Tag Archives: protests

law, true crime

My thoughts on Kyle Rittenhouse’s trial…

This morning, Bill and I were talking about Kyle Rittenhouse, who’s been all over the news this week. Rittenhouse sobbed during his testimony about the night of August 25, 2020, when he killed two men and wounded another. Rittenhouse, who was 17 years old at the time, had traveled to Kenosha, Wisconsin from his home in Antioch, Illinois. The teenager had gone to Kenosha to help “protect” property and act as a medic as protesters flooded the street, angered that police had shot and wounded a Black man named Jacob Blake.

From what I’ve read, the protest had become violent and chaotic. Protesters burned down several buildings and were destroying police cars. And yet, there was Kyle, driven by his mother over state lines, and carrying an AR-15 rifle, purchased for him by a friend who was over 18. At 17, Kyle Rittenhouse was too young to buy the weapon himself.

According to his testimony, Kyle Rittenhouse was being chased by the protesters he ended up shooting with the AR-15. He says he was acting in self-defense when he shot and killed Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber, and later injured Gaige Grosskreutz. Although Rittenhouse has maintained that his actions were done in self-defense, prosecutors have argued that Rittenhouse “created the peril through his own reckless actions that caused others to fear for their own lives and led directly to the violence.” However, according to the article I linked, “mountains of video and photo evidence appear to show Rosenbaum acting aggressively and chasing Rittenhouse, Huber striking him with a skateboard and Grosskreutz pointing a pistol at him.”

So this wasn’t a case of a person cold-bloodedly walking up to someone and shooting them. This wasn’t a situation in which the victims were completely blameless. No matter what I might think about Kyle Rittenhouse’s actions or the wisdom of his decision to attend the protest with a weapon, the fact is, there’s evidence that he was being attacked by the men he shot. And that really weakens the prosecution’s case, in my view.

When I first heard about this case, I wondered what in the hell made Kyle Rittenhouse think his “services” were needed at a protest in another state? Why did he feel like he needed a weapon, when he was supposedly there to “help” protect property and tend to the injured? What was his mother thinking when she brought her 17 year old son to Kenosha and turned him loose on the streets?

According to an article published by the University of Rochester Medical Center, “the rational part of a teen’s brain isn’t fully developed and won’t be until age 25 or so.” Kyle, at age 18, still has several years to go before he’s “fully baked”. The article continues:

…recent research has found that adult and teen brains work differently. Adults think with the prefrontal cortex, the brain’s rational part. This is the part of the brain that responds to situations with good judgment and an awareness of long-term consequences. Teens process information with the amygdala. This is the emotional part.

In teens’ brains, the connections between the emotional part of the brain and the decision-making center are still developing—and not always at the same rate. That’s why when teens have overwhelming emotional input, they can’t explain later what they were thinking. They weren’t thinking as much as they were feeling.

I have read that Kyle Rittenhouse has been associating with white supremacists. Even if that’s true, I remember that he’s still a teenager, and is likely highly impressionable and impulsive. That doesn’t make his actions right, nor does it mean that I think he should get off “free and clear”. But I do think it mitigates his case somewhat. There must be a reason why Kyle Rittenhouse has ended up in this situation. There is a backstory that leads up to his decision to try to offer “help”, where clearly it wasn’t in his best interests to do so. Again, he’s still a teenager… and he obviously doesn’t yet have the more solid judgment or reasoning skills that most responsible adults have.

According to the NPR article I linked earlier in this post, a number of legal experts are saying that they think Kyle Rittenhouse will be acquitted of most of the charges. Prosecutors are now trying to get Kenosha County Circuit Judge Bruce Schroeder to allow jurors to consider lesser charges. This is because the prosecution’s evidence has been as useful for the defense as it has been for the prosecution.

In fact, Gaige Grosskreutz, who, as the lone survivor, was supposed to be the prosecution’s “star witness”, has made several inconsistent statements. He’s also admitted that he was, himself, carrying a pistol on an expired permit on the evening Rittenhouse shot and wounded him.

Defense attorney, Corey Chirafisi, cross-examined Grosskreutz, and asked “It wasn’t until you pointed your gun at him — advanced on him with your gun, now your hands down, pointed at him — that he fired, right?”

And Mr. Grosskreutz responded, “Correct.” as one of the prosecutors put his head in his hands.

