THE "NEW" ROOTS. INFORMATIVE OR INFLAMMATORY? AND WHY NOW?

NO ONE RACE, NATIONALITY OR CULTURE OWNS THE RIGHTS ON SUFFERING.

Okay. So I woke up this morning with a bug up my ass. My husband and I watched the New Roots mini-series which ended last night.

When it was over, I got on line and looked up Alex Haley. I wanted to know who his grandfather was and why he didn't get more specific about his parents and grandparents in the "after-story".



Wiki gave his bio. All of the story about Kuna Kinte was unable to be substantiated. They said it was highly unlikely that he would have found the village his people came from. The only  actual information that was available was after the Civil War and at best, even that was sketchy.



It was a well crafted tale. At the beginning, I had asked my husband how Haley had known any of this. He told me about the custom of the story telling narrative.  Which I thought, okay. Makes sense.  Although, since nearly every member of his family knew how to write, as I have now been informed, it makes less sense.

JUST MY OPINIONS:

I'm not going to critique the series. This is just my gut reaction and thinking about what I saw.

I cried at the moving pieces. I felt bad for the family when they were separated so many times.

I kept looking for some decent white people. Apparently the only one was a female spy who got hung by her husband for her troubles. Well, the other two who may have been "decent", were too weak to speak out. And so what I saw was a one-sided, anti-white story that to my mind, would only create more divisiveness that there currently is. And rather than improving over the past several years, race relations have just been going downhill. Why throw gasoline on a fire?


who was risking their lives to get slaves to the north?

Do you remember that I have referred to myself as a Liberal Jew?  That means that I take the side of the under dog, because that's what my people had been since their inception.  I have worked against racism. When I was younger I worked for a Hispanic candidate, and I stood on a corner in front of a store to get people to sign up to vote as Democrats when Obama was running for his first term.  I have fought my own inclinations and worked at not being prejudiced. I certainly have never been a racist. I  have told people that I wouldn't tolerate the use of certain words nor ethnic jokes in my presence. So, how is it that I am now up in arms at this show?

TIMING IS EVERYTHING:

I of course, have no idea how long it took for this project to come into fruition, although it was done by the son of the original producer. He said that his son said the story didn't resonate for him, so his dad wanted the "new generation" to hear the story again. Or maybe as Freud would say, it was due to a son's wanting to outdo his father. But what do I know? Maybe it didn't resonate because 40 years later, we are not the same nation.

Ferguson MO.

In any event, it was made and aired this year. The situation that has been very disturbing to our country has been related to black men being shot and killed by mostly white police officers.  There has been rioting and unrest and the police, not that I'm saying they are innocent, have been taking the brunt of the rage.

I do believe that there are places where the police are executing people and they should be punished. I also believe that the majority of police are not executing innocent people.  I think that many of our police are most likely sociopaths, but so are many of our politicians. However, since we are apparently basically uncivilized, we need someone to keep the law and order.



SO WHY IN THE NAME OF GOD, WOULD WOLPER [the producer], INCLUDE A CIVIL WAR SCENE WHERE THE UNION ARMY IS CAPTURED BY THE REBELS AND THE MEN ARE LINED UP TO BE SHOT, AND THE REBS ONLY SHOT THE BLACKS. HUH?
I'M NOT A HISTORIAN AND THIS MAY HAVE HAPPENED, BUT DOE WE NEED TO DRAG IT UP NOW?


WHAT RELIGION WERE AFRICAN TRIBES BACK IN 1720?

This was taken from the Gambian Information site.

The Mandinka of Gambia are the largest ethnic group of people in the country. They are sometimes referred to as the Mandingo,  Malinke or Mande and make up 42% of the population of Gambia.

They are widespread throughout the whole of West Africa particularly in Mali, Senegal and Guinea. In the second half of the 19th century the Mandinka converted to Islam until today it can be said that 99% are Muslims. Their musical hallmark is the Kora followed by the Balafon which griots and 'Jalis' use to narrate Mandinka history.
THEREFORE,  It would not have been possible for Kunta to have been a Muslim. His people didn't become Muslims for  100 years.  Why put that in the story when our country is so anti-Muslim?  Are they trying to bait someone?

west African religious ritual

what about what's going on in Africa right now?

As I write this, there are atrocities being committed in Africa. Tribe against Tribe. I do not believe that we can imagine living the lives of these people.
I am mostly uninformed by choice. I have probably mentioned that I have chosen to live in a cave when it comes to news. I don't like to know what is going on in this insane world since it only upsets me, and I have learned there is very little I can do about it. I have supported a different woman in Africa through the Women for Women foundation for quite a few years. One person at a time. That's all I can do.
darfur

I can't bear to know what goes on because I hurt inside because I don't understand the hate. Although, from my rant, you'd think I was a hater.

