RIDDING THE LITTLE SCREEN OF ROSEANNE BARR: A GLIMMER OF HOPE IN THE DISTANCE

A series of essays....

FRIENDSHIP IS COLORBLIND!
OUR DAUGHTER, CORINNE, AND HER BEST FRIEND,
MICHELLE, ON A TRIP TO EUROPE

....as seen through my eyes!

By: Jacqueline E. Hughes

Racism....the deep-seated, dark, murky thing that hides under the bed, resides in the hall closet, and keeps many people awake most of the night. Popular horror and thriller author, Stephen King, got it right each time he sent millions of his readers into tears of fear or battling night sweats after experiencing his novels. According to the Washington Post, around ten percent of Mr. King's tweets and Facebook posts are political and he holds nothing back when criticizing the current leader residing in the White House. His remarks are not pretty but, they are real and from the heart. 

HIS BOOKS CAN'T HOLD A CANDLE
TO THE REAL LIFE FEAR WE KNOW
EXISTS WITHIN THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION...

I have a feeling it isn’t always the shiny balloons, nasty looking clowns, or rabid animals that ignite our fears; often, it’s having to understand and deal with people who fail to see the beauty in others no matter what color their skin is while, at the same time, demeaning them as less than human. This is our nightmare; this should be one of our biggest concerns as we walk, breathe, work, and intermingle with others in 2018 and beyond!

The tone does start at the top.

If memory serves me well, our own parents set the tone for our deep-seated (after all, the heart is the seat of passion) beliefs that continue to live within us as thriving adults. Back in the day, we listened intently to anyone who fed and clothed us, along with various other authority figures who taught us our lessons in school, preached to us from the pulpit at Sunday morning mass, and, in theory, towered over us like giant, animated skyscrapers wielding their stone tablet lists of do’s and don’t’s. 

Please take a moment to ask yourself if you believe that the abhorrent comments, bad taste jokes, and life-threatening displays of hatred by so many people are having an insidious and damaging impact on all of us. If your answer is a profound...Yes!, a great follow-up question might be, what are we going to do about it?      

Let’s begin by admitting one thing to ourselves; the skyscraper holding the stone tablets today is more compact, unconsciously animated to the highest degree, and wields more power than even the most highly intelligent among us believed someone in his position ever could. His words and actions are inconsistent with the principle that all men and women are created equal and that each person born has a right to pursue everything and anything in this world and its societies as much as the next person. In essence, it means that no one has exclusive rights to these pursuits.

When hate is normalized at a high level and emboldened by a President who is race based himself...we have a major problem on our hands. Blinded by the incessant pain he has lived with all of his life and brought about by the dollars signs permanently embedded in his eyeballs, this poor excuse for a leader of the free world has been handed a 'one-sided' forum that he freely uses to spread his words of corruption and hate. 

He is an eager participant in the popular board game called ‘Risk’ and the fate of each person and every piece of land he scrambles to pull towards him with his grubby, little hands is hanging in the balance between life and death, rich or poor, love and hate, and right or wrong. Unfortunately, in reality, this is not a board game for us. It’s called survival. The treachery he creates, weaving harm in a manipulative manner, is far more dangerous than what seems evident to most of us on a regular basis. It’s as if we are being slowly consumed by an insidious disease and the cure is just beyond our reach.     
The racists, white supremacists, his minions or ‘base,’ follow him faithfully with the promise that they are free to hold absolutely nothing back to the tune of little or no consequences for their actions. The title of this popular song could be changed to ‘Who Let the Haters Out ?’ because this President has opened up the flood gates from Hell and the Roseannes, David Dukes, mini-Hitlers, greedy rich, and individuals who want to be able to, finally, belong somewhere in this society, have come pouring out of them. And, it’s not a pretty sight or a comfortable position to be in for the rest of the population.

