Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

This was the question posed by the Roman poet Juvenal in the late 1st and early 2nd centuries AD.  This was also the problem explored by the philosopher Plato in The Republic.  Though the latter asked in the context of patriarchal marriage fidelity, it has been referenced by Plato and many others thereafter in the frame that it is literally translated:  Who guards the guardians?

Juvenal asked the question, if a husband is unfaithful to his wife, how can he prevent himself from being unfaithful to her?  His question: Who will watch the watchman?  With Plato, though he did not directly ask the same question, he talked about a guardian class that protects society and how to manipulate the guardian class to guard themselves against themselves in the form of a “noble lie” that convinces them protecting against themselves is for their own good.

On Wednesday, December 3rd, a New York City Grand Jury released a decision to not indict Daniel Pantaleo, the NYPD Officer that was responsible for the death of Eric Garner, a black man accused of selling a loose cigarette and was killed when Pantaleo attempted arrest.  Within weeks prior to this Grand Jury’s decision, a Grand Jury in Saint Louis decided to not indict Darren Wilson, a Ferguson, Missouri police officer that shot and killed 18-year old Michael Brown who was also black.  Days before, Cleveland police officer, Timothy Loehmann shot and killed 12-year old Tamir Rice, after it was reported that a black male was waiving around a gun.  The gun happened to be a toy and after reporting that Rice reached for his waist when he was ordered to put his hands up, a videotape was released that showed Loehmann shooting Rice, upon arrival, just as soon as he could open his car door.  These three deaths are only the latest in a history that has seen countless others killed and justice for these deaths in question.  Trayvon Martin, Oscar Grant, Sean Bell, Amadou Diallo, Patrick Dorismond, Jonny Gammage, Ousmane Zongo, Tim Stansbury, Wendell Allen, John Crawford.  These names only begin to scratch the surface of those that had their lives taken away and the families looking for accountability.  Accountability from the guardian-class itself, the American Justice system.

For decades, Black folks, black men in general, have had a contentious relationship with law enforcement.  Thousands, including myself have told stories of arrest, detainment, searches, stops, assaults and aggressive conduct precipitated by law enforcement at a level that eclipses every other ethnic and social group or classification in America.  This has, in turn, caused many within the Black Community to lose their trust in law enforcement and a justice system, which is set up to serve their interest.  Unfortunately the evidence to the contrary is damning.  It’s extremely hard for me to put into words exactly what this nation has been through over the last several weeks.  But we have seen a range of emotions and a range of protest with a wide range of persons involved.  And as much as I would like to believe that America and its multitudes of people have turned a corner or woken up to atrocities that have been happening for decades, but we’ve seen this movie before.  Literally.  The deaths of Eric Garner and Tamir Rice might be on tape and we can CLEARLY see what happens to them, just as we clearly saw the lack of accountability by the authorities to prevent these deaths from happening.  However, 23 years ago, we also saw a collective of LAPD officers nearly beat to death an unarmed Rodney King and we also saw what happened when there were questions of accountability.  Unfortunately, that wasn’t the first time America saw shocking abuses of authority against Black Americans.  The nation had it’s darkest visual of such tyranny 26 prior to Rodney King’s beating with the March from Selma across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, nearly 50 years ago.  Though those imagines were seared in the minds of millions across the country and it lead to the passage of the Voting Rights Act later that year, those state troopers responsible for beating and hospitalizing marchers and killing Jimmy Lee Jackson would hardly face the level of accountability that their brutality demanded.

The moral of the story is that it KEEPS happening.   Incrementally, things are changed, laws are passed.  However, Black Men are still targeted.  Black Americans who make up just 13% of the overall population represent nearly 33% of the arrest related deaths at the hands of police.  Similarly, a report released by the Justice Department showed 13% of black drivers in America were pulled over in traffic stops in 2011, compared to only 10% of whites, despite obvious population differences.  This would make black drivers 31% more likely to be pulled over than their White counterparts.  What’s worse?  Black drivers are more likely to be pulled over is for alleged defects or record checks than speeding.  More troubling, twice as many Black drivers are given no reason at all for why they were stopped than White drivers.  Additionally, White drivers were less likely to be searched than Black drivers.  Over the years, these numbers have not changed.  And despite the sense of awareness raised by sensational events like the death of Michael Brown, Eric Garner and Tamir Rice, much like Rodney King and the Selma marchers before him, Black Americans will still be left questioning whether or not we can trust authority.

2,000 years ago, Plato explored the reason why those with power are responsible with the power they wield.  Naturally, for a society to survive there is needed a guardian class to protect the society from each other and from outside agitators.  However, he theorized the only way for this guardian class to protect themselves from the guardians itself is for them to believe they have a greater responsibility that sets them apart.  What we are seeing today, factions of our guardian class that has not been as responsible as we would like.  At least from the point of view of much of Black America.  Of course compliance and respect for law enforcement is universally taught to all, however, every Black man in America knows that no matter their level of compliance, they are still subject to a level of scrutiny that breeds discomfort.  Unfortunately, time and time again we see that even when these watchmen are watched, the results have not changed this scrutiny.  So, despite how much we want and should trust law enforcement, how can we trust them, when we feel they don’t trust us?

Ultimately, Plato concluded that the “noble lie” told to to the guardian class to keep them responsible has to be believed.  If it’s not then it would lead to an eventual breakdown of trust between the guardians and those they guard.  If they believe this noble lie, whether  that it’s given to them by the guarded or an ethical or moral reason for that belief, power will be reserved.  However, if they do not believe it, they won’t have a distaste for power.  They will crave it.  If Black America believes that law enforcement has no responsibility to their power and in a sense do not believe their “noble lie”, Plato describe a growing divide in tensions between the two classes, which ultimately leads to a complete loss of trust.  If that were to happen, then a society, no matter how great, will not be able to survive.  Especially when the authority is in question.

