It was an act of terrorism by a white supremacist

You can’t go a day without hearing someone say “The United States is a post-racial country”. In other words, racism, racial discrimination, and prejudice based on race are all things of the past. Leaving aside the fact that people who feel this way have an incomplete understanding of racism (seriously, they need a 101 lesson), these ignoramuses are also blind to the individual examples of racism that occur all the damn time. Normally I would list 5 examples of racism in the United States, but today I’m going to focus on one example.

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It was an act of terrorism by a white supremacist
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Stop honoring Christopher Columbus

Children across the country are no doubt overjoyed at being out of school today.  ‘Christopher Columbus Day’ is the second Monday of every October.  It is a day set aside to honor the Italian explorer considered by many to have discovered the ‘New World’ (aka the ‘Americas’) in 1492.  Children are taught to revere the heroic man who risked life and limb to prove the Earth was round.  They’re taught that he discovered the land that would one day be considered the greatest, most prosperous nation on Earth.  Columbus Day is intended as a celebration of this man and all his greatness.  In addition to a holiday just for him, Columbus is honored through the poem 1492.

The thing is:  his history has been whitewashed.

Continue reading “Stop honoring Christopher Columbus”

Stop honoring Christopher Columbus

Kathy Jetnil-Jijiner's History Project

This week, poet and performance artist Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner stood before the world leaders at the opening ceremony of the United Nations Climate Summit.  She was one of 4 people out of 544 chosen to address the Summit.  She says she wanted to “bring my people’s message out to the world, that climate change is a threat we need to take more seriously.”  Poetry has been part of her life since she was young and she uses her poetry to address social and environmental issues.

On her blog Iep Jeltok , she writes: “My poetry mainly focuses on raising awareness surrounding the issues and threats faced by my people. Nuclear testing conducted in our islands, militarism, the rising sea level as a result of climate change, forced migration, adaptation and racism in America.”

In one such poem, The History Project, Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner expresses the frustration she and her people have felt over the nuclear tests run by the United States on their island home in the Marshall Islands.

Here’s the video.  She delivers a powerful, passionate performance:

Kathy Jetnil-Jijiner's History Project

Kathy Jetnil-Jijiner’s History Project

This week, poet and performance artist Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner stood before the world leaders at the opening ceremony of the United Nations Climate Summit.  She was one of 4 people out of 544 chosen to address the Summit.  She says she wanted to “bring my people’s message out to the world, that climate change is a threat we need to take more seriously.”  Poetry has been part of her life since she was young and she uses her poetry to address social and environmental issues.

On her blog Iep Jeltok , she writes: “My poetry mainly focuses on raising awareness surrounding the issues and threats faced by my people. Nuclear testing conducted in our islands, militarism, the rising sea level as a result of climate change, forced migration, adaptation and racism in America.”

In one such poem, The History Project, Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner expresses the frustration she and her people have felt over the nuclear tests run by the United States on their island home in the Marshall Islands.

Here’s the video.  She delivers a powerful, passionate performance:

Kathy Jetnil-Jijiner’s History Project

Unsolved Mysteries

There are a lot of mysteries in life.  Things we may never know (or, more likely, things I will never know, but someone, someWHEN, may figure out the answer). These are burning questions that strike at the core of humanity.  Without answers to these questions, it’s hard to sleep at night. True rest cannot be had so long as these mysteries go unsolved.

I’m your host, Robert Stack, and this is Unsolved Mysteries.

  • Why was Stonehenge built?
  • How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?
  • How do they get that creamy filling inside Twinkies?
  • How many licks does it take to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop (the world still doesn’t know)?
  • Was there a second shooter involved in the assassination of JFK?
  • Where was George Lucas going with Luke and Leia *before* he decided they were siblings?
  • Why are women, queer people, and PoC whitewashed in US public school history books?
  • Who was Jack the Ripper?

Oh, wait, we may be able to strike that last one off our list (thank all the non-existent gods in the non-existent heavens, one more hour of sleep)!  British writer Russell Edwards claims he knows the identity of Jack the Ripper!!

On the eve of the release of his book Naming Jack The Ripper, a British businessman claims that he has ascertained the real name of 19th century serial murder Jack the Ripper using 126-year-old DNA extracted from blood found on the shawl of one of his victims.

 

That’s all I’m giving you.  Go read the full story over at Raw Story.

Unsolved Mysteries