I'm not. What I am is fearful. I am afraid that we are being manipulated to hate. It's really easy to do since the "roots" of fear are genetic.

DOES ANY ONE ETHNIC GROUP OR RACE HAVE MORE OF A RIGHT THAN ANOTHER TO CLAIM THAT THEIR SUFFERING WAS WORSE?

Again, just my view, but Hell no. Just look at our good allies, the British. I've been watching Outlander which gives an account of how the English treated the Scottish.  And oh. I do recall when I was growing up, how the IRA, Irish Republican Army was still trying to get the British out of their country.

Charles, I'd like a piece of the Mediterranean, if you please.

The Imperial Nation of England was quite an Empire in its time. Even in the New Roots, they did show a bit of the Revolutionary War. Of course for the slaves it was ironic since the Americans wanted their freedom and couldn't see that having slaves was pretty much the same thing. Well, not really.

HAS THERE EVER BEEN A TIME WHEN SLAVERY DID NOT EXIST?




I'm going out on a limb and taking a guess. I'd venture the answer is no.  And, if you think about it, we're all still slaves. Slaves to wages, mortgages, car payments, jobs, families, you name it. No one is "free".

WHAT HAS THIS TO DO WITH THE PRICE OF EGGS?

Not a damned thing. I'm just ranting. I am  sick of watching the world fall apart. I'm worried about my own people getting wiped off the face of the earth. Also, why is it that  Blacks hate Jews. I know I've been told one reason for that. Allegedly it was because they were the only white people the blacks had contact with after the slave days. They were the shop keepers and landlords. I don't know if that's true or not.

If anything, the Jewish communities I knew, were the ones who fought hardest to help the Blacks obtain their civil rights. A friend of mine lost her cousin who was one of the four boys who "disappeared" in Mississippi.  And yet they hate us more than any other whites. Okay, maybe they hate the skin heads more. Well, fear them more.

ENOUGH!

I feel better. I got it out of my system. I will end with a famous quote from a Black Man who was beaten for no reason.

"People, I just want to say, you know, can we all get along?" Rodney King.

WHY DON'T THE LAWS OF GRAVITY WORK ON WRINKLED LAUNDRY?

Right to it.
My plan for yesterday was to lie out in the sun on the lanai. Deck, I suppose for non-Floridians.
It took some time to get my things together and while I was doing that I remembered that I had two loads of laundry to do.

I put in one and went about taking care of putting on sunscreen and getting my iPod and bathing suit.

I was on my way out when I heard the buzzer. Waaaaaaah. The first load was done. I put it in the drier and turned it on. I put in the second load of laundry, and out I went.


I lay in the sun for some time. Which for me is something I love, and also a feat. As you know, I can't stay still. I think that's why I usually do gardening or cleaning outside before I lie down. Then I'm tired enough to lie there.  I did go in and out of the pool. It was a beautiful day.



It was really hot in the sun. I went in the pool which had no more ants. Lovely.
I got out and lay back down. It was around noon when I had finally made my way out. I try not to stay out too long for as you know, only mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the noon day sun. Sorry Brits. Don't know who wrote it, but it does have a nice ring to it.

My husband came back from wherever he'd been. His wrist was paining him terribly from all the fishing and kayaking so he'd taken the day off. He came out onto the lanai with a rod and reel. He had switched the reel so he could cast with his non-hurting hand. He was having trouble because he couldn't use his bad hand to guide the line. Or something like that, I don't fish.

We had a little banter about him hitting me as he was hitting the screen and missing the pool. After he went in I decided it was probably best to come in so I didn't burn.

I don't even know what possessed me. That must be the word. I am/was possessed by the need to "just" rinse off the furniture in the lanai under the roof. That's my favorite phrase. I'm "just" going to prune one bush. I'm just going to pick the weeds in the front of the yard. I'm "just" going to pretend that I can stop in the midst of doing something. Yeah. That's me.

Call me "just".       

                  

I pulled out one chair. (that God I had washed the cushions recently or this would be my obituary). Then I pulled out the table. I put all the cushions in the corner.

For some reason, I came into the house and it was probably to throw away something, for I passed into the garage, from the laundry room and crap.  I hadn't taken out the clothes from the drier. So, I did what I do not usually do. I just dumped them in the laundry basket and put the next load in to dry.

Then back I went to spend the next hour and a half cleaning the inside part of the lanai. My muscles were still in a twist from Yoga and the day before when I scrubbed the pavers. But never you mind. I finished what I had to do. Had to. Notice that word. I don't "had" to do anything. I hobbled in and took a shower and washed my hair.

