MORE STRIFE AT UCLA: My Thoughts Regarding The Pro-Palestinian Protests

Royce Hall on the UCLA campus, where pro-Palestinian protesters recently camped and clashed with pro-Israeli students and authorities…

RECKONINGS REGARDING THE TENSIONS AND CLASHES AT MY COLLEGIATE ALMA MATER

Entering the last week of May next week,

I was fully aware that I had only posted two pieces on this blog for this month.

I wasn’t sure of what to post, being I had already recently written and posted stuff that pertained to me.

Then, while I was on my Twitter, or X, page, I saw that UCLA was trending.

Being a graduate of that number one public university in this country and an over thirty-year member of Bruin Nation, I clicked on the UCLA trending spot,

Only to find out that the protesters of what Israel has done to the Gaza Strip after Hamas, the Islamic terrorist group whose ultimate goal is to wipe the state of Israel and all Jewish people off of this planet, attacked and killed 1,500 Israelis this past October 7th,

Have returned to the Westwood campus to create a “Liberation Encampment” among other things;

I just saw a video of a large group of police walking to apparently get the protesters out, hearing one person remark “The Calvary has arrived!”

Which they apparently were as they ultimately broke up the protest.

There’s another video I saw showing food being blocked from the protesters’ camp.

And yet another video of a mob pushing a cameraman down some stairs while chanting, “NEE-O-NUTZI!”, a take-off of a certain term.

And from what I’ve gathered,

All of this was triggered by Chancellor Gene Block testifying before Congress in Washington, D.C. that the previous encampment between Royce Hall and Powell Library was dismantled;

I saw a video on X of a new encampment being raised, then another clip of a large group marching on Murphy Hall, the administration building, after they were threatened with arrest while at their new encampment.

Along with yet another group of pro-Palestinian students taking over Dodd Hall, one of the prominent classroom buildings.

My prevalent thought regarding all of this, after the clashes on that campus a few weeks earlier, can be summed up in three words…

THIS. IS. NUTS.

I remember writing, either on this blog or elsewhere, that the only thing I want, hope and pray for regarding this longtime conflict and clashes between the Israelis and Palestinians comes down to one word as far as I’m concerned…

PEACE.

I still feel that way, obviously.

I also support the right to protest, as UCLA has had a long history of such from students protesting the Vietnam War in the 1960s and early 1970s, to protesting the first Gulf War in 1991 (which I saw as that was during my student days), to now this current polarizing issue.

But I can’t help but wonder if all these clashes at my alma mater, as well as on college campuses across this country,

Can ultimately get the skirmishes and attacks in the Gaza Strip, which has cost nearly 35,000 lives, to end.

Like I said, all I want, hope and pray for is peace.

And for all this strife and tensions to stop.

I’m sure that only God will be able solve this conflict.

Like Forrest Gump said in his 1994 Oscar-winning movie,

“That’s all I have to say about that.”

The iconic Bruin bear statue in the center of the UCLA campus…

THIRTY YEARS: Marking The 30th Anniversary of the Los Angeles Riots

At around this time in 1992, you saw a lot of this throughout Los Angeles. Photo courtesy of reddit.com

THREE DECADES GOES BY FAST

I hate cliches,

But it really does seem like yesterday that my hometown city of Los Angeles erupted in violence, fires, and looting in the wake of those four L.A. police officers being found not guilty in the beating of Rodney King,

Which happened a year earlier and – very important – was caught on someone’s video camera.

That was the shock and the cause of the outrage which resulted in the worst riots in L.A. history, that four cops were caught on video beating a Black man and still got off scott-free,

(Yes, I know that two of them were eventually convicted in federal court for violating Rodney’s civil rights and served jail time, but that’s besides the point)

On top of Soon Da Ju, a Korean convenience store owner in what was then-known as South Central Los Angeles, murdering 15 year-old Latasha Harlins over a $1.79 bottle of orange juice two weeks after Rodney was beaten, who got off with a suspended sentence, community service and a fine where if the murderer were Black, the death penalty would have been invoked.

Looking back on it all now,

It goes without saying that all of that violence – which lasted six days, injured 2,383 people, and cost 63 lives – was no surprise at all, considering the way African-Americans in the nation’s second largest city have been treated for as long as such city has existed.

To those four cops and that store owner, I reckon they saw Rodney and Latasha as nothing but a couple of so-called “n*****s” who were inferior beings and whose lives didn’t matter one bit as well as being nothing but thuggish criminals.

Which I reckon too many folks not from the “hood” saw African-Americans (and Latinos) who lived in the inner city “hoods” of L.A.