Agreeing with the timely decision, made by the President of ABC, Channing Dungey, on Tuesday, to cancel the ‘Roseanne’ reboot sitcom starring Roseanne Barr, I am beginning to see a tiny sliver of hope way down at the end of this dark, claustrophobic tunnel we’ve been inhabiting for far too long. I am sad that ABC and Disney decided to take-on this project in the first place knowing who and what Roseanne stood for based upon her prior words and actions throughout the years. No matter how it is arrived at, profit is the name-of-the-game for all corporations, so, this decision comes as no surprise; she was highly marketable and the President residing in the White House today identifies with her racial slurs.

Rob Reiner, actor, producer, and writer, proposed an interesting ‘Catch 22’ challenge to Trump when he tweeted his thoughts after the demise of ‘Roseanne’ and wrote:

@robreiner
 “ABC has done the right thing. They’ve stood up against racism. It is our country’s original sin. But this is 2018 and it has no place in the hearts of decent people. Unfortunately our president has stoked these evil fires. If he doesn’t applaud ABC, he will continue to stoke evil.”

Mr. Reiner is right. If Trump tweets his support of Roseanne Barr, he will continue to stoke evil. But, I have a feeling we all know where this will go. Somehow, even this challenge will lead back to Trump himself; something he has or hasn’t done, or is about to do, or something someone else has or hasn’t done for him. Well, you know by now what I mean because it will always be about him no matter what the subject might be. What a sad, little man...

So, what are we going to do about it? In actuality, there are quite a few things we can do. And, staying silent and inactive as we wait for this ‘Crazy Train’ to, finally, leave the station is not one of them! 

For starters, we not only vote this coming mid-term election in November but, we encourage (embolden?) everyone else to do so. Talking about the categorical harm this administration is placing our country in will help bring this monstrous attack on us to light instead of keeping it in the shadows. Get involved! Speak with people who agree and disagree with you. Having both sides of a situation exposed can help everyone involved in so many ways. And, as the Brits say, “Keep Calm and Carry on” my friends.

In the meantime, the importance of finding our own, individual, purpose and means of joy in this lifetime should and must become a main priority. And, when we do, this solid platform will stabilize us, bring us closer to everyone around us, and open our eyes to the reality that we are all connected with one another...no matter the color of our skin or how we choose to love and honor a particular religion or atheistic belief.

CHILDREN DO NOT SEE IN
BLACK OR WHITE...

Feed your mind with fresh perspective. Make your voice be heard (rush to the polls this November). Discover the joy and passion in your life. Stop worrying and start living again. Remember not to allow the Boogie Man under your bed to take away your freedom or diminish the love you should have for all of the people you share this breathtaking world with. Life is too short to think, believe, or do otherwise. 

Copyright © 2018 by Jacqueline E. Hughes

All rights reserved

THE TASK OF MAKING AMERICA SMART AGAIN.....?

A series of essays.....

.....as seen through my eyes!




By: Jacqueline E. Hughes
 

To make America smart again, you would have to assume that it was smart to begin with.

And, it was....before Washington D.C. became 'the swamp' following the November 8 election, it was known as a fair and balanced ecosystem that incorporated all people, faiths, and ideologies within its borders. It was quickly drained of its kindness and left vulnerable and open to greed, fear, and foreign influence!

As a young child living with my parents, older brother and, eventually, my two younger brothers, I was young, naive, and authority figures surrounded my everyday life. They wore grown-up clothes which included suits and ties, long black 'habits' that covered everything with the exception of their face and hands, and high-necked dresses adorned with silver chains from which a studious-looking pair of eyeglasses dangled from, often resembling an awkward piece of sculpture resting on their bosom. Authoritarianism.

This doesn't include the male authority figure who would preside at daily mass and then hide in a small cupboard as he listened to our sins, offered the forgiveness of God, and then sent us out of the cupboard to pray for that forgiveness. I can recall being on the playground when this holy man would stride through us kids on his way from the Rectory to the school building. We would all silently pray that he could not recognize our voices, connect them with our faces, and know what we individually confessed to him during the week! Humbleness.