It’s a little tiresome to go back and forth on social media with folks about the shooting of Michael Brown.  Far be it for me, Your Friendly Neighborhood Black Man to turn into Your Stereotypical Angry Black Man, but people are taking assumptions for facts and figuring that one side of a story tells the entire story.  So to put it succinctly, LOOK AT THIS PICTURE:

This was from the autopsy report done by world renown pathologist, Michael Baden.  The official autopsy shows an additional wound grazing the right thumb of Michael Brown.  Officer Darren Wilson who shot to death Michael Brown he testified(more on that in a minute) that Michael Brown confronted him at his SUV window punching him twice(that made his face look like he was in 30 degree weather for a few minutes(after being punched in the face by someone that outweighed you by 70 pounds(with the intentions of killing you))), lunged for his firearm on the right side of his body and after discharging a round(into himself), Michael Brown ran away, thus ending any credible threat to Wilson’s life.  When Wilson exited his vehicle, firing twice more at a fleeing Michael Brown, Brown then stopped turned back to Wilson and charged forward with his right hand under his shirt, which left Wilson with no other choice but to shoot Brown to death, including twice in the head.  That’s Wilson’s account.  And since the Grand Jury came to the decision to not find probable cause for an indictment, a lot of attention has been given to the thumb wound, which would support Wilson’s story, and the two headshots(for a total of three combined wounds).

What I find more curious and tragically ignored are the THREE other shots that were inflicted on Michael Brown’s Body.  For the last week I learned that Facebook has more forensics experts than I originally imagined.  However, the one thing they never explain to me if Michael Brown was “charging” at Darren Wilson or took a step towards Wilson with his right arm reaching for his belt line, HOW IN THE HELL DOES HE GET SHOT THREE TIMES ON THE INNER RIGHT ARM?!  If you’re reading this, look at the picture again.  Now try re-enacting either of what Darren Wilson is claiming.  Try running forward…. Finished?  Now take you right hand and grab your belt…. Did that too?  Good.  Now tell me how is it humanly possible for either three of those arm wounds to happen doing either action you just did?!

One more quick exercise:  Put your hands in the air… NOW TELL ME WHICH PART OF YOUR BODY IS READILY EXPOSED TO BE SHOT?

No, I’m not a forensics expert.  I just like using common sense, which this Grand Jury didn’t use.  Speaking of this jury.  Now, I don’t know what the jury was comprised of or who believed what, but I’m almost positive that the decision to not indict was not unanimous.  And honestly, it didn’t have to be.  Why?  BECAUSE THIS WAS NOT A TRIAL JURY!  Darren Wilson was not on trial.  The witnesses did not have proper representation or advocacy.  The evidence wasn’t examined and re-examined.  This was a GRAND JURY.  A grand jury is used by a prosecutor to get an indictment so there can BE a trial.  However, forensics experts of Facebook takes this decision as a full trial and adjudication of all evidence and acquittal for Darren Wilson.  “The evidence clearly shows”, I’ve heard far too often. NO, THE EVIDENCE DOES NOT CLEARLY SHOW!  The Grand jury was given over SIXTY  witnesses.  Barely any of them had COMPLETELY consistent accounts of what happened step for step.  Even the forensics, ran independently and by Saint Louis County, aren’t entirely consistent.  So anyone who says the “evidence clearly shows” anything, HAS NO %#&@ING CLUE WHAT THEY’RE TALKING ABOUT!  They need to keep quiet and stay in their lane.

Speaking of others who need to stay in their lane:  Robert McCulloch!  Robert McCulloch who’s father was a police officer that was shot and killed in the line of duty, was expected to objectively prosecute Darren Wilson.  He’s the County Prosecutor.  His job:  prosecute.  It’s actually in his job title.  His goal is to get an indictment TO prosecute.  Like with over 162,000 U.S. attorneys in 2010 seeking an indictment and only having 11 declining such an indictment.  That’s not even one half of one half of one half of one percent.  In other words when a prosecutor wants an indictment, they get their indictment.  Why?  Because it’s their job to get an indictment.  They don’t have to give a exhaustive list of witnesses to a grand jury.  They don’t have to tell the defendant’s side of the story.  They’re suppose to be prosecuting the defendant.  An indictment is a one-side formality.  A prosecutor’s job is to go to a grand jury just to get an indictment.  Not to give a grand jury reason to not give you your indictment that you’re SUPPOSE to get.  I would say that’s doing a really poor job at being a prosecutor, but I have no choice but to believe that Robert McCulloch wasn’t doing the job he was elected to do.

So there it is.  I really want to be done with this.  And by done with this I mean STOP SEEING UNARMED BLACK PEOPLE SHOT under absolutely dubious circumstances.  At the very least, be done with gullible people who are seemingly looking for a reason to not use logic.  Really, if I’m wrong.  I’m wrong about this, but I really wish someone would show me where.  Until then, stop making idiotic assumptions.  Your name is not Michael Brown.  Your name is not Darren Wilson.  No one is accusing you of murder.

Here’s what I would like for us to talk about.  How shooting anyone six times, whether their hands are in the air or retreating to just get a running start to charge at you, is a PISS POOR way to detain a suspect.  I don’t care what side you fall on.  Let’s talk about better policing.  Let’s talk about police working in communities, adopting a community and the people.  Get to know the families and the children and what’s going on in their lives and be complete PUBLIC SERVANTS.  That way, you’ll recognize them as human beings and less likely to fire at someone’s child.  Let’s talk about police not only hold themselves and their authority accountable, but them wanting to show the world that they can be trusted and safe and fair by wearing body cameras and carrying non-lethal weaponry.  Let’s recognize that while the police wants our communities to trust them so they can do their jobs, they need to make the effort to extend the olive branch and BE worthy of our trust.  It’s a two-way street.  We want better police.  The police should expect the best and give the best.  That way we don’t have to continue to have these things happen.

AND STOP PRETENDING BAD POLICE DON’T EXIST AND BLACK MEN JUST HAVE IT COMING!

Now I’m done.

Back to your regularly scheduled Friendly Neighborhood Black Man.

