Andre Perry wrote in The Hechinger Report about Betsy DeVos’s refusal to name the perpetrators of the evil in Charlottesville. She tweeted twice to express her disapproval of what happened but tiptoed around the central and alarming fact that the city was invaded by a gang of neo-Nazis, KKK, and white supremacists, prepared to fight.
“DeVos wrote a two-tweet response to the violence that read, “I’m disgusted by the behavior and hate-filled rhetoric displayed near the University of Virginia in #Charlottesville (1/2). It is every American’s right to speak their mind, but there is no room for violence or hatred. (2/2).” Her generic and woefully insufficient statement effectively sanitized the hate that Nazis, Klan members and so called “alt-right” demonstrators put on full display as they shouted Nazi slogans such as “Sieg Heil” and waved Confederate flags, while carrying military gear. DeVos, the nation’s top teacher (clearly symbolic), failed the basic test of providing leadership to teachers, education officials, as well as counselors on how educate students out of bigotry, white supremacy and violence.”
Sad. Weak. Vacuous. Empty. Dispassionate. Disengaged.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
That’s because she and her brother, Erik Prince, are extreme right-wing “Christian” (I prefer to spell it “KKKristian”) zealots who want the U.S. to become a fundamentalist “Christian” theocracy. So obviously, many of the evildoers in Charlottesville are supporters of Devos and Prince, and DeVos will not betray her rabid, extremist supporters, all of whom deny and oppose the separation of church and state. By the way, Trump is considering privatizing the failed U.S. war on and occupation of Afghanistan to Erik prince’s mercenary army.
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Don’t Privatize the Afghan War—Just End It
Trump’s mercenary supporter Erik Prince has a self-serving proposal for Afghanistan. It must be condemned and rejected.
By Sonali Kolhatkar / TruthdigAugust 14, 2017, 11:25 AM GMT
…But given that Prince only needs the most inexperienced, unqualified and intellectually bankrupt president in U.S. history to sign on to his ludicrous proposal, it is quite possible that we may actually witness the privatization of the longest war. Not surprisingly, the U.S. military is unhappy with the prospect and a former senior military official recently told the Daily Beast, “The Pentagon is not interested in privatizing the war in Afghanistan.”
Neither the Pentagon nor a high-profile mercenary is capable of ending the harrowing war in Afghanistan. Ordinary Afghans—who are always left out of the calculations of American experts—are the first to suffer and the last to be included in war plans. All that the U.S. is doing in Afghanistan today is adding to the violence through its sheer presence in the country. That will hardly change by swapping out costly government forces for cheaper private ones. Indeed, leaving Afghanistan in the hands of an unaccountable institution will likely worsen the situation…
http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/dont-privatize-afghan-war-just-end-it#.WZMNEQa12KY.gmail
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Thanks for the link, carolmalaysia!
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With the DeVos family, money comes first.
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She sanitizes her bigotry through false equivalency.
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You forgot to mention ANTIFA and BLM members that came to fight. Focus on the problem, rather than blame game.
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Linda,
The problem is racism, not those who oppose racism.
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May I ask: Are you saying it is wrong for racists to use violence, but it is okay for those who oppose racists to use violence??
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It’s wrong to be a racist and it’s fine to fight back against thugs who come to town armed and dangerous
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Kinyon invokes false equivalencies presenting them as if they make an argument worthy of reply. It’s the stock and trade deflection method honed by Fox and talk radio for their limited-intellect audience of bigots.
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Violence is wrong – no matter who uses it. To deny the reality of that will cause only bigger problems.
Yes, MLK died, and yes, Gandhi died – but both of them have accomplished more good than any violence ever could. They were consistent in their speech and action.
What I hear people on this chain advocate is: Beat up those who you disagree with – it’s okay.
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“What I hear people on this chain advocate is: Beat up those who you disagree with – it’s okay.”
……….
I believe that violence of any kind is evil but it sometimes is necessary to stand up against the overwhelming rot that the KKK and white nationalists stand for. What do you propose one do when peacefully protesting and violence hits you in the face?
