October 15th - Blog Action Day

OUR PEOPLE ON THE REEF

The swaying palms, the gentle surf lapping upon the sand
A gentle breeze so keen to please slowly gusts across our land
Our island home is all we have known as centuries rolled by
Our island people stood alone on reefs so barren and dry.

But as years go by we wonder why the shoreline is not the same
The things we knew as always true somehow do not remain
The breakers break on higher ground - the outer palms are falling down
The taro pits begin to die and the village elders wonder why.

For what is happening to the beautiful isles we know
Tuvalu, Kiribati and Tokelau - the Marshall isles, that place of smiles
The rising sea will reclaim our ground - nothing but water will abound
Our people forced to leave for higher ground.

While far away they pour their fumes into the clear blue sky
Not knowing and never caring why the world is beginning to die
So land of our forebears despite how much we cared for you
The time will soon be when we must bid you adieu.

Poem by Jane Resture

Blog Action Day

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Listening to: R.E.M. - Cuyahoga
via FoxyTunes

Pay the cost to be the boss

Sitting here in a relaxed state, watching Turner Classic Movies' excellent Underground movie series (which I look forward to every Friday!) and tonight, we get Black Caesar, one of the more infamous Blaxploitation movies of the 70s. (Coincidentally, the remake of SHAFT, starring Samuel L. Jackson, just ended on another channel.)


Fred Williamson is so beautiful, it's impossible to believe he wasn't a multimedia star of galactic proportions... but then, this was the 70s.

David Kalat (on the TCM website) writes, about Black Caesar:

Despite Fred Williamson’s riveting star turn and the memorable James Brown soundtrack, Black Caesar is generally stronger in its ideas than its style. Put another way: [Larry] Cohen’s a better writer than a director (at least at this early stage in his career).

For all that Tommy Gibbs does to build his empire, spend lavishly, and dispense extravagant gifts and violent payback in equal measure, none of these measures ever hide the hurt. Sure, he gets his revenge on McKinney, the corrupt and racist cop who maimed him, but the problem is Gibbs’ wounds are deeper and more intractable than his limp. Getting even with Whitey is fairly straightforward but ultimately unsatisfying, because what he really needs is to reconcile with his parents. Coming to terms with his painful childhood is a prize that eludes him to the last.

During a particularly nasty rape scene, Black Caesar/Tommy Gibbs does not seem to be enjoying it. This made an impression on me; I remember thinking, "Why is he doing that? He isn't having fun." And so, a Blaxploitation movie was one of the first places I ever saw rape portrayed as a simple act of aggression, rather than uncontrollable male lust.

As the film builds to its brutal climax, Cohen has gradually yet masterfully turned Gibbs’ story into an epic myth about American race relations. Gibbs and McKinney square off over a tin of shoe polish—a small prop, but by now imbued with enough symbolism to represent not just Gibb’s hardscrabble youth but centuries of white-black inequality. Now, this is a movie that features a severed ear in a plate of spaghetti, an exploding turkey, a rape scene, and a phony priest who launders dirty money through his collection box. For a film jam-packed with two scoops of outrageous ideas, this one little can of shoe polish becomes the most powerful and evocative of them all.

Any favorite movies of this genre? Do you think they were (on the whole) a negative or positive cultural phenomenon? I always liked the movies (they were very popular where I grew up, with whites at the drive-in, too) but I later learned they were tacky and low-rent, and was ashamed to admit to my fondness for them. After Quentin Tarantino's blatant thievery (homages!--he would say) and Pam Grier's comeback, they seemed to be getting another look.

Bright Lights Film Journal: Blaxploitation
Sticking it to the man: Heroes of Blaxploitation
Black Cinema: Blaxploitation

Excerpt from the great funk score, by James Brown:

The Boss - James Brown

[via FoxyTunes / Black Caesar]

The murder of Martin Lee Anderson

You knew one of them would die eventually. As soon as the whole "boot camp movement" took off, you knew this was coming. I did, anyway.

I've been indulging my COURT TV addiction again, and pondering the "boot camp death" of 14-year-old Martin Lee Anderson, as we watch closing arguments.