Stop what you’re doing right now and look around you. Wherever you are, look at the two closest persons next to you. If you’re in your car, look at the driver in the lane to your right and left. If you’re at the grocery store, look at the shoppers in the check-out line in front and behind you. If you’re at work, look at the co-workers at the desk/booth/office across from you. Look at them. Look at them and realize that on November 4th, between the three of you, only ONE of you took the time and opportunity to vote. Only one of you decided it was important enough to have your say on the persons who make all the rules in your life. Rules on how you drive your car, how much you pay for food at the grocery store, how much you’re able to work and earn.  And two of you have the right to remain silent… And you took it.

On Tuesday, November 4th, 36% of the eligible voters in America voted in the General Elections this year.  These elections included governors, senators, congressmen, mayors, council members, school board and dog-catchers.  More importantly, they also included County Prosecutors and District Attorneys.  District Attorneys like Robert McCulloch.  Who, on November 4th, was re-elected as the Prosecuting Attorney for Saint Louis County.  Less than three months earlier, Robert McCulloch made the decision to not press charges on police officer, Darren Wilson who had fatally shot to death 18-year old, Michael Brown.  He did not read him his right to remain silent.  In the months since, the entire nation has watched and battled in conversations on race, policing, social justice and individual responsibilities and rights.  One thing we’ve hardly talked about is the responsibility of voting.  Robert McCulloch, who has been in office since 1991 and has won re-election six times.  The latest election, he won with 95.25 percent of the vote.  He ran unopposed.

Overall, the turnout in Missouri was 32.3%.  That’s 32.3% of the eligible voters in the state.  This doesn’t count the thousands more who are and were unregistered.  Nor does it account for the thousands who chose not to vote in down-ballot and uncontested races like McCulloch’s.  It should be noted, that a lot has transpired in and around the Ferguson, Missouri area over the last three months.  Many have complained and protested at the lack of accountability of law enforcement.  Well how are they suppose to be held accountable if we do not exercise our right to hold them accountable?  There are several problems with what happened in Missouri over the Summer, but how seriously can those problems be taken if those with grievances are not fully exercising their ability to address those grievances?  How seriously can we take them?

I actually started writing this on the day of the 2014 General Election to reflect on my personal conflicts with being… how should I say, apt to give opinions of the strongest certainty.  I notice that I share certain views and opinions and how others are bothered by them or otherwise reserved in their own feelings.  What I find MOST comically alarming is that the views that many find to be the most controversial, such as social and human rights, equal treatment under law, privacy, abortion and  civil liberties and freedoms, these are the VERY reasons that actually drive people to vote to begin with.  Yet, they have reservations to talk about these issues.  They shun away when they see them on Facebook or television.  They accuse persons, like myself, of purposely being inflammatory, inciting and derogatory for having a willingness to discuss topics they’d rather keep taboo.  But when these same persons go and vote, whenever they do fill out an entire ballot, they’re doing so based on how they feel on those very issues.  You vote for candidates that are pro-life.  You vote against candidates that are anti-immigration.  You vote for persons that are conscious of how you live and what you desire for yourself and family.  But to hear how others live and what they desire is disturbing on some levels?  However, ignoring it won’t make it go away.  We all live and work in the same space and we all are vying for the same resources.  At some time very soon, you are going to come face-to-face with which you want to ignore.  And, in your ignorance, you won’t be prepared on how to react.  And things happen, like Darren Wilson shooting Michael Brown on a hot Summer day.

I’ll end with a quote from everybody’s favorite television series(or should be) The Wire.  Lieutenant Cedric Daniels is complaining about his lack of advancement within the Baltimore Police Department and the dire situation the city constantly finds itself in.  His wife Marla, encouraging him to take another path reminds him, “The game is rigged, but you cannot lose if you do not play.”  Well, evident by the deaths of Tamir Rice, John Crawford, Eric Garner, Trayvon Martin, Jordan Davis, Sean Bell, Oscar Grant, and Michael Brown, along with the hundreds more that are killed in sensational circumstances, it looks like we are playing to lose.  Especially when we do have the opportunity and ability in our grasp to do something and don’t take it.  We DON’T have the luxury of not voting.  It doesn’t simply make a difference, IT. IS. THE. DIFFERENCE.  It is the difference between pressing charges and presenting to a grand jury.  It is the difference between civil rights and tyranny of the majority.  It is the difference between irresponsibility and accountability.  And in many cases, it is the difference between life and death.  Like I said earlier, we all have a freedom of choice and the right to remain silent.  But know what you abdicate when you decide not to vote.  You may not like how the game is played, but despite what Marla Daniels said, you better believe that you cannot win if you do not play.  And two of the three persons next to you aren’t even in the game.

This week, the Open Enrollment Period for Health Insurance will begin and millions of Americans will have the opportunity shop and buy plans offered via the Affordable Care Act.  However, last week, as reported by just about every major and minor media outlet nationwide, the Democratic Party lost control of the Senate and with it, the Republicans now control both Houses of the U.S. Congress.  And as you can guess by the anger expressed through months and months of campaigning and more than 50 grand-scale yet pointless votes to repeal, the Republican-controlled House and Senate will undoubtedly have their sites set on the Affordable Care Act and destroying the law as we know it.  Every newly elected Republican promised it.  Every re-elected Republican voted for it.  Now, with control of the senate, they will indeed make it a priority to go after the law anew.

