Quote
NuNativs
Back to Gregory, he was a hard core vegan, fruitarian and faster. He ran across the US on juices coached by Viktoras. He developed lymphoma cancer and died of a heart attack at the young age of 84. What gives?

Nothing beneficial about fasting to extremes like he did.

Provide evidence of your other statements. Did you live with him?

That's not the cause of death I saw

Donald Rumsfeld announces 2.3 Trillion missing from the Pentagon on September 10th 2001

[www.youtube.com]

On September 10th 2001, Sec. Defence Donald Rumseld announced that 2.3 Trillion Dollars in transactions could not be accounted for. On September 11th 2001 the Accounting offices in the Pentagon were blown up

1. Rumsfeld Announces 2.3 Trillion Dollars Missing from Pentagon | CBS News (Sept 10th, 2001)
[www.youtube.com]
The next morning the Pentagon is hit in the exact location where budget analysts were trying to track down the missing money, killing analysts and destroying records.

quote Rawpracicalist- -
So for Dick Gregory you have now chosen to focus on the good Raw praticalist, did you not just post this above
Let's speak the language of hope not despair.
Then you post this neg view about Gregory below whats up got hypocrocy?
.
Here are some other facts:
He Was Criticized for Being an Absentee Father to His 11 children
He Was Diagnosed with Lymphoma in 1999
His Representative Says That He Died from Heart Failure
[heavy.com][/quote]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/23/2017 12:57AM by riverhousebill.

I went to Ethiopia, and it dawned on me that you can tell a starving, malnourished person because they've got a bloated belly and a bald head. And I realized that if you come through any American airport and see businessmen running through with bloated bellies and bald heads, that's malnutrition, too
gregory

Quote
Tai
Donald Rumsfeld announces 2.3 Trillion missing from the Pentagon on September 10th 2001


Tai, read Paying Any Price by James Risen then you will see where the missing trillions went.
This book details the bogus payouts by the Homeland Security Industrail complex.
Risen should get a metal of Honor for exposeing the largest money theft in world history, He risked his live. The contracts that were paid for in the name of national security will blow you away, You will see in this book that the war on terror is phoney and generated 100 percent for the elite to split the trillions it follows the money well!

Since this is about Dick Gregory I dont think it neg to post some of his quotes.

We used to root for the Indians against the cavalry, because we didn't think it was fair in the history books that when the cavalry won it was a great victory, and when the Indians won it was a massacre.”
-- Dick Gregory

Quote
riverhousebill

In the United States millions go hungry everynight,
your lucky to be somewhere that honors and feeds its eldery

Also this fact 564,708 people in the U.S. are homeless. and 50 perecnt of that number ar e over age 50. Buts whats 265 thousand lives in a country of Millions?

Senior Hunger: America’s Best-Kept Secret

More than 10 million older adults in the U.S. face the threat of hunger every day.

If you’re surprised by that statistic, you’re not alone. Even though senior hunger exists in every community across the country, it’s one of America’s best-kept secrets.

That’s why AARP Foundation has designated April as Senior Hunger Awareness Month: to call attention to the fact that too many vulnerable older adults don’t know where their next meal is coming from, never mind whether the food is nutritious. People like Judith Bell, who often has to choose between buying groceries and using that money for other essentials.

In describing her quandary, she said, “Do I buy my medicines, or do I buy the food? If I don’t buy my medicines, I’m going to get sick and I’m not going to be able to eat the food. So I guess I’d better buy the medicines and let the food go.”

Certainly, there are important programs and services, some of them led by AARP Foundation, that provide meals to people who are hungry. In addition, we need to understand that solving hunger will require more than addressing an immediate need. First, we must recognize it as a long-term threat to public health.

Make no mistake about it: Hunger is a health issue. Seniors who are food insecure are 50 percent more likely to have diabetes, 60 percent more likely to have congestive heart failure or a heart attack, and three times more likely to suffer from depression. Beyond the individual toll, there’s also a societal one, as hunger costs the U.S. healthcare system $130.5 billion annually.

Second, we must recognize the connection that exists between hunger and poverty. Poverty is the ultimate social determinant of health, and a pervasive concern that continues to affect millions of people around the country. Yet senior poverty also goes unnoticed, despite the fact that nearly 20 million older adults are at risk of not having enough income to meet their basic needs.

Imagine if we, as a nation, refused to accept the fact that more and more older people are falling into poverty. Imagine if we declared this reality unacceptable.

And then imagine if we went further — if we thought like Nelson Mandela, who once said, “Like slavery, like apartheid, poverty is not natural. It is manmade, and it can be overcome and eradicated by the actions of human beings.”

It’s a bold vision. But boldness is what’s required. Reams of research and data show that the old solutions clearly aren’t working.

Like hunger, senior poverty is a health issue — not only for those who live it but for our society as a whole. It is a problem affecting all of us … and so the solution needs to come from all of us.

We may disagree about the best way to address the problem, but we can at least agree on this: In the world’s wealthiest nation, no senior should go hungry.

***************

Yeah, I have the answer to the senior hunger problem -

Throw away your 'meds' and buy food with the money instead. That will solve your health problems and your food problem.

*************

Here's the link to the article you posted, riverhousebill -

[www.huffingtonpost.com]

"Lisa Marsh Ryerson, Contributor
President of AARP Foundation, which focuses on addressing the needs of low-income older adults"

************

Uh, no - AARP focuses on making money off Seniors and Medicare and Obamacare.

[thefederalist.com]

[www.forbes.com]

[www.google.com]

If you're a senior and you have to join a group, go with AMAC. They're not in the bussiness of fleecing seniors.

Quote
Jennifer

Quote
riverhousebill

In the United States millions go hungry everynight,
your lucky to be somewhere that honors and feeds its eldery

Also this fact 564,708 people in the U.S. are homeless. and 50 perecnt of that number ar e over age 50. Buts whats 265 thousand lives in a country of Millions?

