[Peace-discuss] Fw: Review of the 4th of July Parade

[Karen Medina]

> "The parade leaned toward a show of force."

> "A four year-old walked off the curb and joined the parade with the Green Party.
A flicker of hope remained."


Ezra for President.



On Sun, Jul 5, 2015 at 11:54 AM, David Green via Peace-discuss
<peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net> wrote:
>
>
> On Sunday, July 5, 2015 9:16 AM, Christopher Evans <caevans2 at hotmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
> WHAT'S THE FREQUENCY, KENNETH?
> by Local Yocal
>
> CHAMPAIGN COUNTY- We all get it. On the Fourth of July, we give thanks for
> the heroic sacrifices our soldiers have made to protect our freedom. You
> can't argue with that lullaby.
>
> Still,... watching the soldiers in uniform wave at us during the parade,
> it's hard to muster any pride over the 10-year adventures into Iraq and
> Afghanistan. Can anyone point to the accomplishments Iraq and Afghanistan
> have been? The 9-11 terrorists appear to have spawned an Orwellian endless
> war draining our treasury of trillions of precious tax dollars that could
> have been our healthcare, jobs, and infrastructure. The enemies shift to
> keep the thing stoked. We're fighting the Taliban, right? Or is it Al Queda?
> No wait, there's a new Super Team now, right? It's called Isis? Or is it
> Isle?
>
> We honor those who serve and protect, who don't mind showing off the fancy
> equipment our tax dollars paid for. The armored trucks, the confident police
> officer performing amazing circles on his motorcycle while wailing his
> siren, the all-white color guard marching handsomely down the street with
> shiney old-fashioned rifles still carries the allure of a simpler, bygone
> day when we're no. 1.
>
> You cannot wave at a politician without a smirk of disbelief that all is
> well. The fifth largest economy in the United States, the nineteenth largest
> economy in the entire world; which is Illinois, is about to have its
> government shut down because the Governor wants to reduce worker's
> compensation. It was fitting that the giant air balloon floats sponsored by
> two of the big-money-bag entities in town, The News-Gazette and Busey
> Bank,...deflated during the parade route and the cute, lovable character
> sagged and fell over.
> An economic sign of things to come?
>
> Champaign County has a significant number of its citizens living in poverty.
> The Illinois Statistical Analysis Center lists Champaign County as having
> 40,484 people living at or below the poverty line in 2013, putting our
> poverty rate the third highest in a state of 102 counties. Watching the
> sweating kids of the high school marching bands, the mind wanders to the
> fearful prospect of what the job market is like for a high school graduate.
> Or how much money you need to pay tuition, room, and books for those
> qualified to attend a college.
>
> The die has been cast. Champaign County is selling its land to out-of-town
> investors to build the real estate (using out-of-town employees) needed for
> a new wave of wealthy international students attending the prestigious
> university. Locals need not apply.
>
> And here is where the police step in. Protecting the precious campus from
> the invaders to the North of University Avenue has been perfected for
> decades now at The Police Training Institute that our police resemble a
> military unit. Police have adopted racial profiling enforcement of The Drug
> War. Cameras will be on and every move will be tracked. The court system
> punishes poor and African-Americans swiftly and heavily as possible.
>
> Police are soldiers now. Anything can happen. Dylann Roof and Adam Lanza
> have proved that beyond a reasonable doubt. The parade was probably
> discussed as a possible target, so no police walked the parade. There were
> no friendly appearances from Sheriff Walsh, Chief Cobb or Chief Connolly.
> They were probably stationed at a designated command central headquarters
> coordinating crowd patrol.
>
> It's hard to look at police nowadays in the midst of this year's round of
> publicity regarding police behavior. Across the 18,000 police departments
> nationwide, 3 citizens are killed every day by the police. Most of the slain
> people are unarmed, most are African-American. We have The Toto Kaiyewu
> Slaying, and The Kiwane Carrington Murder to remind us how jumpy police have
> become toward African-Americans. The police presence at the parade tests
> your faith as to whether these guys are really on our side. Like wishing Big
> Bird was real, you want to hope police are the good guys. Another newspaper
> arrives to say different.
>
> Fourth of July in Champaign County, (as will be the case with the Champaign
> County Fair,) is a stark reminder that this is a segregated culture and
> those in charge with money will decide what our culture will be. Few
> churches entered a float in the parade, few civic clubs, and fewer still
> were grassroots movements of people advocating for a better America. The
> parade leaned toward a show of force.
>
> A four year-old walked off the curb and joined the parade with the Green
> Party.
> A flicker of hope remained.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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-- 
-- karen medina
"The really great make you feel that you, too, can become great." - Mark Twain