Rodney King (right): The man whose beat down by the L.A. police in March of 1991 sparked those riots in ’92. Photo courtesy of history.com

A scene from the ’92 riots. Photo courtesy of jetmag.com

The two statements on this sign at this protest march sums things up perfectly. Photo courtesy of huffpost.com

AS FOR THE IMPACT OF THOSE RIOTS AND HOW THINGS HAVE CHANGED IN THE THIRTY YEARS SINCE…

I must be honest in stating that,

Not that much has changed for the better.

For those who dispute that, I invite them to ask the families of,

• George Floyd
• Trayvon Martin
• Eric Garner
• Ahmaud Arbery
• Michael Brown
• Tamir Rice
• Brianna Taylor
• Daunte Wright

And all those other families of the tons of unarmed African Americans who were needlessly killed,

if things are any better for them.

Despite having elected a Black man of African descent as this nation’s Commander In Chief – twice,

And despite recently confirming the first African American female to sit on the Supreme Court,

People who are not,

• White
• Conservative
• Christian
• Male
• Wealthy
• Straight

or a combination of those attributes,

Are still catching h**l in this country.

Are still being profiled – racially and otherwise – by law enforcement and others.

And are still being seen as “lesser” beings who don’t matter and treated as such by too many Americans.

In other words, they are continuing to be denied the two things that, bottom line, is all that is wanted by all human beings in general,

• Total and complete EQUALITY
• Total and complete FAIRNESS

And as long as that’s the case,

Riots like the one in America’s second largest city thirty years ago,

And the one over George Floyd’s murder two years ago,

Will continue to happen.

Or at the very least, the risk of such will be high.

Rodney King, at the start of those riots, asked in a news conference,

“Can we all get along?”

To honestly answer that question, I must state as much as I would like to say otherwise,

The jury is still out.

Though I do remain hopeful.

Except for these two hash tags, that’s about all I have to say on this anniversary…

#StopAsianHate

#BlackLivesMatter

As does the statement on this sign at what I’m sure was a protest over George Floyd’s murder. Photo courtesy of wbur.org

MY STAND AGAINST ASIAN HATE: And For The Asian American/Pacific Islander Community

Very eloquently put! And pretty much says it all. Photo courtesy of wlfi.com

EXPRESSING MY SOLIDARITY WITH THE ASIAN/PACIFIC ISLANDER COMMUNITY IN THE FACE OF THIS BIGOTRY AGAINST THEM

To be perfectly honest,

I think it should go without saying when I state that I fully, completely, and totally support the Asian-American community in their stand against the racist incidents that have befallen them during this COVID-19 pandemic.

It obviously upsets me greatly to see Asians getting blamed for the coronavirus that has plagued this country and this planet in this past year-plus.

It also reminds me of when the Japanese Americans, including those who were born in the U.S., were forced to internment camps like Manzanar after the Pearl Harbor attack in 1941 after being suspected by President Franklin D. Roosevelt and millions of others of being spies for Japan – or at least sympathetic to Emperor Hirohito and military commander Hideki Tojo.

As well as the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, keeping Chinese immigrants from coming to America for fear of the loss of jobs to those from China who, among other things, made up the vast majority of workers who built the Transcontinental Railroad.

They did not deserve to be forced to sell everything they owned and herded into cattle trains to camps in the middle of nowhere; I’m so glad they got reparations of $20,000 each after the war and after the powers that be realized the horrible mistake they made.

And Asians definitely did not and do not deserve to be,

• Spit upon
• Cursed at and being told to “go back to your own country”
• Attacked and knocked down in the case of the elderly
• Have our former President-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named (yes, he still is referred to that as his name will never appear on this blog!) refer to COVID-19 as the so-called “Kung Flu”

And other bigoted atrocities that they have been subjected to due to the ignorance of far too many people who are, basically speaking,

Blaming a group of people for something they had absolutely nothing to do with.

Much like the commitment shown by those in the Black Lives Matter protests, it’s wonderful to see these massive protests and rallies in support of stopping this racism against them.

I’m certainly with them in spirit.

And for the exact same reason as I’m for #BlackLivesMatter,

I am very much in favor of stopping Asian hate.

And all other kinds of hate for that matter.

For those folks out there on the front lines marching with the signs and the chants and the speeches, I say,

Well done!

Right on!

Keep up the fight!

I’m with you!

And I will work to help this cause by confronting any racism or racist comments, microagressions, etc., whenever I see or notice such in my community, educating those perpetrators about how uncool, wrong, and bigoted they are (in a civil way, of course; I certainly don’t want to engage in any fights or otherwise stoop down to their level).