Our respect for policemen went without saying. They were there to protect us from evil. Although, at such a young age, I really didn't know what that evil consisted of. Those were the days, as well, when the family doctor came calling at our house to check my throat and take my temperature before telling my parents that I had strep throat.....again, and would have to bed rest and take his prescribed medication. Consolation.

Growing older, my world greatly expanded and my own thoughts, lifestyle, and habits began to mold and shape my individualism and formulate my ideas as an adolescent and young adult. Maturity.

Fear was an obsolete term for me as I approached adulthood. I may have only applied it to the fact that I feared losing my parents one day....the only authority figures who, whether out of love or heavy doses of pure guilt, would always have the power to affect my life like no one else could. Loyalty.

I am, significantly, older now. I have lived through so much while making many decisions along with minor/major life changes. I have become book-smart, responsible, commonsensical, often goofy and carefree, with one of my greatest attributes being the ability to listen. It has always been a pleasure of mine to listen to what others have to say. Everyone is important and everyone has something they need to tell someone else. But, not everyone has the patience to just.....listen to them.

Aging and living a full life has taught me how important all of life's lessons are, whether good, bad, or indifferent.

Now that I am older, the level of my intelligence, I've determined, is not measured by an I.Q. rating or how many Facebook quizzes have been aced recently. Rather, it is based upon the observance of what is going on and being said and being acted upon (or not) within this amazing world we live in. 

Admittedly, we now live in a world of massive doses of positive and negative stimulus, mainly due to social media. Does having all of this information, literally at our fingertips, make us smarter? Or, is it information overload at its most ineffectiveness? Having graciously earned senior adult status, I have a few things to say about this.....

While I was living out my childhood under the thumb of the authority figures who impacted everyday life, I, more than likely, was making mental notes about what was going on within my own small world. Did I know or care about who the President of the United States was, what his job or purpose was? No.

What I did note was what influenced me the most at the time, which included how my parents treated one another, what my closest relatives (including grandparents) taught us about the world and the people around us, the importance of an older brother obtaining a college education, and the unimportance of girls, in general, achieving that same goal. How all young girls needed to protect their innocence, remain chaste, and never give in to their instinctive feelings or emotions. And yet....a boy wasn't considered a man until he had had sex for the first time! No double-standards here!!

When you stop to think about it, children growing up in the 1950's were primed and in full acceptance of their beliefs and experiences that were to follow in the mid-1960's. 

Simply stated....we had had enough!

We evolved into free-thinkers with an education and the ability to discuss with our peers the challenges, insecurities, and inequalities that made-up our lives, including the working establishment that we knew we could not avoid if we were to survive in this world. We remembered how many of our Mothers had been treated as second-class citizens by our own Fathers. How our relatives preached white supremacy under the guise of self-protection from the Negros that could do us bodily harm. And, how, as a young woman, we were guilty of 'leading men on' by the style of clothes we wore, if we filed our nails in the public eye, or if the kids we hung around with lived on the 'wrong side' of the tracks. Ah! No bigotry or racism there!

Sitting here pounding the keys of my i-Pad today, having already lived through many Presidents, some bad and some better than most, it's difficult to wake up in the morning without thinking about what is transpiring on the political scene today, in this case somewhere between Washington D.C. and a golden tower on Fifth Avenue in New York City. I, literally, attempt to suppress my feelings of fear and anxiety about the future by keeping myself away from cable news and Facebook. How's that working for you, kid? Admittedly, not very well. 

Always questioning what is going on around me, I decided to analyze the slogan made famous on the 'chapeau rouge' worn by this President-elect throughout his campaign. "Make America Great Again!" Thinking back far into my own childhood, I tried to recall what made America great back then and for whom was it so great and wonderful? 

