PHILIPPINE - AMERICAN WAR

**   BALANGINGA MASSACRE 

SEPTEMBER 28, 1901 - The bells of Balangiga are not just bells.  They play an important part in the story of the massacre of Balangiga.  While the bells pealed and sound of conch shells accompanied the pealing, crudely armed Filipinos dealt a mortal blow on the US Army Company C, killing 36, wounding 22 (8 of whom died later) and capturing 100 rifles and 25,000 rounds of ammunition.  US historians have called Balangiga the US Army's worst defeat since the Battle of Little Big Horn in 1876, otherwise known as Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer's "Last Stand."  Thousands of fierce Sioux and Cheyenne tribal warriors massacred Custer and all of the US Army's 7th  Cavalry's 210 men.

It forced Mrs Herron Taft, the wife of William Howard Taft, the first American civilian governor of the Philippines and future president of the United States, to relocate to Hongkong.  The US newspapers played up the "insurrection" in Samar prompting President Theodore Roosevelt to order its pacification.  Brig. General Jacob Smith took command of 315 marines with orders to kill and burn --  "I want no prisoners.  I wish you to kill and burn, the more you kill and burn, 

               the better it will please me.  The interior of Samar must be a howling wilderness."

The Real Massacre.  And the first 11 days of they burned 255 dwelling, shot 13 carabaos and killed 39 people.  There are no authoritative figures on the casualties of this campaign.  Every boy 10 years and above capable of bearing arms was to be killed.  Total casualty estimates vary from 2,000 to 50,000.  For some Filipino historians, this was the real massacre. 

Colonel Charles A. Woodruff, counsel for General Smith --

said in order to simplify the proceedings :

" He was willing to admit that gave instructions to Major Waller -

TO KILL AND BURN AND MAKE SAMAR A HOWLING WILDERNESS ;

THAT HE WANTED ALL KILLED CAPABLE OF BEARING ARMS AND

HE SAID SPECIFICALLY ALL OVER  10  YEARS OF AGE, 

AS THE SAMAR BOYS OF THAT AGE WERE EQUALLY AS DANGEROUS

AS THEIR ELDERS.

 

The Daily Journal dated April 17, 1902

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

New York, April 17 .   Richard O' Brien, a corporal of the 26th makes sensational charges against  United States  officers in the Philippines.  In a statement published here today, he tells of the abuse of Filipino women and massacre of unresisting natives.  O'Brien, claims of undignified actions of officers are in instances responsible for the brutality displayed by the men.  He says men that when his company reached Barriolanog in December 27, words was passed along the line that no prisoner be taken.  The first native shot was a small boy.  The shooting attracted the villagers who came out of their homes in alarm.  They offered no offense, displayed no weapons,  but were ruthlessly shot down, men, women and children. 

CARNEGIE OFFERED TO BUY BACK OUR INDEPENDENCE FROM THE U.S.

'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''

One of the richest Americans in history, Andrew Carnegie was a steel magnate from New York whose wealth could compete against the pharaohs of old. And like most billionaires, Carnegie somehow managed to become embroiled in politics. As one of the world's richest men, Carnegie had the courage to call out the encroaching imperialism of the United States of America, as well as the privilege to call them out on it. One cause that urged him to oppose imperialism was a small smattering of islands on the other side of the world—The Philippines.

Andrew Carnegie

Save47 Empowering Andrew Carnegie QuotesWealthy Gorilla47 Empowering Andrew Carnegie Quotes

Buying the country’s independence

When the Spanish lost the Spanish-American War, the U.S. purchased the Philippines for $20 million as part of the Treaty of Paris, effectively annexing the country into the American colonies. Like Mark Twain and Leo Tolstoy, Andrew Carnegie opposed America’s involvement in the Philippines, calling out the government on denying Filipinos their independence. The move to purchase the Philippines contradicted the U.S.’ involvement in the Spanish-American War in the first place. The war began when the U.S. backed Cuban revolutionaries fighting for independence from the Spanish, but the U.S. sang a different tune when it purchased the Philippines from the Spanish, leading to the eventual Philippine-American War.

Carnegie was so against the act that in 1898 he offered to donate $20 million to the people of the Philippines so they could buy their independence back from the Americans. Take note, this $20 million would have come out the pocket of Carnegie himself, although it certainly wasn’t a dent in his wallet as Carnegie was estimated to have a net worth of $310 billion. 

