I Was Going To Ask 'What Are We Coming To'...

...but it appears I should Ask 'What Have We Become'! I took my usual look at the news on FoxNews.com this morning, and I was pretty appalled by what I read there. It wasn't just one story that made me cringe and wonder what we have become, but story after story after story told of how twisted humankind has become especially with regard to how people treat one another.

Here are some snippets from the articles that pretty much just made me wince with disgust:

U.N.: Burma Cyclone Victims Not Getting Enough International Aid - "Rainwater was the only source of clean drinking water for some of Burma's cyclone victims Tuesday as the U.N. said only a tiny portion of international aid was reaching the region. The country's military regime, which has renamed the country Myanmar, has been accused of hoarding high-quality foreign aid for itself while people make do with rotten food." ( source: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,355250,00.html).

How wonderful, an already repressive regime now taking the aid meant for its cyclone smashed people and using it to fatten themselves while their countrymen suffer. This is apparently a common enough occurrence throughout the world that maybe it does not shock - but as far as I go I am still disgusted by it.

Then we have this gem: Michigan Teen Gets Life Sentence for 'Thrill Kill' Beheading - "A teenager convicted of killing a man, then beheading him and setting fire to his body in what prosecutors called a thrill killing was sentenced Monday to life in prison without parole." (source: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,355176,00.html). Again probably what is a fairly common type of crime. The point is that it has become common, and we have allowed it to become so.

Here is yet another: Cleveland Man Pummeled to Death by 15, Urinated On and Stripped in the Street - "Even by tough, urban crime standards it was a grisly attack: Up to 15 people chased a man, then kicked and beat him to death on the street. Before police arrived, one attacker urinated on the victim's head." (source: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,355235,00.html)

This one reportedly a gang crime, and also a common thing in our world.

Probably the most disgusting of the stories, if true,that I read today, was this one: Man and Woman Indicted for Training Woman's Child to Be Dominatrix, Selling Her for Other Sex Acts - "Federal prosecutors on Monday unsealed an indictment against a man and woman accused of training the woman's child to be a dominatrix, selling her services and photographing some of the acts. (source: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,355257,00.html)

U.S. Attorney John Wood said the case is the first in which a parent of the victim has been charged with the commercial sex trafficking of his or her own minor child."

Do you think for a moment this is the first time a parent has done this? Despite what U.S. Attorney John Wood says about it being the first time someone has been so charged, it surely is not the first report we have read in which a parent has been reported to have been training their child to perform sex acts on other adults. It is not an all that uncommon thing in the Bizarro World in which we live nowadays.

It is not just the criminal, or the obvious psycho, who are committing acts that should not be allowed; but it is the everyday person who has allowed themselves to slip into a murky place within which their good judgement and any sense of decency is replaced with a desire or need to act out as powerful through some repugnant manner toward other people. For example, here possibly is one such case (I say possibly because it is alleged): Report: Man Says He Was Forced to Sit in JetBlue Flight Bathroom for 3 Hours - "...a flight attendant volunteered to sit in a “jump seat” so Mutlu could make it onto the flight headed from San Diego to New York, according to the New York Post.

About 90 minutes into the flight, however, Mutlu says he got a rude awakening when the pilot informed him that the flight attendant was uncomfortable in the jump seat and would be taking the regular seat back, the paper reported." (source: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,355237,00.html)

So guess where they allegedly made the passenger sit - on the toilet. If that is true, you just have to ask yourself what in Hades is going on here! What are we becoming. It is not the deranged mind of the thrill killer, not the perverse machinations of the mother who would train and then sell her daughter for weird sex, not the will of a dictatorship, not a gang mentality at its worst, but rather the mindset of people who are there to serve us the paying customer - in this case airline employees. If this story is true as told, then can you imagine the screwed up thought process that led these pompous pieces of shit people to do what they did to this poor man by making him travel in what amounts to turdthird class aboard an airline that does not have third class seating. It is an outrage, and is the type of outrage that is often overlooked by the rest of us because it has not happened to us.

