Nuff said or Isn't my Niece amazing?

 I know I know, I usually use this space to go on and on and on about what is wrong with the world or at least what is wrong in my life, but she posted these wise words earlier today and I personally felt that it needed a wider audience.  Read on and be amazed.

Susan Baker

God provides everything we will ever need and more. It's our choice to distribute it evenly.
That includes the gifts and talents you have, the food and shelter you earn, the love and compassion you allow yourself to waste.
And don't ever belittle something that you've been gifted with.
It is a gift to listen to and help others. Just because it seems everyone else can do it does not mean it's not special.
The reason it's so common is because it's in such high demand.
We are selfish enough to keep it to ourselves because we have the mentality that someone else can give or someone else can do.
It's not God's fault that world hunger is so dominate, it's our fault that it even exist.
We should never blame God for lost people when we are the ones leading them astray or scratch that-not leading at all.

Stink or Swim or Exactly why did a full grown man body slam a child?

    

     Full contact pool party! 

Well unless you are living under a rock, you know about the big TEXAS POOL PARTY MASSACRE!  (Okay it wasn't a massacre.  I mean no one even got seriously hurt, but it sounded kin of cool, didn't it?)  Details are sketchy about events leading up to the event in question (But dear Goddess, it hasn't stopped people from speculating and speculating and speculating), but we do know someone threw a pool party for some reason and some kids crashed the party.  We know that the police were called and that a general ruckus ensued.  Now, besides the part that I am about to talk about, that is all we know for sure.
     During the police intervention, which was going fairly quietly and seemed well organized, one teenage girl in a bikini attempted to walk off.  She wasn't running, she wasn't breaking things or even threatening anyone.  A cop decided that it would be a good idea to grab this child who was probably half his body weight by the hair, drag her to the ground and put a knee in her back.  Two of her friends approached the cop, the cop then drew his sidearm and threatened them.  Two more police show up, place restraining hands on the cop with the gun and then go after the two males.
     Now, spin doctors like Breitbart.com and the ACLU have all tried to put their own words onto what happened.  White Conservative Spin Doctors are going on and on and on and on (ad naseum) about how the girl resisted the police officer and how the two "thugs" (Yes I've seen the word used to describe the males) attacked the cop.  The usual "the police are innocent and it is all the kids fault" line dances across the Interwebz.  The ACLU and Black Apologists are trying to make this into a racial thing with the White Cop terrorizing innocent Black kids.  They are all about "Cops are bad!"
     Me I agree with one Black Commentator (Black esplains it all) who said that the event isn't about race.  Now keep in mind that he used that line to justify what the cop did and blame the kid.  Gotta love Conservatives.  However he is correct.  This isn't about race.  It doesn't matter if the kid was Black or the Cop was White (Brown and Off White?).  All that matters is that a fully grown, supposedly highly trained Cop thought it would be an excellent idea to physically assault a 13 (Some say 14) old girl in a bikini.  This man who is supposed to be trained to handle extremely dangerous criminals in very hazardous conditions couldn't handle a teenager at a pool party without violence?
    (As a side question, if you were a guy and you saw someone, anyone assaulting a teenage girl, would you just stand by and let them even if they were cops or would you try to step in and help?  If you answer that you would just stand by, you are indeed part of what is wrong with this country today.  Just saying.)
     If this had happened even a decade ago, people would be outraged by the cop's actions.  Black and White people would be demanding this violent man be fired (He has since resigned.  HOORAY!) and would be angry at anyone trying to defend him.  The ever increasing escalation of police violence and militarization has slowly eroded our sense of what is right.  As cops respond more and more violently to situations that would not have been met with violence 10 or 20 years ago, people just seem to shrug and accept it.  We are becoming desensitized  (Cannot believe I spelled that word correctly the first time) and more accepting.  "Cops have dangerous jobs so they have to respond that way,"  "Cops shouldn't have to put themselves in danger," and so many more lines justifying it appear every time something happened.
     A small child playing with a toy gun is shot to death within a second or so of the police arrival.  A man is shot to death in a store carrying a BB gun which he had got at the store.  A man is shot to death by a guy playing cop while he is prone on the ground.  Instead of uproar, we hear silence or even worse justification for these acts.  The attitude seems to be, "Well he is cop so he is telling the truth and the other people are lying" or "Any criticism of bad cops is being critical of all cops so it can't be done." 
     So lets make this perfectly clear.  No matter what happened before the event in question, all that matters is a heavy set cop tackled a teenage girl, hurled her to the ground and put his knee in her back.   Nothing she did justified that level of brutality.  I have said this before and I will say it here.  If the kid had been a teenaged White girl and a cop of any color had done this to her no matter what her actions were, people like Faux.News and Breitbart.com would have been up in arms. 

End of Rant

Right is right, but left is up.

     So some friends and I were talking (typing?) with one another on Vaguebook about the ongoing battle for equal rights and equal treatment under the laws of the land.  Amidst the usual banter about Gay Cakes and such, we managed to dance around to the subject of exactly what are Rights as opposed privileges.
     In reality it isn't necessarily an easy thing to judge.  Exactly what constitutes a Right and what is a Privilege that we have enjoyed for so long that we thing of it as a Right? 
     The very foundation of our nation describes some basics.  "Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" are words every school age child knows.   The Bill of Rights adds a bunch of others.  Many Ammendments to the Constitution added many others. 
     So, all being said and done, what is a Right and what is Privilege?  One person listed Driving as a Right.  Another mentioned owning a business.   They went on and on about these and other rights.
     The problem is that these aren't Rights.  No where in any of our government is it enshrined that these are rights.  They are simply privileges and that is where the disconnect occurs in most people's minds.
     Equal treatment under the law is a Right.  Running a business is a privilege and serving everyone regardless of Race or Creed is a requirement under the Rights given to all men.
     Until we finally agree where Rights end and Privileges begin there can never be true parity.   Until people realize the Rights they feel are being stolen from them are nothing more than privileges we can never have justice.