Special Comment: Teabaggers and Racisim

Special Comment by Keith Olbermann on the racisim in the Tea Party movement; from Feb. 15, 2010.

FIVE on the BLACK HAND SIDE

Sooooo, who started this? Was this a movement? Or was it always meant to be funny? Did it start with a thought such as, "Why we gotta use the white side to give fives? Why the black side gotta be neglected??"?? hmmmm I was first intrigued by Queen Latifah's rendition, but when I googled searched "how to give five on the black hand side," a movie came up in the search results. Let's observe:




UnknownMovies.com Commentary on Five on the Black Hand Side (1973) ^^^^ Pretty good commentary on "blaxploitation" and this movie. Educate yo'self!!!

Excerpt from my Environmental Art, Ethics, & Spirituality Final

     The creative processes of making art in and from nature have influenced my ethics.  I now view nature as another way to connect with God. After all, He did take the time to create it, so I figure I at least owe Him getting outside more and appreciating it, as opposed to being even more severed from it through manmade technology.  I believe that nature was designed for man to take care of and cultivate, not to be destroyed and further pushed aside.  In western culture, people and nations that live directly in nature, as opposed buildings like we do, are thought of as “uncivilized.”  Well, I think that western culture has the most ungodly people ever.  I think this just from seeing people’s reactions from the state of the United States economy and watching the stock market comes near crashing yet again.  Also, seeing in the headlines people practically “selling their souls” and having no sense of integrity all for money tells me that people in western society put their faith in money.  If we were to be in a society of barter and trade, and lived very simply, none of that would be an issue.

In the Bible, the Garden of Eden was not ready until God created Adam and Eve to live there.  Moreover, the servant of God who prepared the way for Jesus, John the Baptist, lived in the wilderness and ate locusts and honey.  Most Buddhist monks go away to live in monasteries that are right in the middle of nature.  In Buddhism, the world is in four parts: existentially, morally, cosmologically, and ontologically (http://fore.research.yale.edu/religion/index.html).  Existentially, Buddhism teaches that all sentient beings share in suffering as well as its cause and cessation (James, p. 62).  According to Buddhism, a person should alleviate suffering and develop empathy for all creatures (James, p. 79).  Buddhists have the concepts of karma, rebirth, and Nirvana.  Karma and rebirth is what connects all sentient beings and humans because it is the continuous cycle until they reach Nirvana.  As evident through a story similar to the Garden of Eden in the Pali canon, Buddhists believe that the human environmental impact is a direct result or human morality, and therefore humans have the greatest responsibility in taking care of nature (http://fore.research.yale.edu/religion/index.html).  Finally, Buddha is always portrayed in nature and under the tree of enlightenment, and today’s Buddhists point out that trees are always present in the major events of his life.  This is the reason why many Buddhists create their religious institutions in remote areas in the forests.  I believe that I am missing out on a lot of experiences from God just from being so out of touch with nature.  Furthermore, I think that nature and every type of life has an intrinsic value (James, p. 83).  If God took the time to create something, living or not, I think is has a purpose in and of itself, regardless if it can serve me, humans, or anything else.  I think that something’s presence determines whether or not it is worth something, not what its capabilities of serving something else.  If anything, I think everything is serving God, or otherwise He would have not created it.

            The creative processes of making art in and from nature define my outlook on life and on art.  I think that all life should be respected because it is, in fact, life.  Some people are constantly concerned about the “quality” of life, but I think life itself is enough.  With all the people and beings that are currently fighting for life, how can I not think there is something to be had in life itself if so many creatures are fighting just to live?  I have more appreciation for at that has been created in and from nature as well.

Additionally, I believe that nature and the whole cosmos and universe is the original artwork created by God.  So in essence, we as humans are borrowing what Our Creator has made to make our own artwork.  I believe that my inner beauty, my soul’s expression, and my spirit’s mirror can be seen in my artwork.  Art gives me the opportunity to have a connection with God: creativity.  I believe I, a human, am a piece of art because God thought about how he wants my eyes, nose, mouth, hair, and the rest of features to look.  When I create a piece of art I think about how do I want something to look, what emotion am I trying to convey, what style I want to use, and the reaction I want viewers to have to my artwork.  I also think of the purpose for it.  I believe that God has a purpose for me, and every artwork that I create is made purposefully.  Therefore I believe art is anything that has some sort of higher level thinking, logic, or thought process behind it.  I also think that God was the first sculptor because according to the Judeo-Christian Bible Adam was made from the clay in the earth.  Depending on the artwork, I have felt connected to God while creating a work of art.  I think that I would like to go out and nature, and create a persona piece of art for myself as opposed to using manmade materials while working inside of a studio.  By the end of the course, this class not only revealed to me how removed I am from nature, but it also showed me where I want to be in terms of my relationship to nature.

