by Marceline Donaldson
I know those who know me knew this was coming. And I am sure you knew I would gloat! Finally – a mixed race person at the top where we should be. That said, and you see that I can be as bigoted as anyone else – lets get serious!
Watching the coverage of the royal wedding at 3am in the morning and watching it until 10am was like over gouging on chocolate cake.
It was a breath of fresh air in a world sorely in need of such.
I saw England moving away from a “blue blood” state, becoming a part of the creation of a very diverse world which recognizes its differences and holds them “in love” – as Bishop Curry would say. I can say that even after watching the jaws drop and the bemused look on some of England’s “royalty” as Bishop Curry’s sermon and his style took hold of those present and those watching via television.
After seeing and feeling Meghan Markle and Henry Windsor’s coming together produce a really remarkable outpouring of love and produce a new thing – accepted at the highest levels of the English government through its English royalty – the feelings I had stayed with me long after the formal part of the wedding ended. To know this is who would be the “Royals” at the top of the Commonwealth made me want to be a part of that group, that environment, that world.
From what I know and have experienced as a mixed race person and having met many such people over time, the one thing we share is the fact that we don’t have or belong to a “group”. The kind of “group” basic to this world. Are you black? white? Asian? NO? Then who is your group? What is your identity and how do you get that feeling of belonging!
I remembered back to when I was excused from jury duty because I refused to fill out a form following what society dictated I should say and filled it out with the truth of who I am. The form was about race. Supposed to be an illegal thing, but to be filled out during those days and probably still today under the guise of being “research” to make sure jurors were representative – of what? Certainly not the human race – but they wanted to know who you were under the false construct we have devised to create this “better than” or “less than” existence.
The form said something like – White, African American, Asian, Native American, etc. I filled in “other” and then listed the fictional “races” which supposedly contributed to my genetic makeup. The judge asked me to refill in a form and offered a blank form for me to re-fill it “correctly” and I said I had already done that and after a few minutes I was excused.
That was only one small example. Try a lifetime of such and then have children who are also mixed race and watch what they go through, which turns out to be worse, and then watch this “Royal Wedding.”
Meghan Markle has done an extraordinary job of walking across the water finding the submerged boulders to step across on so she could cross the ocean without drowning. And along with Prince Harry has found a place and a way to now share that experience. Her wedding was neither White nor Black; English nor American; and on and on you could go. It held up the culture and religious practices and symbols of all beautifully.
And then I had to come back to earth and deal with the reality of my American life currently under President Donald Trump.
The “Royal Wedding” showed us what could be – Trump shows us what is and in Trump’s world the lies, distortions, bigotry via the nazi influence and all the rest was all over television following the Royal Wedding doing its worse. It was almost as if his “spirits”, his “evil spirits” were working hard to blot out what we had just seen to keep us within their grasp.
It is time for Americans to deal with the truth. We live in a country which is and has been in a constant struggle against its own history and with this Donald Trump episode we are losing that struggle.
I came back to reality with the shooting – yet another school shooting, this time in Texas. A shooting in which the media covered everything except the fact that we need to look at this history and see the acceleration of such and lay the blame at the feet of our current president as the latest incarnation of those who would keep America in such a state for their own reasons – which are generally greed; self-aggrandizement; money; power and control.
Why do I lay the blame for the school shootings at Trump’s feet?
This has been a long time coming. For some seven plus years Donald J. Trump has been the center of tearing down these United States – big time. He generated one lie after another and the biggest was all the time and energy he spent spewing garbage – which he continues to do. His biggest load was to spend those seven years tearing down the United States by combining with its filthiest elements and proclaiming to the world his claim that Barack Obama was not a legitimate president and therefore everything he does is illegitimate because he was lying about having been born in these United States. According to Trump, Obama was actually born in Africa. And along with that were the pictures of Barack and Michelle Obama in various dress and forms – a gorilla; exaggerated African dress and attributes and more. Trump keeps those images and those lies in front of the American people by moving ahead strongly with his campaign to remove everything the Obamas have done so he can wipe out any and all acts of the government of an African American President of these United States. Those lies and that kind of way of acting and being have been a consistency in the Trump administration and in Trump’s life from its beginnings – yes, from his birth. Trump’s bigotry is not new. His lies and attempts to bring in a Nazi regime is not new. He has been laying the ground work for this for decades. We have just refused to take that evil seriously. We have passed it off as “posturing” and with other excuses because some of us need a Trump in this country to maintain its bigotry so we can keep our hands clean and still maintain the “better than” benefits we get from such evil. We can maintain the white males privileges at the expense of everyone else without having to roll up our sleeves to accomplish such. We can maintain we are not bigots like Trump and quietly support his efforts under the cover of many things.
