Hate Crime

• •  Below is a facebook conversation with a friend
    
    
    
    
    Him: oh btw....did i tell you about my beating?
• Me:
  

  about an hour ago

  • ?
  • no
• Him:
  

  about an hour ago

  • a couple of weeks ago...i was walking back home from a friend's place ...a party....got jumped by 4 white guys.....got pretty much the shit kicked out of me
  • my shoulder's messed up....doing physical therapy these days
• about an hour ago

  Me:

  • !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
  • wtf!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
  • are you OK...ish?
  • no permanent damage right?
  • did you get a look at them?
  • tell the police?
• Him:
  

  about an hour ago

  
  

  • yeah....improving... have not been to the gym in a month...
  • not permanent no...hopefully...
  • yeah...they drove by me on my way back....yellled at me ....slowed the car down....i told em to fuck off...they parked the car...ran to me...told me to apologize....and i did...cuz i didnt want trouble....and they said i needed to apologize to them individuallly...i just tried to get out of the way and get home...and got called a brown bastard....and i told em they were being racist....
• 
  
• Him: 

  
  

  • at which point they decided to fuck me up...i got one guy in the face...but the others wrestled me down and kicked the crap out of me...i was unconscious for a few mins before some people from a frat house across the street came out and helped me up
  • the police

    came*....they took a statement ....and pics and a police report was 

    filed
• Me:
  

  about an hour ago

  
  

  • I think Im going to cry
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    Yes, I cried. I can't even articulate how angry, upset and terrified this makes me... on his behalf, on my own behalf. This stuff actually happens. Not just in movies. Not just far away or long ago. But here and now to your family and friends. I can't forget that this happened. I can't for one second forget.

Gaza - Educate yourself

It's never too late to figure out what's going on. Take your head out of the hole and find out...

Who is Hamas

Gaza Crisis: Key maps and timeline

Profile: Gaza Strip

still looking... still reading

Equal Rights - Peter Tosh 1977

If wars were to stop right now... If we had "peace"... would the problems really go away or would they just be easier to ignore?

At least I'd be a little less upset in the mornings as I listen to BBC online from my little cubicle at work. Maybe I'd would never have to be ashamed for not knowing enough about the world... for not even really thinking about or trying to, much less really fullfilling my responsibility to the other people on this planet

My conversations would sound less hollow. My problems would seem more important. My ambitions more noble. My education more whole.

But we would be worse people. Except we wouldn't even have the chance to fix it, because we would never know.

More importantly all those people, would still be suffering.

Let's do the hard thing and ask for the right things. We will all be better for it.

Listen

Everyone is crying out for peace yes
None is crying out for justice
Everyone is crying out for peace yes
None is crying out for justice

I don't want no peace
I need equal rights and justice
I got to get it
Equal rights and justice

Everybody want to go to heaven
But nobody want to die (father us Jesus)
Everybody want to go to up to heaven
But none o them, none o them want to die

(Just give me my share)

What is due to Caesar
You better give it on to Caesar
And what belong to I and I
You better, you better give it up to I

(I'm fighting for it)

Everyone heading for the top
But tell me how far is it from the bottom
Nobody knows but
Everybody fighting to reach the top
How far is it from the bottom

Everyone is talking about crime
Tell me who are the criminals
I said everybody's talking about crime, crime
Tell me who, who are the criminals
I really don't see them


There be no crime
Equal rights and justice

There be no criminals equal rights and justice
Everyone is fighting for equal rights and justice
Palestine is fighting for equal rights and justice
Down in Angola equal rights and justice
Down in Botswana equal rights and justice
Down in Zimbabwe equal rights and justice
Down in Rhodesia equal rights and justice
Right here in Jamaica equal rights and justice

Dance, Travel, and Jena

My Grandma always said one should never trust a girl who doesn't like to dance. What on earth could that possibly mean? What's wrong with a girl who doesn't like to dance? Anyway, we are holding call-back auditions for one of my dance groups today. And even better than a girl who likes to dance, is a guy who likes to dance. How can a girl resist a fun-loving guy who demonstrable has flawless rhythm? Guys, take note.

After auditions we spend a couple of hours trying to figure out who to let in and then I get to write a 20 pager on the history of commutative algebra. Nice!!! I slept 12 hours last night in an attempt to procrastinate. But I have no more time to waste. Now I am taking comfort in my academic obligations. It will prevent me from havign to talk to people. Don't get me wrong, I love people and people generally like me, but after being gone all year its hard to reconnect. At first I thought it was that people have changed. But maybe its me. I am starting to fear that I am older, more judgemental and more awkward than I used to be. Only time will tell.

Even though I am trying to avoid people I am still thinking that later today I will attend a joint meeting between the Black Student Union and the Students for Social Justice about a Jena 6 awareness campaign on campus. For some info go to:

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,2083762,00.html
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=12353776
http://www.amnesty.org.uk/news_details.asp?NewsID=17444
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-070904jena,1,4272535.story

for entertainment, I suggest: www.allabout-sp.net