Women in War - Andree "DeDee" de Jongh

Few citizens were more courageous, inventive and important to the World War II resistance effort than Countess Andree "DeDee" de Jongh member of the Belgian Resistance and organizer of the Comet Line. (picture above, 1941)

Kudos to the Magazine Section of the New York Times Website for yesterday's excellent story about Ms. de Jongh written by Sara Corbett. Too often the majority of war movies and historical documentaries or news serials produced throughout the 20th century tend to emphasize the roles of generals, admirals, captains and everyday soldiers immersed in the infinite particulars of the business of warfare.

For the most part the media has tended to portray war as man's business. Despite the wide range of critical roles woman of many nations have played in both World Wars, it's the men we tend to see on the wide screen or the television - too often the stories of people like Andree "DeDee" de Jongh sit quietly in the shadows of the spotlights of history.

In one form or another, intelligence, counter-insurgency, sabotage and guerrilla warfare have been a part of war since mankind first engaged in this unique endeavor.

Members of the resistance from various countries throughout the European theater of operations during World War II played essential roles in most if not all the major battles fought between the Allies and the Axis powers of Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, Vichy France and the Japanese Empire.

"DeDee" de Jongh, then a 24-year-old nurse helped to organize the Comet Line, a 600-mile long secret route of safe-houses, churches, dangerous railway trips and smugglers paths developed in cooperation with many citizens from Belgium, France, Spain and other countries to escort downed allied pilots, escaped POWS's and others to safety in Spain and England.

She risked her life to help those who fought to destroy the armies of the Third Reich and a madman who led a nation to murder millions to fulfill a warped vision of an "Aryan" society built on mythical ideals of racial superiority. She helped over 400 Allies escape to safety during the war, personally escorting 118 of them herself. Her father Paul de Jongh was betrayed by a traitor in the resistance movement and eventually executed by the Gestapo.

Ms. de Jongh herself was later betrayed and captured in a farmhouse as she was escorting allied men to safety. She was interrogated and tortured by the Gestapo who eventually let her go after she confessed to being the organizer of the Comet Line - they did not believe her.

Those who looked at her 100 pound frame and dismissed her as an 18 year-old school girl truly didn't understand the power of her character; you can't judge a book by it's cover - our vision and our choices and actions shape the reality we see.

Andree Eugenie Adrienne "DeDee" de Jongh's amazing life is proof positive of that, when she left this life back in October, 2007 she left the world and our collective culturegeist a better place.

If you want to learn more details about the Comet Line and the soldiers involved check out www.belgiumww2.info

Eggs & National Public Radio

Few things go better with a leisurely winter Sunday brunch than eggs and NPR radio.

Early this afternoon there was an excellent interview with Gene Roberts, former national editor for The New York Times and co-author of The Race Beat: The Press, The Civil Rights Struggle and the Awakening of America.

In this 2007 Pulitzer Prize-winning book (for history) he and co-author Hank Kilbanoff, a twenty-year veteran of The Philadelphia Inquirer, look back on their experiences as newspaper journalists at the forefront of the coverage of the Civil Rights movement in the 1950's and 1960's.

Jeanette McVicker wrote a really sharp review of the book on the H-Net Website. As she observes, this book is a timely release given the extent to which media is now so intertwined in the lives of so many people.

The media plays such a huge role in shaping the mass-perception of race and culture, our culturegiest, it is essential to examine how the media has and does cover events and stories that impact race and culture in today's world.

Books like this will help us in taking the next step in the journey towards an evolution of how we see ourselves in a world in which the mainstream still gives such tremendous importance to factors like skin color, religion, sex, economic status and country of origin.

Looking back on history and how we analyze our own coverage of the events that shape our lives is critical to our efforts to positively shape the future.

H-Net shows a list price of $30.00 but I just found a used copy of it on Amazon.com for $13.24 including shipping; once I get it and read it I'll check back in with my own review. To be sure I talk, but I also walk.

Decontstructing the Snitch

Bringing healing to our nation's collective culturegeist depends in part on the fair application of a judicial system that is efficient and thorough. The prosecution often turns to the testimony of witnesses in order to try and get to the truth, depending on which side you're on you might see such a witness as a here doing a civic duty or a snitch.

Someone considered a snitch isn't automatically someone of low or questionable character, like Dr. Jeffrey Wigand, pictured above left, the former tobacco executive who revealed secret information about tobacco production at Brown & Williamson that forever changed the way people look at cigarettes and the industry that manufactures them.

In some cases snitches are people of exceptional courage who risk everything for the sake of the truth.

The recent murder of veteran journalist Chauncey Bailey, 57 (pictured above right) by a 19 year-old gunman employed by Your Black Muslim Bakery, a Los Angeles organization linked to fraud, violence and a range of other crimes and the subject of an expose by Bailey. Other journalists, including Chris Thompson have accused Your Black Muslim Bakery of being a cult headed by the infamous Bey family.

But there's been a strange tendency in some African American communities to vilify any residents who cooperate with the police in the investigations of crimes committed in or around neighborhoods disproportionately affected by crime.

It stems in part from years of mistrust and fractured relationships between police and the communities they are sworn to serve and protect. Or sometimes it's merely a case of an organization striking back at those deemed to have challenged its authority or status by "snitching" against it.

Sadly, in the absence of sufficient accessible male role models, many young black kids from these communities often look to the example set by hip-hop and rap artists who often treat "snitches" with scorn and contempt in their music. In some cases it's like a neighborhood "code" of sorts; you don't rat out people from your 'hood to the police.

That's not confined to communities of color either, the same code applied to many immigrant neighborhoods in US cities before 1900.

On this morning's Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC radio, one of the guests was writer Ethan Brown, the author of a new book called Snitch: Informants, Cooperators and the Corruption of Justice

You can get it on Amazon.com for under 20 bucks. He examines some very interesting aspects of the snitch phenom, including the fact that thugs and criminals use it to intimidate witnesses so they can continue criminal activities in these communities.

A former NYPD LT called in to say narcotics officers have to use snitches to prosecute drug cases and emphasized that snitches must be registered with the police and monitored carefully; and they cannot have violent criminal histories.

I was the victim of an ID theft situation a few years ago by a man named Warren Evan Johnson, click this link to a 2005 press release by the New Jersey Attorney General's office. Johnson, 34 at the time, was part of a ring of people who bilked the the state of New Jersey's Unemployment Insurance program for almost $120,000.