Hovering over the case is the decreased value and humanity of young black males in our culture. Obviously, Martin was just bitching and complaining; ain't nothing wrong with him. The video, which I have seen over and over, is chilling. They didn't believe him; obviously, they thought he was just faking his respiratory distress. They stand there in the video like a bunch of fucking idiots: Duh!

All eight stand accused, of standing there like fools as Martin dies. What's that expression? Throw the book at them. It's just so horrifying, to work a child to death like a MULE.

Guard describes procedure used to subdue teen who died after altercation at boot camp
By Emanuella Grinberg
Court TV

PANAMA CITY, FL — A former drill instructor at a boot camp for juvenile offenders became emotional on the witness stand Monday as he recalled the only time one of his young charges died on his watch.

In more than 20 years of active service with the United States Army, retired Lt. Charles Helms Jr. said he never saw a soldier die under his command. But, as second in command at the Bay County Sheriff's Office Juvenile Boot Camp in Panama City, Fla., Helms was in the hospital with the parents of 14-year-old Martin Lee Anderson when they decided to take him off life support after an altercation with drill instructors the day before.

"This is a kid who came into our program in supposedly perfect condition, in perfect health," Helms testified. "I'm trying to figure out what in the heck is going on."

You don't know???? You people killed him, obviously.

Helms, 51, was the first of eight defendants expected to testify. All are charged with aggravated manslaughter for Anderson's death on Jan. 6, 2006. Prosecutors rested their case before Helms took the stand Monday.

Along with Helms, former drill instructors Henry Dickens, Charles Enfinger, Patrick Garrett, Raymond Hauck, Henry McFadden Jr., Joseph Walsh and nurse Kristin Schmidt face up to 30 years in prison if convicted of aggravated manslaughter for the teen's death.

Prosecutors allege the eight defendants caused Anderson's death by suffocating him and administering excessive amounts of ammonia capsules on him when he refused to participate in a mandatory run on his first day at the boot camp.

During the encounter, which was captured on surveillance camera footage, Helms and the drill instructors are seen covering Anderson's mouth and waving the ammonia capsules in his face while Schmidt stood by.

But lawyers for the defendants, ages 30 to 60, say they were acting in accordance with boot camp policy and blame his death on complications from sickle-cell trait, a typically benign genetic disorder which impedes the flow of oxygen through the blood.

Earlier in the day, prosecutors called the chief medical director of Florida's Department of Juvenile Justice, who testified there was no outlined procedure for the use of ammonia capsules in the boot camp's policy manual.

As the final witness in the prosecution's four-day case, Dr. Shairi Turner also testified that the department did not consider sickle-cell trait to be a condition that would automatically exclude juvenile offenders from participation in the program, like asthma or even sickle-cell disease, a more advanced form of sickle-cell trait.

Helms, however, insisted that, had his staff known of Anderson's condition, they would not have accepted him into the program, which opened in 1994 to rehabilitate serious juvenile offenders considered on a track to adult prison.

"The last thing we wanted was for any kid to come into boot camp with physical ailments that would cause him to injure himself," said Helms, who was a drill instructor at Kentucky's Fort Knox before he went to work at the Panama City boot camp.

Several jurors leaned forward as they listened to Helms describe the precautions that the staff took to ensure the safety of the offenders. He described screening them for medical issues before they entered the boot camp, and separating gang members and using plastic flatware once they entered the program.

Helms said Anderson, who entered the boot camp for violating probation on a grand theft auto conviction, received the highest security designation upon entering the boot camp based on a record of gang affiliation and a propensity for violence.

In light of his security designation, Helms said that guards took the typical course of action when Anderson told them, "This is bulls---," and stopped participating in a 1.5-mile run to gauge his fitness level.

Standing next to a video projection of the surveillance footage, Helms described for jurors the actions he took upon being called to the drill field about 20 minutes into the encounter.

When he arrived, Helms said, Anderson appeared to be conscious and actively resisting the drill instructors' attempts to get him on his feet. Helms said he eventually took over administering the ammonia capsules by "cupping" his hand over the teen's mouth so he could determine through the movements in his jaw whether he was conscious.