Do we run or stand our ground? I’d hate to see the power of hate grow while everyone is running and hiding. How long would it take for everything to become worse?
I don’t have the answer because I am peacefully sitting in my den.
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No, I don’t want to beat them up. I’d much rather see a sniper take out their leaders from a half mile to a mile away and then the sniper slips away to strike another racist, hate-promoting leader another day.
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The free loading Neo-Nazi’s and financial sector and exploitive industries like the tech sector should be condemned.
Black Lives Matter didn’t take armor and weapons to Charlottesville and they didn’t kill anyone.
The following is what the Daily Stormer, a White supremacist group wrote about the woman killed. “Childless women are black hole vortexes of public money and energy…(she was) a gross creature who had failed to do her most basic duty-her only real duty, in fact-and reproduce.”
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You must be watching censored media because they were there! ANTIFA gets funding from George Soros, who in 1979 declared he wanted to destroy. It was a big story … cover of major magazine (like Time or something). Surely you remember it Diane.
Alt-left people had clubs and charged Alt-right people and the reverse happened. BOTH … ALL INVOLVED WERE WRONG.
This is my question … did the city grant a permit to counter protestors? If not … WHY NOT? It was the Alt-right that had a legal permit to assemble. If not then the counter-protestors were trespassing on a permitted event. They have demonstrated a preference to RIOT AND DESTROY. These are the same tactics used by ISIS, CRIMINAL GANGS, etc that want POWER. If allowed to continue they go after people with the same disregard for human life that can be seen in groups like MS 13.
Destroying statues, destroying history, burning books …all in the pursuit of POWER! There will be no individual, or individual rights if this cancer is allowed to grow.
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The anti-fascists were not holding a demonstration. They did not need a permit. The KKK and Nazis held a demonstration.
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The original demonstrators had requested a permit which the court granted, over the city’s voice. Their decision was based on the First Amendment, nothing else. Granting the permit did not endorse their ideals. It only allowed them to be heard under the Constitution of the United States of America. These gatherings have been held before without incident.
The left bussed in groups to drown the voices that had permission to speak. You have to allow it, but you can disagree without trying to shut any voices down. Free discourse was not allowed this weekend.
The events this weekend looked more like what can be seen in Venezuela as their dictator tries to control the people. After watching Antifa and BLM riot, destroy and burn in the last few months authorities should have been better prepared. The two sides should never have been allowed anywhere near each other. Both groups should have had permits.
There needs to be discussion about some of our memorials. But the discussion needs to be deep, knowledgeable and open to listening. There are some that could go, some that should stay but not based on the emotional temper tantrum antics that were demonstrated this weekend. Those antics are reminiscent of the Taliban, ISIS, MS 13, communists, terrorist of all kinds, La Cosa Nostra in its day, and other bully groups throughout history that want power over people.
We have the First Amendment in this country and it applies whether you like what the other guy has to say or not. Any group that tries to silence another is being UNAMERICAN. You don’t have to like what they say but it is their right to speak without fear, just like it is yours.
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“You don’t have to like what they say but it is their right to speak without fear,”…
…….
These wackos came armed with police military gear. They wanted to fight and were primed for it. This is not something America stands for. I’d like to think there is a higher vision than putting down other Americans because of your hatred, lust for power and strangulation of American values.
Our ignorant bully-in-chief has shown that he supports anyone who worships him. He has brought these haters out from under the rocks where they belong. HIs approval has emboldened them to continue to speak out. This unfortunate circumstance means we should stand up for freedom for all, not more hatred and condemnation. We are a laughing stock for the rest of the world.
Why pretend to have values when they are being dashed down. There comes a time when the hatred is way too much to spread. Giving them voices emboldens those who want to kill and destroy. Watch their numbers grow. I can only hope that they are not granted more permits from other weak-kneed officials.
