Low Lights . . .

https://network.youthmusic.org.uk/learning/blogs/david-ashworth/why-

improvisation-important

(from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jazz_improvisation)

". . . is the spontaneous invention of melodic solo lines or accompaniment parts. . . composing on the spot. . . since the release of Kind of Blue by Miles Davis, jazz improvisation has come to include modal harmony and improvisation over static key centers, while the emergence of free jazz has led to a variety of types of improvisation, such as "free blowing", in which soloists improvise freely and ignore the chord changes. . ."

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Blood Brother . . .

https://www.hillavenuegrace.org/sermon/blood-brother-april-18-2019-maundy-thursday/

I'll be your Blood Brother,

By your side through thick and thin.

I'll be your Blood Brother,

Just as long as I don't have to bloody

My hands. 

Bar rooms sure have a funny way

Of bringing loyalty out in a man.

Buy a drink and tell a joke

And buddy you've got you a friend.

But keep a good eye upon that friend,

Because he really doesn't give two hoots.

And don't say anything about his Mom,

His girlfriend, or his army boots.

Walked into an auto-mo-showroom.

I need some wheels but got no money to spend.

When a guy with an ugly tie

Walks out and acts like he's my long-lost friend.

I said hey Buddy I've a purpose here,

And if you please I will accomplish my goal.

So don't you slap me on the back again,

Cause if you do I might just lose my control.

So please be careful when you meet someone

Who'll make a promise at the drop of a hat.

And don't provide them with encouragement.

You will regret the day you offered him that.

Cause everybody needs some empathy,

But just how willing

And how far will they go

To really help you when the chips are down?

Can they be trusted half as far as you throw them?

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Matters . . .

https://www.toppr.com/guides/chemistry/matter-in-our-

surroundings/states-of-matter/

(from https://www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/politics/a27075028/black-lives-matter-explained/)

". . . If a patient being rushed to the ER after an accident were to point to their mangled leg and say, “This is what matters right now,” and the doctor saw the scrapes and bruises of other areas and countered, “but all of you matters,” wouldn’t there be a question as to why he doesn't show urgency in aiding that what is most at risk? At a community fundraiser for a decaying local library, you would never see a mob of people from the next city over show up angry and offended yelling, “All libraries matter!”—especially when theirs is already well-funded. . . black lives matter “is simply aspirational;” it's a rallying cry for a shift in statistical numbers that show that people who are black are twice as likely to be killed by a police officer while unarmed, compared to a white individual. According to a 2015 study, African-Americans died at the hands of police at a rate of 7.2 per million, while whites were killed at a rate of 2.9 per million. . . Instead of exploring the reasons why a movement like this would even be necessary, many have a knee jerk reaction. “What about me?” “All lives matter,” they cry. “Why be divisive and unfair, what about our safety?” The point these people miss is that the majority of experiences here in America already tend to center and highlight whiteness and cater to its safety. . . "

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Change?. . .

https://www.theoryofchange.org/what-is-theory-of-change/

(from The Autobiography of Malcolm X as told to Alex Haley from 1965)
". . . The black man never can become independent and recognized as s human being who is truly equal with other human beings until he has what they have, and until he is doing for himself what others are doing for themselves. . . "

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Bearing. . .

. . . arms and a fact that bears repeating . . .


(from https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/nra-california-open-carry-ban/?fbclid=IwAR1VNePielRHzONhvMTDfRNcPbY8UTxKVy6y11mNZJtaKgzjwQXGCz-AVm0)

". . . the Mulford Act, which prohibited anyone outside of law enforcement officers (and others explicitly authorized to do so) from carrying loaded firearms in public, was enacted largely in response to the militant activities of the Black Panther Party. It’s also true that the bill was written by a Republican legislator, California Assemblyman Don Mulford of Oakland, and was passed with the full backing of Republican governor Ronald Reagan and the National Rifle Association. . . The bill was introduced in April 1967, six weeks after it had been reported that an armed group of Black Panthers acting as an escort for Malcolm X’s widow, Betty Shabazz, were involved in tense, nonviolent confrontations with airport security officers and police in San Francisco. As leftist writer Sol Stern later noted in Ramparts, “Local cops were dumbfounded to discover that there was no law which prohibited the Panthers from carrying loaded weapons so long as they were unconcealed, a legal fact which the Panthers had carefully researched.”. . . "

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Justice?. . .