To make matters even more grim, the United States Supreme Court has decided to hear the appeal of King vs Burwell, which will challenge the integrity of the Affordable Care Act, which could do what Congress was never able to do; kill the Affordable Care Act.  Not to delve too much in the legalize, but what King v Burwell is challenging is the wording of the law, saying that it does not specifically state that the Advanced Premium Tax Credit, which is largely responsible for making the Affordable Care Act affordable, should be offered to states that do not have a state-run Marketplace or Health Insurance Exchange.  In other words, as it was written, the lawsuit is challenging the government’s authority to distribute tax credits to those who enrolled in federally facilitated marketplaces.  As of now, 14 states made the decision to establish their own marketplace with which insurance carriers would offer plans that the government would provide tax credits for.  The 36 states that chose not to set up a marketplace had one set up and facilitated by the federal government.  Although these 36 federally facilitated exchanges are collectively known as the Federal Exchange, carriers and plans themselves vary greatly from state to state and even from zip code to zip code, depending or numerous factors like household size, age, income and gender.  So these marketplaces are indeed specific to each state.  However, the lawsuit says that the framers of the Affordable Care Act intentionally wrote the law to give the government the authority to ONLY offer the tax credit to marketplaces “established by a state.”

So, if the U.S. Supreme Court were to rule in favor of King v Burwell, then the Advance Premium Tax Credit can no longer be offered to consumers in the 36 states that do not have a state-run Health Insurance Exchange.  This will cause approximately 4 million of the 7 million consumers currently receiving a tax credit, to no longer have it and their monthly premiums will increase.  Those once affordable monthly premiums will no longer be affordable and thus, likely to be cancelled.  If those plans are cancelled, this sudden rise in premiums and resulting dropping of plans would destabilize a frightened insurance market, which could cause premiums to rise outside of federally facilitate marketplaces, which could force millions more to drop their coverage as well.  All of this is a side effect of what the Supreme Court could do to the Affordable Care Act.  If those premiums cannot be given, then the funding formula for the entire law will collapse, which will in essence kill the bill.

However, this entire scenario can be avoided.  The same Republican Congress that controls both Houses, that has also voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act more than 50 times have the ability to pass a law correcting the language of the bill, which would render a decision by the Supreme Court moot.  In the same vain, that very Supreme Court could also decide to accept the decisions of lower courts and the IRS, which responsible for interpenetrating the law and agree the government has the authority to give tax credits to the 4 million Americans in 36 states that are currently receiving them.  But in the case it isn’t avoided, in the case the Supreme Court rules against the government and congress decides not to fix the wording of the law, and millions end up losing health care, what will be the narrative given to the nation?  Will Republicans gamble on the gullibility of the American public and expect them to believe that millions lost their health insurance due to Democratic incompetence of writing, passing and executing the law?  Or will Democrats be able to convince America that Republicans, who could have acted, allowed the health care of million to slip right through their fingers and cause these Americans to go uninsured?

It’s an easy narrative to tell.  Almost as easy as the successes of the bill and what it has given to millions of Americans already.  The rate of increase of health insurance premiums have been slowed nationwide.  Gallup has released a poll stating that 90% of those who have purchased a plan on the marketplaces have described their coverage as good, fair or excellent.  The number of uninsured has gone down 25% this year alone.  8.7 million have received coverage through the Medicaid Expansion, while as mentioned earlier, 7.3 million have received coverage through state or federally facilitated marketplaces.  The Congressional Budget Office has reaffirmed it’s prediction that the Affordable Care Act will cut the deficit by $124 billion in the first decade alone.  More than 80% of consumers buying plans on the marketplaces were eligible for a subsidy and those plans purchased have cut the cost of health insurance by an average of 76% to an average of $82 per month.  The numbers don’t lie.  It has made health care affordable AND accessible for millions.  Understandably, not all have been helped.  Some hurt.  There are winners and losers in every system in any system, but if Republicans are going to bank on these winners to blame Democrats once they’re forced to become losers, then the real losers will be the Republican Party.  Allowing these millions of Americans that have tangible benefits from the Affordable Care Act to lose that benefit could potentially jeopardize the electability of Republican candidates.  They have the chance to literally save the lives of thousands and to reap a share of those successes only their Democratic counterparts can tell.  Or they can continue down the same path they started with irrelevant votes to repeal, passing no plan to replace and government shutdowns that does far more damage than they even realize.  Good luck with that.  You’ll reap what you sow.

On November 4th, the night of the 2014 Mid-Term Elections, the Democratic Party took a really tough loss.  And as much as the Democrats took it on the chin last night, the President took it on the chin even worse.  Key allies like Mark Pryor and Kay Hagen lost re-election and potential newcomers Allison Lundergan Grimes and Michelle Nunn lost as well.  On the Congressional level, overly experienced candidates like Suzanne Patrick in Virginia’s 2nd lost just as bad as novice popular celebrity candidates like Clay Aiken.  Even the Democrats who survived, no matter how powerful, skirted by the barest of margins.  Dan Malloy, the Governor of the extremely liberal Connecticut barely escaped an embarrassing defeat.  Virginia’s Mark Warner, who is so popular he probably could walk across the Chesapeake Bay, has not won his re-election yet.  So yeah, all across the country if you had a “D” next to your name you were in for a VERY long night and equally painful Wednesday-Morning Quarterbacking.  The inevitable finger-pointing, second-guessing and questioning of campaigns, “What went wrong.”  “What you should have done.”  “What you did not do.”  “Who’s to blame.”  And through the night and into the next, the one person the Democrats sought to blame is the one person Republicans blamed for the entire election:  President Barack Obama.

And now, with the elections over and the Republicans in control of the House as well as the Senate, the one person left behind to deal with it all is none other than Barack Obama.  Not only does Barack Obama have to deal with a bunch that were never interested in helping him govern from the start(and now are interested in governing all of sudden) but he also has to deal with a Party that did everything they could to turn away from him and in doing so, turn away from every bit of success this nation has enjoyed for the last six years.  NEWSFLASH:  Barack Obama was never the problem.  He won BOTH of his elections in a COMPLETELY toxic environment.  How soon we forget who we elected in the first place.  Let’s examine what else we’ve forgotten:

55 Consecutive Months of Private Sector Job Growth – Over 10 million jobs have been created during this period.  When President Obama came into office we had just lost nearly 800,000 jobs in one month.  By the end of his first year in office, we stopped losing jobs.