Police from Middlesex County would not help me because Evan had agreed to testify on behalf of the state against the others involved in the unemployment indictment. The things he did to me and others who were victims of of his brazen ID theft violations were essentially shielded by the protective cloak of the snitch.

I knew Evan Johnson. As a person he was a compulsive liar, a ruthless thief and the type who would do just about anything if there were some way for him to get an angle or make a buck off of someone else's misfortune. Evan had no conscience whatsoever.

I can't indict the judicial system's use of snitches but I know Evan Johnson was a liar who would say anything prosecutors told him to say in order to save his own ass; that's the type of person the system needs in order to prosecute criminals?

Will Race Impact the NH Primary?

It's cold throughout much of the country but the Iowa and New Hampshire Caucuses are heating up. I've done my own informal poll of sorts, asking people how they feel about Barack Obama's race influencing voter's likelihood of voting for him for president.

For instance I asked a friend from Fishkill, New York. He's a 46 year old white guy who sells printers and other office technology to large government organizations. He's a registered Republican, travels frequently across the Northeast US and is totally disillusioned with the Bush Administration and the GOP, especially their entrance into and conduct of the war in Iraq.

He told me he's not intoxicated with with any one candidate, but that right now Obama seems to be delivering the message that makes the most sense to him. He said Obama's race wouldn't affect his decision to vote for him. Like many I've spoken with, they respect Hillary but don't trust her and definitely don't like her.

Tonight I watched an interesting political discussion on The News Hour on Channel Thirteen with some poll experts. One was from the University of New Hampshire Survey Center, if you get tired of the media pundits telling you what the polls are saying, go to the UNHSC Website, they've got some pretty interesting poll information in PDF if you want to look at the data in more detail.

"The Love of Liberty Brought Us Here"

The motto of the Republic of Liberia seems at odds with a nation wrestling to find ways to integrate thousands of child soldiers into mainstream society; children permanently scarred by decades of civil wars and regional conflicts with neighboring nations.


On December 14th New York Times reporter Ellen Barry wrote an article examining the incredible trans-Atlantic solution Staten Island resident Musu Sirleaf took to try and shield her teenage son Augustus Massalee from the violence, poverty and lack of economic opportunities available to young African-American males living in the isolated Park Hill section of Staten Island.

In a story that sheds light on the complexity and scope of both the damage inflicted upon and the hope created by the culturegeist, Barry looks at Ms. Sirleaf's controversial decision to send her own son back to live with her relatives in the same war-torn African nation she herself fled as a refugee.

My sister Lisa forwarded me the article and like many who read it my first question was how could a mother send her son back to live in an African country ravaged by a brutal civil war for over 14 years without telling him?

Ellen Barry's article contains some startling insights into the everyday realities of life for young boys of color born into communities like Park Hill. Is Ms. Sirleaf's choice typical?

Certainly not, in fact there are some who might find her decision extreme, even bordering on dangerous or draconian. But if it is tough love, it is a piercing snapshot - a sad testimony of just how serious the levels of violence, drug trafficking and gang violence have become in countless communities across America.

Think about it. Here's a West African nation founded before the Civil War and Emancipation took place in the United States.

Freed slaves from America were populating Liberia as early as 1822; determined to escape the government-enforced laws which kept millions of slaves of African descent in a state of indentured servitude.

Flash forward about 185 years - the violence in the streets of Park Hill, Staten Island, New York is so bad a working mother sends her teenage son to live in this West African nation gripped by civil war.

The same cycles born of greed, fear, violence and moral apathy that permitted the tolerance of an institution like slavery in the United States until Abraham Lincoln proclaimed the executive order known as the Emancipation Proclamation on September 22, 1862 - these cycles continue today, in areas of both Liberia and America.

The nation of Liberia was founded along the west coast of Africa by former slaves from the Caribbean and America with a government modeled after the US Constitution in 1847.

Liberia's troubled history is replete with examples of economic exploitation of human and natural resources and government overthrows; today the country's newly elected president, the first female African head of state in modern African history Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf faces a daunting task.

Has the nation simply written off communities like Park Hill?

We're sending US troops to defend democracy in foreign nation? Who's helping the residents of our nation's poorest urban communities enjoy the fruits of democracy?

If we're not careful the gap between socio-economic realities in this nation is going to become so great, we're going to find ourselves a nation that isn't one nation under God at all.

Dr. King - Spiritual Freestyling for Mahalia?

(Photo by Bob Adelman)

I got a spiritual chill tonight while I was watching the Tavist Smiley show on Channel Thirteen this evening and one of his guests was the noted photographer Bob Adelman.

The photographer talked with Tavist about some of the famous photographs he took during the Civil Rights struggle in the 1960's; many of them chronicled in a book called Mine Eyes Have Seen.

Like the photo (pictured left), which was taken by Adelman in Birmingham, Alabama in May of 1963.

It shows black protesters being hosed by members of the Birmingham Police.

Adelman worked with civil rights groups like the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) in an effort to use photography to document the struggle for justice and equality in the south.

One of his most interesting stories concerned the infamous black and white photo of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. during the famous address he gave in front of the Lincoln Monument in Washington, DC.

Photographer Bob Adelman

Adelman (pictured left) managed to inch his way forward through the massive crowds gathered on the Mall where he shot 3 rolls of film; the most famous photo shows Dr. King as he reaches the apex of the "I Have a Dream Speech".

According to Adelman, after King was at the podium for some time speaking, at about 12 minutes into the speech, he paused as the crowd applause swelled and a woman loudly urged Dr. King, "Tell 'Em about the dream Martin!"

The woman was none other than unparalleled gospel singer Mahalia Jackson, who later sang a stirring rendition of "How I Got Over" after King's speech.

Adelman says that in response to  Jackson's urging, Dr. King reached up and removed the sheets of paper with his speech written on them and put them into his pocket.

He then proceeded into the uplifting and hair-raising "I Have a Dream" portion of the speech which is recognized as the apex of the speech; none of it was scripted.

Something about the moment Adeleman described struck me as so profound, so powerful; so full of hope and healing.

I wondered to myself, had Dr. King shared this vision with Mahalia Jackson before the speech? Did he plan to share it with the crowd that day?

What a conversation that must have been. Words like that can only come from the deepest of spiritual places.

Did those words just spill out of his heart?