Yeah… I wouldn’t say that’s a good look for the prosecution. It doesn’t excuse the fact that Kyle Rittenhouse had no business being involved in the protest, but Grosskreutz doesn’t exactly inspire sympathy when he admits that he had a gun, too, and wasn’t carrying it legally.

Yikes.

Rittenhouse took the stand in his own defense, and sobbed so hard that Judge Schroeder called a recess. He testified that he reached for the rifle as “Rosenbaum chased him and reached for his rifle, as Huber struck him with the skateboard and as Grosskreutz advanced on him with the pistol.” Rittenhouse said that he feared for his life. Frankly, based on that description, and especially considering his age, I can’t blame him for being terrified that the three men might kill him.

When Assistant District Attorney Thomas Binger cross-examined Rittenhouse, he asked, “You understand that when you point your AR-15 at someone, it may make them feel like you are going to kill them, correct?”

And Rittenhouse responded, “Mr. Rosenbaum was chasing me. I pointed my gun at him, and that did not deter him. He could have ran away instead of trying to take my gun from me, but he kept chasing me. It didn’t stop him,”

My guess, not having been there, but having personally experienced being hopped up on adrenaline, that none of the people involved in this altercation were thinking straight. They were probably all in a state of “fight or flight”, brought on by extreme fear, aggression, and an overload of testosterone and adrenaline.

Given that, I don’t see Kyle Rittenhouse as a cold-blooded murderer who is undeserving of mercy, even if I am personally disgusted by his politics, and I realize that he’s now killed two men. I also don’t believe that most people who commit serious crimes when they are minors should have their lives ruined. While I’m certain Kyle knew that killing is wrong and against the law, he didn’t, and still doesn’t, have the mind of an adult. He proved that his judgment wasn’t very sound when he decided to attend the protest alone, stayed out after curfew during a protest, lied about being an EMT, and carried a weapon that he wasn’t legally permitted to have.

But the case hasn’t gone very well for the prosecution, which is why they’re asking the judge to allow jurors to consider lesser charges. I think the lesser charges are probably reasonable, but based on what I’ve read about the judge, I have a feeling he might not allow it. He seems somewhat sympathetic to Rittenhouse. Edited to add, Bill says the judge is allowing the lesser charges to be considered. Of course, the final verdict is up to the jury.

Hmm… this doesn’t look so good for the prosecution.

It will be interesting to see what happens in this case. A verdict is expected next week. Based on what I’ve read, both about the case itself, and the judge involved, I have a feeling Mr. Rittenhouse will not be spending long years in prison, as a lot of people seem to hope he will. While I agree that he was wrong to kill two men and wound another, and he had absolutely NO BUSINESS being at the protest in the first place, I don’t think he should rot in prison. I also hope he wises up about the right wing white supremacist types who have championed his cause. If he continues to hang around with them, there’s a good chance he will end up in trouble again. And the next time, the case against him might be much more compelling.

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true crime

Two wrongs don’t make a right…

G.O.M.N! Get out of my neighborhood!

A few days ago, I read about Sergeant First Class Johnathan Pentland and his wife, Cassie, confronting a young Black man who was in their neighborhood, near Columbia, South Carolina. I was interested, not just because Pentland is in the Army, but also because I used to live in Columbia. In fact, I used to work at a country club located near the area where Pentland’s home is, so I am familiar with the area. And yet again, someone caught a middle-aged White person on film, behaving badly, and put it on Twitter for the world to see and judge.

The video coverage of Pentland looks terrible. He’s talking to the young man as if he was on duty as the drill sergeant he is… (or was). He’s clearly being physically aggressive, trying to intimidate the young man. I don’t condone Johnathan Pentland’s conduct or behavior, although I also don’t know what led up to it before the camera started rolling. I hear him demanding that the guy leave his neighborhood, cursing at him, and looking like he’s about to beat on the much younger and smaller Black man. Given that the younger guy is on the sidewalk and not on Pentland’s property, I figure he has a right to be where he is, although I don’t know why the guy is hanging around instead of walking away. I figure common sense would dictate moving on to a different location rather than engaging someone who is obviously threatening, especially when one is standing outside of a homeowner’s house. But, that’s just me.

Someone called the police, and the officer who initially responded said, at the time, that he could only ticket Pentland for destroying the young man’s phone. Pentland had apparently broken it while confronting the guy. But then later, after an outcry on the Internet, Pentland was arrested and booked for third degree assault and battery. If he is convicted, he could be forced to pay a $500 fine and spend up to thirty days in jail. Based on what I saw in the video, I would agree that those charges are certainly justified. However, I don’t agree with what came next.