Ended the Great Recession – Not to harp on a dead horse, but when President Bush left office, we weren’t doing too well as a nation.  We were looking about as good as the Democrats looked yesterday.  A Housing Market in crisis coupled with failing American institutions in the auto and banking industries hit us really hard.  Not to mention two wars that weren’t properly funded.  It crippled us.  But you know what?  We recovered.

The Affordable Care Act – As much as the nation divided itself over it’s passage and implementation, the Affordable Care Act has done wonders to do exactly what it was designed to do: reduce the number of uninsured and slowed the growth of healthcare cost overall.  For over a year now, millions across the nation have been receiving monthly discounts on health insurance ranging from a couple of hundred dollars to a couple of thousand dollars.  There isn’t a single Republican in their right mind that will tell those millions of people, “I’m sorry, but now I’m going to increase your health insurance cost now” and then hope to ever win another election.

Deficit Reduction – Under President Barack Obama, the deficit that was responsible for nearly 10% of the overall GDP has been cut in half.  In 2009, Obama’s first year in office, the deficit topped $1.4 trillion.  By the end of this year, the deficit will have been cut by one trillion dollars.  You don’t have to be a deficit hawk to do math.

Unemployment Rate – At it’s highest during the Recession, the Unemployment rate hit 10%.  Now, it’s 5.9% and will likely go lower by the end of the week.  In comparison, it was at 5.7% at the start of President Bush’s second term.  We definitely were not in a recession then.

Osama Bin Laden – DEAD!  The most wanted man in the history of the world is now a memory.  Probably one of our greatest military achievements in 70 years.  In the eyes of many, that alone should canonize the man.

All of that is barely scratching the surface.  The housing market is saved.  The financial industry is saved.  The auto industry is saved.  The Stock Market is raised.  Minimum Wage was raised, which is exactly what you can’t say about gas prices.  Oh by the way, this was all done with a Congress that committed themselves to making him a one-term president as their number one goal.  Speaking of that Congress, the Republicans took control of the House in 2010 with as much gusto, gumption and guile as they did with the Senate this year.  And in the four years since what have they accomplished?  The two most unproductive Congresses in the history of the United States.  The 112th Congress(2010-2012) passed 283 laws, while the 113th Congress has managed to only pass about 100 less laws than that so far.  And these are the guys we expect to be able to govern now?  Yes, his job approval ratings are in the 40s, but it’s consistently three times higher than Congress’s approval rating, which is about as high as Ebola’s approval rating.  You know what else has approval three times that of congress?  Obamacare.  Yeah.  The one thing they all campaigned against and assured us they don’t want.  My opinion?  It isn’t the discounted and accessible healthcare that people don’t want…

Now, am I saying that if Democrats ran in stride with President Obama that we’d be running a victory lap right now?  Probably not.  But at the same time, what I am saying is that of everything that went wrong on Election Day, Barack Obama was not one of them.  Democratic candidates did not have to run with him, but they certainly did not have to run away from him.  Which they did.  If that’s how you want to win elections, then perhaps this was exactly what we needed.  Just to see how bad of an idea it was.  As if we didn’t know.  We saw what happened in 2010.  In the wake of a vastly unpopular passage of the Affordable Care Act, Republican dog-catchers everywhere were just lining up to get in Congress and they did.  With such a wave of success and a President had not a friend in the world, Barack Obama was definitely a dead man walking in 2012, right?  Wrong.  He kicked ass.  Not only did he kick ass, but he arguably did better than he did with his historic first victory.  But that wasn’t good enough.  Despite healthcare reform being a success, the recession ended and economy sailing, Barack Obama was again targeted as the problem.  As if we actually think Democrats win with swing voters in Mid-Term elections.  Without base voters, Democrats had no chance of winning.  As is such, you know if Barack Obama said he was coming to your neighborhood tomorrow, you know good and well that everyone and their mother would break their necks to get there.  That’s how it’s been for the last seven years and it has showed no signs of stopping.  He is the energy that the Democratic base thrives on.

So my question is, with a platform that ANYONE would kill to run on and a President that is STILL ridiculously popular, what’s with the conventional wisdom that he is to blame?

I’ll end by sharing a memory of what was going down this time four years ago.  Journalist Glenn Greenwald and television host Lawrence O’Donnell got into a argument about the results of the 2010 General Election where similarly the Democrats were obliterated.  Greenwald suggested that if Democrats ran further to the left they would have had better results than the ones they got.  This sent O’Donnell(and myself) in an uproar because we knew that despite what we want, the only path to getting elected and getting things done is compromise.  That was then.  That was during a recession.  That was when health insurance was costing thousands.  That was when Ben Laden was alive and the unemployment rate was near 10%.  Now, if you are going to deny what President Obama has accomplish then you deserve to lose.  When I see candidates like Allison Lundergan Grimes not even admit to voting for the President she served as a convention delegate for, I can’t help but to be disappointed.  Especially when she knows full well his presence would have energized her voters way more than she could have ever hoped to do alone.  And could have done the same for many more, but instead they ran away from all of it.  In a vain effort to escape the bad, you sacrificed the good.  In the end, if I may borrow from the popular film the year of his election;  Barack Obama is not the President that we deserve, but maybe, just maybe he was the President that we needed.

So what now?  Now that the Republicans have control of the House and the Senate, what do they do now?  Does Mitch McConnell, as Senate Majority Leader, control his caucus any better than John Boehner controlled his?  Will Senator McConnell even become Senate Majority Leader?  Do they repeal the Affordable Care Act and force millions to pay hundreds and thousands more and possibly lose it?  Do they dare attempt impeachment of a President with two years left in office when their feckless lawsuit couldn’t gain any traction at all?  Will they be any better at getting out of their own way, which between the Tea Party, the Libertarian Party and the establishment crowd, they have hardly been able to do for the last four years?  Or for the next two years, they show the country just how ineffective they can be as they did during President Bush’s last term that set the stage for complete Democratic takeover of the House, Senate and Presidency all in the span of two years.  Well, they have exactly that much time to show us what they can do.  Because if they are as effective as they were during President Bush’s last term as they were over the last four years, then they’ll definitely be looking at their worst nightmare:  PRESIDENT HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON

Let me tell you a little story.