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What a deflection. Please, this was not some tame 1st Amendment exercise such as I witnessed regularly in NYC’s ’70’s Yorkville nbhd (German, but populated by many holocaust survivors) where we had to stomach a periodic march of Nazi-sympathizers. This was a rally planned for months in advance, drawing in folks from out-of-state w/ political slogans marrying pro-Trumpism to white-supremacist slogans– targeted on a solid-blue university town which was sure to mount counter-protestors– by a conglomeration of KKK, ‘white nationalists’ et al, who arrived wearing Kevlar vests, carrying weapons & — torches! They were obviously not there to exercise 1st amendment right to speak: they were spoiling for a fight, & got one.
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Linda G.: You’ve summed up David Duke’s argument. You want to stick with that?
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DeVos (and her brother Prince) have a transactional view of the world that trumps (no pun intended, or may be it was, subliminally) ethics and human life. I’ve been rereading Nicholson Baker’s “Human Smoke” and came across this excerpt that seems to apply to this post. For DeVos, replace “Armament” with “Education”:
“H.C. Engelbrecht, author of Merchants of Death, a bestseller about arms dealers, spoke at a conference of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. ‘Armament is an industry that knows no politics, friends, right or wrong—but only customers,’ Engelbrecht said. ‘If you can pay, you can buy.’”
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Out of pure curiosity, where do you place the teacher of the man that drove his car into the crowd? Who knew what kind of thoughts were developing in the student’s mind – but seemingly did nothing to guide/steer him away from those conclusions??
How can a secretary of Education (whomever it is) be held accountable?
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That’s a very low blow and sinister insinuation. The teacher who was interviewed taught him years ago in another state. He was very aware of the his student’s views and tried to educate him. What was he supposed to do?
A secretary of education can be held accountable much like a president; by setting a tone, by implementing policies that don’t encourage and empower the most radical elements of society, by providing leadership, by making it unequivocally clear what is acceptable. It won’t necessarily stop such acts of violence, but it also won’t give extremists motivation.
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DeVos in not being held accountable for the driving of the car into the crowd. She is being called out on this blog for not condemning the neo-Nazi movement. She apparently chose the same path as her president, which is to make a false equivalence between demonstrations on the left who advocate for civil rights for all and those on the right, which advocate for racial dominance by a select ethnic and philosophical group.
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Let’s talk false equivalence . No the Demonstrators on the left were not all there for civil rights . The majority of anti fascist Demonstrators were not AntiFa . They were clergy college students black lives and human rights advocates .
But lets talk Antifa, who was there to confront fascist yes violently if necessary but overwhelmingly vocally . So who are they , anarchists , anti globalists who till the appearance of fascists in American universities and streets confined most of their activities to spray painting buildings, breaking windows and lighting a trash container or two on fire . “Bad behavior ” “Very Bad ” . So how does that stack up to the 68 murders committed by right wing Nationalists since 9/11 or the two attemped large bombings broken up in the last few months. One aimed at a housing complex of West African Muslim immigrants and the other just yesterday aimed at a bank building in Oklahoma . The white nationalist was contemplating blowing up the Federal Reserve building in Oklahoma city. He was detained after he hit the button that was to set off the fake explosives he had obtained from an informer.
There is no equivalence between those who commit misdemeanors and murderers
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/fbi-arrests-man-plot-detonate-bomb-oklahoma-bank-49208876
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L. Kinyon: The secretary of education can damn well be held accountable for her words and actions of commission or omission.
It’s not enough that we have a fascist in the White House but we also have a fascist secretary of (mis)education. And then there are the authoritarian/nazi ghouls like Bannon, Miller, Gorka, etc., haunting the corridors of the WH. Don’t blame me, I voted for HILLARY!
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I’m not blaming anyone. I just asked about accountability. You want to hold DeVos accountable for not calling out… But there is a teacher who knew where the young man’s thinking was going! Could the teacher not make it more clear, calling out the evil the young man seemed to start accepting?
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“I’m not blaming anyone.” And then you conclude your paragraph by blaming a teacher. Check your facts before you start spewing.
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Let’s see. DeVos is held accountable for not condemning. Has no relationship with the kid what so ever.
The teacher who noticed the direction where the student was going had a heck of a lot more influence on the student than a secretary of Education – but cannot be held accountable.
Isn’t there something out of whack here???