(from The Awkward Thoughts of W. Kamau Bell)

". . . I don't engage in any type of behavior that should place me in a cop's crosshairs. I don't live in "one of those neighborhoods" or hang out with a "bad crowd" (unless you count comedians). I am not involved in felonious activity. I'm not bragging. I'm just boring. And I'm not playing the game of "respectability politics" here. Because I know that not being a part of criminal activity is no assurance that you will go home safely after an interaction with a cop. Because "boring" is no assurance of safety when you are Black. What's more boring than shopping at Walmart? That's what John Crawford III was doing when police shot him in the back while he was on his cell phone talking to his girlfriend. What was his crime? He was carrying a gun. . . in Ohio, an open-carry state where people are legally allowed to carry guns. . . openly. Why did he have a gun in Walmart? Because Walmart sells guns. I think he was at the very least thinking about buying the gun. I don't really know, because a customer saw a Black man carrying a gun in the store and called 911. The cops showed up and shot him immediately, without warning, apparently finding him guilty of attempting to practice capitalism. And the thing that really sucks is that it was an air rifle. At most, he was in danger of putting his eye out. . . "

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Obvious . . .

". . . we don't watch the NFL anymore for 'obvious' reasons . . . "



(from https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/4539225/take-a-knee-nfl-us-national-anthem-donald-trump/)
". . . NFL players across America are continuing to "take a knee" during the country's national anthem in a display of protest and defiance. . . NFL players and owners across the US knelt or stood with arms their arms linked during the national anthem to highlight racial injustice and police brutality in America . . . "


(from https://www.snopes.com/do-police-kill-more-whites-than-black-people/)
Any “analysis” of police killings will of course show that in absolute numbers, more white people are killed in police shootings than black people, because (non-Hispanic) whites comprise a roughly five times greater share of the U.S. population (62% vs. 13%). So any “analysis” that is based on nothing more than absolute numbers and does not take demographics into account is inaccurate and misleading. . . Because the federal government doesn’t keep an accurate log of police shootings, news outlets such as the Washington Post and journalists such as D. Brian Burghart have begun tracking such data independently. The Post described the statistical breakdown of fatal police shootings in 2015 thusly:   According to the most recent census data, there are nearly 160 million more white people in America than there are black people. White people make up roughly 62 percent of the U.S. population but only about 49 percent of those who are killed by police officers. African Americans, however, account for 24 percent of those fatally shot and killed by the police despite being just 13 percent of the U.S. population. As The Post noted in a new analysis, that means black Americans are 2.5 times as likely as white Americans to be shot and killed by police officers. . . According to Fatal Encounters, the database created by former Reno News & Review editor and journalism instructor Burghart (which tracks all deaths resulting from interactions with police), a total of 1,388 people were killed by police in 2015, 318 (23%) of them black, and 560 (40%) of them white. So roughly 23 percent of those killed by any police interaction in 2015 were black and just over 40 percent were white. According to those statistics (adjusted for racial demographics), black people had a 2.7 higher likelihood of being killed by police than whites. . . ."

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Mrs . . .

. . . John Adams. . .

(from John Adams, by David McCullough)
". . . In a particularly memorable letter, she recounted a crisis that arose when the youngest of her hired hands, James Prince, a free black boy she had taken under her wing in Philadelphia, came to ask if he might attend evening classes in town at a new school for apprentices, Abigail, who had taught him herself to read and write, warmly approved, but was soon asked by a neighbor to withdraw James. If she did not, she was told, the other boys would refuse to attend and the school would close. Had James misbehaved, Abigail asked. No, she was informed, it was because he was black. Did these other boys object when he attended church? No, they did not. . . "The boy is a freeman as much as any of the young men, and merely because his face is black is he to be denied instruction?" she asked. "How is he be be qualified to procure a livelihood? Is this the Christian principle of doing unto others as we would have others to do to us?. . . She requested that the boys be sent to her. "Tell them. . . that I hope we shall all go to Heaven together." And this, she was please to report to Adams, ended the crisis. She heard no more on the subject; James continued in the school. . . "

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Wishfull . . .

The black coffee’s aroma hangs thick like a cloud every morning
He sorts through paisleys and patterns and stripes on the door
As he lifts up a vain little finger to stifle the blood
From a close shave in the battle of life
The late night crowd’s returning from an all night bout of drinking
While he’s all-consumed by grand delusions also known as wishful thinking

His star quality seems to escape everyone
Who would be in position to help him
Still he goes off each day in anticipation of all
Of the thrill and the joy that one feels
When he’s making interment arrangements
He’s misunderstood
A book a song a TV sitcom part you’d miss for blinking
Or a winning lotto ticket in his hand is only wishful thinking

Oh its nobody’s fault but his own
So few offers come over the phone
But he still perseveres faces up to his fears
That can cloud the intentions and bring on the tears

Still his spirits get lower each day that this program’s protracted
Moment by moment it takes all he has to go on
But he just grits his teeth charges in slings the arrows back into
The face of outrageous misguided conclusions
And even though he’ll never die a pauper or a rich king
He’s just not content to spend his time on anything but wishful thinking

Oh the groceries and the bills aren’t paid by talking or by drinking
So he just resumes the grind lacklusterly and does his wishful thinking


Wishful Thinking
©1992 Raymond M. Jozwiak

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The Pot . . .

