Tag Hate

Go to the Tape

Michael 4 Comments

Do you ever wonder why? Just – Why, Huh, Really, Yeah, Unbelievable I’ve been doing that a lot lately. Lately there have been a lot of news reports about the charges being filed against the people who attacked the Capitol. In case you are wondering, yes, I did think about that word choice and that is the one I settled on. All you need to do is look at the tape. And that’s where I’m going.

For years, hundreds of years, we’ve settled on a system of innocent until proven guilty. It’s a good system.  The Presumption of Innocence is so good most people assume it’s a guaranteed right. Actually, it isn’t. Due process is. Due process requires certain procedures are followed before a person can be charged with, tried for, or convicted of any illegal act. The Fifth Amendment of the Constitution demands due process in federal cases and the Fourteenth Amendment extends that protection to those accused in state and local cases. Part of due process at the level of conviction is that the accuser meet a “standard of proof.” That’s where things enter the “Really?” realm for me. Stick with me for another minute please.

Because the accuser has to meet a burden of proof is it assumed the accused is innocent until that proof is met. I prefer to think of it as the accused has not been proven guilty. In fact, if you have served on a jury you might recall before deliberations began the judge instructed you and the other jury members that you were to determine if the accused is guilty or not guilty. Nobody voted for innocent.

Eagle eyed wordsmiths will have noticed in the previous paragraph’s opening sentence I used the word “assume” instead of “presume.” If we have to call the current system something it really should be call an Assumption of Innocence, rather than the Presumption of Innocence.  To “presume” supposes there is some unspecified evidence to reach a conclusion; ‘assume’ takes for granted that whatever is supposed is true. That’s really what we have, we are assuming these people are not guilty. If we were to presume anything it would be the other way around. Why? As another great phrase we’ve all heard goes, let’s go to the tape.*

With cameras so ubiquitous you can certainly presume, darn near assume, that nothing happens without a record of it happening, often by those doing what’s happening, I am utterly amazed at what people say they did not do within days of proudly sharing videos of what they just did. That some rebel can grab a battering ram, slug his and/or her way through a locked door, smash through inner doors, steal items out of offices, take pictures of himself and or herself while battering, slugging, smashing, and stealing, and then plead not guilty of all charges just does not compute. “Yes, I went to Washington but I didn’t go inside.” Let’s go to the tape.

This is all happening at the same time news outlets are publishing security camera video of attacks against Asian Americans including a violent assault of an Asian woman on a street right in front of a police car. Let’s go to the tape.

This all got stirred up in my head over the weekend listening to the reports of the trial of that cop who killed George Floyd. (I don’t want to call it the Floyd trial because he isn’t being tried for anything, and I don’t want to call it that cop’s name trial because I don’t want to give him any extra recognition.) Let’s go to the tape.

With few exceptions all of those so far charged have pled not guilty, certainly that’s their right. They can say whatever they want and the system is built that they don’t have to prove they are not lying when they say it. Let’s go to the tape.

ReplayOne of the standards of proof is “Clear and Convincing Evidence,” that it is highly probably to suppose what is presented is how the elements of the action had occurred. On the legal ladder of liability this standard lands on the rung below “Beyond a Reasonable Doubt,” that is the elements of the action had occurred as presented (which although is greater than to suppose the elements are present it does not mean “beyond all doubt” or “beyond a shadow of a doubt” or any other such absolute).

Call me an old fuddy duddy but I’m still of the school that if I see something happening with my eyes, I can pretty much suppose that’s how it went down and those actions did occur. Whether it is breaking door the doors to the Capitol, lifting a pack of gum, pushing an elderly Asian woman into a busy street, or kneeling on somebody until their life is snuffed out, I say we change the standard to “Let’s Go To The Tape.” It’s not just for sports anymore.

*The phrase “Let’s go to the video tape,” sometimes “Let’s go to the audio tape” is attributed to sportscaster Warner Wolf. Wolf published his memoir, Let’s Go to the Videotape: All the Plays and Replays from My Life in Sports, (Grand Central Publishing) with Larry Weisman in 2020.

