Rocky is a hundred-pound dog and our home is actually too small for the three of us. Plus, I am on a fixed income and can't afford another dog. Can't have a cat or bird because Rocky feels honor-bound to murder what he considers varmints.
Shaun King
·
It’s a wild thing to see your 40 year old wife, who is a badass professional with a lifetime of work, and credit, and savings, purchase her first home WITH AN FHA LOAN, and suddenly it gets plastered all over the news like I bought it and like we are living large. All lies.
We don’t live in a mansion. Or anything like it. It’s laughable. It’s an old house. And we have 5 kids and aging parents to look after.
They mean to get me killed.
It was nearly 1 year ago today that we caught cops all over the country plotting to kill me. We already got death threats daily.
I’ve seen our home and details all over the net. We now have security outside the home, again, and have told our kids to never play outside again.
That’s what they want.
My wife bought this home. She worked her ass off for it. She is a senior executive with 20 years of experience. What are we talking about here?
In the past 24 hours I’ve seen so many lies, scores of them sadly spread by Black folk, but started by the conservative white media, about my family.
We don’t live lavishly. You’d have to live in NY/NJ to know how much it costs to buy a home here. We live in a working class town.
In fact, the only reason our family of 7 didn’t purchase a home in Brooklyn where we live is because we simply couldn’t afford it. Nobody I know can. We could purchase a 1 bedroom apartment in Brooklyn.
In fact, our mortgage is now less than I’ve paid in rent anytime in the past 10 years.
Where do people want my family to live? What would make them happy? I don’t think the harassment and lies about me will ever stop. Not even when I’m dead.
It’s all so damn gross.
And shameful.
And dangerous.
I’m mainly sorry for my wife and young kids that the world has now caused them more harm and made our family so unsafe that we can’t even have any peace. It’s heartbreaking.
Love you until the wheels fall off, Rai.
By Lamar W. Hankins | The Rag Blog | July 29, 2021
As a child in the 1950s, it seems that almost everything I learned about “The Battle of the Alamo” was wrong, biased, or both. My basic public education taught me that the Alamo was the quintessential symbol of freedom, often referred to as the “cradle of Texas liberty.” The defenders in 1836 were brave heroes who valued liberty more than life. Well, they may have been brave, but I no longer count them as heroes.
I did not learn in school that the battle had little, if any, military significance. The men who fought at the Alamo had a variety of motivations that became subsumed in the popular mind as a fight for liberty. Less than three months before that March 6, 1836 battle, the mission had been taken by force by a group of mercenaries, insurgents, squatters, and rebels, who represented no one other than themselves and their kin. Independence was declared for a Texas Republic only four days before the March 6 battle, which probably lasted no more than an hour.
Many of the brave Alamo defenders escaped before the mission was overrun by Santa Anna’s forces, who then executed the survivors, including many who had escaped and been captured. These defenders were seen by Santa Anna as pirates or terrorists, to use a common modern term.
Mexico wanted to limit or end slavery in its territory.
Mexico wanted to limit or end slavery in its territory, which was introduced to what is now southeast Texas by Steven F. Austin, among others, who modeled the plantations created there on those found in the southern slave states. In fact, there was great interest among the slave states in creating another slave state west of Louisiana. Illegal immigration by mostly white settlers, including organized and armed militias, had increased to the point that Mexico had to act to protect its control over its territories.
James Bowie had been a slave trader and smuggler; he had arrived in Texas in 1830 with 109 enslaved people. With the help of an opportune marriage, Bowie quickly amassed claims on enormous amounts of Mexican land. The Alamo, located in what is now downtown San Antonio, was far removed from East Texas cotton fields, and General Sam Houston thought the Alamo so insignificant in the fight for a Republic of Texas that it received almost no reinforcements or supplies from other insurrectionists. The brave and foolish men who perished in the Alamo were wedded to white supremacist ideology prevalent throughout the southern United States.
As art historian and curator Ruben C. Cordova has written, “‘Remember the Alamo’ was a call for vengeance against Mexicans that was used as a rallying cry at San Jacinto and during the Mexican-American War. James E. Crisp points out that the Alamo ‘became a hammer for bashing Mexican Americans in Texas.’ It is still the preeminent anti-Mexican symbol and slogan (both in and out of Texas), which is presumably why President Donald Trump mentioned the ‘last stand’ at ‘the beautiful, beautiful Alamo’ in his [final] State of the Union address.”
There is more to this history that needs to be corrected.