Watch the speech:

FCC Changes Could Impact Minority Ownership of Radio & Television Stations

Monitoring the way the media reports on issues related to race and culture is one of the main reasons I started this blog. With so many Americans logging on, tuning in, downloading, uploading and sharing content these days - the media plays a pivotal role in how our collective culturegeist, the very nature of our cultural and racial identity is shaped.

Last night I stayed up to watch some of the testimony of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Commissioners (Commissioner Deborah Taylor Tate pictured above)as they were grilled on C-SPan in front of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee in preparation for a scheduled December 18th vote on proposed rule changes to the cross-ownership ban the commissioners argue Congress grants them the right to alter in light of the evolution of today's media environment.

Making it easier for large media organizations to own more media outlets isn't exactly looking to the interest of diversity of ownership in media and a number of people feel the FCC is rushing to vote on this before getting feedback from those who would be most impacted.

If you're not familiar with the FCC and what they do, take some time to get at least a cursory understanding of their role and oversight responsibilities. It's important that all Americans do.

Who was at the table testifying? FCC Chairman Kevin Martin; FCC Commissioners Michael Copps, Jonathan Adelstein and Robert McDowell; and Deborah Taylor Tate, FCC commissioner and chairman of the Federal-State Joint Board on Universal Service.

I watched the prepared statements delivered by Deborah Taylor Tate and and Robert McDowell. Both Republican Commissioners also got teary-eyed and nostalgic as they thanked outgoing US Senator Trent Lott for his years of service in a gush of emotion. My take was that they both spent an exceedingly long time waxing philosophic about how much media has changed, repeating themselves with lists of iPods, podcasts, digital cable, network television etc.

Each of us knows about the plethora of choices we all have in the way we consume media - my sense is they came off as trying to side-step the big issues. Essentially and I'm not an expert, the FCC is granted the authority to make adjustments in rules that govern who can own media outlets.

So if, for example there are too few companies controlling the majority of media outlets, the FCC can make it more difficult for a company to own newspapers, radio stations and television stations in the same city or market. But they can also do the opposite.

The FCC flat out refused to delay the vote scheduled for next week when Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.) asked them to do so.

Many public advocate and media watchdog groups are concerned that relaxing the restrictions imposed by the FCC on companies wanting to own different media outlets in a given city, region or market is going to hurt the chances for companies primarily controlled or owned by minorities or women to bid for, or obtain licenses to operate television and radio stations in the US.

I'm not suggesting that Tribune or Fox doesn't have a right to own a variety of stations and cable channels, but there is also an inherent and compelling interest in making sure that there is some degree of diversity amongst the make up of the executives who own and control the companies that create and distribute the content that Americans access.

You can check out the videotaped testimony of the FCC Commissioners and the Q&A by the members of the Senate Committee on C-Span for yourself and form your own conclusion.

Ebony Magazine Axes 3 Top Executives

As a quick follow up to my post-Thanksgiving blog on Ebony Magazine's recent cover story on Michael Jackson, the following article published on the Folio Website on November 27th details an executive shake-up at the magazine in the wake of slumping ad revenue figures. The dip in ad sales at Ebony and Jet are being felt by magazine publishers all over the US but the magazine isn't helping itself by offering up 'puff pieces' like the Jackson article.

My criticism stems from a belief that Jackson has shaped the nation's culturegeist in innumerable ways through the impact of his music which changed MTV and paved the way for Hip Hop and rap music to become a part of the mainstream entertainment industry. Read below:

Three Top Execs Fired at Johnson Publishing
Ebony and Jet publisher looks to stem advertising slide.
By Jason Fell 11/27/2007

Three top-level executives were laid off Monday from the Johnson Publishing Company, publishers of Ebony and Jet magazines.

The departure of those executives--Jeff Burns, Ebony senior vice president and associate publisher; Ebony senior vice president and Midwest advertising director Dennis Boston; and Barbara Rudd, Ebony vice president and Western advertising director--was confirmed by the publisher.

On the heels of the layoffs, Nijole S. Yutkowitz was named vice president and group advertising director for Ebony and Jet. Yutkowitz formerly served as national advertising director for Jet.

"We've decided to merge our advertising leadership to be more cohesive, especially to meet the changing landscape of the advertising world," Johnson spokesperson Wendy Parks told FOLIO:, noting that she does not expect any additional layoffs. When asked about the circumstances surrounding the individual layoffs, Parks declined to comment.

Burns, who was reached by phone Tuesday evening, said he was "shocked" by his sudden termination, and indicated that the three layoffs may indeed be connected. He said the decision came down from president and CEO Linda Johnson Rice, daughter of company founder John H. Johnson.

"The company is restructuring and slimming down, and trying to run mean and lean," Burns said. "They're trying to turn around the slide in advertising, which has of course affected the entire advertising industry." Through September, Ebony was down 8.7 percent in ad revenue ($46.5 million) and 10.3 percent in ad pages, when compared to the same period last year, according to Publishers Information Bureau figures. Jet was down roughly six percent in both ad revenue and pages over the same period.

Burns said he had pioneered unconventional marketing campaigns during his tenure with Johnson, having helped create several signature event marketing programs including Ebony's annual Outstanding Women in Marketing and Communications awards and Ebony's annual Hollywood in Harlem film festival. "If you're in a period when you're trying to increase and hold on to sales, you want your strongest, most creative sales representative on board to do just that," said Burns.

Neither Boston nor Rudd could immediately be reached for comment.

Mental Issues Afflict Thousands of Children Displaced by Katrina

Years after the nation watched in horror as thousands of people of all races struggled to deal with the after-effects of the coastal flooding caused by Hurricane Katrina, the New York Times reported in Friday's paper that thousands of children who's families were uprooted and forced to move, are experiencing a range of mental and physical symptoms linked to the traumatic post-hurricane experiences.

From depression, behavioral changes, rashes and poor performance in school to suicide, the US Government's failure typified by FEMA's response in the day's immediately following the flooding is still claiming victims to this day.

A-Train Attack Camera Hound Identified

As the A-Train Attack gains momentum today's New York Post reports that the now notorious and shocking videotape was shot by 17-year old Kadejra Holmes of Harlem between the Rockaway Boulevard and Broadway Junction A-Train stops.

The young auteur learned her craft in TRUCE, (The Renaissance University for Community Education) which appears to be a city youth program that teaches filmmaking to Harlem kids.

The Post reports that efforts to confirm the authenticity of the film are currently underway.

A lot remains to be seen in this case, Holmes is due in court on December 11th after she was arrested on September 3rd along with another unidentified juvenile for an assault of a 24 year old woman on a J-Train.