The retired Army lieutenant testified that the use of ammonia capsules on offenders was normal, especially on the first day, when the teens were likely to feign unconsciousness to get out of completing the 16-lap run.

Nearly four minutes into the encounter, Helms said, he realized something was amiss and asked Schmidt to take his vital signs. Even though Anderson's heartbeat and respiratory rates were normal, Helms said, they decided to call 911 when the teen became clammy and unresponsive.

"My hand is on his stomach. I'm shaking him back and forth. At this point, I go from drill instructor mode to rescue mode," testified Helms.

Helms accompanied the teen in an ambulance to the Bay County Medical Center, where, after two hours, doctors decided to airlift him to the pediatric intensive care unit in Pensacola's Sacred Heart Hospital.

Helms said he was not permitted to accompany the teen, so he made the two-hour trip by car to Pensacola, where he waited in the hospital with Anderson until his parents removed him from life support at about 2 a.m. the next morning.

"Why did you go?" Helms' lawyer, Waylon Graham, asked him.

"It's one of my kids. I'm responsible. I'm the officer in charge," Helms responded. "I've been in the military for a long period of time and you never leave one of your soldiers."

Helms was prevented from answering his lawyer's question about how the incident had affected him, but the answer was clear. He wiped tears with a handkerchief as he stepped down from the witness stand.

Crocodile tears, I think goes the expression.

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Listening to: Yo La Tengo - Moby Octopad
via FoxyTunes

Captain Howdy strikes again

Decided to get into a feminist groove today, and checked out Womensspace to see what Heart is talking about. I was feeling fairly magnanimous, considering that she has declared I "scare" her. (I'd link to said thread, but it appears to have been deleted--surprise!)

And what do I see over there? Talk about EXORCISM. Yes, yes, I know she means some bizarre feminist concept of EXORCISING the patriarchy, but still. The residual religious mania that Heart displays is daunting. Isn't she afraid of TRIGGERING (snort!) some wayward ex-Christians with talk like that? Lucky I have my southern lady smelling salts (I prefer ylang-ylang scented) nearby, in the event of apoplexy.

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Listening to: Laura Nyro - Captain for Dark Mornings
via FoxyTunes

Why'd she tell?

The Three of Swords: Sorrow



After so many years, why did she tell now?

Can you imagine the weight on her conscience, to finally tell after so long?

Or did she feel she owed it to the baby she called Billy?

~*~

Mother who last year admitted killing baby in 1988 gets 30 years

Beaufort woman told authorities she smothered her baby at Greenville shelter

Published: Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Updated: 4:38 pm

By Eric Connor
STAFF WRITER, Greenville News:

Related clicks: Video: Mother gets 30 years in baby's death

A Beaufort mother who waited 18 years before she told police that she smothered her infant son at a home for unwed mothers in Greenville was sentenced to 30 years in prison this afternoon.

In May 2006, Elaine Teresa Patterson, 45, had been living in Beaufort and walked into the police department to confess that she had lied about how her then 8-month-old son, Bill Rhinehart III, died in May 1988.

Two months later, Greenville police charged Patterson with murder.

Today, Patterson pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter before Circuit Judge Mark Hayes.

“She never got this thing off her mind,” Patterson’s defense attorney, Dan Farnsworth, told the judge. “She couldn’t hold it anymore. She probably would have never gotten caught.”

Patterson told Beaufort police that she didn’t intend to kill her son, but she knew that she was hurting him when she hit her son and smothered him against her chest.

The baby was taken to Greenville Memorial Hospital on May 23, 1988, and died three days later.

The coroner concluded that the cause of death was a subarachnoid hemorrhage, which happens when a blood vessel ruptures outside the brain.

The coroner didn’t determine a manner of death, authorities said. After Patterson talked with Beaufort police, medical examiners took another look at the cause of death and found it consistent with the mother’s description of how she said she killed her son.

Patterson, who now has a teenage daughter, did not want to be in Greenville and got frustrated with the baby, who was born prematurely and was in the hospital for the first six months of his life, according to a statement she had Farnsworth read.

Patterson said she resented her mother for making her move to Greenville, and she was upset that she was away from her other child.

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Listening to: Joy Division - Warsaw
via FoxyTunes