Certainly not for many females, especially when, even in the mid to late 1960's, they were told that sending them to college was a waste of time and money. Certainly not for the poor who earned minimum wages while attempting to put food on the table each day. Certainly not for a person of color who had to fight for his/her equality every waking moment and were chided and controlled by a military force known as the local police. And, certainly not for the lonely, oppressed Mother who made the decision not to have more children even if it meant bleeding to death by a wire coat hanger knowing that this was the only way she had control of her own body......

Basic control over what others may say and do.....is that what this new administration believes will make America great again? 

In Baton Rouge, Louisiana earlier this week, after having recently won the title of Person of the Year by Time Magazine, the President-elect was openly complaining to his constituents that this title used to be called Man of the Year before adapting to the (in his words) politically correct version of 'Person.' Evidently, making America manly once again by not acknowledging the hard work of women or the presence of strong women within our society, will aid him in making America great again!!!

Being a woman and having two strong woman as daughters who, in turn, have introduced to the world three amazingly intelligent daughters of their own.....  I REFUSE to go backwards into the future. Especially, not back into the dark ages of our country's history where equality among people as a whole was non-existent, most men and women had no designs on their own destiny, and absolute power was in the hands of a few rich, mature white men.

The definitive progress made by mankind in the last several decades that was guided by mutual respect and understanding for one another is about as far back in time as I choose to go. Most of us have worked way too hard to have all of our long fought battles reversed by people who just wanted to shake-up our government, take back jobs that have been mechanized and are non-existent, who failed to understand that lies and deception are the new rules and guidelines set-up by the very person they voted for, and taking the benefits of a decent life of education, health care, earned rights of Social Security benefits and Medicare back into the dark ages.

If 'The Dumbing-Up of America' serves the handful of filthy rich and greedy characters that desire to deny Americans their basic freedoms, then hope will go by the wayside. The once great United States of America will tumble into a heap of rubble that cannot and will not be respected by the rest of the world. That decline has already become evident to many of us.

Is it too late, fellow Americans, to 'Make America Smart Again?' If it isn't, we had better get our act together NOW and do something to renew our Hope and Faith in a nation that is quickly melting into the hands of foreign powers, unhealthy greed, and the frigid bonds of dictatorship.

Copyright © 2016 by Jacqueline E. Hughes

All rights reserved

                                                                                  

"BIRTH OF A NEW SPIRIT IN AMERICA"

A series of essays.....

RACHEL ROBINSON: ENORMOUS  COURAGE AND MORAL INTEGRITY

.....as seen through my eyes!





By: Jacqueline E. Hughes


This is a message for all of the strong women out there; past, present, and future. This is a message about repression and its flagrant use throughout the history of this great nation.

Last evening, after the Nightly News was watched, our daily events discussed, and dinner consumed, we decided to watch Part One of the Ken Burns' documentary entitled Jackie Robinson which we had recorded a few weeks ago.

As the credits rolled, we must have spent another hour, at least, discussing what had recently been unveiled before us. As the Brits might say......, we were gobsmacked by the revelations compiled and brought to the screen by this ingenious documentarist, with kudos reaching out to his daughter, Sarah, in the 'writing' category.

KEN BURNS

I must say that I am always deeply happy when my own research takes me far below the surface and into places that I'd previously only skimmed over, or remembered from college courses.

Last evening we were formally introduced to this truly amazing couple, Rachel and Jack Robinson, via the spirit, wisdom, and talent of Ken Burns. I know that Rachel and Jackie, both strong and caring individuals in their own right, would have marked great strides down their independent paths......however, together they were a powerful partnership that blossomed constantly within the goodness they created and the hate they were forced to endure.

The blatant hatred of the color of their skin.......a fact that often eclipsed the intelligence, sound judgment, and innate talent possessed by this team, should and will be a blight on our society, forever!

There had to be a good reason we waited until now to watch this documentary. Following this past week of violence by and directed towards our police, it was time to stimulate our sense of equilibrium with another solid dose of reality. Life has a way of taking things from one extreme to the other and, eventually, meeting in the middle, if we're lucky.