Did she just happen to be there with her camera? Or was she involved? Was this staged?

Detective's MP3 Blunder Catches NYPD Red-Handed

I think the culturegeist is served by justice and fair enforcement of the laws. One of the most difficult issues about race in America relates to the glaring inequities in a legal system that disproportionately treats defendants of color differently.

Charges of excessive use of force or illegal tactics used by some members of the NYPD against black or Hispanic defendants in the arrest or interrogation phase are frequently dismissed as concocted accusations of racism. But tonight on the 11pm Channel 7 Eyewitness News broadcast an "Exclusive Report" aired about a bombshell revelation in a Bronx court.

An NYPD officer identified as Detective Christopher Perino has perjured himself in a court case after the defendant, Erik Crespo who was 17 at the time, revealed in court that he had an MP3 recording of the interrogation in which the detective clearly threatens to prevent the defendant from seeing a judge in an effort to coerce a confession about a gun apparently used in a shooting in an elevator on Christmas Day, 2005.

The recording was revealed by the defense only after Detective Perino testified falsely under oath that he had neither questioned the then-17 year-old alone repeatedly about the gun in question. Once the tape was revealed, the prosecution immediately tried to cut a deal with the defense according to defense attorney Mark DeMarco.

Details are hard to find online as I write this as the story doesn't appear to be on their 7 Online Website at the moment but I'm curious why Channel 7 presented it as an "Exclusive" as the story appeared in this morning's New York Post?

Maybe because the story is buried in an article on the bottom left-hand side of page 29 - an article about the plight of recently deceased hotel "Queen of Mean" Leona Helmsley's dog Trouble takes up 3/4 of page 19.

White Subway Passenger Beaten By Gang of Black Teenagers

I just finished watching a tape of a nasty blight on the country's culturegeist, I've blogged about people using video to capture racism on tape before, but for the first time since the truck driver Reginald Denney was pulled from the cab of his truck at an intersection in South Central during the LA riots and nearly beaten to death by a hysterical mob, the media is captivated with an image of an innocent white person being attacked by black people who appear to be out of control.

Once again, technology helps to lift up the proverbial rock and this time we are reminded that ignorant racist acts don't just happen to people of color.

By now the infamous video clip of an emotionally-charged group of, what appear to be, black teenagers on a New York City subway verbally accosting and then physically beating a lone white passenger is being seen on computer screens across the globe.

Among other Websites, TheSmokingGun.com has posted the video and generated an array of viscious, hate-filled commentary penned by intellectuals with charming screen names like "IH8Mexicans" (really...) who've unleashed a slew of racist commentary as a means to vent internalized prejudices and stereotypical generalizations.

But there are also some like me who are simply fed up. Someone on the SmokinGun.com observed correctly that if there was no videotape of the incident, and the guy had pulled out a gun and shot one or more of them - there would be a deafening outcry by some African-Americans and an obligatory press conference on the 6pm news by an indignant Al Sharpton.

Why don't I see more outrage from African-Americans like myself and others who are disgusted by what I see on the tape?

When someone like Bill Cosby or Jesse Jackson and other prominent African-American figures attempt to raise issues related to the public behavior of some young black girls and boys who are disproportionately products of economically disadvantaged urban areas, they're often attacked by members of the black community who accuse him of taking aim at an already maligned minority.

Chiding him (and others) for siding with the same people who see them as stereotypes; even less than human sometimes.

Too often African-Americans as a people shy away from the uncomfortable realities the extensive social problems produced by the institutionalized racism and prejudiced woven into the thread of this nation.

Some members of the black press ripped into Jesse Jackson some years ago when he confessed that he felt nervous walking the streets of Washington, DC alone at night when he saw large groups of young African-American males walking towards him.

Take a look at the video, when I watched it all I could think was; "What the hell is the matter with these kids?". Marginalized economically, products of a public education system that has failed them and apparently completely disconnected from the repercussions of their actions.

The only positive in this mess is that it was captured on tape and the footage is clear enough that the faces of some of them can be identified by the NYPD and MTA authorities; and the kids, as well as their parents will be identified. Until all Americans can have a constructive dialogue about incidents like this, it will continue to infect our collective culturegeist like a virus.

Turkey, Michael Jackson & Black Media

Given that challenges related to division and separation are frequently the subject of this blog, it's nice to think about Thanksgiving. While US presidents from Washington to Lincoln declared 'Days of Thanksgiving' it was actually Franklin Delano Roosevelt who set the 4th Thursday of each November as the official day of recognition for the holiday in the US - it was approved by Congress in 1941.

I've enjoyed my Thanksgiving holiday, family, food, friends and football. But one of my favorite parts is reading all the magazines my mother receives at home that I normally do not take time to read unless I am here.

I was raised in a household with a lot of reading material around, books, magazines, newspapers etc., so I've been reading Ebony magazine on and off for more than two decades. Ebony is something of a staple for many African-American households. Rare is the black barbershop that doesn't have old issues of Ebony and Jet laying around.

Ebony was created in the same style as Life Magazine; just take a look at the lettering and logo in the upper left corner of the cover.

Langston Hughes penned an interesting take on the history of the magazine in 1965.

The cover of the December, 2007 issue featured Michael Jackson and I read through the cover story to see what the oft-maligned "King of Pop" was up to these days. Seems our fleet-footed friend has been living on an estate outside of Dublin where he's been writing material for a rumored album slated for 2008 or 2009 release.

He also reflects upon his career, the creation of Thriller and the state of contemporary music. If you're expecting to get an explanation on how one of the children who've accused him of child molestation could identify distinctive birth marks on the elusive star's penis you'll be disappointed.

Ebony, much like Life is given more to "puff" pieces in it's coverage of celebrities, the story, while it does feature an interview with Jackson, comes off as pretty 'safe' and right in synch with the Jackson camp.

Given the treatment and coverage of people of color by the mainstream media, (replete, by the way with 'puff' magazines...) saturated with negative images of blacks over the years, I think it's still important to have a magazine that portrays African-Americans in a positive light.

Regardless of whether or not the stories go into Vanity Fair-like detail, it continues to serve an important purpose and an audience that recognizes the brand as familiar and even comforting.

Kudos to John H. Johnson and the editorial staff over the years.