We know the history and bigotry practiced in these United States. It is impossible not to know as we look around at our currently segregated schools; our neighborhoods which many realtors and others keep segregated; our social, golf, and other clubs places we can go and not have to deal with those “less than” – where we can deal with”our own kind”. And we know and have known about Trump and his extreme bigotry because he made sure his vile and racist rants were as public as possible.
And what happened to him? He was elected President of these United States! And now he is being given the benefit of the rule of law in these United States which he is currently and massively trying to deny to others who don’t fit into his scheme of a Nazi like takeover with Trump as Adolph only his emphasis is on money and becoming the wealthiest and most powerful man in the country.
It is time to turn that rule of law with a huge spotlight onto Donald J. Trump. He has committed many crimes – the latest being his call for the DOJ and others to “investigate”. All over the front pages of this mornings papers. What is the truth? His son – Donald Trump, Jr. is being called into question because of meetings he had which look as though he was selling the United States Presidency to foreign countries. Bringing them in to help get his father elected president. The timing of this call to investigate by Donald Trump, Sr. – making headlines and a serious call to a very serious investigation via a “tweet” demand every citizen, every group of lawmakers and law enforcers, every citizen of this country, especially when such a “tweet” is taken seriously enough to make the front page of the leading newspapers and much less coverage given to the real issue – what was Donald Trump, Jr. doing in the meetings he called during his father’s campaign which look clearly as though they are to manipulate the campaign to turn in results other than those the voters chose. An illegitimate president should be the headlines. This man and all of his appointed administration need to be removed immediately.
The increase in the school shootings can be directly laid at this incarnation of Donald J. Trump’s feet. And at the feet of his immediate family – who all together are trying to bring about the same result. Lying about bring jobs back to America when their companies outsource their jobs to other countries because they can get the citizens of those countries to work for slave wages instead of paying the kind of living wages they would have to pay if, for example, Ivanka Trump’s company had to bring its jobs on shore from Bangladesh and other countries struggling to get a foot hold in this world’s economy.
From the Royal Wedding with its dream of a wonderfully diverse world to America and Donald Trump with his dream of bringing about a world where the rule of law is destroyed in favor of the rule of Trump and his Associates – with families forcibly destroyed; people jailed without cause; lies told to the American public constantly and vicious lies at that; monies taken from other countries to fatten the pocket book of the Trumps; tearing down “immigrants’ but getting your message of extreme bigotry at all costs out into the public by appearing with an immigrant wife and not the first immigrant wife who is ‘different’. And of what is that difference composed – the color of her skin and the country from which she comes? Messages sent and received. Not all “immigrants” are bad – judge them by the color of their skin not the content of their character.
How are the law enforcers in this country responding to the visage of Rudi Giuliani? Once held up as their hero? What do you think of your hero today – with his character, honor, values exposed for all to see – out from under the cover of pretense?
We need to go back over the history of these United States and how did we get here. Maybe that will help give us a map for getting out of this mess and moving into a world where diversity is accepted, equality is the rule and we see each other as human beings.
Let’s start with today and move back into our history!
We have the reincarnation of a group headed by Donald Trump and finally supported in the extreme with his entire future on the line by Rudi Giuliani. Donald Trump equals Senator Joe McCarthy. Rudi Giuliani equals Attorney Roy Cohn. Does that group’s history and from whence it has come begin to materialize? They almost destroyed this country. They did destroy the lives of many of its citizens with the Congressional hearings seeking, at that time in history, “Communists”. It is interesting to look at who they considered and really went after.
Lets move back in time. There are so many places to stop and relook and relearn.
Lets go back to who built the railroads in these United States. Maybe the Chinese government wants to forget – but the people who were attacked and who lived horribly oppressed lives in these United States were the Chinese Americans and the Chinese immigrants. Remember that time?
And lets take a look at the Japanese. Remember what we did to American citizens because they were of Japanese descent? We gathered them up into concentration camps and took away their property and all of what they and their families had acquired of the “American Dream”. Recently, we passed laws in Congress for “reparations” to the Japanese, but we also had the parallel quiet program of foot dragging so much of the money would not be dispersed, but would be kept because we needed to foot drag until the Japanese who qualified for these reparations were dead and we could keep the money and continue those kind of actions.