. . . calling the kettle . . . 

. . . BLACK . . .



(http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/mike-flynn-willing-testify-return-immunity-n740836)
". . . In September, Flynn told Chuck Todd on Meet the Press, "When you are given immunity that means you've probably committed a crime." He was talking about aides to Trump's opponent in the general election, Hillary Clinton. . ."

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Lies . . .

(from No One Left To Lie To; The Values of the Worst Family by Christopher Hitchens)
". . . Just as the Republicans case against the presiden seemed to be lapsing into incoherence, in the first days of 1999, Matt Drudge uncorked the black baby again. . . And Drudge-whose want of discrimination in the respect is almost a trademark-openly says that he'll print anything and let the customers decide what's actually kosher. . . (It means for one thing, that you have no right to claim that you were correct, or truthful, or brave. All you did was pass it on like a leaker or some other kind of conduit). . .'

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Nothing New . . .

. . . Scapegoating - to play off one group against another . . .

. . . be WARY!


(from Outsider in the White House by Bernie Sanders with Huck Gutman)
". . . For a hundred years, the white workers of the South were the most exploited white workers in America. They were paid the lowest wages, they endured the worst working conditions, their housing was abysmal, their kids went to the most backward schools, and very few could send their children to college. But what did they have? They were given "niggers" to hate and look down on, "niggers" who couldn't vote, drink at their water fountains, use the same bathrooms, or sit up front in the buses or movie theaters.

The political, economic, social, and educational systems of the South enforced those divisions and continually fed the antagonisms. Above all things, white workers were encouraged to despise, and protect themselves from their black neighbors, or face losing what little they had. The rich folks in the the South - the bankers the manufacturers, the cottonfield owners - laughed all the way to the bank. . .political activists. . . brought black and white workers together to fight for justice. They did this not only  because they believed in civil rights and equal opportunity but also because they undersood that real economic and political transformation would never be achieved as long as whites and blacks were busy fighting each other - rather than their common oppressors. . . "

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Lessons . . .

(Source: http://www.wsj.com/articles/peter-bronson-lessons-for-ferguson-from-cincinnatis-2001-riots-1408748376)
19-year-old Timothy Thomas, was shot and killed by a Cincinnati police officer, Stephen Roach in April of 2001. The city was overrun by rioters for four days. By the way, the victim was black, the officer was white.

". . . The shooting of Timothy Thomas was a tragic mistake by a 27-year-old cop startled during a foot pursuit in a dark alley. It later came out that Officer Roach's first words after the shooting were: "It just went off. My gun just went off." He was eventually acquitted of negligent homicide. . . In time, Cincinnati's leaders, black and white, learned some valuable lessons about race relations (which Ferguson and Baltimore have yet to learn):


• Tell the public everything immediately.

• Set the record straight.

• Don't crucify the cops.

• The federal government can slow the healing.

• Repudiate race-baiters.


Of course all this is much easier said than done and it requires ethical public officials and leaders.

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Paraphrasing . . .

. . . 'Let him who is without sin among you be the first to cast a stone'. . . 

Haven't we ALL done something in the past which we now thoroughly regret? . . . 


(from http://www.businessinsider.com/before-dr-seuss-was-famous-he-drew-these-sad-racist-ads-2012-3)
". . .In his political cartoons (from the collection of the Springfield Library and Museums Association), (Dr.)Seuss inveighed against the Japanese during World War II; he drew them buck-toothed and squint-eyed. The images are depressing because they reveal that one of America's most original artist-authors had the same tired views of non-whites that his contemporaries did. . . He also expressed regret for his anti-Japanese views, according to filmmaker Ron Lamothe, who made The Political Dr. Seuss: "The only evidence I have comes from his biographers, who told me that years later—although still recognizing its necessity due to the war—he was regretful about some of his cartoons for PM and some of the propaganda work he did for the Army Signal Corps. I do think the fact he dedicated Horton Hears a Who—a parable about the American postwar occupation of Japan—to “My Great Friend, Mitsugi Nakamura of Kyoto, Japan,” says something of his changing attitudes toward the Japanese (this following a trip he made there in 1953). Though, as Richard Minear has pointed out, Horton Hears a Who still smacks of American chauvinism, and it makes no reference to Hiroshima and Nagasaki. . ."


(from Dr. Seuss created several offensive cartoons early in his career but began to atone for his previous views, producing several anti-racism illustrations and cartoons, notes the news site.)
". . . In a 1929 illustration for Judge magazine, he (Dr. Seuss) depicted black people for sale with a racist sign in the image's background  .  . According to BET, the illustration went to auction with a minimum bid of $20,000 in California . . . By the end, there hadn't been any bids, but it could receive a post-auction bid, according to Laura Yntema, the auction manager, according to the site. The drawing is one part of the four-part panel drawing Cross-Section of the World's Most Prosperous Department Store, the report notes. . ."

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