That is the real pity of all of these events, not that we overlook the really bad ones, the heinous criminal ones, because we have not yet been a victim; but rather that we tend to overlook the lessor one that took place on the plane. It is because we allow ourselves to overlook degrading acts like this when perpetrated on others, that we also become too callous to things that are worse. We do not see these lessor evils that are rampant in society as a sure gin that the gateway for much worse evils has been opened, and those evils will prey upon us if they but only have the chance.

So how do we deal with it all. Well first of all we need to get ourselves in order. We need to complain about every case of abuse that a person like the airline passenger goes through of which we are aware. Why, well because doing so will accomplish a few things. First of all it will make the public service companies out there realize that we the public want to be served not abused. It will make them realize that when they abuse one of us, they stand to hear complaints from hundreds if not thousands of us; and when they realize that they will be so scared of losing business that they will change their tunes -you can bet on it. But the effort has to be there on the part of Joe Everyman, otherwise we are doomed to more of the abuse. Once we get that started in the right direction, we also need to remain courteous to one another. Yes I mean you to me, me to you, even if we are total strangers. This is the way it used to be to a great extent, and things were much better then. Besides just courtesy we also need to be responsible for one another. No not like in a socialist or communist community, but rather in a community made up of good citizens who give a damn what happens to other good citizens. There are several ways to do that. When we see someone being harassed or mugged, or harmed - we need to shout out "hey stop that" right after we have called 911 to report it to the police. We need to consider fighting to save the little old lady who is getting mugged, the young woman being raped, the bum being beaten by a band of young thugs. Why, well because it could be us on the bad end. Wouldn't you like someone to help. I would.

In that regard we need to arm ourselves legally. With what, well with firearms if legal, or pepper spray if legal, or an expanding baton if legal, or with a TASER if legal, or with a stun gun if legal, or with whatever we can to help defend ourselves and our neighbors. If you ever see something like one of these crimes taking place, urge others to help - don't try to be alone hero and get yourself killed because you were foolish; but don't depend on the police getting there in time either. Most times it takes them minutes, and the evil deed is done well before they get there.

What else can you do? Write to politicians and law makers. Get your state and locality to allow concealed weapons carry. Push for your state enact castle doctrine. Join a neighborhood watch. Push for legislation to clean up the streets of lowlife bums who commit low level crimes. Then the police will only have to worry about the real bad guys once those others are off the streets. Push for immigration reform to punish illegal aliens and remove them from the USA. Push for a border fence for the length of the border. Voe for politicians who are for legal immigration without giving amnesty to make illegals legal. You get the idea by now I am sure - it is me, and you, and your spouse, and your neighbor, and your bartender, and your barber, and your tailor, and the grocery store manager, and the deli clerk, and the car salesman, and the mayor, and the teachers at your kid's school, and the scout leaders, and your minister, preacher, priest, rabbi or imam, and your dog catcher, and your garbage man, and your police officers, and flight attendants, and on and on and on who all have to do this on an individual level. Once we all start doing it - writing to politicians, calling them, calling 911, helping people in need, fighting for our rights - guess what - we will have started the uphill climb to victory in taking back America for moral, law abiding, good hearted people who give a darn about one another. Wouldn't your neighborhood, and mine, and the next guy's all be nicer places in which to work, and live, and even just pass through - you bet they would be.

All the best,
GlennB

On Speakng English In America...

Do you remember the case of the restaurant owner in Philadelphia who posted a sign by his service window that said: "This is America, when ordering speak English". (Some say it says Please before the words speak English, but when I look at the pics I have seen I do not see that word - not that it matters to me).

