". . . We have seen much in our day. Crime, poverty, drug abuse, racial discrimination, human trafficking, hate crimes. We have witnessed soldiers marched off to wars, some justified, others not. We have reported on horrible car accidents, serial killings, political corruption, disease outbreaks, air crashes, natural disasters, tragedy heaped on tragedy. But we can’t recall a president of the United States making light of the violent deaths of his fellow Americans. And to make it clear how meaningless those lives are to him, he then, in a breathtaking leap of logic, connected it all to his favorite topic, illegal immigration. . . "
Hidden Agenda
OHO (duo-Jay Graboski & Ray Jozwiak) live in Ocean City, August 2019
Other Ray Jozwiak Offerings
(To Access all Ray Jozwiak - Gonzo Piano music you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser: http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/RayJozwiak)
(from http://www.diversityinc.com/news/dear-trump-not-black-people-live-inner-cities/)
“I would be a president for all of the people, African Americans, the inner cities,” he said. “Devastating what’s happening to our inner cities. . . “You go into the inner cities and — you see it’s 45 percent poverty. African Americans now 45 percent poverty in the inner cities. The education is a disaster. Jobs are essentially nonexistent,” he continued. “And I’ve been saying in big speeches where you have 20 or 30,000 people, ‘What do you have to lose?’ It can’t get any worse.”
(http://www.ontheissues.org/Celeb/Hillary_Clinton_Welfare_+_Poverty.htmSource: 2016 PBS Democratic debate in Wisconsin , Feb 11, 2016)
"I am concerned about what's happening in every community in America, and that includes white communities, where we are seeing an increase in alcoholism, addiction, earlier deaths. I'm going to do everything I can to address distressed communities, whether they are communities of color, whether they are white communities. I particularly appreciate the proposal that Congressman Jim Clyburn has--the 10-20-30 proposal--to spend more federal dollars in communities with generational poverty."
My latest solo offering, No Frills, is now available at - No Frills
(To Access all Ray Jozwiak - Gonzo Piano music you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser: http://http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/RayJozwiak)
(from http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/obamas-real-record-poverty)
". . . Obama expanded the safety net through his 2009 stimulus, but the legislation actually prevented even more Americans from falling into poverty through larger tax credits, emergency unemployment benefits, and expanded food assistance. The Center for Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) estimates that the recovery act ultimately kept about 7 million people above the poverty line. . .
. . . The more important question to ask is whether Obama could have done more to alleviate poverty during the worst of the recession. . . the president was hardly the only one at the helm: It wasn’t the Republicans’ priority either. “Both the president and the Republican party really weren’t focused on jobs.". . . ”
OHO's "Ocean City Ditty," the CD single is now available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/oho4
(and, if you're in town, at Trax On Wax on Frederick Rd. in Catonsville, MD) OHO is Jay Graboski, David Reeve & Ray Jozwiak. Please Visit http://www.ohomusic.com
My latest solo offering, Just More Music by Ray Jozwiak, featuring original, instrumental piano music is now available at - Just More Music by Ray Jozwiak
(To Access all Ray Jozwiak - Gonzo Piano music you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser: http://http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/RayJozwiak)
American generosity during the holiday season is frequently exhibited by the gift of a turkey, through holiday programs for the poor. Such programs are always under the control of the “haves”, some of which have actually complained that the programs are abused by a number of the 'ungrateful' poor. In truth though, turkey and toys programs are an embarrassment to the poor. They simply do not build self-esteem for people who are poor. The gap between rich and poor in the U.S. today is huge and still growing. Our nation has an arrogant rich that lives apart from the poor, many of which have reached that level through manipulation and the misuse of human capital. The poor beg for a livable wage, a decent house to live in, good education and basic health care while the rich pit the poor against one another and continue to pay poverty wages. When the minimum wage becomes a living wage, and education, housing and healthcare become affordably available for all, turkey and toy programs will become, and rightly so, a thing of the past. 'God bless us, each and every one.'
(Based upon writings by Rev. Howard Bess, retired American Baptist minister, who lives in Palmer, Alaska. His email address is HYPERLINK "mailto:hdbss@mtaonline.net" hdbss@mtaonline.net)
OHO's "Ocean City Ditty," the CD single is now available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/oho4
(and, if you're in town, at Trax On Wax on Frederick Rd. in Catonsville, MD) OHO is Jay Graboski, David Reeve & Ray Jozwiak. Please Visit http://www.ohomusic.com
My latest solo release, '2014' of original, instrumental piano music, can be downloaded digitally at:
(or you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/rayjozwiak4)
. . . and political activist. . . true to his convictions. . . NO ONE's "owned" politician . . .