Pentland and his family, which includes two children, have had to be relocated from their home. Massive protests took place there, with large groups of people congregating outside of Pentland’s home with bullhorns. The home was vandalized, and people are demanding that Pentland be fired. I’m sure there have also been death threats issued.

This cop reminds me of being at home. I kind of miss America sometimes…

I absolutely agree that Pentland should be held fully accountable for his actions. However, I strongly disagree with people issuing death threats, destroying property, or doxxing the Pentlands. I also feel sorry for Pentland’s neighbors, who didn’t sign up to have masses of people coming into their neighborhood, starting riots, vandalizing property, and creating trouble. While I don’t know what it feels like to be a person of color, I do think that if anything is ever going to change, people have to work together for peaceful conflict resolution. Destroying property and disturbing the peace are not the ways to make those changes.

I liked living in Columbia. I met some great folks there, and had a really good experience studying at the University of South Carolina. And while I’m not a big fan of videoing people and making them go viral, I do think that if there is an obvious crime going on, video is a good thing to hand over to the police. Video shows what exactly happened and what was said. However, I don’t think it’s a good thing for private citizens to take it upon themselves to be judge, jury, and executioner, trying to make a name for themselves by sharing stuff and promoting unproven theories or half truths based entirely on assumptions.

Having watched Pentland’s video a few times, I wonder what in the world led up to this confrontation. Based on the energy in that video, it doesn’t look like Pentland saw the guy and simply decided to come out and yell at him. That could have happened, but I find it unlikely. Does Pentland make it a habit to just confront random people walking around in his neighborhood, or was there some kind of history between these two people before the video started?

I also wonder if this encounter was entirely based on racism. I didn’t hear Pentland using overtly racist language toward the young man. Yes, Pentland was threatening him, bullying him, and shoving him, but I can’t come to the conclusion that he did so solely because the young man is a person of color. That could have been the case, but I don’t know that for sure. I can only assume, as I think a lot of people have, probably because of the many racist encounters that have been in the news recently. According to the Washington Post, Pentland said that he feared for his and his wife’s safety because the young man had been accused of earlier assaults.

From the Washington Post:

Two reports of alleged assault were also made against the young man after deputies responded Monday, according to the sheriff’s department, and they are being investigated. The young man has “an underlying medical condition that may explain the behavior exhibited in the alleged incidents,” the agency said.

On April 8, one incident report says, the man allegedly put his arm around a woman’s waist, put his hand down the right side of her shorts and then put his arm back around her waist as her pants were partly down. On April 10, another report alleges the man repeatedly picked up a baby without permission and tried to walk away.

Pentland told officers who had responded to a “physical dispute” Monday that he pushed the man “in fear for his safety and the safety of his wife,” according to the incident report.

Deputies were told that the man approached “several neighbors in a threatening manner” and that someone had asked Pentland to “intervene,” the agency said in a statement.

Based on these statements, I would think it would have been better for the Pentlands to simply call the police and report the guy, especially given that there had supposedly been prior incidents leading up to the assault last week. But nowadays, calling the police when a person of color is involved is also discouraged, thanks to the fact that so many Black people have been injured or killed by the police. It is also notable that these alleged incidents involving the young man were apparently made after Pentland confronted him, rather than before. Was that because some people are making up stories trying to defend Pentland’s actions and discredit the young man? Or did the folks involved in the groping and “baby stealing” incidents decide they needed to report the guy.

Either way, I wish the public would stop spinning narratives based on videos that get posted by bystanders. While the videos show what happened in an objective sense, the people who see them have a tendency to insert their own subjective narratives. The vast majority of the time, the people who see this stuff on social media don’t have all the facts.

I, for one, would like to know more about what led up to this attack. I agree that Pentland behaved terribly, and he should certainly be held accountable. But I’m not quite ready to see his and his family’s lives destroyed over this incident. If there is any truth to the reports that the young man in the video was harassing women and tried to walk away with someone’s baby, there could be more of an explanation regarding Pentland’s conduct. And regardless of what happened, I don’t think people should be descending on private property, committing vandalism, issuing death threats, or disturbing the peace. A planned, peaceful, orderly protest is acceptable. Issuing death threats and driving people from their homes shouldn’t be… and all people– regardless of race– should have the right to a fair trial before being “convicted” by the public.