Not Easy Being Green in Meredith College Colton Review

It's Not Easy Being Green_Edited (for Colton Review) [somethin about the recession and there's not a lot of room bla bla bla lol]
By Kay Rich

It’s not easy BEING green.
All these PSA’s on TV talking
about going green, being green.
Think green thoughts. Do green things!
But how can a woman go green
when she’s STUCK in a 9-to-5 job,
working for the minimum wage
of the green-dead-presidents she’ll never really see?
If any green, she has the envy
of all those who have because she has—NOT.
Without the green of this nation,
all she is left with is this green earth,
BUT
how can she support the green earth
when all she does have the green for
is cheap things?
Is it her fault she is FORCED
to buy
green Jello, canned green beans, and green Koolaid
because those are more AFFORDABLE than
green melon, fresh green beans, and green tea?
Is it her fault she is FORCED
to buy food that makes
her green veins pump at a high-pressure rate?
Will she someday
look prematurely green
like those dead presidents she never even saw?
So as I check her out
during a shift on a job I need
to get these green-dead-presidents
to pay for my supposedly
“green textbooks,”
I count the green she hands me,
so my register will not be short,
so my company can stay in the
BLACK,
the only time you ever see black
associated with that kind of green.
Well, in fact,
my company has always truly been green…
Green was always easy for them; it was simple.
They bought green vegetables from green-greedy farmers
who used workers like the woman
who receives BELOW minimum green-dead-presidents’ wage
ALL because she has no green card.
So as she breaks her back picking
green lettuce, green cabbage, green turnips,
green beans, and green peppers,
she has to write letters
to her kids back home telling them,
“It’s not easy being GREEN!”
I MEAN,
when is the last time
our Homeland Security Advisory
has even spelled green?
The government officials
pursue rumors of weapons of mass destruction,
wear green berets and green fatigues
jump prematurely
into one war, now pulling out, going into another
all over green money, oil, and greed.
Now we are being told that nuclear power is green,
And the Department of Homeland Security
Shouting,
“IT’S NOT EASY BEING GREEN.”



(Originally a little longer and intended as spoken word)

Black Emphasis Month Worship Service 2010

Untitled by Kay Rich

My great-great-grandparents

And my great-grandparents

And my grandparents

Carried on the slave traditions of

Back breaking work out in the sun scorched fields

So that my parents

And my sister and I

And our unborn children

Can perform American positions of

Mind muddling work in air conditioned comfortable offices

I’ve never had calloused hands from picking cotton

Just writer’s cramp from writing an essay exam

I’ve never had hunger pains from not having enough to eat

Just the occasional tummy ache from obscure cafeteria food

I’ve never had to work hard at practicing passive resistance

Just small repercussions from a smart mouth and short temper

I’ve never been hosed down for marching for the right to vote

Just my first vote casted towards the first black president

I’m in the Promise Land

Without had having to run around the wilderness

I see the strong beginning of victory

But I didn’t see the desperate struggle

I’m reaping the fruit

Of trees of life I didn’t plant

No, I am the fruit

Of all those who sprung root and refused to let go

My ancestors fought

So I could have the right

To fight

My middle class battles

Like, why is it always required to learn…

Western History

Western Art History

Western Medicine

But the rest is optional

Why is it always American Literature

And then African American Literature

Why is it always American History

And then African American History

I mean, I thought people were only divided geographically?

Yet, down in the books, we are still separated, still divided

Recorded as if two different nations

Past African American and Caucasian American abolitionists and activists struggled for everybody

For if they were to let America continue in its corruptness

That would have been an injustice for all

American History is our History

African American History is our History

History needs to be known correctly

So wrongdoings won’t be repeated by anybody

Black Emphasis Month is for the whole community

©Kay Rich