Baseball And The Law

The following is my response to U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander’s refusal to sign the anti-lynching resolution and his reasons…Please feel free to read his statement by clicking on the following link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/23/AR2005062300492.html



I agree with Lamar to a degree, but isn't he one of the people that helped start the movement of the privatization of the prison industry in the United States and guess who makes up more than a adequate percentage of the prison population...If he and others really want to help Black folks then there a few significant things that can be done...First of all they need to change these lopsided drug and gun possession laws that got so many of our men and women in jail...This isn't just a Republican thing either...For example because of the crack/coke policy that he wholeheartedly supported the Black President Bill Clinton is responsible for having more Black people behind bars during his tenure as Pres. than any other president in history. Many people do not know that in post-Civil War America many Black men were framed for crimes to help build this country's railroad system (think John Henry who was a actual Black man from New Jersey), that Black dock workers used to be given cocaine for free and legally by White business interests that controlled the country's seaports and waterdocks so that they could work longer and faster without taking any breaks...This was common practice less than 100 years ago. Finally reparations (including financial) is needed for Black Americans… It is sad to me that people, including Black folks laugh at this but we actually did the job that nobody, including Mexicans wanted to do which is our ancestors built this mighty Superpower we call the U.S. for "free"...The Jews and Japanese got their money for crimes committed against them during WW2, and it was common practice for the U.S. government to pay foreign countries such as Italy, Mexico and China financial compensation for immigrants lynched in the U.S… Many people do not understand the psychological, economical and sociological damages done by lynching...Many Blacks were not lynched for 'raping' white women, but for owning successful businesses, many acres of fertile and valuable land, or exercising their rights as U.S. citizens...In other words they were killed because they dared to be successful, prosperous and treated like citizens in a republic that they helped build from the ground up. In reality it is sad that the two Mississippi Senators would not let their voices be heard...After all Mississippi led the nation in lynching from the late 1870s well into the 20th Century...Many people do not know that Mississippi has the largest number of Black elected political officials in the nation yet 75% of the state's prison population is Black...Who said lynching is dead??? My thoughts.

R2C2H2

p.s.

If you want to learn about true anti-lynching heroes please read something by or about the great Ida B. Wells-Barnett, the late legendary Walter White or the former late U.S. Rep.George White...You should also read Soledad Brother and Blood In My Eye by the late great George Jackson which deals with the lynching of Black souls in the prison industry and what can be done to combat the process...One more book is Carnival of Fury by the late William Ivy Hair which deals with the New Orleans Race Riot of 1900 and the real-life folk hero Robert Charles…If you need to find your respective senators’ contact info please visit http://www.senate.gov/ …The following are the 20 U.S. Senators who did not sign the anti-lynching resolution the first time around:

19 Republicans and 1 Democrat

1.) Lamar Alexander (R-TN)

2.) Robert Bennett (R-UT)

3.) Christopher Bond (R-MO)

4.)Jim Bunning (R-KY)

5.)Conrad Burns (R-MT)

6.)Saxby Chambliss (R-GA

7.)Thad Cochran (R-MS)

8.)Kent Conrad (D-ND)

9.)John Cornyn (R-TX)

10.)Michael Crapo (R-ID)

11.)Michael Enzi (R-WY)

12.)Chuck Grassley (R-IA)

13.)Judd Gregg (R-NH)

14.)Orrin Hatch (R-UT)

15.)Trent Lott (R-MS)

16.)Lisa Murkowski (R-AK)

17.)Richard Shelby (R-AL)

18.)John Sununu (R-NH)

19.)Craig Thomas (R-WY)

20.)George Voinovich (R-OH)