I’ll be keeping my eyes peeled to see what comes next in this case.

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true crime

Kenosha Killer Kyle Rittenhouse is out of jail… and he has Ricky Schroder, in part, to thank for it…

2020 has certainly been an *odd* year. Never did I believe, just twelve months ago, that I’d be cringing with so much disgust about so many things. I didn’t write yesterday because I was feeling really cranky. I decided to put up all the Christmas decorations instead, and that took a couple of hours. After that, I just didn’t feel like writing. However, I did post a few comments on news stories. I often regret commenting on stories, but sometimes I can’t help myself.

I ended up blocking one guy with “correctile dysfunction”, who kept trying to mansplain the morality of being pro-life while also being pro-death penalty. Another post, about a wonderful, warm hearted Italian baker who was putting out free bread to feed the hungry in Milan, left me in tears. The baker got COVID-19 and the virus killed him. A third story, about people who got COVID-19 while on an 18 hour flight from Dubai to New Zealand left me feeling disgusted.

A woman who clearly hadn’t read the article, wrote a scolding comment about “manning up” and wearing a mask. The people on the flight were wearing masks and gloves. Several of them got sick, anyway, which is bound to happen, whether or not people are wearing masks.

Sorry, but face masks are not a panacea against the coronavirus. Wearing them slows down the rate of infections. It doesn’t stop them cold. Many people do not wear the masks properly or change them as often as they should. Wearing a mask for eighteen hours on a plane is sheer lunacy, anyway. I don’t think long haul flights like that should be allowed until there’s a vaccine. And frankly, I’m tired of people judging and scolding others about COVID-19. People need to tend to their own business, and they should read before they comment on news articles. I mentioned I was feeling cranky, right? This COVID-19 stuff along with my hormones are really doing a number on my disposition and patience.

But then, just as I was about to turn off the news and enjoy the rest of my Saturday with Bill, I read about how actor Ricky Schroder contributed $150,000 to help bail teenaged killer Kyle Rittenhouse out of jail. Yep… in a world where people have lost their jobs due to the hellacious happenings of 2020– in a world where an Italian baker was putting out free bread for the hungry because people really needed it– Ricky Schroder thinks donating $150,000 to a bail fund for a known killer is a worthwhile thing to do.

Well, it’s his money… And I know that despite how many of my friends and classmates thought Ricky was adorable in the 1980s, he’s grown up to be quite the conservative freakazoid. Earlier today, I reposted an article I wrote in 2017 about Ricky and his family– ex Mormons who have evidently turned into poster children for the word “vapid” and made their own reality show about “Growing Up Supermodel”. In 2019, I wrote about Ricky’s older daughter, Cambrie, who is gorgeous but has issues with her dad. I seemed to have come away with a more favorable opinion of Cambrie in 2019.

Before yesterday, I knew Ricky Schroder voted Republican and has conservative values. I know Kyle Rittenhouse’s case is a bit complicated, too. Here he is, a seventeen year old guy, just on the brink of legal adulthood, living in Antioch, Illinois. All year, there’s been chaos. We’ve had rioting, protesting, political unrest, and a pandemic. I’m not in America right now, so it’s hard for me to judge the overall mood of life there. I can say that as an American abroad, I assume that people of all stripes are feeling restless and uneasy in America. Some people probably feel scared and helpless. Guns make them feel better and “safer” somehow.

Kyle Rittenhouse is a young man in the heart of America. He felt the need to carry a weapon to a protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin, even though he’s a minor. He says he was there to help protect businesses from looters after protests erupted when Kenosha police shot Jacob Blake in the back, paralyzing him. Rittenhouse was supposedly there to act as a medic, and help clean up.

Perhaps Rittenhouse really did think it was his civic duty to cross state lines on August 25th of this year, and get involved in a protest that led to him killing two people and injuring another. But the fact is, he should not have been involved. It wasn’t his business.

Kyle’s mom defends him.

Rittenhouse was too young to buy a rifle. He had an adult friend do it for him, using money he got from the government’s stimulus program. He had “plans” to apply for a firearm owner’s ID card so he could keep the gun legally, but evidently, he hadn’t done that at the time of the crime. Rittenhouse also needed a ride to the protest, which was provided by his mom. Kyle reportedly wanted to be a police officer. He carried a medical kit with him wherever he went. He was allegedly trying to “help” when he went to the protest in Kenosha. Instead, he wound up on camera, shooting people. He claims it was “self-defense”. My question is, what the hell was he doing there in the first place?