'Twas then I remembered the laundry. I dried off and went in and put the next batch in the drier. Of course I couldn't lie down until I had put all the cleaning things back where they belonged. I finally lay  down at 3:30.  Then the drier buzzer went off. There was no way in hell I was getting up. For me, this was a proud moment.


You see, up until a few months ago, I would have had to take the laundry out and fold it and put it away before I could do anything else. I'm making progress. I'm learning to let it sit.

I got up after less than an hour, which is good. Too much napping is bad. I did at some point recall the drier and so I went in and folded what had been in it.
The good news was it was mostly sheets and a couple of towels. They weren't too bad. I looked at the basket of clothes, and said to myself, "no way".

Which leads me to my question.

HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE FOR GRAVITY TO WORK?

I just got up and threw out the recyclables. And passed by the Basket. It called to me and so I just hung up all of what had been in it. This is the way I've come to do laundry which works well. As I take something from the drier, I hand it up. I hang most of my clothes because I can't find anything in the drawers. Unless you just take out what's on top, you never get to know what's underneath.

And this eliminates a step.  Hand in the laundry room. Transport to the closet. All done.

Except for today. I hung the clothes, mostly shirts, that now looked like I slept in them. I have left them hanging on the doors inside.

Gravity is supposed to pull everything towards the ground. How long do you think it would be for me to leave the laundry like it is before it irons itself out?

That's basically because I don't feel like ironing. My arms and shoulders still ache.  It's a valid question. Right?

EXERCISES IN FUTILITY - APPARENTLY MY FAVORITE KIND ! THE TITLE IS THE SAME, THE CONTENT IS DIFFERENT.

It's another beautiful morning. That's how it is in the tropics. The day will likely bring rain in the afternoon.  Some days, thought it doesn't rain. And that sets up the expectation [hope?] that it won't rain today.

And, that brings us to the widely accepted version of "crazy".  You can all say it together. 

DOING THE SAME THING OVER AND OVER AND EXPECTING A DIFFERENT RESULT. 

Personally, I would not call that crazy. Not in the clinical sense, since crazy isn't in the diagnostic manual.


It is, however, really, really dumb. So, that would make me, really, really dumb.

The trouble with this problem, is that we, while we are being dumb, are also being blind. It is actually a very easy state to ahieve.

What may look to someone outside the situation as doing the same thing, to me, it looks like something else entirely.

It took me scrubbing the lanai pavers yesterday for me to understand this.
As usual, I went out back with the intention of putting a decorative solar bird outside the cage that is supposed to keep out the bugs and dirt.

Since our pool is not an inside the house pool, the dirt from the garden and preserve blow in. And we also have pavers that we put in when we bought the house.

The couple who lived here before us had two huge Golden Retrievers and the pool was for the dogs.  Instead of having the normal pool decking, they had an "L" shaped grass run inside the lanai. It may have looked pretty, but after trying to keep the grass cut and having most of it in the pool, we decided to change it.

the pavers are around the "back side and let side.

Not having much money, and not knowing any better, we had pavers put in instead.  We did leave one little tiny crescent shaped space for our dog. A tiny Maltese and it worked out fine.

The problem is that we get lots of weeds between the pavers. I know. What has this got to do with anything?  I'm sorry, but I do not know how to tell a story without all the details.

Weeds grow in dirt. The dirt between the pavers. The dirt that makes our lanai look like we don't take care of it. Well, truth is we don't keep on top of it. There's a difference.

I scrubbed that yesterday. There are already two weeds. DUH

So, yesterday, I went out and the gardeners who had cut the bushes around the side of the cage had broken my little wooden water can. I picked it up and "thought "wow", these picks sticking out would be really good to scrape out the dirt and then it should stay cleaner."   This is where a friend would have said, "now hold on there. Think this through. When you are done, will all the dirt be gone? Will it be better for longer than, ten minutes?"

Alas, I was alone. And so I scraped and I scraped and I was hunched over in the hot sun and I brought out the mini shop vac to suck up that dirt. I was afraid to go in the pool to cool off since I was working with an electric machine and the water that would drip would create mud which the vacuum wouldn't suck up.
See. I was thinking on all cylinders. I almost get heat stroke twice. The compulsive part of me won't let me stop. The smarter part, now lets me take breaks.

it hasn't moved itself. it's blurry. no glasses.

I made my way around the pool. I got dirt off those pavers. I was feeling pretty damned good. And hot. I was about to jump in the pool when I realized that the clumps of ants were still floating around.

