S: Is for scary times

My friend Elizabeth just called me to tell me of something she just heard on TV. A homeless man was sleeping on the steps of a church on East 103 street and three people set him on fire while he slept. Many homeless people sleep outside the Army Recruiting Center and the church along 103rd St. It has become a haven to those in need, in a city that provides far less than what is called for. Gary Williams can't believe what's happened in his own neighborhood. Williams used to see the victim every morning on his way to work. "He doesn't bother anybody he just sleeps in the corner." The victim was taken to Cornell Medical Center where he has second and third degree burns on over 75-percent of his body. Witnesses saw three people running from the scene. They are said to be children. According to Mary Brosnahan, the executive director of the Coalition for the Homeless, there has been a 65-percent rise in attacks on the homeless in the last year alone.

Last year a elderly women was beaten to death for $3. Gay bashing is on the rise. People trying to get help, are manhandled by the police and die. Children are being abused and though they make the news, what really is being done about it? Sure we all ohhh and ahhhh about it but what are we doing? Are we speaking out? Are we changing laws? Are we making waves? No!

I've actually been speaking about this for awhile. I use my life as an example because when things happen to me I can see the effects it will have on others. I've done two now three columns on Iraq For Sale: The War Profiteers. This film exposes Halliburton and its subsidiary, KBR, CACI International and Blackwater Security Consulting. "Iraq for Sale” is about unspeakable greed and fraud, misery and betrayal, and brazen waste of public tax dollars for private enrichment. It details the depth of control corporate war profiteers exert over our elected representatives and the danger these alliances have created for soldiers and innocent civilians. Grassroots financed “Iraq for Sale” was funded entirely outside corporate America. More than 3,000 people donated $367,892 to help Greenwald and Brave New Films produce and distribute this documentary. Finally people speaking are up.

It is a F.A.C.T. that we live in traumatic times, where the actions of the Government trickle down to it's people because the examples are few. It is a F.A.C.T. that for now, Freedom of Speech is still a right. It is a F.A.C.T. that actions speak louder than words. It is our right to search out the F.A.C.T.S. and make our own decisions. At the rate that our rights are being taken away and the multitudes seek to deceive now we be a good time to exercise your rights and that is a F.A.C.T.

T: Thoughts through out time.

I was telling Tom tonight I didn't know what I was writing about, then I went to a site. I read the comments that someone wrote about something I wrote to explain something. Viola! My subject came to me. It is amazing that when people are cornered or have to explain their actions they always put the blame on somebody else. They never take the responsibility of their own actions. Better to misplace the blame. The most tragic example of this is the Salem Witch trials. Several young girls playing with witchcraft got caught instead of facing their crimes under pressure they falsely accused over hundred and fifty people of witchcraft. Nineteen were hung, one pressed to death for holding strong to who he was and five died in prison. Slander and what is also known as libel is what caused this damage. It continued out of greed. Several of the girls had fathers who wanted and coveted their neighbors properties and funds so they allowed this debauchery without a thought to others lives or their good names. It even continued afterwards when others tried to defend them. Rev. William Milbourne, a Baptist minister in Boston, publicly petitioned the General Assembly in early June, 1692, challenging the use of spectral evidence by the Court. Milbourne had to post 200£ bond or be arrested for "contriving, writing and publishing the said scandalous Papers." In 1695, Thomas Maule, a noted Quaker, publicly criticized the handling of the trials by the Puritan leaders in Chapter 29 of his book "Truth Held Forth and Maintained." For publishing this book, Maule was imprisoned twelve months before he was tried and found not guilty. Various petitions were filed between 1700 and 1703, demanding that the convictions be formally reversed. Those tried and found guilty were considered dead in the eyes of the law, and with convictions still on the books, those not executed were vulnerable to further accusations. In 1704, another petition was filed, requesting an equitable settlement for those wrongly accused, but it wasn't until May 1709 a reversal of attainder and compensation for financial losses was won.

We haven't learned from the examples that have come before us. McCarthyism followed. Bush is radically headed in that direction with his newest laws. Defamatory remarks are carelessly strewn over the net without the proof to back it up. When one does have proof those in denial attack hoping to keep the heat away. I have stated several times in this column, I am not afraid to speak my mind and stand up for myself and the rights of others. In this day and age it is a F.A.C.T that you need the F.A.C.T.S.