So Kyle’s dream was to be a police officer. Why didn’t he stay in Illinois and work toward making that dream come true, rather than taking it upon himself to get involved with a protest in another state? Where did he get the idea that he needed to bring a weapon to the protest? Even if he meant to be “helpful”, it wasn’t legal for him to purchase the gun. And he probably wasn’t trained in dealing with protests. It was a foolish idea that may cost him his freedom.

Of course, right now he’s out of jail, thanks to Ricky Schroder and the CEO of My Pillow, Mike Lindell, who helped raise the $2 million to get him out of the pokey. While I’m not sure I believe Kyle Rittenhouse is a hardened criminal who needs to be locked up forever, I do think that he stuck his nose where it clearly didn’t belong. He made a terrible mistake that cost people their lives. And I find the below tweet very interesting and telling…

“God bless ALL who donated to help #FightBack raise required $2M cash bail. Special thanks to Actor Ricky Schroder @rickyshroder1 & Mike Lindell @realMikeLindell for putting us over the top. Kyle is SAFE. Thanks to ALL who helped this boy,”

Notice that in the tweet, Rittenhouse is referred to as a “boy”. If he’s a boy, then he had no business attending a protest in another state, especially armed. He needed more adult supervision, particularly since it’s obvious that he has an obsession with weapons and Donald Trump. One would hope that by age 17, most young people would have more wisdom and insight than Kyle did. But his actions only prove that he still has a whole lot of growing up to do. Unfortunately, he may be doing it in prison. At the very least, it’s likely that his dream of being a cop will never come to fruition. But at least he has a friend in Ricky Schroder. I know back in the 1980s, some people would have thought that would be really cool.

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Police

Nowadays, even burgers are political…

A couple of days ago, I read about how several people working at Five Guys in Daphne, Alabama took it upon themselves not to serve some police officers who came in for dinner. Apparently, they cops didn’t have masks as they approached. They went back to their vehicles to get the masks and when they returned, one of the cops overheard a worker say, “I’m not serving them,” as other employees turned their backs on them. The officers took their business elsewhere, complained to the store’s management, and the incident became international news. The employees involved in the incident have all either been suspended or terminated, and everyone working at the Daphne, Alabama outlet of Five Guys has had to endure extra training.

I was left shaking my head as I read this story. I had originally shared it on my Facebook page with the comment, “Not cool.” A friend asked which part of the story wasn’t cool. My response was that the employees choosing not to serve the police officers wasn’t cool. He approved of that comment, as I figured he would. I have a feeling he thinks I’m a bleeding heart liberal through and through. The fact is, I’m really not that liberal about all things. I don’t like corrupt politicians, and there are plenty of those on either side of the political spectrum. Hell, I don’t like corrupt “PEOPLE”. I’m no Trump fan, as most people know, but that doesn’t mean I don’t embrace some conservative values, like doing one’s job when one is on the clock, being paid.

One of my very liberal friends decided to weigh in on the issue. She supported what the workers did, because of #blacklivesmatter and #defundthepolice. I had posted that not all cops are corrupt, but she maintained that the Five Guys workers had every right to turn the police officers’ mealtime into a political statement because some cops are corrupt. She also thinks that since this is now “news”, the people who decided to protest the police on company time have done a great service to the movement. I disagree, of course, and here’s why.

I don’t know much about Daphne, Alabama, and I know nothing about the people who chose to protest on company time. But I do know something about living in the South. A cursory look at Daphne on Google tells me that it’s kind of a suburb of Mobile, Alabama, which is a pretty good sized city. So maybe, if the people working in that restaurant have their own transportation, being fired from Five Guys isn’t a big deal. They can go out and get another job with ease. My friend also pointed out that it’s a “fast food” place, and those jobs are a dime a dozen, and that’s usually true, especially when you live in a city…

But it looks like Daphne isn’t the biggest town. I grew up in a town much the same size. I left there permanently over twenty years ago, and people there still remember me. That was BEFORE the Internet really took off, which has made the world a smaller place than it used to be. Although I haven’t seen the names or pictures of the people who protested, my guess is that local people know who was involved. That might make getting a new job in Daphne problematic for them. Consider, too, that the people in that town probably don’t appreciate such a stunt. Based on the negative comments on the restaurant’s Facebook page, it looks like maybe the “message” sent by the protest was lost on the local populace, who would be the people I would expect the protesters were targeting.