(from http://thinkprogress.org/home/2013/12/06/3030781/nelson-mandela-believed-people-wont-talk/)
1. Mandela blasted the Iraq War and American imperialism. Mandela called Bush “a president who has no foresight, who cannot think properly,” and accused him of “wanting to plunge the world into a holocaust” by going to war in Iraq. “All that (Mr. Bush) wants is Iraqi oil,” he said. Mandela even speculated that then-Secretary-General Kofi Annan was being undermined in the process because he was black. “They never did that when secretary-generals were white,” he said. He saw the Iraq War as a greater problem of American imperialism around the world. “If there is a country that has committed unspeakable atrocities in the world, it is the United States of America. They don’t care,” he said.
2. Mandela called freedom from poverty a “fundamental human right.” Mandela considered poverty one of the greatest evils in the world, and spoke out against inequality everywhere. “Massive poverty and obscene inequality are such terrible scourges of our times — times in which the world boasts breathtaking advances in science, technology, industry and wealth accumulation — that they have to rank alongside slavery and apartheid as social evils,” he said. He considered ending poverty a basic human duty: “Overcoming poverty is not a gesture of charity. It is an act of justice. It is the protection of a fundamental human right, the right to dignity and a decent life,” he said. “While poverty persists, there is no true freedom.”
3. Mandela criticized the “War on Terror” and the labeling of individuals as terrorists without due process. On the U.S. terrorist watch list until 2008 himself, Mandela was an outspoken critic of President George W. Bush’s war on terror. He warned against rushing to label terrorists without due process. While forcefully calling for Osama bin Laden to be brought to justice, Mandela remarked, “The labeling of Osama bin Laden as the terrorist responsible for those acts before he had been tried and convicted could also be seen as undermining some of the basic tenets of the rule of law.”
4. Mandela called out racism in America. On a trip to New York City in 1990, Mandela made a point of visiting Harlem and praising African Americans’ struggles against “the injustices of racist discrimination and economic equality.” He reminded a larger crowd at Yankee Stadium that racism was not exclusively a South African phenomenon. “As we enter the last decade of the 20th century, it is intolerable, unacceptable, that the cancer of racism is still eating away at the fabric of societies in different parts of our planet,” he said. “All of us, black and white, should spare no effort in our struggle against all forms and manifestations of racism, wherever and whenever it rears its ugly head.”
5. Mandela embraced some of America’s biggest political enemies. Mandela incited shock and anger in many American communities for refusing to denounce Cuban dictator Fidel Castro or Libyan Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, who had lent their support to Mandela against South African apartheid. “One of the mistakes the Western world makes is to think that their enemies should be our enemies,” he explained to an American TV audience. “We have our own struggle.” He added that those leaders “are placing resources at our disposal to win the struggle.” He also called the controversial Palestinian Liberation Organization leader Yasser Arafat “a comrade in arms.”
6. Mandela was a die-hard supporter of labor unions. Mandela visited the Detroit auto workers union when touring the U.S., immediately claiming kinship with them. “Sisters and brothers, friends and comrades, the man who is speaking is not a stranger here,” he said. “The man who is speaking is a member of the UAW. I am your flesh and blood.”
. . . seems like an appropriate day to quote everybody's favorite atheist. . .
"That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence."
"[O]wners of dogs will have noticed that, if you provide them with food and water and shelter and affection, they will think you are god. Whereas owners of cats are compelled to realize that, if you provide them with food and water and shelter and affection, they draw the conclusion that they are gods."
"Many religions now come before us with ingratiating smirks and outspread hands, like an unctuous merchant in a bazaar. They offer consolation and solidarity and uplift, competing as they do in a marketplace. But we have a right to remember how barbarically they behaved when they were strong and were making an offer that people could not refuse."
"Human decency is not derived from religion. It precedes it."
"[Mother Teresa] was not a friend of the poor. She was a friend of poverty. She said that suffering was a gift from God. She spent her life opposing the only known cure for poverty, which is the empowerment of women and the emancipation of them from a livestock version of compulsory reproduction."
"The governor of Texas, who, when asked if the Bible should also be taught in Spanish, replied that 'if English was good enough for Jesus, then it's good enough for me."
"Exceptional claims demand exceptional evidence."
"To "choose" dogma and faith over doubt and experience is to throw out the ripening vintage and to reach greedily for the Kool-Aid. "
"Organised religion is violent, irrational, intolerant, allied to racism, tribalism, and bigotry, invested in ignorance and hostile to free inquiry, contemptuous of women and coercive toward children."
"I suppose that one reason I have always detested religion is its sly tendency to insinuate the idea that the universe is designed with 'you' in mind or, even worse, that there is a divine plan into which one fits whether one knows it or not. This kind of modesty is too arrogant for me."
. . . Christopher Hitchens
Download your very own copy of ANOTHER SHOT by Ray Jozwiak
small.jpg)