Senior Hunger: America’s Best-Kept Secret

More than 10 million older adults in the U.S. face the threat of hunger every day.

If you’re surprised by that statistic, you’re not alone. Even though senior hunger exists in every community across the country, it’s one of America’s best-kept secrets.

That’s why AARP Foundation has designated April as Senior Hunger Awareness Month: to call attention to the fact that too many vulnerable older adults don’t know where their next meal is coming from, never mind whether the food is nutritious. People like Judith Bell, who often has to choose between buying groceries and using that money for other essentials.

In describing her quandary, she said, “Do I buy my medicines, or do I buy the food? If I don’t buy my medicines, I’m going to get sick and I’m not going to be able to eat the food. So I guess I’d better buy the medicines and let the food go.”

Certainly, there are important programs and services, some of them led by AARP Foundation, that provide meals to people who are hungry. In addition, we need to understand that solving hunger will require more than addressing an immediate need. First, we must recognize it as a long-term threat to public health.

Make no mistake about it: Hunger is a health issue. Seniors who are food insecure are 50 percent more likely to have diabetes, 60 percent more likely to have congestive heart failure or a heart attack, and three times more likely to suffer from depression. Beyond the individual toll, there’s also a societal one, as hunger costs the U.S. healthcare system $130.5 billion annually.

Second, we must recognize the connection that exists between hunger and poverty. Poverty is the ultimate social determinant of health, and a pervasive concern that continues to affect millions of people around the country. Yet senior poverty also goes unnoticed, despite the fact that nearly 20 million older adults are at risk of not having enough income to meet their basic needs.

Imagine if we, as a nation, refused to accept the fact that more and more older people are falling into poverty. Imagine if we declared this reality unacceptable.

And then imagine if we went further — if we thought like Nelson Mandela, who once said, “Like slavery, like apartheid, poverty is not natural. It is manmade, and it can be overcome and eradicated by the actions of human beings.”

It’s a bold vision. But boldness is what’s required. Reams of research and data show that the old solutions clearly aren’t working.

Like hunger, senior poverty is a health issue — not only for those who live it but for our society as a whole. It is a problem affecting all of us … and so the solution needs to come from all of us.

We may disagree about the best way to address the problem, but we can at least agree on this: In the world’s wealthiest nation, no senior should go hungry.

***************

Yeah, I have the answer to the senior hunger problem -

Throw away your 'meds' and buy food with the money instead. That will solve your health problems and your food problem.

*************

Here's the link to the article you posted, riverhousebill -

[www.huffingtonpost.com]

"Lisa Marsh Ryerson, Contributor
President of AARP Foundation, which focuses on addressing the needs of low-income older adults"

************

Uh, no - AARP focuses on making money off Seniors and Medicare and Obamacare.

[thefederalist.com]

[www.forbes.com]

[www.google.com]

If you're a senior and you have to join a group, go with AMAC. They're not in the bussiness of fleecing seniors.

Yes I agree Jennifer ARRP is a scam and the seniors would have a better rate of survival if they got out of the pharmachutical feed bucket and had some chump chage for food instead.
I posted on senior hunger and health car and was told after that post-There is no question that there are many issues that remain to be solved.

But your tone is always that everything is bad.

We have to recognize the progress that is being made.
a dance one step forward two back.
The numbers as of lately shows we are going backwards.
Like I said before, You want to see what a country is made up of? Take a look at its health care for its peoples.
It seems with America if it dont make money it dont make sense.
Its a real shame the way millions of our elderly suffer after working a life time at a job then are riped off by Corp Amerika.
we adults have done a poor job of looking out for our seniors and youth and planet. There is a lot of good being done by concerned people on this planet but its still a race about survival and the neg is neck and neck with good

"Neither the wisest constitution nor the wisest laws will secure
the liberty and happiness of a people whose manners are universally corrupt."

- Samuel Adams

(Morality makes the difference.)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/24/2017 12:13AM by riverhousebill.

I liked Dick. He was a better human than most.

david

Quote
riverhousebill

The numbers as of lately shows we are going backwards.
Like I said before, You want to see what a country is made up of? Take a look at its health care for its peoples.
It seems with America if it dont make money it dont make sense.
Its a real shame the way millions of our elderly suffer after working a life time at a job then are riped off by Corp Amerika.
we adults have done a poor job of looking out for our seniors and youth and planet. There is a lot of good being done by concerned people on this planet but its still a race about survival and the neg is neck and neck with good

"Neither the wisest constitution nor the wisest laws will secure
the liberty and happiness of a people whose manners are universally corrupt."

- Samuel Adams

(Morality makes the difference.)

People have to take responsibility for their lives.
It cannot always be the Government.

When the family structure is missing everything falls apart for growing up children.

I was walking the other day in some low income neighborhood.
Most people that I saw were standing in the street smoking,
drinking, maybe even taking drugs.

Most are camping with their children in front of fast food eateries like KFC, Chick-Fil-A, McDonald's.

The money the Government gives out to some mothers for support is not used to make a family meal at home but spent on fast food eateries.

And when we get sick, the Government does not have adequate health care system to cure the high blood pressure, the obesity, the stroke induced by that lifestyle.

Let's have as many children as we can the Government will provide.

So the Government is to blame for not having a good health care system.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/24/2017 06:37AM by RawPracticalist.

Bravo!

Quote
RawPracticalist

People have to take responsibility for their lives.
It cannot always be the Government.

When the family structure is missing everything falls apart for growing up children.

I was walking the other day in some low income neighborhood.
Most people that I saw were standing in the street smoking,
drinking, maybe even taking drugs.

Most are camping with their children in front of fast food eateries like KFC, Chick-Fil-A, McDonald's.