While headquartered in Chicago, the New York offices seem like they could use a little brushing up on the importance of the brand. My sister went over to the offices of Ebony & Jet for an interview recently and noted the curious absence of any magazine covers, logos or even photos adorning the walls of it's Big Apple offices.

As she observed, you be hard-pressed to even realize that the magazine was even associated with the office at all.

Support for 'Sippenhaft' by Some Swiss Signals Growing Racial Divide

In recent years there have been steady reports in the media concerning an unsettling rise in the number of groups that embrace right-wing neo Nazi ideology in Europe.

An October 4th New York Times story highlighted the attempts of the Swiss People's Party, or SVP, a right-wing Swiss political organization, the largest in the Swiss federal parliment, headed by Christoph Blocher, a billionaire who also serves as the nation's justice minister.

The SVP garnered headlines when they created a flag (pictured above left) with images of a group of white sheep kicking out a black sheep. The SVP also mass-mailed the image on postcards to homes throughout Switzerland and even plastered the image on billboards.

SVP members argue that government statistics indicate that approximately 70% of the Swiss prison population are non-Swiss. Lawmakers are attempting to pass legislation that would make it mandatory to deport the entire family of any foreign-born juvenile found guilty of a crime. Tactics the Nazi's used to deport thousands of people from Germany, a process known as Sippenhaft, or kin liability.

The flag seemed to have an affect, on October 22, 2007 the BBC website reported that the SVP won 29% of the vote and gained seven seats on the national council.

It's important to note that many Swiss citizens, including the president of the country were outraged and offended by the SVP 'Sheep Flag'. And marches and rallies by SVP supporters have been disrupted by violent clashes by anti-SVP protesters.

Anti-immigrant feelings are not unique to Switzerland or Belgium, England, France, Germany and Italy are all dealing with internal unrest over the presence of large foreign populations - particularly those of Muslim descent.

It is the trend of these anti-immigrant feelings turning to violence that is most concerning.

On Thursday October 11, 2007 I blogged about the horrifying case of 19-year old Hans Van Themsche (the son of the founder a right-wing anti-immigrant Belgian political front) who shot and killed Oulematou Niangadou, an African nanny from Mali and Luna Drowart the two-year old in her care while the two were in a public park in broad daylight.

Von Themsche later confessed to police that he had planned to kill at least five foreigners; he was subdued after he wounded a woman of Turkish descent and was shot in the stomach by police.

It will be interesting to watch how the SVP Swiss election results of fall '07 affect other countries in Europe. With populations worried about their national identity and a growing multicultural makeup becoming more of a European reality, time will certainly tell.

FBI Report on Race Reveals Disturbing Trends for US Racial Relations

An FBI report released on Monday, November 19th presents some disturbing data from police departments across America that show some 7,722 reported criminal incidents of behavior based on racial bias.

The figure represents a sharp 7.8% increase from the 7,163 incidents reported in 2005.


With the slew of black Americans who've been recipients of copycat 'noose displays' in the wake of the Jena 6 incident, various degrees of hysteria surrounding anti-immigrant backlash across the nation and growing signs of rising cultural intolerance in communities across America there are some serious wrinkles in the fabric of our Culturegeist.

Are racial relations in the US taking a turn for the worse?

The data comes from 12,000 of the 17,000 communities and break down to 5,449 against individuals, and 3,593 against property or "society at large" which might include churches, synagogues, cemeteries, and schools.

58.6% of the 7,330 offenders were identified as white, 20.6% as black and 12.9% of other backrounds/nationalities etc.

These stats seem to point to noticeable rise in the level of fear and insecurity of many people in communities of various socioeconomic, and racial makeups. Is it a result of an overall rise in tensions that relate to 911 and terrorism and the subsequent invasion and occupation of Iraq?

How is it that in 2007 Americans seem to be reverting back to manifestations of prejudice, fear and intolerance that seem more at home with the 1950's and 1960's?

Kudos to the FBI and Justice Department for releasing the stats but our government needs to be assuming a larger and more active role in examining the root of these trends.

Is mainstream media doing enough to report this turn in the state of race relations?

The Culturegeist is shifting and people of all ethnicities and racial backgrounds should be aware of it.

Jarrel Gray, 20, Becomes Latest Young African-American Man to Die at the Hands of Police

Another young man of color fell victim to aggressive police tactics in an autumn that has seen an unsettling series of escalating physical confrontations with fatal results.

Jarrel Gray was allegedly confronted by Frederick County Deputies after he was involved in a fight after a party early on the morning of Sunday, November 18th.

According to a report on the WBAL Website the victim's mother claims her son was deaf in one ear and might possibly have not heard the officer's commands. After an altercation with police, Gray was tasered and later died.

One of the most detailed accounts of the incident seems to come from The Register, a Canadian Website which carried the story.

Will New Justice Dept. Chief Address Gonzales' Bungling?

One of the most glaring examples/remnants of the Alberto Gonzales-led Justice Department with more allegiance to the Bush White House than to actual justice, is US Attorney Rachel K. Paulose of Minnesota. (pictured left)

Paulose was one of many attorneys who replaced more seasoned prosecutors and DOJ managers with more experience at the behest of the White House because of her unwavering loyalty to the President.

Now new DOJ head Michael B. Mukasey is faced with an opportunity to step in and set the tone for his tenure. What can the American people expect?

Paulose, the daughter of Indian immigrants, a Yale Law School grad and a member of the conservative lawyer's group the Federalist Society, is accused of an abrasive management style that led three of her top staff members to step down from their administrative functions in April according to an article in today's New York Times.

Accusations that the Federalist Society serves as a mechanism for consistently advancing a right-wing agenda have made over the years by many groups.

Will Mukasey fire this inexperienced right-wing yes-man and replace her with someone actually qualified to manage the Minnesota office? Or will we see the first concrete evidence that Mukasey is merely another Gonzales in another guise?

Is Prejudice Seeping Into Science?

A well-written piece by Amy Harmon in Sunday's New York Times raises old questions of race, genetics and our perceptions of ourselves. New questions hovering around supposed scientific proofs reinforcing the supposed superiority or inferiority of people with different physical characteristics are once again grabbing media attention.

Once again we are witnessing attempts to cloak the irrationality and fear-based insecurity of thinking warped by prejudice in the folds of science.

Aside from attracting media attention it raises the question - at what point does objective scientific analysis begin to become subject to the ingrained prejudices of those whom laymen look to, or qualify as scientific experts?

There have been numerous attempts over the course of history to use questionable scientific conclusions or flat out bogus theories to prove racial superiority.

