President, Press and Governor speak out: police brutality must be condemned and controlled

Alton Sterling
Alton Sterling Source: YouTube
No man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as any manner of thy friends or of thine own were; any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind. And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.

– John Donne, Devotions upon Emergent Occasions Meditation XVII

This week saw the police murder father of five children Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, Louisiana not long before school lunch supervisor and student mentor Philando Castile was murdered by a policeman near St. Paul, Minnesota.

New York Times writer Michael Eric Dyson offers a sizzling condemnation of white people for failing to hold brutal police accountable for killing people of color. Because ultimately, they don’t want to see that their greed for privilege has created and supports the social environment in which it is OK for this to happen. What a read: read more

Bob Braun explores relationship between Christie and NJ violence

Screaming ChristieLots of things Bob Braun says are way too important to only be seen on Facebook. Like his thoughts on the relationship between Christie’s ranting/abuse and youth shootings motivated by a desire for “respect”:

If the governor of the state can suggest that someone should “take a bat” to a woman, why should we be surprised that a child shoots people because they “disrespected” him?

We live in a state in which the governor prides himself in bullying, misogynistic behavior, someone who shows his displeasure with threatening gestures and who refuses to defend gun restrictions in court. We live in a state whose voters re-elected this bully and elected as US senator a man who, as Newark mayor, laid off cops and presided over the worst carnage in almost a decade. We live in a state where the busiest interstate crossing can be held for political ransom despite the threat to public safety. read more