The money the Government gives out to some mothers for support is not used to make a family meal at home but spent on fast food eateries.

And when we get sick, the Government does not have adequate health care system to cure the high blood pressure, the obesity, the stroke induced by that lifestyle.

Let's have as many children as we can the Government will provide.

So the Government is to blame for not having a good health care system.

...assuming you were being facetious about the last sentence....

Quote
RawPracticalist

So for Dick Gregory you have chosen to focus on the good he did.

Here are some other facts:
He Was Criticized for Being an Absentee Father to His 11 children
He Was Diagnosed with Lymphoma in 1999
His Representative Says That He Died from Heart Failure
[heavy.com]

Thanks, that was interesting. Some people only care about status/intellect, but I think a person's nature/moral character - how he/she treats others, particularly his/her family - is more important.

See All 10 Of Dick Gregory’s Kids He Said He Barely Raised &What They Think About Him

Mr. Gregory had a total of eleven children with his wife, Lillian Smith. One of their eleven kids, sadly passed away at the age of two. The St. Louis native instilled the same values he lived by, into his children as well.



I would think what Dick Gregorys children think of him now might rfelct a little about this absent father. All of his children love him.
But outsiders of family can have other views

Have you ever known any very famous people you would see they are in high demand and sacrafice family time, but still can madly love that family.
I knew Dick Shawns family very well and saw it there, Always on the road doing shows. Seldom home, But that man sure loved his children and wife.





Dick Gregory and his daughter, Ayanna Gregory
When Dick Gregory (born Richard Claxton Gregory) passed away on Sunday, August 20, 2017 he left a wonderful legacy behind that will always be remembered by millions.





Aside from being a civil rights/political activist and comedian, he has another legacy that will continue to live on- his 10 children. He and his wife of 58 years, Lillian Smith, actually had a total of 11 children, but sadly, one of their sons, Richard Gregory died just two months after is birth.
Ebony magazine, 1971; Dick Gregory, his wife, Lillian and 8 of their 10 children (the others were not born at the time of this photo).
Their other ten children are all still with us to this day, thankfully. As we reported a while back, Mr. Gregory admittedly was not very hands on with his children, because he was constantly working, or out on the streets protesting and fighting for the equal rights of the less fortunate.

That fight is the reason why -in classic Dick Gregory fashion- Mr. Gregory admitted, in a 2000 the Boston Globe interview, that he did not regret not being as instrumental of a father as he could have been to his children. Check out excerpts of Gregory’s was brutal honest below:

On Choosing To Fight For Justice Instead Of Fully Raising His 10 Kids


via TBG: [Through all of] the protests, the rallies, the walking, the running – what of the 10 children? Mostly, they’ve only had Lil,’ their mother. “It was never in my psyche that I’m going to be a great father,” Gregory says. “Mine was: I’m going to be a great fighter for the liberation, whatever it takes.”


So Lil’ blows out the birthday candles. Lil talks to the children about broken love affairs. Lil checks on the grandchildren. “People ask me about being a father and not being there,” Gregory says. “I say, `Jack the Ripper had a father. Hitler had a father. Don’t talk to me about family.”

Gregory’s Wife & Kids Speak On His Abscence Throughout The Years
Dick Gregory and wife, Lillian Smith, with their ten children (via Greg Gregory/Facebook)
His Wife


via TBG: “I know other people look at it and say, `Boy, this is kind of strange.’ But it works for us,” [Lillian] says. There have been rewards, she says: the children, her travels all over the world with him. And sometimes, there’s just the hell that can be love.



His Daughter


via TBG: “Children adapt quickly,” says Michele, the oldest daughter. “It seemed normal that he was supposed to be out of the house. Years later we probably would have appreciated it if he would have been home more.”

His Son
vua TBG: Christian, a chiropractor who lives in Washington, sees his father the most. “He’s been so busy being Dick Gregory,” Christian says, “he has forgotten about Richard Claxton.” It is said with more than a little affection.

Although some may or may not agree with Dick’s style of parenting, the fact of the matter still remains. As of today, all of Mr. and Mrs. Dick Gregory’s kids have been as successful as Dick foresaw when they were still in diapers. None of them are in jail, all of them are said to have college degrees, and they all love and honor their parents.

May Dick Gregory rest peacefully after a beautiful job well done.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/27/2017 03:40AM by riverhousebill.

Quote Rawpracticalist-People have to take responsibility for their lives.
It cannot always be the Government.

I agree, but just once in a while we can ask govt when not paying to much out for golf trips and billionair fundings of senate and congress they could trow a bone or rwo back to the greedy peasants.

I f I remmember right you also live in Lake County,Do you feel it is mostly population here in our bottom of th barrel County that is to blame for rating on rock bottom county?
Do you think the govt could do more here to help?
with no jobs for many here what does one do when there is no money for health or food?
Lake Coutny has big problems, and I think govt could do more to help, but that might mean saying that bad word socialism.

I own property in Lucerne laake county, I bought because I love the Lake,
I had no diea of the crime, drug abuse, drunk driving, violent crimes,
Did not know we rated the bottom of the 58 countys in Ca. when I bought.
So rawpracticalist do you think govt is abused here by population in Lake County, people just wanting welfare and free health care? A govt mother?
Do you see the govt being able to help in any way to help county get off the floor?



Poverty pervasive in Lake County

LUCERNE — It’s a sunny Tuesday morning in Lake County and Yvonne Cox, a former exotic snake dancer and tattoo artist, is handing out bags of groceries from the back of a converted gas station on Highway 20, where she also sells motorcycles and secondhand items.

Her food cupboard clients are people who are living on the financial edge in a county where 1 in 4 out of 63,860 residents lives in poverty.

“I didn’t realize how much poverty there was till I moved here” 15 years ago, Cox said.