It brings to mind the infamous 'Piltdown Man', an alleged early human ancestor found near Uckfield, East Sussex, UK. For years members of the scientific community attempted to use Piltdown man to undermine the existence of fossils proving that mankind originated in Africa.

NPR's News & Notes, On Point Radio

Thursday night's 10pm "News and Notes" program on WNYC had a really in-depth and spot-on conversation of substance about the current state of the black family in America.

Oft-mention were Bill Cosby's now infamous and brutally frank comments on the issue. I think both he and Dr. Alvin Poussaint have an important message that merit's the ear of a much larger audience.

Here you've got two highly-regarded media savvy African-Americans with the guts to talk about dirty-laundry issues like the behavior of some African-American children in public and the need for blacks as a community to confront and take a greater responsibility for the bringing together the highly diverse elements within the black community.

Huge need for more dialogue here regardless of one's take on the issue.

There was also agreement amongst the guests on the program that these are broader social indicators that are by no means limited to the African-American community. These issues cut across the expanse of our culturegeist.

Harvard University Step Show Turns Into Melee

This is an interesting story. At an after-party for the Harvard Society of Black Scientists and Engineers a brawl broke out on the dance floor while the DJ was spinning a cut with the lyrics:

"Yeah we knuckin’ and buckin’ and ready to fight...See me, I ain’t nothin’ nice.”

Harvard? You can't say it's the song.

What's going on in the culturegeist of that crowd?

Stan O'Neal Set to Depart Merrill Lynch as CEO

The only thing more surprising than seeing a black Wall Street executive on the cover of today's Wall Street Journal was the staggering $8.4 billion third-quarter write down that will close the curtain on Stan O'Neal's tenure at US financial behemoth Merrill Lynch.

While O'Neal (pictured left)is widely credited with returning the company to profitability after coming on board as president in 2001 - he later became CEO and chairman of the board, the supposedly aloof O'Neal irked many members of "Mother Merrill's" ranks of entrenched, loyal, and some say most experienced, executives and trimmed the members of management who didn't fall in line with his more expansive vision for the company's direction.

The mortgage crisis has and will claim a lot of casualties from the ranks of Wall Street but O'Neal is the highest ranking so far. A former GM executive and unquestionably the highest-ranking African-American Wall Street executive in history, O'Neal will likely leave with a package worth well over $100 million.

Irrespective of how much blame he shoulders for a global credit crunch, O'Neal's personal story is an amazing story of transformation. His ascension through the executive ranks of one of Wall Streets largest firms has had an immeasurable effect on the nation's perception of Wall Street and the scope of his professional achievements in an industry that is notoriously lacking in diversity has forever altered the culturegeist.

Props to Stan for rocking the culturegeist.

Who the !@#$ Would Murder Flamingo's?

Animals are part of our the collective culturegeist too and we don't like it when they're senselessly killed. Some sicko broke into a Frankfurt, Germany zoo and beheaded three Flamingos and strangled another.

Sounds like some cement-head is about to graduate from Serial Killer U....

More Racist Noose Mail for Brooklyn HS Principal

The horrifying wildfires going on out in California understandably grabbed the front page headlines of the New York Post on Tuesday October 23rd but near the fold on page nine was an article about the principal of a predominantly African-American high school in Brooklyn, NY who was the latest reported recipient of a noose.

Accompanying the shockingly offensive symbol of vicious hatred was an equally degrading letter addressed to principal Tyona Washington.

While personally I think this was better than page nine at least the Post ran the story.

Oh, also tucked away on page nine to the right of the latest noose incident, a 3/4 page photo of "embattled" rapper Foxy Brown (aka Ingrid Marchand)and an unflattering account of her getting tossed in solitary confinement for 76 days out on Rikers Island for allegedly getting into a brawl with another female inmate.

Damn, could the day be rougher on a sister?

Enough

The culturegeist has spoken. In the wake of DOJ section head John Tanner's comments, appalling inaction by the Justice Department to take action and enforce hate crimes laws in the midst of a nation-wide epidemic of displays of nooses and other forms of hate messages, civil rights leaders today called for a November 16th march on the Justice Department.

The culturegeist of America is restless and stirring. People of all nationalities, religions and backgrounds, people around the world are outraged at the void of government action to confront this issue and send a message.

This isn't the America we signed on for.

Tanner First Dept. of Justice Section Head to Publicly Demonstrate Cultural Stupidity

It comes as no surprise that the chief of the Justice department's Civil Rights Division's voter's rights section John Tanner was recently quoted in front of a group from the National Latino Congreso in Los Angeles as saying: "...our society is such that minorities don't become elderly the way white people do. They die first."

TPM Muckraker offers some startling details.

This is where you can look inside the wounds of our collective culturegeist. This is look at one part of the core of reasons racism and prejudice persists as major social problems in the US today.

Back in *May I blogged about the lack of diversity amongst DOJ staff when Alberto Gonzales was under fire. Roberta Baskin of WJLA TV in Washington, DC brought attention to the fact that only two of the 250 attorneys in the Justice Department's civil rights division were black - there were two back in 1968.

(*click on May, 2007 and scroll down to the entry)

So now we hear that John Tanner is the man running the department responsible for enforcing the laws that protect the rights of Americans; and he's basically an ignorant bigot devoid of the sense God bestowed upon an ass. He approved a Georgia law requiring voters to show photo ID before voting at polls.

It's beyond appalling and as of Sunday, October 21st, Barack Obama was the only presidential candidate saying anything about it. Sunday's New York Times reported Obama had called on members of both political parties to demand Tanner's removal.

Louisiana Elects First Indian-American Governor

His parents were from India. He grew up in the burbs. He's got a conservative track record that earned him the support of regions of the Louisiana that supported former Klansman David Duke's run for the US Senate. Now Bobby Jindal is the Katrina-wracked state's first non-white governor since Reconstruction.

(Not that Dave would've been lonely DC, Sen. Robert Byrd is a former member of the Ku Klux Klan as well...)

But props to Bobby, this election will certainly have ripples across the American political landscape and it's already sending ripples across the cultural spectrum as well. It will be interesting to see how this impacts a growing Indian-American political voice and how it will alter our collective culturegeist.

Winter of Discontent?

Halloween? Thanksgiving? Egads, Christmas?

When I look honestly at my thoughts about the approaching fall, winter and the slew of holiday-related activities, many of the things that come to mind are related to things. Stuff. Material objects.