“Mr. Carnegie went to [then President William] McKinley when the Spanish treaty was pending, and said to him that America was in face of war in the Philippines; that our people and the Filipinos would soon be killing one another,” a 1902 article in the New York Times reported. “He asked to be sent to Manila with the fullest authority to declare that America desired good things for the little brown men and would soon recognize their independence.”

The Bud Dajo Massacre, 1904

MARK TWAIN AND THE PHILIPPINES : CONTAINING AN UNPUBLISHED LETTER MORTO N N . COHE N

 Although Kipling's "The White Man's Burden" is the most famous piece of literature evoked by the Philippine phase of the Spanish-American War, it is not only the utterance by a man of letters on America's venture into imperialism. One of the most forceful voices heard on the subject on this side of the Atlantic was that of Mark Twain, who held strong convictions diametrically opposed to Kipling's. * Twain's political opinions in general and his views of American expansion in particular have been well chronicled, but the account is enriched by an unpublished Twain letter that has recently come to light and the unpublished letter from the admirer that elicited it. 2 At -the outbreak of the Spanish-American War, Twain was living in Europe, lecturing and writing, his only means of earning enough- money to pay the debts he had incurred when the Webster Company collapsed. While abroad, he undoubtedly heard a good deal of criticism of his country's policy in Cuba. But he defended the United States' position, believing that America was genuinely concerned for the Cuban people. He was not, however, sympathetic with the government's'attitude toward the Philippines, for even before he returned home he saw that Washington did not intend to give the Filipinos immediate independence. He had, of course, read the reports of Dewey's victory over the Spanish fleet in Manila Bay, of the Rough Riders' victory in Cuba, and of Spain's capitulation to McKinley's demand that she relinquish the Philippines in exchange for $20 million. He also knew that the Filipinos had risen in revolt when they realized that they were merely trading Spanish for American domination and that the United States had sent 70, 000 men to the archipelago to defend Old Glory. He was certainly disturbed by the reports that American soldiers has resorted to humiliating bushwhacking to route Filipino guerillas and that atrocities had been committed by American prisoner-of-war camp authorities.

He arrived back in New York on October 15,1900, to a tumultuous welcome, and he seized the opportunity, while in the limelight, to speak out quickly and passionately against American imperialism. During his first interview, on the evening of his arrival, he excoriated the government. "I have seen, " he said, "that we do not intend to free, but to subjugate the pie of the Philippines. We have gone there to conquer, not to redeem. "^ And when he spoke at a dinner in his honor at the Lotus Club on November 10, he again expressed anti-expansionist sentiments. His was clearly a minority position. Imperialism, in the guise of Destiny, was the cry of the day, especially in the yellow Hearst and Pulitzer press. Twain, at the height of his success, must have realized fully that by embracing an unpopular cause he was jeopardizing the very audience upon whom he depended for a living. "Mark Twain feared a possible return into debt as he feared almost nothing else,TT Professor Gibson has written;4 and yet hardly a month passed in the three years after his return to this country during which he did not, in one way or another, denounce imperialism. The more he read about American operations in the Philippines, the stronger grew his indignation, the more frequent his outspoken appeals, the more vehement his public denunciations. On December 13, 1900, at a Waldorf-Astoria banquet, when he introduced Winston Churchill, then a young war correspondent, he interspersed his gracious compliments with frank admissions that he and Churchill did not see eye to eye on imperialism, and he restated his position on recent events in South Africa and China, as well as the Philippines. It is not surprising, in the light of his pronounced views and his obvious desire to influence American policy if he could, that he granted a request from the Red Cross Society at the end of 1900 to write a greeting which, he understood, would be read on New Year's Eve, along with other messages from famous people, at numerous meetings across the country. But after he wrote his statement, he discovered that the Society was using only his name in its advance notices, and he asked the Red Cross manager either to publish the other names as well or return his contribution. The manager returned the greeting, and Twain sent it instead to the New York Herald, which printed a photograph of it in its issue of December 30, 1900. The text reads as follows:

A salutation-speech from the Nineteenth Century to the Twentieth, 

taken down in short-hand by Mark Twain: 