Lake County long has been near the bottom of the state’s financial rankings, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures, and a recent report published in USA Today rated it as the poorest. The ranking was determined by reviewing census data and labor and educational statistics.



According to the Census Bureau, 25 percent of Lake County’s population was living in poverty from 2009 through 2013, making it the fourth-poorest county in the state. Only Fresno, Merced and Tulare counties had higher poverty rates. Sonoma County was at 11.9 percent, while Mendocino County’s poverty rate was at 20 percent. The current federal poverty line is $11,770 for one person and $24,250 for a family of four.

It was unclear why the Census Bureau rating is different from the USA Today report, which was researched and written by online content provider 24-7 Wall Street. Emails seeking clarification about the data from 24-7 Wall Street did not receive responses.



While there may be questions about Lake County’s exact poverty ranking, it’s clear many residents are barely scraping by, a chronic problem that has been attributed to a variety of factors that include a shortage of good-paying jobs, low educational achievement, a high number of retirees and disabled people with fixed incomes, and a rural, isolated geography that deters business development.




Cox decided to help some of the needy people in her community 12 years ago, after she found a man eating food out of her garbage can. She started handing out bag lunches and later formed a nonprofit corporation that depends on local contributions to feed the people who come by her pantry, which is open two mornings a week. Cox said she serves between 15 and 50 people each of those days, with the highest volume at the end of the month when people’s money runs out.

Area churches, senior centers and other agencies also give away food several times a month. The Lucerne Senior Center reported it provides groceries to between 15 and 30 families each Friday. The food pantry, operated in Clearlake by North Coast Opportunities, feeds between 100 and 150 households twice monthly, said Tammy Alakszay, coordinator of the Lake County Community Action & Volunteer Network.

Most of the people who stopped by Cox’s pantry last week had somewhere to live and some sort of income but needed help stretching their food budgets.

“This helps me survive,” said Colin O’Gallagher, 28, who is on disability for what he described as “mental problems” and lives with family.

William Galletti, 57, is on disability for a back injury he suffered on a construction job 20 years ago. He lives with the mother of his two youngest children, ages 1 and 2. She also receives disability benefits and food stamps for their children, he said.







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O’Gallagher and Galletti are among the estimated 14,378 Lake County residents — almost 23 percent of the population — who are disabled, compared with 10.6 percent statewide, 11.5 percent in Sonoma County and 16.7 percent in Mendocino County, according to a 2013 U.S. Census Bureau survey. County and social services officials say people on disability are likely drawn to Lake County for its relatively low cost of living.

Disabilty payments typically are about $800 a month.



Another of Cox’s clients, Joe Dominguez, 62, gets by washing windows, doing handyman work and being a caregiver for his disabled roommate.

For those able and willing to work, jobs are hard to come by in Lake County, said brothers David Carter, 26, and Joey King, 24.

One works in a secondhand store and the other just got a job at a pizza parlor but had yet to get a paycheck. They were picking up groceries at Cox’s pantry to fill the gap.

Carter said it took him almost two years to find a job after moving back to Lake County from Texas.

Lake County’s unemployment rate has been improving, along with the rest of the state, but its December rate, 9.5 percent, remained well above the state’s 6.7 percent overall average. Sonoma County’s rate was 4.7 percent and Mendocino County’s was 6.2 percent.

Most of the county’s jobs are service-related, including education, health care, social assistance and retail, according to census data.


Related Stories





Lake County Poverty





Bill seeks $2.4 million to help protect Clear Lake





The county is short on better-paying industrial and technology jobs. Only 1.2 percent of Lake County jobs in 2013 related to the information business and 4.2 percent were in manufacturing, according to census data.

Manufacturing businesses tend to shy away from isolated areas like Lake County because the costs of transporting components in and goods out to market are higher, said Robert Eyler, professor of economics at Sonoma State University and director of its Center for Regional Economic Analysis.

“Logistics and transportation are key to providing support to businesses,” Eyler said.

A lack of good-paying jobs isn’t Lake County’s only employment problem, said county Supervisor Tony Farrington. He said local employers have complained that they’ve had trouble finding people who can and want to work and who can pass drug tests.

A Lakeport grocery store recently posted on Facebook that it hired three new people but none of them showed up for their first day of work, he said.

“We find a lot of people don’t want to work,” Farrington said.

Others lack the education necessary for most better-paying jobs. While Lake County’s high school completion rate is above the statewide average, its college completion rate is low. Only 16.2 percent of residents over the age of 25 had obtained a bachelor’s degree or higher, according to a census survey. Statewide, the figure was almost 31 percent.

Education level is considered a significant factor in poverty levels.

Farrington said Lake County loses many of its younger, more ambitious residents who go away to college and never come back.

That likely contributes to Lake County’s high percentage of older people — almost 20 percent are over the age of 65, according to census data. Sonoma County’s over-65 population is estimated at almost 14 percent and Mendocino County’s is almost 17 percent.








Selected For You








Retirees, disabled people and others on fixed and low incomes are attracted to Lake County because it’s beautiful, has clean air and is affordable, Farrington said. The median price of a home averaged $183,600 from 2009 to 2013 — half the statewide average, according to census data.

That apparently has enabled more people to own their own homes. The percentage of people who owned homes in Lake County during that period was just under 63 percent, above the statewide average of 55 percent. In Sonoma County, 60 percent own homes and in Mendocino County, just over 58 percent do.

Rents also are relatively inexpensive. Some of Cox’s food pantry clients are paying as little as $500 a month for a two-bedroom home in Lucerne.

Because of its lower cost of living, Farrington and other county officials believe Lake County’s poverty ranking is probably inflated.



But they concede it has economic problems, and they are searching for ways to make the county more attractive to tourists and increase jobs and educational opportunities.

County officials are working on making improvements to and around Clear Lake, the county’s central tourist attraction. Improvements include wetlands restoration projects and the creation of new parks, promenades and hiking trails.