There is more to this history that needs to be corrected, but this is a start, remembering, as Cordova wrote, the Alamo “best represents the liberty of whites to enslave, kill, expel, segregate, oppress, and otherwise dominate people of color. The Alamo is the cradle of Texas slavery, and a host of other oppressions.”
I may have learned all of this, and more, 60 years too late, but it is worth trying to correct the historical record so that my grandchildren and great grandchildren don’t live their lives with a false and brutish narrative.
To learn more about the true story of what happened at The Alamo about 185 years ago, read Forget the Alamo: The Rise and Fall of an American Myth by Bryan Burrough, Chris Tomlinson, and Jason Stanford. My local San Marcos newspaper was unwilling to confront this mythology by publishing my own reminiscences of a failed education about the Alamo. The editor and publisher of the San Marcos Record apparently did not want to become a part of the effort to correct this story in Texas history. Nick Castillo, the editor, wrote me: “After consulting with my boss, we’re going to pass on this one.”
The Alamo was not always an important symbol for Texas mythologists. The artifice was left in ruins for decades before its tale became a twisted story, slanted toward a dominant theme of celebrating whiteness and denying the anti-slavery position of Mexico, leaving out uncomfortable facts about both Tejanos and the white “heroes” John Wayne helped make real (or unreal) for generations of Texas school children.
History should be about understanding the complex moral realities that have been a part of the history of human beings for at least 10,000 years. I may not be pleased with all that I learn about the generations of my family that stretch back to 1670, when my ninth great grandfather immigrated to Virginia as an indentured servant, but the truth, whatever it may be, is more important to me than mythical heroes and false claims of valor.
[Rag Blog columnist Lamar W. Hankins, a former San Marcos, Texas, City Attorney, is retired and volunteers with the Final Exit Network as an Associate Exit Guide and contributor to the Good Death Society Blog.
Read more articles by Lamar W. Hankins on The Rag Blog and listen to Thorne Dreyer’s Rag Radio interviews with Lamar.
Did the street pickup. I always leave out at 9AM and generally get back in 45 minutes, unless I need extra time to blow off the mail platform and the sidewalk to the school. Found a twenty in the grass. That will pay for supplies.
@edgarblythe,
edgarblythe wrote:
They mean to get me killed.
It was nearly 1 year ago today that we caught cops all over the country plotting to kill me. We already got death threats daily.
Where do people want my family to live? What would make them happy? I don’t think the harassment and lies about me will ever stop. Not even when I’m dead.
Reading about him online, it sounds that his life seems bound to be difficult. Some people just can't catch a break.
I was reading about Harry Jerome this morning - the Canadian sprint champion of the '60s. He and his sisters moved to North Vancouver from Saskatchewan and were pelted with stones by other kids on their way to school the first several days. The school even refused to let them attend at first. They've stated that that was their first experience with racism.
My mother was good friends with his sister, Carolyn, and I babysat her two daughters. They were activists on many issues together. The Jeromes are/were good people.
No one deserves to be discriminated against. It's an abomination.
@Mame,
My reason to focus on this man out of the masses of victims is that he is under attack from conservatives, who are making bogus cases against him, while people reading the attacks assume it to be the truth and large numbers have been echoing the misinformation.
@edgarblythe,
Yes, I got that from reading about him.
What is your alltime favorite thing to eat? Surprisingly for me it's a berry. When I was a boy living temporarily on my step grandma's property I was drawn to her beautiful boysenberry bushes and their big luscious fruit. She did her damnedest to protect them from me but I was powerless to resist. One day she told me she put poison all over them. I didn't care. I wiped all that powder off and ate more. (She said later that it was flour). Since then I try to find boysenberries when I can. The last ones I had were in a pie from The House of Pies.
The freeze that could have killed us last winter was amazing for some of my plants. The roses have gotten a good three feet taller, for instance, and they are blooming lots more. The bananas, certain trees. The moringa in the back yard, being a tropical plant, almost had to be written off. So I thought. But it sprouted off the root and is around twelve feet tall already.
The one day I was without electricity and it seemed ice would form in the pines hanging over the house was the scary part. We slept that night under a pile of covering that was heavy against the body and we barely stayed warm enough. I kept covering Rocky until it was clear he would not accept covering. He has this thick sort of double coat that always made me think he should have been a sled dog in the far north. The next morning the electric was restored and we rode out the freeze in pretty good form. We always had running water and I ran the water the whole time so no pipes broke. I hope the experience never gets repeated.