I bring you the stately matron named Christendom, returning dedraggled, besmirched and dishonored from pirate-raids in Kiao-Chou, Manchuria, South Africa, & the Phillipines [sic] , with her soul full of meanness, her pocket full of boodle, and her mouth full of pious hypocrisies. Give her soap &-a towel, but hide the lookingglass. Mark Twain5 New York, Dec. 31, 1900 Professor Gibson has pointed out why this piece is perhaps Twain1 s "most perfect single piece of persuasive writing" and has described the re - action to it in some detail. " The hitherto unpublished material, a letterMark Twain and the Philippines 29 from an admirer and Twainf s reply, give further evidence of Twain's strong opinions. The admirer was Abner Cheney Goodell (1831-1914) of Salem, Massachusetts, a lawyer and historian, sometime President of the New England Historic Genealogical Society, who owned an exceptional library on witchcraft and was, at the time he wrote to Twain, an editor and annotator of the laws of colonial Massachusetts. 7 He writes from Salem, on the same day that Twain's greeting appeared in the Herald: Dear Sir: Will you forgive a stranger for obtruding upon your scant leisure this expression of gratitude for your ''Salutation " to the incoming century. In my opinion it is, so far as I know, the best thing you ever did. Indeed, I rank it with Lincoln's immortal speech at Gettysburg. It has done me good. I have stopped taking medicine, now that somebody has done something effectual to rouse the public from their chronic apathy in this universal reign of terror. It is a great strain upon one's self-confidence to continue to harbor the conviction that he is right, and all the "powers that be" of Christendom are wrong in their fearful onslaughts upon human beings And if wrong, how appalling the magnitude of the error of crime ! You have cheered me. You reassure me against the depressing doubt of my own sanity, and you encourage me to believe there is yet hope that-old Waller's sentiment, echoed by Charles Sumner in the title-page of his first great plea for universal peace, may prevail throughout the world:-- 'What angel shall descend to reconcileThese Christian states, and end their guilty toil?" I implore you to continue to improve the advantage which the high place you have attained gives you for reaching the public ear and conscience, by stirring up the pharisees until they stop, to think; which it would be distrusting the providence of God to doubt must be followed by re - lenting and repentance. I end, as I began, with the profound thanks of,

 Yours cordially, 

Abner C. Goodell

 Mr. Samuel Clemens, 

14 W. Tenth St. , New York, N. Y.

Tolstoy against the hypocrisy of the West

Like the members of the Anti-Imperialist League, Tolstoy condemned the Philippine invasion with the same ferocity as the suppression of the Boxer nationalists in China and the invasion of the Boer republics by Britain. He noted that these actions only demonstrated the hypocrisy of the West and its so-called discourse on freedom. Opposing the argument of the imperialists, Tolstoy wondered how countless atrocities could be committed in the name of civilization.

Unsurprisingly, the remarks of Tolstoy fell on deaf ears. Even in the standard historiographies of the Philippines, the Philippine-American War was skipped in favor of highlighting the material improvements under American tutelage. This partially stems from historians such as Rafael Palma and collaborators such as Pardo de Tavera who viewed America as a force for the greater good.

THE SEVEN-UP SERIES

**  THE  SEVEN UP SERIES  :
--------------------------------------

The Up Series is a series of documentary films produced by Granada Television that follows the lives of fourteen (14) British since 1964, when they were seven years old.  The documentary have nine episodes - one episode every seven years - thus spanning 56 years. 

The children were chosen from the original program " Seven Up " in 1964, to represent the range of socio-economic backgrounds in Britain at that time, with the explicit assumption that each chil's social class pre-determines their future. 

**  Quotes  :

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

                  *  "  Life hasn't dealt too many easy cards for him. "

                  *  "  The mid-40's is a crossroad for  people for life do change, and I don't want to

                          just suddenly find my self when the children have gone, I've got nothing in life. 

                          I'm not very good at doing nothing. I have to be doing something ... I have to 

                          have a goal or something to try and achieve. "

                  *  "  The whole purpose of bereavement counselling is that people  feel very lonely

                          alone when they have lost someone very close to them, and a lot of people

                          don't have someone to turn to. "

                  *  "  As any child going through their parents splitting up at the age of 14, you're

                         very vulnerable and it does cut you up, but you know, you get over it. "

                  *  "  I never had a very close relationship with my parents. And I really don't know

                          them very well but in the last few years her (mother) life, we had become closer

                          and I think that's what I resent, that I lost her when I did because I was just

                          beginning to know her. "

                  *  "  All I wanted is to be here long enough, to see my children grow up and to be

                          independent people.  What I really can't cope at with was if I died before they 

                          were grown up.  Its the only one thing I think every parent dreads is not

                          living long enough to see their children into adulthood.  "

                  *  "  It is no good being brilliant if you can't communicate with you clients.  "

                  *  "  Being a business partner - It really means you are under increasing pressure

                          to produce things quickly.  "

                  *  "  That's fine, you have to meet pressures, that what people come and see you

                          for.  "

                  *  "  I maybe depressed about my work but it doesn't mean I am depressed with

                          my life.  "

                  *  "  I have reached a level in my life that I'm happy with, and I enjoy being me. 