County officials also have recruited a private college that offers bachelor’s degrees to open a campus in Lucerne and are working with an economic development committee and community members to plan ways to increase business and job opportunities.

“The county of Lake will continue to move forward to improve our community. We may be surprised by the recent USA Today article but are certain the next five years will show an improved economic picture in Lake County,” said County Administrative Officer Matt Perry.

News Researcher Janet Balicki contributed to this report. You can reach Staff Writer Glenda Anderson at 462-6473 or glenda.anderson@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @MendoReporter.

>I agree, but just once in a while we can ask govt when not paying to much out for golf trips and billionair fundings of senate and congress they could trow a bone or rwo back to the greedy peasants.

Billionaire funding of senate and congress cannot force people to vote in a certain way.

The poor and low income people you are talking about most of the time do not vote. Martin Luther King and many of the civil right leaders thought for the right of the minorities to vote but that right is not exercised.

How are you going to force changes if you do not vote.

Quote

In a study released last week—just four days before the midterm elections—the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press predicted that 6 in 10 voting-age adults would not show up at the polls on Election Day. What’s more, the study found that those who were most unlikely to vote are demographically distinct from likely voters:
They are young: 34 percent of nonvoters are younger than 30 years old and the vast majority—70 percent—are younger than 50 years old.
They are racially and ethnically diverse: A full 43 percent of nonvoters are Hispanic, African American, or other racial and ethnic minorities. That is roughly double the 22 percent of likely voters comprised by minorities.
They are less affluent than likely voters: Almost half—46 percent—of nonvoters have family incomes less than $30,000 per year, while only 19 percent of likely voters are from low-income families.
They are less educated than likely voters: While 72 percent of likely voters have completed at least some college, most nonvoters—54 percent—did not attend college.

[www.americanprogress.org]

There were candidates at the last election in the USA who wanted universal health care, good benefits for the poor, they got not enough votes to advance instead the separatists came in drove for their candidate.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/27/2017 08:52AM by RawPracticalist.

the right of the minorities to vote but that right is not exercised.



Democracy Requires Minority Rights

Democracy therefore requires minority rights equally as it does majority rule. Indeed, as democracy is understood today, the minority's rights must be protected no matter how alienated a minority is from the majority society; otherwise, the majority's rights lose their meaning. In the United States, individual liberties, as well as the rights of groups and individual states, are protected through the Bill of Rights, which were drafted by James Madison and adopted as the first Ten Amendments to the Constitution.

These enumerate the rights that may not be violated by the government, safeguarding in theory against majority tyranny. Today, such rights are considered the essential element of any liberal democracy and are embodied in international human rights conventions.

The British political philosopher John Stuart Mill took this principle further. In his essay On Liberty he wrote, “The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community against his will is to prevent harm to others.” Mill's “no harm principle” aims to prevent government from becoming a vehicle for the “tyranny of the majority,” which he viewed as not just a political but also a social tyranny that stifled minority voices and imposed regimentation of thought and values. Mill's views became the basis for much of liberal political philosophy, whether it is economic liberalism or social liberalism.

How do majority rule and the protection of minority rights function in practice? Clearly, the two can easily collide when the assertion of Madisonian rights and Millian liberalism confront an immovable democratic majority. In part, this is achieved through consensus respect for individual rights: in between elections and during political campaigns, minority views are given fair play in legislatures, the media, and in the public square. Another basic protection of the minority, however, is the regularity of elections and the principles of separation of powers and checks and balances, both of which make it difficult for majorities to achieve absolute power (see “Constitutional Limits“).


John Stuart Mill

Minority Rights II: Protecting Minority Groups in Society

Madisonian and Millian principles safeguard individual and political minorities. But, as de Tocqueville observed above, the danger of majority tyranny lies also in the oppression of minority groups in society based on criteria such as skin color, ethnicity or nationality, religion, sexual orientation, and other group characteristics. Throughout history, rulers have targeted minority religious and ethnic groups (oftentimes they are the same) for harsh repression, whether to protect the privileges of the majority (such as the persecution of Protestants in France) or simply out of discriminatory beliefs. Over two millennia, Jews, both in their homeland and in diaspora, have been frequently discriminated against and had little protection from persecution and pogroms. Even in places of refuge, like the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, anti-Semitism remained persistent. Discrimination also happens even within the same group. In India, for example, the caste system relegated Harijans, also known as Dalits or “untouchables,” to discrimination and conditions of terrible poverty, also for millennia. Examples of persecution of minorities are unfortunately many.

The African American Experience

In the United States, the African American experience is clearly illustrative of the danger of systematic tyranny of one group by a majority. The US Constitution, adopted in 1789, flatly contradicted the principles of the Declaration of Independence that asserted “all men are created equal.” Although slavery was never specifically mentioned, many of the Constitution’s provisions effectively sanctioned the practice of ownership of persons as property and the terrible oppression of millions of Africans brought to America in chains for forced labor. In the end, a Civil War had to be fought before emancipation was achieved. The 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments to the Constitution abolishing slavery, guaranteeing equal rights and due process to “all persons,” and guaranteeing the right to vote “without regard of race, color, or previous condition of servitude” were in themselves great advances in freedom. But once federal troops were withdrawn and Reconstruction was ended, these amendments did not prevent a systematic regime of violence and intimidation against blacks in former states of the Confederacy and the adoption of Jim Crow laws that institutionalized segregation in all facets of life. Nor did these amendments prevent the less systematic but still pervasive practice of discrimination against African Americans in the North. Just as the Supreme Court had earlier tolerated and then, in its infamous Dred Scot decision, legitimized slavery, its rulings in the 1880s and 1890s gave legal sanction to segregation and denial of voting rights. The most well-known is the 1896 decision in Plessy v. Ferguson that established the discriminatory doctrine of “separate but equal.”