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Your reasoning is flawed.
DeVos speaks out and is seen/heard by everyone in the country. Her words have influence. She is the current person who establishes what is correct and reliable thinking in this country. If she refuses to label bigotry and hatred and accepts them, then there are followers who will say that this is now a correct and respected way to treat others.
Look at how rapidly the KKK has embraced Trump. He can do no wrong because he respects hatred and bigotry in whites.
A teacher also influence but a teacher who years ago had a student with hate inside can only do so much. She may have tried to reach out to him. How many teachers whose classes are crammed with students can really totally change someone’s mind? Some have been able to do that but to lay blame for something that occurred years ago is not being fair to the teacher.
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I wasnot laying blame at any one’s feet. I just asked the question why DeVos’ lack to “strongly…” speak out is so important, when there are people (teachers) who are much closer to the students with a lot more influence…
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L. Kenyon,
As Secretary of Education, she has a moral responsibility to speak up against injustice. She has not.
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DeVos has responsibility to the nation, not to Fields
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Since you seem too lazy to find out for yourself, I’ll do it for you:
http://www.post-gazette.com/news/nation/2017/08/13/James-Alex-Fields-Charlottesville-killing-driver-car-crowd-white-nationalist-rally/stories/201708130175
And yes, there is “something out of whack here.” You are just unable to diagnose it.
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What is a teacher to do? This was a kid whose Dad died before he was born, raised by a single Mom who witnessed her dad kill her mom then off himself [which would suggest a PTSD Mom who was barely in control of herself, let alone her kid.] He was described (not surprisingly) by an uncle as a depressed loner who didn’t talk much.
The teacher did what he could, trying to distract/ deflect the kid’s obsession w/the Nazi culture– a not-surprising obsession w/an über-controlling culture, for a kid whose life up to that point. was w/o structure or direction or meaning…
Teachers can only do so much.
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Teachers with a Twitter account might consider replying to at least one of her tweets every day. I’m still working on getting #BlockedByTrump, so far unsuccessfully, despite razor-sharp snarkiness. I also reply to @VP. Some may want to reply seriously, but I use my replies to hone my comedy improv skills.
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Good luck getting Blocked by Trump. I’ve tried but no luck so far.
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She won’t because it would include her family.
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Slightly off of topic but an answer to the question asked the other night. About how Jewish Jared and Ivanka can tolerate fascism and antisemitism. . A bit more coherent than my rant . But reaching the same conclusions. . A an indivisible friend mailed it to me this morning.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/why-trumps-jewish-backers-love-the-alt-right
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That is quite a link Joel!
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Hardly off-topic in tthe slightest. Charlottesville ‘white-nationalist’ ralliers were vocally anti-Semitic. I find the linked rationale a forked-tongued mishmash, & can’t imagine how a Pres whose SIL is Jewish, dghtr is converted & HIS OWN GRANDKIDS are Jewish could have failed to condemn this anti-black anti-Jewish spoiling-for-a-fight gathering in Charlottesville from the get-go! REALLY CREEPY!
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Slightly off topic but I recently found out that MLKing’s niece is a far far right wing supporter of Trump. Alveda King is hyper-religious, rabidly pro life, very anti-gay and anti same sex marriage. She’s been married and divorced three times, not that there’s anything wrong with being married and divorced multiple times.
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Fox News has been carting her out for years whenever they need a token to “burnish” their bona fides on issues involving race relations. She’s a grifter’s grifter.
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I would never know that . I have parental block enabled for fox news (LOL)
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Glad you’re keeping track of yourself Joel! 🙂
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Reminds one of the 4-times married Kentucky clerk who acted on her high personal moral ground to deny marriage licenses to gay people.
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No surprise here. Betsy belongs to the same club that all the rich, white and powerful supremacists belong to, ALEC.
The KKK, the skin heads, the Nazis, the Tea Party People are all subsidiaries of ALEC.
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And ALEC is a subsidiary of the Kochsucker brothers.
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Include the “human capital pipeline” ed reformers who deliver two-tier education i.e. the Gates-funded weaponized philanthropy sector.