                          Although they never expected me to turn up the way they wanted me to be.  "

                  *  "  I'm a worker - not a businessman.  "

                  *  "  I could be upset, I could be sad a bit, but a few minutes down the store -

                          I'm back to my own happy self. (people come and are happy to see me)  "

                  *  "  Well, everybody has a row, we do have some from time to time, but we

                          always manage to sort it out.  "

                  *  "  One thing I like about the younger generation is that they seem to have

                          more confidence.  "

                  *  "  At 56 - Its the time when you can accept the decisions you made in the past -

                          wrong decisions - and live with that.  "

                  *  "  When I think of the risks I took, the places I stayed, the people I associated

                          with, I swallow hard.  "

MOVIES ABOUT BLACK RACISM -

White man's heaven, Black man's hell ...

1.    ROOTS - The 1977 TV Series
                      - Based on Alex Haley's family history. It traced the history of Haley's ancestry
                        from the 1750 abduction of Kunta Kinte, sold to slavery and taken to America.
                        He made several attempts to escape, captured and maimed. From the cotton
                        plantation where he was enslaved, the advent of the American revolution, the
                        Civil War, slave uprising and emancipation, 2 world wars, and finally as Alex
                        Haley, the author.

2.    AMISTAD  -  A  1997 historical drama film directed by Steven Spielberg, based on the
                        true story event in 1839 aboard the slave ship La Amistad , during which the
                        Mende tribesmen abducted to be sold as slaves managed to gain control of the
                        coast of Cuba.  It resulted into an international legal battle, which was finally
                        settled in the Supreme Court of the United States.
                        -  Stars Morgan Freeman, Anthony Hopkins and Djimom Hunsou

3.   GLORY  -  A 1989 American war film directed by Edward Zwick about the 54th
                        Massachussets Infantry Regiment, the Union's Second African-American
                        regiment in the American Civil War. Starred Matthew Broderick as Colonel
                        Robert Shaw, a white officer, facing opposition from his fellow officers and
                        ire from enemy soldiers for leading a battalion of Black soldiers. Also star
                        Morgan Freeman, Denzel Washington and Andre Braugher.

4.   THE  GREAT DEBATERS  -  A 2007  directed by Denzel Washington who also starred
                       in the film.  It is a story of an under-dog debater's team from the Jim Crow's
                       South, - Wiley College in Marshall, Texas - and successfully winning the
                       national championship. Also stars Forrest Whitaker.

5.   42 - THE JACKIE ROBINSON STORY -  A 2013 American biographical movie
                      about Major League executive Branch Rickey (Harrison Ford) drafting
                      African-American Jackie Robinson (Chadwick Boseman) as a player. Amid
                      the racism and social integration, Robinson rose to be a top notch professional
                      baseball player.

6.   A DRY WHITE SEASON  -  A 1989 American drama-historical film directed by
                     Euzhan Palcy, and starring Donal Sutherland, Marlon Brando, Susan Sarandon
                     and Zakes Mokae. The movie portrays the evil and abuses committed against
                     the Black population of the white South Africans - Apartheid.

7.   CRASH  -   A 2004 American drama film produced, written and directed by Paul Haggis.
                    An Academy Award winner for Best Picture, it tells about the racial and social
                    tensions in Los Angeles. Stars Don Cheadle, Matt Dillon, Sandra Bullock,
                    Thandie Newton and Jennifer Esposito.

8.   BLACKKLANSMAN  -  A 2018 American Black comedy-crime movie  directed by
                   Spike Lee.  Ron Stallworth (John David Washington) is the first African-American
                   detective to serve in the Colorado Springs Police Department. Determined to make
                   a name for himself, Stallworth sets out on a dangerous mission - to infiltrate the
                   Ku KLux Klan, an American white supremacist hate group whose primary
                  targets are African-Americans.

9.   GREEN BOOK -  A 2018 American biographical comedy-drama directed by Peter
                  Farelly.  It tells the story of  Dr. Don Shirley, a world class African-American
                  pianist, (Mahershi Ali), who is about to embark on a tour in the Deep South in
                  1962.  He took in a tough-talking Italian-American from the Bronx, Tony Lip,
                  played by Virgo Mortissen, as his driver. Despite their differences, the two men
                  forged a kind of friendship as they confronted the danger of racism in the times
                  of segregattion.