To overcome this new form of majority tyranny the African American minority had to confront the reality that nearly all political avenues were closed to it even though African Americans accounted for nearly 12 percent of the population. In the South the right to vote was effectively taken away and in the North it was mainly (although not always) ineffectual. Another strategy was needed. In 1905, W. E. B. Du Bois and other African American leaders formed the Niagara Movement and later, in 1909, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Its stated purposes were to take the fullest advantage of the freedoms contained in the Bill of Rights in order to challenge American institutions to live up to the country’s democratic principles. Other black leaders, like A. Philip Randolph, struggled stubbornly over decades for worker rights and equal employment through trade union organizing and mobilizing citizens for mass action. In the strategy of these leaders, the rational answer to systematic denial of freedom was the persistent exercise of freedom in order to convince the majority to act according to the principles established in the country's own founding. The answer to systematic inequality was continuing to demand legal equality and justice in legislatures and courts as established in the 14th Amendment — despite the Supreme Court's legitimation of discrimination. The success of this strategy in fulfilling more the stated ideals of American democracy was found in the federal executive orders banning discrimination in defense industries and the armed forces in the 1940s; in the series of victories of Thurgood Marshall and the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund in the Supreme Court that broke down the legal protection of segregation (especially in Brown v. Board of Education that fully overturned the “separate but equal” doctrine); and even more significantly in the rise of the modern Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s, which adopted civil disobedience and mass action to gain adoption and enforcement of the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts and other effective civil rights legislation and practices during the next two decades.

There is abundant evidence that full equality remains elusive. The history of slavery and institutional prejudice against minorities in America has a continuing legacy. Still, the methods adopted by the American Civil Rights Movement and its significant accomplishments in ending systemic discrimination have become an enduring international symbol in the struggle for world freedom and a much-used model for how an oppressed minority can seek freedom through the determined and peaceful exercise of democratic rights.






Piles of Bones Illustrating the Hutu Genocide

Faculty + Staff UCLA
Honor or abandon: Societies' treatment of elderly intrigues scholar
Judy Lin | January 07, 2010




Jared Diamond


When people grow old in traditional villages in Fiji, family and friends care for them at home until their dying days. In America, the elderly are more typically sent to nursing homes — a contrast that may appear unfeeling, even cruel. But the ways in which societies around the world treat their elderly span a vast and varied range, according to Jared Diamond, UCLA professor of geography and physiology.

Why this differs so drastically from culture to culture is an intriguing question that Diamond, 72, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author of “Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies” and recipient of a MacArthur Foundation "genius" award, is currently researching. Recently, he shared some of his thoughts on the subject with a standing-room-only audience in the Neuroscience Research Building auditorium in a lecture, "Honor or Abandon: Why Does Treatment of the Elderly Vary so Widely Among Human Societies?”

The idea that it’s human nature for parents to make sacrifices for their children and, in turn, for their grown children to sacrifice for their aging parents — turns out to be a “naïve expectation,” said Diamond. This assumption, he said, ignores undeniable conflicts of interest between generations.



From a common sense perspective, “Parents and children both want a comfortable life — there are limits to the sacrifices that they’ll make for each other.” And from a scientific perspective — natural selection — Diamond noted, “It may under some circumstances be better for children to abandon or kill their parents and for the parents to abandon or kill their children.”



Those circumstances include life’s often heart-wrenching realities — from the threat of starvation among indigenous tribes to the difficult choices posed by modern societies’ life-prolonging medical care, Diamond said.



Traditional nomadic tribes often end up abandoning their elderly during their unrelenting travels. The choice for the healthy and young is to do this or carry the old and infirm on their backs — along with children, weapons and necessities — through perilous territory. Also prone to sacrificing their elderly are societies that suffer periodic famines. Citing a dramatic example, Diamond said Paraguay’s Aché Indians assign certain young men the task of killing old people with an ax or spear, or burying them alive.



“We react with horror at these stories, but upon reflection, what else could they do?” Diamond asked. “The people in these societies are faced with a cruel choice.”



Those of us in modern cultures face cruel choices of our own, he added. “Many of you have already faced or will face a similar ordeal when you are the relative responsible for the medical care of an old person — the one who has to decide whether to halt further medical intervention or whether to administer painkillers and sedatives that will have the side effect of hastening death.”



Yet the fact remains, Diamond said, that many societies treat their elderly better than Americans do. In some cultures, he said, children are so devoted that when their aging parents lose their teeth the children will pre-chew their food. A closer look at how traditional societies value (or don’t value) their old people might teach us what to emulate and what to avoid.



The elderly’s usefulness in a society plays a big part in determining their fate, Diamond said. While old people in traditional societies can no longer spear game or battle enemies, they can still gather food to care for children. They are also often expert at making tools, weapons, baskets and clothes. In many societies they serve as “tribal elders” in medicine, religion and politics.



Perhaps most important, in cultures lacking written records of history, song and other forms of culture, older people are invaluable sources of information.



“The repositories of knowledge are the memories of old people,” Diamond said. “If you don’t have old people to remember what happened 50 years ago, you’ve lost a lot of experience for that society,” from communal history to advice on how to survive a cyclone or other natural disaster.



Societies also vary in how much they respect their old people — or don’t. In East Asian cultures steeped in a Confucian tradition that places a high value on filial piety, obedience and respect, Diamond said, “it is considered utterly despicable not to take care of your elderly parents.” The same goes for Mediterranean cultures, where multigenerational families live together in the same house — in stark contrast to the United States, “where routinely, old people do not live with their children and it’s a big hassle to take care of your parents even if you want to do it.”



While modernization has brought many benefits to the elderly — most notably improved health and longer life spans — it has also led to a breakdown of traditions. For example, multigenerational families are becoming a thing of the past in many modern cities in China, Japan and India, Diamond said, where “today’s young people want privacy, want to go off and have a home of their own.”