#StopAsianHate

That “Not Your Model Minority” sign in the middle of this pic is an excellent statement at this rally in Austin, TX. Photo courtesy of texastribune.org

YOU-KNOW-WHO’S INSURRECTION: My Thoughts About The Attack on the Capitol

WASHINGTON, DC – JANUARY 09: The American flag flies at half-staff as inauguration construction continues on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol on January 9, 2021 in Washington, DC. A pro-Trump mob stormed and desecrated the U.S. Capitol on January 6 as Congress held a joint session to ratify President-elect Joe Biden’s 306-232 Electoral College win over President Donald Trump. (Photo by Al Drago/Getty Images) Photo courtesy of hppr.org

EVERYONE HAD SOMETHING TO SAY ABOUT WHAT HAPPENED IN WASHINGTON, D.C.

HERE’S WHAT I HAVE TO SAY ABOUT IT…

Like quite a few other events that I offered musings about on this blog,

I’ll do my best to not take too long describing my reckonings regarding the uprising – or more accurately, an attempted coup – that the minions, I mean supporters, of our soon-to-be-former-President (in exactly nine days from this writing), held in our nation’s capitol last week.

Like all the other incidents stemming from what can safely be described as the most polarizing person in this country if not the 21st century, I was not surprised at what went down on Capitol Hill; all those Death Eaters, I mean followers, of our upcoming former President-He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named trying to take over the chambers of the Senate and the House of Representatives as those members of Congress were formalizing the election of Joe Biden and the defeat of You-Know-Who.

My heart goes out to the families of those five people who were killed during that attempted coup, by the way.

That all the evilness that was enabled by that Dark Lord has resulted in the House of Representatives, led by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, formally introducing a resolution to impeach (so-called) President He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named for a second time is good;

On the surface it may seen unnecessary due to You-Know-Who having only about a week left in the White House before he’s politely asked or forced to leave those premises,

But when I heard folks saying that by impeaching him, he won’t be able to run for any kind of office again regardless of the outcome of such impeachment, I was on board.

Either way, he’ll be out of the Oval Office and a private citizen again by the end of next week at the latest.

Who will beyond of a shadow of a doubt go down as the worst president in American history.

So it’s a win-win.

A supporter of You-Know-Who and an anti-You-Know-Who protester confront each other in downtown Los Angeles. Photo courtesy of sfexaminer.com

Actually,

This particular event by all those who have no interest in democracy in this country but have shown that they are willing to use pretty much any means necessary to keep America,

• White
• Christian
• Conservative
• Heterosexual
• Run by males
• Run by wealth and corporate business that does not care for the working class
• Looking like it did in the 1950s and before culturally and in every other way, with anyone not white, conservative, Christian, straight, wealthy and male being strictly seen as inherently inferior and kept “in their place”

Reminded me of another incident much like this one, that came to pass ninety-eight years ago…

In 1923 in Munich, Germany, a young veteran of World War I who became a leader of some rabble rousers who hated what they perceived Germany had become staged an attempted coup of the German government, 5,000 followers of this former corporal marching to the city center where they were confronted by police and a shootout commenced, with 20 people being killed.

The leader of that failed coup was arrested and sentenced to five years in Landsberg Prison, and was released a year later after writing his autobiography, which detailed how he saw Jewish people as sub-human and outlined his plans to eventually take over not only Germany, but the rest of the world.

The book that he wrote?

Mein Kampf.

The leader’s name?

Adolf Hitler.

The attempted coup that he led?

The Beer Hall Putsch.

Those “rabble rousers” that he was the leader of?

The National Socialists, better known in history and of all time as the Nazis.

Eight years after Hitler’s release from prison, he made good his threat as he was elected chancellor of Germany and, well…

We all know what happened in the twelve years following that event; I don’t need to give any intimate details about that common knowledge.

Now in fairness, while the orange-haired Dark Lord and his minions have not murdered 12 million people – six million of them Jewish – or have started a worldwide war that cost over fifty million lives,

It was clear to me that much like the Fuhrer, You-Know-Who tried any means to deny democracy after losing fair and square to Biden.

And his followers definitely reminded me of the millions of Nazis and other Germans raising their right arms in salute and screaming “Sieg Heil!” to their leader at those huge rallies that were given at that time, who seems to me is seen as the ultimate savior to them.

While I don’t expect He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named to burrow himself in any bunkers or commit suicide along with his wife,

I do expect Biden and his new administration, including Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris, and the new Democrat-led Congress to make sure that nothing like this ever happens again.

Which I know is stating the obvious.

A SILVER LINING TO THIS RECENT MADNESS: A week from this Wednesday, the man that did SO much damage to this country will be leaving this residence, to the pleasure of the majority of this country’s citizens. Photo courtesy of piquenewsmagazine.com