owner of the apartment building were indicted for inciting a riot by renting to the Clarks in the first place. The Cicero riot attracted worldwide attention and became a symbol of northern hostility to the arrival of millions of African-Americans during the Great Migration. 

-- From the book, The Warmth of Other Suns www.thewarmthofothersuns.com

America.  You make us all so proud.

After Hobby Lobby, let's boycott Walgreens while we're at it

Yes sir, if this corporate tax plan goes through, boycott Walgreens:

Renouncing Corporate Citizenship

A little less than two years ago, Gregory D. Wasson, the chief executive of Walgreen, sought a series of tax breaks from Illinois, where his company is based.

“We are proud of our Illinois heritage,” he said at the time. “Just as our stores and pharmacies are health and daily living anchors for the communities we serve, we as a company are now recommitted to serving as an economic anchor for northeastern Illinois.”

The state gave Walgreen $46 million in corporate income tax credits over 10 years in exchange for a pledge to create 500 jobs and invest in upgrading its offices. The state also provided $625,000 in training money and $875,000 in other tax incentives.

Mr. Wasson’s actions, however, could soon run counter to his words. The same chief executive who said he was so “proud of our Illinois heritage” is now considering moving the company’s headquarters to Switzerland as part of a merger with Alliance Boots, a European drugstore chain.

Why? To lower Walgreen’s tax bill even further.

Alarmingly, dozens of large United States companies are contemplating the increasingly popular tax-skirting tactic known as an inversion. Under the strategy, companies merge with foreign rivals in countries with lower tax rates and then reincorporate there while still enjoying the benefits of doing a large part of their business in the United States.

And besides being deeply unpatriotic and just blatantly wrong, here's what else Walgreens gets from America:

In Walgreen’s case, an inversion would be an affront to United States taxpayers. The company, which also owns the Duane Reade chain in New York, reaps almost a quarter of its $72 billion in revenue directly from the government; it received $16.7 billion from Medicare and Medicaid last year.

This is obscene.  We need to stop this nonsense.