Include Harvard which boasts of interns placed at the Heritage Foundation.
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I like that .
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But they only suck on vibrators.
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Just when you think our Dear Leader might figure out it’s time to quit digging, he made this statement today (I transcribed it):
“There were people in that rally, and I looked, the night before, if you look there were people protesting, very quietly, the taking down of the statue of Robert E. Lee. I’m sure in that group there were some bad ones, the following day it looked like they had some rough, bad people, neo-Nazis, white nationalists, whatever you want to call them. But you had a lot of people in that group that were there to innocently protest, and very legally protest, because, I don’t know if you know, they had a permit. The other group didn’t have a permit. So, I only tell you this, there are two sides to a story. I thought what took place was a horrible moment for our country, a horrible moment, but there are two sides to the country.”
Read that a couple of times. Those hateful faces bearing torches on Friday night were “there to innocently protest.” Read it again. This is the president of the United States. According to his interpretation of history, those torch marches in the days of the Third Reich were “innocent” marchers.
Oh, and he reminded us that he owns a house in Charlottesville and has a large (the largest) winery on the East Coast.
David Duke, Richard Spencer, and all the neo-Nazis in the nation and the White House are whooping it up and cheering.
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Not just bearing torches, but carrying weapons & shields, & wearing Kevlar vests. And chanting anti-Semitic slogans while carrying Trump campaign signs. I have not yet heard a word out of Trump addressing the clear anti-Semitic message [which one might expect in defense of his daughter’s Jewish family.]
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As to Diane’s reply to L Kinyon at 4:30 PM (w/which I wholeheartedly agree): have we learned nothing from history, i.e., NOT fighting back (in the very beginnings of Nazidom) led to the death of 6 million. “History repeats itself,” and “those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it.” Also, as recently mentioned here, and in many other places, the piece, “Then They Came for Me.” Are we supposed to allow rabid, active hatred to occur in our own homes, L Kinyon? A resounding NO! And a definite YES to fighting back.
Additionally, Betsy DeVos, et.al., would have our children attend schools which do not, in fact, teach history, or social thought or ANYTHING that would be involved questioning what we now have, which is an oligarchy (among other onerous names), and an administration so awful the likes of which we, thank G-d, have never before seen.
And which we must, indeed, resist. And teach our children well.
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YES! Very well stated. Can you believe that this is happening in 2017?
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And then you wonder why people get violent in political rallies.
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Unfortunately, you seem incapable of understanding the difference between resistance and violence.
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If more people had gotten violent against the Brown shirts in 1930 Germany 40 million would not have been killed in Europe. This is not free speech . Those fascist scum came looking for exactly what happened . That permit did not include brass knuckles and bats. Nor open carry or not, I doubt the provisions for the permit included assault rifles .
And again had a leftist group come under the same circumstance armed as the Nazis were . They would have been mowed down like rats.
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edit that, make that roaches , nah slugs , nah maggots
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For once I do not mind the connection of Trump to Hitler. I know I am repeating myself here, but are folks not noticing that the forces unleashed by Trump [as evidenced by a ‘white nationalist’ rally carrying Trump campaign signs] are not only volubly anti-black but equally anti-Jewish?? What’s next? I believe those folks are also anti-Catholic & believe in Papist conspiracy. Which means they’re coming after you [‘libtards’] next… And yet we have a POTUS who suggests that these folks are just “so many… So many.”
Time to put #45 down like the rabid dog he has shown himself to be.
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I stupidly thought the Third Reich ended in 1945 before I was born. I am Jewish and I find these neo-Nazis to be terrifying. I am privileged to know people of diverse ethnic and racial backgrounds. As an ESL teacher, I have spent the last many years immersed in the cultures of others. I would never allow my students to use slurs of any kind. I am horrified to see the degradation of American society. I had always hoped that we could do better to overcome the sins of the past.
