LITTLE DARK SECRETS… USA STYLE

Arnold Air Force Base (Arnold AFB) is a US Air Force base located in Coffee and Franklin counties, Tennessee, adjacent to the city of Tullahoma. It is named for General ‘Hap’ Arnold, the father of the U.S. Air Force. The reason I mention this is to distinguish this General Arnold from a more infamous one with the moniker of Benedict Arnold, your traitor, and mine, in the good old American tradition. There is no fort, place, or utensil named after Ben, after all, who celebrates a traitor except the history writers.

If you scan the South you will see numerous military bases named after famous Confederate Generals who all led the insurrection against the United States. Camp Beauregard, Fort Benning, Fort Bragg, Fort Gordon, Fort A.P. Hill, Fort Hood, Fort Lee, Fort Pickett, Fort Polk, and Fort Rucker are honest to goodness Confederate Generals, all worst than Benedict Arnold, all leading troops into battle against their country, divesting themselves of their pledge of allegiance, their oath as both officers and men, yet they are ‘honored’ with forts named after them?

While I’m at it, let me ask a question that seems to trouble me, and yet no one has mentioned it. Why are the police resorting to guns to bring black men under control and so many unfortunately dying at the hands and knees of the police? What motivates the police? Is it the fact that many gun-toten hombre are running loose in the ghettos’ of the big cities firing indiscriminately, guns that are hidden on their person, and the fact that when they shoot, they aim to kill? If you read the papers in NY, there can be stories usually about gang violence where guns are fired. These guns are owned by young black men, and for whatever reason, either self-protection or for a purpose are indeed present.

Maybe what we need to do is re-educate the police and the young about the need to stop this all. The so-called Second Amendment Right to bear arms Republicans has to bear a good deal of responsibility for this whether they like it or not. The fact that people can get arms so easily, quickly, and use them so deadly needs to be addressed along with the problems of having the wrong psychological personalities on the police force, to begin with. If we want to solve the problem we need to go deeper than we wish to admit. The problem of distrust of the community by the police as well as the distrust of the police by the community needs all our full attention.