@edgarblythe,
I love the orange huckleberries that grow at the base of Seymour Mountain in Deep Cove, BC. Tart! I was searching for a huckleberry bush to plant here but the only gardening centre that had one was in the US and I don't know if they're allowed across the border.
The other thing I recently tried was a Meyer lemon. Delish.
@Mame,
I have searched boysenberries and found they should survive in my zone. I am considering ordering about three or four.
Shaun King
41 mins ·
Today, I’ve had to make a heartbreaking decision.
After a combination of Fox News, the NY Post, and other outlets posted pictures of my home across the Internet, we’ve now seen our address posted all over the Internet.
Strangers have already started coming by the house.
My kids can’t even go outside and play during the final month of summer break.
So, we’re moving.
I suppose it might always be this way. I don’t know.
My wife bought this home, her first, after working her ass off for 20+ years. It took her nearly a year to even be able to purchase it.
It was a quiet and peaceful refuge for her, for our 5 kids, for the dogs, and for our mothers. And it wasn’t excessive. Again, she got a literal FHA loan to purchase it. I’m not even on the loan.
But now we’re not safe.
And will never be safe here again.
I’m so hurt for them.
I’ve had to endure seeing my wife cry multiple times this week over the devastation of it all.
I waffle back and forth between being utterly heartbroken over it and so angry that I could scream.
That people did this to my wife and kids, with no concern for their safety is despicable.
And shame on every Black man and woman who shared it with glee. Shame on you for what you’ve done to them.
That you’ve fallen for so many lies about me, and decided to turn the lives of my wife and kids upside down in the process has taken a chunk out of my soul.
I’ll be honest with you.
I’m going to be bitter over this for a very long time.
I took July off of social media to just be with my family and then this.
I don’t deserve this.
They damn sure don’t deserve this.
But here we are.
I’m going to need a few weeks to get us set up somewhere else, but this will clearly never work for us.
@MrsRaiKing - you are the best. Sometimes I wish you never had the burden of even being connected to me and the work I do. I hate that wives and partners of so many civil rights leaders have to endure all of this. It’s just not OK.
I love you and the kids so much.
I’ll do all I can to make this right.
🙏 Please pray for us. By name.
Your friend and brother,
Shaun
@edgarblythe,
edgarblythe wrote:
Did the street pickup. I always leave out at 9AM and generally get back in 45 minutes, unless I need extra time to blow off the mail platform and the sidewalk to the school. Found a twenty in the grass. That will pay for supplies.
The 20 was counterfeit. It looked real to me, but the clerk showed me how to spot it.
When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie -
I wish I could come up with lines like that. Beautiful.
My neighbor tells me that the yard crew is ripping me off. But those three young men do in fifteen minutes what it would take me a couple of hours to accomplish for $40. And some of what they do I rarely even try to do. Besides, my daughter hired them. I would be a fool to rock the boat.
@edgarblythe,
edgarblythe wrote:
edgarblythe wrote:
Did the street pickup. I always leave out at 9AM and generally get back in 45 minutes, unless I need extra time to blow off the mail platform and the sidewalk to the school. Found a twenty in the grass. That will pay for supplies.
The 20 was counterfeit. It looked real to me, but the clerk showed me how to spot it.
After a day's thought about this I have concluded that the fake 20 was planted for me to find. It only would seem farfetched to folks who don't know my neighborhood. There are about eight or ten people in here that consider me a lowdown skunk. Not for anything I actually did, but things I get accused of without reason. It was too neatly tucked in that patch of grass and I am the one likely to find it because I am scouring everything to get all of the trash, great and small. Maybe they expected me to go to jail or get beat up by the cops.
Texas appeals court upholds murder charge for ex-Dallas cop who killed her neighbor
But prosecutors countered that she “intended to kill” Jean, noting “she shot him in the chest while he was sitting on his own couch eating ice cream."
Oral arguments in the appeal were heard in late April.
In its ruling, the three-judge panel said there was sufficient evidence to support the jury’s verdict. The panel said it was “undisputed” that Guyger intended to kill Jean because that’s what she testified in court.
However, “that she was mistaken as to Jean’s status as a resident in his own apartment or a burglar in hers does not change her mental state from intentional or knowing to criminally negligent,” the judges wrote.
https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/566658-texas-appeas-court-upholds-murder-charge-for-ex-dallas-cop-who-killed
@edgarblythe,
I've never understood why this is on the grocery shelves. Somebody must buy them because they are still around.
@glitterbag,
A Facebook friend took that picture. He asked about canned bread and somebody brought him some. It would come in handy if we lost power for a length of time and had no way to cook.
