This Is Just Plain Wrong and Pathetic

This just came up on Yahoo News...I think that this article speaks for itself without me adding anything else other than pitiful!!!!!!

Election spurs 'hundreds' of race threats, crimes

By JESSE WASHINGTON, AP National Writer Jesse Washington, Ap National Writer
Cross burnings. Schoolchildren chanting "Assassinate Obama." Black figures hung from nooses. Racial epithets scrawled on homes and cars.
Incidents around the country referring to President-elect Barack Obama are dampening the postelection glow of racial progress and harmony, highlighting the stubborn racism that remains in America.
From California to Maine, police have documented a range of alleged crimes, from vandalism and vague threats to at least one physical attack. Insults and taunts have been delivered by adults, college students and second-graders.
There have been "hundreds" of incidents since the election, many more than usual, said Mark Potok, director of the Intelligence Project at the Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors hate crimes.
One was in Snellville, Ga., where Denene Millner said a boy on the school bus told her 9-year-old daughter the day after the election: "I hope Obama gets assassinated." That night, someone trashed her sister-in-law's front lawn, mangled the Obama lawn signs, and left two pizza boxes filled with human feces outside the front door, Millner said.
She described her emotions as a combination of anger and fear.
"I can't say that every white person in Snellville is evil and anti-Obama and willing to desecrate my property because one or two idiots did it," said Millner, who is black. "But it definitely makes you look a little different at the people who you live with, and makes you wonder what they're capable of and what they're really thinking."
Potok, who is white, said he believes there is "a large subset of white people in this country who feel that they are losing everything they know, that the country their forefathers built has somehow been stolen from them."
Grant Griffin, a 46-year-old white Georgia native, expressed similar sentiments: "I believe our nation is ruined and has been for several decades and the election of Obama is merely the culmination of the change.
"If you had real change it would involve all the members of (Obama's) church being deported," he said.
Change in whatever form does not come easy, and a black president is "the most profound change in the field of race this country has experienced since the Civil War," said William Ferris, senior associate director of the Center for the Study of the American South at the University of North Carolina. "It's shaking the foundations on which the country has existed for centuries."
"Someone once said racism is like cancer," Ferris said. "It's never totally wiped out, it's in remission."
If so, America's remission lasted until the morning of Nov. 5.
The day after the vote hailed as a sign of a nation changed, black high school student Barbara Tyler of Marietta, Ga., said she heard hateful Obama comments from white students, and that teachers cut off discussion about Obama's victory.
Tyler spoke at a press conference by the Georgia chapter of the NAACP calling for a town hall meeting to address complaints from across the state about hostility and resentment. Another student, from a Covington middle school, said he was suspended for wearing an Obama shirt to school Nov. 5 after the principal told students not to wear political paraphernalia.
The student's mother, Eshe Riviears, said the principal told her: "Whether you like it or not, we're in the South, and there are a lot of people who are not happy with this decision."
Other incidents include:
_Four North Carolina State University students admitted writing anti-Obama comments in a tunnel designated for free speech expression, including one that said: "Let's shoot that (N-word) in the head." Obama has received more threats than any other president-elect, authorities say.
_At Standish, Maine, a sign inside the Oak Hill General Store read: "Osama Obama Shotgun Pool." Customers could sign up to bet $1 on a date when Obama would be killed. "Stabbing, shooting, roadside bombs, they all count," the sign said. At the bottom of the marker board was written "Let's hope someone wins."
_Racist graffiti was found in places including New York's Long Island, where two dozen cars were spray-painted; Kilgore, Texas, where the local high school and skate park were defaced; and the Los Angeles area, where swastikas, racial slurs and "Go Back To Africa" were spray painted on sidewalks, houses and cars.
_Second- and third-grade students on a school bus in Rexburg, Idaho, chanted "assassinate Obama," a district official said.
_University of Alabama professor Marsha L. Houston said a poster of the Obama family was ripped off her office door. A replacement poster was defaced with a death threat and a racial slur. "It seems the election brought the racist rats out of the woodwork," Houston said.
_Black figures were hanged by nooses from trees on Mount Desert Island, Maine, the Bangor Daily News reported. The president of Baylor University in Waco, Texas said a rope found hanging from a campus tree was apparently an abandoned swing and not a noose.
_Crosses were burned in yards of Obama supporters in Hardwick, N.J., and Apolacan Township, Pa.
_A black teenager in New York City said he was attacked with a bat on election night by four white men who shouted 'Obama.'
_In the Pittsburgh suburb of Forest Hills, a black man said he found a note with a racial slur on his car windshield, saying "now that you voted for Obama, just watch out for your house."
Emotions are often raw after a hard-fought political campaign, but now those on the losing side have an easy target for their anger.
"The principle is very simple," said BJ Gallagher, a sociologist and co-author of the diversity book "A Peacock in the Land of Penguins." "If I can't hurt the person I'm angry at, then I'll vent my anger on a substitute, i.e., someone of the same race."
"We saw the same thing happen after the 9-11 attacks, as a wave of anti-Muslim violence swept the country. We saw it happen after the Rodney King verdict, when Los Angeles blacks erupted in rage at the injustice perpetrated by 'the white man.'"
"It's as stupid and ineffectual as kicking your dog when you've had a bad day at the office," Gallagher said. "But it happens a lot."
___
Associated Press writers Errin Haines, Jerry Harkavy, Jay Reeves, Johnny Taylor and researcher Rhonda Shafner contributed to this report.

