1. Researching businesses in the African-American business district of Danville from 1897 to 1976, I'm struck by several things.
First, in 1897, the area was almost totally residential. By 1942, until the early 60s, the street was humming with businesses, as many as five restaurants in a two-block area, with barber shops, cab companies, civic organizations. Then the decline began. By 1960, there were only as many businesses as there were in 1909. And by the late 1960s, almost all were gone.
My thought has always been that urban renewal destroyed the business district. But not so, apparently. By the time renewal came along, most of the buildings were empty anyway, with only a few businesses left. As one local amateur historian noted to me, the businesses were gone but the owners remained, and urban renewal was one way of getting rid of them.
End result -- I now have a fairly complete list of businesses up and down both sides of South Second Street from Main to Green (now MLK Blvd), so I can "see" the changes over the years.
2. I'm upset at people criticizing Rachel Maddow for giving all the facts, and reading all the quotations she reads.
One woman said, let US read them, you don't have to go point by point explaining everything. Well, yes, Rachel DOES need to go point by point, because a good story connects ALL the facts together, and the only way she can do that is to go point by point. If people don't want to see good teaching, let them watch FOX. Besides, I don't have the time or the access to read all the newspapers she quotes, so I appreciate her doing it for me.
3. I'm upset at the new round of the Democratic Party's circular firing squad.
Biden (I LOVE Joe, but just not this time for president) is being criticized for actually -- get this now -- working with segregationists and racists in the Senate 30 years ago. I thought the idea of representation was to reach consensus, and to compromise, and to do that, one MUST work with others whom one may personally detest. If what the "purists" expect of Biden is an apology, they're in for a surprise.
I'm also wondering where this demand for an apology is coming from. If it's from the Bernie supporters (I LOVE Bernie, but just not this time for president), they're just setting us up for another 2016. Bernie can take the "high ground" while his supporters cut the ground out from other Dems, so that if Bernie does not get the nomination (which he won't), they can say they supported him, but they can also avoid voting for whomever does get the nomination. Result? Four more years of Trump.
4. Speaking of Trump, how about this? You're sinking in the polls, Congress and the courts are after you and your family, you're totally incompetent as a leader because you know everything but you know nothing, you don't listen to those who DO, and your cabinet is a revolving door. You distrust all your advisors including the CIA and the FBI, but you think Putin is the cat's meow. So what do you do? Of course, you fake a war with Iran -- something you said repeatedly that Obama would do. 58,000 dead in Vietnam over a lie, and 5,000+ dead in Iraq over a lie weren't enough apparently.
5. And now, the latest controversy is over what to call the "detention centers" where thousands of people are being held. To me, if people are kept behind fences and barbed wire and not allowed to leave, it's a concentration camp. Just because "illegals" aren't being gassed and burned doesn't make it any less. We didn't murder Japanese internees in the 1940s, but they were still concentration camps.
6. The decision by the city of Portland, Maine, to accept several hundred asylum seekers from Africa is a wonderful decision made by a city that is caring and compassionate.
The reaction of many Mainers, however, is straight out of Mississippi in 1950. I am totally ashamed that so many of my former statees are so openly racist and bigoted.
7. Why are we helping illegals when we aren't caring for our own veterans?
Too many assume that "illegals" get all the benefits of citizens. They do NOT, but these troglodytes don't let facts get in the way of their racist opinions. I'd ask just what have Republicans done to help veterans? And I've been told that Trump is the best friend veterans ever had -- by MAGA-hat-wearing cultists.
We CAN do both, as a compassionate nation, we MUST do both. And if we just taxed the 0.01% of the richest multi-billionaires just 0.01%, we could pay for it, too. I mean, does idiot Betsy DeVos REALLY need a 10th yacht?
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