A Tale of One City

Michael 2 Comments

It was the best of times, it was the worst … no, wait, that’s taken. That’s two cities anyway. How about: it was the best of intentions, it was the worst of intentions. The one city is here, the time was Saturday.

20210321_200444Saturday afternoon might have been one of the better times for this fair city as a small group peacefully assembled with speakers in support of the “Stop Asian Hate” movement, supporting the local and national Asian communities. The diverse group was mostly college aged people with some families and one celebrity who was in town filming a movie. The rally started at a corner a little bit out of the downtown district and after the speakers spoke they move to a nearby park and held a moment of silence for the those slain in Atlanta. It was a good, positive time, Definitely one of the better times. But then again . . .

Earlier Saturday a group of a few hundred gathered at the baseball stadium and accompanied by motorcycle mounted police, they march across a bridge, through town, then to the large state  park that dominates the focal point of downtown. There celebrities, local and state politicians, and candidates for upcoming races assembled to make speeches opposing the ongoing state mask mandate and protesting the results of the 2020 Presidential election. Still. One of the participants spoke about the danger of the right to bear arms “being taken away.” One of the speakers referred to Donald Trump as “the real President of the United States” from the podium. One of the marchers said “freedom is tenuous” when asked about his opposition to the mask mandate.

There is a local TV reporter who each morning posts an inspirational message to her social media accounts. Sunday’s was “Don’t wait for things to get simpler, easier, better. Life will always be complicated. Learn to be happy right now. Otherwise you’ll run out of time.” it’s a great message. The people at the small “Stop Asian Hate” rally would get that. The people at the whatever it was supposed to be rally never could understand that and probably wouldn’t bother to try. Yet those are the people who if they did try and then stopped trying to make everything “better” by their own definition and just be happy that they have the opportunities so many other people around the world do not, there wouldn’t be a danger of not having enough time for happiness. There might be an overabundance of happiness because the rest of the world, the majority of the world I am certain, wouldn’t have to spend so much time protecting themselves from the ones who are never happy.

It’s sad that a small but so loud group of people so desperately clinging to a fantasy still garner so much attention and cause such an extreme amount of hate that a peaceful group of people, ones of all ages, colors and ethnicities, are held hostage by the fear that that desperate ones might any moment mutate into desperados.

I was right the first time I thought about it. Saturday afternoon indeed represented a better of times in my one fair city. Let’s just leave it at that.

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No Means No

Michael 2 Comments
The road to hell. We spend so much time on that road it should be paved in gold with diamond milestones. 
 
I’m not writing about the tragedy that befell George Floyd. It’s not about the tragedy that befell Tony Timpa. It’s not about Black Lives, All Lives, muted media, cops, robbers, killers, or racists. It’s not about how we spend so much time making, responding, defending, and demeaning knee jerk decisions that we forgot when and where we should be on our knees. It’s not about whether police should be defunded and it’s not about that police aren’t the problem. It’s not an argument that the black man has been subjected to racism or that the black man suborns racism. It’s not about who is right, who is wrong, or who has been wronged for 200 years.
 
The biggest back and forth argument since the phrase entered our lexicon is Black Lives Matter / All Lives Matter. Perhaps you’ve seen the clarification Black Lives Matter doesn’t mean Only Black Lives Matter. Maybe you’ve read the short article that a protest to save the rain forest doesn’t mean you are against other forests. Maybe you’ve scratched your head and wondered, perhaps aloud, what about all the other colors that aren’t white. The danger in those arguments is that emphasis is put on the exact thing that should never exist in a perfectly equitable society, a difference.
 
We are not going to undo whatever has been done. It can’t happen. The moving finger wrote it and the wall isn’t erasable. The horrible things people have done and the good things as well. They are. They won’t go away. They won’t go away if you shift money, if you shift thinking, if you shift positions. They will always be because they were and in real life you cannot undo. And unlike in the perfectly equitable society were there should never be a difference, in real life there are differences. They are as indelible, as permanent, as incapable of not being a part of our beings as our skin color. We will never see past that if we continue to highlight it.
 