Today, September 11, 2014 you see across social media, friends sharing the hashtag #neverforget, accompany with stories of where they were and what they were doing 13 years ago on September 11, 2001.  I really do not have to talk about what happened on that day because of course, we #neverforget.

But there’s another side to the story that we all know.  A story that not everyone can share.  A story that has only impacted very few of us.

This is MY story.

On September 11th of 2001, I was in Richmond.  Much like every Monday night, I left my television on ESPN, watching Sportscenter, watching whatever Monday Night Football recap that was playing.  I awoke that morning to a television with Rich Eisen and Dan Patrick not covering sports.  I was confused because I knew left my T.V. on ESPN like I always do.  But it took me a moment as I started to pay more attention to what they were covering and showing images of planes flying into buildings.  It took me another few seconds to realize the reason why this was being covered by ESPN was because the images were live from New York City.  I watched and I realized that what I feared would happen actually did happen.

It was less than one year, one month and one day of a difference in time that I realized America has more to fear than we realize.  It was another morning in Richmond.  On October 12th of 2000, I received a phone call from my older brother who told me that the ship our other brother served on, the USS Cole was attacked off the coast of Yemen.  On that day, I learned my brother, Cherone Louis Gunn was one of 17 sailors on board the ship was killed in an attack that very few anticipated.  On that day, I learned many truths that many have ignored or were unaware of.  But I wasn’t alone.  I, along with my family, the families of those who also lost a loved one and those directly impacted by an act of terror they had to live through, we all had an awareness that we knew this nation was under threat and that what happened to us WILL happen again.  We KNEW.  But America did not.

But did they?

After my brother’s passing, we received condolences and goodwill from across America.  Senators, the Vice-President, national figures of all kinds wanted to touch our family.  I remember the words of the General of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Hugh Shelton tell me that the attack on a U.S. Destroyer was a slap in the face.  President Bill Clinton himself, could hardly look my family in the eye knowing what had happened.  The entire nation and our leaders knew what happened.  But I don’t think they felt what we felt.  And try as we might, we desperately wanted that communicated to them to stop what we knew what America was not prepared for.  For the next 11 months, our families tried to beat the drum and tell others what we went through will happen again.  But at the end of the day, we were not heard.  Life went on.  Elections were held.  Blame was passed and we did nothing.

In short we were forgotten.

It’s an odd feeling to have.  It’s like a version of survivor’s guilt.  We were victimized and within the calendar year, despite warnings to the contrary, thousands and millions more felt our victimization.  It might sound like I’m taking away from the memories and remembrance that we have on this day to promote a personal agenda and maybe I am.  Maybe if I had be more vocal about my personal agenda, maybe if more people heard me, my family, the other families, just maybe if we demanded action that our leaders would have reacted.  But they didn’t.  Should I feel guilt for not being more vocal?  Perhaps not.  But it’s an unshakable feeling that we could have done MORE.  As hard as it is for some to believe, there are some of us who STRONGLY believe that if America remembered what happened then, there would not be a need to #neverforget now.

So just consider this your Friendly Neighborhood Reminder when you say #neverforget, that before 9/11, there was 10/12.  And this is the last day we can #neverforget.

Actually second to last.

Regards,

YFNBM

 Mayor Jones,

This week, I received an email from you entitled “Your Support”, which asked of me, a member of the Democratic Party of Virginia, to support your candidacy for Chair of our state party. Admittedly, I am completely unaware on whether you know who I am, or if this email will even reach you. Though I cannot confirm if the email address used is your actual email address or if my opinion, or the opinion of many others across the Commonwealth mean that much to you, but since you are ASKING for my support, I felt it prudent to ANSWER and respond to your email. That being said, while I do appreciate the email, informing me of your candidacy and willingness to undertake such an important role, knowing full well of your personal, yet very public beliefs and the atmosphere of which you’ve unfortunately inspired throughout our party, I absolutely will not support your candidacy to be Chairman of the Democratic Party of Virginia.

In your email, you wrote extensively about who you are as a person and as a Democrat and held this as sufficient reason why I should support you as Chair. In kind, before I go on as to why I will not support you or your candidacy, I want to be clear about who I am, the DEMOCRAT that you asked to support you. My name is Jamal Gunn. I was born in Portsmouth, Virginia. My father, who served in the United States Navy for over twenty years, and my mother, a career educator, instilled in me and my three brothers an endemic set of values as a Black man and American that I hold in the highest regard. These values have laid the foundation of who I am and what I have become. They have been tested to not only hold true, but to be reaffirmed through personal losses and professional sacrifices that have lead me to be an even stronger Democrat. My introduction to our state party was with a man I have a tremendous amount of respect for. A man that not only has represented our state as an elected official, but has also lead our national party as Chair, your predecessor, the Honorable Tim Kaine. As an organizer for his gubernatorial campaign, I got to see a man who, not only held true to his personal beliefs, but stood by the principles of his office and party. I learned a lot from him as a candidate, as an elected official and especially as a Democrat. I did not stop, there however. My relationship with the Democratic Party was only beginning to strengthen. I continued to work as an organizer for several of our candidates. I worked hard for our party. Knocked on thousands of doors, phone-called even more likely and less likely supporters. I worked and pulled success from times and elections where very few cared and even less desire success. But I did that to see our party better, to see our lives better. I continued to work with our party, most recently not as an employee, but as a loyal member. Because of what I’ve been able to accomplish, I’ve been trusted with positions and titles that I am ever so grateful for and continue to try to live up to. All of this is to say that not only do I know what it means to be be a party leader, but to also be loyal to the party while knowing the value of conviction and personal beliefs.