Well, as I just discovered over at Michelle Malkin's site here, the case is coming to a head and Mr. Vento is being tried by the Philadelphia Human Relations Commission. I am aghast at the prospect that the unifying force within our borders, the English language, also seems to be on trial as being discriminatory against people and their civil rights. How can the city which houses the Declaration of Independence (our founding document written in English), and from whose towers rang the Liberty Bell, and wherein whose halls were many meetings of the Continental Congress (all held in English mind you), how can said city be against one of our citizens requesting, even demanding, that his customers speak English?

I decided to put finger to keypad, and I wrote a letter to the above mentioned commission voicing my displeasure that they would even consider this case let alone bring it against Mr. Vento. My letter follows, and after reading it I urge you to do likewise. Should Mr. Vento be found guilty of violating any one's civil rights, should he be required to remove that sign, should the English language in this country be diminished by the city of Philadelphia, then I would urge you to boycott Philadelphia and the state of Pennsylvania.

"Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations
34 South 11th Street, 6th Floor
Philadelphia PA 19107

Dear Sirs and Madams,

As a United States citizen by birth, but with ancestors on both sides of my family who were immigrants, and with my wife being an immigrant and naturalized citizen of this great nation, I am incensed that you are seriously considering the case against Mr. Vento regarding the speak English sign posted at Geno’s Steaks (restaurant). To say that asking customers to speak English when ordering is discriminatory is reprehensible. It is not discriminatory, but rather it is unifying with regard to our culture. When Mr. Vento or anyone else asks an immigrant to speak English, it is in fact asking that person to assimilate into the culture of the United States of America which has been, and remains, a primarily English speaking republic. For people to complain about being asked to, or being required to, learn how to speak English in this country is unpatriotically outrageous and it is racist and discriminatory on their behalf, and not on the part of Mr. Vento. When my great-grandparents told me of how they immigrated to the USA, they also told me how they learned English once they arrived. They said it was tough, but they were extremely proud of the fact that they learned how to do so, and that they then went on to pass the citizenship test and become United States citizens. For any immigrant to this country to do otherwise would show them to be divisive, and prejudice against our culture here in America. It would also be disgraceful because it would be counter-productive to assimilation, and simply un-American.

Any decision by you saying that Mr. Vento’s request to have his customers speak English was wrong, or was discriminatory in violation of the law, would be blatantly un-American. It would also show that you are promoting separation/division of the cultures in what was once the melting pot of the world. The one great unifying force within a country is not its politics, is not its laws, is not is religions, is not it citizens, is not its immigrants, but is definitively its language. Note I did not say its languages, as multiple languages only cause and lend to divisiveness among a nations peoples.

The government of the United States of America requires it workers to speak English, the government of the state of Pennsylvania requires likewise, and the government of the city of Philadelphia requires the same; yet somehow you seriously consider whether or not Mr. Vento asking his customers to do the same is a violation of people’s civil rights. It is his civil right to free speech at stake here. It is the right of a nation to expect its immigrants to assimilate that is at stake here, it is the language, the culture, and the borders of the United States of America that are all at stake here should you decide against Mr. Vento.

I can assure you that should you decide against Mr. Vento, I will express myself by way of my first amendment right to free speech and I will discourage anyone from visiting your city and your state. I have visited Philadelphia and other parts of Pennsylvania many times throughout my lifetime (and spent lots of money there), and had planned on doing so in the future. However, if your city becomes one that is geared at ignoring the duty of each and every immigrant to learn that language, and therefore if your city is geared at destroying the unifying force within our borders, I will rally myself and as many others as will heed the call against you, your city, and your state with all I can muster under the laws of our great nation.

With all due respect,


Glenn R. Bartley"

You too can contact the commission at the following:

The Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations
The Philadelphia Fair Housing Commission
The Curtis Center
601 Walnut Street, Suite 300 South
Philadelphia, PA 19106

Tel: 215-686-4670

TTY: 215-686-3238

Fax: 215-686-4684

E-mail: faqpchr@phila.gov


All the best,
Glenn B