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Editorials/Columns
FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN
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Is It The Fault Of The NRA?
he news is full of reports
about mass shootings. The news details how some nut takes a multi-round weapon, goes out and shoots up a bunch of innocent people for no reason at all.
These shootings occur at theaters, shopping malls, churches, work places, schools and other places where large numbers of people are assem- bled. These mass shootings are relatively new, but the group behind them isn’t.
What is this group’s name you ask? The group is the NRA, which stands for the Na- tional Rifle Association.
This association is com- posed of different people from all over the nation. The rich, the poor, the educated, the un- educated and most impor- tantly, is they have elected officials from around the country. What make this so unique is they pretend to love guns more than life itself. They love them so much until they don’t want any limitations whatsoever placed on guns. They don’t care anything about size, how many times they shoot or how much de- struction they can cause upon being fired.
The members of the NRA are so strong until they com-
pletely control Congress when it comes to any gun legislation. How do they exercise so much control?
The answer is quite simple. They get legislators on their payroll who will do their will. If the National Rifle Associa- tion wants legislation passed into law, consider it a done deal. By the same token, if Boss Hog, Alias NRA, doesn’t want a bill passed into law, you can consider this a done deal. AlltheNRAhastodoisto make its wishes known to its bunch of hired hands in the legislative halls from Wash- ington, D.C. to city councils all over this land.
Legislators are well aware of how dangerous gun owner- ship, usage and how plentiful these weapons are in our streets. They are just as aware of the mass shootings that now seem like they happen once a week we all are conscious of the amount of pain and suffer- ing these shooting cause fam- ily and friends none of this is lost on elected officials. It is just that mass shooting are lost on the call of NRA dollars.
There has been a steady cry out for gun control laws. Laws like keeping guns out of the hands of criminals and the mentally ill. You accomplish
this by doing background checks on potential gun buy- ers. There have been loud and continuous calls for gun mak- ers to limit the number of times a gun can shoot before a reload. A Law that covers where a gun can be carried is also a desired law.
Most of them are danger- ous because of the people who are in control of the gun. Just think a group of people enjoy- ing a church service, a good movie, assembled to work or shopping at a mall and some nut suddenly appears and starts shooting folks for no reason at all.
What make these shoot- ings so bad is that they are so unexpected.
How much longer will the National Rifle Association and our elected servants of the people allow these senseless killings to go on. I call these mass shooting senseless be- cause the shooter never have any personal reasons for their drastic deed.
We wonder how long the NRA and its hired hinch men are going to let these mass shooting continue. A better wonder is how long will we as voters going to let these shoot- ing continue. We should or- ganize groups to tell their legislators we want gun con- trol laws and as want them now. If they aren’t willing to hear our voices and do our will, then we will replace them with someone who will and mean it. These mass shootings have got to stop.
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Bill Cosby: Manor Monster?
erhaps, someone a long time ago said it best: “The evil
men do lives after them while the good is often interred within their bones.” William Cosby never met William Shakespeare. But no doubt, right now, the words of an Eng- lish playwright are playing havoc with William Cosby’s ears.
That’s Bill Cosby... the guy who created the autobiograph- ical cartoon series Fat Albert and The Cosby Kids ... the fel- low who single-handedly sent America on a love-Jones with Jell-O Pudding . . .
Yes, that Bill Cosby ... One of the first Black men to sneak into the living rooms of America and rob millions of white Americans blind of their cherished racism... Cos who stole the show on the series, I Spy; who was Sydney Poitier and Harry Belafonte’s “A-Spoon;” who bankrolled Melvin Van Peeble’s film Sweet-Sweet-Back, then Hollywood give him a star on the Walk of Fame...
But guess what? Now, the world wants all its stuff back!
Most recently, the cover of New York Magazine featured 35 women who claimed in unison that Cosby raped them on Quaaludes. Spelman College wishes to return most, if not all, of the 20 million dollars Cosby and Camille gave to the school, etc.
Indeed, Cosby and the biblical Job would seem to have much in common except for one thing: Job lost everything on a bet from God; Cosby’s loss was his own doing.
However, the most wounded of all in this expanding Shakespearean tragedy isn’t Bill at all, but Camille.