10.  HIDDEN FIGURES  -  A 2016 American biographical drama directed by Theodore
                  Melfi.  Based on the inspiring true story of three brilliant African-American
                  women mathematicians who played a pivotal role in John Glenn's launch into
                  orbit. The 3 women have to deal with racial and gender discrimination at work.
                  Kevin Costner as NASA director Al Harrison also played a pivotal role.

11.  HOTEL  RWANDA  -  A 2004 historical-drama film directed by Terry George.
                  Don Cheadle plays the role of Paul Rosesabagina, hotel manager of Hotel
                  Rwanda who saved hundreds of lives of refugees caught in a civil war.
                  Nick Nolte took in the role of United Nation's Peace Corps who aided Paul
                  despite the indifference of the UN to act on the crisis.

12.  I  AM  NOT  YOUR  NEGRO  -  A 2016 documentary film directed by Raoul Peck,
                 based on James Baldwin's unfinished manuscript, " Remember This House. "
                 It is a personal account of Baldwin about racism and segregation, and his
                 friendship with Medgar Evers, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King.

13.  LONG  WALK  HOME  -  A 1990 American historical-drama directed by Richard
                Pearce. The movie stars Whoopi Goldberg as Odessa Carter, an African-American,
                who works as a nanny in the affluent Miriam Thompson (Sissy Spacek), but refuses
                to take the bus. It was the time of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, a protest against
                the inequality between Blacks and Whites.

14.  LOVING  -  A 2016 American biographical-drama movie which tells the story about
               African-American Midred and white American Richard loving whose case of
               inter-racial marriage cause an uproar in 1958 State of Virginia. Arrested and
               imprisoned, they sought justice until the case reached the US Supreme Court.

15.  MISBEHAVIOR  -  A 2020 British comedy-drama film directed by Philippa Lowthorpe
               based on the story of  Rebecca Frayn. The film follows the events of the 1970 Miss
               World competition, which saw the crowning of the first black competitor. The
               movie highlights the racial slurs and differences between culture as well  as the
               politics during beauty pageant competition.

16.  THE  COLOR  PURPLE  -  A 1985 American coming-of-age period drama film
               directed by Steven Spielberg.  Based on the 1982 Pulitzer Prize winning novel by
               Alice Walker, it tells the life of Cellie (Whoopi Goldberg), a young Black girl
               growing in the early 1900's. At the age of 14 she was impregnated by her father
               and the movie follows her hardships in the next 30 years.

17.  12  YEARS  AS  SLAVE  -  A 2013 American biographical period-drama film  and an
               adaptation of the 1853 Memoir of 12 Years as Slave by Solomon Northup. Chiwettel
               Ejiofor portrays the role of  New York State born-free African-American man who
               was kidnapped in Washington and sold as slave. It tells the horrors of slavery.

18.  A  TIME  TO  KILL  -   A 1996 American courtroom crime drama based on the John
               Grisham novel of the same title.  It tells the trial of African-American Carl Lee
               Hailey (Samuel Jackson), who killed two white men accused of the rape-murder
               of his ten-year old daughter.

19.  TO  KILL  A  MOCKINGBIRD  -  A 1962 Hollywood-American classic-drama based
               on 1960 Pulitzer Prize winning novel by Harper Lee. Hollywood icon, Gregory Peck,
               plays the part of Depression-era lawyer, Atticus Finch, who set out to defend an
               African-American accused of raping a white woman.

20.  RESTING  PLACE  -  A 1986  TV-movie special directed by John Corty, starring
               John Lithgow, Morgan Freeman and CCH Pounder.  It tells the story about racial
               tension in a small Georgia town in the 1970's when a Black Lieutenant who died
               a hero in Vietnam was refused burial in the town cemetery.

21.  SAME  KIND AS DIFFERENT AS ME  -  A 2017 American Christian drama film
               directed by Michael Cartney. Its tells of a story about an unlikely friendship that
               went beyond social status and racial differences.

22.  AMERICAN  HISTORY  X  -  A 1998 American crime-drama directed by Tony Kaye
               and starred Richard Norton and Edward Furlong.  It tells the story of  Derek, a neo-
               Nazi and American supremacist, who after spending 3-years in prison tried to
               change the thought of his younger brother, Danny, who was heading the same path.

23.  GUESS  WHO'S  COMING TO DINNER  -  A 1967 American comedy-drama
               directed by Stanley Kramer.  A Hollywood classic featuring real life movie couple
               Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn, as parents to a young white woman who's
               about to be engaged to an African-American, a doctor and a widower, played by
               Sydney Poitier. It tells about the problems and issues about inter-racial marriage
               which in the 1960's was still prohibited in some states of America.