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Had a very disturbing, and connected experience with this SKIPPING AROUND the TRUTH of what’s behind the hatred and the groups perpetrating it. In 2005, because of Hurricane Katrina it happened that a WWII American Hero who landed on Normandy Beach with an Army Engineering Unit, after 3 months of clearing British Beaches of land mines placed to prevent a German Invasion. They were cleared to build a launch place for Normandy. He then after hedge row fighting was transferred to the famous 761st Black Panther Tank Division once Gen. Patton came to Europe as Patton wanted the “best” black or white. The (segregated) 761st Tank Division was one of the first to enter Germany and rescue a Jewish Concentration Camp before turning around to race for a defense at the Battle of the Bulge. Robert Brown, the South’s and one of the first two African American Superintendent’s of Education (1970), was finally recognized for his WWII accomplishments and with a tepid acknowledgement of his work in Civil Rights and in Education as Superintendent of Alabama’s Greene County Schools, recognized at the University of West Alabama, (UWA) campus, in the by the Division for Community Outreach. The “powers” there were unable, however, to recognize Robert Brown as having been its first African American Professor, (Sciences) and National Teacher Corps, beginning at the Historic White (segregated) University in 1967-1968. Greene County is part of the historic Black Belt Region with Selma and Montgomery being its center. Ironically, Jeff Sessions – Still an Alabama Senator at the time in 2013 and close friend of UWA was recognized in the same publication as Robert Brown’s announcement to the Black Belt Hall of Fame (UWA) in it’s “Connections Magazine.” Beginning in 2006 until 2013 it was an interesting process and work to encourage Robert Brown’s induction into the (UWA) Black Belt Hall of Fame alongside George Washington Carver recognized in the first year of it’s creation by the University. As a result, Dr. Brown was later recognized elsewhere including the Historic Black University where he earned his B.S. in Science before moving back home to Greene County, Alabama after WWII. He finished college in the 1940’s on the G.I. Bill. During Civil Rights, working alongside SCLC and MLK’s people he once stood down KKK members at his house with his 45′ Army issue. Greene County was the first County in the South and Alabama to defeat the “Alt Right” Southern Strategy and win an election. As a result he was selected as Superintendent of schools where he served for 10 years, 1970-1980. When he attended his first state-wide Alabama Superintendent’s meeting, George Wallace was the Governor. There were 260 or so “white” Superintendent’s in the auditorium and Robert Brown. I have an iconic photograph of him standing with five other “white” County and District Superintendents behind George Wallace sitting at his desk. The history of George Wallace after that event compared to Jeff Session’s puts Wallace way ahead of Sessions with respect to “reconciliation” as Sessions became an Asst. Attn. Gen. in Alabama. Session’s went after Albert Turner and other SCLC leaders in the Black Belt Region (friends of Robert Brown) in the 80’s which was the reason he was rejected by the Senate when nominated to the Federal Court. Who could have ever imagined a Donald Trump from NYC would become aligned with Jeff Sessions who’d become the U.S. Attorney General?
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So now Democrats are SUING Betsy DeVos for putting Big Money special interest before students and we need to hear from our members:
If you stand with the Democrats exposing Betsy DeVos, sign our urgent petition RIGHT NOW:
http:// act.endcitizensunited.org/DeVos-Sued
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I tried the “http:// act.endcitizensunited.org/DeVos-Sued” and found it wouldn’t go through. Sorry.
I signed the petition to sue DeVos so it is going around.
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A university has decided not to allow Spencer to speak because of threats of violence. Who issued the threats? Those who support him or those who oppose him? What justifies violence perpetrated by those who oppose him?
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Spencer should be in jail for inciting violence and bloodshed. Just think, if his hero Adolf Hitler were alive, he might be on a campus lecture tour like Spencer.
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That does not answer the question I asked.
IF we believe in the right to have and express opinions, when do we start selecting whose opinion is allowed to be heard?
When the First Amendment was written, there were still quite a few people who would prefer King George rather than the “rebels.” And yet: The writers had enough courage and wisdom to write the First Amendment – placing it at the top of their list!
When a member of COngress goes home to their District, and is booed while trying to answer a question asked – is that not taking away his First Amendment right? Threatening the use of violence to stop a preacher of violence and hatred – are we really that kind of a nation?
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