Oh but we do know how to see past it. We know the answer as sure as we know our names. We preach it often enough with our ad slogan-ess, sound bite like, politically correct banners and hash tags and avatars. We just keep missing what those words mean. All of us. Missed completely. 
 
Unhate
 
You say you want to protest against racism. How about protesting for love instead. Maybe you want to support black restaurants in your area. How about just trying something new, maybe even outside your comfort zone and spreading the word if you really loved it. Maybe you want to mute your voice when it’s not going to be all the rage, but don’t mute it so loudly those who are amplified can’t be heard.
 
And most important, love. You can’t beat hate if you’re doing the hating. 
 
NoExceptions

Let’s All Fall Back a Bit

Michael 5 Comments

This weekend Americans (and some others) go through that twice yearly madness of figuring out exactly how to open the back of the antique mantel clock or adjust the electronic version in the middle of the dash of your mid-nineties jalopy while reciting (mentally, hopefully) “spring forward, fall back” as the debate over the necessity for Daylight Saving Time and/or Standard Time plays out on the nation’s talk radio shows.

While that is going on I’d like to ask everybody to fall back just a little more than the proscribed one hour. Let’s shoot for, oh how about 60 years. That would make it 1958. The legendary ’57 Chevy Bell Air would be just a used car (and it’s Nomad counterpart a regular old (eww) station wagon, Jack Paar was hosting the Tonight Show, “It’s All in the Game” was in its 6th and final week as the Billboard #1 Single, and I was not yet allowed to cross the street by myself.

Ok, I’m not a nostalgia freak. I could really care less that Conway Twitty would wrest the top spot in the charts from Tommy Edwards next week with “It’s Only Make Believe.” (But I was pretty tickled that later on in the year The Chipmunks with David Seville would have the top selling record with their iconic Christmas song.) And 1958 had a lot going against it also. Unrest was escalating in Vietnam, the U.S. and Russia (then the USSR) were both putting the finishing touches on the first intercontinental ballistic missiles while they and Great Britain began conducting atmospheric nuclear tests, and a three year famine would begin in China ultimately taking 30 million lives.

Something that happened in 1958 that could be good or bad actually went on a little earlier than early November. September 12 actually. That’s when Jack Kilby discovered (developed? perfected? made usable?) the microchip, the heart of integrated circuitry. Because of him we have cars that can let you know when you wander out of your lane, phones we can carry around with us, computer assisted tomography that allow doctors to see inside us (that’s the CAT in CAT scan in case you – yeah, you knew, sorry), and (drum roll please) the Internet.

Most days I’m OK with the cars and the phones and even with the CAT scans. But lately I’ve been really ambivalent about this Internet thing. Of course if it wasn’t for it you’d not be able to read these ramblings, and for that you might be more grateful than I’ll ever know. But without it I’d not be able to see firsthand just how two faced, insincere, hurtful, and to be blunt, disgusting people have become. To not be exposed to such constant streams of hatred I’d gladly give up everything new from these 60 years.

It’s not been a week since eleven congregants were gunned down in a Pittsburgh synagogue. A day after that horrific occurrence a vigil was held to remember the victims and speaker after speaker including local politicians stood before the community and said hate cannot win, everybody should be and is welcome here. A day after that momentous event those same politicians were denouncing members of the opposing party, urging other politicians to stay away, and continuing to air the most vile political ads to date  while jockeying for position ahead of next Tuesday’s general election. It only took two days for politicians to revert to being their typical unsavory selves, to letting the public know how unsuitable, untrustworthy, and dishonest their opponent is and oddly saying little about themselves (or perhaps much about themselves) at the same time. With the help of the Internet and news sites’ comments areas, the followers of this party or that have marched in line spewing the insults that they’ve taken the last two years to perfect.

It’s in everybody’s best interest to live kindly and peacefully. Yes, you get to pick and choose who you are going up like just as others can decide to like to you or not. But nobody – NOBODY – has the right to hate. Lies are hate. Saying what you think people want to hear then doing the opposite is hate. Being a sheep isn’t hate but it is stupid. If we can’t rely on those we look to for leadership and guidance to take the time to demonstrate their commitment to not letting hate win, then we’re going to have to do it ourselves.