Not to belabor the point, the reason behind your email was to inform me of what has formed the core of your beliefs, which you belief to be the values of the Democratic Party. A party that you say fights against discrimination and for social justice, equal treatment under the law and acceptance of others. For years, our party and those who support us have seen these values at stake with the denial of the human freedom of love and the celebration of love. Knowing exactly what our party is and who we represent, you have refused to share these values. You refuse to recognize the dignity and desires of those you want to represent and lead. Yet, you still seek to be our chair. You must understand that is NOT what we need as a chair. Our chair should be one who embodies our entire party, our people and more importantly our principles. If you cannot support who we are as a party, then we should not support you as chair of our party.

Unfortunately, the part that surprises me the most is not your candidacy to be chair. Many would desire to lead. You are who you are by right and are welcome in the party. But to be chair and to be our voice while being against what we speak is unacceptable. Horrifyingly enough, knowing full well who we are as a party, you have the audacity to ask me to support you. I cannot. I will not. What is MOST regrettable, despite knowing who you are, what you belief and hold firmly, you were asked to lead. For the life of me, I cannot understand why you were asked, or why you didn’t refuse  You do not share our vision or voice.

Someone once told me, “Principles only mean something when you stick by them when they are MOST inconvenient.” As a man of faith, your principles may differ than that of a political party. It may not be convenient for you to support the equality and freedom of marriage for all men and women. Yet you find it convenient enough to lead a party that does. It would be my hope that you would stick by your principles and refuse a position you should not have been offered. Seeing that you were, I will not support you. I cannot and will not be lead by someone who does not stick by my principles.

Jamal Gunn

Last weekend, football fans across America were given a treat!  Two great games with the greatest players playing the sport competing to see who gets a shot to play in the Super Bowl!  The first game, the AFC Championship Game, featured a duel between two of the greatest quarterbacks to ever play the game, media darlings, Tom Brady and Peyton Manning.  The Denver Broncos, lead by Manning would go on and defeat the New England Patriots anti-dramatically and get a shot to win the NFL Championship.  The next game, the NFC Championship Game, between the San Francisco 49ers and Seattle Seahawks, was much more hotly contested and featured an ending that won’t soon be forgotten fortunately… and unfortunately.

A back and forth game throughout, the Seattle Seahawks held a narrow six point lead with the 49ers driving down field looking for the go-ahead score.  With less than 20-yards to go to the endzone, San Francisco quarterback, Colin Kaepernick takes a snap and throws the ball to the back corner of the endzone to his top receiver, Michael Crabtree.  Just as Crabtree leaps in the air to make the catch, the ball was swatted from his grasp and tipped to a defender causing a crushing game-ending interception.  The deflection was caused by All-Pro Stanford University graduate Richard Sherman.

When I watch the game live, I remember the excitement of the play.  Whether you’re a fan of either team, you were on the edge of your seat look at that play and was left in disappointment or jubilation.  In the rush of it all, Richard Sherman took an interview with Erin Andrews moments after the game saving play and spoke his mind about how he felt, his ability, team and thoughts on Michael Crabtree, whom he had a prior beef with.  At the time I thought nothing of it.  Erin Andrews does a million post-game interviews with players of all kinds of temperaments.  Nothing special.  Until I went to Facebook to read about excuses of upset 49er fans and instead, I see comments like, “I’m rooting for Denver NOW” and “Richard Sherman is a classless scumbag!”, “Disgrace!” and “Thug!”.  Hearing this, I’m confused.  I assumed that during his interview, which I paid little attention to, that he had used a slur or snarled at Erin Andrews or groped her, something to justify the vitriol I was reading across Facebook.  Turns out it was none of that.  I had to find and rewatch the interview online.  I watched it again and again to see if I missed something or thinking that the video was edited deleting what he did or said.  No.  Richard Sherman was very aggravated, emotional after having made the play of the year, who wouldn’t be.  He was also second from a victorious confrontation with a competitor he doesn’t like.  So when he was interviewed, we got what we come to expect fresh after such competitions; true feelings in the heat of passion.  Much like this:

Naturally, the guy being interviewed was called everything under the sun during his day.  Now, the entire world readily recognizes him as “The Greatest”, not just himself.  But in the aftermath of the NFC Championship game, everyone had an opinion to share about Richard Sherman.  He’s suddenly become a villain, a classless, violent, thug completely unnatural to the sport he plays, much like Muhammad Ali.  The New York Daily News had an article written, after the game was over, describing Sherman “bug-eyed” and screaming.  Which was not only grossly negligent of the fact that his eyes were indeed shaded by the Championship hat he was wearing, but the writer immediately harkened back to a time where images of black minstrel caricatures were drawn with bulging eyes, shucking and jiving loudly senselessly.  Now, it is very possibly that I could be reading too far into these words and characterizations of Richard Sherman.  But when you look at the landscape of sports, the day before a hockey game, which is no stranger to senseless violent acts, senselessly starts(literally) with a brawl by all players on the ice.  But Richard Sherman, a dual sport collegiate athlete and All-American is a thug… for making a good football play.  A few years back, college football coach Mike Gundy had a press conference in response to an article that was written about a player he benched during a season.  What ensued was three whole minutes of him yelling at and shaming the reporter who wrote the article.  Mike Gundy goes on, wins conference titles and continues a successful coaching career, while Richard Sherman, who decided NOT to enter the NFL Draft to continue his education is a thug.   Two years ago, the opposing coach from the NFC Championship Game and Richard Sherman’s former college football coach, Jim Harbaugh ends a game with the Detroit Lions by aggressively snatching the Lion’s coach’s hand in a post game handshake nearly igniting an all out brawl by both coaches and teams.  Jim Harbaugh is passionate, while Richard Sherman, an well-spoken man with a college degree in Communications and pursuing a Masters Degree is a thug.  Baseball managers like Billy Martin and Lou Piniella have made careers out of going onto the field of play and getting into screaming matches with umpires on a nightly basis.  They’re know as some of baseball’s greatest managers, but Richard Sherman, a former Salutatorian and scholar-athlete is a thug.  He’s a thug because he trash-talked another player?  Something that literally happens in EVERY sport the moment an athlete step onto the field.  Or is he a thug because he’s overly excited, energized because he’s LITERALLY at the pinnacle of his career?  Or, as he and others speculate, is he a thug because it’s no longer politically correct to call him n—–?  Maybe I’m over-reacting.  Maybe I’m reading too much into this.  What I’m not reading too much into is Richard Sherman’s Twitter Feed.

