FEAR AND COMPASSION

Where has all our compassion gone for all those that are of a different culture than we are? Personally I believe it is our fear as Americans. Especially when something as devastating and horrific as the Boston bombings were. I was deeply troubled by the out pour of hate that I was hearing from the majority of the American people after the Boston bombings. 

Once one of the news outlets said that it was a man/men of brown skin. It was on after that. All the prejudice and bigotry of the majority of the American people were fueled. I was hearing about beatings and foul mouthed racial slurs toward our Muslim brothers and sisters. On facebook I would read posts such as one dead one to kill. At this point let me make a full disclosure, I will admit, that for a brief moment,  I to was thinking to myself we should kill the bastard. Not because of the color of his skin, because at that time I did not know and it didn't matter to me, because I just wanted swift "justice" or vigilante justice as it were.

Once I calmed down and the initial shock of what happened stop consuming me,  I realized that it was just wrong to feel this way about another human being. Now let me say without a doubt this does not mean that I take lightly what happened to the victims of the bombing because I do not .  In fact, I have such compassion for those families of the loved ones who died and those suffering at the hands of what these two young misguided men did.  

Fear , bigotry and hate must not guide us. We must not punish those that are of the same faith of the two misguided young men. Also we must NOT punish and take out our fear and frustration on the Muslim people in our community. It is as though most of Americans group all people that are not of American descent into one group and do horrific hate crimes to this group. It is so past time to stop doing this. 

If fact, President Obama stated in his speech last night exactly what I am saying in this blog. Here is an excerpt of that speech: The American spirit includes staying true to the unity and diversity that makes us strong like no other nation in the world. In this age of instant reporting, tweets and blogs there is a temptation to latch on to any information and sometimes to jump to conclusions, but when a tragedy like this happens with public safety is at risk and the stakes so high it is important that we do this right. That is why we have investigations, that is why we relentlessly gather the facts, that's why we have courts and that is why we take care not to rush to judgment not about the motivations of these individuals and certainly not about entire groups of people. After all one of the things that makes America one of the greatest nations on earth but also one of the things that makes Boston such a great city is that we welcome people from all around the world, people of every faith, people of every ethnicity,  from every corner of the globe. So as we continue to learn more about why and how this tragedy happened let's make sure that we sustain that spirit.

My wife Kathy and I live in a diverse neighborhood and I must say I absolutely love it here. I feel so safe and so protected by all my neighbors, because we all look out for one another. We have such a melting pot of different people here. Different cultures and ethnicity.  I look at it as a way to learn different cultures and to embrace our differences. 

The one surviving Boston Bomber is a young man of 19 years old. Just a kid. Why should we not show him compassion just as we show our fallen Americans and our fallen Chinese exchange student. He was misguided just as the majority of our American kids are today. He followed his older brother because that is what he always had done.  I for one am grateful that they caught him and he is alive. Not to mention how scared he probably was. He saw his brother killed right in front of his eyes. I would be scared to. Fear made him run and fear got him caught. Perhaps he can give us needed information and get some mental help for what he has done.

These are my thoughts and feelings from Jillsville.

REPUBLICAN DESTRUCTIONISM

Just in case you haven't been aware of what is happening in North Carolina politics since becoming a Republican lead majority. This is what it looks like in my home state. The Republicans have been proposing many horrific policies and it ain't pretty.

First and foremost when Governor McCrory took office he gave his cabinet a raise. Now he did this in a state that is struggling with unemployment. Jobs, Jobs, Jobs right. Which brings us to the severe cuts in unemployment benefits law that he signed. This law reduces the maximum benefit allowed from $535 a week to $350 a week while cutting the number of weeks an unemployed worker is eligible for the program from 26 to 20.   As a result, 170,000 jobless North Carolinians will also lose access to $780 million in federal unemployment funds. This act earned him a rebuke from the National Employment Law Project, which said in a release that the law will result in "The most severe cuts to both state and federal unemployment insurance of any state in the nation".

On to the Racial Just Act it seems the Republicans want to repeal it. Repealing this legislation will no longer protect defendants from racial bias during their trials. This seems to me to be completely racist.

Next there is the HB 217 legislation. This would allow a kid as young as 13 to be included in the adult criminal justice system and it will remove judicial oversight. If past it will give prosecutors complete discretion over NC's children it will also stop juvenile court judges from decision making power.

Now we come to Voter Suppression Republican style in my home state of NC. Republican house majority leader Edgar Starnes wants to shorten the length of time for early voting, prohibit voting on Sunday, abolish same day registration at early voting sites and end straight ticket voting. Also they want to only have one early voting sight per county. As a rule early voters seem to favor Democrats. So there you go. People who have served their time will have to wait an additional five years before they get their voting rights back. Oh and let's not forget the voter ID law even though we have had NO voter fraud in North Carolina.

Now on to Education. Senate bill 516 which state there will be NO maximum class size. The current cap is 24 kids per elementary class room. Lifting classroom maximums would allow school districts to lay off teachers during lean budget times. Then you have the charter schools. The bill SB 337 co sponsored by Sen. Jerry Tillman of Moore County states that no education is required for applicants and teachers don't need to be licensed or even have a college degree to teach core subjects. This bill also makes criminal back ground checks optional. So that means background checks for poor people, just not teachers in charter schools.

Get ready heterosexual married folk. Getting a divorce in North Carolina is going to take longer for you now. The Health Marriage Act HB518. Senator Austin Allran (R-Catawba) understands the moral decay that's gradually infecting our state. Never fear: He has written a law that will get us back on the path to a virtuous society. His bill would extend the separation period from one year to two years and require counseling for each person. So much for domestic violence protection.

There is more but I figure this is plenty for folks to digest and get heartburn from knowing. If you are not happy with the way the GOP is disrupting our state please contact your NC State Representatives even if your representatives are democrats. It is always good to let them know that you want them to continue the fight.

These are my thoughts and feelings from Jillsville.

 http://www.indyweek.com/indyweek/this-week-in-disappointment-more-terrible-republicans-bills/Content?oid=3494382

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jamison-doran/an-open-letter-to-the_b_3014361.html

http://thinkprogress.org/?s=North+Carolina&nl=1&x=-945&y=-108