Maybe a starting point would be to spend some time face to face with your neighbor. Of course you’ll have to put down your phone to do that. Fortunately because of the efforts of Mr. Kilby, you can fit it into your pocket while taking that time.

Fall back this weekend. However far you’re comfortable going.

No Exceptions

Michael 10 Comments

NoExceptions“Love thy neighbor, no exceptions.” That’s the message in front of a church on Pittsburgh’s Mt. Washington neighborhood overlooking the downtown area. Last Saturday, in the Pittsburgh Squirrel Hill neighborhood, just a handful of miles from downtown, a man full of hate (whose name does not deserve mentioning) showed the ultimate disregard for that advice by shooting down thirteen people, eleven fatally, while they were attending services among three congregations at the Tree of Life synagogue there.

Hundreds of reports, perhaps thousands, have been filed in papers across the country and around the world and with the power of the Internet available to anyone who is reading this. I don’t need to expound on the actions of a madman. You can read all about it at your favorite news outlet. But I do want to expound on the actions of the neighbors.

Although I’ve never publicized it, you may have guessed from some posts that I am a Pittsburgher.  My torturous bend on some basic grammatical constructs might have given you a clue even though I try to be cognizant of my natural tends toward Pittsburghese. From the home of Mr. Rogers Neighborhood to “Love thy neighbors, no exceptions,” to every neighborhood in Pittsburgh being commonly referred to as a “neighborhood” (the Squirrel Hill Neighborhood, the Point Breeze Neighborhood, The Brighton Heights Neighborhood, and the other dozen or so geographic areas where clumps of people clump about their daily routines), neighborliness is second nature…no, first nature to the city, the county, in fact to the entire Greater Pittsburgh area.

Although out of town reporters referred to the shooting having taken place in the “predominantly Jewish community of Squirrel Hill,” the Squirrel Hill neighborhood is home to families of many backgrounds and many religions. Squirrel Hill is home to Jews, Catholics, Methodists, Muslims, Irish, Indian, African, Italian, Arab, rich, poor, comfortable, and just getting by. To the outside world. To themselves they are Pittsburghers. They celebrate their family holidays, they worship with their own congregations, the cook from their own heritage, but few if any take the time or use the energy to differentiate themselves from their streetmates or fellow city residents, except perhaps during high school football playoff time. The Squirrel Hill neighborhood, in fact most all local city and county and area neighborhoods are microcosms of what America wants to be. Not just the proverbial “melting pot,” but a pot where the ingredients have been stirred together and allowed their flavors to meld, like a hearty stew. That’s not local pride. That’s the truth.

A vigil was held Sunday night to remember the eleven victims of this crime of hate. A recurring theme was heard from all the speakers. Hate won’t win. But only one speaker took it an extra step. Rabbi Jeffrey Myers said, “My cup overflows with love. That’s how you defeat hate.” He told the assembled crowd and the television and radio audiences, you cannot let hate fester and grow, you must actively live love in order to defeat hate. He challenged everyone, singling out the politicians in attendance to lead the way, to avoid hateful rhetoric. “If you can’t say something nice, zip it!”

Last year after the shooting in Charlottesville, “Don’t let hate win” was the battle cry. Apparently we didn’t get it then that Rabbi Myers had to remind us now that you have to work to defeat hate. It doesn’t just happen, you have to actively love. After the Charlottesville shooting I posted:

Facebook profile pictures are sporting “We will not let hate win” banners above posts that call those who don’t agree with them “bat shit crazy.”

Unfortunately, we don’t seem to be expressing any love lately. You can’t say hate won’t win if you’re doing some of the hating.