SHIT!!  My husband was on a Kayak journey and before he left in the early morning, he said he wasn't going to scoop them out because when the pump comes on, they'll go into the filter. I kept my mouth shut. I hoped he was right, but I didn't think so. See. It's so easy to spot when someone else is doing it.

The martyr in me, had wanted my husband to come home while I was still scraping and fainting. That calls for timing. Ours is always good. He came home just as I was cursing him under my breath because I was scooping these fucking ants out of the pool and dumping them outside the door. And guess what. They were still alive!   They started to crawl back towards the open door. I had to get the hose and spray them away, and go back to scooping and of course in my zeal, I seem to have hit the scooper and the screen inside ripped. Now I was scooping up dead/live ants with a screen that ducks could fly through.

It was at this moment that my husband came home. He opened the back slider and said hi, I'm home. My impulse was to hit him with the scooper. Instead, I said something about his theory not working and he went inside.

Not being the heartless bitch I would like to be,  I went in to find him, He had called on the way home and told me how wonderful it had been. How nice of me to ruin it the minute he saw me. oh God. So, I don't think he heard me. I found him coming in from the garage and asked if we could start over and I welcomed him home again, hugging him and saying how happy I was he had a good time.

Okay. So, I have learned and don't always do the same stupid thing. YAY. I can learn.

Well, maybe.  Since I had the hose out I did what I had told myself I wouldn't. I washed some of the pavers. And low and behold. There was still dirt. Also, a thunderstorm had started, but at that point I didn't care if I got hit by lightening.

I sat under the covered part of the lanai and started to cry. I had accomplished nothing. I worked so hard, and for what? What had I really expected?

That was when I realized that "this" is my crazy. Yours is probably different. Mine is to want something. Possibly, something that can't be done the way I try to do it. (I'll explain that later).  And so, I work my ass off, or spend the money for whatever it is that I think will "fix" me, and the result is always the same.
I either end up where I began, or things are worse.

He had to say heartache because evil was already taken.

*the digression. I told my husband last month, or even before that, that I wanted to see if we could do something about the pavers. Either get them taken out and have the whole thing done like the rest of the pool area, or maybe put in sand and definitely, it needed repainting. He listened. I mentioned it once more. Saying it more than once is nagging. This time he asked his friend Bob about it. Bob is in the painting/construction business. He knows about all this stuff. They agreed that Bob would come over and have a look. If you were Jewish, you would understand that I know when Bob will come. He'll show up on Tish'a bov.  That is an obscure holiday that only the really Orthodox keep track of. Actually it's like arbor day which is nice. But, it's the equivalent of when will he come? When hell freezes over, or an equivalent of he will come, but I'm not sure in which lifetime.  That's why I took matters into my own hands.



BUT I DON'T LIKE THE RESULT!!



sometimes, it can't be done over.

 

 

Why was I so upset?  I did the same thing with my cataract surgery. I wanted to be able to see without glasses. Okay. Reading glasses. The doctor hemmed about it, and he should have said, you're asking for something that won't work. Go get another opinion. But he didn't. He said he'd do what he could. Took my 22 hundred bucks and I am waiting on my new prescription for another pair of progressive lenses which is what I started out with. The prescription may be different, but the results are the same.



THEORY ON WHY WE DON'T SEE WHAT WE DO:

so focused on the end, we don't see what is around us.

Each "thing" we do that is a repeat of what we've done before, looks different to the person who's doing it. If I saw it as the same thing, I wouldn't do it again. I'm not stupid. We just don't see the BIG PICTURE. Each event is seen as a separate occurrence or issue. Therefore, it looks different. People who are looking from the outside aren't fooled. However, we can't hear them. We see the little picture. This situation is red. The other was blue. This is round, that was square. They aren't the same. He is not anything like the last guy. She is nothing like my ex-wife.  Etcetera etcetera and so forth.



CONCLUSION:
Do you really want to stop doing the same thing over and over? Do you really want a new result?
You've heard it from me before and you'll probably hear it again. You have to want change in order to make change.

okay. I have choices.

Sometimes that means looking at the bigger picture. Asking yourself questions that you probably know the answers to, but don't want to admit. It also asks for you to look at your life in patterns. What patterns do you see? What themes keep playing out over and over? Do you like the outcomes? Do you want something different? If you do, you have to accept that you are doing something wrong. Not crazy, not dumb. It's just that you have made a mistake and not learned from it. The trouble is recognizing that many of the mistakes aren't different ones. They're like one giant error that you just haven't yet been able to see.


yeah. even me. maybe especially me.

 

 

So, open your eyes and take a GOOD LOOK INSIDE.  Don't worry about you see. It's likely everyone else already does. And, it really isn't all that great to be the last one to know.