"Robinson couldn't have done it without his wife, Rachel," proclaims Burns in an interview with Newsweek. "Rachel was his confident, his rock, and his only refuge from the incessant abuse he endured."

Burns was able to highlight the strength behind the relationship of Jackie and Rachel, college sweethearts, in an interview with Barack and Michelle Obama. Their 'journey' has been similar to Jackie and Rachel's. "Jackie is the first to go through a door back then. The president is the first to go through a door, and he's saying (to paraphrase President Obama in the documentary), that when people are giving you shit for stuff that has to do with the color of your skin, it’s good to go home to where people love you and have your back."

RACHEL AND JACK ON THEIR FIRST DATE

Rachel would always have Jackie's back! "Home was our place away from the world, and it was central," said Rachel. "We made a point not to talk about every negative encounter that happened. That would have been too much. We treated our home like a haven and when you come into a haven you don't want to bring in painful things. You want to cherish it. You use the haven to get yourself ready for the next day."

Rachel graduated from UCLA with a bachelor's degree in nursing and went on to obtain a master's degree in psychiatric nursing from New York University, according to Wikipedia. Last evening, we saw this beautiful lady, mother of three, constantly protect Jackie's back all through the time when Jackie was breaking baseball's color barrier in 1946 and 1947. Later, with Rachel by his side, Jackie went on to fight for Civil Rights in this country and assist in getting John F. Kennedy into the White House.

Number 42, first baseman and shortstop for the Brooklyn Dodgers, Jackie faced adversity from birth: He was born a black man in a white man's world. One of the stipulations he had to comply with as a member of the Dodgers' team was to turn the other cheek when racial hatred came aiming its ugly fist at him. Rachel helped Jackie control his temper and realize exactly why his opportunity/venture into this elite side of baseball was so important to both black and white people alike.

When Number 42 became confronted by racial hatred and bigotry, he defined the moment as the "Birth of a new spirit in America!" He went on to explain that when a white team player defied convention, he was known to possess 'spirit.'  When he, a black player, defied convention, he was noted as 'an uppity n***** or ungrateful.'

Jackie's ability to live a good life with his strong wife and amazing family during this time is a testament to his true spirit. He was an honorable gentleman, family man, and leader who was given exceptional athletic abilities and was able to use them to everyone's advantage. His notoriety as Number 42 helped to launch his career as a Civil Rights advocate and to make his way through new doors as a Black Man who had experienced repression first-hand.

*Fear
*Hate
*Slavery
*Misinterpretation of Religion
*Bullying
*Lack of Education
*Need For Power
*Denial of "All People Created Equal" Under God

*Genuine Lack of Respect For Others
The above are all contributing factors in a world that chooses war over peace, hatred over love, and guns over verbal communication and understanding.

When you can look an adversary in the eyes and say, "I can't treat you right or with genuine respect if I look at you as being inferior to me," you have taken a giant leap in the right direction of understanding racism in America.

Yes, Black lives do matter and should matter to all of us who have never had the color of our skin be a threat to the quality of our life. If Jackie and Rachel Robinson were standing here today, I believe they would say this to all of us who, after so many years, continue to live through these difficult times: "We're all in this together, even if that's not easy."

Greatness, strength, and understanding are ultimately supported from the bottom....up, creating a strong foundation. Respect for others is a right given to all of us at birth. We must never allow others (parents, piers, friends, even high ranking leaders) to take this privilege of equality away from us. Let's teach our children that the color of their skin makes no difference and that we're all equal to one another in this world.

We are eager to absorb Part Two of Jackie Robinson tonight. I will listen, take more notes, and learn from the experience.


Author's Note: Rachel Robinson will turn 94 years young on July 19, 2016. Happy Birthday Beautiful Lady!


Copyright © 2016 by Jacqueline E. Hughes
All rights reserved