Parents are as guilty as their criminal child or children.

Parenting is the root of good behavior, and good character. In absence of that, an individual born into  society in ninety nine percent of the time is a danger not only to himself or herself but to society as a whole.

At birth, we are nothing but animals with two legs and two hands. This opinion may not be acceptable to most, nor can we bring ourselves to look at birth that way. It is essentially what it is. The difference is guidance, and in the absence of that guidance, an animal with two legs and two hands has just been born into the human society.

A person born today is like a yam planted in the farm. If you have seen yam field, you will relate properly to its use as a reference point in this posting. Yams naturally have their tubers underground, but for that tuber to survive it extends its roots outwards for oxygen and water. But those roots are not strong on their own, without the farmer supporting them with woods dugged in the ground so as to keep them straight up for proper and adequate sun, water, wind or air. That is the only way in my  experience working in my father's farms that yams grow and come out big and tasty.

Humans are like that. You can go on and deny it, but that is what we are, just look around you.

As you may wonder, l have been speaking in parables up to this point, what are you talking about you may ask. I am prompted to send in this posting due to the high school shooting in Broward county Florida, Yes it has happened again. Another mass murder of young innocent children who are being raised in the manner l described above. The lives of those who did not make it have been cut short by an animal introduced in our midst as human by people who will be erroneously called parents.

Since 1999, there have been several shootings around the country, and at the end, mental issues are blamed for the dastard acts. The only solution offered was throw money at mental issues, organizations and groups. No one has ever asked where are the parents of the individual who committed these heinous crimes, when did they learn about the conditions, what did they do, and how did they monitor their ward.

In America, mental illness is now commonly used to justify killing of innocent people by those who lost hope and think everybody is to be blamed for it. This is the only country in the world where crimes have legal justification. Let see,you know what, l have had headache for two days now so today l am going to go out and mow down some people because of it. And surely you will see someone who will defend me for it.

But if you are honest about it, the majority of those young adults who commit capital crimes come from homes where there is dangerous level of absence of parental guidance, leading to unjustified jealousy towards his or her fellow young adults whom he or she perceived to be doing better than him or her. This absence leads to braining washing.Then leads to hating of others either for religious reason or for looking different from them.

I will never accept mental argument for capital crimes, as one does not wake up one day and become mentally unbalanced. One reason being that for one to commit a capital crime one inherently know what one is doing. You have reason to know that if you shoot someone he or she may die, and you proceeded to do it, l will urge and vote to convict your ass.

The system also has to share the blame here. The system has dis-armed the parents so much that most parents are afraid to correct their own children. This no doubt lead to children running wild on their parents and subsequently on the society at large. We as a society must reverse course, otherwise killing and shooting will become common place for generations to come, and we will continually and systematically write these occurrences with fancy adjectives.

To continually absolve parents of criminals of culpability for their ward crimes is the danger, not the act itself.

Reverse course now or one day a family so aggrieved may take the law in their hands and do what they see as equitable to the family of the culprit. So stop it now.

OF PENALTIES AND PERSONS.

I came to the United States many years ago. In my native born country, football which is called soccer in the US here is the king. There was in my native country an incident that took place when the then president called an emergency cabinet meeting. When everyone has gathered, it turned out that two ministers were not in attendance, At that time in human history, there was no cell phone nor text communications. So some people were dispatched to fetch them.

On arrival, the agents were told that the two ministers who were bodies have gone to the national stadium to watch football. Of course the agents headed to the stadium and pulled them out. They were no doubt embarrassed about the incident. Later the president told some people that he was not mad, but frustrated and that if not for the developments, he would have been there too because it was the continental play off game.

With that background in soccer/football. My arrival in the States created a dilemma for me. Fellow country men who have settled before me began to indoctrinate me into American football, but they knew l was having difficulty accepting it. But they were saying to me, if you stay long enough, you will understand it, and then accept it. That was exactly what happened.