Lets go back to another time, which directly involved Donald Trump and his family. To the time when the KKK was rampant – lynchings were happening across the country and remember when the KKK marched in all of its white robes and pointy hats down Pennsylvania Avenue some tens of thousands of them – apparently also including Donald Trump’s father who was arrested during that demonstration. In the 1930’s was it?
So Trump and his Nazi – racist – bigotry – was acquired naturally. It was passed on through time through his family history. His immigrant family history of just a generation – back to his grandfather who immigrated to this country with no money, no education and no ability to speak the language. And what did he do? Eventually built a hotel which was rumored to be a brothel! The beginnings of the Trump family fortune and its foundational history. Is that why he has so many women accusing his of sexual abuse; assault and so much more. Just to look at his administration it is clear his core life is about sexual discrimination – women have but one use and it is not to be a part of the Trump Administration in any other than a symbolic appearance.
Lets keep that history up front and high up so we can be reminded of where our present administration comes from and understand from that history where they are going.
Lets go back even further – when this country, finally after a few hundred years “freed” its African slaves. There was slavery in the world before that, but it was the United States during the time of establishing this African slavery that turned slaves into a group based on the color of their skin.
“Reconstruction” came after slavery and Reconstruction was killed by this same group which is now on this earth in the form of Donald Trump and his followers. I had ancestors elected to public office in the Deep South during Reconstruction – put on the railroad tracks after being tarred and feathered and forced to walk away.
Reconstruction was killed and turned into “Jim Crow” to maintain a “less than” and ” better than” group. Kill the inclination to any form of equality taking hold in these United States. And it was a very effective killing which ruined many lives. Tactics others would not try nor emulate because of things like honor, character, truth, love, God. God of love not the god of the evangelical christians who have combined with Trump to bring about hell on earth.
And, I don’t need to go back into the years of African slavery – but if you look at that history you will find Donald Trump’s spirit all through it.
And then there is the movement to free women. Africans in this country were enslaved using the marriage laws and that was very effective. It is just tragic that when those marriage laws were failing and were losing their strength that the gay community came along to fight to keep such laws by demanding they be included in that enslavement which women suffered under so many generations.
And let us not forget things like the “Trail of Tears” and other such horrors inflicted on the Native Americans – those who, in many cases, welcomed and helped the Northern Europeans seeking refuge in this country from the horrible ways they had been treated in their old countries from which they were fleeing. In those treatment you will also find Donald Trump’s spirit and it is still flying around that community as you look at the current Donald Trump’s stances and actions against that Native American community.
Todays Donald Trump has shown what he thinks of women and what their place should be. His administration is an example of the America we have all fought very hard to change. It is an administration of white males and white male top corporate people who are bleeding America dry for their own self-aggrandizement and to accumulate wealth beyond their needs and beyond their legal rights. Trump has been busy working with them to expand those “legal” rights so they can take away from others to put into their own pockets whether earned or not billions that we see clearly are far from earned. We are now in the position for creating billionaires and at the same time and for the same reasons ever increasing numbers of homeless peoples because of that greed – which today starts at the top. GREED is what most characterizes this Trump administration. Women are simply a distraction to be used when the sick male ego needs shoring up – as Trump’s has and Bill Cosby’s has and Weinstein’s has and many even before all of them..
As you read this – hold it up against truth; hold it up against your life and where you stand in all of this; hold it up against God’s love following Michael Curry’s iteration of that; and hold it up against your family. How do you come out? Are you holding your head down and hiding in the hopes that this too shall pass and you will be none the worse for it having erupted at this time in your life? Are you actively promoting and helping all of this garbage to succeed, multiply and be spewn across the boulevards, streets, roads and corners of America because you hope to one day be one of these obscene people? Are you actively working to bring about the America we have promised each other for generations? Let truth rumble around your heart and mind as you consider these things and then act accordingly.
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Everything talked about in this blog and in any other blog in the Bettina Network, inc. is the opinion of the person who wrote the blog and does not necessarily represent the opinions of Bettina Network, inc. It is the property of Bettina Network, inc. and/or the person who wrote the original blog.
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Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you. Please also tell us if you want your name as your byline or if you want your article to appear without your name.
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Keep U. S. Conferences White?