So, how shall it end? What are American men to learn who for so long measured masculinity by way of sexuality? Who will dare to throw the first stone? Shakespeare giggles, and says once more, “The evil men do lives after them, but the good?”
Bigotry Exposed
minor story that's been circulating throughout the news cycle involves the re- cently released audio, taken from a sex-tape, that shows iconic wrestler, Hulk Hogan, using the N-word and other disparaging lan- guage while expressing disap- proval of his daughter, Brooke Hogan, dating a Black man. Apparently the "Hulkster" wasn't too cool with the idea of possibly hav- ing grand kids with year-
around tans.
What gets me every time
about these kinds of stories is the shocked and appalled re- action from people who find this type of racist behavior hard to believe. Knowing the background of an individual like Hogan, I can't help but wonder what else they ex- pected?
Here is a 62-year-old white guy, born and raised in the south, who doesn't believe in bedroom integration (at least as it pertains to white women). Can this really be
considered a surprising reve- lation?
I mean, seriously, how many white men, who live below the Mason Dixon line or in the entire United States for that matter, do they believe would be ok with their daugh- ters going the way of the Mandingo? The idea of a Black man sleeping with a white woman is the fuel that feeds the flame of almost all racism perpetrated against Blacks in America and is the root cause of white anxiety..... the fear of the Black penis.
One drop of DNA from that often maligned appendage into the womb of one of their daughters would probably take 200 years to breed out. For a white guy like Hogan, trying to pass his blonde- haired heritage into future generations, having one of those bad boys threatening his bloodline just isn't an option. Unless of course, according to Hogan, it belongs to "a bas- ketball player worth $100 mil- lion."
I imagine this entire episode gained traction simply because of Hogan's celebrity status. For some reason, peo- ple always want to believe that fame and fortune is a cure all for bigoted "a--holeness." But the truth is, for some super- stars, prejudices are lot harder to leave behind than the trail- ers they once called home.
Now Hulk Hogan can join the ranks of individuals like Paris Hilton, Eminem, Justin Beiber, Riley Cooper, Mel Gibson and Donald Sterling: white peo- ple who Black people thought were cool before they opened their mouths and revealed forked tongues tattooed with burning crosses.
In the end the Hogan con- troversy stands as a prime ex- ample of why the average Black person feels it necessary to keep his guard up when dealing with white folks in general. Regardless of how cool of a relationship the two may have, the first intense dis- agreement will ultimately re- veal the "no-good, legacy killing, n---r" the white man or woman always sees.
Reality On Ice is © by the Florida Sentinel Bul- letin Publishing Com- pany. Anyone wishing to contact Clarence Barr can email him at: realityon- ice@yahoo.com.
‘Americans Deserve Better.’
resident Obama’s comment that “Americans deserve
better” when referring to the “knock-down-drag-out” verbal slugfests between Republican presidential wannabe’s, especially Donald “What Comes Up Comes Out” Trump, is a statement we applaud like a breath of fresh air in a smoke- stifled room. We could not have agreed with President Obama more. And, why not?
After all, how difficult it is for us to believe polls showing Americans prefer the “bully-boy” manner exhibited by the unflappable Mr. Trump during campaign speeches and in- terviews with media commentators, over other candidates. Indeed, Americans should demand better than a multi-bil- lion dollar answer to Hollywood’s Archie Bunker or Disney’s Donald-Duck.
We are mystified at how the lack of political platform sub- stance in any of the presidential candidate’s speeches ap- pears not to matter to voters. Having devolved into cow-chip slinging, name-calling, and high school shenanigans that would put “The Dozens” to shame, GOPers have surpassed shameful. In the meantime, America has too many problems with our economy, terrorist threats, domestic kooks with pistols, and the erosion of our middle class (wealth gap), much need to waste its national attention on bull-frog leaps and rooster fights.
Most voters are more interested in how each presidential candidate plans to address crucial issues. Perhaps we missed
something, but we have not heard nor seen any evidence that any of the GOP candidates have any concrete plans for addressing these issues.
Yes, Americans deserve better.
FRIDAY, JULY 31, 2015 FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY PAGE 5-A
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