“The ARC”
Greetings and salutations from the sand, sun and surf of Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard and the once again soggy soon to be sunny island of Nantucket! Great to be with you on this very early Friday morning, six a.m. eastern time, the twenty-sixth day of September, 2014, as be bid the much needed rains goodbye for now…expecting sun and seventies this week end–“…did you want to talk about the weather or just chit chat?” (credit the classic Bill Murray film, circa 1993, “Groundhog Day”).
Well, the weather for outgoing (retiring) U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder just got a whole lot better. “F you House Republicans, especially you Louis Gomert pile of you know what, good luck with that asparagus and good riddance to you too!” I can only imagine might have been the words coming out of Eric’s mouth after his press conference concluded yesterday afternoon in our nation’s Capitol. His good friend President Barack Obama sending that friend off in style, lavishing him with praise for a job well done, serving that office with distinction and courage in the face of stark stupidity and savagery from the right, going on to say, “…Eric was America’s lawyer.”
For many of those African-Americans Eric Holder was and still IS. Like another former U.S. Attorney General, the late, great Senator from this wonderful state of Massachusetts, Bobby Kennedy, Holder took it upon himself to bolster the 1965 Voters Rights Act, even as the U.S. Supreme Court tore at it’s fabric, standing firm to the FACT that there is an insidious effort a foot to block the minority vote en masse in United States of America… as well as suppressing the VOTE for the poor, the elderly, students and anyone who might not look and vote the way ‘they’ do…
Holder was confirmed by the Senate in 2009 and immediately chastised for his comments on race in this country and the fact that the reason race relations are not what they should be is due to an overwhelming abundance of cowardice in this nation when dealing with the FACT ‘we got a problem Houston!’, prompting a witch hunt infamously known as “Fast & Furious” (a program Holder ENDED, started by the Bush Administration). Another Darrell Issa (R-CA) red herring gun caper down on the Southwestern borderland that may have involved at most a hundred guns and a ’scandal’ that never really existed in the first place. Really Congressman Issa?
His critics on both sides of the aisle also point to the fact his Justice Department never went after the big executives at the ‘too big to fail U.S. “banks”‘ who plunged this nation into it’s worse recession since the Great Depression with their casino like approach to 200 million people’s 401(k)’s, with many average Americans taking the hit while the big banks came back like gang busters due to the FED’S free monies… Taking in some fines, really slaps on the wrists to these guys, leaving a message that is loud and quite clear– “…if you are a white guy, working in a big bank, have a corner office, make campaign donations and kiss some butt on occasion, well sir, you can rip off grandma and grandpa all you want! Let’s go to Vegas!”
No one went to jail for almost plunging the world into financial calamity, but that is not really his fault. The ‘too big to fail banks’ are too big to be arrested as well. White collar crime continues unabated BECAUSE of the sick relationship between lobbyists and members of Congress, and to that end, Eric’s hands were tied. But that road block did not stop him even after being held in “contempt” of Congress (isn’t that a cliche?), a symbolic blow to Holder. After the whole ‘gun running’ joke blew up, he went on to be a champion for the LGBT community, challenging states to recognize same sex marriages and allow for the same rights afforded to their heterosexual counterparts to be given them, changing the ‘issue’ forever in this country.
But perhaps his greatest legacy will be his work reducing sentences for people jailed for minor drug offenses, pointing out the unfair disparity of blacks being arrested at much higher rates for the same crime as whites, while attempting to reduce those out of whack sentences for crack cocaine v. the ‘whiter’ powder coke that most Hollywood execs–as well as those Wall Street types–prefer. He also looked into the tragedy unfolding in Ferguson, Missouri, where an unarmed black boy was gunned down in cold blood by a trigger happy cop. Stay tuned for that fiasco when the grand jury in that case indicts the police office who shot Michael Brown with a much lesser charge than he should have gotten. You thought the riots in L.A. were bad. Maybe that’s why he retired…
I find it quite ironic this country is so concerned with a 1400 year old rift between two ancient religious sects, yet WE can’t seem to come to grips with our own race relations at home. Sunni and Shiite, Black and White, Republican and Democrat, “…cats and dogs living together, mass hysteria!” (credit Bill Murray in the film, we all know and love, “Ghostbusters!”, circa 1984). If you stop and think about it for a moment, there is a whole lot more we have in common than you might think. Starting with the FACT we are all human beings, equal under the LAW. Not just man made laws (that are by definition, because they were made by man, flawed), but the laws of the universe–LAWS governed by the LIGHT. Maybe we should all stop ‘thinking’ for a while. At least stop thinking with the broken brains we have in Washington D.C. right now. Although all of those geniuses are back at home, speaking with fork-ed tongue. The swamp water has drained into the American landscape, as we all get the popcorn out and watch the greatest show on earth–the run-up to the 2014 U.S. Midterm Election! Where our fledgling democracy with that little letter ‘d‘ hangs in the balance like one of those hanging ‘chads’, circa 2000…Vote AMERICA! PLEASE VOTE!
Have a great week end folks and keep off the sauce, we have to keep our composure and take in all the pundits have to offer on the upcoming Sunday talk shows. “I await your next syllable with great eagerness…” (credit the very funny and sweet film, “Arthur”, circa 1981, starring the late, greats, Sir John Gielgud & Dudley Moore). Tell me all about what know one really knows. For there are only a handful–at best–of reporters in the region and as David Cameron, Prime Minister of Great Britain jumps on board with some Royal Air power, be it known that you will be told what you need to hear on a ‘need to know basis’, is that clear? That is to say, ‘you don’t really need to know now do you?’
But tell it to me anyways Peggy Noonan! Magnificent wind sock of the Wall Street Journal! You’re the BEST! Please give Rupert, ‘arrrggghhh matie’ Murdoch as kiss on the cheek for us won’t you? I find your appearances and your insightful input on ABC’S “This Week” or NBC’s “Meet the Press” so uplifting and inspiring I just wanted to thank you.
Keepin’ it real, that’s what you do Peggy! Silver spoon? What silver spoon? You mean the one up you a$$? Don’t mind that, the viewers can’t SEA it!
“The Arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards JUSTICE!” MLK
PRESERVE THE WILDERNESS! Peace~M