Again– if the people involved have access to their own transportation, maybe it’s not a big deal. But what if one or more of them has to walk to and from work? It can be a real pisser if your commute by foot goes from a half a mile to two or three miles, especially in July in Alabama. Does Daphne have a bus system? I don’t know. Taxis can be very expensive. So is gas, especially if you don’t have a job. On the other hand, that could also work the other way. Perhaps it’s a minor point.

Of course, I don’t know anything about the ex employee protesters. Maybe the Five Guys gig was a second job that provided extra cash, rather than a main stream of income. Maybe they could afford to lose the job. But what if they couldn’t? Now they’ll probably have to look for new work during a pandemic. That might not be easy for them, and again, I’m not sure what they did really changed anyone’s hearts and minds about the police.

Another thing that occurred to me is that the workers were basically protesting unfair treatment and discrimination by the police toward black and brown people. It seems kind of strange to me that their response to that problem is to turn around and do the same thing. Fight discrimination by being discriminatory toward a group of people who do police work? Even if the police officers were exemplary cops who had made the town safer? And even now, a few days later, it’s not exactly clear to me if that was what they were doing when they turned their backs on the cops. At first, it seemed like the protest was about #blacklivesmatter, but then I saw something about face masks and how the cops didn’t have them at first. So were they being refused service due to a lack of masks? Or was this a statement on the corrupt nature of the police? Did they plan to do this in advance, or was this a spontaneous decision? What was the message?

Finally, the very essence of working in a fast food restaurant is service. If you’re a fast food worker who chooses not to serve someone simply on the basis of their employment, you’re not doing your job. For that reason, you deserve to be fired, and other employers would be within their rights not to hire you for a similar position. Maybe that’s okay. Maybe the people who got fired don’t want or need a similar position. BUT– my guess is that if they do decide they want to work at one of Five Guys’ competitors or any other service related job, this issue will arise anew. Cops are people too, and they have needs. If you’re unwilling or unable to serve them, then you’re not a good fit for the service industry.

I don’t blame people for being angry about the way some police officers have treated some people. I also know about a certain very famous football player who famously “takes a knee” when the “Star Spangled Banner” is played. Many people who take issue with Colin Kaepernick’s decision to kneel in protest say that he shouldn’t be protesting while on the clock. Personally, I don’t care one way or the other if he kneels, because I don’t follow football, and ultimately when he plays football, he is doing his job. Kneeling while the anthem plays may be disrespectful, but it doesn’t affect his actual work. However, Colin Kaepernick is also a famous football star, and he can probably afford to use his platform in such a way. Google tells me that he makes about $7 million a year, and I see that he recently signed a deal with Disney. He’s not easily replaced. People who work in fast food restaurants, unfortunately, are not usually quite so special.

As I write this, I am reminded of an incident that happened in Lexington, Virginia at a restaurant called The Red Hen. The proprietor there declined to serve Sarah Huckabee Sanders based on her employees’ reluctance. But, in that situation, the restaurant’s co-owner ultimately made the decision. It was her business, and therefore her right to make that call. The same is not true in the Five Guys situation. My family is actually from a community not far from Lexington; it’s the town where I got married. When I go back there, I plan to stop by The Red Hen.

In the Five Guys incident, the people who took a stand were employees of a franchise. Their decision to refuse to serve the police officers affects the chain as a whole, because it became international news. Moreover, it’s not like the owner of the restaurant said, “It’s alright with me if you protest on company time.” Those workers apparently took it upon themselves to make personal statements that affected their place of business. In the Red Hen incident, the employees had the backing of the person who had the most to lose. Also, Sarah Sanders Huckabee is a public figure– one person whose actions are definitely protest worthy. The police officers in Daphne are simply folks who do police work for a living. Maybe one or more of them have done protest worthy things, but it’s not clear from the news stories I’ve seen so far.

I do think that the United States criminal justice system must be reformed. People have every right to be angry that George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and so many others have been killed by police officers. I see nothing wrong with protesting on one’s own time. The Five Guys employees had every right to protest. But doing it while on the job was just asking to be fired. Maybe they don’t care about that, but they might want to consider that it could affect their prospects of being hired by someone else. That might make it more difficult to be an effective protester in the long run.

