Friday, May 29, 2020

Minneapolis Burning


It's all over the news, so I haven't posted about it here.  It feels like a war.  It's scary.

9 comments:

  1. I hope you are staying safe, Terry. I certainly don't condone or agree with the violent protestors. I never understand wny people destroy their own neighborhoods. But I do understand why there is violence. I don't think it is coincidence that the murdering officer was charged today. Yesterday they didn't have enough evidence. Today suddenly there is enough evidence. Would this have happened if there were only peaceful protests?

    The United States has been guilty of racial terrorism its entire history. But I think George Floyd was the final straw. I do hope the powers that be finally get it. I don't blame the protestors for the violence in Minneapolis. I blame the governing powers.

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    1. It's a bit overwhelming, so many people hurt by the riots, their stores, livelihoods, apartments now destroyed. With the recent unemployment and shutdown due to COVID this is devastating.

      Just last week I naively told my friend how happy I was that people of color have gained so much equality - at long last. TV ads are focused upon successful black families - we all live together - shop together. Often our favorite celebrities are people of color. Finally we are together. Then this, right near my neighborhood - such cruelty one might expect in a concentration camp or totalitarian society, but not here is So. MPLS. I feel like I knew the man who was killed, I felt I may have seen him at Mass or the store. Then the riots - and it hits you - these people are still oppressed and suffer injustice to such an extreme extent - we are misled by entertainment media and marketing into believing there isn't a problem any longer.

      I'm safe - a curfew has been enacted beginning at 8 PM. I hope it helps quell the terror aspect of the protest. They say there are outside activists causing the violence. Stores in the city have boarded up and have closed early - even in the first tier suburbs. Let's keep praying for peace and justice.

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    2. I couldn't pick up my meds on Saturday because the store closed due to rioting.

      Once the first window was broken it ceased to be about George Floyd and is now about insurrection. The peaceful protests on the bridge were right in front of the building I live in, stupid children taunting the police because they know they won't get shot. They need to be careful or they'll taunt a cop when the cameras are off and get a different result

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  2. In 1974 I lived at the corner of Nicolette & East 25th St. near where this is unfolding. I loved my time there. It seems clear that provocateurs began the violence with the Auto Zone window smashing. There is a video of a man all in black with an umbrella using a hammer to smash the windows. He walks away and the looting begins. A young black male seems to question why and follows him. Later they seem to depart together in conversation. Professional agitators have done this.

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  3. Ms Catholic in Brooklyn: You might want to travel to world a bit before summarily condemning your country in the way that you have. If you read a little history you will find that the United States has done more to free people from tryanny and terrorism than any country on earth.

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    2. Ms Maria, what country do you live in? Have you ever heard of slavery? Have you ever heard of Jim.Crow laws? Have you heard of what the white man did to Native Americans? You say we freed people from tyranny? Tell that to the people in Iraq who have suffered and died in the millions since we “freed” them from Saddam Hussein. Christians, who lived peacefully under Hussein, have been completely wiped out of that country, The last Christian Church was destroyed in Afghanistan as a result of our “liberating” that country, which is still not “liberated” after 19 years.

      America has caused immense suffering and death throughout the whole world. We have much to be ashamed of.

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    3. CiB, are you aware that the first chattel slave in the colonies was a black man whose owner went to court to obtain his services for life? The owner was a freed black man from Gambia, who himself had been an indentured servant, just like the Irish.

      Note also, that my people, the Slavs, are so associated with the condition of servitude that our very name was taken to describe that condition.

      And the native americans were also slaveholders. They lost to superior weapons and lost their land. That has happened throughout history.

      Many died due to lack of exposure to western diseases. Much of that happened naturally.

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  4. I recommend more reading, Ms. Catholic in Brooklyn. There was thing called the Civil War and the Emancipation Proclamation. Look it up:)

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