I still consider myself a novice despite having raised two children who played the game, and hoping the youngest in the family will get recruited to the college level to help cement my knowledge of the game. Despite being a novice, l consider myself a football junkie. I cannot get enough of it. In fact, it caused my wife to get a new TV to replace old one in the bedroom for herself so that she does not have to fight with me in living room.

Now this new love that l have for American football has led me to question national Football League's indiscriminate punishments handed to players who ran afoul of the sportsmanship sports in general require.

I woke up early this morning and went for the espn app in my phone to check scores of last night's games. I was more interested in NFL's response in the malicious hit that Gronkowski delivered to Buffalo Bills defenseless player last Sunday. To my astonishment he was only suspended for one game in such a blatant attack on a defenseless player.

This type of punishment makes mockery of the NFL's slogan that player's safety is of utmost importance to them. A guy lying face down, outside field of play, was viciously attacked, and all the attacker got was one game suspension. It is an insult to injury to say the least.

And yesterday game between Steelers and Bengals, another player was also injured and may be paralyzed according to some sources. I am certain the Bengal player who committed the act will get no punishment or be barred from football altogether.

What l am leading you to here is that Ray Rice had issue outside football, which l do not condone, but he was rendered jobless, Elliot with similar issue convicted or not was given six game suspension and still has a job. Gronkowski attempted to separate a guy's head from his body, outside the field of play, but was only given one game suspension.

The fact remains that NFL's decisions when it comes to handing out punishments to players is racially biased and is tilted in favor of white players. If Gronk were black, he will be called a thug, a dog and possibly banned for the rest of the year.

It has come to the point the players union must fight and obtain the rights for players to sue other players in a court of law for the kind of malicious attacks that occurred outside the field of play this past weekend. That is the only way such madness can stop occurring in future games.

Cosmas Onwumere.

The complicity of the media.

In this electioneering campaign as in past ones, we are all watching helplessly how democracy as was defined and practiced in America is being systematically decapitated, and shortly will be laid to rest.

The speed with which democracy is being erased in America is due to the complicity of the media houses being bought and sold and in some cases bribed with advertising accounts. As far back as in the 90s, l had a neighbor who used to work for a big media company in Atlanta, he told me one evening that if the citizens become aware  of what they are supposed to be informed of by the media houses that do not make it to the airwaves or in print, that there will be demonstrations across this land.

A case in point, the recent election result from the state of Nevada. The media either in complicity or ignorance is reporting that Donald trump won 46% of Spanish vote in Nevada. This may be correct, but they do not report or tell you the percentage of Hispanic population relative to the population of Nevada so as to put that number in proper context. This kind of sensational information is what is destroying American democracy, and it will eventually lead democracy to its grave. The implication here is that they will spread this information for national election audience and subsequently influence the Spanish population to cast votes to candidates they may not have intended to vote for because they keep hearing that 46% of Spanish population voted in Nevada.

Prior to Democratic voting in Nevada, that is  the evening before the votes were cast, the media reported that Bernie Sanders and Hilary Clinton are neck and neck at 48 and 47%, but the actual result showed Hilary won 52% to Sanders 42%. Where did they get that report, and did anyone bothered to cross-check those numbers before reporting. Polling in my opinion is another method the political talking heads use to swing election to their chosen candidates while hiding as journalists or reporters.

I have come to the conclusion that the present day media houses and their reporters are lazy and hypocrites of immense proportions. They hide under the cloak of journalists/reporters and spew their biased opinions in the name of commentary or news reporting.

I wonder if these days were the days of the Watergate, would Nixon have been exposed and impeached? These days, the talking heads even insinuate what will occur even before those who jobs it is to make a political decision does or say anything. Is the present media helping America's world wide acceptance as a democratic society, or is it hurting America's democracy? You be the judge.

The Imigration debate.

Immigration is defined as the movement from one place to another for permanent living. Recently, this word has become divisive, and a hated word among the world population, and especially here in the United States due to the current political climate.