Refreshing little gems of commentary to read the day after the biggest day of his career thus far; i.e. MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. DAY.  But hey, these are just some isolated little idiots and not reflective of our general society as a whole right?  Sure.

It’s a shame though.  Yeah, some things could just be me over-thinking things in my head.  Some things could be me seeing this as they shouldn’t be.  Sadly though, there are other things, we seem to not be able to get past.  It has stayed with us and hasn’t allowed us to live as one.  We’ve come a long way in America.  Sports, which has often been vilified as an amateurish unadult way for the under-educated and overly capitalistic to make a lot of cash.  But it also has been seen as the ultimate meritocracy, where your own merits and ability, not your race or status, determines how much you achieve.  Sports have been famous for uniting us under banners of common support despite our inherent differences.  But through it all, as much as we would like, not all of it can be left out of the proverbial locker room.  As much as I would rather it not, race is still as big of a number one player in “America’s Game” as it was 50 years ago.  Unfortunately, we’ve come a long way, but we still struggle to leave these silly little kids games where they belong:  in the past!

Fifty years ago, last August, Martin Luther King, Jr. stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and gave a speech.  Unlike the many other moments in American history that has shaped American history, this speech has been watched and re-watched by Americans and the message delivered on that day and for the years of Dr. King’s life has been grounded to the foundation of this nation as much as any other.  As a nation, we had to overcome a lot to be able to accomplish as much as we have.  As much as any politician, soldier or Founding Father, Martin Luther King Jr. allowed for this to happen.

Twenty years after this speech, after the largest petition campaign in American history and the overwhelming support from Congress, the celebration of the life and birth of Martin Luther King Jr. was made into a federal holiday, recognizing the only private citizen in American History to have the honor.  All because the man had the audacity to dream an impossible dream.  Sadly, that is what it has become; the impossible dream.

This week, I was involved in a conversation with someone who is white, talking about her five year old daughter, who learned about the life and death of Martin Luther King, had for the first time in her life began to recognize and discern racial differences of those around her.  Naturally, her mother who raised her daughter right, had no desire to teach her that one race is different or better than another and that we are all equal.  So she was dismayed at the fact that her daughter, who had never spoke of any racial differences in her life, had now saw these differences and more specifically what it meant.  What she does not realize is, no matter how she felt about her daughter’s epiphany, black folks had to realize this truth very early in our lives.  This reminder can be frivolous and out of place.  It can be shocking and aggravating.  And it can also be humiliating and shaming.

Growing up, black kids across America have remarkably similar experiences living in a world where we are the minority.  It might be petting and touching of our hair or automatically being the bad guy/Indian/robber in chase games or  being picked first in basketball.  It could also be being told you’re not as pretty or you’re cute “for a black guy/girl” or being told “I don’t date black guys” or just having that inexplicable feeling of being different and apart.  This is the world we live in.  As much as we want to be normal and live a life more ordinary, these constant reminders that start well before we remember lasted throughout our childhoods and never really end.

No, this is not a suggestion that anyone is born inherently racist.  What I am suggesting is that the world that Dr. King dreamed of has not been achieved and in this nation, on this day, we have to accept the reality of our differences.  More than accepting them, on this day, Dr. King has given us the opportunity to experience them, learn from them and most importantly, celebrate them.  On a whole, this is the one dream of Dr. King’s that we have not achieved and if we were to take these moments of our lives as a barometer, we still have a long way to go.  Every time I hear someone tell me, “I don’t see color,” the dream gets harder.  Every time I hear someone say “I don’t see you as black,” the dream gets tougher.  Every time I’m told “Well, you’re not really black,” the dream becomes bleaker.  The more I’m told these things, the more other black youths hear these things, the more I realize that Martin Luther King’s Dream is still out of reach.  Because as much as others around me have not accepted our differences, I have.  And so should everyone else.  Though, like many other black youths, it has taken some time, more time than it should or you can expect, I am comfortable with being black.  Are you?

I am black.  And I expect it to be recognized.  However, I also expect it to be accepted, and celebrated.  I am black as much as I am a man.  I am black as much as I am American.  Most notably, I am black as much as I am friendly.

Enjoy your day, America.

P.O.W.

I'm a prisoner of words unsaid.
Just lonely feelings locked away in my head.
I trap myself further every time I stay quiet.
I should start to speak but I stop and stay silent.
And now I've made my own hard bed
Inside this prison of words unsaid.

P.O.W.
That's what I am.
Not a prisoner of war,
A prisoner of words.
Mostly I say what you wanna hear.
Could you take it if I came clear?
Or would you rather see me stoned, 
On a drug of complacency and compromise?

M.I.A.
I guess that's what I am.
Scraping this cold earth,
For a piece of myself,
For peace in myself.
It'd be easier if you put me in jail.
If you locked me away.
I'd have someone to blame.
But these bars of steel are of my making.
They surround my mind,
And have me shaking.
My hands are cuffed behind my back.
I'm a prisoner of the worst kind, in fact!

A prisoner of compromise.
A prisoner of compassion.
A prisoner of kindness.
A prisoner of expectation.
A prisoner of my youth.
Run too fast to be old.
I've forgotten what I was told.
Ain't I a sight to behold?
A prisoner of age dying to be young.
To my head is my hand with a gun,
And it's cold and it's hard,
Cause there's nowhere to run
When you've caged yourself,
By holding your tongue.

I'm a prisoner of words unsaid.
Just lonely feelings locked away in my head.
It's like solitary confinement every time I stay quiet.
I should start to speak but I stop and stay silent.
And now I've made my own hard bed
Inside this prison of words unsaid.