“Let The Better Love Win” August 21, 2017

Unfortunately hate is nothing new. It goes back to Cain and Abel, mankind’s most extreme sibling rivalry. The 19th century philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer said, “If a man sets out to hate all the miserable creatures he meets he will not have much energy left for anything else; whereas he can despise them one and all, with the greatest of ease.” Gee. That starts out seemingly positive. If you hate everyone you meet you’ll never get around to doing anything else. But then it takes a dark turn, just go ahead and hate everybody, it’s easier that way. Maybe it’s easiest to stick with the twentieth century philosophy of “all you need is love.”

Facebook profile pictures now sport frames spouting “Stronger Than Hate.” Maybe this time we can spout a little love to go with that. Just remember – no exceptions.

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Let the Better Love Win

Michael 5 Comments

If there was a movement started to celebrate those who believe in, actively participate in, and fought for human trafficking and slavery, would you support it? What about if there was a movement started to commemorate those who fought for their country bravely and without concern for their own personal safety because it meant preserving their family’s heritage and the only way of life that they knew?

What would you say if somebody you didn’t know said you had to change your name? Move? Forsake your parents and grandparents?

What would you do if somebody you trust, somebody whose opinion you value and word you accept unquestioningly, were to blatantly lie to you to make themselves look good in front of others.

Unfortunately, there’s a very good chance that you’re the one supporting the movements, doing the saying, or being the liar. Particularly if you’re an everyday, ordinary, middle of the road, try to do all the right things, unextreme American.

Those two movements I brought up. They are actually happening, right now, right here in the United States. The Civil War was fought because one side wanted to keep slaves and the other did not. It’s really just that simple. And it had been going on since before the signing of the Declaration of Independence almost 90 years previous when the southern colonies coerced the northern colonies to remove anti-slavery rhetoric from the document in exchange for their ratification of it. But those who fought the battles some 90 years later didn’t consider owning people unusual or even questionable. It’s what they and their families had down for as long as they had been Americans. All those monuments that have become this month’s flash point celebrate those who fought to continue slavery. They also celebrate somebody’s great grandfather’s younger brother who died from infections grown in wounds suffered when he was trampled by a regiment’s cavalry unit defending his family’s right to live the only life he ever knew.

In our efforts to “not offend” we have sanitized all heritages, all history, all family. Somebody, probably not someone whose roots are indigenous to this continent, decided those people will be called “Native Americans.” Someone, probably not somebody whose roots hail from the Far East, decided those people should be called “Asian Americans.” Somebody, probably not someone who never set foot on Africa, decided anybody with dark skin regardless of their country of origin should be called “African American.” If we are truly honest, and our parents or grandparents came to America from Italy, or Germany, or Poland, would we be happy calling ourselves “European Americans?” Why should a proud decedent of the Lakota, or The Navajo Nation, or Japan, or Cameroon not be allowed to celebrate their heritage and call themselves Americans and still respect their true heritage.

So many are calling Charlottesville a hastening of America’s downward spiral into unrestrained racism. Actually, that spiral began not last week in Charlottesville but last century in Selma, when a big chunk of our populace had to demonstrate to get the recognition of people, equal in all respects, that a civil war was fought for and a presidential proclamation declared them to be 98 years earlier. We passed laws and called them “equal rights” but actually fostered inequality and spent more time debating what constituted equal than time spent on living right.

UnhateFacebook profile pictures are sporting “We will not let hate win” banners above posts that call those who don’t agree with them “bat shit crazy.” We openly claim support for tolerance yet openly refuse to make allowances for anybody who didn’t vote the same way regardless of which way that was. We justify our remarks by standing behind the First Amendment but tell others what is and isn’t allowed and don’t extend the courtesy to anyone whose speech is different.

St. Augustine said, “There are two loves, the love of God and the love of the world. If the love of the world takes possession of you there is no way for the love of God to enter you. Let the love of the world take the second place and let the love of God dwell in you. Let the better love take over.” This works regardless of what you call or believe your God to be: a heavenly being, a force of nature, a guiding spirit, omniscience personified. There is a greater force and there is an earthly force. You can believe in both, you can honor both, you can love both. You should love both. But the love of our guide should light our path. The love of the world should invite others to join us.

Unfortunately, we don’t seem to be expressing any love lately. You can’t say hate won’t win if you’re doing some of the hating.