But a look at the root cause of this movement indicates that all of us humans are pursued or pressured by the same factors that cause people to move. The need to survive, decent living, education, hunger, politics etc., are the primary factors why people move. Does this seem familiar to anyone one reading this? Have you ever moved before, even within the same locality? Have you changed jobs, home or living environment? While these may not fall strictly under the definition of immigration, but they essentially fall under the same factors that cause people to move from one place to another.

With that understanding, what one sees today is that those who have arrived ahead of others are now in the forefront to stop others from coming in. Even if you are born in the destination location, you are still the descendant of migrated population sometime in the past. Over time, world societies rose from migrating population, and not many societies can claim to be native to where they today call home.

Those who yearn for homogenous society or population would be left wondering what happened in an age where movement of people have become common place aided by technological advancement in vehicular transportation of all kinds for land, air and sea.
This will continue until every society become numb to daily arrivals of immigrants from different parts of the world, and the center will no longer hold
You can scream, yell, fuss, swear and kick, but yours my friend, yours is but a lost resistance struggle.

The fear here though is real in my opinion. The fear of the majority population is real in that the world is littered with history of societies that have been supplanted by migrating population. As an immigrant myself, many years ago while l was in Africa, l read about how the present day Egypt was once ruled by indigenous population known as the 'NUBIANS" along with Jewish population. They were subsequently supplanted by the invading Arab population leading to the exodus that we now read in the bible. I read this as a young man. Even though that population is now nearly extinct, many who know this story still believe that the Nubians are the true owners of Egypt. The exodus that we read from the bible was as a result of one population being replaced by another.

The world as we see and know it is now more shaped by moving populations and there is no chance this will stop in the near future. So go ahead, scream your anti-immigrant head off, you are definitely fighting a losing battle.

NAACP seems to be missing

Ever wonder why the above referenced organization has not been very vocal as it should in the ongoing shooting and killing of black people by police across the country. Is it possible the current leadership of the organization are less of visionaries compared to their predecessors? Is it possible to think that they are aloof with the very community they are supposed to be serving? Is it possible to think that the current crop of leaders of the organization do not clearly understand what they should be doing, or they believe the goal has been achieved. What do you think is the reason for the disturbing silence of NAACP.

Among black communities, or if you meet any black person that is current with these issues that wants to be open to you, he or she will tell you that what is happening in the police department across the country is that racist groups have dissolved into the police force across the country under the watch of NAACP. At this point in time, most black people say NAACP as an organization is no longer relevant to their causes or in their lives.

In fact one screamed out a question to me and said, "why do you think black life matter organization emerged"? While others believe that black life matter organization is an arm of NAACP. I do not know which is the correct version. I am writing on this issue because l believe that NAACP has been asleep at wheels and also from the discussions l have had with some of my people when we meet to break bread or clink glasses.

At the chance of  being crucified for writing this piece, and as a black person, my race by nature are reactionary people as opposed to proactive people. We are not very observant people, and we pray too much waiting and hoping for miracle to occur instead of taking the bull by the horn. From yours truly to the rest of us here in America and elsewhere, we do not plan properly or plan with expectations or contingencies. The result is the situation that is now a common place in America.

Given all that, instead of listening or relying on political messages of change and changing the way police do their job proclamations, NAACP should embark on getting all police departments in America to publish the background of  all police applicants before they are hired. On the other hand, NAACP can take it upon itself to investigate all police service applicants in all communities they plan to serve in. In this way, they will be able to stop those with racist leanings joining the police force at the application line. Just do something.

Self Denigration

As a black man, l am always fascinated by comments from some black people in the public domain.
Such comments turn my stomach times without number, because the comments mostly are used by less informed people on the other side to evaluate and judge the rest of us blacks.

Of particular interest to me is the comment made this past Tuesday by Whoopi Goldberg on her daily show the View that she is not African American, but American. No one denies the latter, but the former is unsettling to some us who have processed the statement thoroughly. To make such a statement in my humble opinion amounts to personal denigration. I submit that Whoopi is an intelligent woman, and has achieved a lot in her life, but it is sad that the the level of ignorance exhibited by her statement says that at her age, her psyche needs some degree of fine tuning.

