Racism

When called for Jury Duty, most of you complain and contemplate all the reasons why you can’t and don’t want to serve…

This past Spring, I was called for duty and ended up serving a 2-Month Stint as Juror #3 {the Secretary} on the Fulton County Georgia Grand Jury.

At first, I wasn’t happy about having to serve, but after a week I settled into it and it gave me a whole new perspective on how our Country’s Court System works.

Just so you know:

Fulton County Grand Jury Duty service commitment = 2 days per week for 2 Months, at $25 per day.

My term was every Tuesday and Friday from 8:30am – 5:00pm, during the months of March & April.

For what it’s worth, I have no comment on The State of Florida vs. George Zimmerman Case.

And if I did, I was not a Juror, or an Attorney, nor was I the Judge on the case – so what does my opinion matter?

Argue amongst yourselves.

… But, PLEASE hear me when I say this:

The next time you get called for Jury Duty, Look at it as an Important Opportunity to be a part of YOUR government in action.

TAKE IT SERIOUSLY and DON’T BE A DICK ABOUT IT.

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According to Wikipedia:

“For What It’s Worth” is a song written by Stephen Stills. It was performed by Buffalo Springfield, recorded on December 5, 1966, and released as a single in January 1967; it was later added to the re-release of their first album, Buffalo Springfield. The single peaked at number seven on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. This song is currently ranked #63 on Rolling Stone‘s list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time as well as the eighth best song of 1967 by Acclaimed Music.

The song was inspired by an event at the dawn of the psychedelic era in November 1966, the year during which Buffalo Springfield started playing as the house band at the Whisky a Go Go on the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles. According to the Los Angeles Times,[3] annoyed residents and business owners in the district had encouraged the passage of strict (10:00 p.m.) curfew and loitering laws to reduce the traffic congestion resulting from crowds of young club patrons. This was subsequently perceived by young, local rock and roll music fans as an infringement on their civil rights, and on Saturday, November 12, 1966, fliers were distributed along the Strip inviting people to demonstrate later that day.

Hours before the protest one of L.A’s rock ‘n’ roll radio stations announced there would be a rally at Pandora’s Box, a club at the corner of Sunset Boulevard and Crescent Heights, and cautioned people to tread carefully.[3] The Times reported that as many as 1,000 youthful demonstrators, including such celebrities as Jack Nicholson and Peter Fonda (who was afterward handcuffed by police), erupted in protest against the perceived repressive enforcement of these recently invoked curfew laws.

Though often mistaken for an anti-war song, it was this first of the “Sunset Strip riots” which inspired then Buffalo Springfield band member Stephen Stills to write “For What It’s Worth”, recorded about three weeks after on December 5, 1966.

The song quickly became a well-known protest song. While it has come to symbolize worldwide turbulence and confrontational feelings arising from events during the 1960s (particularly the Vietnam War), Stills recounts writing the song in reaction to escalating unrest between law enforcement and young club-goers on the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles County, California. The song’s title appears nowhere in its lyrics; it is more easily remembered by the first line of chorus: “Stop, children, what’s that sound?”

Stills said in an interview that the name of the song came about when he presented it to the record company executive Ahmet Ertegun who signed Buffalo Springfield to the Atlantic Records-owned ATCO label. He said: “I have this song here, for what it’s worth, if you want it.” Another producer, Charlie Greene, claims that Stills first said the above sentence to him, but credits Ahmet Ertegun with subtitling the single “Stop, Hey What’s That Sound” so that the song would be more easily recognized.

In 2006, when interviewed on Tom Kent‘s radio show “Into the ’70s”, Stephen Stills pointed out that many people think “For What It’s Worth” is about the Kent State Shootings (1970), despite predating that event by over three years. Neil Young, Stills’ bandmate in both Buffalo Springfield and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, would later write Ohio, which really is about Kent State.

