French terrorism as a predictor of the same fate in America
A freight train can weigh around 5-6,000 tons or more. Depending on topography and conditions, its whistle can be heard as far as 5-8 miles away, not to mention the rumble from the tracks. And yet, hundreds are killed and thousands injured every year by crossing collisions, most of the crossings with warning systems and gates.
In France, “tout l’enfer se déchaîne” has marked the last few days. Yes, all hell has been breaking loose as terrorists kill, maim, hold hostages and turn themselves into martyrs. An attack on the editorial offices of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo claimed the lives of 12 people, all because of a certain cartoon that certain Muslims considered offensive. And it most likely was. The two prime suspects in that attack were the Kouachi brothers. They’re both dead after a shootout with police after holding a single hostage in a print warehouse some 30 miles from Paris. A pal of the brothers was killed in another hostage situation in a kosher grocery store on the edge of Paris. Four of his hostages are believed dead as well.
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What does a freight train have to do with dead overseas terrorists and hostages? Well, the French have heard the terror train for years and are now suffering the consequences. Americans need to realize that if the racial direction of our country continues to roar down the tracks unabated, similar terrorism will become commonplace throughout the USA.
The trains warning whistle has been blasting forth since slavery was introduced into this brand new democracy and allowed, in its various forms, insidiously to continue. Slavery ain’t just pickin’ cotton. The shameful statistics of the white power structure creating a permanent underclass of African-Americans, are legion. Income, housing, earnings, health, education, crime; you name the category and the black population likely occupies its lowest habitations. The train whistle is growing louder and louder, its cargo coming closer and closer.
And what is that cargo? Pay close attention to the terrorist attacks in France. That’s the cargo. I predict, that without profound changes in the white political structure and the radical white repressive mindset in America, those attacks will look like three-year-olds fighting over a toy. Terrorist attacks in the U.S. are imminent and will be widespread, terrifying and unending. The tracks have already been laid by the white extremist politicians who are about to drive the Golden Spike of total chaos into the heart of this country with their mean spirited indifference to the suffering of minorities and glorifying of the ruling class of billionaires.
Here are the factors in play. The minority population continues to grow and the U.S. census is the canary in the coalmine. Quoting census figures, NBC News reported that as of NOW, our racial and ethnic minorities under five years of age are roughly half (49.9% as of 2012) the population. The numbers pick up steam by the year 2020 when the government estimates that over half the population under 18 will be those same minorities. In less than 30 years, whites will know what it’s like to be in the minority.
If certain whites don’t change their political ways, other factors will also surface that will make being white in America a dangerous and unpleasant condition. Some of us are old enough to remember the Black Panthers some forty odd years ago. They called themselves the leaders of the Black Liberation Movement when they raised militancy to new heights in the era of party founders Huey Newton and Bobby Seale.
There were plenty of white supporters as well. Who will ever forget that iconic gun-toting, 40-year-old bank robbing image of kidnapped heiress Patty Hearst (calling herself Tania and clearly suffering from the Stockholm Syndrome), hanging with the short-lived Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) and breaking the law in sympathy with the militant revolutionary cause. Patty/Tania was caught, tried and sentenced to prison. She served 21 months before Jimmy Carter commuted the sentence and Bill Clinton later pardoned her.
Leonard Bernstein was an avid high-profile supporter of the Panthers, though the urbane conductor opted for fundraisers as opposed to acquiring the money at gunpoint.
A relatively new version of the Panthers is now in the picture, patiently lying in wait for the terror train to take that final curve. They’ve added anti-Semitism and hatred of law enforcement to their agenda according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.
What’s going to ignite the final spark? Look to two groups. The prison-based population of black and Hispanic converts to Islam, estimated to be 15-20% of the prison population or some 350,000 in actual numbers. Now add black and Hispanic gang members. Gang membership is pushing 1½ million young and not so young. Again, combining Hispanic and African-Americans, you have half of that membership represented. White kids don’t seem to take to gang life in great numbers; some 13% is the latest tally. Asians come in at 7%. For young men serving time in a juvenile facility, 90% claim gang membership. Some 40% of gang members are, in fact, under 18. Females are an estimated 7% of the gang population.
The numbers come from “Statistic Brain”, a website that ranks such things. That’s where the wave of terrorism is coming from. If you’ve ever experienced that inherent rage bubbling just under the surface in the black community, you’ll have no trouble believing that an organized effort and charismatic leader could easily stir up the emotions of a percentage of the black community that recognizes that its people have been pushed into the lowest strata of society with few, if any options remaining.
The original Black Panther Party was chartered in 1966 with a ten-point wish list for African-Americans. It included full employment, an end to the “robbery by the white men of our Black Community”, decent housing, an education for ‘our’ people that exposes the true nature of American history as it applies to blacks and an immediate end to police brutality and murder of black people. Also included in the list were trials by a jury of our peers and “land, bread, housing, education clothing, justice and peace.”
There were also a couple of impractical demands on the list like freeing all black men from incarceration, though a case could be made for a percentage without access to decent attorneys and an exception of all black men from military service; the latter would be unfair to this country given the courageous service of those black men who did join.
Remember, this list of mostly reasonable requests is nearly a half-century old and there’s been little movement in a positive direction. The wherewithal exists for a real insurrection. Perhaps even without the participation of radical Muslims, whom their more moderate brethren may discourage.
There is great nobility in the restraint shown by the vast majority of black citizens. But, for many of their number, there’s also that ever-present inherent rage, that, if loosened by the conditions I’ve just described, will tear this country apart.
It’s time to bring true equality to this nation.
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Raised rural & small town, then lived in N.Y., Chicago & LA. Widely traveled. Returned from world wandering to pursue media life of anchorman/reporter and major, medium and small market talk radio. Highly active in politics. Once worked as orderly & security in Mens Lock Ward for the Criminally Insane at a state institution. Much more rational population than current Teapublicans. Great concern for country run by and for the extreme wealthy. The inhumane current running through this country has no precedent in modern history.
Follow me on Twitter @demwriter
