Burning Books and Blowing Up Babies

"You take the blue pill, the story ends. You wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill you stay in wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes."

                                                                          --whomever wrote that which is known as The Matrix

1. The banning of Huckleberry Finn in Philly. 

Orwell was right on so many levels. When I read his books, I saw them as nightmare possibilities. There was nothing in them for me at the tender age when I read them that wasn't in some of the best that Stephen King has had to offer. However, as the world turns and this place called America gets darker and darker, I realize that this country, in particular, is heading that way like a speeding train that's come of its rails. Huckleberry Finn is a good book. For that reason alone, it should be left alone. More important than being a good book though is the fact that Huckleberry Finn has a whole lot of truth in it. There is no worse crime than covering up the truth because it's uncomfortable, which is something that's going on a whole lot today, and, I have learned, has always gone on with the writing/crafting of history. Personally, I am uncomfortable with lies, no matter how ugly the truth is. 

The world Huckleberry Finn existed in was a real one and Twain just took a picture of that world so that people would always be able to see it as it was. I can not be so offended by a fucking WORD that I ban a book that is actually helpful to read and learn from. The word exists. 

I actually liked Huckleberry Finn--not the book in this sentence, but the person. He had a shit life and a shit dad. He didn't even have any fucking shoes. I sympathized with him and I was happy to be along on his little journey into discovering that people were just people, no matter what color, which is the message in that book despite that word. There are books that are heralded that have a far less glorious message in my humble opinion. These books did not use that particular word and so they are upheld as the messenger for peace among the races, etc. BUT, and I won't mention the name of the book I'm talking about because I've had actual real time arguments about my opinion on this particular subject. That book's message is something like: "...sometimes black people die for unjust reasons, oh well. On with life."

Huckleberry Finn actually has a worthwhile message to teach. Only an idiot would ban the message because they don't like REALITY--even if that message exists 'supposedly' in the past, and people don't think like that anymore. *cough cough* bullshit *cough cough* Pretending like something isn't real is the first dangerous step into keeping that shit going eternally.. Better to face your demons and tame them than to just ignore them and let them keep 'eating' in background. Much like pretending that one doesn't have cancer. 

It's similar to the big blown up bullshit about The Color Purple, which is the ONLY book, I've deigned to read more than once that Shakespeare didn't write. I've actually read The Color Purple five times. I thought Mr. was depicted as very real, and I also thought that he was sorry in the end and that his sorrow and regret was genuine. YES, he was an animal for most of the book, but he was an animal with a heart and soul who learned from his mistakes. I don't see anything wrong with that. I liked him too at the end. I don't want to DATE him, but I liked him for being willing to admit that he had been wrong and to try to correct that wrong. A lot of people  would DIE before doing that. The Color Purple is not facing a ban or being stricken from curriculums. I'm not really sure it's ON any curriculum considering its small bit of sexual content. 

I guess I'm talking about how quickly people can get offended and miss really important messages because they don't like the MESSENGER. That, and the tendency to cover up ugliness with a thin coat of paint like Texas removing the word slave from text books and replacing that word with 'worker'. 

PRETENDING gets one nowhere. It only ensures that the problem won't be fixed, because the problem won't be truly ADDRESSED. Once again, like pretending you don't have cancer when you do. What's the end result of that going to be? Is the ending a big mystery or a forgone conclusion?

2. Legalized attempted murder of an infant

Some cop blew up a baby. I'm not going to look up names and things and report on this like my name is Scoops Taylor. I am simply commenting on the nature of the crime and the fact that that kid will receive via the courts no justice. In the interest of a no knock drug raid, the cops threw some kind of grenade into the house and the grenade landed on the kid, who couldn't even walk at the time and blew a hole in his chest and messed up his face and damn near killed him. The people were not selling drugs and the cops, in fact, had the wrong house, and that poor baby got all messed up for nothing. 

This is just another attack on the poor in what America is quickly becoming. And, despite the fact that this was an innocent INFANT, no one really cares. They don't think things like: that could have been my house or my son. And they passively accept whatever 'justice' handed down by the courts as right and correct. It's the same with the roving DEATH SQUADS that are roaming the streets slaughtering people at will for minor infractions...

...and if they manage to live, they're locked up for years and years for things other first world countries don't even bother with in the interest of filling up all those 'for profit' prisons. 

I find the police blowing up an infant and suffering no consequence offensive, while man-spreading doesn't bother me at all. I am more concerned with the message in Huckleberry Finn than I am with the word nigger being used like it was used and is still used. I am offended that every time I turn on the news some person's sitting there with a stale face and calm tone preparing me to watch the government sanctioned MURDER of a civilian by armed enforcers who have been trained at the academy to SHOOT TO KILL poor people and minorities and ask questions later. 

There should be riots in the streets for this kid. There would be in any SANE country. But this is not a sane country, and never was one, and it's getting worse a mile a minute...

...and nobody seems to notice, nobody seems to care...

...it's all someone else's business...

...until it's not...

...but by then, it's too late.

(^^the cuteness)