The song was played (without Neil Young‘s presence) at Buffalo Springfield’s induction to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

The other day, a friend told me about a HandyMan that she knows who is so much of a Bigot that he will not do work for certain ethnic groups. THAT made me very angry.

I know and have known for a long time that blaten Prejudice, Racism, and Bigotry exists among many people. It exists not only in the southern United States (where I live), but all over the world.

The discussion that I had with my friend got me to thinking about my own experiences with Bigotry.

Is it crazy to actually consider myself LUCKY to have experienced Bigotry, Racism, and moreover – Stupidity from so many people in my lifetime?

My experiences have been eye-opening and have been an important part of my personal growth. Through the years, I have grown in my ability to relate to all sorts of people despite their Racism, Bigotry, and/or Prejudice.

I can remember being called a “Nigger” by a neighborhood boy when I was 5 years old. My family lived on base at Altus, AFB, Oklahoma… It was 1967. At that age, I was not even sure what the word meant, but THAT’s what the White kid called me when I pointed at him after the AP {Air Force Policeman} asked me who I’d seen riding away on my bicycle.

I didn’t personally know that White kid, all I knew was:

– I had seen him take my bike out of my family’s garage.

– He rode away on my brand new bicycle (Training Wheels still attached).

– He had just been confronted about the theft.

– Obviously, he wasn’t very happy that he had been caught.

– He was in BIG trouble.

– He used the “N” word to “fight back”.

Later, when my Daddy explained to me what the word actually meant, I told him: “I’m not a Nigger.”

Daddy smiled at me and said: “No, Gina, You definitely are not!”

Nowadays, I think and wonder how a bigoted person handles life knowing that:

WE prepare his food in restaurants.

WE supply blood for the Red Cross or even possibly his life saving blood transfusion.

WE work at many health providers. Yes, WE are Doctors and Nurses.

WE count his money at the bank.

WE fix his BrokeDown Car, etc, etc, etc…???

Unlike my Grandparents, Parents, or even my Siblings, I’ve never experienced any type of Bigotry or Racism where I felt my life might be in danger. But I have experienced racist situations where I felt very uneasy and had my feelings hurt pretty badly.

Luckily, the experiences that I’ve had have not been daily occurences, nor have they happened very often. The unfortunate thing is that when I have experienced them – they have stung like a Hornet.

I will be 51 years old next month… I expect I will be stung many more times before my life is over.

Have you ever been stung by a Hornet? It hurts like Hell and once it happens, you’ll not soon forget it.

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According to my references:

Bigotry is the state of mind of a bigot: someone who, as a result of their prejudices, treats other people with hatred, contempt, and intolerance on the basis of a person’s race, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, religion, language, socioeconomic status, or other status.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. described bigotry in the following quotation: “The mind of a bigot is like the pupil of the eye; the more light you pour upon it, the more it will contract.”

{From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia}

The term Nigger is now probably the most offensive word in English. Its degree of offensiveness has increased markedly in recent years, although it has been used in a derogatory manner since at least the Revolutionary War. The senses labeled Extremely Disparaging and Offensive represent meanings that are deeply insulting and are used when the speaker deliberately wishes to cause great offense. It is so profoundly offensive that a euphemism has developed for those occasions when the word itself must be be discussed, as in court or in a newspaper editorial: “the n-word.”

Despite this, the sense referring to a “black person” is sometimes used among African Americans in a neutral or familiar way. The sense referring to other victims often used descriptively, as to denounce that prejudice, is not normally considered disparaging—as in “The Irish niggers of Europe” from Roddy Doyle’s The Commitments —but the other uses are and hostile.

noun

Slang: Extremely Disparaging and Offensive.

a black person.

a member of any dark-skinned people.

Slang: Extremely Disparaging and Offensive. a person of any race or origin regarded as contemptible,inferior, ignorant, etc.

a victim of prejudice similar to that suffered by blacks; a person who is economically, politically, orsocially disenfranchised.

{Dictionary.com Unabridged – Based on the Random House Dictionary, Random House, Inc. 2013}