Anyway, here in Germany, things are pretty good. There are problems here, but police officers are generally respected and respectable. And because people have been cooperating, the COVID-19 issue isn’t so bad here. Bill and I even got to enjoy a lovely lunch on Sunday… and we were told we did NOT need our masks AT ALL, even to go inside to use the rest room. That was really awesome– although as far as I know, masks are still required in shops and on public transportation.

I think Americans can take a lesson from the Germans. Mutual respect and consideration is a good thing and it leads to a better life for everyone.

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music, religion, Trump

Hymn for the 81%

I discovered a new artist this morning. Someone in the Duggar Family News Group shared a news article about evangelical Christian musician, Daniel Deitrich, who has just released an awesome new song calling out Christians for voting for Trump. Deitrich was raised a Christian and believed the messages he heard about Christians loving everyone, being kind and inclusive, and taking care of people in need. But, as Deitrich rightly points out, 81% of evangelical Christians voted for Donald Trump, a man who is about as anti-Christian as a person can get. So… Deitrich did what a lot of creative types do when they get inspired, either negatively or positively. He created. In this case, his creation was a scathing song directed at Christians that turn a blind eye to Donald Trump’s cruelty, misogyny, and racism. Here it is.

I learned in a more detailed article that Deitrich is a worship leader in South Bend, Indiana. He was shy as a young man growing up in southwestern Michigan, but his youth pastor taught him a three chords on the guitar. He started writing and singing songs almost immediately and hasn’t stopped since. He and his friends made up a band and played in bars and clubs. At the same time, Deitrich got more involved with his church. When the band broke up, Deitrich started working full time at his church.

Although he was a churchgoing man, Deitrich didn’t stay away from bars… places that evangelicals typically shun. He’d have honest conversations with people over beers, and it occurred to him that Christians preached about following Jesus. But then they’d align themselves with Republican lawmakers, who typically champion causes that aren’t in line with Jesus Christ’s teachings. And then, along came Donald Trump, a greedy, gluttonous, power-hungry, narcissistic man who has lied, cheated, molested women, stiffed contractors, and has no compassion for people south of the U.S. border who are fleeing violence. And 81% of white evangelical Christians voted for him… probably because he claims to be “pro-life”. I guess it doesn’t occur to them that Trump is a liar, too.

Deitrich eventually was asked to help start up a church in South Bend called South Bend City Church. He says his church is

a Jesus-centered community for believers and doubters and everyone in between. It’s a place where spiritual exiles have found a home, a place where you don’t have to check your brain at the door, and it’s been so beautiful to see people who have been excluded from or wounded by the church feel safe and seen and loved.

Deitrich was asked if he planned to continue to write songs calling out Trump and his misguided followers. He says that he wishes he didn’t feel like he needed to write such songs. However, Deitrich says there’s still a lot of work to do and messages to be made, “to combat white supremacy, homophobia, transphobia, sexism — all the ways in which people are treated as less than the children of God that they are.” And he says people have written to him, thanking him for his efforts. They said that they left the church due to the extreme hypocrisy shown by so-called Christians who continue to support Donald Trump and his ilk.

Deitrich recognizes that his song may upset some people, but he counters that people need to “have their feathers ruffled”. Naturally, I peeked at the comments left on the second article I read about Daniel Deitrich and his song. Comment after comment spouted the usual right wing bullshit, including ignorant comments like this one:

Meanwhile – Democrats are giving are giving standing ovations to the passage of 3rd term abortion bills. Literally killing viable babies.

Good luck explaining that one to God. Clearly a sin. Any Evangelicals who support Democrats are going straight to hell – without a doubt.

Um… the dude who wrote the above comment obviously didn’t bother to read the bills he is lamenting. Not a single one of them supports “killing viable babies”. I was gratified to read a much more educated response to the above comment:

No, none of those bills provides for the “killing of viable babies”. You clearly have never read the proposed laws and no doubt are ignorant of just how a pregnancy can go wrong. You may remain blissfully ignorant of the kind of heartwrenching defects inspired these bills, which are about the peaceful passing of doomed babies who have little to no chance of survival outside the room for more than a few agonizing hours, but stop congratulating yourself for taking what you deem to be the moral high road in your ignorance. Stop getting your information from right wing smear merchants. Try reading about the accounts of those who have been faced with these horrifying situations, facing the loss of a child they wanted.