Sunday, August 12th, 2018ed.note: We are beginning to notice that this Trump/Sessions keeping black/brown people out of the U. S. is not simply an immigrant thing. It is not just about keeping America White by keeping out non-white immigrants, nor is it only about throwing out resident and/or non-white immigrants with green cards who have become U. S. tax payers under as many pretexts as possible. Others are being kept out or their attempt to visit for a brief time, especially for research and collaboration, is made unnecessarily difficult and that difficulty is new – it is not a carry over from past administrations. One person – a member of Bettina Network’s Lifestyle Community has shared his experience with us and it follows.
“I was raised and educated in China till college. I came to the US to obtain my PhD at Princeton and continued as a postdoc at Harvard. In total I stayed in the US for 10 years before returning to China to accept a faculty position in Beijing in 2017. I have maintained collaborations with both institutions.
This year, I planned a 2-week visit to Princeton in June, but my visa application was denied during the interview. No specific reason was given other than “the purpose of the visit is not consistent with the visa type for which you have applied”, which is a standard business/tourist visa. I realized later that what caused the denial was my honest statement that this trip was for research collaboration. In fact, this is never allowed under this visa type. The J-type visa serves this purpose, though it is much more complicated and is usually for long-term visit (e.g., I was under the J-visa during my 5-year post doc).
This is really upset, besides the fact that the visa interview process itself is very uncomfortable and time-consuing: no bags or cell phone is allowed in the embassy, and one has to wait in long queues multiple times throughout the process which sometimes can be quite chaotic. One generally wastes half a day just for the interview without anything else done.
With this application denied (and trip cancelled), I will have to do another visa application for a workshop in mid-July to early-August. It is a special workshop running for 3-weeks, and the purpose is to bring people in the field together in a relaxed setting to promote interactions/discussions and inspire new ideas. Participants are asked to stay for at least two weeks, and I planned to join for the later two weeks. This time, the visa officer questioned why my previous application was denied, and also why a conference takes such a long time. Despite my explanation, he asked me to provide more materials to demonstrate the purpose of the visit, in particular a “conference schedule”. Well, this is not a standard conference no such schedule exists before the workshop actually begins when people start to figure out an agenda. I had to write to my conference organizer for an additional letter (he already wrote an invitation letter for me) to explain the situation.
Upon collecting everything, I resent my application, which is then sent for “administrative processing”. This is not uncommon for Chinese scholars, which usually takes 4-6 weeks. My application was sent in early June so I thought there should be enough time. However, I waited and waited and waited. There was no news before my originally planned travel date (I was wise not to purchase an air ticket). The week after, I realize I can check the status of my visa application online, and found that it is finally issued. By the time I actually received the visa, the workshop was already more than half-way done, and even if I purchase ticket to join it, most participants would already have left (in the 3rd week). As a result, I simply cancelled the trip.
On the visa, it is indicated that the “administrative processing” completed in 4 weeks where my case was cleared, but the visa was not issued until some 3 more weeks later. They clearly didn’t want me to attend the conference. Moreover, the visa could have been valid for 10 years, but mine is only valid for 1 year.
Nevertheless, with the visa finally at hand, I temporarily planned a trip to visit Princeton the week after, though the original 2-week plan becomes 3 days. This is followed by a 2-day visit to Cambridge to attend another conference. The visit is brief due to my other time constraints, but is fruitful. I stayed at a Bettina Network Hedge School in Cambridge, the same place I stayed back in 2011 when I came to visit Harvard for a job talk. Everything is very enjoyable with illuminating conversations at breakfast as well as meetings and gatherings with many of my colleagues and friends.
I am at the airport now to return to China soon. Thank you for the warm and welcoming experience that you offer and I will come back again despite the disgusting experience with the embassy.”
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Everything talked about in this blog and in any other blog in the Bettina Network, inc. is the opinion of the person who wrote the blog and does not necessarily represent the opinions of Bettina Network, inc. It is the property of Bettina Network, inc. and/or the person who wrote the original blog.
Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you. Please also tell us if you want your name as your byline or if you want your article to appear without your name.
Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.
Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net
Tags: Attorney General Sessions, Bettina Network Educational Institute, Bettina Network Hedge Schools, Bettina Network's Lifestyle Community, breakfast table talk, Donald Trump, Guest Comments, politics, Racism
Posted in Attorney General Sessions, Bettina Homes, Bettina Network Educational Institute, Breakfast Table Talk, Donald Trump | Comments Off on Keep U. S. Conferences White?