24.   INVICTUS  -  A 2009 biographical sports-drama directed by Clint Eastwood. It tells
               the story of  Nelson Mandela, played by Morgan Freeman, and how he led the
               healing of the country after many decades of Apartheid - racial discrimination and
               social injustice. A great movie.

25.  MALCOLM   X  -  A 1992 American epic biographical-drama film and tribute to the
               controversial Black activist and leader of the struggle for black liberation. He hit
               bottom during the 1950's, then became a black Muslim and leader in the Nation of
               Islam.  His assassination in 1965 left a legacy of self-determination and racial pride.

26.  SELMA  -  A 2014 American historical drama film directed by Ava DuVernay.  It is
               based on the 1965  Selma to Montgomery voting rights marches initiated and
               directed by James Bevel and led by Martin Luther King, Jr., Hosea Williams, and
               John Lewis.

27.  MEN  OF  HONOR  -  A 2000 American drama film directed by George Tillman Jr.
               The movie starred Cuba Gooding Jr. as  Carl Brashear, the first Black US Navy
                recruit who resolve to overcome racism and become the first black diver even
                after losing a leg.  Robert De Niro gives support as Master Chief Billy Sunday.

28.  BRIAN'S  SONG  -  A 1971 ABC Movie of the Week that recounts the details of the
               life of  Brian Piccolo (played by James Caan), a Chicago Bears football player
               stricken by terminal cancer after turning Pro in 1965, told through his friendship
               will Black American team-mate Gale Sayers (played by Billy Dee Williams).

29.  THE  LONG  SHADOW  -  A 2017 Documentary by filmmaker Frances Causey,
               investigating the roots of racism and the shameful legacy of slavery.

30.  THE  JOURNEY  OF  AFRICAN-AMERICAN  ATHLETES  -  A  1996  HBO
               documentary presentation exploring the rise of African-American athletes to
               positions of greatness in American and international sports and the racial
               discrimination and abuses they have to overcome.

31.  WHEN  THEY  SEE  US  -  A 2019 American crime tragedy web television mini-series
               created, co-written, and directed by Ava DuVernay for Netflix.  It tells about five
               young African-Americans who were charged with rape and physical battering of a
               white female jogger in New York Central Park in 1989. The quintet, labeled as the
               Central Park 5, maintained their innocence and spent years fighting the conviction
               hoping to be exonerated. A true to life account on how racism played a part in the
               investigation and prosecution of the 5 accused.

32.  SEPARATE  BUT  EQUAL  -  An American two-part television mini-series depicting
               the landmark Supreme Court  desegregation case Brown vs. Board on Education
               based on the phrase  " separate but equal ".
         
** Quotes :
--------------
               " At its core, racism is about fear.  There are people in our city, and in our world,
                  and in our country, who don't see us as fully formed human beings. "
                                                                    - NYC  Mayor Dinkins

               " On the Amadou Diallo - an African immigrant street vendor -  This is not a
                  police murder, it is a police slaughter. Shot 41 times right infront of his doorstep. "

               " When the police want something from us, they will do anything. They will mess us
                  up, they will lock us up, they will kill us. "

               " It is no longer justice we are talking about.  Its politics.  Its survival and there are
                  no fair rules in survival. "           

IT TAKES A CROOK TO CATCH A CROOK

**   MISJUDGING  WRONGS 

A man who had lost his hat decided that the simplest way to replace it was to go church and  steal one from the entry.  

Once inside, he heard a sermon about the Ten Commandments.  Coming out, he was greeted by the minister and said to him,  " I want you to know, sir, that you saved me from a crime today.  I came here with a sin in my heart.  I was going to steal a hat; but after hearing your sermon, I changed my mind.

"Fine, " said the minister, " but would you tell me what I said that changed your mind? "

The converted thief-in-the-making answered,  " Well, when you got to the part about, thy shall not covet thy neighbor's wife, I remembered where I left my hat.

                                                                                                  --  Arthur  Tonne 

**   NO TIME FOR CHILDREN 

A young stood before a judge to sentenced for cheating and forgery.  The judge has been a great friend of the boy's father, who famous for his books on the law.

