Category: Uncategorized

After being told the composition of the jury considering the case against George Zimmerman the week before, I said he wouldn’t be found guilty.  I also posted comments to the same effect on Facebook.  But I was still disappointed to discover that he’d been found not guilty.

In (foolishly) arguing the outcome of the case with people on Facebook, I made the following comment:

Zimmerman effectively profiled and stalked a minor child while armed for the simple act of walking home from the store. Incompetent as the prosecution apparently was, the laws of Florida are culpable too. They enable and condone vigilantism, and the needless deaths that will certainly continue to result.

Andrew Sullivan’s commentary on the verdict is well-worth reading.  It raises the very uncomfortable specter of lynching, as well as the prospect that this verdict might encourage it.  Given the widely-documented disparities in treatment of minorities when compared to whites in sentencing for the same crime, along with the highest rates of incarceration in the world, outcomes like the George Zimmerman verdict (and the perverse laws that enabled it) force me to question whether or not this country values my life, or those of other black males.

I’ve heard some talk of boycotting the state of Florida as a response to the verdict.  I can understand the sentiment.  What I’m less sure of is whether any such boycott could be effective without a clear objective (such as the repeal of Florida’s Stand Your Ground law).  There’s also a legitimate concern about such a boycott hurting people who have no choice but to remain in Florida.

I love word games.  Whether it’s old-school ones like Scrabble and Boggle or the increasing number of iPhone word games (Words with Friends, Scramble with Friends, Letterpress, Ruzzle, etc), I play them all.  Our federal government is playing a different word game right now, by hesitating to describe the overthrow of the Morsi government in Egypt as a coup d’ etat.

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines coup d’ etat this way:

: a sudden decisive exercise of force in politics; especially:the violent overthrow or alteration of an existing government by a small group

Here’s how the Oxford Dictionaries define coup:

• 1 (also coup d’état) a sudden, violent, and illegal seizure of power from a government:he was overthrown in an army coup

The Wikipedia entry on coup is more extensive, and is perhaps the best description of the current situation:

A coup d’état (/ˌkuːdeɪˈtɑː/; plural: coups d’état), also known as a coup, a putsch, or an overthrow, is the sudden deposition of a government,^[1][2][3][4] usually by a small group of the existing state establishment—typically the military—to depose the extant government and replace it with another body, civil or military.

Did the military depose the government?  Yes.  All indications are that Morsi is currently under house arrest.  Did they replace it with another body?  Yes.  The chief justice of Egypt’s supreme court was sworn in and placed in charge mere hours after Morsi’s removal.

So why won’t our government call this change what it is?  Perhaps because the U.S. provides more foreign aid to Egypt than to any other country except Israel for the purpose of preventing another shooting war between Egypt and Israel.  Perhaps because a section of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 “restricts assistance to the government of any country whose duly elected head of government is deposed by military coup or decree”.  Whatever the reason, now that the Egyptian army has killed 51 and injured hundreds in clashes yesterday, it’s unclear how much longer the Washington word games can (or should) continue.

After about two weeks of homelessness (a.k.a. living in my wife’s condo and hotels), we finally completed the settlement process on our shiny new townhouse around 3 pm this afternoon. Less than two hours later, we’d spent some of the profit left over from the sale of my old townhouse on new furniture for the main level. Between working full-time, preparing a house to sell, and buying a new one, the past four months have been incredibly busy. It still won’t be slowing down anytime soon. Tomorrow is move-in day, since PODS is coming to pick up their storage unit at noon. There’s still Verizon FIOS to install, furniture deliveries to accept, more furniture and electronics to buy (not to mention a new washer and dryer). I’ll be glad when we’re finally settled in so we can invite some friends to hang out.

Our new neighborhood is still in the process of being built, but what we’ve seen so far of where we’ll be living looks great. I’m looking forward to getting to know our new neighbors.

One of my favorite cartoonists, Matthew Inman, is using his unique brand of humor to help raise funds to buy the site of Nikola Tesla’s old lab.  As of this post, he’s raised nearly $970,000.  I don’t contribute to a lot of causes beyond my church and public radio, but I contributed to this project because the U.S. could use a museum about a great scientist a lot more than another mall.  If you agree, I hope you’ll donate as well.

This year is the second in a row I’ve gotten to go to a Kennedy Center performance.  Last year, my girlfriend (now fiancée) and I went with another couple to see Porgy & Bess.  This past Thursday, it was the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.  Having never seen a ballet before (or anything called modern dance for that matter), I had no idea what to really expect.  It turned out to be quite a fun time.

Of the four works they performed (all of which were impressive), my favorite parts were the solo “The Evolution of a Secured Feminine”, and other dances within “Revelations” (the company’s signature work) that had no more than a handful of dancers.  I suppose that no one goes to the ballet for the music, but with Duke Ellington music as the backdrop for one of the pieces and gospel for some of the others, I certainly enjoyed that as much as the dancing.