Until science proves that human race broke through from parallel universe, the fact remains that everybody originated from somewhere. All human beings except Whoopi Goldberg and her likes have blood lines that run across the lands, deserts and oceans to be where they are to this day. As true as prior statement is, where then is Whoopi's blood line. Is she claiming to be indigenous American, or did she break through from parallel universe as it is called in some quarters?

By extension, this is the same mentality that most black women on television have about themselves.
The minute they have a television job, become popular in music or in movie, the next time you see them, they have metamorphosed into an Oreo. Why do so many black women in America feel very inferior when it comes to the color of their skin? What is wrong in being proud of who you are, and be proud of how nature made you? Are you blaming your parents that they made mistake in having  you black?

You see there are many things in life we have no choice but accept them as we found them in existence. For example, we cannot not change human demographic, we cannot change where they are located on planet, we cannot change the color inside out, we cannot change the seas and oceans, neither can we change the color of our natural eyes. Yes in our natural eyes, you may change your skin color, but your gene is still black. Just give birth to a child, and see how you have tried to fool yourselves.

If some of the modern day black women were the ones present during the struggle for equality in America, there will be no black man in America today because these types of women would have sold them all out to be killed in order to belong to the majority population whom they have no blood line with. Just the way l see it.
I welcome your response.

Stolen Democracy

It is election year again, and those active in electioneering process are lining up on either side of the political divide pushing their favorite candidates.

Over the years, l have developed this passion for observing the American electoral process, as well as the ever increasing list of campaign promises. Because l wonder if there is any person or group which actually keep track of all the election promises with respect to their fulfillments or lack there of.

I have also realized that the politicians understand the limitless gullibility of American electorate that they will say anything to get elected knowing fully well that no one will bother to check the facts come re-election time. They have also realized that the American voter is a "one issue voter".

Take for example, tax policy, trade policy, healthcare, and corporate regulations among others. Why are the elected representatives have so much difficulties passing any sensible legislation on these issues that one way or the other affect the electorates. And even when they do pass some legislations, how much of what is passed affect the voter in a positive way remains in doubt. Anyone ever wondered why what is passed is such a headache to the average person to understand. Does anyone know why? The reason is because the legislation was written by interest parties to serve and protect them and not the electorate. Is there any legislation passed solely for what we want and what we believe in? The answer is there is none, because if there is, it will be very simple which will make it an anomaly.

The issue here is that once they are elected, they respond to the demands of interest parties in total disregard to that of the electorate that put them in office. This is the crux of the matter. The electorate in America have been beaten into submission that they are even scared to ask for accountability come re-election time of those they have previously elected.

Many politicians go with the slogan "let's take back America", but the only problem is that they do not tell you whom to take it back from. Telling you whom to take it from will render their vault dry, because the elected representatives have now become captive to interest parties who now dictates what policy the representatives should champion. You the electorates are now left to wonder why what you voted for are not being addressed.

To buttress my argument here, l invite you to look at this case number No. 1:12-CV-02735-MHS (N.D. Ga. Sept 8, 2015 (Strickland v. Alexander) resulting from the passage of  this garnishment statute O.C.G.A. §. 18-4-60 et.seq.

Under this new regulation, your employer, your bank becomes the collection agency for your creditors. Your bank account can be frozen by your bank the moment your creditor presents a court paper showing judgement against you. Your employer can garnish your paycheck the moment your creditor presents court papers. And sometimes these judgements are processed in such a manner that you either did not know or do not have time to present your side.

Did you as a Georgia voter had such law in mind when you cast your votes for those who passed this legislation. There are many such laws across the United States that is designed to adversely affect the lives of the voting public. In essence your votes are stolen or hijacked by the interest parties. leading me to come to the conclusion that our cherished democracy has now been stolen from us the voters.
I welcome your response to this post.