C: Is for celluloid and cliimate calamities

Tyler and I both love Viggo Mortensen so we couldn't wait to see "Eastern Promises". This film promised to end or shall I say begin where the "History of Violence" left off. "History of Violence" has one of the best sex scene's ever and I will never be able to look at a stair case again without my mind a-wandering. "Eastern Promises" should of been called "Violence" 1,2,3 and then some". From the moment this film starts, throats are slashed, bodies decimated and young girls brutalized in a cold methodical way. The violence accumulates in a fight sequence, set in a Russian steam bath. It pits the naked Mortensen against two knife-wielding Russians who aren't about to play fair, and, staged for maximum audience reaction. The scene's outrageous, punishing, gory, exploitations, stopped us from getting a peek at the star's kibbles and bits. Damn! I have yet to have figure out the point of this movie unless it's never to go into a Russian bath.

All in a day: An earthquake has hit the western coast of Indonesia's Sumatra Island. A strong earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 7.1 occurred in the Pacific Ocean near the island of Guam. A powerful earthquake hit the Auckland Islands, south of New Zealand mainland, A tectonic earthquake measuring 5.3 on the Richter scale on jolted western coastal area of Aceh Province. A small earthquake shook San Diego. A volcano on a Yemeni island in the Red Sea was spewing a deadly mix of lava and ash for the third straight day. Villagers near the crater of a simmering volcano in Java, Indonesia will be evacuated soon as increased volcanic activity. A small eruption on Mt Ruapehu threw rocks, volcanic debris, ash and water from the crater.

We have treated Mother Earth badly and she is fighting back and that is a F.A.C.T.

A: Is for art that gives back!

It is artist that make the world go round and give us a sense of balance. I'd like to do a follow up on an artist we featured earlier. Grimanesa Amoros believes that communities should reflect beauty and give back a sense of potential energy that expands. Inspired by a the group of four women who founded Hudson River Community Health Center in the 1960s and are still active in the community. Their time and dedication had Grimanesa creating a project about them. "I admired their determination and accomplishment and feel it as motivation for my own work." Thru Nov. 17th at 161-01 Jamaica Avenue, in Queens a video is projected on the façade of the North Fork Bank. The juxtaposition of faces with images of flowing water is suggestive of the movement within the community, the merging of people from all imaginable origins on the vibrant sidewalks of Jamaica Avenue. The fusing, transforming, and scattering of these same faces forces the viewer to interrogate the nature of individuality, and how a shared identity can be forged out of dissimilarity. This project is part of the on going effort to revitalize the neighborhood. Now this is one artist who gives back to the community at large. Amoros becomes inspired by the world around her and creates beauty. We should become inspired by her and that is a F.A.C.T.

F: Is for False Accusations!

The Internet is a marvelous tool except when used illegally. Most people don't think they will be caught or that they will be stood up against. Today in the Technology section of The New York Times is a story of 15-year-old Alison Chang, from Dallas. She posed with a friend for a photo. Weeks later, that photo is posted online on Flikr and catches the eye of an ad agency in Australia, and Alison appears on a billboard as part of a Virgin Mobile advertising campaign. On the billboard, Alison’s friend vanished and so had the Adidas logo on her hat. Her image is accompanied by a derogatory campaign. This case and several others have appeared in Federal Court. Allison is falsely being portrayed as a loser without concern as to how this will effect her.

In 1988 a fascinating film was released called "The Thin Blue Line". This controversial documentary is about the arrest and conviction of Randall Adams for the murder of a Dallas policeman in 1976. It was the 1st time a movie film is credited with overturning the conviction of a crime where a man is sentenced to death falsely. The film makers went in to film the process and ended up showing how the cops were so blind they could not see that the real killer 16-year-old David Harris was a dangerous, remorseless psychopath. He even took a delight in bragging about his crime. When people see the police, the court system, the judges condemning the innocent and letting the guilty walk free, you see the beginning of the breakdown of society.

Why would I write about this you ask? This weekend I brought some truth to light which is documented. Instead of facing and answering the allegations they illegally posted a slanderous note on goggle under my name, instead of their own blog. When a friend pointed it out to me I immediately wrote to them asking them to take it off. In order to write the note I had to add my personal email, which I did since I had nothing to hide. What happened next was four even more slanderous letters ranting about things that they knew nothing about. I had to post six "Notices of Intent" with a Cease and Desist amendment. People who have things to hide falsely accuse others or use them for their own benefit without consciousness. This column has always been to shed light even when it is personal, because their are others who are going through the same things. I am not afraid to speak out, admit my faults or to face the F.A.C.T.S. Maybe this column will help you to do the same.