Prosperity is the byproduct of many things. Patience, charity, hard work, diligence, belief, dedication, education, preparation, good fortune and yes, sometimes just plain old luck. Those can work together in many different combinations or alone.

The concept of prosperity is entwined in the threads that, woven together comprise the fabric of this nation. The America I envision balances prosperity for all into the equation. But on the heels of the sub-prime mess, a weak US dollar, high fuel prices and spikes in layoffs coupled with headline-grabbing cut backs at companies from AOL to Motorola economic indicators aren't looking good at the moment.

To mark the anniversary of Black Monday, the Dow took a huge loss on Friday.

So it hurts when I read this and I'm concerned.

It's going to be a long, hard winter for many people in this country; is this the kind of country we want to be? We just kind of tolerate the idea that the nature of our economy will include millions of people who manage to stay just above the poverty line?

Remember many of these people are working full time and more.

The gap that divides along economic lines widens. Again. Is that promoting the general welfare of our nation?

Gary, Indiana Police Officer Jeffrey Westerfield Goes Beyond Call of Duty to Assist Black Teens After Car Accident

Officer Westerfield was the first to arrive on the scene of a horrific vehicle accident on September 15, 2007. Despite one of the blood-soaked survivors desperately insisting his two friends were down in a ravine in need of help, the apparently unconvinced Westerfield didn't bother looking.

Westerfield apparently couldn't be bothered with something as tiresome as searching for two accident victims; one of the victim's fathers arrived on the scene 6 hours later and located the bodies 15 - 20 feet away from the accident.

Funeral home representatives assert bruising on the bodies make it clear both victims were alive for some time after the accident.


In unrelated news the Gary, Police department are being investigated by the FBI for unspecified reasons.

Belgian Teen Expresses Hatred of Foreigners by Murdering an Innocent African Woman and the 2 Year-Old in Her Care

19 year-old Hans Von Themsche seen leftwas sentenced to 30 years in prison by a Belgian court for shooting and killing Oulematou Niangadou (pictured far left along with fellow victim Luna Drowart), a nanny from Mali in a park in broad daylight in 2006; when the 2 year-old toddler Niangadou was caring for began crying, Von Themsche shot and killed her as well.

Von Tehmsche, the son of the founder of a right-wing anti-immigrant group, told authorities he'd hoped to randomly murder 5 foreigners in Antwerp where the racist shooting spree took place but only managed to murder the nanny and the toddler and wounding a woman of Turkish descent before being shot in the stomach by police.

For years the right-wing Vlaams Blok party has generated support amongst the Flemish population in the north of Belgium by playing off cultural unease with a growing population of foreigners, many of them Muslim.

While Vlaams Blok positions itself as a nationalist political organization, some critics claim it is little more than a racist front.

Like Ex-GOP Strategist Lee Atwater, Harry Dent Regreted Manipulating Racial Divisions for Votes

As the world marks the Friday, September 28th passing of Republican strategist Harry S. Dent it must be remembered that he used his considerable creative political talents and drive to help the Republican party craft it's divisive "southern strategy" politics in the 1960's and worked on behalf of southern pro-segregationist GOP members of Congress.

The Republican party has never shied away from capitalizing on the air of fear, mistrust and resentment that were byproducts of the civil rights movement that began to gain prominence in the world media and bring social injustice and racism into the national spotlight.

If Dent lagged behind his moral conscience, he managed to catch up to it as his health began to wain as he admitted regret at some of the choices he had made during his political life.

Lee Atwater regretted the Willie Horton ads too when he was laying in a hospital bed dying of brain cancer.

Deaf to Sound and Reason?

Abraham Lincoln signed the original charter of Gallaudet College in Washington, DC when the school for the deaf was established in 1864 by an Act of Congress.

A recent incident in which the words "KKK" were scrawled on the body of a deaf Gallaudet student by six white and one black student from a high school situated on the grounds of the college campus.

The attackers range in age from 15 to 19. It's a pretty diverse student body so the incident doesn't seem logical on the surface. Particularly since a black student allegedly took part in the attack.

One doesn't particularly associate incidents of racism with Gallaudet, but that doesn't mean cultural issues don't exist just because the members of the student body are deaf.

The "Tawana Brawley-Sharpton" meter goes up a couple notches though. These were supposedly high school students, so it's possible some kind of fight went bad and the group tried to cover up their involvement by attempting to pass it off as a racist incident. Wouldn't be the first time.

French Catholic Priest Brings the Fate of 1.5 Million Ukrainian Jews to Light

French Roman Catholic Priest Patrick Desbois (pictured left holding mic, interviewing a Ukrainian witness to Nazi executions) has spent nearly five years documenting the execution of nearly 1.5 million Jews murdered by Nazis who invaded Russian in 1941.

His interviews with local Ukrainian witness to the executions will help cement eye witness testimony to crimes against humanity that are still yet to be healed.

In 2000 Father Desbois founded Yahad in Unum an organization that focuses on common interfaith interests between Catholics and Jews.

The mission of Father Desbois brings concrete hope to humanity's dedication and commitment to bring spiritual healing to the collective global Culturegeist that has been wounded and scarred by the horrors born of hate, fear, oppression and ignorance.

Michael Medved Reassures Americans That the Slave Trade Really Wasn't That Bad

Culturegeist doesn't recommend bloggers lightly.

Read this blog by Trey Ellis that was posted on Huffingtonpost.

If you want to take a look at where the rubber meets the road as far as self-anointed cultural intellectuals trying to reinterpret historical facts in order to justify their own ingrained prejudice, ignorance and fear, read Ellis' take Michael Medved's (pictured left) recent column, Six Inconvenient Truths About Slavery.

This country isn't perfect but caring about each other is a part of that abstract sense of who we want to be. That's easier than it sounds. Part of living in a nation with such an enormous range of races, religions, languages and backgrounds is that it takes an effort to understand one another.

For those people who view the events of history as an intricate part of the reality we live in, listening to someone deny the holocaust happened offends me. So I'm equally, if not more offended when people attempt to dismantle the reality of the slave trade into little sections so they can be reassembled to conveniently fit into the narrow parameters of the far right wing conservative mindset that infects the media and the Culturegeist of this country like a virus.

People like Bill O'Reilly, Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter and Mike Medved gave up on trying to get to know the Americans who don't look and think like them a long time ago. For the most part they stopped relying on facts to support their arguments and pseudo intellectual rants at about the same time.