" Young man, "  said the judge sternly,  "do you remember your father? "
" That father whom you have disgraced. "
" I remember him perfectly, "  the young man answered quietly.
" Whenever I went for him for advice, whenever I went to him for companionship,
   he would always say - Go away, boy.  Be off with you.  I'm busy. "
" My father finished his famous book ... and here I am. "
                                                                                                    --   after  William Barclay



**  TRIAL  BY  MEDIA  -  " Ambush Television " - Television episodes that were kept secret
                                              from the participant in a reality TV shows. These shows function on
                                              emotional drama and catharsis - the process of releasing, and
                                              thereby relief from, strong and repressed emotions.
                                           -  You have to get people that can be manipulated into a situation
                                              where that's what they give out.  This form of manipulation may
                                              have caused " ambushed participant " to commit forms of violence
                                              as triggered by the generated response.

                                           -  TV trials and publicity stunts - the media are trying to make
                                               money out of other people's misfortune and tragedy.

**  Rubberneck Effect    -  People sub-consciously find some sort of excitement seeing blood
                                             and violence. An example is when people driving down a highway
                                             and there's a real bad accident, everybody wants to look and see
                                             blood.

**  From the movie, " City of Hope "
                                          -  A Brazilian movie of the present state of gang-related criminality
                                             that now prevail in the cities of Brazil

                                          -  " If you can't get respect, you settle for fear."

                                          -  " If you're gonna do time, you might as well do the crime. "

                                          -  " If it bleeds, it leads ... "

                                          -  " The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun, is a good guy
                                                with a gun. "

                                          -  " Hoods don't talk, they sweet talk
                                                Hoods don't love, they desire
                                                Hoods don't stop, they take a break "

**  Joseph Kennedy, Sr.  -  The Patriarch of the famous Kennedy clan, father to US President
                                            John F. Kennedy, and Senator Robert Kennedy. He was rumored to
                                            made millions as a " Boot-legger " during the Prohibition era and
                                            walked away with millions before the 1929 Stock Market Crash.
                                            He was appointed by then US President Franklin D. Roosevelt as
                                            first commissionaire of the Security Exchange Commission.
                                            Criticized for the decision because of Joseph Kennedy's rumored
                                            role in the Crash of '29, President Roosevelt answered his critics
                                            with a the famous line -  " It takes a crook to catch one ! "

** Barroom Rape Trial  -  It happened in Big Dan's Tavern,New Bedford, Massachussets
                                            in 1983.  6 men raped the victim (Cheryll Araujo) inside the
                                            barroom in full view of 14 other male customers who cheered
                                            while the crime was going on.



**  Quotes  :

                           ** " That's the trouble with being the sheriff, you only get to know them
                                   when you shut the cell door behind them. "
                                                                                     - from 7 Men in the Row

                           ** " Prison doesn't change you - it just show who you really are. "

** The Five Stages of  Grief  :
                                                 1.   Denial
                                                 2.   Anger
                                                 3.   Bargaining
                                                 4.   Depression
                                                 5.   Acceptance

THE JOURNEY OF BLACK AMERICAN ATHLETES

**  Isaac Murphy  -  Most popular black jockey, an American Hall of Famer, winning 3 major

                                   Kentucky Derbies.

**  Major Taylor  -  2 Time world cycling champion, 

**  Jack Johnson  -  First black Heavyweight world boxing champion, winning the title

                                   against Tommy Burns. It was the first major upheaval of Black athletes
                                   to demean the white boxing supremacy. He made mincemeat of white
                                   pretenders to heavyweight championship belt until a combination of age,
                                   lack of discipline, boxing commission conspiracies, caused him to lose the
                                   title against James Willard tiring out in the 26th round.

**  Paul Robertson -  The first black football star.

**  Satchell Paige   -  The first legendary baseball pitcher leading the Black Baseball League
                                     in the 1920's and 1930's.

**  Jesse Owens and John Woodruff  -  The first Black athletic stars that won golds in the
                                    1936 Berlin Olympics.  Jesse Owens won gold medal in the 100-meter
                                    and 200-meter dash and another gold medal in the Long Jump.
                                    John Woodruff won the gold medal in the 800-meter run.

**  Joe Louis        -    More popularly known as the "Brown Bomber", just as to tone down
                                    the Black supremacy in boxing. He reigned for 12 years, defending the
                                    World Heavyweight Championship a record of 25 times that up to this
                                    day has remained unbroken. Said to have been paid a measly 10 percent
                                    of his purse by his white managers, he was saddled with financial
                                    difficulties until his death in 1981.

**  Jackie Robinson  -  The first Black professional baseball player.  His life was made into
                                    a movie titled, " 42 ", that showed his struggles to attain superstardom
                                    despite the discrimination and abuses he received, even signing a contract
                                    that specified that he could not fight back and smile when winning.