In America, Diamond said, a "cult of youth" and emphasis on the virtues of independence, individualism and self-reliance also make life hard on older people as they inevitably lose some of these traits. Then, there's America’s Protestant work ethic, “which holds that if you’re no longer working, you’ve lost the main value that society places on you.” Retirement also means losing social relationships, which, coupled with America’s high mobility, leaves many old people hundreds or even thousands of miles away from longtime friends and family.



Modern literacy and its ties to technology are also putting the elderly at a disadvantage.



“Modern literacy means that we look up things in books or on the Internet — we don’t go ask an old person,” Diamond said. “Formal educational systems, such as UCLA, replace old people with highly trained professors for transmitting specialized knowledge.”



And lightning-speed technological advances “mean that the things that old people do understand got technologically outdated,” Diamond said, adding that his ability to multiply two-digit numbers in his head has now been superseded by pocket calculators. He even admitted to having to consult his teenage sons to use the TV's “remote with 47 buttons on it.”



Still, steps can be taken to improve the lives of our elderly, Diamond said. Understand their changing strengths and weaknesses as they age, he advised, and appreciate their deeper understanding of human relationships and their ability to think across wide-ranging disciplines, to strategize, and share what they’ve learned.



“So if you want to get advice on complicated problems, ask someone who’s 70; don’t ask someone who’s 25,” Diamond concluded. “Old people can have new value … although we often don’t recognize that this is possible.”



His lecture was part of the Molecular Medicine Institute Seminar series.

Dick Gregory Defends Absent Fathers - Poorly [www.youtube.com]

[www.iloveoldschoolmusic.com]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/27/2017 04:32PM by RawPracticalist.

Quote
RawPracticalist
Dick Gregory Defends Absent Fathers - Poorly [www.youtube.com]

[www.iloveoldschoolmusic.com]

Tai
It seems like he is trying to help black people think stronger not weaker. He is offering words of encouragement to the broken families. He is saying don't focus on the lack.
If poverty is the reason for some families to separate (father has to leave to earn money), his words can't change poverty but inspire strength.

Dick Gregorys children all speak very well of their father, So this absent father complaint is a bogus complaint.
The real problem for many people who have been posting about Dick Gregorys family life, being an absent black father has to do with racism getting into the gene pool.
Its right in front of you, Hís children say they love him and are proud what he hás done in hís lìfe. Children all good no drugs or jail college.
I think what people realy dont like about this man is he called out rascist
folks and toched a nerve.
You see rascism is in our DNA, Now we have a rascist in the white house.
Stop the phonie atack about absent father and try some truth.
Gregory was a man of honor.

And we love to dance -- especially that new one called the Civil War Twist. The Northern part of you stands still while the Southern part tries to secede. Engrave this quote in Our Store! | Rate this Quote! |

-Dick Gregory

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Civil Rights: What black folks are given in the U.S. on the installment plan, as in civil-rights bills. Not to be confused with human rights, which are the dignity, stature, humanity, respect, and freedom belonging to all people by right of their birth. |



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/28/2017 12:54AM by riverhousebill.

Yes he was a good man [www.youtube.com]

Quote- But your tone is always that everything is bad.

We have to recognize the progress that is being made.

Rawpracticalist that you tube clip is a neg.
but I do have to agree with your words- we have to recognize the progress
being made, rascist are finding it harder to hide behind phoine atacks of black people.
Like the old saying you cant keep a good dog down.
Time for Eraseism.
with all the Good Dick Gregory has done you find this you tube quote about amazing grace song, why the bad tone about Gregory? The song?
first atacked because he was absent father whos children and wife loved him very much, That did not hold water, Now about amazing grace song.
I think you will find it hard to precent logical proof gregory was bad at all.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/28/2017 01:16AM by riverhousebill.

I just picked a random video.

I did not know it was a negative video.

We should always be prepared ready because...

"...you do not know on what day your Lord will come."
Matthew 24:42

Dick Gregory: 'I have no regrets. I am a soldier.'


He was a stand-up comedian, a civil rights warrior, a presidential candidate, writer, actor, nutritionist, athlete and confidant to Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, and John Lennon. On the news of the sad death of Dick Gregory, aged 84, we look back into the archives to when we interviewed him for the March 2011 issue on the eve of his big-screen role as elderly Buddy Bolden, father of jazz, in Dan Pritzker's 2015 biopic on the New Orleans trumpeter, 'Bolden'.

Tuesday 22 August 2017


If it had been the one remarkable thing Dick Gregory ever did in his life, his intervention during the Watts riots in August 1965 would have ensured that his name was remembered for ever.

"When I got there." Gregory recalls, "the first thing I saw was a small black boy, maybe nine years old, crying over the headless body of his father. The LAPD and the National Guard were lined up. They were ready to shoot on sight."



Gregory broke through the front rank of the angry crowd and walked, alone, towards the police line. As he approached them he was shot in the leg, apparently by a civilian bullet.

"I was hit," he recalls, "but I kept on walking. I yelled out: ‘All right, goddamnit. You shot me. Now go home.’"

As it happens, the rest of Dick Gregory's life has been so extraordinary that his act of courage, which witnesses say helped save many lives, is sometimes barely mentioned as a footnote. Gregory, the first black American satirist, remains one of the very greatest stand-up comedians, and has been acclaimed as a crucial influence by Eddie Murphy, Dave Chappelle and Richard Pryor. A close friend of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X, and a confidant of Robert Kennedy, Gregory was politically engaged to a degree no comedian had ever been before, or probably will be again.

Read next
J


ByJames Mullinger


"Dick," Pryor told me, shortly before his death in 2005, "was the greatest, and he was the first. Somebody had to break down that door. He was the one."