They envision an American that does not exist anymore, their ignorance and fear, though repulsive, must be examined and exposed for what it is.

Outrage Sparks Black Lawmakers to Outlaw Bad-Fitting Clothes

Baggy pants belted well below the waist have a become a common, perhaps to some unflattering fashion statement among urban African American kids from areas that are strapped by poverty.

But the look has tested the patience of some members of the African-American community. In communities from Atlanta, GA to Delcambre, LA to Trenton and Philadelphia - some local law makers have had enough.

Arnette Lartigue, a Trenton Councilwoman and Councilman Lincoln Green of Pleasantville are trying to make this style illegal.

Online Video & Social Networking Site Facebook Help College Student Kristy Smith to Share Her Ignorance and Bigotry With Broader Audience

During some of the many dialogues I've had about race, people often ask, "Are things better though? I mean it's 2007."

Well, that's not an easy question to answer, but I'd say no. In many ways US society seems to be reverting in some aspects, in the ways blacks are seen, portrayed and treated.

It's 2007, are we better off when some white college students still think it's funny to put on black-face and party? Do they even really understand what that means? If they don't, why do it?

University of Louisiana-Monroe student Kristy Smith admits she was just fed up with the media coverage of the Jena 6 incident and the subsequent high-profile protests broadcast around the globe.

Her solution? Shoot a no-budget mockumentary complete with 3 white male friends in black-face running around the banks of the Red River in Louisiana reenacting the beating of white high school student Justin Barker by 3 members of the six black teenagers known as the Jena 6.

What's happening in the minds of people living this country?

Memo Proving Gonzales/White House Approved Harsh Physical Torture Methods for CIA Only Proves What Millions Already Knew

Memo to CIA, all White House staff; the Fox News organization; Rush Limbaugh, all WABC political radio hosts, various members of both sides of the House and Senate and millions of Red State residents:We knew.

We blogged about Alberto Gonzales (pictured left)back on May 7, 2007, when it was shown the civil rights arm of the DOJ had the same number of black attorneys as it did in 1978 - two. The blog entry lamented the fact that the DOJ was just an empty husk of what it once was; populated with incompetent political appointees and power hungry lawyers who didn't give a shit about civil rights.

The problem is he isn't a bad human being. He was loyal to the President when Bush was the governor of Texas and W rewarded that by nominating him to the highest position in US law enforcement.

The problem is one that even some conservative members of the GOP acknowledge publicly; that Gonzales was completely out of his league in a major cabinet position heading up the Department of Justice. He was little more than a White House functionary, extending the already formidable reach of the Vice President into the office of the Attorney General.

There's little reason to scapegoat Gonzales, he was just rubber-stamping White House policy. And because he was not his own man, he was unable to step up to his role as the man charged with enforcing the laws of this nation. Sadly for this extrordinarily average non-visionary, history will show he was just another Bush lackey who thought it was a good idea to subvert the ideals of the Constitution and torture people under the guise of defending Democracy.

Members of NJ State Police Form Violent Racist Society After Obsessively Watching 1983 Film Starring David Keith

Recent allegations from a New Jersey State Trooper about the existence of a rogue, racist subculture known as the Lords of Discipline, that exists within a veil of secrecy inside one of the nation's most controversial law enforcement bodies, are not shocking for many African-Americans in New Jersey.

33 year-old former NJ State Trooper Justin Hopson's charges of systematic physical abuse and harassment might just begin to shed some light onto years of allegations of racist behavior of officers from a state that many truck drivers who regularly traverse the heavily traveled New Jersey Turnpike quietly call "The Nazi State".

Ironically the hate-loving white supremacists named their group after the title of a 1983 Pat Conroy novel, completely missing the point of the writer's vivid portrayals of the south's breathtaking natural landscape contrasted against the dark portrayals of insidious demented hate ingrained in some of the characters from his best-selling novels.

I can clearly recall commuting up from Exit 8-A to the Meadowlands five days a week from 1993 - 1995. It was nearly always a given that if Troopers had a car pulled over on the shoulder of the New Jersey Turnpike the occupants were either black or Hispanic. After a growing outcry from members of the minority community, politicians, activists and a wide range of concerned citizens of all backgrounds, media attention began to bring more scrutiny to a police force whose own records show that at one time over 88% of the traffic stops on the New Jersey Turnpike were African-American when blacks comprised about 11% of the state's population.

Blackwater Guards Bring 'Traditional Old West' Approach to Privately Funded Counterinsurgency in Iraq

After more than 200 incidents involving gunfire discharge since 2005, the largest private security contractor in Iraq is about to come under the scrutiny of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform now that they reportedly have State Department documents and Blackwater e-mails to sift through.

Equal Opportunity Abuse of Civilians By Members of the Chicago PD

English teacher Robin Petrovic went out dancing at a nightclub but got danced on by a pissed off member of Chicago's finest after getting into an altercation with a bouncer.

The Petrovic incident joins the 1968 Democratic National Convention, the 1969 deaths of Black Panther members Roger Hampton and Mark Clark and the videotaped February, 2007 beating of Karolina Obryka as a long list of thousands of cases of brutality by the CPD.

Mixed Race Lancashire England Police Officer Cleared of Criminal charges After Mistakenly Claiming 90 Pounds of Expenses for Gasoline

In an investigation that cost 500,000 pounds to prosecute, 37 year-old Detective Constable Jason Lobo was cleared of criminal charges related to department accusations that he falsely claimed 86.50 (UK Pounds) for gasoline.

DA Reconsiders Decision to Try Jen 6 Juvenile After 15,000 Black People Stroll Through Town

LaSalle Parish District Attorney Reed Walters is an experienced local prosecutor who denies any connection exists between the noose hung from a tree by 3 white high school students and the subsequent beating of white student Justin Barker by a group of six black students known as the Jena 6.

He finally ended his bizarre quest to press 2nd-degree battery charges (reduced down from the original 2nd degree attempted murder and conspiracy charges) against teenager Mychal Bell. Bell was finally released from custody today.

Not wishing to leave any doubt as to why he would try and charge high school teenagers as adults on attempted murder charges for a school fight, Walters left no doubt as to which side of the cultural street he stands on.

In discussing the impact of over last week's march of over 15,000 protesters, Walters asserts that "The Lord Jesus Christ put his influence on those people and they responded accordingly."

Boss Hogg on line one! Yeeee haaaaaa!