**  Andrea Gibson  -  The first Black American to win the Wimbledon Tennis Championship.
                                    Tolerated but not embraced, the white were not ready to accept a black
                                    tennis pro-star in their rank.

**  Charlie Simpkins  -  The first black professional golf player in 1959. Golf was then
                                    viewed as a game for the elite with the "Caucasian Clause" that states
                                    that the game of Golf was for " White people only. "

**  Wilma Rudolf  -  The first female Black athlete. She won 3 gold medals in the 1960 Rome
                                   Olympics for the 100-meter and 200-meter dash, and the 400-meter run.

**  Cassius Clay  -   The most iconic Black figure in sports, dubbed as " The Greatest ", won
                                   the gold medal in the Light-heavyweight boxing division. He was the
                                   most written about Black athlete of the 20th century, whose career was
                                   interrupted by almost 4 years hiatus when he refused to be drafted.
                                   He later embraced the Islam religion, and carried on a glorious boxing
                                   career at the same time stepping up for the Black advocacy.

**  Jim  Brown  -   The first Black Football superstar from 1957 to 1965, leading the NFL
                                in the yardage length runs. Like Ali, he stood for the Black freedom rights
                                retired from football at the peak of his career to pursue movie stardom.

**  Wilt Chamberlain and Bill Russel  -  It can be said that their rivalry, Los Angeles Lakers
                               against the Boston Celtics paved the way for Black dominance in basketball
                               as well as in other sports like football, athletics and boxing.

 **  Tommy Smith and Juan Carlos -  200-meter gold and bronze medal winners in the 1968
                              Mexico Olympics who were better known for their Black power salute while
                              the American national anthem was being played. It was one of the most
                              overtly political statement in the history of the olympics.

**  Hank Aaron  -  The first Black Baseball superstar. He broke Babe Ruth's record run

**  O. J. Simpson  -  First man to break Jim Brown's record run, and considered as one of
                              the best Pro-Football player of all time. His was the face of Professional
                              Football in the 1970's, the fame which also brought him Hollywood fame.


**  Insights  :

Athleticism is probably the best gift of the Black race.  Whatever sports that requires strength, agility and stamina, the Blacks were able to dominate. Basketball and football is a brand of sports that almost always have Blacks dominating every aspect of the game. In the 1960's, you would never imagine an American basketball olympic team composed of Black athletes.

The Blacks may not be as dominant today in boxing compared to the 1960's to the 1990's but still a great part of boxing champions and contenders are blacks. History may not be that kind to them in the past but the present as well as the future reserves a lot of golden pages in achievements not only in the field of Sports, but also in Music, Arts and Hollywood awards.  

ROOTS : ALEX HALEY

**  ROOTS  :  THE SAGA OF AN AMERICAN FAMILY  :

**  ABC adapted the book as a television mini-series of the same name an aired it 1977 to record breaking audience of 130 million.  In the United States, the book and the mini-series raised the public awareness of Black history and inspired a broad interest in genealogy and family history.

**  Quotes  :

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

**  Kunta Kinte - a Mandingo tribesman who was abducted by Spanish slave-traders and brought

                             to America to be sold as slave. Alex Haley traced his roots from 5 generation

                             and found his roots in Gambia, West Africa.

**  Griot   --  A tribal oral historian who was trained from childhood to memorize the history

                       of  the tribe.

**  "  The white man gives you nothing.  They just grab at the chance to get their money back."

**  "  You've got to let them go.  The truth is that  they don't always come back.  There'll come

          a time when the only thing they are left to remember is the sweet-bitter good-bye. "

**  "  I'm going back to my red-neck, nigger-hating country. "

**  "  You can grow up, you can grow old and still don't know who you are. "

**  "  I saw a nigger in a funny monkey suit ! "  -  Alex Haley

**  "  I've been called "nigger" so many times I thought it was my name. "

**  "  If you're white, you're all right,

          if you're brown, you can hang around,

          but if you're black ... stand back.  "

Insights :
-----------
All along I thought the white Americans were the good guys, watching all those "Cowboy-Indian movies" where the Indians has to be killed to keep them from raiding, raping and killing white settlers who wanted to civilize the wild, wild west.  And then, the "Tarzan, king of the jungle" movies where the white Tarzan have to save the usually white settlers against the black savages and cannibals.

Roots - the series, revealed something I never knew the whites were capable of doing - treating the Negroes worse than animals. It started my curiosity to look into the history of the Black people and then more into something we could relate too - our own Philippine history, our enslavement from our colonial masters, their abuses, the massacres, and more ...