mockingbirds never die

One of favorite novels of all time, next to A CLOCK WORK ORANGE is TO KILL A MOCKING BIRD by Harper Lee. I read by accident in high school. At the time I was reading a book on self publishing and one of the things that stuck with me was the section on dedication. They wrote that THE POST MAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE was rejected 29 times before publishing and that Lee's book was rejected 21 before being published. I read after that and was enamored with the girl in the story, Scout and her father Atticus.

The setting was the 1930's in Alabama. It is ironic to me that today, the same Alabama small town, Monroeville has a real life scenario playing in that community that is what the subject of the book was about - racial injustice. Parents of several African American middle school students students have filled a law suit alleging discrimination purporting that African American students are being called racial slurs, being the recipients of more harsher punishment and being denied the privilege of taking advanced placement and honor classes.

Strange thing is that it is the only middle school in the county and that 78% of the students are African American.

Students have been punished for small dress code violations that are not even listed as violations such as having a shirt with missing buttons. When one student was allegedly refered to by a white student as a "black monkey", she told her teacher who in essence responded saying just sit down because you do look like a black monkey.

Again, Ironic aint it. Seem the more we progress as human beings, the more we stay the same. It appears that human nature cannot obviate that spirit that sides with evil that desires to hold folks back, or be envious or would rather focus on differences more than likeness. And of all places, in the city that was made famous by one book. One would suspect that such a place would have an added bonus to absolve such an historical past. And I know one should never kill a mocking bird, but maybe, mocking birds never die.

U can’t trust a liar

I was looking at one of those old movie channels. Namely because they don’t write or make movies like the used too. And it happened by chance that I ran across one of my favorite movies of all time – The Battle of Algiers by Kevin Beary.

True, I have other favorite movies like A Clockwork Orange, Malcolm X, and Imitation of Life to name a Few, but this one is an all time classic. It made me realize that I have been thinking a lot about what has passed in recent years and presently in Iraq, Iran, Jordan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Turkey and Lebanon to name a few places and accept that many of the problems that have evinced are the result of typical Colonial rule and imperial Zeal.


The movie details the French in Algeria, and the life of one man, a former boxer and petty criminal named Ali la Pointe. After leaving prison, he is recruited by the FLN (National Liberation Front), the terrorist/national independence group that fought the French and helped to kick them out of the country after 130 years. I learned of most of the Algerian revolution via the works of Frantz Fanon, the noted Algerian Psychiatrist.

The West has traditionally inflamed relations wit Africa and the Arab world via political policies that never served the inhabitants of the countries the attempted to colonize and more importantly, through lies, exploitation and deceit.
Looking at the movie again, reminded me that no matter what one4 does, you can never trust a liar, that you can never trust a person or entity that never keep their word, that you can never trust a person that only lives through their actions to exploit and use you. I was reminded that even people have individualized colonial zeal, that will never allow them to be trust; for they will never be able to keep their word, and will lie so much that they themselves forget the truth, just as the French forgot that the country they occupied and its people were not French, and just as the US realize and should have learned from the British, that the Arab world is not Europe and that maybe they don’t desire to be Europeans, or accept what is told to them by folks who constantly lie all the time.