Gregory sings backing vocals on "Give Peace A Chance"; John Lennon was a close friend, and it was a prayer book given to Yoko Ono by Gregory, Lennon claimed, that inspired him to write "Imagine". Gregory is also the only black man apart from Barack Obama to have ever stood in the final round of a presidential election; an independent candidate with the support of, among others, Hunter S Thompson.

"The choice in 1968," Gregory recalls, "was between Richard Nixon, Hubert Humphrey, George Wallace and me."

All of the qualities that a man might seek to cultivate - courage, humour, intelligence, dignity and stamina - radiate from him at an unusually intense level. It's fortunate that his life has been played out so publicly, because Dick Gregory is a character it would be impossible to render credible in fiction.


We meet in the picturesque town of Wilmington, on the Cape Fear River, North Carolina. Gregory, 78, is here on location for Dan Pritzker's film Bolden! Hugely anticipated, not least because Pritzker has invested several years and a considerable budget in its preparation, the movie tells the story of the legendary New Orleans cornetist Buddy Bolden, whose tragic life loosely inspired the 1976 Michael Ondaatje book, Coming Through Slaughter. Bolden, a chronic alcoholic and schizophrenic, was committed to a mental institution at 30, where he remained until his death, 24 years later. Gregory plays him in this last, traumatic stage of his life. Bolden! has a strong cast, including Anthony Mackie and Jackie Earle Haley; Barry Papick, its distinguished acting coach, describes Gregory's performance as "incredible".

Dick Gregory almost never gives interviews, and I first experienced his extreme caution when dealing with strangers a few years ago when I approached him with an album sleeve for an autograph for my six-year-old son. At that time, he would only sign "To You".

Walking with Dick Gregory down the mile-long wooden promenade in Wilmington is an interesting experience. On most white faces that pass, the expression is one of curiosity at this lean figure who, these days, looks something like Methuselah. In many black passers-by, he inspires the kind of reaction I have only previously encountered when walking through Manchester with George Best.

We take a table at one of the town's up-market waterside restaurants. This is the kind of place, I can sense Gregory thinking, where, as a boy, he would only have been allowed into wash dishes. Our white waiter is visibly unimpressed by my companion's long beard, canvas shorts and sandals. The man from St Louis orders a ginger ale. The waiter, adopting a tone that could euphemistically be described as off-hand, asks what brand.

"The brand you would buy for your mama," replies Gregory, who has not mellowed so far that he'll suffer impoliteness gladly, "if you liked her."

Years ago, when he was working as a stand-up in Chicago, Gregory used to talk about his experiences at diners.



ByStuart McGurk


"I waited at the counter of a white restaurant for eleven years," he said. "When they finally integrated, they didn't have what I wanted. A top man from the Ku Klux Klan called me up. He told me: ‘I want to be the first to congratulate you. I have to admit that you've made it. I take my sheet off to you.’"



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/28/2017 04:37AM by riverhousebill.

You are making good points.

My only problem with your arguments is that:

1. The government everywhere is bad and responsible for the problems of the poor.
2. Dick Gregory is good.

Things are not black and white like that.

There are cases where
1. The government is good
2. Dick Gregory is bad (like most of us).

A Lesson in Government




A teacher was teaching her second grade class about the government, so for homework that one day, she told her her students to ask their parents what the government is.

When Little Johnny got home that day, he went up to his dad and ask his what the government was.

His dad thought for a while and answered, ''Look at it this way: I'm the president, your mom is Congress, your maid is the work force, you are the people and your baby brother is the future.''

''I still don't get it'' responded the Little Johnny.

''Why don't you sleep on it then? Maybe you'll understand it better,'' said the dad.

''Okay then...good night'' said Little Jonny went off to bed. In the middle of the night, Little Johnny was awakened by his baby brother's crying. He went to his baby brother's crib and found that his baby brother had taken a crap in his diaper. So Little Johnny went to his parent's room to get help. When he got to his parent's bedroom, he looked through the keyhole to check if his parents were asleep. Through the keyhole he saw his mom loudly snoring, but his dad wasn't there. So he went to the maid's room. When he looked through the maid's room keyhole, he saw his dad having sex with his maid. Little Johnny was surprised, but then he just realized something and thinks aloud, ''OH!! Now I understand the government! The President is screwing the work force, Congress is fast asleep, nobody cares about the people, and the future is full of s**t!''

Very good story with a lot teachings.
The president has weakness so does congress.
They are driven by passions and people and new generation is lost.
It is the youth and new generation that can reverse the old order into new.
It is not the government.
That is why blaming the president and congress is a waste of time.
Families should be busy raising their children with good morals in spite of the weakness of the president and congress so that with time congress can change.



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 08/28/2017 02:37PM by RawPracticalist.

quote-The president has weakness so does congress.

Rawpracticalist besides the president having weakness,
He is a rascist that needs to be jailed for the deaths he has incited
The baby boy is unstable- most mental health experts see the danger.
Millions of Americans see the danger.
Yes blaming is a waste of time, stop the blame and build a fire under his rascist ass is what needs to be done.
Its past time to put the 25 admendment into action.
The congress only cares about their money and to hell with the rest of population.
Good nazis, good kluckers, I dont think so!
familys that have raised chlidren with any morals should be out in the streets!
Our president has weakness is to watered down, Trump is a Klucker.
Im not so much into the blame game but Trump should be held acountable
for the murders he has incited. And the fact he undermines the laws of the land by pardoning asses like that AZ sherriff.
A waste of time to complain maybe with a hard core fascist.
Im afraid its just a little more than a weak president and a spineless congress of cowards.

Shakira

"No one living in this century should stand behind so much ignorance." — Shakira in a tweet just a few weeks after Trump characterized Mexican immigrants to the US as "rapists" and criminals.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/29/2017 12:15AM by riverhousebill.