My Restless Spirit and Searching for "The Place"

Veronica has been telling me for some time that I should write more in my blog. For me, that is easier said than done. I don't believe in writing just for the sake of writing. I usually write when I have something to say, maybe an event, a thought or an idea I would like to share with others or when I feel that someone can learn from my mistakes. Putting things into writing and out into the publics eye does not come natural to me. I am a somewhat private person and I am not really comfortable putting myself "out there" for all to see. I feel that it exposes me and leaves me vulnerable. Because it does not come naturally, at times it can be work and sometimes just plain scary. Sometimes you have to throw all of your fears behind you and just go for it. With that being said, I would like to talk about something that some of you might be able to relate to...a restless spirit and trying to find "The Place". During my journey through life, I have lived in many locations. It seems that after a period of time in any one place, I find myself needing to move on and start over. With each move, there comes a level of excitement, hope and anticipation. Could this be "the place". "The place" is somewhere that I seem to be searching for and have been doing so for all of my adult life. "The place" is somewhere where I feel that I truly fit in..a place where you have real friends and are very content and happy that you actually belong there and that your search and journey has finally ended. It is a location where you go to for the first time, you stop and look around and then after using all of your senses, a special feeling comes over you. That feeling that you have arrived..the feeling that this is "THE PLACE". The life long search has ended...your destiny. You finally found it....home...."the place" where you belong. Some people are lucky and find "their place" quickly. Others, like myself, it takes a majority of their life to stumble upon it. Some never do and sometimes I fear that I might be one of them, an endless searcher. I am 53 years old and as of now I have not been able to find "The place" for me. I have learned that sometimes being homeless means more than being without the 4 walls and roof that surround you or a place to lay your head at night. To me, that is being houseless. This is by no means making light of those who are homeless in the traditional sense of the word. I live in a house but I still consider myself as being homeless. I just haven't found "the place"... "the place" where my spirit soars and my soul is happy and content.....my home. I will continue on my journey through life, searching for " the place" for me...that special place where I belong and always have. Until then, my search goes on and I will continue being homeless.

Another Voice Has Gone Silent

It was many years ago that I first heard the name Miriam Makeba. I learned of her struggles and musical talent after listening to Paul Simons 1986 release of the Graceland album. After listening to the album, I had to buy the video concert that was taped on VHS tape, that included her singing in this concert. If you have not seen or listened to it, it truly is an amazing work of musical art. Ladysmith Black Mombazo and Hugh Masekela, along with many others, were also featured in this concert. Miriam Mekeba, also known as Mama Afrika, had been exiled from her homeland for approximately 30 years, starting in 1960, during the apartheid system that was in place at that time in South Africa. In 1990, as the apartheid system began to crumble, she returned to Johannesburg for a homecoming celebration. Miriam Mekeba sang beautiful songs about her homeland, culture and roots. Yesterday while singing in a concert in Italy, Miriam Makeba collapsed on stage and died at the age of 76.
As reported today in the International Herald Tribune......Nelson Mandela said that the death "of our beloved Miriam has saddened us and our nation."
He continued: "Her haunting melodies gave voice to the pain of exile and dislocation which she felt for 31 long years. At the same time, her music inspired a powerful sense of hope in all of us."
"She was South Africa's first lady of song and so richly deserved the title of Mama Afrika. She was a mother to our struggle and to the young nation of ours"
Although I did not know her personally, I am glad that I had the opportunity to learn about her thoughts and feelings from her music.
For more information about Miriam Mekeba, please read the following article from the International Herald Tribune... http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/11/10/africa/obits.php