Yes… the evangelicals support Donald Trump because he’s allegedly pro-life. But he’s not really pro-life. Just look at his policies. He supports taking away programs that help people in need. He supports separating families and putting children in detention camps, denying them and their parents humane care. He supports bigotry toward people who just happen to come from certain countries like Iran or Mexico or any other place he deems a “shithole”. He mocks children, the disabled, wounded veterans, women he thinks are “ugly”, and anyone else who dares to criticize him. Trump’s God is money, and I think anyone who follows Trump must worship money, too.

I get that conservative Christians don’t want to vote for Democrats because they see the Democrats as too “socialist” and “un-American”. They hate the idea of allowing abortion, but they’ve got no problem cutting sex education from schools or forcing health insurance companies to pay for birth control. They have no issue with cutting government programs that help poor people, the elderly, or women who need help. They say those programs should be privatized charities– that people who need help should turn to religious organizations, where they might be forced to hear about how their sins have led them away from God’s favor. After all, if they weren’t egregious sinners, they wouldn’t need help, right? Problems like mental illness, or being born homosexual or transgendered, or feeling desperate and scared after being raped and winding up pregnant– those are all caused by sin, according to some Christians. And all that’s really needed is to “get right with God”. Yeah… I don’t believe that.

There’s a reason why religion is not supposed to align with politics. Separation of church and state is a good thing. But I understand that conservatives don’t want to vote for Democrats. Fine… then at least demand that Republicans stop being such corrupt, contemptible people like Trump. I know Democrats can be just as corrupt as Republicans are, but I have never in my lifetime seen any Democrat as vile as Trump is. I’d like to see better people on both sides of the spectrum.

Got it… but Trump is much worse than any of these people… Seriously. I’d like to see better people on both sides, but we have to do better than Trump.

Here’s a pretty good rebuttal to the above meme written by a guy in a group I follow:

Gary Hart, John Edwards, Chuck Robb, Mel Reynolds, Gary Condit, Anthony Werner, David Wu, John Conyers, Rod Blagojevich, even Al Franken — they all got held accountable for their bad behavior. All of them. By Democrats.

And Bill Clinton? Maybe Clinton should have resigned. To many people, what he had was a consensual, adulterous affair with a young, but grown woman. To others, what he did was an enormous abuse of power. To Democrats like me, it was an ugly and regrettable stain, one that ultimately helped get George W Bush (another ugly and regrettable stain) elected. And that means that a LOT of Democrats turned away from the party, not because of Bill Clinton’s policies, but because he got blown in the Oval Office.

So, yeah. Nice list you got there, Trumpy McTrumperton. We dealt with the majority of them. When are you guys gonna stop calling Trump a gift from God Almighty and start holding him accountable, at the very least, for the things he’s admitted doing?

If the planet survives Trump’s era, people may one day find themselves on the wrong side of history. I would imagine that there were many people who supported Hitler, thinking he was a great leader who put bread on their tables and money in their pockets. I wonder how those people felt when the realities of Hitler’s brutal regime finally came to light and they found out they’d been supporting a mass murdering madman hellbent on exterminating entire populations of people he found undesirable. I’d like to think Trump isn’t as bad as Hitler was, but then I think about what we already know about him. Imagine the stuff we don’t know yet… and what will eventually be revealed in the wake of his presidency.

I don’t really claim to be very religious anymore. I suppose if I had to claim a religion, it would be Christianity. It’s been many years since I was last a regular churchgoer, but when I was growing up, I went every week. The messages I learned in church are contrary to what Donald Trump stands for. He’s all about making money and oppressing people who are weaker than he is. Deitrich points out that many people have felt like they have to leave the church in order to follow Christ’s teachings.

I’ve never been a big fan of contemporary Christian music, but I think I could become a big fan of Daniel Deitrich’s, especially if he continues to write such powerful lyrics to poignant, captivating melodies. If he’s not careful, he might make me a believer, too. I love the way the song ends… “Come home… come home… you’re better than this. You taught me better than this.” Amen.

And for those who also like Daniel Deitrich’s song, “Hymn for the 81%”, here’s an Amazon link so you can download it, too. Yes, I am an Amazon Associate, so if you download via my site, I do get a commission. But honestly, I’m sharing the link because I truly love the song and want to see it go even more viral.

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